Between the 4th and the 6th century the relatively static society of the initial centuries of the Roman age underwent significant changes due to a set of concomitant causes, the most important of which were the advent of Christianity, the definitive division of the Roman Empire into two parts (the continually declining West and the rapidly rising city of Constantinople in the East), and the fall of the Western Roman Empire due to the Barbarian invasions. Drawing on a rich and diversified literature dating back to that period, the book offers an account of daily life of different social strata in that turbulent age of transition.

Giorgio Ravegnani teaches Medieval History at the University of Venice.