Averil Cameron - Late Antiquity On The Eve of Islam

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THE FORMATION OF THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC WORLD

General Editor: Lawrence 1. Conrad
Volume 1
Late Antiquity
on the Eve of Islam
General Editor: Lawrence 1. Conrad

1 Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam Averil Cameron

2 The Sasanian East on the Eve of Islam
3 The Arabs and Arabia on the Eve of Islam Frank E. Peters
4 The Life ofMuQammad Uri Rubin
5 The Expansion of the Early Islamic State Fred M. Donner
6 The Articulation of Islamic State Structures Fred M. Donner
7 Problems of Political Cohesion in Early Islam R. Stephen Humphrey
8 Arab-Byzantine Relations in Early Islamic Times Michael Bonner
9 The Turks in the Early Islamic World C. Edmund Bosworth
10 Patterns of Everyday Life David Waines
11 Production and the Exploitation of Resources Michael G. Morony
12 Manufacturing and Labour Michael G. Morony
13 Trade and Exchange in Early Islam
14 Property and Consumption in Early Islamic Society
15 Cities in the Early Islamic World Hugh Kennedy
16 Nomads and the Desert in the Early Islamic World Hugh Kennedy
17 Society and Individual in Early Islam
18 Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society Robert E. Hoyland
19 The Christian Communities in the Early Islamic World
20 The Jewish Communities of the Early Islamic World David Wasserstein
21 Archaeology and Early Islam Donald Whitcomb
22 Early Islamic Numismatics and Monetary History
23 Early Islamic Art and Architecture Jonathan Bloom
24 The Qur'än: Style and Contents Andrew Rippin
25 The Qur'än: Formative Interpretation Andrew Rippin
26 The Development of Islamic Ritual Gerald Hawting
27 The Formation of Islamic Law Wael B. Hallaq
28 1;ladith: Origins and Development Harald Motzki
29 Early Islamic Historiographical Traditions
30 Early Islamic Theology
31 Eschatology and Apocalyptic in Early Islam
32 Early Islamic Visions of Community
33 Shi'ism: Origins and Early Development Etan Kohlberg
34 Khärijite Movements in Early Islam
35 The Emergence of Islamic Mysticism
36 The Early Islamic Grammatical Tradition Ramzi Baalbaki
37 Early Islamic Poetry and Poetics Suzanne Stetkevych
38 Early Arabic Prose Literature
39 The Rise of Islamic Philosophy
40 The Rise of Arab-Islamic Medicine
41 The Exact Sciences in Early Islam
42 Magic and Divination in Early Islam Emilie Savage-Smith
43 Education and Learning in the Early Islamic World Claude Gilliot
44 The Early Islamic Manuscript Tradition
45 Early Islamic North Mrica
46 The Formation of al-Andalus I Manuela Marin
47 The Formation of al-Andalus 11 M. Fierro/J. Sams6
48 The Modern Study of Early Islam
General Editor: Lawrence I. Conrad

Volume 1
Late Antiquity
on the Eve of Islam
edited by
Averil Cameron
ILONDON AND NEW YORK

First published 2013 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge

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THE FORMATION OF THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC WORLD-l

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Vll
Editor's Preface and Acknowledgements IX
General Editor's Preface Xl
Introduction xiii
Bibliography xxxix
1. Explosion of Late Antiquity 1

Andrea Giardina
2. The Other Transition: from the Ancient World to Feudalism 25

Chris Wickham
3. The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal 59

Geoffrey Greatrex
4. The Justinianic Plague Revisited 87

Dionysios Stathakopoulos
5. The Origins ofthe Manorial Economy: New Insights from Late

Antiquity 109
Peter Sarris
6. Ruling the Late Roman and Early Byzantine City: A Continuous

History 143
Mark Whittow
7. Syria in Transition, AD 550-750: An Archaeological Approach 171

Clive Foss
8. Recruitment in Roman Armies from Justinian to Heraclius

(ca. 565-615) 277
Michael Whitby
VI ---------------CONTENTS--------------------
9. Heraclius' Persian Campaigns and the Revival of the East Roman

Empire, 622-630 341
James Howard-Johnston
10. John Moschus and his Friend Sophronius the Sophist 385
Henry Chadwick
11. Holy Images and Likeness 419

Gilbert Dagron
Index 431
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The chapters in this volume are taken from the sources listed below. The editor
and publishers wish to thank the authors, original publishers or other copyright
holders for permission to use their material as follows:
CHAPTER 1: Andrea Giardina, 'Explosion of Late Antiquity' ['Esplosione di

tardoantico'], Studi Storici, 40 (Rome, 1999), pp. 157-80. Translation by Rowan
Dorin. Copyright © 2013 Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
CHAPTER 2: Chris Wickham, 'The Other Transition: From the Ancient World to
Feudalism', Past and Present, 103 (Oxford, 1984), pp. 3-36.
CHAPTER 3: Geoffrey Greatrex, 'The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal', Journal of Hellenie

Studies, 117 (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 60-86.
CHAPTER 4: D.C. Stathakopoulos, 'The Justinianic Plague Revisited', Byzantine

and Modern Greek Studies, 24 (Birmingham, 2000), pp. 256-76.
CHAPTER 5: Peter Sarris, 'The Origins of the Manorial Economy: New Insights
from Late Antiquity', English Historical Review, 119 (Oxford, 2004), pp. 279-31l.
Copyright © 2004 Oxford University Press.
CHAPTER 6: Mark Whittow, 'Ruling the Late Roman and Early Byzantine City: A
Continuous History', Past and Present, 129 (Oxford, 1990), pp. 3-29. Copyright ©
1990 The Past and Present Society.
CHAPTER 7: Clive Foss, 'Syria in Transition, AD 550-750: An Archaeological

Approach', Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 51 (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), pp. 189-269.
Copyright © 1998 Dumbarton Oaks.
CHAPTER 8: Michael Whitby, 'Recruitment in Roman Armies from Justinian to

Heraclius (ca. 565-615)', in Averil Cameron, ed., The Byzantine and Early Islamic
Near East 3. States, Resources and Armies (Princeton, 1995), pp. 61-124.
CHAPTER 9: J.D. Howard-Johnston, 'Heraclius' Persian Campaigns and the Revival

of the East Roman Empire 622-630', War in History, 6 (London, 1999), pp. 1-44.
Copyright © 1999 Arnold.
Vlll - - - - - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - - - - - - - -
CHAPTER 10: Henry Chadwick, '.lohn Moschus and his Friend Sophronius the
Sophist', Journal ofTheological Studies, 25.1 (Oxford, 1974), pp. 41-74.
CHAPTER 11: Gilbert Dagron, 'Holy Images and Likeness', Dumbarton Oaks Papers,
45 (Cambridge, Mass., 1991), pp. 23-33. Copyright © 1992 Dumbarton Oaks.
Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been
inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary
arrangement at the first opportunity.
EDITOR'S PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
While regretting the delay in the completion of this book since it was first
announced, I nevertheless believe that it now represents a major improvement

on whatever might have been provided under this title only a few years ago, That
this is so is owed not least to the major changes which have been taking place
in approaches to the subject. Not only are historians of late antiquity eager to
extend their range to cover the eastern Mediterranean provinces, the Sasanian
empire and the beginnings of Islam; at the same time, Islamicists and QUr'änic
scholars are also seeking more and more to view the life of Muhammad and
the origins of the Qur'än within a late antique context. This book was originally
to be called Byzantium on the Eve of Islam, and the change of title reflects this
broader approach. In addition to surveying current scholarship on late antiquity
the Introduction therefore also addresses some themes in current QUr'änic
scholarship from the viewpoint of a historian of late antiquity, and draws attention
to relevant theological developments within eastern Christianity itself. With the
abundant recent scholarship on the eastern Mediterranean this means that we
can now provide a much thicker context than hitherto possible for the emerging
contours of the new religion.
I am enormously grateful to have been part of the unique constellation of
colleagues and graduate students currently engaged in research on these subjects
in Oxford. The seminars, workshops and conversations that take place almost on
a daily basis, and across many academic disciplines, are a rem ar kable example
of what scholarly and intellectuallife ought to be like. Particular thanks are also
due to Fergus Millar, Guy G. Stroumsa, Robert Hoyland, Samuel N.C. Lieu, and
Nicolai Sinai, the organizer with Guy Stroumsa of the Oxford seminar on the
Qur'än in late antiquity held in spring, 2012. I must also thank Alberto Rigolio,
and especially John Smedley of Ashgate, a friend of many years as weIl as a
far-sighted publisher. John's achievements over the years in encouraging and
making possible so many important publications on Byzantium and the medieval
world more widely are truly remarkable; he and his colleagues at Ashgate are
owed areal debt of gratitude.
Averil Cameron, Oxford, March, 2012
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The pagination of articles originally published in English has been maintained

for this volume. In articles translated into English, the original pagination has
been indicated in the text in bold-face type.
GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE
Since the days ofIgnaz Goldziher (1850-1921), generally regarded as the founder
ofIslamic studies as a field ofmodern scholarship, the formative period in Islamic

history has remained a prominent theme for research. In Goldziher's time it was
possible for scholars to work with the whole of the field and practically all of its
available sources, but more recently the increasing sophistication of scholarly
methodologies, a broad diversification in research interests, and a phenomenal
burgeoning of the catalogued and published source material available for
study have combined to generate an increasing "compartmentalisation" of
research into very specific areas, each with its own interests, priorities, agendas,
methodologies, and controversies. While this has undoubtedly led to a deepening
and broadening of our understanding in all of these areas, and hence is to be
welcomed, it has also tended to isolate scholarship in one subject from research
in other areas, and even more so from colleagues outside of Arab-Islamic studies,
not to mention students and others seeking to familiarise themselves with a
particular topic for the first time.
The Formation of the Classical Islamic World is a reference series that seeks
to address this problem by making available a critical selection of the published
research that has served to stimulate and define the way modern scholarship has
come to understand the formative period of Islamic history, for these purposes
taken to mean approximately AD 600-950. Each of the volumes in the series is
edited by an expert on its subject, who has chosen a number of studies that taken
together serve as a cogent introduction to the state of current knowledge on the
topic, the issues and problems particular to it, and the range of scholarly opinion
informing it. Articles originally published in languages other than English have
been translated, and editors have provided critical introductions and select
bibliographies for further reading.
A variety of criteria, varying by topic and in accordance with the judgements
of the editors, have determined the contents of these volumes. In so me cases an
article has been included because it represents the best of current scholarship,
the "cutting edge" work from which future research seems most likely to profit.
Other articles-certainly no less valuable contributions-have been taken up for
the skillful way in which they synthesise the state of scholarly knowledge. Yet
others are older studies that-if in some ways now superseded-nevertheless
merit attention for their illustration of thinking or conclusions that have long
been important, or for the decisive stimulus they have provided to scholarly
discussion. Some volumes cover themes that have emerged fairly recently, and
he re it has been necessary to include articles from outside the period covered
by the series, as illustrations of paradigms and methodologies that may prove
Xll - - - - GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE
useful as research develops. Chapters from single author monographs have

been considered only in very exceptional cases, and a certain emphasis has been
encouraged on important studies that are less readily available than others.
In the present state of the field of early Arab-Islamic studies, in which it is
routine for heated controversy to rage over what scholars a generation ago would
have regarded as matters of simple fact, it is clearly essential for aseries such
as this to convey so me sense of the richness and variety of the approaches and
perspectives represented in the available literature. An effort has thus been made
to gain broad international participation in editorial capacities, and to secure the
collaboration of colleagues representing differing points of view. Throughout the
series, however, the range of possible options for inclusion has been very large,
and it is of course impossible to accommodate all of the outstanding research
that has served to advance a particular subject. A representative selection of such
work does, however, appear in the bibliography compiled by the editor of each
volume at the end of the introduction.
The interests and priorities of the editors, and indeed, of the General Editor,
will doubtless be evident throughout. Hopefully, however, the various volumes
will be found to achieve well-rounded and representative syntheses useful not as
the definitive word on their subjects-if, in fact, one can speak of such a thing in
the present state of research-but as introductions comprising well-considered
points of departure for more detailed inquiry.
Aseries pursued on this scale is only feasible with the good will and
co operation of colleagues in many areas of expertise. The General Editor would
like to express his gratitude to the volume editors for the investment of their
time and talents in an age when work of this kind is grossly undervalued, to the
translators who have taken such care with the articles entrusted to them, and
to Dr John Smedley and his staff at Ashgate for their support, assistance and
guidance throughout.
Lawrence 1. Conrad
INTRODUCTION
Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam
Averil Cameron
Part 1: Framing the Questions
The Arab invasions of the seventh century AD swept across the eastern Roman
provinces and deprived the Roman empire of a third of its territory. Explaining
how this could have happened, and how Arab success related to the new religion
of Islam, presents one of the great challenges of history. With the conquests, the
Roman tax-base and the much of the land-base from which the Roman army
derived its manpower alike disappeared, and with them the existing senatorial
and land-owning elites. Only a few years before the first Arab bands entered
Syria in the 630s, the Emperor Heraclius had almost miraculously defeated
Rome's ancient riyal, the Sasanians, and triumphantly restored to Jerusalem the
fragments of the True Cross which the Persians had carried off to Ctesiphon
(below, Part 6). When a new enemy appeared in Syria he led out his troops again
but did not fight on after being defeated at the River Yarmuk in AD 636. 1
A ready explanation has been found for the easy success of the Arabs: Christians
in the eastern provinces, ho stile to the official Christianity of the empire, were
disaffected from Constantinople and receptive to the new regime and new faith.
The Monophysites or Miaphysites (believers in one nature in respect to Christ)
had in the course of the sixth century gradually formed their own hierarchy in
the face of imperial alternation between conciliation and persecution. 2 But there
is no hard evidence that the Monophysite population ever actually collaborated
with the invaders. Moreover, the eastern provinces at the end of the sixth and
1 In formulating the contents of this Introduction I owe a debt of gratitude to the
kindness and generosity of many friends and colleagues, who include Fergus Miliar, Robert
Hoyland, Samuel N.C. Lieu and Guy Stroumsa, though they would not necessarily agree
with the opinions expressed. For the reign of Heraclius, see Gerrit J. Reinink and Bernard
H. Stolte, eds., The Reign of Heraclius. Crisis and Confrontation (610-641) (Leuven, 2002);
Walter E. Kaegi, Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium (Cambridge, 2003); id., Byzantium and
the Early Arab Conquests (Chicago, 1992).
2 For the process (which continued throughout the sixth century), see Volker L. Menze,
Justinian and the Making of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Oxford, 2008); for the post-
Chalcedonian background, see Philippe Blaudeau, Alexandrie et Constantinople 451-91:
de l'histoire a la geo-ecclesiologie (Rome, 2006); Richard Price and Mary Whitby, eds.,
Chalcedon in Context. Church Councils 400-700 (Oxford, 2008); below, Part 4.
XIV - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
beginning of the seventh century were far from being uniformly Miaphysite. 3
Episcopal seats like Antioch and Alexandria alternated between Miaphysite
and Chalcedonian, and at times there were riyal incumbents; both groups were
themselves also divided and the religious profile differed considerably from
region to region. In the early seventh century, opposition to the imperial dogma
of monotheletism (one will) was led not by Miaphysites but by Chalcedonians
(dyophysites) in Cyprus and Palestine (below, Part 6). Any simplified view of a
divided east estranged from Constantinople and receptive to the Arab invaders
must be discarded in favour of a far more nuanced understanding of the actual
complexity of social and religious currents in the eastern provinces in the late
sixth and seventh centuries (Parts 4 and 7 below).
A second assumption has been that, since the Arabs were so spectacularly
successful, the Roman empire must have been in inexorable decline. 4 A mass
of recent scholarship, led by archaeologists, continues to debate questions of
continuity and decline, but while there has been some return to the traditional
emphasis on the effective end of Roman rule in the west in the fifth century,5
most scholars now agree on the continued economic vitality of the east. Tellingly,
neither the Persian invasion and occupation of in the early seventh century nor
the Arab invasions themselves have left clear evidence of destruction in the
archaeological record for the Near East. 6 Indeed, the impression of a sharp break
3 See John Moorhead, 'The Monophysite response to the Arab invasions', Byzantion 51
(1981),579-91.
4 See Hugh Kennedy, 'The last century of Byzantine Syria: areinterpretation',
Byzantinische Forschungen 10 (1985), 141-83, a classic article which, however, needs to be

read in conjunction with subsequent archaeological publications. For decline in the east
before the end of the sixth century, see J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall ofthe
Roman City (Oxford, 2001); but see below, Part 2.
5 Bryan Ward-Perkins, Bryan, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (Oxford,
2005); Pet er Heather, The Fall of the Roman Empire (London, 2005); id., Empires and
Barbarians (London, 2009).
6 For the (lack of) archaeological impact of the Arab invasions, see Alan Walmsley, Early
Islamic Syria: An Archaeological Assessment (London, 2007); for the Persian invasions,
see C. Foss, 'The Persians in the Roman Near East (602-630 AD)" Journal of the Royal
Asiatic Society, sero 3. 13 (2003),149-70, further Part 5 below; for Jerusalem in 614, see Yuri
Stoyanov, Defenders and Enemies of the True Cross. The Sasanian Conquest of Jerusalem
in 614 and Byzantine Ideology of Anti-Persian Warfare, Österreichische Akad. der Wiss.,
philosoph.-hist. Klasse, Sitzungsberichte 819 (Vienna, 2011), 11-24. A hoard of 246 gold
solidi of Heraclius found in 2008 indicates the level of local anxiety (see G. Bijovsky, 'A
single die solidi hoard of Heraclius from Jerusalem', Travaux et Memoires 16 (2010),
Melanges Cecile Morrisson, 55-92) and R. Reich, 'The ancient burial ground in the Mamila
neighbourhood, Jerusalem', in H. Givel, ed., Ancient Jerusalem Revealed (Jerusalem,
1994),111-18, connects archaeological evidence of a mass grave with the alleged slaughter
of Christians by the Persians asserted in the Christian sources, on which, however, see
G. Avni, 'The sack of Jerusalem by the Sassanian Persians (614 CE): an archaeological
assessment', BASOR 357 (2010), 35-48. The Christian sources also claim that the patriarch
Zacharias's replacement Modestus embarked on a church rebuilding programme (see
Robert Schick, The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to Islamic Rule. A
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - xv
between the late antique or early Byzantine and the Islamic Near East is in large
measure a product of the periodization adopted in much secondary literature,
where it is common for books to end, or alternatively to begin, with the year AD 640.
The commonly-used terminology that distinguishes between the 'Byzantine' and
early Islamic periods is equally unhelpful; the majority of scholars both on late
antiquity and on early Islam now prefer the term 'late antiquity', and if there is
one conclusion to be drawn from recent scholarship on the late antique Near
East, it is that there was no such clear-cut chronological division. 7
Part 2: Late Antiquity and the Continuity Debate
Both the choice of articles and the introduction to this volume start from the
viewpoint of the late Roman, early Byzantine or late antique world (all terms
that have been in common use), rather than that ofthe Arabs or Islam. Its focus
differs therefore from that adopted in the volumes in this series edited by Robert
G. Hoyland, Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society, and F.E. Peters, The
Arabs and Arabia on the Eve of Islam. 8 It also contrasts with many treatments of
early Islam by scholars of Arabic, Islam or the Islamic world; indeed, awareness
of this divergence, and the conviction that scholars from differing academic
backgrounds need to engage with each other were fundamental to the initiative
which led in the late 1980s to the series of interdisciplinary workshops held
by the project on Late Antiquity and Early Islam. 9 That need continues, but
meanwhile there has been a different development, namely a move within the
ever-growing scholarship on late antiquity to extend its chronological coverage.
Peter Brown's short but seminal book, The World of Late Antiquity, led the way,l°
and many subsequent publications have included at least the Umayyad period,
or even taken the period of 'late antiquity' considerably later, and subsumed the
early Islamic period within itY This general approach has not been without its
Historical and Archaeological Study (Princeton, 1995), 41-44), but archaeological evidence
does not be ar this out.
7 In what follows the term Byzantium is used for the political entity ruled from
Constantinople rat her than as a chronological indicator.

8 Robert G. Hoyland, ed., Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society, The Formation
of the Classical Islamic World 18 (Aldershot, 2004); F.E. Peters, ed., The Arabs and Arabia
on the Eve ofIslam, The Formation ofthe Classical Islamic World 3 (Aldershot, 1999).
9 See the ensuing multi-volume series Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam,
published by the Darwin Press, Princeton, starting with Averil Cameron and Lawrence I.
Conrad, eds., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East I: Problems in the Literary Source
Material (Princeton, N.J., 1992).
10 Peter Brown. The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750. From Marcus Aurelius to
Muhammad (London, 1971).

11 This is exemplified in G.w. Bowersock, Peter Brown and Oleg Grabar, eds., Late
Antiquity. A Guide to the Post-classical World (Cambridge, Mass., 1999), and has been a
XVI - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
critics, as can be seen from the reaction of Andrea Giardina (Chapter 1 below)Y
However, the chronological extension of the period covered has much to do with
a parallel intensification of publication and research on the eastern provinces by
scholars of late antiquity, and with their growing interest in eastern languages
and cultures, especially Aramaic and Syriac, and in late antique Judaism (Parts
4 and 5). It has been natural therefore to include seventh-century developments,
of which the events of the life of Muhammad, the emergence of Islam, and the
circumstances ofIslamic rule in Palestine, Syria and elsewhere were of course an
important part. The approach of such scholars (among whom I include myself)
is bound to be different from that of scholars of early Islam or the QUr'än, yet
we mayaiso now perceive a distinct tendency among the latter to look for a late
antique context for the emergence ofthe new religion,l3
Given the development I have outlined, it is natural that many scholars of
late antiquity now tend to blur the 'divide' associated with the conquests, and to
underline the many continuities that can be observed throughout the Umayyad
period and even later. This is less true ofhistorians ofthe Byzantine empire, who
often point to a sharp break in the seventh century,14 or of historians of war;15
nevertheless, the emphasis on late antique continuity has profound implications
for the understanding of early Islam,16 and while conversely many debates ab out
the latter, and especially about the genesis of the QUr'än, have in the past been
feature of many subsequent works. For discussion see Averil Cameron, 'The "long" late
antiquity. A late-twentieth century model?', in T.P. Wiseman, ed., Classics in Progress,
British Academy Centenary volume (Oxford, 2002), 165-91; Arnaldo Marcone, 'A long late
antiquity? Considerations on a controversial periodization', JLA 1.1 (2008),4-19.
12 See also the responses by Gien W. Bowersock, Lellia Cracco Ruggini and Arnaldo
Marcone in Studi Storici 45.1 (2004), 9-36.Writing in 1999, Giardina deplored what he saw
as a lack of interest in structures and institutions; he also has a marked emphasis on the
problem of a transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages in the west.
13 See the essays in G.S. Reynolds, ed., The Qur'iin in its Historical Context (London,
2008); id., ed., New Perspectives on the Qur'iin (London, 2011). The ahistorical nature of
some recent radical theories about the genesis of the Qurän has already been pointed
out; contrast, however, A. Neuwirth, Der Koran als Text der Spiitantike (Frankfurt am
Main, 2010); A. Neuwirth, N. Sinai and M. Marx, eds., The Qur'iin in Context: Literary and
Historical Investigations into the Qur'iinic Milieu (Leiden, 2010). It is worth noting that
classic revisionist studies such as John Wansborough, The Sectarian Milieu: Content and
Composition of Islamic Salvation History (Oxford, 1978), and Patricia Crone and Michael
Cook, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World (Cambridge, 1977), were published
before these developments in the scholarship of late antiquity became so prominent.
14 See, for instance, John F. Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century. The Trans-
formation of a Culture (Cambridge, 1990).

15 Thus J.D. Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis: Historians and Histories of
the Middle East in the Seventh Century (Oxford, 2010), focuses on the 'great war' between
Byzantium and Persia and on the conquests themselves, and expresses the change in
terms of a new world order.
16 See the thoughtful re marks ofT. Sizgorich, 'Narrative and community in Islamic late
antiquity', Past and Present 185 (2004), 9-42, on 'the place of the early Islamic community
within the "world of late antiquity" '.
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XVll
conducted with little if any reference to the actual historical context, there are
increasing signs that this is changing. It is hoped that the wide coverage adopted
in the present series will help to bridge the gap, but the problem also needs
to be borne in mind by readers, who will need to ensure that they do not limit
themselves to one particular disciplinary approach.
Part 3: Mediterranean: Unity or Rupture
The transition from the ancient to the medieval world is not a new question.
Following in the tracks of Henri Pirenne, historians are still divided over whether
the barbarian invasions of the Roman empire or the Arab conquests mark the
definitive shift; according to Pirenne's famous formulation, 'without Mahomet,
no Charlemagne', it was the Arab conquests, not the fifth-century invasions, that
put an end to cross-Mediterranean trade and transformed the Mediterranean
into an 'Arab lake'P The debate has of course moved on since the early twentieth
century, when the 'Pirenne thesis' was formulated; both the 'barbarian invasions'
and our understanding of Mediterranean long-distance trade have taken on very
different contours,18 and the transition is less often posed in traditional terms
as a 'passage' from antiquity to the middle ages. Chris Wickham's classic article
(here Chapter 2) magisterially surveys the state of the debate in the 1980s, while
two recent books by hirn vividly convey a sense of complexity and carefully avoid
teleological explanations for historical change. 19
The appearance in 2000 of The Corrupting Sea. A Study of Mediterranean
History by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell acted as a stimulus for
a new consideration of the Mediterranean as an economic, cultural and
religious sphere. 20 Like Fernand Braudei, Horden and Purcell eschew histoire
evenementielle in favour of the longue duree, emphasizing underlying structures
and small-scale activity; on this view the rise of Islam and the Arab conquests of
the eastern Mediterranean and part ofthe west constituted less a world crisis than
a change in the extern al appearance of a region exhibiting powerfullong-term
continuities. This has not prevented some late antique historians from returning
17 H. Pirenne, Mahomet et Charlemagne (1937); the thesis was first expressed by Pirenne
much earlier.
18 For the former, see Averil Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity
AD 395-700, Routledge History of Classical Civilization, 2nd ed., revised and expanded
(London, 2011), chap. 2; for long-distance trade, see Part 5 below.
19 Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages. Europe and the Mediterranean,
400-800 (Oxford, 2005); id., The Inheritance of Rome. A History of Europe from 400 to 1000
(London, 2009).
20 Peregrine Horden and Nicholas PureeIl, The Corrupting Sea. A Study ofMediterranean
History (Oxford, 2000), on which see w.v. Harris, ed., Rethinking the Mediterranean (Oxford,
2005).
XVlll - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
to the old model of the fall of the Roman empire in the west, questioning the term
'Mediterranean' as a useful descriptor, and advancing the alternative merits of a
fundamentally regional approach. 21
The sixth century, specifically the reign of Justinian (527-65), saw an attempt
made from Constantinople to regain the western provinces and thus to reunify
the Mediterranean in political terms. At first spectacularly successful, Justinian's
wars dragged on, becoming less and less achievable in terms of resources,
and although Ostrogothic Italy became officially Byzantine again in 554, the
appearance of new contenders in the shape of the Lombards made long-term
success elusive: the west was well on the way towards its early medieval shape. 22
Justinian's reign saw great achievements: a new legal code and the reorganization
of law teaching; a dangerous riot successfully overcome (discussed by Geoffrey
Greatrex in Chapter 3), the great church of St Sophia built in Constantinople,
countless churches, fortifications and remodelled or newly founded cities
built elsewhere, especially in the newly recovered provinces, and North
Africa reconquered and its administration reorganized. 23 But hard-fought and
expensive war waged against Sasanian Persia on the eastern front undermined
the resources available, which were also depleted by a serious outbreak of plague
in 541-42, returning at intervals thereafter (see Stathakopoulos, Chapter 4).
Nor could Justinian achieve church unity, despite much energetic effort. The
ecumenical council he held in 553 was a failure, and the political and financial
results of his ambitious initiatives were also mixed. 24
Byzantium nonetheless retained North Africa and maintained its interest in
Italy, even if on a smaller scale; in the seventh and eighth centuries a significant
21 For regionalization versus integration, see Sebastian Sehmidt-Hoffner, 'Regionalization
and the integration of the Mediterranean world in late antiquity, Heidelberg and Frankfurt,
3-6 June, 2010', JLA 4.1 (2011),162-73, with bibliography.
22 For a reeent study whieh deals with the west as weil as the east, see Peter Sarris,
Empires ofFaith. The Fall ofRome to the Rise ofIslam, 500-700, Oxford History ofMedieval
Europe (Oxford, 2011).
23 For a eomprehensive aeeount of the arehaeologieal evidenee for North Afriea, see
Anna Leone, Changing Townseapes in NorthAfrieafrom Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest
(Bari, 2007); loeal seeurity proved more of a problem than the Byzantines anticipated:
see Y. Moderan, Les Maures et l'Afrique romaine (IVe-VIIe siede) (Rome, 2003): and for
an interesting diseussion of North Africa at the time of the Arab eonquest, see Walter E.
Kaegi, Muslim Expansion and Byzantine Collapse in North Afriea (Cambridge, 2010).
24 See Cameron, Mediterranean World, 2nd ed., ehap. 5; M. Meier, Das andere Zeitalter
Iustinians. Kontingenzerfahrung und Kontingenzbewältigung im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr.

