Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 35 - Introductory

  • from PART VI - LATER PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 681-691

  • Summary

    This chapter explores the period that extends roughly from the middle of the third century to the middle of the fifth century AD. The period, that of Diocletian and Constantine saw the re-establishment of firm central power in the empire on a new basis. By Constantine's death stability had been restored in the military, administrative and economic spheres. Literature and art began to find patrons and the pen began to replace the sword as an instrument of persuasion. The period, in the first half of the fifth century, saw the political separation between the eastern and western parts of the Roman empire, which had been a temporary expedient in the past, become permanent. Christian writers, with their essentially historical view of the world, were more sensitive to the signs of change than the pagan contemporaries. Augustine's City of God in its way marks the end of the ancient world in the west as clearly as do the great barbarian invasions.