Late antiquity

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Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been widely accepted. Late antiquity represents a cultural sphere that covered much of the Mediterranean world, including parts of Europe and the Near East.^[1][2]

Late antiquity was an era of massive political and religious transformation. It marked the origins or ascendance of the three major monotheistic religions: Christianity, rabbinic Judaism, and Islam. It also marked the ends of both the Western Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire, the last Persian empire of antiquity, and the beginning of the Arab conquests. Meanwhile, the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire became a militarized and Christianized society. This was also an era of significant cultural innovation and transformation, such as with the emergence of Late Antique literature and art.^[3]

When the period precisely began and ended remains a matter of debate, but usually, the beginning of late antiquity is placed in the second or third centuries, and its end somewhere in the sixth to eighth centuries, though the exact timing may vary by region.^[4][5][3]