HIST 388: Topics in European History
HIST 388-002: Fall of the Roman Empire
(Fall 2026)
03:00 PM to 04:15 PM MW
Nguyen Engineering Building 1107
Section Information for Fall 2026
This course considers the history of the later Roman Empire, from the third century to the sixth. Along the way we will encounter a series of core political questions as we interrogate the changing shape of the Roman imperial government, its economy, and military. In addition, this course will foreground the radical changes in society and religion in the period, not least the sudden transition from the old gods of the state to the new Christian settlement. We will ask how it was that the empire survived its third-century period of crisis but not that of the fifth, and why it was that in the crucible of the fifth century the western Roman Empire faltered and collapsed while the empire of the east navigated these difficult years more or less intact.
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Course Information from the University Catalog
Credits: 3
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.
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