(Göttingen, 2003), emphasizing the many disasters during the reign; exeellent survey
by Ceeile Morrisson and Jean-Pierre Sodini, 'The sixth-eentury eeonomy', in Angeliki
E. Laiou, ed., The Eeonomie History of Byzantium, from the Seventh through the Fifteenth
Century, 3 vols. (Washington, DC, 2002), I, pt 2, 171-220; emphasis on a monetary eeonomy
and the eeonomie role of landowning 'magnates': Peter Sarris, Eeonomy and Soeiety in the
Age ofJustinian (Oxford, 1999), and Chapter 5 below, with J. Banaji, 'Eeonomie trajectories',
in Seott Fitzgerald J ohnson, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity (N ew York, 2012),
597-624.
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XIX
eastern influence in Rome, Sicily and south Italy, and a succession ofGreek popes,
ensured continuing contacts and interests between east and west. In the east,
Justinian's successors continued to seek a solution to the christological divisions,
and, despite the great peace treaty made between Byzantium and Persia in AD 561,
relations between the two powers continued to alternate between rapprochement

and hostility (Part 6 below). At the same time Byzantium had to contend with
new threats from Avars, Slavs and Turks and with dangerous dislocation in the
Balkans, the precursor of great changes to co me in the next period. 25
Part 4: The Turn to the East
One of the most striking features in the recent surge of publications on late
antiquity is the amount of attention given to the east, not only to the eastern
Mediterranean provinces but also to the Sasanian empire, Ethiopia and the
Arabian peninsula. In a book published in 1993, Garth Fowden termed the swathe
of territory extending from the Caucasus to Egypt, and bordered by the Black
Sea, the Iranian plateau, the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Egyptian
desert, 'the southwest Asian mountain arena', framing the Fertile Crescent
within it, and saw it in terms of a Christian commonwealth with Constantinople
as its hub. 26 A recently established multi-volume series is only one among many
signs of the lively interest in the cultures of the region both before and after the
emergence of Islam. 27 Egypt, exceptional for the amount of evidence preserved
on papyri in both the late antique and Islamic periods, has in the past tended
to be seen as the domain of specialist papyrologists, but this too is changing as
the historical importance of its wealth of information is fully recognized. Peter
Sarris's essay (Chapter 5) uses the rich evidence from papyri in conjunction with
other sources to argue for the continuance of monetization and commodification
in the management of elite estates in both east and west in the sixth century.28
Egypt also yields a mass ofinformation about cultural and religious developments
25 See M. Whittow, The Making of Orthodox Byzantium 600-1025 (Basingstoke, 1996);
Michael Whitby, 'The successors of Justinian', in Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins

and Michael Whitby, eds., Cambridge Ancient History XIV (Cambridge, 2001), 86-111;
A.G. Poulter, ed., The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Danube and Beyond (Oxford,
2007); Sarris, Empires of Faith (2011),169-82.
26 Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth. Consequences of Monotheism in Late
Antiquity (Princeton, 1993), 15-19.

27 Robert Hoyland and Arietta Papaconstantinou, eds., The Worlds of Eastern Christianity,
300-1500 (Farnham, 2011- ); S. Efthymiades, ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to

Byzantine Hagiography. Vol. I. Periods and Places (Farnham, 2011), contains a substantial
section on the 'Byzantine periphery and Christian Orient', with chapters on material in
Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Coptic and Arabic.
28 See also Sarris, 'Rehabilitating the great estate. Aristocratic property and economic
growth in the late antique east', in William Bowden, Luke Lavan and Carlos Machado, eds.,
xx - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
before and after the transition to Islamic rule. 29 Within this orientation towards
the east among specialists of late antiquity, the publication in recent years of the
epigraphic record of the kingdom of Himyar (south-west Arabia) has also led
the way towards furt her, if still tentative, consideration of the population and
religious profile of the peninsula itself in the sixth century and the lifetime of
Muhammad (see below, Part 5).
In addition to religious change (Part 7) two themes have emerged with
particular urgency: ethnic identity and linguistic usage. Just as the 'Germanic'
peoples of the western empire have been subjected to radical revisionist
scholarship,30 so the term 'Arab', and the questions when and if it is justifiable
to speak of an Arab identity, have been the subject of several important
contributions. 31 This includes a new approach to the Ghassanids and Lakhmids,
the Arab federate allies or clients of the Romans and Persians respectively,32
drawing on a comparison with the historiography of the barbarian kingdoms
of the west and of other periods. Identity is indeed currently one of the major
Recent Research on the Late Antique Countryside, Late Antique Archaeology 2 (Leiden,
2004), 55-72; id., Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian.
29 See Arietta Papaconstantinou, 'Historiography, hagiography and the making of the
Coptic "church of the martyrs" in early Islamic Egypt', DOP 60 (2006), 65-86, and see
below.
30 Guy Halsall, Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376-568 (London, 2003),
offers a good guide to a body of scholarship of which Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations.
The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton, 2002), is one of the most notable examples.
31 For instance, Robert Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs. From the Bronze Age to the
Coming of Islam (London, 2001), and id., 'Arab kings, Arab tribes and the beginnings
of Arab historical memory in late Roman epigraphy', in Hannah M. Cotton, Robert G.
Hoyland, Jonathan M. Price and David L. Wasserstein, eds., From Hellenism to Islam.
Cultural and Linguistic Change in the Roman Near East (Cambridge, 2009), 374-400. The
aim of the multi-volume work by I. Shahid, still in progress, Rome and the Arabs, followed
by Byzantium and the Arabs (Washington, DC, 1984- ) is to stress the Arab presence and
contribution to the history of late antiquity in the pre-Islamic period.
32 See Greg Fisher, Between Empires. Arabs, Romans and Sasanians in Late Antiquity
(Oxford, 2011); id., 'Kingdoms or dynasties: Arabs, history and identity before Islam',
JLA 4.2 (2011), 245-67 discusses the difficult issues of terminology and warns against
presenting the Ghassan, Lakhmids and Hujrids as 'kingdoms' or as peoples. See also
Fergus Miliar, 'Rome's "Arab" allies in late antiquity', in H. Börm and J. Wiesehöfer, eds.,
Commutatio et Contentio. Studies in the Late Roman, Sasanian and Early Islamic Near East,
in Memory of Zeev Rubin (Düsseldorf, 2010), 199-224; the presentation of the Ghassanids
in Arabic sources, including Arabic poetry, is treated in detail by I. Shahid, Byzantium and
the Arabs in the Sixth Century, 2.2 (Washington DC, 2009). For questions of ethnic identity
in earlier periods, see Fergus Miliar, 'Empire, community and culture in the Roman Near
East: Syrians, Jews and Arabs', Journal of Jewish Studies, 38 (1987), 143-604; id., 'Ethnic
Identity in the Roman Near East, AD 325-450: Language, Religion and Culture,' in G.
Clarke, Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean (Sydney, 1999), 159-76; 'The Theodosian
empire (408-450) and the Arabs: Saracens or Ishmaelites?', in Erich S. Gruen, ed., Cultural
Borrowings and Ethnic Appropriations in Antiquity (Stuttgart, 2005), 297-314. I am grateful
to Fergus Miliar also for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this Introduction.
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XXI
themes in late antique scholarship, both in the Near East and more widely.33 It
is hard in practice to separate these issues from that of language use, both oral
and written, and questions such as that of the interplay of Greek and Syriac, the
use of Syriac as a written language and the language of an extensive Christian
literature, the various forms of Aramaic in use in Syria and Palestine (Nabataean,
Palmyrene, Jewish Aramaic, Syriac, Samaritan Aramaic, Christian Palestinian
Aramaic (CPA)), the use of Coptic in Egypt, and the slow development of Arabic
as a written language, have all been engaging scholars from many differing
disciplinary backgrounds in research projects and individual publications. 34
It is important to distinguish between languages and scripts, and to recognize
that language and identity do not always go together. In the Near East this was
also aperiod of language formation, both oral and written, in which there was a
wide range of language use and experience, from resort to paid translations for
practical purposes to actual bilingualism or multilingualism. During the sixth
and seventh centuries, translation from Greek into Syriac became increasingly
important, and apocrypha, saints' lives and apocalyptic works were quickly
translated, some surviving only in the secondary language. Similar processes
involved other languages - Coptic, Georgian, Armenian - and continued in
the Islamic period, when they increasingly involved translation into Arabic;35
by the ninth century a monastery such as that of St Sabas near Jerusalem had
become genuinely multilingual, with Arabic added to an already wide range of
languages. 36 The continuation of Syriac as a language of Christian scholarship
and religious exchange and the continued, though more limited, use of Greek in
Melkite circles in Palestine are major features of Umayyad and Abbasid society.
33 For the Near East, see also Philip Wood (ed.), History and Identity in the Late Antique
East (500-1000) (New York, 2013), with his book 'We have no King but Christ.' Christian
Political Thought in Greater Syria on the Eve of the Arab Conquest (c. 400-585) (Oxford,
2010); Bas ter Haar Romeny, with Naures Atto, Jan J. van Ginkel, Mat Immerzeel and Bas
Snelders, 'The formation of a communal identity among West Syrian Christians: results
and conclusions of the Leiden project', Church History and Religious Culture 39.1-3 (2009),
1-52; Bas ter Haar Romeny, ed., Religious Origins ofNations? The Christian Communities of
the Middle East (Leiden, 201 0); Palestine: H. Lapin, ed., Religions and Ethnic Communities
in Later Roman Palestine (Bethesda, MD, 1998).
34 E.g., for Egypt, Arietta Papaconstantinou, Languages and Literature of Early
Christianity: Coptic (Paris, 2009); ead., ed., The Multilingual Experience in Egypt,from the
Ptolemies to the Abbasids (Farnham, 2010); Arabic: M.C.A. Macdonald, ed., The Development
ofArabic as a Written Language, supplement to the Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian
Studies 40 (Oxford, 2010); Robert Hoyland argues for use of Arabic as being already well
established before the Qur'än in 'Epigraphy and the linguistic background to the Qurän',
in Reynolds, ed., The Qur'iin in its Historical Context, 51-69.
35 For Arabic, see M. Swanson, in Efthymiades, ed., Byzantine Hagiography I, 346-50;
Syriac: Brock, ibid., 266-8; Coptic: Papaconstantinou, ibid, 323.

36 See Sidney H. Griffith, 'From Aramaic to Arabic: the languages of the monasteries
of Palestine in the Byzantine and early Islamic periods', DOP 51 (1997),11-31, repr. in id.,
The Beginnings of Christian Theology in Arabic, Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early
Islamic Period (Aldershot, 2002), X.
XXll - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
Another striking development in late antique scholarship is an increased

attention to Sasanian Iran. This takes two forms: studies of the history of the
Sasanian empire itself,37 and broad treatments spanning both Byzantine and
Sasanian territory, especially in relation to religious matters or the relations
between the west Syrian and east Syrian churches. 38 The degree of commonality
between Sasanian and Byzantine visual art is clear, as in the spectacular surviving
sixth- and seventh-century silverware, which includes an impressive suite of six
Byzantine silver plates found in Cyprus, commonly known as the David plates;
these date from 629-32 and have been attributed by some to the patronage of
the Emperor Heraclius. 39 Similarities also existed between the ideology and
ceremonial of the two empires. 40 Also now abundantly clear is the central role
played in the formation of a class of Christian philosophical and exegetical experts
within the Sasanian empire by the School of Nisibis, in Sasanian territory just
inside the border;41 it also gave rise to a plethora of other schools which ensured
a spread oftheological and philosophical knowledge among east Syrians that was
to prove critically important in later centuries.
Part 5: Archaeology and the Economy
The transition to an Islamic world cannot be understood without reference to

the material culture ofthe eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity. Scientifically-
based archaeological work on sites of the late antique period was made possible
by advances in the classification and dating of ceramic evidence made in the 1970s
37 See recently Touraj Daryaee, Sasanian Persia. The Rise and Fall of an Empire
(London, 2009); P. Pourshariati, Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire. The Sasanian-
Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran (London, 2009), and Bibliography, s.v.
Sasanian Empire.
38 For a study which ranges over both Byzantine Syria and Sasanian Iran, see Wood,
'We have no King but Christ' (2010).

39 See Matthew Canepa, The Two Eyes of the Earth. Art and Ritual of Kingship between
Rome and Sasanian Iran (Berkeley, 2009), 156-66, with bibliography. The Old Testament
themes on the 'David plates' echo similar imagery in the court poetry of George of Pisidia.
40 See Canepa, The Two Eyes of the Earth, though see the review by A. Cu tier, JRA 24
(2011),873-79.
41 See Adam Becker, Fear ofGod and the Beginning ofWisdom. The School ofNisibis and
Christian Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia (Philadelphia, 2006); id., Sources
for the History ofthe School of Nisibis, trans. with introduction and notes, Translated Texts
for Historians 50 (Liverpool, 2008); Gerrit J. Reinink, '''Edessa grew dim and Nisibis shone
forth": the School ofNisibis at the transition ofthe sixth-seventh century', in J.w. Drijvers
and A.A. MacDonald, eds., Centres of Learning: Learning and Location in Pre-Modern
Europe and the Near East (Leiden, 1995), 7-89. The great monastery at Mount Izla near
to Nisibis was another cent re of Syrian scholasticism, and for other schools see Joel T.
Walker, 'Ascetic literacy: books and readers in East-Syrian monastic tradition', in Börm
and Wiesehöfer, eds., Commutatio et Contentio (2010), 312-16.
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XXlll
under the impetus of archaeologists interested in long-distance Mediterranean

trade and the state ofthe late Roman economy; it has since developed exponentially
along with the general growth of scholarship on the period. 42 The plentiful
evidence of shipwreck archaeology, especially that conducted off the shores of
modern Israel, provides ample material in itself. 43 For the region in general much
attention has been given to urban sites and their interpretation, and especially
to questions of decline or continuing prosperity as indicated by remodelling of
buildings, changes in population density, and the reuse or abandonment of earlier
structures, but rural settlement and production are also increasingly studied. 44
Mark Whittow's essay on late antique cities, with particular reference to the
east (Chapter 6) presents a very positive view, contrasting with the emphasis
placed by others on decline and 'encroachment' in the late sixth and seventh
centuries. 45 The so-called 'dead cities' of northern Syria, between Antioch and
Aleppo (actually large villages, but with standing stone buildings), have been the
subject of much discussion, but clearly testify to prosperity and confidence in
the later sixth century.46 Certain urban sites have received particular attention,
such as the cities of Caesarea in Palestine, Beth Shean (Scythopolis) in northern
Israel, or the cities of the 'Decapolis', especially Jerash (Gerasa) and Pella, and
overall it seems clear that there was substantial continuity through the Persian
period and into the Islamic. From the Islamic side, we are also beginning to see
a new and different picture of the transition from late antiquity to Islam, led by
scholars such as Alan Walmsley, which is revealing the important changes made
within some of these very cities within the late Umayyad period, and the actual
state of the existing late antique urban structures, some of which had clearly
already gone out of use; congregational mosques built deliberately at the main
42 For an introduction and bibliography, see Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late
Antiquity, 2nd ed., chap. 7.

43 See Sean A. Kingsley, ed., Shipwreck Archaeology of the Holy Land. Processes and
Parameters (London, 2004), with S. Kingsley and M. Decker, eds., Economy and Exchange
in the East Mediterranean during Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2001).
44 See Alan Walmsley, 'Economic developments and the nature of settlement in the
towns and countryside of Syria-Palestine (c. AD 565-800)', DOP 61 (2007),319-52; Michael

Decker, Tilling the Hateful Earth. Agricultural Production and Trade in the Late Antique
Near East (Oxford, 2009); Clive Foss, 'The Near Eastern countryside in late antiquity: a
review article', in J.H. Humphrey, ed., The Roman and Byzantine Near East: So me Recent
Archaeological Work (Ann Arbor, MI: Journal of Roman Archaeology, 1995), 213-34.
45 So Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City; Hugh Kennedy, 'From polis
to madina: urban changes in late antique and early Islamic Syria', Past and Present 106
(1985),3-27, repr. in Hugh Kennedy, The Late Antique and Byzantine Near East (Aldershot,
2006), I.
46 The olive-growing monoculture proposed by G. Tchalenko, Villages antiques de la
Syrie du nord, 1-111 (Paris, 1953-58), has been revised by G. Tate and others (G. Tate, Les
campagnes de la Syrie du Nord du IIe au VII siecle: un exemple d'expansion demographique
et economique a lafin de l'antiquite (Paris, 1992» who propose a mixed but still prosperous
agricultural and trading economy.
XXIV - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
crossroads near market areas are a feature now observable at Jerash, Tiberias,
Aleppo, Palmyra (where major church-building was still taking place in the sixth-
seventh centuries), Amman and elsewhere. 47 Meanwhile the remodelling and
mosaic decoration of Christian churches continued even into the eighth century,
as at Umm er-Rasas in Jordan. 48 Even more striking are the richly decorated
mosaic floors from late antique synagogues in Palestine, such as Beth Alpha and
(spectacularly) Sepphoris. 49 These are at the very least indicative of a large and
confident Jewish presence in Palestine, even if its exact connections with the
rabbinic schools are less clear (see below).
It is not surprising if archaeological and epigraphic research has concentrated
on the Mediterranean provinces rather than Iraq and Arabia. Yet already in the
1980s Michael Morony warned against neglecting the continuities between late
antique and Muslim Iraq, and while the possibility of excavation in Arabia is
limited, the region has come within the reach of late antique historians through
work on Christian monastic settlements on the Arabian Gulf and the islands, and
through intensive study of the epigraphy of Himyar in South Yemen, a region
already known from literary texts;50 a masterful survey by Barbara Finster
sets out the current state of information. 51 Finally, one should not overlook the
intensive modern study of the fron tier zone between the Roman and Sasanian
47 I am indebted to Alan Walmsley, Katia Cytrin-Silverman and other speakers at the
colloquium 'From polis to madina' held under the auspices of the Khalili Research Centre,
the Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity and the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research in
February, 2012.
4S A basic study is Schick, The Christian Communities of Palestine from Byzantine to
Islamic Rule (1995), and cf. M. Piccirillo, The Mosaics of Jordan (Amman, 1992).
49 See Z. Weiss, with contributions from E. Netzer et al., The Sepphoris Synagogue.
Deciphering an Ancient Message through its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contexts

(Jerusalem, 2005); there is a very large and ever-growing bibliography on these synagogues,
from which see David Milson, Art and Architecture of the Synagogue in Late Antique
Palestine: In the Shadow ofthe Church (Leiden, 2007).
50 Michael Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (Princeton, 1984), Introduction;
David Potts, The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity 11 (Oxford, 1990); G.R.D. King, 'Settlement in
western and central Arabia and the Gulf in the sixth-eighth centuries AD', in G.R.D. King
and Averil Cameron, eds., The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East II: Land Use and
Settlement Patterns, (Princeton, 1994), 181-212; the east Syrian monastery at Kharg had a
library with wall niches for hold its books: M.-J. Steve, Vile de Kharg: une page de l'histoire
du Golfe Persique et du monachisme oriental (Neuchätel, 2003). For Himyar the epigraphic
studies of Christian Robin are fundamental, and see now I. Gajda, Le royaume de Himyar
a l'epoque monotheiste (Paris, 2009); Joelle Beaucamp, Fran"oise Briquel-Chatonnet and
Christian Julien Robin, eds., Juifs et chretiens en Arabie aux Ve et VIe siecles: regards
croises sur les sources, Association des amis du Cent re d'histoire et civilisation de Byzance,
monographies 32, Le massacre de Najran 11 (Paris, 2010); N. Nebes, 'The martyrs ofNajran
and the end oft he Himyar: on the political history of Arabia in the early sixth century', in
Neuwirth, Sinai and Marx, eds., The Quriin in Context (2011), 27-60.
51 Barbara Finster, 'Arabia in late antiquity: an outline of the cultural situation in the
peninsula at the time of Muhammad', in Neuwirth, Sinai and Marx, eds., The Qur'iin in
Context (2011), 61-107.
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - xxv
empires, with the many works of fortification undertaken by Anastasius, Justin

land Justinian in the context of the wars with Persia, and provision for troop
deployment and stationing. 52 Even if there was Byzantine retrenchment in the
southern desert frontier region, the building and remodelling of fortifications
continued, for instance on the Euphrates, with corresponding effects on local

economic life. 53 Michael Whitby (Chapter 8 below) argues for the continued
strength of Roman military recruitment in the late sixth century, and the level of
investment by both empires was very high, despite the strain put on Byzantium
by Justinian's wars and the large payments made to the Sasanians under peace
treatyobligations.
Part 6: The Turbulent Seventh Century
After the peace treaty between Rome and Persia in AD 561-62, relations under
Justinian's successors Justin 11 (565-78) and Tiberius 11 (578-82) continued
to be uneasy; renewed hostilities under Justin 11, ostensibly in support of the
Armenians, led to a failed siege of Nisibis and the loss of the Roman fortress of
Dara to the Persians. A few years later positions were reversed when the Romans
defeated a Persian army led personally by Chosroes 11. 54 In yet another reversal,
a deal was struck under Maurice (582-602) whereby the latter helped Chosroes
to recover his throne from an internal challenge, gaining important parts of the
Transcaucasus in return. 55 But Maurice himself now fell to the usurper Phocas,
giving Chosroes the excuse to invade Roman territory in 603. This was aperiod
of extreme turmoil, marked also by unrest and rioting in many cities of the
Roman Near East and the overthrow ofPhocas by Heraclius in 610. 56 The Persian
advance continued into Syria, Palestine and even Anatolia; the most spectacular
Persian success was the capture of Jerusalem in 614; this event, and the Persian
52 Cameron, Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, 2nd ed., 187-90. The zone of
engagement ran all the way from the northern Caucasus to the Arabian peninsula;
many cities were extensively fortified, though some, like Amida, Antioch and Dara, were
successfully attacked or besieged, and others chose to avoid capture by finding large
payments; the southern desert frontier was especially vulnerable, as Sarris points out
(Empires of Faith, 143).
53 For the latter, Michael Decker, 'Frontier settlement and economy in the Byzantine
east', DOP 61 (2007), 217-67.

54 See Geoffrey Greatrex and Samuel N.C. Lieu, The Roman Eastern Frontier and the
Persian Wars, Part II, AD 363-630. A Narrative Sourcebook (London, 2002); B. Dignas
and E.Winter, Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity. Neighbours and Rivals, Eng. trans.
(Cambridge, 2007); Sarris, Empires of Faith, 225-36.
55 For Maurice, see Michael Whitby, The Emperor Mauriee and his Historian. Theophylaet
Simoeatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare (Oxford, 1988).

56 Sarris, Empires of Faith, 236-45; David Olster, The Polities of Usurpation in the Seventh
Century. Rhetorie and Revolution in Byzantium (Amsterdam, 1993).

