Antiquity

How it is used

Classical antiquity means ancient Greece and Rome; late antiquity is roughly the third to the seventh century AD, between the classical world and the Middle Ages. In the plural, antiquities are ancient objects, as in a museum's department of antiquities.

Example sentences

1. Ephesus was one of the largest cities of the eastern Mediterranean in antiquity.

2. Her book on late antiquity covers Anatolia from Constantine to the Arab conquests.

Common collocations

• classical antiquity
• late antiquity
• in antiquity
• Greek and Roman antiquity
• the antiquities trade

Related terms

• ancientBelonging to the very distant past, especially to the period before the end of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.
• Middle AgesThe period of European history between the end of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century and roughly the late fifteenth century.
• ADShort for the Latin 'Anno Domini' ('in the year of the Lord'): used with years of the Western calendar counted from the traditional date of Christ's birth.
• Byzantine EmpireThe eastern part of the Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople, which survived the fall of the western half and lasted until the Ottoman conquest of 1453.

More terms: Periods and Eras

• period
• era
• century
• BC
• civilization
• chronology
• Renaissance
• Enlightenment
• prehistory
• Bronze Age
• Neolithic
• early modern