Introduction

The major religious changes which took place during Late Antiquity cannot be understood without some appreciation of their broader historical context. Late Antiquity is defined here as the period from the early third century to the late sixth century (all dates in this volume are AD unless otherwise indicated), and these centuries witnessed many other significant changes in the Roman world. At the risk of oversimplifying and overschematising, this opening section of the Introduction aims to provide a succinct overview of the most important of these developments.