This collection of essays examines the sixth century A. D. from a new perspective. Being a result of the European Science Foundation's programme devoted to the transformation of the Roman World, the authors examine the economic and social conditions of a century which has often been overlooked. The book takes a European overview, and includes studies by archaeologists and historians who, in the course of the ESF project, have developed a lively dialogue focussing upon the issue of demand in the sixth century. An archaeologist poses many of the leading arguments in the first chapter, and an historian draws these themes together in the final one. The book includes a major review of the historiography of Henri Pirenne's celebrated thesis devoted to the decline of the Roman empire and the beginnings of the Middle Ages. The majority of the essays, however, are regional studies approaching the subject with a new wide-angled, European vision.