The continuities between Christian Rome, Sasanian Iran, and Islam are being explored. Instead of a caesura, the historical continuum, the longue durée, is stressed. The idea of a “long” Late Antiquity has eventually superseded the previous discourse on when and why the Roman Empire declined.
In the last decades the favored epithets applied to Late Antiquity were “transformation”, “change”, “transition” and “evolution”. In the aftermath of World War II, this trend was reversed on account of a progressive change of perspective and sensibility. The tragic events that had shaken Europe had a deep impact on historiography. One of these was without a doubt the aftermath of World War I and reached its apex in 1923 during the International Congress of Historical Sciences in Brussels. Late Antiquity as a period has a complex history with moments when the issues pertaining to it seem to intensify.
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