Immigration and Urban Transformation in the Capitals of the West in the 5th century

New data recovered by urban archaeologists in several towns of Europe and some historical syntheses offer an opportunity to revive the debate on the end of ancient urbanism, moving on from the description of the phenomenon to its interpretation. The different chronology of the evolution of late antique Western towns in comparison with those of the East is now incontrovertible, the result of the comparative examination of the written and archaeological sources, demonstrating how the similar phenomenon of the transformation and of the decline of urbanism took place in the two halves of the Empire with a chronological difference of more than a century. In the present contribution the 5th century will be considered as a part of a longer evolution, as the moment during which in the West some cities were affected by those phenomena that in others are attested in an earlier phase or in a later one (e.g. the 6th century).