Antiquity

Classical antiquity, era, or period is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (eighth-seventh century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (fifth century BC), ending in the dissolution of classical culture with the close of Late Antiquity (300 - 600 AD), or the similar and better-known periodization of history, the Early Middle Ages (500 - 1100 AD). Such a wide sampling of history and territory covers many rather disparate cultures and periods.