XXVI - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
occupation, stirred up passionate hostilities between Christians and Jews (below,

Part 7). In 626, the Persians joined with the Avars in besieging Constantinople,
and were very nearly successfu1. 57 Heraclius had taken the desperate step of
leaving the capital to be defended by others and setting off for an offensive in
the east, recruiting troops as he went (Howard-Johnston, Chapter 9). Against

all expectations he reached far into Persian territory and won an extraordinary
victory at Nineveh in the winter of 627-28, which led to the end of the war and
the death of Chosroes Ir. Heraclius restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in
great triumph in 630 before returning to Constantinople, though it was left to
the Arabs to bring Sasanian rule to a final end. Heraclius could not repeat his
success against the new enemy that now appeared in Syria, and did not try again
after his defeat at the River Yarmuk in 636. Many of these events are difficult to
date, given the many problems with the available sources,58 but by the early 640s
Muslim armies had reached Egypt and soon afterwards decisive steps were taken
to make naval confrontations possible as well as land battles. It is not surprising
if the existing populations were bewildered at what was happening.
Even during these epic events, religious rivalry continued among eastern
Christians, with new attempted solutions beingpromulgatedfrom Constantinople.
Heraclius first sponsored a new formula according to which Christ had one
energy, then another asserting the existence of only one will, proclaimed in 638,
as Jerusalem was surrendered. This did nothing to conciliate either eastern or
western Syrians and strong opposition to the imperial initiatives came from
dyophysite monks and bishops in Palestine and Cyprus. 59
The military successes of Muhammad's followers in Syria and other regions
of the Roman empire thus took place against arecent background of warfare,
occupation and bewildering oscillations between failure and success. For their
57 The city's deliverance was attributed to an icon of Christ paraded on the walls, and
it was believed that the Virgin herself appeared and fought against the besiegers: see now
B.V. Pentcheva, 'The supernatural protector of Constantinople: the Virgin and her icons in
the tradition of the Avar siege', Byzantine and Modern Creek Studies 26 (2002), 1-41.
58 This is true of the non-Islamic as weil as the Arabic sources: see Robert G. Hoyland,
Seeing Islam as Others Saw It. An Analysis ofthe Non-Muslim Sources relating to the Rise
of Islam (Princeton, 1994). Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis, and Sarris,
Empires of Faith, emphasize the account of the Armenian Ps. Sebeos (though see Maria
Contorno, JRA 24 [2011], 897-912), while Hoyland, Theophilus of Edessa's Chronicle and
the Circulation of Knowledge in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, Translated Texts for
Historians 57 (Liverpool, 2011), reconstructs the lost Syriac chronicle of Theophilus of
Edessa, a possible candidate for the 'eastern source' in the Chronicle of Theophanes
Confessor. A clear statement of the well-known problems with the Arabic sources can be
found in Fred Donner, 'The background to Islam', in Michael Maas, ed., The Cambridge
Companion to the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2005), 510-33, and cf. Sizgorich, 'Narrative
and community', 13-16.
59 See F. Winkelmann, 'Die Quellen zur Erforschung des monenergetisch-
monotheletischen Streites', Klio 69 (1987), 515-59; id., Der monenergetisch-monotheletische
Streit, Berliner byzantinische Studien 6 (Frankfurt am Main, 2001).
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XXVll
part, the Byzantines had been familiar with Arabs and Arab raids for centuries,
but they now faced something different, for which they were totally unprepared.
Part 7: Religious Change
While the Arabic sources paint a picture of the pre-Islamic Arabs in terms of
polytheism,60 the overall religious landscape ofthe Near East during the lifetime
ofMuhammad was far more complex. 61 Each ofthe two great empires, the Roman
and the Sasanian, contained a wide spread of religions, and even in Arabia itself
varieties of Judaism and Christianity were weIl established. Tensions within
the overall mix were heightened by religious competition between different
groups - most obviously, but not only, between Chalcedonian, Monophysite and
'Nestorian' Christians (better, east and west Syrians), and between Christians,
Jews and Zoroastrians - as weIl as by the pressures and opportunities arising
from two imperial regimes each of which was interested in controlling the
religion of its subjects and using religious issues as elements in politics and
diplomacy. Manichaeans are harder to trace, though important as a target for
Christian polemic, whose authors now often used the term quite loosely,62 and the
Sabians, linked in the Qur'än with Jews and Christians, are also elusive; they are
not the 'pagan' Sabians of Harran in Mesopotamia, who are largely attested in
later sources, and assimilated to N abataeans as an example of early polytheism. 63
60 But see Patricia Crone, 'The religion of the Quränic pagans: God and the lesser
deities', Arabica 57 (2010), 151-200, who also points out the polemical nature of this
designation at 189-91, and see below.
61 For a succinct discussion, see Jonathan P. Berkey, The Formation of Islam. Religion
and Society in the Near East, 600-1800, Themes in Islamic History (Cambridge, 2003), 10-
38. I have benefited greatly for this section from a seminar held in Oxford in Hilary Term,
2012, on the Qurän and late antiquity, by Guy Stroumsa, Nicolai Sinai and Emmanouela
Grypeou.
62 For Manichaeism in the period, see Samuel N.C. Lieu, 'Manichaeism in early
Byzantium: some observations', in L. Cirillo and A. van Tongerloo, eds., Manicheismo e

Oriente Cristiano Antico, Manichaean Studies 3 (Leuven, 1997), 217-34; id., Manichaeism
in Mesopotamia and the Roman East (Leiden, 1994); they are sometimes confused with
Mazdakites, and also tend to appear in generalised lists of heretics. We might be on firmer
ground if arecent palaeographic redating of the Mani Codex to post sixth-century is to
be believed (L. Fonkic and F.B. Poliakov, 'Palaögraphische Grundlagen der Datierung des
Kölner Mani-Kodex', Byzantinische Zeitschrift 83.1 (1990),22-30) (I owe this reference to
Samuel Lieu).
63 For Harran, see Tamara M. Green, The City ofthe Moon God: Religious Traditions about
Harran (Leiden, 1992); Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth, 62-65, but see the discussion
in Sarah S. Stroumsa, Maimonides in his World. Portrait of a Mediterranean Thinker
(Princeton, 2009, 2011), chap. 4, 84-105, also commenting on the theory of M. Tardieu that
the Athenian philosopher Simplicius settled there in the sixth century and was prominent
in promoting a Neoplatonic school (accepted by Fowden), ibid., 86-89. For Sab'ia at Qur'än
2.62,5.69 and 22.17, where they are linked with Jews and Christians, see below; they are
XXVlll - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
The treatment of Christians in the Sasanian empire provided a recurring pretext

for Roman intervention, while Christians debated with Zoroastrians in an
atmosphere at times tolerant and at times repressive. The various expressions
of this religious rivalry included actual inter-religious debates in both empires,
so me of them at the behest of the emperor or the shah, others in a local context.
It also stimulated an intense literary production - letters, encyclicals, treatises
and polemics, as well as monastic and ascetic literature, saints' lives and
martyrologies - some of it critical of doctrinal controversialism, and it greatly
stimulated translation, especially of Greek patristic works into Syriac, a process
which gained momentum in the mid to late seventh century and was not impeded
by the transition to Islam (see below). The familiar term 'religion of the book'
encompassed a whole world of writing and dissemination of religious texts, and
outside the Quränic context it must be understood in much wider terms than
simply in relation to a set of scriptures. 64
The interplay between state and religion also extended to the military arena.
The treatment of Christians in the Sasanian empire was an issue, as were the
religious affiliations of the Armenians and peoples of the Caucasus region, and
Heraclius's campaigns were presented in religious terms, following a precedent
set centuries before in the time of Constantine. 65 Religious tensions were further
increased by the warfare between the two powers in the late sixth and early
seventh century. Amid all this religious complexity some lines are clear, though
there is much that is not yet understood. In particular, attempts to place the
message of the Qur'än in a late antique context have to face the fundamental
problem of a lack of direct evidence for connections; arguments based on literary
analysis, language or religious motifs cannot give the specificity that a historian
would like. At least, however, we are now in a better position to see the intense
importance of religion and religious affiliations in the Near East in the late sixth
and early seventh centuries, the context in which Islam took shape, as well as
their actual variety.
connected with the Sabians of Harran by Fowden. 'Religious communities', in Bowersock,

Brown and Grabar, eds., Late Antiquity, 82-106, at 98.
64 See Walker, 'Ascetic literacy', 311-16, for this book culture, or rat her book cultures;
the School at Nisibis clearly had a scriptorium, and when Chosroes 11 founded a Christian
monastery near Hulwan in western Iran it was taken for granted that books would be
needed (Walker, ibid., 329-30). See also Guy G. Stroumsa, 'The scriptural movement oflate
antiquity and Christian monasticism', JECS 16.1 (2008), 61-77.
65 See Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis (2011), chap. 1, 16-35; the extent to
which Byzantium developed a concept of holy war is debated, but Heraclius's campaigns
were certainly seen and justified in religious terms. Constantine as an explicit model for
Heraclius: J.w. Drijvers, 'Heraclius and the Restitutio Crucis. Notes on symbolism and
ideology', in Reinink and Stolte, eds., The Reign of Heraclius (2002), 175-90, at 181-4.
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XXIX
A current theme both in late antique scholarship and in the quest to

understand the emergence of the QUr'änic message concerns monotheism. 66
Under Islam the claim to monotheism became important and highly charged,
and the subject features in Christian-Muslim apologetics as they began to
develop. There is apparent epigraphic support for pre-Islamic monotheism from

both Himyar and Anatolia. But a note of caution needs to be sounded, in that one
main type of pagan monotheism detected in late antiquity is associated in the
first instance with limited philosophical and intellectual circles and can hardly
have been an influence. The Qur'än makes the alleged pluralism of Christianity a
central point of censure,67 and while some scholars posit a general trend towards
monotheism in late antiquity which includes Christianity, this seems somewhat
inappropriate in the very period when the cult of saints and the veneration of
relics, and indeed images, were proliferating (below).
Any attempt to find a late antique context for the Qur'än also depends on
whether or not its traditional origin in Arabia is accepted, a question which
certainly cannot be answered here. In fact, finding such a context is puzzlingly
difficult. Current secondary literature tends to explain the Jewish elements in
the Qur'än by positing the existence of communities of Judaizing or 'Jewish'
Christians,68 but again, a note of caution is in order, for the extent to which the
latter actually existed outside hostile and suspicious Christian minds is hard
indeed to establish. The Qur'änic Sabians, for instance, are sometimes likened to
66 For late antiquity, see P. Athanassiadi and M. Frede, eds., Pagan Monotheism in Late
Antiquity (Oxford, 1999); Stephen Mitchell and Peter van Nuffelen, eds., One God: Pagan
Monotheism in the Roman Empire (Cambridge, 2010); Stephen Mitchell and Pet er van
Nuffelen, eds., Monotheism between Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity (Leuven,
2010); P. Athanassiadi, La lutte pour l'orthodoxie dans le platonisme tardif de Numenius
a Damascius (Paris, 2006); G.w. Bowersock, 'Polytheism and monotheism in Arabia
and the three Palestines', Dumbarton Oaks Papers 51 (1997), 1-10; Fowden, Empire to
Commonwealth. It is interesting to note that a laboratoire of the CNRS now exists in
Paris to study ancient monotheisms. For the argument that monotheism was a feature
of pre-Islamic Arab religion, see Crone, 'The religion of the Qur'änic pagans: God and
the lesser deities' (2010), 151-200; cf. 'the monotheistic trend', 185-88; G. Hawting, The
Idea of Idolatry and the Emergence of Islam (Cambridge, 1999). Sizgorich, 'Narratives of
community' (2004), argues for a semiotic koine of monotheistic religiosity within with
Islamic narratives took shape. Appeal to an existing late antique monotheistic context
appears as a heuristic device to explain the rise of Islam in Fred M. Donner, Muhammad
and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam (Cambridge, Mass., 2010), e.g., at 87, cf. 59 'the
idea of monotheism was already well established throughout the Near East, including
Arabia, in Muhammad's day'; Donner also appeals to an allegedly extensive number of
'non-Trinitarian Christians'; cf. also id., Narratives of Islamic Origins. The Beginnings of
Islamic Historical Writing (Princeton, 1998).
67 See the thoughtful reflections of Guy Stroumsa, 'From Abraham's religion to
Abrahamic religion', Historia Religionum 3 (2011), 11-22.

68 For instance, F. de Blois, 'Islam in its Arabian context', in Neuwirth, Sinai and Marx,
eds., The Qur'än in Context, 615-23, at 622; this is presumably also what Fred Donner
means by positing the widespread presence of 'non-Trinitarian Christians' .
xxx - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
Judaizing Elkasites; however, the often-cited evidence of Epiphanius of Salamis

on these and other such groups comes from a late fourth-century heresiological
work and does not constitute evidence for the late sixth or seventh century. In
his classic book on Jewish Christi ans, S. Pines tellingly wrote of 'the hypothesis
that Jewish Christians may have led a more or less clandestine existence within
various Christian communities' in late antiquity, and has to rely on a tenth-
century source even for this statement. 69 The lack of historicity and questionable
methodology ofpositing religious communities who are entirely unattested in the
sources has been pointed out by Sidney H. Griffith in arecent article/o and it is
particularly difficult to be sure of the real situation when the charge of 'Judaizing'
was a constant reproach among Christian polemicists.
This tendency took on even sharper overtones in the seventh and eighth
centuries: Heraclius legislated for the forced baptism of Jews,71 and the late
seventh-century Quinisext Council legislated against 'Jewish perversity', while
iconoclasts in Byzantium were caricatured in texts and visual art as Judaizers.
Judaism was a very sensitive issue for contemporary Christians. For example,
Christian sources on the Jews after the Persian capture of Jerusalem in 614 are
often exaggerated and distorted; they need to be read with scepticism,72 and
the early phase of the iconophile defence of images, represented by the eighth-
century writings of John ofDamascus, focused on rebutting the charge ofidolatry,
breaking the second Commandment by worshipping graven images, exactly
the 'Jewish' accusation that the numerous contemporary Christian writers of
Adversus Iudaeos texts also sought to refute. 73
That Islam was areform movement and that it drew on elements from
both Judaism and Christianity seems clear, but how this happened in practice
remains very obscure. One of its major messages is about eschatology, warnings
to believers about judgement. It has been argued that the late antique context
within which Islam took shape was one in which there was widespread apocalyptic
69 See S. Pines, The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries of Christianity according
to a New Source, Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 1I.13
(Jerusalem, 1966), 43.
70 See Sidney H. Griffith, 'Al-Nai?ärä in the Qur'än: a hermeneutical reflection', in G.S.
Reynolds, ed., New Perspectives on the Qur'än (London, 2011), 1-38, for 'non-Trinitarian
Christians': see n. 60.
71 G. Dagron and V. Deroche, 'Juifs et chretiens dans I'Orient du VIIe siecle', Travaux
et Memoires 11 (1991),17-273, 'Introduction historique', 17-46 (Dagron); see also Dagron,

'Judai"ser', ibid., 360-80.
72 Averil Cameron, 'Blaming the Jews: the seventh-century invasions of Palestine
in context', Travaux et Memoires 14 (2002), 57-78; from a very large and ever-growing
bibliography, Dagron and Deroche, 'Juifs et chretiens' (1991), remains basic, and see
David M. Olster, Roman Defeat, Christian Response and the Literary Construction of the
Jew (Philadelphia, 1994).
73 It is striking that idolatry is also a constant theme in the Qur'än, though in the context
of polytheists and 'associationists'.

- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XXXI
thought and expectation. However, while prophecies ab out the future did indeed
reach a new height among both Christians and Jews with the Persian capture of
Jerusalem in the early seventh century and the advent ofMuslim control so soon
after, it seems unlikely that this 'historical apocalyptic' or the Christi an legend of
the Last Emperor, can account for the moral injunctions found in the Qur'än. 74
Again, while Heraclius's returning ofthe True Cross to Jerusalem has also been
presented in terms of a fulfilment of apocalyptic prophecy, this seems an over-
interpretation. 75 Certainly apocalyptic ideas connected with natural disasters had
been expressed in Byzantium in the sixth century, but the best known examples
of Syriac historical apocalyptic date from the late seventh, and these too differ
from the QUr'änic emphasis on individual morals and belief. 76
As already argued, a historical context for the Jewish material in the
Qur'än is hard to establish. Arabic sources point to a Jewish history for pre-
Islamic Medina, and scholars have speculated on the possible influence of Jews
from Himyar, while Robert Hoyland has recently surveyed the small body of
epigraphic evidence. 77 In contrast the substantial Jewish presence in other parts
ofthe Near East is clear, as is the vitality ofthe Jewish communities who built the
Palestinian synagogues with their rich mosaics, and the depth of Jewish learning
that produced the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds in late antiquity.78 In
the fifth century the church historian Sozomen had commented at length on
74 For the Jewish apocalyptic stimulated by the Persian capture of Jerusalem, see now
Sivertsev, Judaism and Imperial Ideology, chaps. 4 and 5, arguing for the emergence of a
J ewish concept of a 'messianic J erusalem'.
75 See G. Reinink, 'Heraclius, the new Alexander. Apocalyptic prophecies during the
reign of Heraclius', in Reinink and Stolte, eds., The Reign of Heraclius (2002), 81-94, but
it is more likely that this thinking followed rat her than preceded the event: see Drijvers,
'Heraclius and the Restitutio Crucis', ibid., 184-90. Pace Reinink, the Doctrina Jacobi nuper
baptizati, of the 630s, should be put in the context of Christian-Jewish argumentation
rather than seen as a political document.
76 Sixth century: see M. Meier, Justinian. Herrschaft, Reich und Religion (Munich, 2004),
25-28. Seventh century: cf. the apocalypse of Ps. Methodius, quickly translated into Greek,
the work of John bar Penkaye and the Gospel of the Twelve ApostIes: see G.W. Reinink,
'A concept of history in response to Islam', in Cameron and Conrad, eds., The Byzantine
and Early Islamic Near East I: Problems in the Literary Source Material, 149-87; Hoyland,
Seeing Islam, 263-67; Sebastian P. Brock, 'North Mesopotamia in the late seventh century:
book XV of John Bar Penkaye's Ris Melle', Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 9 (1987),
51-75, repr. in id., Studies in Syriac Christianity, 11; Hoyland, Seeing Islam, 194-200; H.J.W.
Drijvers, 'The Gospel ofthe Twelve ApostIes', in Cameron and Conrad, eds., ibid., 180-213;
for Copto-Arabic and Greek see Hoyland, Seeing Islam, 278-305; in general, Stoyanov,
Defenders and Enemies ofthe True Cross, 51-64.
77 Robert G. Hoyland, 'The Jews of the Hijaz in the Qur'än and in their inscriptions', in
Reynolds, ed., New Perspectives on the Qur'än (2012),91-116, with his remarks at 110-15.
78 See Fergus Miliar, 'Inscriptions, synagogues and rabbis in late antique Palestine',
Journalfor the Study of Judaism 42 (2011), 253-77; id., A rural Jewish community in late
Roman Mesopotamia and the question of a 'split' Jewish diaspora', ibid., 351-74. On the
wider question of the development of Judaism in response to the Roman empire in late
antiquity, see Seth Schwarz, Imperialism and Jewish Society, 200 BCE to 640 CE (Princeton,
XXXll - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
Jewish practices among the 'Saraceni' of the frontier region, and on their descent
from Hagar and Ishmael, and he was not alone; there was a long history.79 As
for possible knowledge of Christianity in the circles of Muhammad, Christi an
Byzantium and Sasanian Persia competed in the sixth century to influence both
the kingdom ofHimyar and the Hujrids of central Arabia,80 and we have seen that
the monastic culture ofthe Church ofthe East was established in parts of Arabia;
there were multiple ways in which knowledge of basic Christian teachings could
have been incorporated into early Islam without appealing to the legendary
monastic informants of the Arabic tradition. 81
The late sixth and early seventh centuries were in fact a time of intense
activity among eastern Christians. Henry Chadwick's essay (Chapter 10) brings
out both the wide contacts between the monasteries of Palestine, especially St
Theodosius and Mar Saba, and the rest of the Mediterranean world, and the
interconnectedness of Christi an theology and spirituality. John Moschus,
Sophronius and Maximus Confessor were all products ofthis background;82 John
Moschus was the author of the Spiritual Meadow, one of the classics of Christi an
ascetic literature, Sophronius was a leader in the opposition to Heraclius's
doctrines of monoenergism and monotheletism and went on to become patriarch
of Jerusalem,83 and Maximus Confessor, who was to die in exile for his opposition
to imperial monotheletism, is one of the most important of all Byzantine
theologians, an early witness to the emergence of Islam and chief mover in the
Lateran Synod held in Rome in 649. 84 Another key Christi an writer of the seventh
century was Anastasius of Sinai, a monk from the monastery of St Catherine,
2001), with the response of Alexei M. Sivertsev, Judaism and Imperial Ideology in Late
Antiquity (Cambridge, 2011).
79 HE VI.38; Miliar, 'The Theodosian empire and the Arabs', 309-10.
80 See the very full discussion, with bibliography, in Greg Fisher, 'Kingdoms or dynasties:
Arabs, history and identity before Islam', JLA 4.2 (2011), 245-67.
81 Jewish informants also feature both in Muslim accounts of the conquests and in the
Greek sources on the Persian and Arab conquests: Fred Astren, 'Re-reading the Arabic
sourees: Jewish history and the Muslim conquests', Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam
36 (2009), 83-130, at 97-8, 106-8.
82 On all three see Phi! Booth, Crisis of Empire: Doctrine and Dissent at the End of
Late Antiquity (Berkeley, 2013), and see B. Flusin, 'Palestinian hagiography (fourth-
eighth centuries)', in Efthymiadis, ed., Byzantine Hagiography I, 199-26 (with excellent
bibliography), at 213-14. Maximus's formation in Palestine depends on a hostile but early
Syriac Monothelete Life, ed. and trans. S.P. Brock, 'An early Syriac Life of Maximus the
Confessor', Analecta Bollandiana 91 (1973),299-346; see Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others
Saw It, 76, 139-42. Hoyland provides bibliographical material on many non-Islamic writers
of the period, and see also A. di Berardino, Patrologia V. Dal Concilio di Calcedonia (451) a
Giovanni Damasceno (t750), I Padri Orientali (Genova, 2000), 233-41 (John of Damascus),
253-40.
83 See Pauline Allen, Sophronius of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy. The Synodical
Letter and Other Documents (Oxford, 2009).

84 See Andrew Louth, Maximus the Confessor (London, 1996); Pauline Allen, and
Bronwen Neil, eds., Maximus the Confessor and his Companions. Documents from Exile
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XXXlll
author of a wide variety of works and another early witness to Islamic doctrines,
who travelled though the Umayyad realm in the seventh century and recorded
some of the changes that were taking place. 85 Other travelling ascetics ensured
that Christian teachings and ideas spread easily all over the east; they included
Simeon of Beth Arsham, known as 'the Persian debater', who moved in the sixth
century across a wide area from the upper Tigris to Hira, finding Nestorians with
whom to debate on doctrinal matters, and Maruta, who became metropolitan of
Takrit in the early seventh. 86
The doctrine of monotheletism was officially reversed by the Sixth
Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in AD 680-81, and under Umayyad
rule, and even later, connections between the Chalcedonian Christians in the
Palestinian monasteries and the Jerusalem patriarchate and Constantinople
did not altogether cease, even as both west and east Syrians built up their
own communities and adjusted to the new situation. 87 It is difficult to establish
how much, if any, contact existed between John of Damascus, the other key
theologian from the late U mayyad period, and himself a monk of Mar Saba, with
Constantinople, but he was certainly a known defender of images and key target
of Byzantine iconoclast polemic at the iconoclast council of Hieria in 754; his own
theological writings, written in Greek and indebted to the extensive library of
Mar Saba, belong firmly in the Byzantine tradition. 88
Amid the intense theological debate among Christians in the seventh century
some themes are worth singling out for brief mention. Whether, and in what
(Oxford, 2002); Booth, Crisis of Empire (n. 82). For the Doctrina Jacobi (n. 75) see the
edition and French translation in Dagron and Deroche, TM 11 (1991).
85 For seventh-century Greek authors, see also B. Flusin, Saint Anastase le Perse et
l'histoire de la Palestine au debut du VIIe siede, 2 vols. (Paris,1992).

86 See Walker, 177-79; cf also Miliar, 'Rome's ''Arab'' allies', 222-23.
87 On this see Sidney H. Griffith, 'Answers for the Shaikh: a "Melkite" Arabic text from
Sinai and the doctrine oft he Trinity and the Incarnation', in 'Arab orthodox' apologetics',
in E. Grypeou, Mark Swanson and David Thomas, eds., The Encounter of Eastern
Christianity with Early Islam (Leiden, 2006), 277-309, at 277-82.
88 For this view of J ohn, see Andrew Louth, St John Damascene. Tradition and Originality
in Byzantine Theology (Oxford, 2002); for bibliography, see Berardino, Patrologia V (2000),
233-41. The evidence that he belonged to the Mar Saba monastery is in fact puzzlingly
slight, see M.-F. Auzepy, 'De la Palestine a Constantinople (VIIe-VIIe siecles): Etienne
le Sabalte et Jean le Damascene', Travaux et Memoires 12 (1994), 183-218; for local
iconoclasm, see Sidney H. Griffith, 'Crosses, icons and the image of Christ in Edessa: the
place of early iconophobia in the Christian-Muslim controversies of early Islamic times',
in Philip Rousseau and Emmanuel Papoutsakis, eds., Transformations of Late Antiquity:
Essays for Peter Brown (Farnham, 2009), 63-84, at 73-6; on J ohn see id., '''Melkites'',
"Jacobites" and the christological controversies in Arabic in third/ninth-century Syria',
in David Thomas, ed., Syrian Christians under Islam. Ten First Thousand Years (Leiden,
2001),9-55, at 19-34.; on John see also Griffith, The Church in the Shadow ofthe Mosque.
Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam (Princeton, 2008), 40-42. Even if John was
responding to local expressions of iconoclasm, however, his formation and the arguments
he deploys position him firmly within the tradition of Greek patristic scholarship.
XXXIV - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
way, the divine nature of Christ had suffered on the Cross was a problem which
had divided Christians in the sixth century and which continued to do so in the
seventh. 89 The 'docetic' Quränic denial of the crucifixion spoke to Christian
concerns that had been manifested in the disputes in the late fifth century onwards
about the addition to the Trisagion, and among the Julianist groups of the sixth
century onwards. 90 At the same time the growing emphasis on the power of saints
among Christians can be seen in the proliferation of saints' lives in Greek, Syriac
and the other languages of eastern Christianity.91 As contemporary miracle
collections and other texts show, this caused some to question the efficacy of their
intercession and the power of their relics, and appearances of saints in visions
and miracles associated with their pictures were accompanied by equal anxiety
as to the proper visual representation of holy personages. In the seventh century
Anastasius of Sinai debated the primacy of images over texts, and the famous
canon 82 of the Council in Trullo (691-92) sought to regulate the depiction of
Christ by requiring Hirn to be depicted in the flesh and forbidding Hirn to be
represented symbolically as alarnb, thus asserting the reality ofHis human nature
and suffering. 92 Gilbert Dagron's article (Chapter 11) demonstrates these growing
theological doubts and anxieties about representation, including the question of
89 Sixth century: see L. van Rompay, 'Society and community in the Christian east',
in Maas, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian, 239-66, at 252-54; for the
insistence on the physical suffering of Christ in the seventh century, see below. Babai
the Great (d. 628), catholicos of the Church of the East, was a strong opponent of the
idea that God could suffer; for Babai, see Joel T. Walker, 'A saint and his biographer in
late antique Iraq: the History of St George of Izla (t614) by Babai the Great', in Arietta
Papaconstantinou, ed. with Muriel Debie and Hugh Kennedy, Writing 'True Stories'.
Historians and Hagiographers in the Late Antique and Medieval Near East (Turnhout,
2010),31-41.
90 So also Griffith, 'Al-Na~ärä in the Qur'än' (2011), at 32; Julianists: see Theresia
Hainthaler, Christliche Araber vor dem Islam, Eastern Christian Studies 7 (Leuven, Paris
and Dudley, MA, 2007), 32.
91 See S. Efthymiades and V. Deroche, with A. Binggeli and Z. Ainalis, 'Greek
hagiography in late antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries)', in Efthymiades, ed., Byzantine

Hagiography I, 35-94; Sebastian P. Brock, 'Syriac hagiography', ibid., 259-83, both with
bibliographies; M. Debie, 'Writing history as "histoires": the biographie dimension ofEast
Syriac hagiography', in Papaconstantinou, ed. Writing 'True Stories', 43-75.
92 Doubts as to the efficacy of saints: Phi! Booth, Matthew dal Santo and Pet er Sarris,
eds., An Age of Saints. Conjlict and Dissent in Early Medieval Christianity (Leiden, 2011);
for anxieties about representation see G. Dagron, Decrire et peindre. Essai sur le portrait
iconique (Paris, 2007), 11, 41-63, 'Iconophobie et iconodulie', where this is linked to the issues
raised in the Christi an Adversus Iudaeos literature; V. Deroche, 'Tensions et contradictions
dans les recueils de miracles de la premiere epoque byzantine', in D. Aigle, ed., Miracle et
Karama. Hagiographies medievales comparees (Turnhout, 2000), 145-63; Averi! Cameron,
'The language of images; icons and Christian representation', in Diana Wood, ed., The
Church and the Arts, Studies in Church History 28 (Oxford, 1992), 1-42; Charles Barber,
Figure and Likeness. On the Limits of Representation in Byzantine Iconoclasm (Princeton,
2002); Henry Maguire, The Icons of their Bodies: Saints and their Images in Byzantium
(Princeton,1996).
- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - xxxv
how Christ should be depicted. Few early examples of religious images - portable
icons, wall paintings - have survived, but references in a variety of late sixth
and seventh-century texts indicate an increase in religious images, and convey
both attachment and uncertainty about them. 93 Several levels of explanation
have been advanced for the dispute over images in Byzantium which occupied
more than a century in its various forms; they include Islamic influence and a
desire for greater imperial control, while Leslie Brubaker and John Haldon in
their recent study eschew religious explanations, minimize the level of imperial
involvement in the early stages ofthe controversy and emphasize the importance
of relics against images. But revisionist explanations cannot overlook the rising
questions in the seventh and early eighth centuries around the status of religious
images and their relation to the divine. 94
These concerns which became ever more complex as the debates continued-
arose from the intractable problem that had occupied the best minds oflate antique
Christianity since the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century of how to describe
in words the two natures of Christ, the same problem that brought about the
separation of the east and west Syrian churches from Constantinople. When the
fragments of the True Cross were seized by the Persians and then triumphantly
restored by Heraclius, the Christian cult ofthe Cross, which raised these issues in
acute form, received a great stimulus. The liturgical feast of the exaltation of the
Cross on 14 September gained prominence in this period, and the dead Christ soon
began to appear for the first time in crucifixion scenes in eastern Christi an visual
art. 95 The Christian Adversus Iudaeos texts developed a comprehensive defence
93 See Leslie Brubaker, 'Introduction. The sacred image', in Robert Ousterhout and
Leslie Brubaker, eds., The Sacred Image East and West (Urbana, 1995), 1-24; a classic study,
though open to challenge in its main thesis, is E. Kitzinger, 'The cult of images in the age
before iconoclasm', DOP 8 (1954), 85-150, and see H. Belting, Likeness and Presence. A
History ofthe Image before the Era ofArt, Eng. trans. (Chicago, 1994). The earliest surviving
panel paintings are Roman rather than Constantinopolitan; the date and provenance of
the early icons from St Catherine's monastery, Sinai, are a matter of controversy, but they
are usually dated to the sixth century.
94 Eastern influences and rivalry with Islam: S. Gero, Byzantine Iconoclasm during the
Reign of Leo III, with Particular Attention to the Oriental Sources, CSCO 346 (Louvain,
1973); id., Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign ofConstantine V, with Particular Attention
to the Oriental Sources, CSCO 384 (Louvain, 1977); iconoclasm as an assertion of imperial
control: Peter Brown, 'A dark-age crisis: aspects of the Iconoclastic controversy', EHR 88
(1973), 1-34, repr. in Averil Cameron and Robert G. Hoyland, eds., Doctrine and Debate
in the East Christian World, 300-1500 (Farnham, 2011), chap. 9; see Leslie Brubaker and
J.F. Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era, c. 680-850. A History (Cambridge, 2011),
especially chap. 12, with Leslie Brubaker, 'Icons before iconoclasm?', Settimane di studio
del centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo 45 (2000), 1215-54.
95 Cult: A. Frolow, La relique de la vraie Croix. Recherches sur le developpement d'un
culte (Paris, 1961); dead Christ: J.R. Martin, 'The dead Christ on the cross in Byzantine
art', in K. Weitzmann, ed., Late Classical and Medieval Studies in Honor of Albert Mathias
Friend Jr. (Princeton, 1955), 189-96; Kathleen Corrigan, 'Text and image on an icon of the
crucifixion at Mount Sinai', in Robert Ousterhout and Leslie Brubaker, eds., The Sacred
XXXVI - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - -
of the veneration of the wood of the Cross against the charge of idolatry, and the
Cross was adopted by the iconoclasts in preference to the figural representation
of the divine. 96 It was no accident that the Qur'än denied the physical suffering
of Christ on the Cross or that by the end of the seventh century Christians were
forbidden to display crosses. 97 An ever-increasing attention was also paid to the

figure of the Virgin, central to this debate as the bearer of God, or Theotokos,
the title proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus but rejected by Nestorius and the
east Syrian tradition. The Virgin often featured in anecdotes about miracles and
apparitions, and was also often depicted in visual art, while the earliest Life of
the Virgin also seems to belong to the seventh century and was attributed to
Maximus Confessor. 98 The theology of Maximus Confessor's Mystagogia is also
expressive of contemporary concerns about representation in its emphasis on
symbolic or mystical interpretation, applied by Maximus to the liturgy, and later
by Germanos, patriarch of Constantinople, to church buildings. 99
Image East and West (Urbana, 1995),45-62; defenee of representations of the erucifixion
and of Christ's real suffering on the Cross by Anastasius of Sinai: see Anna Kartsonis,
Anastasis. The Making of an Image (Prineeton, 1986), 40-67; Heraclius and the True
Cross: C. Mango, 'Deux etudes sur Byzanee et la Perse sassanide', Travaux et Memoires
9 (1985), 91-118; id, 'The Temple Mount, AD 614-638', in J. Raby and J. Johns, eds., Bayt
al-Maqdis. 'Abd al-Malik's Jerusalem I (Oxford, 1992), 1-16; A. Frolow, 'La vraie Croix et les
expeditions d'Heraclius en Perse', Rev. des etudes byzantines 11 (1953),88-105; the theme
as part of Heraclius's publie image: Mary Whitby, 'Defender of the Cross: George of Pisidia
on Heraclius and his deputies', in ead., ed., The Propaganda of Power. The Role of Panegyrie
in Late Antiquity (Leiden, 1998), 247-73.
9ß See Charles Barber, Figure and Likeness. On the Limits of Representation in Byzantine
Ieonoclasm (Prineeton, 2002), 83-105.

