Late Antiquity: Crisis and Transformation

By: Thomas F. X. Noble, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Thomas F. X. Noble

Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire painted a portrait of the Roman Empire in a long, debilitating slide to oblivion, but now historians have reevaluated this picture to create a radically different understanding of the period now known as "late antiquity." Far from being a period of decline and fall, late antiquity marked one of history's great turning points.

These 36 half-hour lectures take you through five momentous centuries that link the classical world with the modern, beginning with Rome near its pinnacle of power and geographical extent and ending with the Byzantine Empire, the rise of Islam, and a succession of barbarian Christian kingdoms.

You'll explore key features of late antiquity including how this tripartite division occurred; the memorable rulers and religious leaders who led the way; and the architecture, visual arts, and literature of the period. You also study what it was like to live in the late antique world: How did people earn their livings?

What was the role of women in society? What distinguished the great cities of the era?

Nothing in Rome's previous experience compared with the ferment of late antiquity, which saw the unpredictable growth of new institutions, states, religions, and arts. After taking this course you will never think of the barbarians and the "fall" of Rome in quite the same way again. Your imagination will be alive with the incidents, innovations, and peoples of an exciting era that gave birth to us all: late antiquity.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2008 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2008 The Great Courses

Informative

Dr, Noble walks around in this period as though he lived there... his enthusiasm for the material enhances enjoyment of the multidimensional perspective of an often overlooked period of our collective history. I thoroughly enjoyed this series❣️

Phenomenal!

Captivating from start to finish! A series that will leave you wanting just one more lecture and one more topic. Very happy to have listened but very bittersweet to be finished.

Great!

As a 'modern people' we forget where we came from. We assume that after the fall of Rome that we entered a dark and dreary era. Professor Noble has spent his life researching the past, and is able to relate all that he has learned in an easily understood manner.
The peoples of the past were not unlike ourselves. Yes. they did not have our conveniences, but they lived, worked, loved and worshipped as we do.

Enjoy greatly..!!

It was like traveling to the past discovering the path to our present time and looking in the mirror.

Great narrator

The best of all The Great Courses lectures I've listened to (most of the history selection).

Eye-opening!

Professor Noble is a gifted storyteller who made 18 hours fly by. The “Dark Ages” have never seemed so bright.

fascinating

this series of lectures is full of details that I have not found anywhere else, including details about Roman governmental administration. it's very helpful for those of us who are very interested in ancient history.

Interesting Lecture on an underrepresented period

There's a lot of information here that many generalizing history courses would pass over. The main subjects focus on the rise of the Carolingian Empire, the Islamic Caliphate, and the Byzantium Empire, as well as the rise of both Islam and the diverging forms of Christianity. Of the latter, I have to say that several lectures on the matter were painstakingly boring, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed this course.

Better Than I Expected Goinng In

I purchased this course because I was interested in how the professor would cover the "fall" of the Western Roman Empire and the birth of the various barbarian kingdoms but I didn't have high expectations based on my poor experience with his other course "Foundations of Western Civilization".

I got a little more than I would've expected with this course. While he did deliver on the barbarian kingdom front (Lectures 10-13 and 15 were great listening on how the western half of the empire gradually dissolved into a series of barbarian kingdoms), I also found his early lectures on the Crisis of the Third Century and the latter courses on the Byzantine Empire and rise of Islam illuminating and worth the price of admission. Lecture 30 was probably his best one of the entire course (as far as capturing and retaining my attention was concerned) but lecture 33 on the conquests/spread of Islam and lecture 36 comparing the empires of Charlemagne (Franks), Harun al-Rashid (Abbasid Caliphate), and Irene (Byzantine) were right up there.

The downside to me were his lectures on Christianity and the church. Not that these aren't interesting topics on their own but for whatever reason I just wasn't drawn into the conversations on the subject in this course. The rise of the Bishops of Rome (lecture 19) was his best lecture on Christianity.

There were some minor annoying traits of the professors: there were assumptions that the listener has background on certain topics when setting the stage a bit would've help. But more frustrating is when he would come close to explaining something but seemed to fall a sentence short of articulating or summing up his actual point leaving you somewhat guessing. Most annoying is when he wrapped up the thought with his favorite phrase “You see”.

But we all have our own idiosyncrasies. All in all this was a better course than I expected going in considering I was not a fan of his presentation style in his course "Foundations of Western Civilization". I thought I'd end up possibly enjoying just the handful of lectures on the end of the Roman Empire but instead walked away with an appreciation for the way he covered other topics and empires.

These are the general topics covered by the course:

- The Crisis of the Third Century impacting the Roman Empire
- The reforms of Diocletian and Constantine in resolving the Crisis of the Third Century
- Rome’s interactions with the Barbarians
- Visigoths
- Burgundians
- Franks
- Alans
- Sueves
- Vandals
- Ostrogoths
- Lombards
- How the western Roman Empire 's political structure essentially disintegrated into a series of barbarian empires in the 5th century AD and why
- Gaul (France)
- Iberia (Spain)
- North Africa
- Italy
- History of the barbarian kingdoms through aprx. 750 A.D.
- Rise of Christianity and the Catholic church
- Spread of Christianity through the Roman Empire
- Rise of the bishops of Rome (Papacy)
- Origins of monasticism
- Early church fathers
- How the Eastern Roman Empire transformed into a different type of kingdom we now call Byzantine and its history through aprx. 750 A.D.
- The birth, rise, and spread of Islam under these caliphates:
- Umayyad
- Abbasid


Despite some flaws I would recommend this course since it achieves what it set out to do: provide a good overview of the world of late antiquity.

Diocletian to Rashidun

I'm an avid fan of late antiquity: it's an incredibly fascinating and colorful span of history that rarely gets the attention it deserves. Professor Noble, a lively lecturer with a conversational style, surveys the Mediterranean realm from the time of Diocletian to the rise of the Abbasid Caliphate. The meat of the course focuses on the successor kingdoms to the Western Roman Empire and the roots of the Christian church. Personally, the best lectures centered around the fathers of the church and the bizarre world of early Christian asceticism/monasticism. After you get oriented to late antiquity with this Great Course, go pick up Tom Holland's In The Shadow of the Sword for a more literary take on the East Roman Empire and Persia before the rise of Islam. Then, immediately listen to Count Belisarius by Robert Graves, a historical novel that allows you to live and breath the Age of Justinian.

“AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY”