dr Maciej Wojcieszak

Section 6.: Territoriality of power versus the mobility of people and ideas

It is obvious that the transition from one era to another is a fluid process, lasting many years, and limiting it to specific dates mainly introduces order in chronology. I want to start a discussion about another boundary date between antiquity and the Middle Ages - 486. First, I will present why 476 should not be the date of the end of antiquity. It is worth mentioning that the society of that time did not perceive the return of the imperial insignia as a breakthrough event (even contemporary authors did not note it as a significant change). Then I will discuss the governorship of Syagrius in northern Gaul and why its end should be the new date of the change of eras. Syagrius was governor on behalf of the Western emperors, then Emperor Zeno. A fragment of the Western Roman Empire continued to exist, even if Ravenna and Rome fell under foreign rule. Only after the victory of Clovis in 486 and the removal of Syagrius we can speak of the final collapse of the Roman state in the West.