Political history of the western provinces in the Later Roman Empire : A study of the political process

本研究的目的是通过对文献资料和考古资料的分析，厘清后罗马帝国西部各省的政治进程。首先，这位首席研究者试图考察晚期罗马帝国研究的学术趋势，并解释晚期古代学派研究中存在的问题。其次，他分析了西部各省的政治进程，发现了4世纪西部各省的变化与大帝国罗马化程度的关系。他还强调，后期罗马帝国的学者不应将写在5世纪文学资料中的反德态度视为构建4世纪罗马帝国历史形象的重要事实。

The purpose of this research is to clarify the political process of the western provinces of Later Roman Empire through the analyzing of literary and archaeological sources. In the first place, the Head Investigator tried to examine the academic trend of researches of the Later Roman Empire and to explain the problems of researches by the Late Antiquity School. Secondly, he analyzed the political process of the western provinces and found the relationship between the changes of these provinces in the 4th century and the level of Romanization in the High Empire. He also emphasized that the scholars of Later Roman Empire should not accept the anti-German attitude written in the literary sources of the 5th century as an important fact to construct the historical image of the 4th century Roman Empire.