97 Cf. the (? late 6e) Greek work of Alexander the Monk on the finding of the Cross, written
for the feast of the exaltation of the Cross (partial ed. and trans. by J. Nesbitt, 'Alexander
the monk's text of Helena's diseovery of the cross (BHG 410)', in id., ed., Byzantine Authors:
Literary Aetivities and Preoeeupations (Leiden, 2003), 23-39; trans. Roger Seott, 'Alexander
the monk, Diseovery ofthe True Cross', in Margaret Mullett, ed., Metaphrastes, or Gained in
Translation. Essays and Translations in Honour of Robert H. Jordan (Belfast, 2004), 157-84;
a similar work surviving in Syriae was the work of Pantaleon, a presbyter in Jerusalem
(BHG 6430, see Berardino, Patrologia V (2000), 299, and cf. also BHG 427p); see also Jan
Willem Drijvers, 'Heraclius and the Restitutio Crueis' (2002), 175-90; Muslim hostility to
crosses: Sidney H. Griffith, 'Images, Islam and Christian ieons', in Pierre Canivet and
J.-P. Rey-Coquais, eds., La Syrie de Byzanee a l'Islam, Viie-VIIIe siecles, Actes du eolloque
international, Lyon, Maison de I'Orient Mediterraneen, Paris: Institut du monde arabe,
11-15 sept. 1990 (Damaseus, 1992), 121-38.
98 Cult and ieons of the Virgin: Maria Vassilaki, ed., Mother of God. Representations of
the Virgin in Byzantine Art (Milan, 2000); Leslie Brubaker and Mary Cunningham, eds.,
The Cult ofthe Mother of God in Byzantium: Texts and Images (Farnham, 2011); Bissera V.
Penteheva, Ieons and Power. The Mother ofGod in Byzantium (University Park, PA, 2006);
see also Stephen J. Shoemaker, The Life of the Virgin. Maximus Confessor, trans. with
introduction and notes (New Haven, 2012).
99 Maximus, Mystagogia, PG 91, 657-717; Germanos, PG 98, 384-453, CPG 8023;
Cameron, 'The language of images' (1992), 24-40.

- - - - - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - XXXVll
Conclusion
Given the developments in the study of the east in late antiquity that I have
briefly described, some aspects at least ofthe emergence ofIslam no longer seem
so incomprehensible. Nor are connections between scholars of late antiquity

and early Islam now so conspicuously lacking as they used to be only recently.
A far more detailed context is emerging for the formulation of Islamic doctrine
both in the Near East in general, and even in Arabia itself, than was possible
only a few decades ago. We must not exaggerate; great difficulties and major
disagreements remain. Nevertheless, many fields have seen a large amount of
scholarship of late, including, for instance, late antique Judaism, east and west
Syrian Christianity, the Persian-Byzantine wars, the Sasanian empire and Greek
Christian writing from Palestine. These developments have gone side by side
with an intense interest among late antique scholars in pre-Islamic identities,
especially that of Arabs, with a focus on language use and linguistic development.
Many publications have shown that some of the issues inherent in the relations
and attitudes of Romans to Arabs before Muhammad, have roots much earlier
than the immediate period ofthe late sixth and seventh centuries. The continuing
debates about periodization among scholars of late antiquity, as well as the
divisions between secular historians and theologians, despite the much greater
attention now given by historians to religious texts/GO have tended to obscure
the immense strides actually made in our understanding the N ear East on the
eve of Islam. We still encounter the traditional questions, assumptions and ways
of explaining the transition to Islam. Yet, however slowly, a fuller and deeper
understanding is being built up of the world in which Muhammad lived and
where Islam was born, and in which its basic shape was laid down.
100 Mention should be made of the series Translated Texts for Historians, published by
the University of Liverpool Press, now running to more than 50 volumes; many relate to
the eastern Mediterranean world in late antiquity, and including alandmark in the form
of the first annotated translations of the acts of the council of Chalcedon (451) and of the
council of Constantinople called by Justinian in 553, both of which are already giving
rise to new areas of scholarship. See Richard Price and Michael Gaddis, The Acts of the
Council ofChalcedon, translated and with an introduction, Translated Texts for Historians
45,3 vols. (Liverpool, 2005); Richard M. Price, The Acts ofConstantinople 553, with Related
Texts from the Three Chapters Controversy, translated with an introduction and notes,
Translated Texts for Historians 51, 2 vols. (Liverpool, 2009).
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Abbreviations
BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

BCH Bulletin de Correspondence Hellenique
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BMGS Bulletin of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
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CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (Paris-Louvain, 1903-)
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EHR English Historical Review
JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies
JLA Journal of Late Antiquity
JRA Journal of Roman Archaeology
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
PG Patrologia Graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1857-66)
SLAEI Studies in Late Antiquity and Early Islam
TM Travaux et Memoires
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1
EXPLOSION OF LATE ANTIQUITY
Andrea Giardina
[po 157] 1. Rhetoric ofModernity.
when Alois Riegl invented late antiquity in Spätrömische Kunstindustrie (1901), his
famous study of late Roman art, he could never have imagined just how fertile
would be his proposal to dissolve the concept of decadence and decline in favour
of the equally broad notion of Kunstwollen, with its consequent evaluation of late
antique art as an autonomous phase in the history of art more gene rally. The many
analogies drawn between late antique and modern Kunstwollen served to distance
the latter from the art of classical antiquity, and, in a radical shift in perspective,
brought it closer to the art of antiquity's closing centuries, hitherto merely a "dark
continent on the map of art historical research".1
In abstract terms, the need to frame and define a particular period ought not
to imply any value judgement, but we will see shortly on what basis the framing
of late antiquity as an autonomous period has been justified almost exclusively
through an 'optimistic' assessment. It is worth clarifying from the outset that this is
an optional step rather than a necessary one, even if this opinion can be supported
by a few references in contemporary historiography - few more in their number
than in their authority, at least from the work of Santo Mazzarino onwards. As early
as his book on Stilicho (1942), whose origins lay in the tesi di laurea he had defended
six years earlier, Mazzarino affirmed [p.158] the crucial importance of"identifying
the causes of the empire's crisis in a historically concrete fashion" with the very
forms in which the crisis occurred; thus the post-Theodosian era (though his
implications were applicable more generally) moved beyond the Enlightenment-
imposed framing of'decline' and 'decadence' to be understood as a "positive, rather
1 A. Riegl, Die spätrömische Kunst-Industrie nach den funden in Österreich-Ungam, Vienna,
1901; 2nd ed., Spätrömische Kunstindustrie, Vienna, 1927, p. 2; the vision fully developed here
had been anticipated in certain aspects by his earlier work, for example in Die ägyptische
Textilfunde im k.k. österreichischen Museum. Allgemeine Charakteristik und Katalog, Vienna, 1889;
in Altorientalische Teppiche, Leipzig, 1891; and in Stilfragen. Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte
der Omamentik, Berlin, 1893 (limited to 'Pflanzenornamenf).
2 - - - - LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE EVE OF ISLAM - - - - -
than negative, expression of a world turning toward new forms".' From his use of
the term 'positive', some have derived the conclusion that the author adhered to
an optimistic vision of late antiquity such as was soon to be formulated and made
famous by Andre Piganiol. In fact his utilizaion of 'positive' in the context of a
polemic against the historiographical use of the idea of decline was not connected
to the banal meaning of positive as the opposite of negative as part of a value
judgement, but rather to the logical and philosophical meaning of 'affirmative', an
adjective connected with the notion of situating, in contrast to that of removing.
Late antiquity was thus to be understood as a positive expression solely in the
sense of an era generating new 'forms', with these forms not necessarily requiring
an optimistic assessment. And indeed Mazzarino's reconstruction of the age of
Stilicho, culminating in his claim of the primacy of forms over causes, precludes
any suggestion of such an assessment simply by foregrounding the senatorial
economy's victory over the state.
As circumstances would have it, the introduction of the concept of Spätantike
occurred as areaction against that of Dekadenz, and it was also invested, even in its
earliest formulation, with the rhetoric of modernity. With the concept of decline
showing continuing vitality over the course ofthe twentieth century, the modernity
of the late antique period was inevitably revived and emphasised in antithesis.
The end result is clear: while anyone today who defined astatue of Phidias as
modern would be sWiftly judged as an epigone of vulgar classicism, someone
who does the same in relation to the mosaic of ]unius Bassus, a Gothic fibula, or
the miniatures of the Vienna Genesis can be assured of expressing a universally-
shared opinion. 3 From Riegl's days to our own, what was initially a predominantly
cultural perspective has become steeped in ideology: to define a barbarian artifact
as modern not only demonstrates an awareness of the influence of African art on
that of the twentieth century [po 159] (the symmetry between Riegl's works and
Picasso's discovery of African and Iberian art has rightly been underlined): but also
, S. Mazzarino, Stilicone. La crisi imperiale dopo Teodosio, Milan, 1990', p. 239 (= pp. 327f. of
the first edition, Rome, 1942).
3 See, for example, P. Brown, The World ofLate Antiquity. From Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad,
London, 1997', p. 7: "we have become extremely sensitive to the 'contemporary' quality of
the new, abstract art of this age"; for the historico-artistic elements of Brown's book, see
the contributions of A. Rousselle and H. Torp to the debate on The World of Late Antiquity
Revisited, in «Symbolae Osloenses», 72, 1997, at pp. 55-59 and 59-65 respectively.
4 L. Steinberg, Le bordel philosophique, in Les demoiselies d'Avignon (catalogue of the
exhibition, Musee Picasso, 26 ]anuary-18 April 1988), Paris, 1988, 2, p. 325; the author cites
Riegl's study of group portraits in the Dutch artistic tradition (Das holländische Gruppenporträt,
Vienna, 1931, first published 1902) but the symmetry is even more noteworthy where Riegl's
studies oflate antique art are concerned (see note 1).
LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE EVE OF ISLAM 3
the adoption of a politically correct tone, a pluralist language in which it is easy to

detect the reflection of decolonisation.
From its origins in art historical discourse, the modernising tendency has
been adopted in the interpretation of many other aspects of late antiquity. Riegl
had already hinted at such a development, for example in reference to the role
attributed to the Diocletianic-Constantinian state in the modern emancipation of
the individual in relation to the masses. 5 We now find it affirmed that in the writings
of Augustine and Plotinus it might be possible to discern "strains - as in some
unaccustomed overture - of much that a sensitive European has come to regard as
most 'modern' and valuable in his own culture"." Late antiquity is taken to be the
period that - more so than any other - entrenched a multiplicity of institutions
into the bedrock of European society: "The codes of Roman Law, the hierarchy of
the Catholic Church, the idea of the Christian Empire, the monastery - up to the
eighteenth century, men as far apart as Scotland and Ethiopia, Madrid and Moscow,
still turned to these imposing legacies of the institution-building of the Late
Antique period for guidance as to how to organize their life in this world".7 Modern
elements of late antiquity are located in its universal citizenship and bureaucracy
alike,8 and an analogous modernity is traced in several fundamental innovations in
material culture: the change from the roll to the codex, a revolution even judged
as comparable only to the twentieth-century proliferation of the means of mass
communication; or the replacement of the traditional tunic by the camisia, seen
as a practical advance as weIl as a refinement and sublimation of eroticism. 9 The
contagion [po 160J of this rendering of the late antique West in a modern key is
undoubtedly responsible for assertions of the modernity of the Palestinian Talmud,
for instance: "when we turn to the Talmud, we see a familiar world, as we have
known it from the Talmud's day to our own. We perceive something of our own day,
as we who study Judaism recognize self-evident continuity with those times" .10 Even
5 Riegl, Spätromische Kunstindustrie, p. 12.

6 Brown, The World ofLate Antiquity, p. 7.
7 Id., Religion and Society in the Age ofSaint Augustine, London, 1972, p. 13.
8 B. Lanc,:on, La modernite du bas-empire romain, in R.-P. Droit, ed., Les Grecs, les Romains
et nous. L'Antiquite est-elle moderne?, Paris, 1991, pp. 332-345; see also id., L'antiquite tardive,
Paris, 1997; autocracy and bureaucracy are signalled as indications ofByzantine modernity
by A. Kazhdan-G. Constable, People and Power in Byzantium, Washington, 1982, esp. p. 9.
o H.-I. Marrou, Decadence romaine ou antiquite tardive?, Paris, 1977, pp. 13ff.; as far as
clothing is concerned, a more significant sign of 'modernity' would be the barbarian bracae
so vOciferously condemned by Honorius: CTh., XIV.10.2-3.
10 ]. Neusner, }udaism in Society: the Evidence of the Yerushalmi. Toward the Natural History
of a Religion, Chicago-London, 1983, p. XI; for an explicit reference to Peter Brown's late
antiquity, ibid., pp. 247ff; compare with M.G. Morony, Teleology and the Significance of Change,
in F.M. Clover-R.S. Humphreys, eds., Tradition and Innovation in Late Antiquity, Madison, 1989,
pp. 21-26.
the epistemological divide that traditionally separated studies of the West from
those of the East has been overcome through the uncovering of certain "disturbing
features of modernity" daimed as characterising Byzantine late antiquity, in music
as in figurative art, and in political symbolism as in thought and vocabularyY This
list of the modern attributes of a late antiquity "so dose to us in so many respects"12
could easily be extended and indeed it would be difficult to be comprehensive;
here it suffices to observe that this trend has even gone so far as to attribute a
modern sensibility to the perception of dedine expressed by many late antique
commentators. 13 We have therefore come full cirde, so to speak: if late antiquity
is not in dedine but is even modern, the unease of contemporaries is not to be
taken as a negation of this modernity but rather as a manifestation thereof - a sort
of nervous anxiety produced by an atmosphere of innovation and change. Such
unanimity explains why the fact that "the touchstone ofhistorical skill" is deemed
to reveal itself in a "whole-hearted empathy for Late Antique men"14 has raised
more satisfaction than concern.
Similar judgements also assurne an optimistic vision of the possibilities of
historical investigation: while those spaces of the late antique world that are
culturally most remote from modernity are comprehensible thanks to a sharpened
sensibility for the exotic and the use of tools developed in anthropological research,
those phenomena defined as modern can be examined directly with the tools
used for the study of modern thought and politics. [po 161] In the latter case, late
antiquity's contiguity with modernity assurnes that the categories are identical.
But the relationship between the study of late antiquity, the analogy between
late antiquity and modernity, and a historico-critical perspective can also be
sensed in the outlook of those who discern within certain general features of the
contemporary world the origins of a particular interest, on the part of historians,
in finding characteristics that are shared (or at least susceptible to comparison
through analogy) with late antiquity. This approach can converge with and even
subsurne itself in the previous one, but - and here lies its particular importance,
wh ich renders it worthy of separate analysis - it can also place itself on a more
rigorous plane. The prevailing interest in cultural transformations and the lesser
significance attributed to the collapse of political structures is, for example,
connected to current shifts in the perception of politics: "Centralised power is no
longer to our taste. Indeed, our generation has, even if temporarily, lost faith in
11 M. McCormick, Byzantium's Role in the Formation ofEarly Medieval Civilization: Approaches
and Problems, in «Illinois Classical Studies», 12, 1987, pp. 207-220; see also above, note 8.
12 R. Martin, Qu'est-ce que l'antiquite «tardive»? Reflexions sur un probleme de periodisation, in
Ai8n. Le temps chez les Romains (<<Caesarodunum» X bis), Paris, 1976, p. 261 note 1.
13 Lan<;:on, La modernite du bas-empire romain, pp. 341ff.
14 P. Brown, Gibbon's Views on Culture and Society in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries (1976),
reprinted in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity, London, 1982, p. 23.
empires and even in political structures [... ] The absence of power has been revealed.
where it exists, it is diffused throughout society, in multiple places and multiple
ways. Noone can predict how this will turn out. In the same way the process of
'transition' from late antiquity to the middle ages can be seen in terms of a
multitude of diverse changes, small and large, conscious and unconscious"y With
the rise of Islamist movements in the Middle East and the collapse of communism
in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Soviet Union, historians have furthermore
begun to deal with populations for whom "late antiquity has become, once again,
'contemporary history'''.16 For historians of our own time, the great religious
phenomena of the contemporary era are in dialogue with those of late antiquity:
"At least since the Ayatollah Khomeini proved that religion was still a powerful
political force in the world, we have come to accept fundamentalism and cults as
an integral part of the social fabric. The Neoplatonism of late antiquity and the
Christian asceticism of the desert have found, for the first time in several centuries,
a resonance in contemporary society";17 moreover, the contemporary world could
find "hope and inspiration in the religious intensity and mixed cultures of late [po
162] antiquity"Y The loss of interest in the history of civilisations in favour of the
history of structures - a phenomenon that should be especially evident in historical
and archaeological research on late antiquity - comes to be seen as a reflection of
the current intrusion of politico-economic macrosystems: "The late antique world
presents itself as a mature and complex example of such macrosystems, appearing
capable of incorporating within its constituent elements even conflicting cultural
subsystems, in this case societies emerging from both Roman and barbarian
traditions".19 All these statements seem to be saying the same thing, in effect: if all
history is contemporary history, this is currently true of one history in particular,
namely that of late antiquity.
15 Averil Cameron, The Perception of Crisis, in Morfologie sociali e culturali in Europa fra tarda
antichita e alto medioevo (<<Settimane di Spoleto», 45), I, Spoleto, 1998, pp. l1f.; see also R.
Hodges, Henri Pirenne and the Question ofDemand in the Sixth Cenrury,in R. Hodges-W. Bowden,
eds., The Sixth Century. Production, Distribution and Demand, Leiden-Boston-Köln, 1998, p. 4.
16 Brown, in The World of Late Antiquity Revisited, p. 79; see also G. Fowden, Empire to
Commonwealth. Consequences ofMonotheism in Late Antiquity, Princeton, 1993, p. 10.
17 G. Bowersock, The Vanishing Paradigm of the Fall ofRome, in «Bulletin of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences», 49/8,1996, p. 39.
18 Tbid., p. 43.
19 P. Delogu, La fine del mondo antico e I'inizio dei medioevo: nuovi dati per un vecchio problema,
in R. Francovich-G. Noye, eds, La storia dell'Alto Medioevo italiano (VI-X secolo) alla luce
dell'archeologia, Florence, 1994, p. 8; as I make clear below (§ 4), this interest in structures
appears to be more a goal for future research on late antiquity than arefleetion of its
eurrent state.
From its origins until today, the concept of late antiquity was thus constructed
largely upon presuppositions of modernity. Within the vast span of ancient history,
only one other period has enjoyed such an entirely favourable judgement: the
golden age of the Greek polis, seen as the soil in which some of the most important
elements of Western civilisation took root. 20 One might note that the immediate
result of these two attributions of "modernity" is to discredit the originality
of Roman culture predating late antiquity, thereby giving weight to the ill-
defined commonplace of Graecia capta. 21 Another consequence concerns the very
foundations of the concept of late antiquity: justifying the autonomy of this era by
virtue of characteristics destined to reach maturity only in later centuries (or even
millennia) actually represents, upon closer examination, an inadvertent negation
ofthis very autonomy.22
The trumpeting of late antique modernity could be defined as neoclassicism
soaked in Christianity and ethnic pluralism. But unlike other rediscoveries of
antiquity, this one virtually eliminates the divide represented by the obscure
centuries of the Middle Ages and places itself on the level of direct descent,
foregrounding the idea of roots. [po 163] In this way the concept of late antiquity
inherits some of the old representations of the early Middle Ages as the cradle of the
modern West, a "slow tillage of the Western soul"/3 but it does so in a much more
sophisticated manner, valorising a broad understanding of culture - not limited
to the sphere of literary or doctrinal creation and purged of the idea of barbarity
- and gathering within itself as a discrete unit a large swathe of antiquity and part
of the Middle Ages. It thereby eliminates the venerable problem of the various
"renaissances" that serve to recast the significance of the Renaissance itself, since
it fuses all of them into a single act of creation: that of modernity in late antiquity.
Among its many shortcomings, the notion of roots also serves to erect a hierarchy
ofhistoriographical topics. The modern aspects of a distant era can be discerned-
by those who deern such an approach to be useful- either by genealogical me ans, as
a relationship of more or less linear but uninterrupted filiation, or by a comparative
method that stands free of any such genealogical sequence. The first method, more
than the second, relies on a vivid image of roots with a resultant (albeit involuntary)
20 For the "ideology oflegacy", see E. Romano, L'antichita dopo la modernita. Costruzione e
declino di un paradigma, in «Storica», 3, 1997, pp. laff.

