Michael Rostovtzeff. The Decay of Ancient Civilization
Михаил Ростовцев. Залезът на античната цивилизация
Language: Bulgarian. Category: Late Antiquity
The main idea of Michael Rostovtzeff’s essay, The Decay of Ancient Civilization, argues that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was due to a gradual barbarization of the Empire from within, most notably in the west. It further stresses that the Greco-Roman assimilative elements that unified Roman society had slowly debilitated to an ineffective state. This coupled with steady levelling down of the standards contributed to the acceleration of barbarization in the cities. The process according to Rostovtzeff had to do with two features of the period: “the political, social, and economic on the one hand, and the intellectual and spiritual on the other.” On the political side of things Rostovtzeff discusses the rise of the Germanic ruling classes and the resulting barbarization of government and the aristocracy. On the economic and social sphere there was a decline and “gradual relapse of the ancient world to very primitive forms” of economy and social stratification. Intellectually and spiritually the empire was also affected argues Rostovtzeff, claiming that the city state culture of the Roman world was exploited; the “exhaustion of the creative forces of … civilization” was a result of a perforation of the higher classes with the lower...
Table of contents
Предговор към изданието от 2022 г.
Предговор към изданието от 1924 г.
Залезът на античната цивилизация
1. Политическо, социално и икономическо развитие на римската империя в I и II в. сл. Хр.
2. Падането на принципата
3. Психологическо прераждане
Бележки на автора