ABSTRACT
Some historians focus on the political aspect, and take the decline of the Roman empire to mark the end of antiquity. In actual fact, however, the definitive demise of the Roman empire did not occur until 1453, when the Turkish sultan Mehmet II captured Constantinople. Most elements of the ancient civilisations have disappeared for good. The ancient philosopher Aristotle made his way back to Western Europe via the Arabs, who translated his works into Arabic. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ad Roman law was reintroduced at the new universities of Western Europe, of which the academy of Bologna was the oldest one. Classical Latin and Greek books continued to be read and reread and new ones were written. Augustine was barely familiar with the language. In the east, Arabic became the lingua franca, putting an end to the dominance of Greek and Aramaic.
