Is it possible to speak of social revolutions in Late Antiquity?

Abstract

This paper presents a synthesis of the author’s doctoral research results. That research was a comparative study of two sets of rural rebellions of the Later Roman Empire: the bagaudae in Gaul and the circumcellions in Africa. The basis on which that synthesis is constructed is the political horizons of those rebellions, taking into consideration the differences of motivation and agency of the rebels in the two Roman provinces. Moreover, the paper regards also the changes in the social historiography of the 3rd to 5th centuries Roman countryside, putting into context the class experience of the rebels, and making explicit the rebellions political limits and potentials. It also allows a better evaluation of the place of those rebellions in the attempt of production of History of the subaltern classes.