The most important thing is that there were several aspects of life in antiquity that changed in going to the early middle ages. They did not all change at the same time. All changes occurred extremely slowly. Also, there was no announcement that everyone in antiquity has one hour to prepare for the middle ages. "Stragglers will be penalized." So: How do you know when you have antiquity, and how do you know that you are in the middle ages? One way to know that the Roman Empire is closed for business is when there is no emperor whose writ runs in western Europe, when there is no bureaucracy to collect taxes, and when there is no Roman army paid out of those taxes. The date for that is AD 476 (as good as any). Another way to know is that a