?l This effect is clear, for example, in Marrou, Decadence romaine, preface.
22 Similar consequences result from the teleological insistence on the evolutionary

processes linking late antiquity to the Middle Ages, as is rightly pointed out by M.G. Morony,
Teleology and the Signi{icance ofChange, p. 22: «Late Antiquity is thus turned into a transition
zone between classical antiquity and the medieval world without having any distinctive
characteristics of its own».
23 H.-I. Marrou, La place du Haut Moyen Age dans /'histoire du christianisme, in 11 passaggio
dall'antichita a/ medioevo in Occidente (<<Settimane di Spoleto», 9), Spoleto, 1962, p. 629.

historiographical eugenies: it separates the living past from its dead counterparts
and obscures the creative value of exhausted or failed experiences. One might
vehemently stress the notion that late antiquity was ablend of modernity and
exoticism, but it will forever be the idea of modernity - in virtue of its relentless
capacity for emotional and intellectual contagion - that defines the dominant tones
of our vision and the position of late antiquity in the grand sequence of historical
periods: that there exists a tightly-woven connection between the rhetorie of
modernity and the expansionary tendencies of late antiquity seems hardly to be
doubted.
2. The expansionism oflate antiquity.
"For Primitive Man, he who named the object also possessed it. For the Historian,
all too often the named object possesses the one who does the naming".24 Late
antiquity possesses its own researchers, and in these re cent years it has been
celebrating its triumphs and extending its boundaries. To the original bas-empire,
covering the fourth and fifth centuries, have since been added - at the earlier end
- the third century and the closing decades of the second. At the medieval end, the
sixth century was added first and without much ado, but subsequently the seventh
century and even the eighth, ninth, and recently the tenth century have been
subsumed. The variations in starting and ending dates are numerous, and equally
so the rhythms and caesuras [po 164] within this span (even taking into account the
obvious singularities of particular geographie areas), but overall the trend is toward
a pronounced chronological broadening.
The expansionism oflate antiquity has occurred peacefully, without intellectual
and academie reactions, thus undercutting the old adage that centuries are
the fiefdoms of professors. Perhaps the phenomenon is due, at least in part, to
the fact that the so-called late antique specialists have been viewed, for a long
time, as a sort of innocuous band of frontiersmen, with their own customs and
eccentrie rituals. Only now is the tribe beginning to affix boundary markers and
to establish institutions, while the proliferation of periodicals, associations, chairs
and university appointments is an indieator of the transformation of a concept into
a discipline.
The expansionism oflate antiquity is widely seen as a signal of the extraordinary
fertility of the concept and of the strong claim it has been able to exert on those
studying it. The puzzling naturalness of the phenomenon, the lack of any dissent,
and the overarching conformism ought instead to raise a certain unease and inspire
24 L. Febvre, Commentjules Michelet inventa la Renaissance (1950), reprinted in Pour une

Histoire Cl part entiere, Paris, 1962, p. 717.
a more critical examination of the process: the need is all the more pressing given
that it concerns the most marked historiographical development of recent decades.
Scholars of late antiquity are well aware of the caution required for any sort of
periodisation and of the limits of generalisation, but at the same time they rightly
maintain that periodising is necessary, an almost unavoidable product of historical

reasoning. Alois Riegl confessed to having long remained uncertain as to whether
to fix the beginnings of late antique art in the reign of Constantine or that of
Marcus Aurelius. 25 He thus raised an issue that would be confrontedly repeatedly
by subsequent scholars oflate antiquity: what value is to be given, in the context of
periodisation, to the period running from the era of Commodus and the Severans
to that of Constantine? Riegl, as is well-known, opted for a starting point during
the latter. While not denying the importance of symptoms discernable in the art
of the third century, R. Bianchi Bandinelli came to a similar result, identifying
only in the art of the first tetrarchy "a decisive and permanent rupture with the
Hellenistic formal tradition in its most typical qualities".26 The same periodisation
had been adopted several centuries earlier by Giorgio Vasari, a coincidence all
the more striking for being the product of a diametrically-opposed art historical
perspective: [po 165] for Riegl, the age of Constantine had inaugurated a great era
in art history, characterised by elements of modernity; for Vasari, by contrast, the
new developments showed instead "that well before the arrival of the Goths in Italy,
sculpture had already greatly declined" .27 It is worth noting that art historians often
displaya particularly acute sensibility where the perception of change, however it
is understood, is at stake.
The broad periodisation rej ected by Alois Riegl in 1901 is now the prevailing one:
late antiquity is generally accepted as beginning during the age of Commodus and
the Severans, or even with Marcus Aurelius. 28 An awareness of the novel features
25 Riegl, Spätromische Kunstindustrie, p. 18.
26 R. Bianchi Bandinelli, s.v. Spaetantike, in Enciclopedia dell'arte antica, classica e orientale,

7, Rome, 1966, p. 426; but above all Continuita ellenistica nella pittura di eta medio e tardo-
romana (1953), reprinted in Archeologia e cultura, Rome, 1979, pp. 344-423 and Dall'ellenismo
al medioevo, Rome, 1978.
27 G. Vasari, Le vite dei piu eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti, ed. c.L. Ragghianti, 1, Milan,
1947, p. 199; the locus classicus for negative evaluations of Constantinian art is the Arch
of Constantine: B. Berenson, The Arch of Constantine or the Decline of form, London, 1954,
now revisited by A. Carandini, L'ultima civilta sepolta 0 del massimo oggetto desueto, secondo un
archeologo, in Storia di Roma, 3/2, Turin, 1993, p. 11; for a reconsideration of the heuristic
possibilities of the Berensonian paradigm, see J. Trilling, Late Antique and sub-antique, or the
«Decline ofform» Reconsidered, in «Dumbarton Oaks Papers», 41, 1987, pp. 469-476.
28 Some have gone further: for example, K. Lehmann-Hartleben, who sees in the
Column of Trajan (without, however, adequately explaining his periodisation) a step in
the development of late antique art: Die Trajanssäule. Ein römisches Kunstwerk zu Beginn der
Spätantike, Berlin-Leipzig, 1926.
emerging during this phase of Roman history is already to be found in Edward

Gibbon and subsequently among nineteenth-century historians, above all ]acob
Burckhardt and Ernest Renan. The most comprehensive formulation ofthe period's
transformations appeared so me forty years ago in Santo Mazzarino's writings,
wh ich drew upon the concept of a 'democratisation of culture' in reference to

spiritual and artistic phenomena as well as economic ones.'" But the importance of
such transformations as the foundations for a new periodisation came to be widely
appreciated only with the publication in 1971 of Peter Brown's The World of Late
Antiquity, nonetheless it did not escape his readers that his own account fixed the
maturity of the new era in the fourth century. In a later work, dedicated specifically
to the "making" oflate antiquity, Brown defined the third century as aperiod of the
"emergence of features that [... ] finally came together to form the definitively Late
Antique style of religious, cultural, and sociallife that emerged in the late fourth
and early fifth centuries".30 Mazzarino, on his side, labelIed the period as that of a
"'late empire' in waiting" .31
[po 166] At this point it might be useful to reconsider Riegl's own doubts and the
reasoning behind his decision, adopting here a broad perspective that extends well
beyond artistic concerns. The notion of aperiod 'in waiting' or the analogous notion
of an 'emergence of features' both lie at the heart of the problem of periodisation,
since they directly involve the relationship between historical narrative and
morphological analysis. Can we say that late antiquity was in waiting in the third
century c.E. like the Hellenistic period in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.? Or
in the same way that the thirteenth century was the modern era in waiting? If
this is so, then there ought not to be any reason to mark the initial boundary of
late antiquity at any point before the fourth century. And indeed it does not seem
that a process interpreted as the "emergence of features" can be located within a
epochal shift or fail to appear, to be more precise, as the central conduit of a phase
of transition. 32
Formulations of this kind may appear belaboured, but they cannot be
sidestepped, for their omission carries genuine consequences. The choice of an
initial periodisation fixed at the closing decades of the second century carries
notable repercussions - to cite only one of the most important and explicit - for our
understanding of the age of Diocletian and Constantine, the historical significance
of which is frequently debated, revised or even denied outright at present. No less
29 S. Mazzarino, Osservazioni sull' eta di Commodo e dei Severi (1957) and La democratizzazione
della cultura nel basso impero (1960), reprinted in Antico, tardoantico ed era costantiniana, 1, Bari,
1974, at pp. 51-73 and 74-98, respectively.
30 P. Brown, The Making ofLate Antiquity, Cambridge Mass.-London, 1978, p. 1.
31 Mazzarino, Antico, tardoantico, p. 7.
32 obviously assuming that one considers late antiquity as aperiod of its own rather
than a phase of transition (see below p. 14).

serious are the ramifications for the internal coherence of the period we calliate
antiquity, for as its endpoint is stretched ever further toward the mature Middle
Ages, it risks being transformed from a concept to a container.
At the other end of the periodisation, the formulation of a 'long' antiquity, one
that far outlasted the fall of the Western Roman empire, has remained closely
connected throughout the twentieth century with the name of Henri Pirenne,
whose role in the construction of the concept of late antiquity has frequently been
underlined. His principal contribution, in the present context, lies in his invitation
to consider the Mediterranean world as a unified entity until well into the early
Middle Ages. Otherwise his contribution to the concept of late antiquity is more
apparent than real: the centuries in question were seen by Pirenne as a protracted
and in many respects exhausted antiquity, rather than as an autonomous period;
moreover, he formulated his arguments in favour of continuity with reference to
such phenemona as the history of money and commerce, whose progress can be
easily denied, rather than cultural phenomena, broadly construed, which currently
represent the lifeblood of the concept of late antiquity, especially as formulated
by Peter Brown. A master at evoking both intimate and collective tableaux of
religious and social history, Brown has shown hirnself averse to discussing at length
the foundations of his periodisation: he assurnes and dissolves them in aseries
of quick sketches that give the impression of a continuous narrative [po 167] and
that emphasise the enormous variety of places and people while rearranging them
into a uniform rhythm. His accounts are richly populated with evidence, but the
relationship woven by each individual text and image creates a kind of inverse
perspective,33 an effect of foreshortened distance that renders his narratives
virtually untouchable.
In recent years, many scholars have interpreted the writings of this great
historian as an invitation to further disruptions in accepted chronologies. These
more recent periodisations of late antiquity have been labelled as intentionally
33 This is described, not without some exaggeration, by L. Stone, The Revival ofNarrative:
Refiections on a New old History (1979), reprinted in The Past and the Present, Boston-London-
Henley, 1981, p. 89: "Take, for example, that most brilliant reconstruction of a vanished
mind set, Peter Brown's evocation of the world of late antiquity. It ignores the usual dear
analytical categories - population, economics, sodal structure, political system, culture etc.
Instead, Brown builds up a portrait of an age rather in the manner of a post-impressionist
artist, dabbing in rough blotches of color here and there which, if one stands far enough
back, create a stunning vision of reality, but which, if examined up dose, dissolve into
a meaningless blur. The deliberate vagueness, the pictorial approach, the intimate
juxtaposition of history, literature, religion and art, the cancern for what was going on
inside people's heads, are all characteristic of a fresh way oflooking at history. The method
is not narrative but rather a "pointilliste" way of writing history" .
provocative.34 While it is rather unhelpful to decide whether similar provocations

are conscious or otherwise, it is indeed necessary to determine whether they are
useful or whether their creators - in contrast to the knight who continues to fight
without realising that he has died - are in fact continuing to brandish their swords
without realising that they no longer face any rivals. Useful provocations are those
that seek to undermine cultural conventions and the weight of historiographical
topoi. Peter Brown has described his own intervention into late antique scholarship
as that of a "guerilla",35 and the provocative character of his writings [po 168] is
typical of all highly creative contributions, which take by surprise scholars
accustomed to more traditional paths: originality always carries with it the trace of
achallenge. His work was free of provocation, insofar as the notion is understood as
a cavalier and consciously disproportionate approach, a thrust bearing within itself
a force tending to a retreat; it consisted instead of deeply thoughtful and carefully
elaborated contributions, duly celebrated by later historiography in tributes
whose consensus is as broad as it is rare. Before Brown, late antiquity had attracted
a handful of masters capable of uniting depth and originality of thought with a
thorough and expansive command of the evidence: Alois Riegl, Santo Mazzarino,
Andre Piganiol, to recall only the founders of new ways of understanding art history,
economic and social history, and political history. Their activity was furthermore
34 Delogu, La fine del mondo antico, p. 8, with reference to G. Bois, La mutation de l'an
Mi!, Paris, 1989, and]. Durliat, Les finances publiques de Diocletien aux Carolingiens (284-889),
Sigmaringen, 1990; on the merits of such moves, it suffices to mention he re ch. Wickham,
La chute de Rome n'aura pas lieu, in «Le Moyen Age», 99, 1993, pp. 107-126.
35 Brown, in The World ofLate Antiquity Revisited, pp. 9ff. The Anglo-centric nature of the
debate hosted in «Symbolae Osloenses» resulted in the undervaluing or omission ofimportant

aspects and developments from other historiographical traditions, especially French, Italian,
and German. One might observe, for example, that while religious history may have been
marked by a certain delay, such as to justify Brown's use of the term 'guerilla', important
progress had already been made outside of Anglophone scholarship in socioeconomic
and political history in particular. Although it has advanced through rather less spirited
exchanges, it has nevertheless prompted notable developments in the understanding of
the concept of late antiquity. To be more specific, with regard to the fundamental question
of the influence ofRostovtzeffs History (ibid., pp. 5ff), his contributions to the study oflate
antiquity had already been subjected to radical revision by the start of the 1950s, at least
in Italy (as Brown himselfhad cause to observe: The Later Roman Empire [1967], reprinted in
Religion and Society, p. 57 note 1); see especially S. Mazzarino, Aspetti sociali dei quarta secolo,
Rome, 1951, and L'impero romano, Rome, 1956, pp. 321ff (on Mazzarino and Rostovtzeff, see
A. Giardina, in A. Marcone, ed., Rostovtzeff e l'Italia, Atti del convegno, Gubbio, 1995, Perugia,
1999). Brown's reference to the contributions to late antique scholarship of the circle under
the influence ofE. Gabba (ibid., p. 75) is certainly due to an oversight. An effective antidote
to the Anglophone perspective is to be found in L. Cracco Ruggini, AlI'ombra di Momigliano:
Peter Brown e la mutazione del tardoantico, in «Rivista storica italiana», 100, 1988, pp. 739-767.
spread across a long time span and their principal writings left their mark over the
course of roughly a century. The concept of late antiquity thus took form slowly,
though by the start of the 1950s its foundations already appeared robust. But from
the 1970s onward, in tandem with the exuberant flowering of this field of research,
increasingly shaky additions have been erected on these foundations: the weight
has become excessive and the first cracks are beginning to show. Precisely because
of this it is difficult to concede that late antique studies at present are in need of
being shaken and stressed by provocations; rather, they are in need of the exact
opposite, that is, of a call to a sense of balance and of a rapprochement with the
champions of dedine.
The elephantiasis oflate antiquity belongs to a wider phenomenon that we might
define as the crisis of the grand temporal paradigm. Until recently, the following
statement would have been accepted by virtually anyone who read it: "Everyone
knows, having learned it in school, that history is divided into four broad periods or
eras: antiquity, the Middle Ages, the modern era, the contemporary world".36 Today
the roster has increased to at least seven: the perception of the heuristic weakness
of a concept of prehistory founded [po 169] on the absence of writing, the affirmation
of the late antique, an endemic crisis in the concept of the 'contemporary', and the
parallel birth of that of the 'postmodern' have together dessicated and invalidated
the venerable dedension elaborated by earlier generations of scholarship.
The elephantiasis of late antiquity has manifested itself in particular within
the crisis of the concept of the 'medieval'; late antiquity has come to occupy the
position formerly reserved to the early Middle Ages, such that the same period
can be referenced as both early medieval and late antique depending on one's
disciplinary leanings. The phenomenon is connected to a sharper perception of the
internal articulations within the Middle Ages overall. As is well known, for some
time now the awareness of the singularity of the early centuries of the medieval
era with respect to later ones has spurred the use of temporal prefixes: the 'früh
Mittelalter' and 'early Middle Ages' are now to be distinguished both from the 'hoch
Mittelalter' and the 'high Middle Ages' and from the 'spät Mittelalter' and the 'late
Middle Ages'. Complicating the matter is the fact that this usage applies to German
and English, but not to Italian or French: thus the same adjective 'high' refers to
different temporal spans in each of these two linguistic groupings. 37 The insistence
on the modernity of late antiquity and its chronological broadening on the one
hand, and the de-medievalisation of many centuries of the Middle Ages on the
other, together come dose to connecting late antiquity directly to modernity. The
surprising proposal to define the Middle Ages as aperiod spanning some seventeen
centuries, from the third to the mid-nineteenth, divided into subperiods (late
antiquity among them) would appear to be areaction to this tendency, though in
36 K. Pomian, s.v. Periodizzazione, in Enciclopedia, 10, Turin, 1980, p. 603.

37 P. Delogu, Introduzione allo studio della storia medievale, Bologna, 1994, pp. nff.
reality it is an entirely coherent development. 38 As a final sign of growing dis order

we might cite the parallel usage of the term 'Byzantine': although undermined by
the fact that 'late antique' includes within itself the cultural history of the eastern
Mediterranean world, and indeed greatly valorises this history, 'Byzantine' has
come to be used often as a flexible synonym, without any serious engagement with
the problems raised by the rapid intrusion of its younger riyal.
It is clear that the hypertrophy of late antiquity has not succeeded in bringing
greater harmony or coherence to our terms of reference. rf anything, it has
emphasised the instability of this Babel of concepts and periods. Peter Brown has
recently admitted that in order to take into account the significant shifts [po 170]
that can be discerned along "the continuum of ancient Christianity", one would
need to introduce the term 'later late antiquity (spätere Spätantike)'.39 Regardless
of the author's own intentions, such wordplay effectively captures the unsettling
ambiguity of a concept that must now res ort to multiply its qualifiers to keep from
losing its way. But a similar need might lead - on grounds of symmetry, if nothing
else - to the invention of the disconcerting oxymoron of' ear ly late antiquity (frühe
Spätantike)': on both chronological frontiers, the development of this concept in
recent decades has been marked by an insistent stress.
But the heartstrings of late antiquity, stretched and frayed, have begun to show
the first signs of necrosis. The most perceptive scholars, while celebrating the
triumphs of this historiographical period, have begun to warn of certain challenges:
while Lellia Cracco Ruggini has declared a single unequivocal interpretation oflate
antiquity to be impossible,40 this definitional volatility can refer as much to the
variety of areas when seen from a synchronie perspective as to the variety of the
whole when seen from a broad chronological vantage point. Even in defending
the need for broader periodisations, Averil Cameron has expressed a glimmer of a
doubt: "Perhaps we are trying to do too much. Perhaps we have dissolved our very
subject".41
It might be useful to return to the term itself,42 not to seek relief in the reassuring
pedantry of nominalism, but in order to recover the central motive behind the
38 ]. Le Goff, L'imaginaire medieval, Paris, 1991 2 , p. xii; the duration ofthis late antique sub-
period would run from the third to the tenth century, or, "if that is too alarming", from the
third to the seventh (see, however, p. 12 for a different chronological framing); it is worth
stressing that Le Goffs proposal, however frequently evoked by others, is formulated in an
extremely rapid and discursive fashion.
39 Brown, in The World ofLate Antiquity Revisited, p. 28.
40 L. Cracco Ruggini, Il Tardoantico: per una tipologia dei punti critici, in Storia di Roma, 3/1,
Turin, 1993, p. xxxvii.
41 Cameron, The Perception of Crisis, p. 31.
42 See the ample discussion in A. Heuss, Antike und Spätantike (1990), reprinted in
Gesammelte Schriften, 2, Stuttgart, 1995, pp. 1375-1438.
term's creation. Late antiquity ought to be just that: namely, the part of antiquity
that, while possessing characteristics that distinguish it as 'late' with respect to
the preceding period, nevertheless preserves other characteristics that allow for
it to be defined as belonging to "antiquity". These latter characteristics associate
themselves with new ones such that "late" serves as a qualitative descriptor rather
than a merely chronological one, and therein lies the legitimacy of the concept
itself. In the abstract, the new/late characteristics can be destined either to entrench
themselves as typical of the period that immediately followed late antiquity, or to
manifest themselves in late antiquity but disappear in conjunction with it.
The key issue is the incidence and function to be attributed to those elements of
late antiquity that were not inherited from earlier periods. If one believes that the
period's singular combination of old and new constitutes a totality of structures
distinct from earlier and later periods, then late antiquity canjustly be considered
a new and autonomous period. rf instead these new characteristics are not seen as
constituent elements of a new system and are taken rather as expressions of the
collapse of ancient society and the beginning of a medieval one, then late antiquity
ought to be interpreted rather as a society in transition.
Unfortunately, most of the scholars who resort to the category of 'transition'
have done so in an inappropriate fashion. To begin with, they do not always seem
aware of the fact that the idea of the autonomy of aperiod is not reconcilable with
that category;43 it is therefore a contradiction in terms to claim the intrinsic unity of
late antiquity on the one hand, and to characterise it as aperiod of transition on the
other. Second, they use transition in opposition to the idea of 'collapse' or 'crisis',
betraying thereby the influence of popular usage. Such a transition would therefore
be nothing but a slow transformation, a change produced not by an event, but by a
multitude of micro-events, a protracted shedding of one skin occurring in tandem
with the drawn-out adoption of a new one. But the essence of this concept, as it has
been taken up in both the physical and the social sciences, is in no way dependent
on the time factor: the latter pertains only to the rhythm of a transition, which
may be slow, fast, or extremely fast, but which neither strengthens nor weakens the
force and legitimacy of the concept. The equivocation is doubled if we consider that
the concept of 'crisis' is in turn used primarily in reference to dramatic changes
that are experienced within abrief timespan, while its explanatory capacity does
not appear to be conditioned by a strict measure of time, at least so far as non-
capitalist societies are concerned. 44 Given such conceptual disarray, the recourse
to the term 'transformation' (as an alternative to other terms, especially 'crisis')
43 It may be useful to compare this with the observations, in a Renaissance context, ofD.
Cantimori, La periodizzazione de1 Rinascimento (1955), reprinted in Studi di storia, Turin, 1959,
p.350.
44 For this problem, see my L'Italia, iI modo di produzione schiavistico e i tempi di una crisi, in
L'Italia romana. Storie di un'identita incompiuta, Rome-Bari, 1997, pp. 233-264 .
seems a rather unsatisfactory intellectual recourse. The least that can be said is
that, when used in reference to a phase of a complex society persisting for several
centuries, it appears so obvious as to be nearly tautological.
Defining and delineating a society in transition, then, is no less difficult an
undertaking than framing a society that has already reached maturity. The
very concept of 'transition' is a delicate one, which in humanistic studies has
been elaborated almost exclusively in reference to processes of collapse and
transformations of economic and social systemsY [po 172]
45 The category of transition presupposes, moreover, the use of other categories, such
as 'mode of production' and 'socioeconomic formation'; for the difficulties involved in

studying processes of transition within Marxist historiography, see D. Foraboschi, Fatton
economici nella transizione dall'antichita al feudalesimo, in «Studi Storici», 17, 1976, 4, esp. p.
92; and now, in particular, G. Bravo, Limitaciones del modelo hist6rico de da transici6n»: ZUn
problema historiognifico?, in]. Hidalgo, D. perez-M. Gervas, «Romanizaci6n» y «Reconquista» en
la peninsula iberica: nuevas perspectivas, Salamanca, 1998, pp. 216-224. An empiricist use of
this concept is the main limitation of the otherwise interesting effort by F.M. Clover and
R.S. Humphreys, Toward aDefinition of Late Antiquity, in Idd., eds., Tradition and Innovation,
pp. 3-19; observe, for example, that the very basis of their chronological delimitation is
not formulated on qualitative grounds but rather on a sort of common sense: "Yet an age
of transition ought to be short - no more, let us say, than one or two centuries" (p. 3; see
also the reference to a "few generations" on p. 4); regarding the features of this phase, the
authors seem to waver between two different positions: on the one hand, this period of
transition is defined as a "brief period during which an that was ancient ceased to exist and
everything medieval came into being" (p. 3), a formulation that is unwittingly antithetical
to the very concept of transition; and on the other, the phenomena of the transition are
defined as "major adjustments" (p. 4). The authors discern furthermore a span of five
centuries divided into two distinct periods (400-700 and 600-900), which correspond to
the transitions observed in the Mediterranean world and the Middle East, but the scant
attention paid to relations of production, together with the attribution to the Near East of
a late antiquity whose starting point is two centuries behind that of the Mediterranean,
raises some concerns (see also F. Clover, s.v. Roman Empire, Late, in Dictionary of the Middle
Ages, 10, New York, 1988, pp. 456-469). The current untheoretical approach to the study of
historical change is evident, for example, in the conviction that 'transition' is a 'neutral'
category: N. Christie-S.T. Loseby, Towns in Transition. Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and
the Early Middle Ages, Aldershot, 1996, p. 2; and despite its stated goal ("to re-examine the
concept of a 'transition' from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Western and Southern
Europe in the light of current research"), such a re-examination of the concept is entirely
lacking in]. Bintliff-H. Hamerow, Europe between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, in «British
Archaeological Reports, Int. Ser.», 617, 1995.
3. The vanishing fall of the Roman Empire.

Over the last thirty years or so, late antique studies have been characterised
by increasing interdisciplinarity. This important network of connections
notwithstanding, the enrichment and evolution of the concept of late antiquity

(and thus its periodisation) have been dominated by one field of inquiry in
particular, namely sociocultural processes, taken broadly. The periodisations
based on these processes have thus come to overwhelm the other possibilities.
The history of institutions and politics has suffered most: one need only reflect
on the fact that, among the most signifieant events to have occurred during this
period, that which has had the least impact on the notion of late antiquity, and
whieh has barely been taken into account where periodisation is concerned, is the
fall of the Roman Empire itself. One obssession has been replaced by another: "The
obsession is not with describing the causes of Rome's fall, or locating it, but with
denying it altogether."46 [po 173] The redefinition of this theme has facilitated a less
catastrophie vision of the impact of the Germanie peoples on Roman territories
(following largely Pirennian assumptions) and has also allowed the process of
construction of new politieal, administrative, and social structures to be formulated
in terms of late antique ethnogenesisY Furthermore, the entrenched insertion
(and even, in some respects, the hegemonie position) of the East in what might be
described as the epistemological status of late antiquity has notably weakened the
negative influx of those national claims that were inevitably stressed by the theme
of the fall of the pars Occidentis. 48 The success of late antiquity is likewise to be found
in this pluralism, whieh has dissolved the political dramas of the ancient West into
the multiethnie vision of cultural history.
There are a number of reasons why this event par excellence has been transformed
into a kind of epiphenomenon. A certain modern sensitivity drives some of them:
46 This is emphasised, in positive terms, by Bowersock, The Vanishing Paradigm, p.
35. Among the exceptions, particular mention must be made of ch. Wickham, The Other
Transition: {rom the Ancient World to Feudalism (1984), reprinted in Land and Power. Studies in
Italian and European Social History, 400-1200, London, 1994, pp. 7-42; see also Italy and the Early
Middle Ages (1989), reprinted in ibid., pp. 99-118.
47 M. McCormick, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West: Problems and Opportunities, in G.
Amaldi-G. Cavallo, eds., Europa medievale e mondo bizantino. Contatti effettivi e possibilito. di studi
comparati, Rome, 1997, p. 13.
48 Cracco Ruggini, Tl Tardoantico, p. XXXIX; for the historiographical fallout of the Second
Vatican Council, see the important study by G. Cracco-L. Cracco Ruggini, Trame religiose
attraverso il Mediterraneo medievale, in G. Amaldi-G. Cavallo, eds., Europa medievale, pp. 81-107,
esp.86ff.
if it is true that the fall of the empire was long the archetype of decline in general 49
and that catastrophes in every period nourished in turn the pathos of the archetype,
reviving its flame and magnifying the lens, it is also true that the qualitative and
quantitative incommensurability of contemporary problems in the post-World War
II period in comparison with the declining empire undercut the centrality of this
distant catastrophe.'o The marginalisation of the catastrophe itself also brought
with it criticism of the concept of decline, whose vital core had resided in the theme
of the empire's fall. That this event has been expelled from the list of major themes
of late antique studies is due furthermore to the noisy reaction to the theme of
the silent fall, as if the reactions of contemporaries were a seismograph faithfully
recording the impact of events and the documentation of the era had not itself
suffered the effects of random selection (though naturally the opposite is also
true: contemporary perceptions of the change can take on the character of self-
deception).51 [po 174] One might return to the observation that centralised power is
no longer to the liking of contemporaries. 52 However, the influence of the Annales
school, especially the work ofFernand BraudeI, has been particularly decisive, as it
diffused a more lucid understanding of the processes of continuity that reach across
the caesuras of political history. Within this context, the fate of the theme of the fall
of the Roman empire is not so awkward as the revisionist approach to the formative
and periodising character of the French Revolution and other great revolutions of
the modern age. All these belong to a similar historiographical climate: whether
we are speaking of revolutions or political and demographic catastrophes (a
similar revisionism has affected the assessment of the break prompted by the Black
Death), the result is always the same - the Event (with a capital 'E') has given way
to the history of slow processes. The conviction that late antiquity gives a clear
example of the possibility of a "nonmilitary and only partially political basis for
self-perpetuation"53 has now entered the shared historiographical vocabulary.
Finally, there seems to be an objective connection between the historiographical
marginalisation of this event and the rhetoric of modernity that we have seen
applied to many aspects of the late antique world. If not so long ago one could
declare that "a passionate identification with one feature or another ofthe classical
world seems to be aprerequisite for grand hypotheses on the decline and fall of the
Roman Empire",'4 today it might instead be said that a passionate identification
with one feature or another of the late antique world seems to be aprerequisite for
minimalist visions of the empire's decline and fall.
49 A. Momigliano, La cadutasenza rumore di un impero nel476 d.c. (1973), reprinted in Sesto

contributo alla stona degli studi classici e del mondo antico, Rome, 1980, p. 159.
sOld., After Gibbon's Decline and Fall (1978), reprinted in Sesto contributo, p. 274.
51 E. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in WestemArt, republ. New York, 1972, pp. 1-41.
52 See above, p. 4.
53 Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth, p. 170.
54 Brown, Religion and Society, p. 72.
The current disrepute of this great theme is, moreover, part of a wider
phenomenon, namely the belief that the history oflate antiquity essentially belongs
to religious and social history, and that the empire, its administrative structures, its
institutional arrangements, and political circumstances, all represent a parallel and
ultimately marginal history.55 The influence ofPeter Brown in this altered hierarchy
of [po 175] historiographical objects is clear. 56 It would be unhelpful to identify
the current needs of late antique studies only in terms of a kind of quantitative
rebalancing: what is needed instead - and the task is rather more demanding -
is the development of a new model of writing a history of politics (or rather, of
power) that would integrate the results and methods that have emerged in other
fields oflate antique history over recent decades. It is worth stating that it does not
seem necessary that such a historiographical scenario be linked to a strengthened
assessement of the late antique 'state' as the "apogee of the Roman state",'/ as
this would only reaffirm the convention that the defence of the importance of a
particular field of inquiry for the study of late antiquity is to be based on positive
value judgements.
However, the need for a renewed relationship between cultural and social history
and the history of institutions, laws, and politics faces a considerable obstacle in
the current reservations about the evidentiary value of imperial constitutions (and,
we might add, ecclesiasticallegislation). We have shifted from a phase in which the
universe of normative texts was treated as a vast mirror faithfully reflecting real
behaviours, relationships, and structures, to one in which it is considered instead as
a molten mass of self-referential discourse, expressing visions of social engineering,
ethical ideals, and the aspirations of power. The latest phase in the long debate
55 The question of the continuity of urban life in the West has been the subject of
frequently tiring polemics; despite some exaggerations in his account, I quite understand
the reaction of Carandini, L'ultima civilta sepolta, pp. 11-38. For the debate over urbanism in
the West, see the arguments ofB. Ward-Perkins, Continuitists, Catastrophists, and the Towns of
Post-Roman Northern Italy, in «Papers of the British School at Rome», 65, 1997, pp. 157-176;
while a clear synthesis is also to be found in C. La Rocca, La trasformazione de1 territorio in
Occidente, in Morfologie sociali, pp. 257-290.
56 "By the time that I began to write on Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity I realized that
I had been wrong", Brown admitted graciously in The World ofLate Antiquity Revisited, p. 24;
in fact, the error (if it is indeed an error, rather than the emergence of a hitherto-neglected
field of study) was a collective one, and it demonstrates itself less in the predominance
of certain historiographical interests than in the fact that, in recent scholarship, the very
concept of late antiquity has come to be defined mainly or even exclusively with reference
to those interests. The risk of an undervaluation of the 'institutional question' was keenly
perceived by F. Calasso, writing in the historiographical climate of the postwar period; see
his La citta ne1l'ltalia meridionale durante l'eta normanna (1959), reprinted in Scritti, Milan, 1965
(<<Annali di storia deI diritto», 9), p. 264 note 3.
57 As does Brown in The World ofLate Antiquity Revisited, p. 25.
over the colonate and the most recent studies of the legislation on marriage and
the family are particularly revealing on this point. Given that literary, epigraphic,
and papyrus evidence do not - and will never - furnish sufficient data to offset the
quantitative edge of the normative material, the approaches of individual scholars
will continue to be dictated by their own personal indinations, while the debate on
the effectiveness of the laws is destined to remain one of the most ideologically-
charged areas of late antique studies.
To the denial of the periodising significance of the fall of the empire in the West,
one can now add the recent rethinking of the once-entrenched historiographical
conviction that treated Lombard rule as one of the most drastic breaks in Italian
history. The revision of the traditional [po 176] interpretation of funeral rites and
grave goods as signs of a violent dash of peoples proposes a less traumatic vision of
the encounter, one that leaves more room for the phenomena of ethnic and cultural
osmosis. There is much that is worth keeping in this normalising of the Lombards,
but it also risks normalising the elements of a dramatic historical process under
the banner of 'continuity'. The risk is somewhat lessened if this continuity is
understood instead as "continuity in the sense of continuing decomposition",'8
since - as a biologist might express it - any process of decomposition presupposes
the denaturing of the original structure; if the structure here is late antiquity, and
the Lombard era is aperiod in which an earlier process of decomposition persists
and intensifies, we would therefore need to accept the idea of a 'short' late antiquity.
A similar redefinition has been inflicted on the other venerable pillar of early
medieval periodisation, namely the collapse of Byzantine rule in the Near East.
Here again, the rescaling of a political and military caesura has been accompanied
by the emphasis reserved for cultural phenomena: the Arabic translation of Greek
texts; the continuing use of Christian churches; the value ascribed to works of art
- such as the mosaics oOordan - crafted using traditional techniques. Phenomena
like these have beenjudged as expressions of a "continuity of cultural forms", and
Islamic culture has consequently been judged as the apex of late antique culture. 59
The robust assessment of the survival, and even the vitality, of certain forms of
Hellenistic culture in the Islamic world is among the most interesting contributions
of recent historiography. We can exdude the possibility, however, that these
phenomena should be understood as a sign of continuity across periods: this
would lead to an atomistic perception of historical continuity. But if we pass from
the consideration of individual features to a more general view of the historical
landscape, and particularly to the metamorphosis of urbanism, the scale of the
discontinuity emerges dearly: in the passage from a Byzantine East to a Persian and
58Delogu, La fine del mondo antico, p. 17.

