Dr David Gwynn - Reader in Ancient and Late Antique History

My interests span the centuries from the ancient Greek city states and the rise of the Roman Republic through to the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west and the triumph of Christianity and Islam. Students get the opportunity to explore these dramatic years through our first year Gateway module HS1105 Gods, Men and Power: An Introduction to the Ancient World from Homer to Mohammed. For more advanced students, I offer a range of modules on Roman and Late Roman history, with a particular interest in the conversion of the first Christian emperor Constantine and the decline and fall of the western Roman Empire.

After beginning my academic studies in New Zealand as an ancient and medieval history double major, I have spent the last two decades specialising in the late antique period that bridges between classical antiquity and the early Middle Ages. All my research in different ways has sought to understand how and why the classical world evolved into medieval Christendom, as the spread of Christianity transformed both the Church and the Roman Empire while the Germanic invasions redrew the map of western Europe.

Two key principles have dominated my research across these twenty years. The first is the need to understand how religion influenced ancient societies and to combine the study of religious beliefs and theology with late antique social and political history. Constantine’s conversion and the imperial patronage of the Church greatly increased Christianity’s wealth and prestige, but also intensified divisions within the Church and the pressures to define what it meant to be Christian. I have studied these debates extensively, particularly through the controversial yet highly influential figure of Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, and have traced the impact of the theological disputes over the Trinity upon the Goths and other Germanic peoples who converted to Christianity during their migrations into the Roman Empire.

My second driving principle is the importance of making often complex academic arguments, like those concerning Christianity and the Roman Empire, more accessible to a wider audience. I wrote the entry for The Roman Republic in the popular Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions series, and more recently published The Goths: Lost Civilizations, following the strange paths that link the original Goths who defeated the Roman Empire with medieval architecture and Gothic horror. I have also produced a sourcebook for those wishing to know more about the place of Christianity in the Later Roman Empire, and contributed to the PBS television series Ancient Roads: From Christ to Constantine (narrated by my colleague Professor Jonathan Phillips). The responses to all those projects, ranging from Amazon reviews to personal emails, have in turn raised new questions and so the cycle of research and public debate goes on.

More information about my research is available via PURE

Email - David.Gwynn@rhul.ac.uk