Translated by:
Clare Krojzl

Translated by:
Clare Krojzl

The dissolution of the Roman Empire and the end of ancient civilization constitute European history s most profound crisis. Over the centuries, this crisis has often inspired explanatory attempts and comparisons with more recent times. The essays presented in this volume, written by Alexander Demandt between 1977 and 2011, serve to amplify his comprehensive treatment undertaken in Der Fall Roms. Die Auflosung des romischen Reichs im Urteil der Nachwelt and Die Spatantike. Romische Geschichte von Diocletian bis Justinian."

Theodor Mommsen, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902 for his "Roman History" is one of the outstanding German historians of all time. His scholarship is as impressive as it is seminal, and is appreciated even today: every path in Roman historical studies leads to him. However, Mommsen's importance is not limited to his work as an historian and organiser of historical research; as a convinced liberal, he also took an energetic part in political affairs of his time. The present volume contains lectures delivered by renowned scholars from Germany, Italy and Norway at the Free University of Berlin to mark the 100th anniversary of Mommsen's death on 1st November 2003. The authors pay tribute to thevarious aspects of Mommsen's personality and work - from his scholarly achievements to his political commitment and his private life and the verdict of posterity - and thus provide a vivid and multi-facetted picture of this great scholar and his age.

"As a statesman a genius of the first order" was Theodor Mommsen's verdict in 1886 on Diocletian, the Dalmatian whose career took him from a released slave to Emperor. Diocletian stabilised the Imperium after it had been thrown into turmoil in the imperial crisis of the period of military anarchy. After his abdication in 305, he retired to the magnificent palace of Spalato (Split, Croatia) built for his old age. Although his arrangements for the succession, his price controls and his anti-Christian policies were not a lasting success, his comprehensive reforms created the basis for Constantine and the transition to the Late Classical Age. Renowned scholars from Germany, Great Britain, Croatia, Slovenia and Switzerland contributed to an international conference held in Split in 2003. Their papers collected here show the present state of research on the Tetrarchy in its political, social, economic, ideological, historico-religious and archaeological aspects and on the reception of Diocletian up to modern times.

The question What would have happen if ...? is still considered by many historians to be an unproductive gimmick. Alexander Demandt reminds us, however, of Friedrich Schiller's assertion that culture can unfold only in this game. If this is true, then it also holds true in some ways for science. The playful use of possibilities is just as important as research in accordance with proven methods. Not only possibility, but thoughtful further analysis of historical alternatives are the focus of this little book: What would have happened if Hitler had died in 1938, or the German peasant war of 1525 had succeeded? What if Jesus had been pardoned by Pontius Pilate, or Hannibal had marched on Rome after the victory at Cannae? In original and sometimes brilliant diction (Frank Schirrmacher, FAZ) Demandt also shows that, and how, we can justify the thinking of unrealized alternatives in the history of science. German text.