59See Cameron, The Perception of Crisis, pp. 14ff., with further bibliography; the
context of the debate is nicely framed in M. Mazza, Di Ellenismo, Griente e Tarda Antichitii, in
«Mediterraneo antico», 1/1, 1998, pp. 141-170.
later Islamic one, it is not only the religion that changes, but also population levels,
the relationship between public and private space, the form and nature of public
buildings, the road network, the function of squares, administrative structures, the
practices of wealth generation and redistribution, and the means of transport. 60
[po 177] Seen against these findings, the casual use of the category of continuity
establishes a clear connection between the explosion oflate antiquity and the crisis
of morphological research.
Before dealing with the latter issue, it is worth making a final point about the
problem ofthe Event. In all three ofthe cases examined here (the fall ofthe Western
empire, Lombard rule, and the Islamic conquest), the encounter between historians
ought not to be limited to disputes surrounding evenements: if the notion of a curtain
rising or falling on civilisations to the sound of clashing swords and cavalry charges
is clearly intolerable, so too is a spectacle in which the last emperors and the last
kings are reduced to the role of extras. What is needed instead is to breathe life
into events and to reconstruct retrospectively the situation that makes possible a
catastrophe (whether actual or potential), without yielding to the kind of insidious
teleology that can be concealed even where one is proceeding backward. In many
cases, and certainly in the three that have been mentioned so far, it will be found
the Event are in fact merely the swift acceleration of processes already underway.
4. The crisis of morphologies
It is quite clear that the historian of a given structure will identify the ruptures,
continuities, and rhythms that appear to belong to it. And it is likewise clear that
the ruptures, continuities, and rhythms of one structure can never be perfectly
mapped onto another: as W. Kula elegantly put it, history is nothing other than the
coexistence of asynchronisms. His observation now seems rather obvious, but its
potential efficacy for describing change is almost always obstructed by a superficial
understanding of 'weighty' and tightly interwoven categories, such as historical
continuity, crisis, transition, and structure.
The current phase of late antique scholarship is characterised by a prevailing
inclination toward continuity between the ancient world and its medieval successor.
This is hardly a novel theme - one need only call to mi nd the names of Fustel de
60 See especially H. Kennedy, From polis to madina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early
Islamic Syri~ in «Past and Present», 106, 1985, pp. 3-27; M.O.H. Carver, Transitions to Islam:
Urban Roles in the East and South Mediterranean, Fifth to Tenth Centuries A.D., in Christie-Loseby,
Towns in Transition, pp. 184-212.
Coulanges, Dopsch, and Pirenne/ 1 among many others - but at present the debate
has taken on almost violent overtones. Everywhere the same epiphany is repeated:
historians uncover continuities and the confines of late antiquity are extended
yet further. It is necessary, however, to note that a given phenomenon cannot be
branded as a continuity or discontinuity without a prior description of the structure

(or structures) to which the phenomenon itself belongsY Structure, it bears
underscoring, is not a formula. Rapid and coneise definitions can be illuminating
if they carry evocative weight: for example, late antiquity could be productively
characterised as aperiod deeply affected by the "sudden flooding of the inner life
into soeial forms" and by the birth of a soeiety "even more sharply contoured by
religious belief";63 or as an era of the difficult reconciliation of human and divine
law, a dualism bearing on the very foundations of shared social existence, but which
is accompanied by still other dualisms: between the clarissimi magistrates and the
reverentissimi bishops, between art inspired by the classical tradition and that
inspired by new forms, between 'Christian humanism' and intransigence, between
euergetism and charity64 - and in dozens of other, equally acceptable ways. But the
timing, rhythms, and nature of the processes can be satisfactorily recovered and
discussed only if we reason through structures. Without this initial step it is too
easy for a flash of novelty to assume an overpowering significance, or - and this
is the most common result - that a residual feature is taken as the very sign of a
period's vitality.
Setting aside the validity of speeific arguments, such risks are not faced by those
who make use of the strong analytic categories of political economy, such as 'mode
of production' and 'soeioeconomic formation'. Recent reconstructions based on
these categories offer models capable of connecting socioeconomic history to that
of the 'state', and they converge - espeeially where the West is concerned - on a
61 On the relations hip between Dopsch and Pirenne, see now C. Violante, Uno stoneo
europeo tra guerra e dopoguerra, Henri Pirenne (1914-1923), Bologna, 1997, pp. 265ff.
62 Despite the widespread consensus over its use, I find misleading the mineralogical
metaphor of'pseudomorphosis' proposed by Spengler and applied to late antiquity by H.-I.

Marrou, La civilisation de l'antiquite tardive (1968), reprinted in Christiana tempora, Rome, 1978,
pp. 71ff. Insofar as it refers to the transformation of one crystalline substance into another
through a chemical process that leaves unchanged the crystal's polyhedral external form,
the concept of pseudomorphosis does not help us to understand the variations produced
in the form of a given structure by the simple variation oE the positions and reciprocal
relationships oE its constituent elements. Concerning the relationship between continuity
and rupture, important interventions were made by G. Weiss, Antike und Byzanz. Die
Kontinuität der Gesellsehaftsstruktur, in «Historische Zeitschrift», 224, 1977, pp. 529-560; and
by A. Kazhdan-A. Cutler, Continuity and Diseontinuity in Byzantine History, in «Byzantion», 52,
1982, pp. 429-478; but this debate has not been adequately discussed to date.
63 Brown, Religion and Society, pp. 13fE.
64 Mazzarino, Antieo, tardoantieo, pp. 466fE.
'short' periodisation oflate antiquity.65 The prevalence of sociocultural research in

the origins and development of the concept of late antiquity is thus the principal
culprit in the ever-expanding periodisation of late antiquity, indeed, its main
artery. [po 179] The phenomenon certainly depends on the particular training
and inclinations of the scholars who have played a leading role in late antique
historiography over the last three decades. But there is also a less subj ective reason,
which concerns the greater difficulty of periodising these processes. As Ernesto
Sestan insightfully remarked in 1961, "It is rather discomforting to have to admit
a partial failure, to have to admit that while spiritual elements, and especially the
religious ones, offer - in broad terms - the possibility of collectively depicting the
medieval world in relation to the ancient one, they nevertheless provide few fixed
points of reference such as are necessary for periodising - an act that invariably
requires, if not absolutely precise temporal limits, at least a certain buffer zone
at the edges".66 The slower pace of these cultural processes is certainly one of the
factors that makes periodising difficult: 67 their hold on institutions, behaviours,
and the minds of men is like birdlime, and they often pass through catastrophes
apparently unscathed. But the slow (and sometimes even extremely slow) pace of a
process of transformation ought not to be taken by scholars as an amorphous and
overflowing historical mass, including within the same network of relationships
the Africa of Apuleius and that of Ricimer, Cassius Dio and Fredegar, the Temple of
]upiter Capitolinus and the Palatine Chapel at Aachen, the Milan of Ambrose and the
Baghdad of al-Mansur, the edict of Caracalla and that ofRothari. The real problem is
not the slow pace of the processes so much as the refusal to adopt a morphological
framework - that is, the one instrument that allows for the identification and
periodisation of mutations produced by gradual changes and triggered more by
accumulation than by sudden shocks.
There are therefore two pressing needs: first, to identify the specific characters
of a late antique society as distinct and autonomous from its ancient predecessor
and medieval successor (or, alternatively, to provide a coherent definition of its
character as a society in transition); and second, to draw from this morphological
analysis a periodisation that lies in harmony with it and yet does not invalidate
the different periodisations of individual structures. If it is true that the life of a
structure ought to be analysed first and foremost with respect to itself, it is also
65 ch. Wickham, The Other Transition; see the numerous studies ofD. Vera, in particular
Forme e {unzioni della rendita fondiaria nella tarda antichitCi, in A. Giardina, ed., Societa romana e
impero tardoantico, 1, Rome-Bari, 1986, eh. XI; for the East,]. Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh
Century. The Transformation ofa Culture, Cambridge, 1990; and most reeently Id., The State and
the Tributary Mode ofProduction, London-New York, 1993.
66 E. Sestan, Tardo antico e alto medievale (1962), reprinted in ltaUa medievale, Naples, 1966,
p.12.
67 S. Calderone, La tarda antichita e I'Oriente, in «Mediterraneo antico», I/I, 1998, p. 68.
true that the problem of periodisation is not bounded by the limits of a single
structure, by the identification of internal conjunctures or revolutions signalling
its beginning and end. 68 Indeed, the relationship between structures [po 180] is
of the highest importance, and it is from this perspective that the tool of broad
periodisations remains unmatched. A new era (whether late antiquity or any

other) will appear as such when all its structures, or at least a multiplicity of those
structures that are judged to be characteristic, reveal themselves to be altered with
respect to the past (which will thus appear as a different era). Despite the inevitable
asynchronisms between structures, their very changed appearance determines a
new and objective pattern of non-hierarchical relationships, one that we might
define as a macrostructure.
68 T take for granted the insights of K. Pomian, L'histoire des structures, in]. Le Goff-R.
Chartier-]. Revel, eds, La nouvelle histoire, Paris, 1978, pp. 528-553, although I place greater
faith than he does in the possibility and value ofbroad periodisations.
2
THE OTHER TRANSITION:
FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM*
Chris Wickham
I
MUCH ANALYSIS OF THE CONGERIES OF CHANGES THAT IS GENERALLY
known as the "end of the ancient world in the west" - or so me
similar name - has been harmed by considerable lack of darity as
to what is actually meant by the phrase. The concept of the end
of antiquity of course means different things to different sorts of
historians, but many speak of it as if these different things all
coexisted equally, intermingled in so me giant classical bran-tub:
Graeco-Roman paganism (and/or state Christianity), secular Latin
literature, temples, the emperor, the senate, slavery, togas. These
separate phenomena may each be the key to antiquity for someone,
but their histories are not the same, and an attempt to describe
their simultaneous destruction by some single cause is not helpful,
however often attempted. Even Marxists, who at least know that they
should be looking at the underlying structures and contradictions of
society, have usually found their focus slipping as the blurred edges
of the vast cultural and political superstructure of the Roman empire
swim into their vision: so Danie1e Foraboschi can accuse people who
ignore the "spiritual crisis" and the impact of Christianity on late
Rome of economism; or Perry Anderson can discuss the collapse of
the state in the west without keying it in more than nominally with
the underlying economic changes of the third to sixth centuries that
the Marxist problematic recognizes as being prior. 1 Alternative, and
more traditional, analyses do not get further than the reductionism
of Engels's Origin o[ the F amily: the obsolescence and unprofitability
of slavery, the tyranny of the late Roman state, the supersession of
the ancient slave-based economy by more vital Germanic barbarism,
moving quickly to the feudal mode of production; such analyses
• I would like to thank Andrea Carandini, Wendy Davies, lohn Edwards, Martin
Goodman, Michael Hendy, Rodney Hilton, Ian Wood and Patrick Wormald for
criticizing the text and offering new suggestions and insights; it is more necessary
than usual to say that they are not responsible for its errors.
1 D. Foraboschi, "Fattori economici nella transizione da1l'antichita al feudalesi-
mo" ,Studi storici, xvü no. 4 (1976), pp. 65-100, at p. 94; P. Anderson, Passagesfram
Antiquity to Feudalism (London, 1974), pp. 76-1°3. I must add at the start that the
primary and secondary works on a11 the topics touched on in this artic1e are endless
and I cannot refer to them all; indeed, in not a11 cases have I read them. Omission
does not mean that a work is not relevant. Most of those cited inc1ude bibliographies.
4 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 103
often differ about when the slave mode of production is replaced by

feudalism (the third century? the sixth? the eighth?), but little more. 2
I want to re analyse the problem of what underlies the "end of the
ancient world" in economic terms, and how these terms can be fitted
into the Marxist problematic of transition. I will thus concentrate
on the economic process of change; what I have to discuss has little
direct relationship with, for example, problems of cultural history,
which have preoccupied others. It does, however, have to do with
the state, which was ultimately part of the structure of the late
empire, and the "fall of the state" does have a major place in my
analysis, as in Anderson's, though for different reasons. It seems to
me that an understanding of the history of the late Roman west can
only be obtained through an accurate description of the nature of its
economic structure, that is of its modes of production, and that a
great number of Marxist analyses are vitiated because they have got
these descriptions wrong. This is not just an exercise in typological
description, of "butterfly-collecting" as Edmund Leach called it in
a different context; such discussion helps to focus our analyses on
real causal relationships.3 Labelling, whether Marxist or not, is after
all totally useless without such a focus (an affirmation that may
relieve non-Marxist readers). What follows is intended to be a
realignment in the placing of a number of reasonably well-known
phenomena, not the production of a new (or final) undiscovered
explanation; by now there are probably none of these left.
* * *
The standard interpretation of the economic changes of late Rome
is that the slave mode of production gives way to the feudal mode of
production: slavery is replaced by serfdom. The classic modern
formulation of this (in non-Marxist terms) is that of Marc Bloch
in his posthumous article "Comment et pourquoi finit l'esclavage
antique", which domina ted the attitudes of medievalists for two
decades and more - no me an achievement for a 25-page summary
2 F. Engels, "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State", in K.
Marx and F. Engels, Selected Works (London, 1968 edn.), pp. 568-76. Engels's
analysis was brilliant for its time, but has been a strait-jacket since, even for the best
historians. See, for example, E. M. Schtajerman, Die Krise der Sklavenhalterordnung
im Westen des römischen Reiches, trans. W. Seyfarth (Berlin, 1964).
3 E. R. Leach, Rethinking Anthropology (London, 1961), p. 2. A mode ofproduction
is gene rally taken to be an analytical combination of productive forces (such as
technology or the development of labour power) with the social relations of produc-
tion: in particular, for our purposes, who controls the !abour process, how surplus
is extracted (through slave or servile or wage labour, for example), and what underlies
the power to extract the surplus - for example what sort of coercive force, or what
sort of agreement. To be more exact would take pages: for two recent analyses, see
B. Hindess and P. Q. Hirst, Pre-Capitalist Modes o[ Production (London, 1975), pp.
1-20; G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory o[ History: A De[ence (Oxford, 1978), pp. 28-
II4, 134-74·
FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM 5

article without notes. Bloch pointed out the tremendous increase in
the numbers of slaves during the great wars of the fifth to sixth
centuries A.D., but showed how they were not enrolled in the tradi-
tional slave plantations characteristic of Augustan Italy; these slaves

became tenants. At some point the plantations had broken down and
slaves were put out in tenant plots; as the position of free tenants
declined, serfdom was born from the fusion of these two social
groups; feudalism ensued. Broadly, this analysis is quite correct; but
it presents, or seems to present, some problems. In particular the
wh oIe pattern keys in very badly with what is known and generally
accepted about the rest of late Roman history. If feudal social
relationships already existed by A.D. 300, then what was the late
Roman state? If the latter was not feudal, as it does not seem to have
been, then what filled the gap, and how? Moses Finley, who ought
to know if anyone does, has declared hirnself defeated: "I am unable
to fit late antiquity into any ne at se ries of stages" , he says at the end
of his most recent book, but "slave society did not immediately give
way to feudal society". 4 Finley's picture of the slow crisis of slavery
fits in interestingly with recent Italian work on the slave mode (often
posed in explicit opposition to hirn) to provide a firm picture of one
side of the problem, namely wh at happened to slavery in the second
to third centuries A.D.; but we cannot look at this here. The most
important result for us is instead that the slave mode can be left out
of our arguments; there is no reason to regard it as having been
greatly prominent in the late empire at all. 5 For what replaced it,
what is principally needed is a tighter analysis of the modes of
production of the ancient world.
Definitions of mo des of production are endless, particularly in the
vast array of revisionisms that have marked the last two decades of
Marxist debate, focused largely on the so-called Ponnen in Marx's
Grundrisse of r857-8. The most useful tend surprisingly often to be
found in the work of writers in the Althusserian tradition, despite
their ftat hostility to any form of historical analysis; I would single
4 M. Bloch, "Comment et pourquoi finit l'esclavage antique" (1947), in his
Melanges historiques, 2 vols. (Paris, 1963), i, pp. 261-85, repr. in M. Bloch, Slavery
and Ser/dom in the Middle Ages, trans. W. R. Beer (Berkeley, 1975), pp. 1-31; M. 1.
Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology (London, 1980), pp. 149. See also, most
recently and eccentrically, P. Dockes, Medieval Slavery and Liberation, trans. A.
Goldhammer (Chicago, 1982).
5 As abrief bibliography, see Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology; K.
Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves (Cambridge, 1978); A. Carandini, introduction to J.
Kolendo, L'agricoltura nell'Italia romana, trans. C. Zawadzka (Rome, 1980); A.
Carandini, L'anatomia delta scimmia (Turin, 1979); the monumental 1979 conference
published as A. Giardina and A. Schiavone (eds.), Societii romana e produzione
schiavistica, 3 vols. (Bari, 1981); the discussion of Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern
Ideology, in Opus [Rome], i pt. I (1981), esp. pp. "5-46, 161-79,201-11. Dockes,
Medieval Slavery and Liberation, pp. "9-41, 199-233, is factually erratic but stimu-
lating.
out that of Barry Hindess and Paul Hirst in their book, Pre-Capitalist
Modes of Production. These two authors draw a distinction between
the ancient mode of production and the slave mode which we will
find useful, and they also widen some standard definitions of the
feudal mode. The ancient mode, in its most tradition al ideal type
(in the mythical early Roman republic, for example), was non-
exploitative, and characterized by the control of a city-based citizen
body over the immediate countryside; the citizens were private
owners, but they co-operated in their control of the public landed
wealth of the city. As Rome expanded, two developments occurred.
The theoretical egalitarianism of the city broke down and the slave
mode began to displace the free-owning peasantry, reaching by the
late republic its dassic form, the plantation slavery of Cato and
Columella which dominates the sources for the agrarian history of
the second century B.C. to the second century A.D. But also, as Rome
conquered the countryside and cities of Italy and the Mediterranean,
the ancient mode itself changed in type, becoming an exploitative
mode; the public wealth of the city, initially in land, came to be in
tribute or tax taken from proprietors in the subject countryside and,
in the case of Rome itself, other subject cities. This gradually
developed into a wholesale taxation network, with the old city/
country relationship as its inner structure, as we shall see. It is this
network that I will call the ancient mode in its dass form. It will be
a key to my analysis of late Rome.
The feudal mode, the other one that concerns us, has in much
traditional Marxist analysis been seen as based on serfdom and the
coercive political authority over tenants constituted by the seigneurie;
Hindess and Hirst regard this as too narrow, and show, rightly in
my view, that feudal relations are represented simply by tenants
paying rent to (or doing labour service for) a monopolistic landowner
dass; such landowners will always, while the system is stable, have
the non-economic coercive powers necessary to enforce their control,
whether informally or through their control of public or private
justice, but these powers do not have to be formally codified in the
seigneurie to exist. (The authors present all this as a revolutionary
insight, though it has long been perfectly weH known to medieval-
ists.) It should not be necessary to add that feudalism here has
nothing to do with military obligations, vassalage or the fief. 6
6 Hindess and Hirst, Pre-Capitalist Modes 01 Production, esp. pp. I8-I9, 79-I08,
on the ancient mode. Hindess and Hirst later rejected this analysis for its lack of
rigour, in my view mistakenly: B. Hindess and P. Q. Hirst, Mode 01 Production and
Social Formation (London, I977), pp. 38-4I. Cf. the vast cornrnentary on Marx's
Formen in Carandini, Anatomia della scimmia, esp. pp. 128-37; and the Formen itself,
translated most fully in K. Marx, Grundrisse, trans. M. Nicolaus (London, I973),
pp. 459-514, or otherwise (with Eric Hobsbawm's introduction) in K. Marx, Pre-
Capitalist Economic Formations, trans. J. Cohen (London, I964). Criticisms of Hindess
and Hirst are very numerous, but useful ones for us are contained in the reviews by
S. Cook in Jl. Peasant Studies, iv (I976-7), pp. 360-89, and by A. Carandini in his
(con,. on p. 7)
FROM THE ANC1ENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM 7

There are obviously problems with these definitions. Not everyone
will agree with them. I defend my use of the above definition of the
feudal mode elsewhere; it would be inappropriate to get involved
here in what, to many historians, is a somewhat abstruse debate.

Similarly, the term "ancient mode" may or may not be considered
appropriate for the city-based taxation of the empire; but the question
here is merely one of words. Modes of production are ideal con-
structs; the justification for particular definitions, as long as they
have an internallogic and thus make sense, must be their usefulness,
and I ho pe to show that these on es are useful. 7
It is more tricky to determine how these ideal constructs actually
work on the ground and how they articulate with the "superstruc-
tural" aspects of society, such as class-consciousness (or its absence)
and the state. Some analyses by Althusserians can be used again
here, for it is these theorists who have done most to develop Marx's
concept of the "socio-economic" or "social formation". This concept
is important, for it is an attempt to categorize real society as a system
of different structural levels. One of these, the economic base,
consists of one or more modes of production in a hierarchy of
dominance; various superstructures (politics, ideology, the state) are
organized in an intricate relationship to it. B In fact Marx himself was
less bothered by such intricacies; he used "social formation" and
"mode of production" more or less as synonyms, and so do many
people writing today. This is understandable: the feudal social
formation corresponds to the feudal mode of production, and so on.
However, it can often mislead, above all in the crucial and rather
common case where more than one mode of production coexists in
the same social formation.
It is this last point that is relevant for us here. It is empirically
fairly evident that societies (as I shall myself usually call social
formations for greater ease) can often have more than one mode in
them: capitalism and slavery coexisting within the American South
in 1860, for example. But an important part of the force of Marxist
(n. 6 cont.)
Archeologia e cultura materiale, 2nd edn. (Bari, 1979), pp. 354-75; see also E. P.
Thompson on Althusser in his The Poverty of Theory (London, 1978), pp. 193-314.
The feudal mode has far too many analyses to list; a weil worked out version of its
eeonomic dynamic in one area is W. Kula, An Economic Theory ofthe Feudal System,
trans. L. Garner (London, 1976); for a eonvenient set of definitions (with a late
medieval foeus), see also G. Bois, Crise du feodalisme (Paris, 1976), pp. 351-6. For
vassalage, see p. 29 below.
7 C. J. Wiekham, "The Uniqueness of the East", fortheoming in Jl. Peasant
Studies, diseusses these definitions, as weil as the not unrelated problem of how far
a system based on taxation is a mode of produetion, as I would maintain, rather than
merely a mode of surplus appropriation (no one would doubt it was at least this).
8 By eontemporary standards this formulation verges on the simplistie, but it is all
that we need here. For elaboration the most sueeinet Althusserian version is N.
Poulantzas, Political Power and Social Classes, trans. T. O'Hagan (London, 1973),
pp. 13-16, although I find his full model unneeessarily over-artieulated.
8 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER I03
economic analyses in history lies in the fact that they emphasize the
existence of totally different economic systems, each with a different
internal logic, that are incompatible and antagonistic in the sense
that they cannot be mixed. Between one mode and another there is
a break; something cannot be half-feudal and half-capitalist; feudal
economic processes actually work differently from capitalist ones.
But if two modes coexist in one society, they will have some influence
on each other, and, further , one will be dominant: that is, one will
determine the ground rules for the whole sodal formation; otherwise
the formation would not be an economic whole. Normally the
dominant mode of production is that which has the dosest links with
the state; if another mode is coming to be dominant in the formation,
and has not yet taken over the state - as with capitalism in (say)
early seventeenth-century England - it will tend to undermine it,
and the state form will tend eventually to change accordingly, often
violently, as a result of dass struggle. Our terminal point in the late
Roman tradition is not, then, simply the feudal mode of production,
but a society domina ted by the feudal mode of production, the "feudal
sodal formation", the point where western European states were
feudal, not just their economies; and the feudal state became a
natural consequence of social development after the point when in
the array of modes existing in the late empire, the feudal mode
became dominant. 9
* * *
The starting-point for our analyses is the late empire, the so-called
"Diodetianic state" of the la te third century onwards, the great age,
the final triumph, of the Roman state. We start, that is to say,
when the slave plantations of the first century had already virtually
disappeared, though some may have continued here and there. 10
Instead, dependent cultivation was by now carried out through
9 Perry Anderson's failure to maintain the mode of production I social formation
distinction is what lies behind his curious denial that the feudal mode existed anywhere
between the Euphrates and the Sea of Japan; it did exist, but it did not dominate in
any social formation: P. Anderson, Lineages 01 tM Absolutist State (London, I974),
pp. 397-43I; cf. the criticisms by P. Q. Hirst, "The Uniqueness of the West",
Economy and Sociery, iv (I975), pp. 446-75 (an article of Hirst's which for once, as
should be evident, I agree with almost totally), and by Wickham, "Uniqueness of
the East".
10 Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern fdeolog)', pp. I23-49; Carandini, Anatomia
della scimmia, pp. 128-35; Kolendo, Agricoltura nell'ftalia romana, introduction,
pp. xliv ff., liv-lv; M. Corbier, "Proprieta e gestione della terra: grande proprieta
fondiaria ed econornia contadina", in Giardina and Schiavone (eds.), Societii romana
e produziane schiavistica, i, pp. 427-44, and iü, pp. 236-7, 262-4. The major recent
(fairly traditionalist) surveys of the crisis of the third century and the slave mode
moving to the (feudal) colonate are Schtajerman, Krise der Sklavenhalterordnung, esp.
pp. 23-I34, and M. Mazza, Lotte sociali e restaurazione autoritaria, 2nd edn. (Bari,
I973), pp. II9-2I6. Dockes, Medieval Slavery and Liberation, pp. 77-90, puts the
whole process too late.

