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Zusatztext A fascinating study. Informationen zum Autor J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz is Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of Nottingham Klappentext This book examines what happened to the cities of the Roman world in the years when the Roman Empire disintegrated. It traces the end of classical political culture! the impact of Christianization! and a progressive simplification of life styles in the lands! both East and West! that had been the Roman Empire. Zusammenfassung This book discusses the changes which occurred in the cities of the Roman world in the period AD 400- 750. The cities of the Middle Ages, both in the East and Western parts of the old Roman Empire, differed from classical cities in fundamental ways. Professor Liebeschuetz concludes that this suggests a decline and fall in the Roman cities. At the centre of this book is an account of the decline of cities as political organizations: the replacement of government in accordance with constitutional rules by a looser and much more informal kind of oligarchical control which was paralleled by the rise of the bishop. Professor Liebeschuetz argues that among the factors that transformed and undermined the Roman city the most conspicuous were related to the state of the Empire, economic developments which were consequences of the breaking up of the imperial structure, as well as more localized regional circumstances. The decline and fall of the Roman city was accompanied by very great changes in life style which can be summarized as simplification and localization. Further he concludes that Christianity by teaching people to despise the things of this world helped them to come to terms with the deterioration of their worldly circumstances. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1: Introduction Part i. The End of Classical Urban Politics 3: Post-curial Civic Government 4: The Rise of the Bishop 5: Civic Finance in the Late Roman Cities of the East 6: Shows and Factions part II. A Society Transformed 8: Conflict and Disorder in the East 9: Decline and th Beginnings of Renewal in hte East, including the Eastern Balkans 10: The Transformation of Literary Culture in the West under the Influence of Christianity 11: The Decline of Classical Citizenship and the Rise of Ethnic Solidarity in the West 12: Decline and the Beginnings of Renewal in the West 13: Summary and Conclusions ...
