Review: Décadence: “Decline and Fall” or “Other Antiquity”?, edited by Marco Formisano, Therese Fuhrer, and Anna-Lena Stock

The editors of this stimulating volume revisit the paradigm of late-antique decadence and decline in a fresh and unique way. Rather than revising the works of revisionists like Peter Brown, Marco Formisano and Therese Fuhrer explore the reception history of the paradigm in western culture. This collection of papers represents the first fruits of their labor. It also is the first volume in a new series, “The Library of the Other Antiquity,” which promotes the study of late antiquity from interdisciplinary approaches. Formisano's introduction states the goal of the volume and the series: “The perception of late antiquity as a decadent age, as wrong as it might have been, has been...