the merciless exploitation of the great majority for the benefit of a very few finally led to the collapse of much of the empire — a process too often described as if it were something that just happened’ naturally, whereas in fact it was due to the deliberate actions of a ruling class that monopolised both wealth and political power and governed... See more

Jesus is seen as a figure belonging entirely to the Jewish chora, who may never even have entered a Greek polis , and whose thought-world was thoroughly alien to Graeco-Roman civilisation

In my picture of the Later Empire there is much less emphasis than usual upon a supposed change from ‘Principate’ to ‘Dominate’; far more important, for me, is a major intensification of the forms of exploitation: the reduction to serfdom of most of the working agricultural population, a great increase in taxation, and more conscription. I give a... See more