, commonly referred to by its German acronym, ''ANRW'', or in English as ''Rise and Decline of the Roman World'', is an extensive collection of books dealing with the history and culture of ancient

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. Akin to a journal and published in various series, each number of the ''ANRW'' comprises scholarly essays contributed by individual authors. The essays are in various modern European languages, but are primarily written in German or English. The series is currently published in its second series (Part 2), the series (that is, relating to the period of the Roman

Principate The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate. The principate was ch ...

History of the work

The series began in 1972, intended as a

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

to commemorate the seventy-fifth birthday of Joseph Vogt, a German

classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

and historian. Since then, it has grown with time beyond its original remit, and is now more of an

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

, or a serial compendium. The series seeks to treat aspects of the Roman world, as well as their continuation and reception in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and into modernity, providing a guide to current research. The series is edited by Hildegard Temporini-Gräfin Vitzthum (Parts 1 and 2) and Wolfgang Haase (Part 2), and is published by Walter de Gruyter of Berlin and New York.

Structure

Individual volumes of the ''ANRW'' are written like handbooks. More than one thousand scholars have contributed to the series. Part 1 (), in four volumes, covered topics of the period from the founding of Rome to the end of the

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

. Part 2 (, published since 1974) is concerned with the imperial period. Part 3 (), on

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

, is in planning. A unified index ("Register") will eventually complete the work. Each Part is published in multiple volumes, across six systematic sections: *1. Political History; *2. Law; *3. Religion; *4. Language and Literature; *5. Philosophy and the Sciences; and *6. The Arts.

Published volumes

The publication history is complex, with multiple sections published concurrently in Part 2. A list of the published volumes is available through th
project's website
at the Institute for Classical Studies at Boston University.

References

External links

De Gruyter web page on ''ANRW''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aufstieg Und Niedergang Der Romischen Welt Book series Book series introduced in 1972 History books about ancient Rome Series of history books De Gruyter books