Agustin V. Startari
How did the Roman world become medieval Europe?Between the crisis of the third century and the year 1000, an empire fragmented, a persecuted faith became the backbone of power, and new kingdoms, a surviving Byzantium and an expanding Islamic world redrew the Mediterranean. Then the Vikings tied the north into networks stretching from the Atlantic to Baghdad.Shaping the Middle Ages follows that transformation from Diocletian and Constantine to Justinian, Muhammad, Charlemagne and the Norse expansion. It argues that the new order of the year 1000 came from neither a fall nor a survival. Functions once held by Rome passed to bishops, monasteries and kings.Agustin V. Startari draws on primary sources and current scholarship. The book is clear, rigorous and accessible, and comes with original maps. It is an essential guide for students and for anyone who wants to understand where Europe began.
