The middle ages run from 500 AD to 1500 AD in round numbers. Historians will say medieval times start with the deposition of the last Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476. And I might say they end with Columbus in 1492. The 500 to 1500 is close and easier to remember.
The first section of the book discusses the Roman Empire with emphasis on things passed down to medieval times like Christianity. Jones misses a few points. He does mention that the Romans controlled all the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. He fails to point out that control of all the shorelines allowed the Romans to eliminate piracy in the Mediterranean. Pirates need ports in which to refill their water casks, restock their provisions, and sell their loot. When every port has a Roman governor with legionnaires to back him up, pirates have a problem. So big a problem as to put them out of business. Removing the pirate threat boosts the Roman economy since in those days everything was shipped by water.
Another interesting fact. There is a histogram of Mediterranean ship wrecks over time. The number of shipwrecks is proportional to the amount of shipping. The histogram shows shipwrecks at a low level until maybe 100 BC. It grows rapidly to a peak right around the time of Augustus Caesar. Then it starts down. By Constantine’s time we only have a quarter of the shipwrecks we had in Augustus’ time, which means Constantine only had a quarter of the commerce to tax as Augustus had. Jones makes no mention of this histogram. Either he didn’t know of it, or he didn’t think it relevant.
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