" 
 : But ... the approximate dates aren't exact and are actually contradicted in the text - we're better off giving the context than misleading folks with the parentheticals. The timeline is subject to the same issue - it makes things look neat and tidy when they aren't. And the sentence which you added about Pirenne is unsourced - this is a FA ... everything is sourced. You added it in before a sentence sourced to Mommsen's ""Petrarch's Conception of the Dark Ages"" - but nothing in Mommsen's article discusses what you added at all.  -  "