tenants, that is organized through the feudal mode of production.
There were certainly still very many slaves, but those slaves had
been turned into tenants, and thus controlled the land and their own
work process. In addition, we begin to encounter free tenants (coloni)

in the texts more and more, often at levels of very considerable
personal dependence; the giant landowners of the fourth and fifth
centuries increasingly relied on them.1 1 But the feudal mode did not
dominate society. The dominant source of surplus extraction in the
late empire was not rent, but tax.
The weight of taxation in the late empire is weIl known, and often
used as a standard formula in discussions of why the empire fell.
But taxation was not just heavy and extremely burdensome; it was
the basis of the state and the key element in the whole economic
system, the institution that determined the direction of the economy
and defined the dominant mode of production, which can still be
called the ancient mode. It has been said that the ancient mode
dominated the grouping of modes current in the late republic, only
to be displaced by the slave mode in the period from the first century
B.C. to the second century A.D.; if so, it now dominated again. Indeed,
as we shall see shortly, despite the centralizing tendencies of the late
empire, tax was still raised through individual cities. But tax-raising
in complex societies can rarely exist in a vacuum; other modes
of exploitation te nd to coexist and their correlation is of crucial
importance. The correlation and its dominance by tax in late Rome
can and must be analysed in a number of ways, for we have to see
how the late Roman social formation was constructed from it if we
want to understand how it fell.
The importance of tax-raising was both quantitative and qualita-
tive, and I shall discuss these in turn. The institutional details of the
late Roman tax systems are incredibly complex and do not concern
us here (the exact mechanisms are also still disputed). The basic
element was a land tax, often termed annona or (in terms of assess-
ment) iugatiolcapitatio, essentially assessed on the area of land a
man possessed. Other taxes, particularly the collatio lustralis on
merchants' property and a variety of tolls and customs, were in
themselves high but produced a tiny proportion of imperial revenues
(J ones made a famous calculation based on the tax returns of three
widely different cities in various years around A.D. 500 that the
collatio lustralis took so me 5 per cent of the amount taken in
annona - the statistics are shoddy, but the estimate convincing); my
11 For coloni, A. H. M. Jones, The La/er Roman Empire, 284-602 (Oxford, I964),
pp. 78I-823, is basic; see also A. H. M. Jones, The Roman Economy (Oxford, I974),
chs. I4, 2I. For the growth of private (quasi-seigneurial) powers over peasants, see
n. 24 below. Even Jones may overplay the importance of slaves: there is linie reason
to think, for example, that Melania's slave villages (Jones, La/er Roman Empire, pp.
793 ff.) were not all tenants.
IO PAST AND PRESENT NU MB ER I03

arguments will all be based on the land tax. 12 The land tax seems
to have been levied evenly on all landed property, whether large or
small, though there were considerable regional variations in inci-
dence, and in some provinces account may have been taken of

fertility. It was certainly not a progressive tax; indeed, as senatorial,
bureaucratic and ecclesiastical landowners were immune from the
frequent supplementary levies (or superindictions), rather the oppo-
site is true. The annona was levied in kind, unlike early imperial
taxes (though sometimes assessed in terms of money), at least until
the early fifth century when its organization altered and it began to
be largely taken in gold again. 13 The land tax was at first taken
directly from all free cultivators, or from their landlords if the
cultivators were slaves. The institutional process was thus totally
distinct from that of rent-taking, even where the cultivator was a
tenant. Only from the 370s, perhaps, did tenants begin to pay tax
through their landlords if they owned no land independently; in the
fifth century such tax-paying through owners, rather than possessors,
of land became generalized.
What concerns us here in our assessment of the heaviness of
taxation is not its absolute weight, together with a calculation of
what harm this did to the productiveness of the economy, which is
what is usually done (and it was high, and it probably did do harm,
if less than Jones thought), but what the relative weight of taxation
to rent-paying was. The first point is that tax was levied on all
landowners, and they did not pay rent. Peasant proprietors are an
undiscoverable proportion of the empire, but they were probably a
considerable percentage, maybe in some marginal provinces still
numerically dominant - a more than trivial sec tor of the population
even in Italy, where large estates were probably strongest. Where
peasants had to pay tax and rent, the proportional relation between
the two is, needless to say, difficult to estimate, but we do surprisingly
enough have some figures. The most detailed two are for the sixth
century, which allow us to work out almost exact proportions, one
12 For details and references, see Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 411-69,819-23
(p. 465 for the collatio lustralis calculation), which sums up aB previous knowledge.
The best analysis of the role of taxation in the early empire is K. Hopkins, "Taxes
and Trade in the Roman Empire", Jl. Roman Studies, lxx (1980), pp. 101-25. For
further exploration and bibliography, see A. Cerati, Caractere annonaire et assiette de
l'imp6t foneier au bas-empire (Paris, 1975), with review by A. Chastagnol in Latomus,
xxx (1971), pp. 495-501. W. Goffart, Caput and Colonate: Towards a History of Late
Roman Taxation (Phoenix supplementary vols., xii, Toronto, 1974), reassesses the
development of tax liability. The state was a landowner on a giant scale too, it must
be remembered.
\3 Jones, Later Roman Empire, p. 460; Cerati, Caractere annonaire et assiette de
l'imp6tfoncier, pp. 81-94. The return to gold is very odd; the amount of commercial
transactions there would have to have been to get the money to pay taxes is certainly
not reflected in our evidence. Possible incomplete explanations include forced sales
to the state and de facto payments in kind, but the problem does some harm to
arguments in Hopkins. "Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire", esp. pp. 123-4.
FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM II
in a complete tax register from Antaeopolis in Egypt for perhaps

527, the other from astate grant to the church of Ravenna from circa
555. The Antaeopolis figures show us tax assessments in kind and
money totalling between a quarter and a third of average gross yields,

and thus between half and two-thirds of the whole surplus normally
due from tenants in Egypt (50 per cent being the commonest rent,
the landowner paying the taxes out of it). Tax is thus equivalent to
up to twice as much as rent. At Ravenna the tax:rent ratio is explicit
in the text, for the landlord had to collect both and pass the tax on;
the ratio comes to 57:43. This is a lot of tax. Landlords in the sixth
century were getting to keep under half the surplus. Exactly how
representative the figures are we of course cannot say, but Italy and
Egypt are certainly not among the provinces where rent is regarded
as having been light; even if tax was high er in Egypt than elsewhere,
as is possible, the relationship between tax and rent should not be
regarded as unusual. The quantitative dominance of tax-collecting
in the empire, even where it was in opposition to rent, is as clear as
it is ever likely to be, given the figures usually at our disposal for
the la te empire. Independent peasants paid at least the rates outlined
in these texts (the Antaeopolis figures are for owners and tenants
alike) and often more, for the Ravenna text is for partially privileged
church land. At such levels, over a quarter of gross yields will have
gone in tax - at a guess, often over half the surplus (that is, after
seed and subsistence), and certainly over 100 per cent in bad years.
The figures are exceptional, but there is no reason not to take them
seriously; some tax may never have been paid, but, equally, corrupt
collectors in other places are known to have extracted more than the
theoretical norm. However, we must ask when these tax levels came
in. The Antaeopolis register, if the date is right, precedes the tax
rises wh ich were intended to pay for the wars of Justinian's reign,
and probably represents a tax level typical for some time. On the
other hand, early fourth-century tax levels, at least in Egypt, were
probably somewhat lower. The rise of an already high land tax to
these remarkable levels almost certainly began to occur in the later
fourth century with the beginning of the wars, and in the ca se of
Egypt, the growth in the population of Constantinople; perhaps only
then did tax begin actually to surpass rent. 14
14 For figures and analysis, see Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 464, 819-23; Jones,
Roman Economy, chs. 4, 8. The Antaeopolis figure may be for corn land only; that
for Ravenna is in money, and aglobai calculation. The Antaeopolis figure is recently
under attack from C. R. Whittaker, "Inflation and the Economy in the Fourth Century
A.D.", in C. E. King (ed.), Imperial Revenue, Expenditure and Monetary Policy in
the Fourth Century A.D. (Brit. Archaeol. Reports, Internat. ser., lxxvi, Oxford, 1980),
pp. 7-9, citing A. C. Johnson and L. C. West, Byzantine Egypt: Economic Studies
(Princeton, 1949). Johnson and West (pp. 234-40, 275-80) present their evidence in
a confusing manner, but the low rates Whittaker cites are for kind-tax alone; Johnson
and West (p. 280), after excluding some special levies that Jones does not exclude,
agree on global tax figures close to Jones's, and the "between a quarter and a third"
of my text represents a range that includes both. Jones attacks the Johnson and West
(cont. onp. IZ)
The relative quantity of taxation varied, though after Diodetian

it was always high. But the quantitative dominance or near-domin-
ance of taxation as a mode of appropriation of the surplus must by
itself have integrated the late empire into a single social formation,
despite considerable regional differences. Taxation coexisted with
other modes, certainly - we have just seen its dose coexistence with
rent, the feudal mode - but it soon outweighed them. And this is
seen even more dearly in qualitative terms; tax, and through it the
state, came to domina te the whole structure of the economy. The
social relations of production were aligned not with the interests of
the land lord but with those of the state. This is best shown by the
state's concern to tie peasants to the land. Landlords had tried to
subject tenants in this way in the early empire, through debt bondage
and forced renewal of leases, probably with some success despite
the intermittent hostility of the state. (The hostility was perhaps
surprising since the same problem often arose on state lands.) When
it was in the state's interest to force peasants to remain where they
were and get taxed, it did so through massive bouts of legislation.
Not that peasant proprietors and more independent coloni were often
in practice bound by such laws; as with the similar laws tying artisans
to their professions, there was widespread evasion. But there is no
doubt ab out the seriousness of the attempt made by the state, at least
at its height, to exercise control over the most subject peasant strata.
It may even be that the fourth-century state sometimes exercised more
control over the lives of dependent peasants than some landlords did
themselves. Exactly how this would have affected the work-process
is less easy to determine. The state certainly exacted labour service,
which was only very rarely required by landlords in the Roman
world. But in general the effect may have been slight. It is important
to remember that, apart from the slave mode, all exploitative pre-
capitalist modes are based on peasant agriculture; the work process
of the peasantry, and even their productive forces, are not necessarily
affected by changes in the appropriation of the surplus (and thus
the social relations of production), although the whole mode of
production will be different if these do so change. As we shall see,
(n. 14 COtIt.)
figures pretty convincingly in a review: Jl. Hellenie Studies, lxxi (1951), pp. 271-2.
There are, however, much lower figures for early to mid fourth-century Egypt, with,
if I understand it right, less certain evidence: Johnson and West, Byzantine Egypt,
pp. 234-5; A. K. Bowman, "The Economy of Egypt in the Earlier Fourth Century",
in King (ed.), Imperial Revenue, pp. 28-31. (I have to confess that Egyptian papyri
are quite beyond me; it would be nice to have all this more c1early analysed.)
Whittaker is trying to show that tax did not by itself destroy the Roman economy
("Inflation and Economy", pp. 1-22); this part of his argument is fair enough. Cf.
also his "Agri deserti" , in M. I. Finley (ed.), Studies in Roman Property (Cambridge,
1975), pp. 137-63, with Goffart, Capul and Colonale, pp. 67 n., 137 n. Foraboschi,
"Fattori economici", pp. 94-5, makes the nice point that the economic productivity
that tax is underpinning is successful warfare by the state, and that tax is only
unproductive when this stops.

peasants certainly intervene in the struggle for how much of the
surplus they are obliged to surrender, and to whom, but landlords
and the state seldom have much direct effect on how peasants actually
organize the farming of land, until the on set of agrarian capitalism

(though they can sometimes control the location of labour - as
in demesne farming - types of crop, and so on, which in some
circumstances can produce technical advance).15
Taxation domina ted the economy and was the economic foundation
for the state. Nothing in the late Roman economic system escaped
the state's embraces. Long-distance commerce, for example, was
very largely dependent on the state as a customer, as weH as being
strongly conditioned by regulations and often by requisitions that
served the state's interests. Jones showed this very dearly, and his
analysis, though underestimating the size of la te Roman commerce,
still stands. Commerce and the state continued to keep a dose
relationship, that is to say of state dominance, up to the Carolingian
period and weH beyond; state patrona ge could always bring a mer-
chant far greater wealth than anything as ordinary as commercial
profit. 16
The state needed aH the money (or food) it took in taxes. It had a
lot to spend it on: the army, first and most obviously, particularly
with the beginning of the major period of Germanic invasions in the
late fourth century; the vast central and provincial bureaucracy too;
also the provisioning of the great cities of the empire (especiaHy
Rome and Constantinople); many public works (decorative as weH
as military); and extras such as the corn reserves for famine relief
maintained by most responsible governments, like that of the Ostro-
goths in Italy. The state was the basis for wealth and power in the
late empire. Even the fabulously rich Italian senators of the fifth
15 Early imperial tying: see, for example, Finley, Ancient Slavery, pp. 143-4. Late
Rome: Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 796-803, with Jones, Roman Economy, ch.
21. Roman labour service: see p. 31 below. For an ideological aspect of the state
control of the social system, the Roman preoccupation with stratification, see, for
example, K. Hopkins, "Elite Mobility in the Roman Empire", Past and Present, no.
32 (Dec. 1965), pp. 12-26, and p. 23 below. On peasants, see for example R. H.
Hilton, Bond Men Made Free (London, 1973), pp. 25-62; R. H. Hilton, The English
Peasantry in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1975), pp. 3-19. Peasant stability has led
people, under Chayanov's influence, to say that whether landlords or the state
appropriated the surplus is irrelevant (see E. Patlagean, Pauvrete economique et pauvrete
sociale a Byzance, 4'-7' siecles (Paris, 1977), pp. 271-96, and n. 36 below); this does
not seem to me to be helpful. Nor does the vogue among Marxists for a Chayanovian
"peasant mode of production" (for example Cook, review cited n. 6 above, pp. 376-
86, for references), at least as currently formulated. See Wickham, "Uniqueness of
the East", for further discussion.
16 Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 824-72. For commerce, cf. the vast Mediter-
ranean availability of African Red Slip pottery in the late empire (Jones always
ignored archaeology): J. W. Hayes, Late Roman POllery (London, 1972), pp. 414-27,
for a survey. On post-Roman state control, see, for example, G. Duby, The Early
Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh 10 the Twelfth
Centuries, trans. H. B. Clarke (London, 1974), pp. 57-70, 97 ff.
century could not ignore its patronage and the potential for the
corrupt exploitation of its resources; the whole aristocratic hierarchy
was structured round it, and there was no social position independent
of it. Its funds depended on the goodwill of no power-group, at least

at first; they were collected directly. Its money underpinned every
cultural activity -learning, religion, rhetoric, the leisure necessary
for the belles-Iettres culture of Ausonius and his circ1e, the gigantic
buildings of the late empire. If there is any unifying factor in late
Roman history it is here, in the state; the only cultural traditions
that survived its fall were those that could still carry on on the money
taken from landowning. It is not surprising that most early medieval
elite culture resided in the orbit of the church, already the largest
land-owning institution in the west after the state itse1f (and the
church, unlike the post-Roman state, would not be prodigal with its
land).
Despite the weight and centralization of the state, it did not exist
on its own as the sole focus of public power and wealth; it was firmly
anchored in the cities of the empire. The empire had always been a
cellular structure based on cities and their territories (and creating
them where necessary, in Gaul or Britain, for example). Early
imperial municipia were in theory sovereign, with their own local
senates (or curiae) and tax-collecting mechanisms, and with their
own local aristocracies and public building programmes and local
patriotism. These cities and their elites domina ted their rural territ-
ories in the economic as weIl as political aspects that formed the
ancient mode of production. All Dioc1etian and his successors did
was to partially regularize and vastly increase the taxes that such
urban elites took, sometimes at the expense of the elites themse1ves.
The members of the curia, the curiales or decuriones, were still
responsible for tax-collecting (except for central government superin-
dictions), and had to underwrite uncollected taxes. They complained
often; and modern tears have often been shed at the plight of the
curiales, ground down with re1entless taxation. Such tears are out of
place; many curiales actually did quite well out of tax-collecting, in
which the opportunities for self-enrichment were so vast, despite the
dan gers posed by the central government tax-collectors, who coerced
them and cut into their profits. But the central collectors were few.
The empire was large; the state could not collect most taxes except
through civic officials. And though cities had lost their position of
financial and political independence, an ultimate1y superstructural
change, they were still the financial exploiters and foci of their own
territories, and much money stayed in cities as a result of tax-
collecting, both unofficially and officially. It is this urban focus for
surplus extraction that is the clearest sign that it is still useful to call
the taxation process the ancient mode of production. Each city was
FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM I5

the state in microcosm. Though civic office had for many reasons
lost its attraction, the city as an institution was still strong. Even
provincial senators, technically officials of Rome, not of their native
city, feIt ideologically bound to their own municipium; patria meant

both the empire and one's own local city. To the ideologues of the
late empire, city life and cuIture was the only possible civilization.
When the state fell, confticts expressed themselves as often on the
level of the local state as on the level of central government. Cities
were in fact in ideological terms even more lasting than central
government, at least in the Mediterranean west; the state in the end
survived only on the level of the city, as we shall see. 17
II
The ancient mode may have seemed all powerful in its Dioc1etianic
form, but it was actually in many ways fairly fragile, and between
circa 400 and circa 600 it collapsed in the western parts ofthe empire;
this collapse is the crux of my anicle. It must never be forgotten,
however, that the empire did not fall in the east, and in my final
section I will pose the contrasting history ofByzantium, in inevitably
summary fashion.
The particular vulnerability of the ancient mode lay in its re1ation-
ship to private landed property, in this instance the feudal mode,
though the same problems had posed themse1ves less drastically in
the period of the rise of the slave mode. The state gave considerable
weaIth to those who controlled it, thanks to taxation, but in an
economic system as undeveloped as the ancient world even at its
height, there was not much that could be done with this weaIth
except pU! it into land. As the rich obtained land, however, they
also obtained tax liability. Their private interests as landowners were
thus in contradiction with their interests as rulers and c1ients of the
state. If their lands were large, their private interests outweighed
their public ones. And aIthough the financial resources of the state
were still a powerful focus of loyaIty through their potentialities for
enrichment, the direct commitment to private ownership of property
tended to be a firmer force than the more mediated opportunities
offered by control over state resources. The rich began systematically
to evade taxation. The structures of the feudal mode were, in other
words, more solid than the riyal structures of the ancient mode, for
17 On late Rome as the aneient mode: Hindess and Hirst, Pre-Capitalist Modes of
Production, pp. 106-8; Carandini, Anatomia della scimmia, pp. 134-7. I differ from
both of these in my analyses. On eities and taxation: Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp.
456-8, 732-57, and, for a major legal text from 458, Novellae Maioriani, ii (in
the basic edn. of the Theodosian Code, Theodosiani libri xvi cum constitutionibus
sirmondianis, ed. T. Mommsen, 2 vols, Berlin, 1905, ii pp. 157-9). For Late Roman
urban ideology, classie instanees are Ausonius, Ordo nobilium urbium: Burdigala, or
Sidonius Apollinaris, Epistolae, v. 20, vii. 9, 15, viii. 8, ete.
I6 PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER I03

those with the chance to choose between them. What happened in
the fifth century, to be schematic, was that the barbarian invasions
gave the western aristocracy for the first time this political choice,
between the two poles of the contradictions: on the one hand, the
Roman state and its patronage, which was becoming more and more
expensive as more armies were thrown against the barbarian threat,
and less worthwhile as the armies lost ground; on the other hand,
the possibility of going it alone on the basis of property-owning in
the context of the newly forming Germanic successor-states. They
chose the latter. These states were cruder, but in that measure
less capable of maintaining the financial structure of the empire;
aristocrats mayaIso have expected them to interfere less in local
affairs. Not that many of them would have seen it consciously in
these terms; the choice was the end result of actions more often made
to avoid conftict and taxation - war and taxation being the major
aspects of the empire, however.
Marxists, whatever their standpoints, never doubt that major
changes in the economic structure of society are media ted through
dass struggle, between the dasses dependent on the old structure
and those dependent on the new. Tax-evading aristocrats are not the
most instantly sympathetic heroes of such struggle. Such aristocrats
were indeed protagonists, but not the only ones. Their interests
would have been only marginal but for the intervention of the
peasantry. The peasantry cannot have had much love for the late
Roman state, of course. But it was as yet impossible for them to have
much conception of wh at life might be like without it. There were
relatively few unambiguous peasant revolts in the late empire; aB,
interestingly, took place in northern Gaul and northern Spain, where
an independent peasantry (perhaps with so me surviving collective
organization) was probably relatively strong. Such revolts, staged by
groups that the Romans usually termed Bacaudae, occurred at the
weak points of state control, at the end of the period of the third-
century invasions, and from circa 4IO onwards, when the state
apparatus was disrupted by the invasion of Gaul by the Vandal
confederacy. We know little about their aims, and it is far from
certain that all Bacaudae were peasants, but there are hints that at
the height of their success in the early fifth century (the Bacaudae of
the circa 4IO Gallic rising were not fully crushed until the 440s) they
may have organized some form of relatively non-hierarchical political
apparatus. 18 Outside parts of Gaul and Spain, however, peasants
18 On a variety of more or less mediated dass struggles in late Rome, see G. E. M.
de Ste. Croix, The Class Slruggle in lhe Ancienl Greek Warld (London, 1981), pp.
474-88; Dockes, Medieval Slavery and Liberation, pp. 199-233, and passim. The
Romans seem to have run a conscious conspiracy of silence about the Bacaudae, and
we know almost nothing about them. See E. A. Thompson, "Peasant Revolts in Late
Roman Gaul and Spain", Past and Present, no. 2 (Nov. 1952), pp. 11-23. For medieval
paralIeIs, see Hilton, Bond Men Made Free. For modern paralleIs, E. J. Hobsbawm,
Primitive Rebels (Manchester, 1959), pp. 57-92; and (for Canudos, Antonio Consel-
(eonc. onp. 17)
who rejected the state did so in a less autonomous manner; they

ended up in the hands of the aristocracy.
The key to this is contained in the growth of private patronage,
patrocinium. Patronage was an old relationship everywhere in the

Mediterranean, but as a serious problem for the la te Roman state it
begins to crop up in our texts from the 360s onwards, in Egypt and
Syria, and then in the 440S in Gaul. Peasants were beginning to enter
the dienteIes of rich neighbours in order to avoid having to pay the
ever-increasing taxes. A whole section of the Theodosian Code deals
with this process; landowners offering such patronage are to be liable
for the unpaid taxes, and the relationship is made void. This we read
in six laws dating from 360 to 415; the last (a law for Egypt) finally
concedes the reality of patronage, but, a little hopelessly, insists
on tax-paying nonetheless. An oration of Libanius from the 380s
describes villagers in Syria actively seeking out military protectors
to avoid tax-paying (and in fact in the case of Libanius' own tenants,
to avoid paying rent too, though this is a different process, the
supersession of one aristocratic elite by another). These are all eastern
examples, not western; they show that this particular crisis was not
confined to the west. For the west we have Salvian, writing a religious
tract against the times in the 440S in Gaul. Salvian rails, in striking
rhetoric, against the inequalities of taxation. The poor have to face
more supplementary taxes than the rich, and are the last to benefit
from rebates and the canceIlation of arrears. Taxation forces men,
even the educated, to flee to the barbarians or to the Bacaudae. And,
still more, it forces the poor to give their property to the rich in
exchange for patrocinium, proteetion against tax-paying, and receive
it back as tenants; worse yet, they then find they are still liable
for the taxes. This text is not the less dear for being rhetorical:
independent peasants are prepared to become tenants rather than
pay taxes. They do so, presumably, on the assumption that their
patrons/landlords are going to be powerful enough, whether inside
the state or outside it, to evade these taxes. When this is not true,
the peasants' hopes are greatly deceived, for they end up paying tax
as weIl as rent, but this last twist is less important than the major
point: that rent-paying is to many peasants preferable to tax-paying.
This is not surprising if Jones's tax:rent ratios are applicable here
(as by the fifth century they probably are), for tax actuaIly takes
more than rent. But at the least it means that at a moment of relative
crisis in Gaul (for there was war in Gaul throughout this period,
though not going too badly for the empire), peasants as weIl as
(n. 18 cune.)
heiro's egalitarian state in Brazil of the 1890s), M. I. Pereira de Quieroz, "Messiahs
in Brazil", Past and Present, no. 31 (July 1965), pp. 62-86; R. Faco, Cangaceiros e
Janaticos: genese e [was (Rio de Janeiro, 1963), pp. 41-71,90-122, a reference I owe
to Paulo Farias.

landlords were prepared to choose feudal social relations rather than
the ancient relations expressed through tax. Benefits from the state
had never justified the weight of taxes in the eyes of peasants, and
nor did they any longer for landlords. Tax evasion spread; the
imperial machine began to be starved of funds. Large-scale landed
property increased too, partly indeed through the extension of patron-
age, thus increasing the possibilities of tax evasion. A vicious circle
ensued, a fatal involution of the state. 19
Contradictions do not necessarily get pushed to the point where
something breaks. Tax evasion in the east did not lead to the collapse
of the state. The difference in the west was provided, as I have said,
by the Germanie invasions. These were essentially an external,
almost contingent force; but they cracked the structure of the state.
Indeed, they defeated it militarily, at least in the Vandal conquest
of Africa after 429 and the Visigothic-Frankish take-over of Gaul
and Spain after the 460s. The fifth-century wars kept the army
sufficiently occupied to make mass tax evasion a politically practic-
able activity too. But initially the barbarians caused a crisis of
ideologie al hegemony, from which much of the rest stemmed. In the
early fifth century, writers for the first time begin to give the impres-
sion that the duration of the Roman empire might be finite; hardly
ever, even in the third-century invasions, had they done that. The
sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths, though a trivial detail in the
military his tory of the fifth century, gave many people (including
Augustine of Hippo) a sense of the possible end of the empire. The
settlement of the defeated Visigoths in Aquitaine in 418, though
perhaps a strategie victory for the Roman state (and by no means the
first admission of barbarian settlers), introduced for the first time a
stable sem i-independent foreign body into the "civilized" world.
The possibility of alternative polities became more than amirage.
The third-century invasions had produced local secessions - the so-
called "Gallic" empire being the most important - but these were
faithful scale models of the empire, and controlled by men who
were, at least in principle, aiming at universal rule. This was incon-
ceivable to the German kings, the occasional pipe-dream apart;
however Roman they could make their states, these were not the
empire. It is sometimes even possible that local aristocrats, alienated
by the rigid and rapacious fiscal-administrative centralization of the
19 Theodosian Code, xi. 24.1-6 (ed. Mommsen, i, pp. 613-15); Libanius, Orationes,
xlvii. 4-17 (the standard commentary for both ofthese is F. de Zulueta, De Patrociniis
vicorum, Oxford, 1909); Salvian, De gubernatione dei, iv. 20-1, 30-1, v. 17-45 (ed. G.
Lagarrigue, Sources chretiennes, ccxx, Paris, 1975); cf. Novellae Maioriani, ii. 4 (ed.
Mommsen, ii, p. 159). Secondary works: Patlagean, Pauvrete economique et pauvrete
sociale, pp. 287-96 (by far the most sensitive analysis); Jones, Later Roman Empire,
pp. 773-81; Foraboschi, "Fattori economici", pp. 73-83; Whittaker, "Inflation and
the Economy", pp. 13-14.

empire, may have found the new German polities a more attractive
prospect, the crisis in hegemony here producing a crisis in the
legitimacy of the empire. There is evidence, at least in Gaul in the
460s, of actual political disloyalty by some major political figures.

