Philip Rousseau is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Early Christian Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Early Christianity at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of The Early Christian Centuries (2002), Basil of Caesarea (1994), Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth-Century Egypt (1985), and Ascetics, Authority and the Church in the Age of Jerome (1978). He is the joint editor (with Tomas Hägg) of Greek Biography and Panegyric in Late Antiquity (2000).

List of Figures ix List of Maps x Notes on Contributors xi Preface and Acknowledgments xviii List of Abbreviations xxiii 1 Approaching Late Antiquity 1Wendy Mayer Part I The View from the Future 15 2 The Byzantine Late Antiquity 17Stratis Papaioannou 3 Late Antiquity in the Medieval West 29Conrad Leyser 4 Cities of the Mind: Renaissance Views of Early Christian Culture and the End of Antiquity 43Mark Vessey 5 Narrating Decline and Fall 59Clifford Ando 6 Late Antiquity in Modern Eyes 77Stefan Rebenich Part II Land and People 93 7 The Shapes and Shaping of the Late Antique World: Global and Local Perspectives 97Mark Humphries 8 Mobility and the Traces of Empire 110Blake Leyerle 9 Information and Political Power 125Claire Sotinel 10 Mediterranean Cities 139S. T. Loseby 11 The Archaeological Record: Problems of Interpretation 156Olof Brandt 12 Inscribing Identity: The Latin Epigraphic Habit in Late Antiquity 170Dennis E. Trout 13 Gender and the Fall of Rome 187Kate Cooper 14 Marriage and Family Relationships in the Late Roman West 201Judith Evans-Grubbs 15 The Church, the Living, and the Dead 220Éric Rebillard Part III Image and Word 231 16 The Value of a Good Education: Libanius and Public Authority 233Raffaella Cribiore 17 Textual Communities in Late Antique Christianity 246Kim Haines-Eitzen 18 Exegesis without End: Forms, Methods, and Functions of Biblical Commentaries 258Karla Pollmann 19 Tradition, Innovation, and Epistolary Mores 270Jennifer Ebbeler 20 Visual and Verbal Representation: Image, Text, Person, and Power 285James A. Francis 21 Christianity and the Transformation of Classical Art 306Felicity Harley 22 The Discourse of Later Latin 327Philip Burton 23 Language and Culture in Late Antique Egypt 342Malcolm Choat 24 Late Antique Historiography: A Brief History of Time 357David Woods Part IV Empire, Kingdom, and Beyond 373 25 Law in Practice 377Caroline Humfress 26 The Mirror of Jordanes: Concepts of the Barbarian, Then and Now 392Andrew Gillett 27 Beyond the Northern Frontiers 409Guy Halsall 28 From Empire to Kingdoms in the Late Antique West 426John Vanderspoel 29 Rome and the Sasanid Empire: Confrontation and Coexistence 441Jan Willem Drijvers 30 Syria, Syriac, Syrian: Negotiating East and West 455Christine Shepardson 31 Syria and the Arabs 467David Cook 32 The Early Caliphate and the Inheritance of Late Antiquity (c. AD 610-c. AD 750) 479Andrew Marsham Part V The Sacred 493 33 Christianization, Secularization, and the Transformation of Public Life 497Richard Lim 34 The Political Church: Religion and the State 512Michael Gaddis 35 The Late Antique Bishop: Image and Reality 525Rita Lizzi Testa 36 The Conduct of Theology and the ''Fathers'' of the Church 539Thomas Graumann 37 Defining Sacred Boundaries: Jewish-Christian Relations 556Naomi Koltun-Fromm 38 Pagans in a Christian Empire 572Neil McLynn 39 ''Not of This World'': The Invention of Monasticism 588Daniel F. Caner Bibliography 601 Index 700