Part 1: Pre-History vs. Ancient History
Part 2: Medieval History vs. Ancient History
Ancient, Modern, and the Middle Ages
One way to look at the boundaries of ancient history is to define the opposite of ancient (history). The obvious opposite of ancient is modern, but this ignores the period known as the Middle Ages or Medieval (from Latin medi(um) 'middle' + aev(um) 'age') period. The Middle Ages were a period of great change, bringing Europe from the Classical age to the Renaissance. As a transitional period, there is not a single, clear breaking point with the ancient world. Christianity is important to the Middle Ages and polytheistic worship is important to the ancient period, but there isn't a clear break. There were various events along the path to a Christian Roman Empire within the ancient period, from the acts of toleration permitting Christians to worship within the Empire to elimination of imperial and pagan cults, including the Olympics.
Late Antiquity and Islam
One of the transitional labels for a time period that crosses over from the ancient classical world is "Late Antiquity," covering the 4th through 6th centuries. This period was the one in which the Roman Empire became Christian, and Constantinople (later, Istanbul), rather than Italy, came to dominate the empire. At the end of this period, Mohammad and Islam started to become defining forces, which makes Islam a firm terminus ante quem (point before which) the period of ancient history ended.
The Last Roman
In terms of labels affixed to people of Late Antiquity, the 6th century figures Boethius and Justinian are two of the "last of the Roman..." whatevers. Boethius (c. 475-524) is called the last of the Roman philosophers, writing a treatise in Latin, De consolatione philosophiae 'On the Consolation of Philosophy,' and translating Aristotle on logic, with the result that Aristotle was one of the Greek philosophers available to scholars in the Middle Ages. Justinian (483 - 565) is called the last Roman emperor. He was the last emperor to expand the empire and he wrote a law code that summarized the Roman legal tradition.
Sack of Rome
Another date for the end of the period of ancient history -- with a substantial following -- is a century earlier. Edward Gibbon established A.D. 476 as the end point of the Roman Empire, because it was then that the "barbarian" Germanic Odoacer sacked Rome, deposing Romulus Augustulus, who is called the "last Roman emperor," although it is necessary to add "in the West." The Roman Empire had been split at the end of the third century by Diocletian. With a center of the Roman Empire at Byzantium/Constantinople, as well as one in Italy, to have one of the leaders taken out is not tantamount to destroying the empire. For this reason, many say that the Roman Empire only fell when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453.
Taking Gibbon's 476 as the end of the Roman Empire, however, is as good an arbitrary point as any. The power in the west had shifted before Odoacer, non-Italians had been on the throne for centuries, the empire had been in decline, and the symbolic act put paid to the the account.
The Middle Ages is a term applied to the European heirs of the Roman Empire and generally wrapped up in the term "feudal." There is not a universal, comparable set of events and conditions elsewhere in the world at this time, the end of Classical Antiquity, but "Medieval" is sometimes applied to other parts of the world to refer to the times before conquest or feudal periods.
Major Events in Ancient History
Ancient/Classical History Glossary
