This thesis seeks to further research into Prosper’s chronicle and to counter Theodor Mommsen’s conclusions that Prosper made no editorial changes between the 445 and 455 editions of his chronicle. The ultimate result will be to prove that there were significant and deliberate alterations made by Prosper and to create a critical edition and translation of the chronicle of 445. The methodology includes establishing Prosper’s place in the Latin chronicle tradition, his alleged role as secretary to Pope Leo, his supposed residence in Rome and his theological views. Mommsen’s edition will then be used to compare the manuscripts of the 445 and 455 editions and to determine what differences exist. This comparison will show that Prosper not only continued his own chronicle but also edited it between 445 and 455. We will then fill the void left by Mommsen when he created only one edition by providing a critical edition and translation of the 445 chronicle for the first time.

In 1968, Rein Taagepera created growth curves of four empires by measuring the surface area of each and plotting his data on a graph of area versus time. He used his growth curves to analyse the development of empires quantitatively, as he considered surface area to be the best measurable indicator of an empire’s strength. His growth curve of the Roman Empire, in particular, has been referenced numerous times by scholars researching the decline and fall of complex civilizations to support their individual analyses of the collapse of Rome. While this thesis surveys only the territories of the Western Roman Empire, many of the parameters used by Taagepera have been either borrowed or adapted in order to define, measure, and graph the surface area of the Western Empire as precisely as possible. This thesis also adds further precision and validity to Bryan Ward-Perkins’ theory that surface area can be used to analyse and quantify the collapse of a complex society accurately. In order to demonstrate the extent to which differing circumstances and outcomes of provincial history impacted the total surface area of the Western Roman Empire, it was essential to include not only an overview of Rome’s extensive history, but also to establish the chronology, as it related to the Roman Empire, of each individual province, territory, and client kingdom within the Western Empire. Detailed chronologies of Noricum and Britannia have been included to serve as case studies as they comprise a broad range of distinct characteristics and so represent typical western provinces. My research of the history and geography of the Roman Empire has generated a comprehensive inventory that includes all the pertinent onomastic and chronological data needed to measure the surface area of each of Rome’s western provinces and client kingdoms. When plotted on a graph of area versus time, my data not only produced an accurate representation of the actual surface area of the Western Roman Empire, but also one that facilitates temporal analyses of territorial fluctuations at any given point in the Empire’s history until the fall of the Western Empire in CE 476.

In 1968, Rein Taagepera created growth curves of four empires by measuring the surface area of each and plotting his data on a graph of area versus time. He used his growth curves to analyse the development of empires quantitatively, as he considered surface area to be the best measurable indicator of an empire’s strength. His growth curve of the Roman Empire, in particular, has been referenced numerous times by scholars researching the decline and fall of complex civilizations to support their individual analyses of the collapse of Rome. While this thesis surveys only the territories of the Western Roman Empire, many of the parameters used by Taagepera have been either borrowed or adapted in order to define, measure, and graph the surface area of the Western Empire as precisely as possible. This thesis also adds further precision and validity to Bryan Ward-Perkins’ theory that surface area can be used to analyse and quantify the collapse of a complex society accurately. In order to demonstrate the extent to which differing circumstances and outcomes of provincial history impacted the total surface area of the Western Roman Empire, it was essential to include not only an overview of Rome’s extensive history, but also to establish the chronology, as it related to the Roman Empire, of each individual province, territory, and client kingdom within the Western Empire. Detailed chronologies of Noricum and Britannia have been included to serve as case studies as they comprise a broad range of distinct characteristics and so represent typical western provinces. My research of the history and geography of the Roman Empire has generated a comprehensive inventory that includes all the pertinent onomastic and chronological data needed to measure the surface area of each of Rome’s western provinces and client kingdoms. When plotted on a graph of area versus time, my data not only produced an accurate representation of the actual surface area of the Western Roman Empire, but also one that facilitates temporal analyses of territorial fluctuations at any given point in the Empire’s history until the fall of the Western Empire in CE 476.

The thesis titled "Society and Church within the Territory of the Former Western Roman Empire in the 5th to 7th century AD" focuses on relations between the society and the church, specifically within territories which, at the given period, formed the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD) and its successor states (6th to 7th century AD). The given period was chosen as it marked a turning point in the relations between the state, or the society, and the church; the further development in Europe, not limited to religion, stems from this period. The 5th century represents a sort of a prologue to the dramatic and turbulent 6th century, while the 7th century is an afterpiece during which the details of the further direction and development of the Catholic Church were refined. The aim of my thesis was to confirm or disconfirm the hypotheses that Christianity (the church) did not accelerate the fall of the Western Roman Empire or that it did not significantly contribute to it, that it was not a bearer of progress as it did not improve the general conditions, and that the church had the character of any religion serving power and was not unique in any way at the time. Attention is paid initially to political and economic situation, which is followed by the study of the relationships between the church and the...

The basic aim of the thesis is to investigate whether the Romans of the East (Byzantines) during the 6th to the 8th centuries were interested in the Latin west and the imperial rule over it. In the first part of the work, the various discourses concerning the origins of the Justinianic conquest or reconquest of Africa and Italy articulated in the contemporary sources are identified and evaluated; the only one which cannot be shown or supposed to have been officially articulated is the discourse of a source of Pseudo-Zachariah Scholasticus which makes African and maybe also Italian exulants complaining in the imperial court about the local rulers responsible for the Vandal and Gothic wars. After some other preliminary studies (e.g. concerning the so-called problem of Theodericʼs constitutional position), it is concluded that the emperor Justinian was not interested in an ideologically founded restoration of the empire, but made the western wars because of his contacts with western aristocrats. In the second part of the thesis, the presentation of the Justinianic western wars and western events or realities in the works of the Byzantine historians from Marcellinus Comes and Procopius to Theophylactus Simocatta (the 6th to the early 7th centuries) is investigated and an attempt is made to explore...