Selected Topics in Late Antiquity

General topics: the period of the Emperor Diocletian and his co-regents; Constantine the Great and his dynasty; Theodosius and his successors until the fall of the Western Roman Empire; the creation of »barbaric« state formations, early Byzantium until about 600; the ethnogenesis of the Germanic and nomad peoples from the 4th to the 6th century and their confrontations with the Roman Empire.

Selected topics:
(a) Western Balkans and the Middle Danube as a cause of conflicts between the Western and Eastern Roman Empire;
(b) The development of the civil and military administration;
(c) The demographic development: losses of the population of the Roman provinces;
(d) The formation of Germanic tribal unions and their presence in this area (West and East Goths; other Germanic groups in the 5th century (Suebi, Alamanni, Rugians, Scirii, Gepids); the Langobards and the Bavarians in the 6th century and the development until the arrival of the Avars and Slavs; the demise of the ancient structures and its forms with the issue of continuity.