An accessible and authoritative overview capturing the vitality and diversity of scholarship that exists on the transformative time period known as late antiquity. Provides an essential overview of current scholarship on late antiquity – from between the accession of Diocletian in AD 284 and the end of Roman rule in the MediterraneanComprises 39 essays from some of the world's foremost scholars of the eraPresents this once-neglected period as an age of powerful transformation that shaped the modern worldEmphasizes the central importance of religion and its connection with economic, social, and political lifeWinner of the 2009 Single Volume Reference/Humanities & Social Sciences PROSE award granted by the Association of American Publishers