This work looks at the history of the Italian peninsula from the end of the classical period though to the age of the medieval city states. The author shows how the influx of foreign invaders - Franks and Lombards in the North, Byzantines and Normans in the South - were absorbed into a Italian society and culture (for all its regional and local variations) in which the classical, urban tradition survived. It explores political, economic and social developments within a chronological framework.