ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates Gramsci's views on the complex transition period from the Ancient to the Medieval World, which is nowadays normally referred to as ‘Late Antiquity’. A satisfactory definition of this period is still missing in the modern scholarship, and there is an ongoing debate to define its chronological limits and morphological characteristics. Gramsci uses Late Antiquity as a mirror to portray his own times and to carry on his political and ideological struggle. He clearly identifies two apparently opposite tendencies, in the transition between Ancient and Medieval World. From an economic point of view, there is a neat discontinuity between the two epochs, while from a cultural point of view such discontinuity is less apparent and the situation is more nuanced. Such interpretation is perfectly in keeping with the classic Marxist difference between economic structure and ideological superstructure of human societies, which are the core elements to understand the historic bloc that defines a historically determined socio-economic formation. This nuanced and articulated view of Late Antiquity can be seen as a methodological anticipation of both the French Annales’ and Fernand Braudel's achievements, highlighting one more time the pivotal role of Gramsci as an intellectual of the XX century.
