Many belief that shadows similar to those of their own times had come to fall over the last centuries of the Roman Empire, as a result of the military and social crisis that set in after the year 200 AD. There was life after the 3rd century; and this life came to bear the name “Late Antiquity”. It was a world that grew tenaciously from the deep soil of the ancient Mediterranean. It continued to bloom. It is worthwhile emphasizing this element of continuity. A. Lazaridou, Transition to Christianity. Art of Late Antiquity, 3rd-7th Century AD (Onassis Foundation New York, 2011).