Political process and society in the last stage of the Roman Empire

本研究的目的是从周边省份的角度考察罗马帝国在西方的衰落过程。罗马帝国的衰亡过程通常被描述为罗马意大利的衰落或罗马人和日耳曼人之间的冲突史。而晚古学派的学者则强调了古代世界终结时的延续性。但在此研究的基础上，笔者强调了罗马社会晚期族群认同的多层次和可变结构。我也认为罗马身份在世纪初的丧失是罗马帝国的衰落。在这个项目的最后阶段，利用研究成果，我写了一本书，并出版了题为“罗马帝国衰亡新史”。

The purpose of this study is to examine the process of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West from the view point of peripheral provinces. The process of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire has generally been depicted as the fall of Roman Italy or as the history of conflict between the Romans and the Germanic people. And the scholars of the Late Antiquity School have emphasized the aspects of continuation at the end of the Ancient world. On the basis of researches of this study, however, I stress the multilayered and variable structure of ethnic groups' identity in the late Roman world. I also consider the loss of Roman identity at the beginning of 5th century as the fall of the Roman Empire. At the final phase of this project, using the results of researches, I wrote and published a book under the title " the New History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".