Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World

Book excerpt: One of the most significant transformations of the Roman world between the fourth and seventh centuries C.E. was the integration and impact of barbarian peoples into the social, cultural, religious and political Mediterranean world. This was the theme of the 2005 Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity Conference at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The selection of conferences papers published here remind us that the transformation of the Roman world took place in a Roman context and that Romanitas always was the touchstone against which social, intellectual, and political developments were measured.