(Peasants too made this choice often enough for it to become a diche
of the period.) More often, however, the same result was produced
less consciously, through the unintended consequence of regional
self-interest and factionalizing and through the surrender of political
leaders to what now seemed the inevitable German victory in order
to protect their private interests. None of these reactions would have
helped the preparedness of the aristocracy to pay tax. The state grew
weaker by the same measure. It was short of money from the very
start ofthe fifth century, but matters got worse. In 444-5, Valentinian
III, in one of the most indicative laws of the late empire, confessed
that the "exhausted circumstances and affticted condition of the
state" made it impossible for hirn to pay the army, and that he feIt
it impossible to increase the land tax - he put a tax on sales, instead,
though how much it raised is more doubtful. The Vandals were now
totally in command of Africa, the west's principal granary, and
Valentinian's problems largely stemmed from this, but the develop-
ments described by Salvian must have pushed them out of control.
Majorian in 458 admitted defeat so fully that he remitted all outstand-
ing arrears in taxation on the nominal grounds of provincial poverty.
By the 470s, each region of the west had its own barbarian rulers;
the unitary western state had ceased to exist. 20
The new Germanic states were not yet feudal. The controlling
oligarchy in each of the successor-states sought to maintain the
financial mechanisms of the empire as far as they could. This at least
shows that no aristocrat who accepted German rule, more or less
reluctantly, could have done so with the expectation that this alone
would have meant the end of the tax-gathering functions of the state.
Nearly all the states in the west in A.D. 500 levied taxes: the Vandals
in Africa, the Visigoths in Spain and southern Gaul, the Ostrogoths
in Italy, the Burgundians and Franks in south-east and northern
Gaul. (By now we know nothing about Britain.) Such taxation was
successful according to the measure of the internal strength of the
20 Some approaches to the crisis ofhegemony in F. Paschoud, Roma aeterna (Rome,
1967); cf. G. Alfoldy, "The Crisis of the Third Century as Seen by Contemporaries",
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, xv (1974), pp. 89-111. The immeasurably
convoluted politics of the fifth century are best seen in E. Stein, Histoire du bas-
empire,2 vols. (Bruges, 1949-59), though the ground rules are now laid down best in
J. Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court, A.D. 364-425 (Oxford, 1975).
Laws: Novellae Valentiniani, xv (ed. Mommsen, ii, pp. 99-100; translation from C.
Pharr, The Theodosian Code, Princeton, 1952, p. 529); Novellae Maioriani, ii (ed.
Mommsen, ii, pp. 157-9). Ironically, Valentinian's new tax, the siliquaticum, was one
of the few to survive into the early middle ages, in a package of tolls that still existed
in the twelfth century.
kingdoms concerned. The Ostrogoths, whose governmental mechan-

isms are weil documented, were apparently rather more successful
in Italy than any emperor since the fourth century. We cannot,
however, expect the same effectiveness in many other places. And

there was now one crucial difference: the financial basis of the army.
The army formed the major item of expenditure for the late Roman
state, and outside Italy (where Rome and the central bureaucracy
were anchored) almost the only really sizeable item. The political
settlement of each Germanic state assumed, however, that the Ger-
mans formed the army, and these new armies were based on the
land - that is to say, on landowning. The major expense of the state
was removed at one blow. Taxation was here immediately replaced
by rent: the logical conclusion of the refusals and evasions of the
past century. The Germans took from one-third to two-thirds of the
land, as it seems; though they cannot possibly have occupied all the
lands of the empire (in Italy unsettled estates paid tax instead),
the settlement was certainly not necessarily something that Roman
aristocrats greatly benefited from. Nonetheless, the balance of the
economy shifted. It is probably, as we shall see, by this point that
feudal relations had become more important than ancient ones;
Germans were less easy to evade than imperial taxes. And although
taxation continued, its scale was inevitably rather smaller. 21
Taxation remained essential to the early Germanic successor-
states. The whole conception of statehood available to the German
kings of the fifth to sixth centuries involved the ability to tax; the
first major Germanic state to exclude it did not appear until the
Lombards took most of Italy after 568. Ostrogothic and Visigothic
laws and administrative documents show the continuing importance
and organizational complexity of the tax mechanisms. But with the
army separated from central government tax-raising, the process
21 All this is opposed by W. Goffart, Barbarians and Romans, A.D. 4[8-584
(Princeton, I980), but his basic argument must I think be rejected. Goffart maintains
that the Goths and Burgundians, at least, maintained tax levels, and gave to their
soldiers shares in the taxation-rights over individual properties, not shares in the
properties themselves. But the trouble is that rather few texts even have a prima facie
reading to support this, no text says it explicitly (and surely some ought to), and
several explicitly oppose it - thus, for Italy, see Cassiodorus, Variae, ü. I6 (ed. T.
Mommsen, Monumenta Germaniae Historica [hereafter M.G.H.], Auctores antiquis-
simi, I5 vols., Berlin, I877-I9I5, xii, pp. 55-6). Goffart's strongest argument, the
curious passivity of the Romans when their lands are expropriated, is best explained
by a general fall in tax levels. The tax system was much weaker, and the Germanic
settlement was immeasurably more complex and disorganized, than Goffart allows.
(Actually, even if Goffart were right, it would not affect the main argument above,
for either way the Germanic settlement subtracted funding and responsibility for the
army from the state in favour of men who ended up as private landowners: Goffart,
Barbarians and Romans, pp. 206-30.) I am grateful in these matters to discussions
with lan Wood.
It must be added that the level of taxation in the Germanic kingdoms is usually
totally speculative. The Ravenna figure cited above (p. I I) is from the period after
the Byzantine reconquest of Italy, and reflects east Roman rates. But see n. 22 below.
became more marginal. This is best seen by looking at the taxation

ofthe Franks, the most successful (though almost the most primitive)
of the successor-peoples in the west and the only one that happens
to show an unbroken continuity of historical development into a

period when tax was not seriously exacted. Frankish evidence is
more illuminating too, for unlike that for the Gothic kingdoms it is
not restricted to administrative idealizations; we have an idea of
people's reactions to it.
There is no doubt that the Merovingian kings levied the land tax
for a long time. Taxation and its problems are a common motif in
Gregory of Tours's works in the later sixth century, and in seventh-
century saints' lives. Theudebert 1's tax-collector, the Roman Par-
thenius, was killed by the Trier mob at his king's death in 548.
Chilperic 1's attempts to exact new and increased taxes brought hirn
an uprising in Limoges in 579 and (Gregory says) his children's
deaths from plague in 580. Gregory hirnself in 589 defended the tax
exemption of Tours that his predecessors won for the city, but the
bishop of Poitiers in the same year found it necessary to get the
Poitiers tax registers revised to rectify the over-taxation of widows
and orphans. Tax was, then, still perceived as heavy. It was also
universally unpopular. Bishops tried to get exemption for their eities,
and abbots did likewise for their monasteries, usually successfully.
The seventh-century saints' lives underline this: not only increased
taxation excites the wrath of the saints, but any taxation at all.
Already, however, the sketchy indications we have indicate that tax
levels had fallen dramatically from the Roman period, to under 10
per cent of crop. Globally, the economic dominance of taxation had
vanished. And popular assumptions about the legitimacy of taxation
were utterly changed too; even a tax level as relatively light as this
was unacceptable. The Merovingians were strong and taxed as long
as they could, which is to say throughout most ofthe seventh century
at least. But they could not hide the fact that taxation no longer had
any purpose except the exaggerated enrichment of the kings; this
must indeed explain its ever-decreasing legitimacy. There was barely
anything to spend it on any longer. The army was landed; the
administration (except the tax collection mechanism itself) was rudi-
mentary by Roman standards; the vast fiscal lands which the kings
controlled were enough for their everyday needs. The only thing
that the tax system was good for was to give away in gifts, particularly
as exemptions to the church, for short- (or long-) term political gain.
But in doing this, the Merovingians were already speaking the
language of feudal social relations. The land tax became simply one
part of the resources of the fisc, like an estate or atoll; the Merovingi-
ans gave them away indifferently. By the Carolingian period all that
was left of the land tax was a set of fragments with different regional
names, like the tax on cattle (inferenda) owed in seventh- and eighth-
century Maine and Poitou, or the osterstopha (an annual tribute) of
Alemannia and the Rhineland, or the "tax of one fortieth", the
tributum quadragesimale in (ex-Visigothic) tenth-century Galicia; their

origins were lost to memory. 22
* * *
What we have just looked at, in effect, are the main lines of the
history of late Roman taxation in the west. In the rest of this section
I shall try to step back and describe what has happened in more
general, structural terms, be fore laying out an impression of the
initial patterns of the feudal social formation that emerged in the
early medieval period.
The first point to be emphasized is that we are not dealing with
the simple replacement of one mode of production by another. The
ancient mode coexisted with the feudal mode in 300 and 700: that
is, surplus extraction was taken in separable processes in both tax
and rent, the one going to a distant public power (mediated through
the cities at least while the empire lasted), the other going to a more
immediate, though often absentee, landlord. The relationships of
the cultivator to the state and to the landlord were fundamentally
different, the difference being still describable in terms ofthe opposi-
tion between public and private, on the levels of both property and
finance, and also of loyalty, interest and obligation. Both modes,
then, coexisted - antagonistically - in the same social formation.
22 In general, on Gerrnan taxation, see F. Thibault's still useful articles in Nouvelle
revue historique de droit franfais et etranger, 3rd ser., xxv (1901), pp. 698-728, xxvi
(1902), pp. 32-48, xxviii (1904), pp. 53-79, 165-96, xxxi (1907), pp. 49-71, 205-36.
For the Visigoths, see P. D. King, Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom
(Cambridge, 1972), pp. 62-77 (state expenses still included some garrisons), with C.
Sanchez-Albornoz, "EI tributum quadrigesimale", in Melanges d'histoire du mlryen
age dedies a la memoire de Louis Halphen (Paris, 1951), pp. 645-58. For Franks, F.
Lot, L'impiit fancier et la capitation personelle sous le bas-empire et a l'epoque franque
(Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des hautes etudes, Sciences historiques et philologiques,
ccliii, Paris, 1928), pp. 83-118, is still the master survey. See also (for the inferenda)
F. Lot, "Un grand domaine a l'epoque franque: Ardin en Poitou", Ginquantenaire de
l' Ecole pratique des kautes etudes, 2 vols. (Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des hautes etudes,
Sciences historiques et philologiques, ccxxx, Paris, 1921), ii, pp. 10<)-29, and the
instructive recent discussion of some of the ways taxation broke down in W. Goffart,
"Old and New in Merovingian Taxation", Past and Present, no. 96 (Aug. 1982), pp.
3-21. Gregory of Tours, Historia francorum, iii.36, iv.2, v.28, 34, Vii.I5, 23, ix·30,
x.7 (ed. B. Krusch and W. Levison, M.G.H., Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum i.I,
Hanover, 1885, pp. 131-2, 136,233-4,239-41,336-7,343-4,448-9,488). The 10 per
cent figure derives from Lot's calculations (Imp6t foncier et capitation personelle, pp.
85-6) of Chilperic's attempted taxation of Limoges, if the figures are accurate (but is
Chlotar I really then insisting on a thirq of church revenues in the 54os?: Historia
francorum, iv.2). Tolls: F. L. Ganshof, "A propos du tonlieu sous les merovingiens",
Studi in onore di Amintore Fanfani, 6 vols. (Milan, 1962), i, pp. 293-315. For the land
tax in Lombard Italy, see references in C. J. Wickham, Early Medieval Italy: Gentral
Government and Local Society, 4oo-l000 (London, 1981), p. 40.

What happened, as I have said, was simply that the balance shifted;
the dominant mode shifted from ancient to feudal.
We have to ask when this occurred and, indeed, how we would
know it had occurred. Since the whole force of the shift lies in its
effect on social structures, it is through changes in these structures
that we can see it happening. The change was certainly not purely a
quantitative one, that of the relative weight of tax and rent; such a
claim would be extremely mechanistic, reducing a whole system to
a reflection of a set of (undiscoverable) statistical relationships.
That tax came to be less economically important than rent again is
obviously crucial, but the key to the change-over lies most of all in
how this came to be, and what it shows us about the relationship
between landowners and the state. On the other hand it would be
equally misleading to look for the point of change through analysis
of the intentions or ideology of the state itself, for that, as we shall
see, continued in as Roman a form as possible until the fall of the
Carolingians. We can see the change best through the control the
state had over social relations.
The dominance of the state as the ancient mode was directly
expressed through its organization of social stratification. The ex-
ploitative force in the Roman state was the public power; status was
important precisely in that it regulated access to this power and thus,
in its upper levels, to the resources of taxation - as well as, at the
other end, the obligation to pay it. We have already seen the state
controlling the latter through the tying of the peasantry; this certainly
slipped out of the control of the Germanic states. But the state's loss
of control over aristocratic status makes the process clearer. In the
fourth century, hierarchy and status were legally taut concepts,
linked at their upper levels direct1y to state office-holding (or else
senatorial office-holding, theoretically part of the state, but already
perhaps partially drifting out of governmental control). The cate-
go ries most directly linked to wealth on its own were extremely
vague (for example, honestior and humilior); it was the network of
official titles, the categories most useful to the state, that stratified
aristocratic society. In the sixth century, outside Ostrogothic Italy
perhaps, they did not. The complicated terminology for late Roman
office-holding and senatorial hierarchy had disappeared. Gregory of
Tours uses the word senator for any major Roman landowner. Even
the very Roman-looking rivalries for city office that he describes in
his histories are expressed largely in terms of the power-relations
and patronage of landowners. 23 Landowners were seeking office and
23 Stratification: Hopkins, "Elite Mobility in the Roman Empire", and Jones, Later
Roman Empire, pp. 523-606, for the empire; for Frankish Gaul, Gregory of Tours,
Historia [rancorum, passim, with K. F. Stroheker, Der senatorische Adel im spätantiken
Gallien (Tübingen, 1948), pp. 112-15.
status, true, and this was in the gift of kings, but office was not
sought because it carried with it an intrinsic relationship to the state;
its value lay rat her in the land it brought with it. Increasingly, status
became almost meaningless when se para ted from landowning, and

landowning brought status independently of royal intervention. Only
the most powerful of the Carolingians could give men office and
power without giving them land, and even then only in central
government. The direct state involvement in and control of status
was by now lost even to the strongest government. The shift can be
simply expressed in material terms: a fourth-century official, unless
exceptionally and personally rich, did in fact gain more from his
office in terms of wealth and status than he did from landowning.
From the sixth century, however, this was only true in so far as
offices brought land; in the long run these two became the same.
For most of the west, this keeps the point of shift in the fifth
century, which is not surprising, although it is inconvenient, for it
is by far the obscurest of the late Roman centuries. The fifth century
was the point in which the power of the state over the relations of
production was broken, at least in Gaul. (In Italy the change came
later, with the wars of 535-6°5.) Private landowning was henceforth
no longer the means to the obtaining of power; it was itself power.
We have seen that landowners evaded tax and that this caused the
resources, and thus the attraction, of the state to dry up; a time came
when they sought to do this not only through their manipulation of
their positions in the state, but directly through their position as
landowners. The exact moment for this is irrecoverable - historians
have been looking for over a century for the equivalent moment
between feudalism and capitalism, without success - but I think it
could be regarded as implicit in Valentinian's 444 decree and Salvi-
an's perorations, which significantly, unlike those of Libanius, cease
to mention office-holding when they move from the subject of
taxation to that of its evasion. Closer than that we cannot gel. 24
At this point we have to return to the problem of underlying
causes. It is clear that the change was not inevitable, for it did not
happen in the easl. Large-scale landed property was, it is true,
probably more extensive in the west than in the east, and extending
itself independently of the problems of taxation, as landowning
peasants resigned their lands when misfortune struck in the form of
bad harvests or war; the balance between the state and private
landownership was less in the state's favour. On the other hand, the
major aristocratic families were more powerful in the state in the
24 See Patlagean, Pauvrete economique er pauvrete sociale, pp. 291-6, for eastern
patronage as still inside the context of office-holding, and J. c. Percival, "Seigneurial
Aspects of Late Roman Estate Management", Eng. His!. Rev., lxxxiv (1969), pp.
449-73, for the "seigneurialization" of landlord-tenant relations.

fourth and fifth centuries in the west than in the east; they had more
of a stake in it, even if this stake was increasingly used in their private
interests. To repeat points made earlier: the wars tipped the balance
by challenging the state head on; the state was less advantageous to
the aristocracy as a protector and a source of profit, and its ideological
hegemony, as the natural and inevitable focus of political activity,
was put into question. As landowning (the feudal mode) was always
there as the most solid element in Roman society, the aristocracy
could retreat into it. With even the aristocracy wavering, the
peasantry had the opportunity to react as weil, underpinning aristo-
cratic actions and inactions. By the time the Germanic settlement
eventually came, the dominance of tax-raising was breaking up. It
must, however, be emphasized that this is not an explanation for
why the empire was replaced by Germanic successor-states; that was
primarily a political and military problem (though the revenues
available for the Roman army, as weil as the preparedness of Roman
peasants to serve, had something to do with it). It is, rather, an
explanation for why, when this did happen, the successor-states
failed to take the form of Roman states in microcosm, as in theory
they could easily have done and as Ostrogothic Italy for a time
perhaps did. 25 The Germanic hierarchies in each kingdom were
certainly romanized enough (in social, if not cultural terms) to have
accepted such a system. It is because the tax-raising mechanisms of
the empire, the basis of the ancient mode, were already failing that
the Germanic armies ended up on the land. The German aristocracies
exc1uded many members of the Roman aristocracy from state power,
and therefore often replaced them as patrons; but they too established
themselves as a result, not as officials but as landowners. The impact
of war had exposed the contradictions existing in the heart of Roman
society in the west, and one mode gained dominance over the other.
The motors of such a conjuncture are not unknown elsewhere: Russia
in 1917 has paralleis.
One point in conclusion, should be very apparent from this analy-
sis: I do not consider the feudal mode, or even the feudal social
formation, to be a "synthesis" between Roman and German, as
Anderson and others would say, and indeed as both Marx and Engels
said more than once. Early medieval culture and values were heavily
influenced by the Germans - the ideology of lordship, for example,
ending up as vassalage; but that is a different matter entirely.
Feudalism was already present in the Roman empire as a subsidiary
econornic system long before the Germans came, and indeed in so
2S The tax infrastructure may not yet have collapsed so far in Italy, which still had
to feed Rome and fund the central government bureaucracies. The Ostrogoths settled
on the land, but Theoderic was able to re-establish a fairly effective network of
taxation, perhaps for the first time in half a century or more.
far as the German invaders had such things as a landed aristocracy,

these largely resulted from Roman influence. Traditional German
society had once been quasi-egalitarian, with communal elements
that long persisted; Marx sometimes called this a "Germanie mode" ,

and it was certainly a definable mode inside Marx's inadequately
analysed congeries of non-hierarchical systems that he called the
"primitive communist" mode, though to call it Germanic is probably
too restricting - indeed, the more marginal communities of much
of south-west Europe maintained a similar quasi-egalitarian structure
focused on some communal property well into the medieval period. 26
But the feudal mode of production, and feudal social relations, did
not stern from this; only some of the institutional aspects of the
feudal state and its ideology derived some influence from it - the
relation between the state and the free peasantry, for example. The
economic survival of the "Germanie" mode in parts of the empire
where German peasants seem to have settled en masse - Anglo-
Saxon England, the Rhineland and (probably) Bavaria - only added
a subsidiary mode to the feudal social formation, which was already
supreme in all those areas by 500 or soon after; and from the firm
territorial base of the former Roman provinces feudalism slowly
spread into the old "free Germany" (east Francia, Saxony) and
eventually (but much less fully and with genuine independent devel-
opment) Scandinavia. All that the victory of feudalism and the
end of taxation meant in this context was that everywhere peasant
communities without significant large landownership (communities,
that is, which had formerly paid tax and so formed part of the ancient
mode) returned to pre-existing non-exploitative economic systems;
these systems, lacking any form of dependent tenure, were not yet
englobed by the feudal mode of production. Peasant communities
such as these, both German and non-German, survived alongside the
feudal mode, though subordinate to it in the overall social formation,
as long as they had the local strength to do so, and this they continued
to have for many centuries. 27
26 Anderson, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, pp. 107-42; Engels, "Origin of
the Farnily", pp. 574-6; Engels, "Appendix on the Mark", in his Socialism, Utopian
and Scientific, trans. E. Aveling (London, 1892), pp. 96-103. On the Germanic mode,
see Marx, Grundrisse, pp. 477-85. Exactly the same basic patterns existed in the early
medieval central Appennines and in northern Spain, neither of them loci for much
Germanic settlement: C. J. Wickharn, Studi sulla societa degli Appennini nell'alto
medioevo: contadini, signori e insediamento nel territorio di Valva (Bologna, 1982), pp.
34-42, 100-3; R. Pastor, Resistencias y luchas campesinas en la epoca deI crecimiento y
consolidaciOn de la formaciOn feudal Castilla y Leon: siglos X-XIII (Madrid, 1980),
pp. 51-2, a reference I owe to John Edwards.
27 This interpretation is still controversial; ideological considerations run deep in
the historiography. For a good statement of a contrary position, see A. I. Njeussychin,
Die Entstehung der abhängigen Bauernschaft, trans. B. Topfer (Berlin, 1961). For the
Anglo-Saxons, see for exarnple Agrarian History of England and Wales, i pt. 2, ed.
H. P. R. Finberg (Carnbridge, 1972), pp. 400-1, and passim. Anderson is good on
Scandinavia: Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, pp. 173-81; see also T. Lindkvist,
Landborna i Norden under äldre medeltid (Uppsala, 1979), to whom I arn grateful for
much stimulating discussion. For the subordination of the "Germanic" mode to
(cont. on p. 27)

III
The empirical basis of the foregoing is weIl known to those who have
studied the period even superficially, non-Marxist and Marxist alike.
What I have been concerned to do is to focus the debate on the

crucial importance of the surplus-extractive, tax-raising powers of
the state for the characterization of the whole social and economic
structure of the period. In this respect it is literally true that the
crisis of the state is the crisis of the ancient world. When the tax
mechanisms were pulled apart, the columns gave way and the
pediment cracked and fell; we can barely see the fifth and sixth
centuries for dust. The states that followed which were not based on
tax, such as the Lombard state in Italy and the Carolingian state in
Francia, were totally different, essentially based on landowning
rather than tax-raising, with crucially different relationships with
their aristocracies and peasantries. The absence of tax broke the
whole continuity of state functions from the Roman period; all that
remained were values and imagery. I have discussed some of the
Italian implications elsewhere; 28 here, as earlier, I will tend to rely
more on Frankish examples.
The inheritance of the empire is most clearly seen in the history
of the ideology of the state up to the eleventh century, on the local
as weIl as the national level. On the local level this is represented
best by the history of the city. The city under the empire was areal
force of attraction because of its tax-raising role, and the late Roman
urban focus of the aristocracy and of aristocratic values resulted
therefrom. When taxation ended, cities ac ted as foci only for ideologi-
cal reasons. Bishops, conscious inheritors of the Roman tradition,
lived in them everywhere; this at least resulted in a certain persistence
of administrative activity. Aristocrats too could choose to continue
to live in cities and centre their political rivalry on an urban stage; if
they did, cities retained their political-administrative and commercial
importance (or much of it), often right through to the commercial
upturn of the tenth and eleventh centuries. But aristocrats only chose
to do so in some parts of the west - in Italy, southern Gaul, southern
and eastern Spain. Such a choice is more or less exactly an index of
the completeness of the romanization of an area: never fully achieved
north of the Loire, almost non-existent north of the Alps and in
Britain, but in areas where the memory of Rome was an important
touchs tone in self-identification, nearly complete. 29 The possibility
(n . 27 <onl. )
feudal society, see Pastor , Resistencias y Luchas campesinas, pp. 3-4, 9; Engels,
" Appendix on the Mark" .
28 Wickham, EarLy MedievaL ItaLy , pp . 38-42 , 87-8 , I24-45, I72-9, I9I-3.
29 Ibid. , pp. 80-92; for France, see, for example, A. Dupont, L es cites de La
Narbonnaise premiere depuis Les invasions germaniques jusqu'a l'apparition du ConsuLat
(Nimes, I942 ); M. Rouche, L'Aquitaine des Wisigoths aux Arabes (Paris, I979), pp.
26I -300; E . James, The Origins 01 France: From CLovis to the Capetians, 500-1000
(London , I982 ), pp. 43-63 ; for Spain, for example, R. J . H . Collins, " Merida and
Toledo" , in E. James (ed.), Visigothic Spain (Oxford, I980), pp. I89-2I9 .
PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER I03
of making or unmaking a whole urban society by such choices

underlines the fact of their ultimately ideological aspect, though it
also shows how much institutional weight ideology can often have.
The institutional weight of ideology showed itself most grandly

on the level of central government. There is no doubt of the public
commitment and ambitions of the Carolingian state, and of the
widely diffused hegemony of this central commitment at its height
under Charlemagne and for a time under his son Louis the Pious in
the late eighth and early ninth centuries, emphasized by the striking
educative and propaganda impact of the Carolingian renaissance and
fueIled, it may be added, by the almost Roman wealth of the kings
at the point of their greatest military success. This commitment, the
sense of the public nature of the state, of officialdom, of political
responsibility, is almost purely Roman, and it says much for the
residual authority of the Merovingians and the memory of sixth-
century Frankish royal power (as weIl as the force of Roman values
in the church) that it could have survived in Romano-Germanic
northern Gaul, of all places, and even extended its influence to
Anglo-Saxon England. (The Lombards had maintained it too with
little difficulty, and in all the Carolingian empire it was most firmly
rooted in Italy.) The only Germanic feature of the state itself (and
even this had Roman elements) was its conscious links with all the
free men of the kingdom, nominally the descendants of the warrior
settlers of the fifth to sixth centuries; this was certainly a key to the
state's legitimacy, but not to its conception of its functions. The
Carolingian state obtained a wide measure of consent from its aristoc-
racies at the point of its maximum success and for surprisingly long
after. 30 But this success depended directly on such consent. When
the late Roman state lost consent, it eventually crumbled, but the
process was long drawn out and highly mediated, for the state
was based on a direct economic process of surplus extraction. The
Carolingian state, however, was based on land, as were the upper
classes; a Carolingian noble's personal economic power was thus
founded on exactly the same basis as his king's. The only way the
kings could exert power was through obtaining and trusting the
loyalty of their aristocrats; they had to buy it. Initially they could
do this in exchange for offices, which still brought a lot of status for
aristocrats, along with land; but increasingly, when the incessant
wars of the eighth to tenth centuries once again undermined the
30 For all this, see, for example, H. Fichtenau, The Carolingian Empire, trans. P.
Munz (Oxford, 1957); J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Germanic Kingship (Oxford,
1971); R. McKitterick, The Frankish Church and zhe Carolingian Reforms (London,
1977); P. J. Fouracre, "The Career of Ebroin" (Univ. of London Ph.D. thesis, 1981).
I am grateful to Paul Fouracre for much help and discussion on these and related
matters. For peasants and the state, see n. 33 below.

hegemony of the kings, with land above all. In northern Francia this
was held conditionally, "feudally", with tight personal obligations
attached which had genuine moral force; in Italy and elsewhere the
land was often given outright or leased - the distinction is not an

important one for us here. But the state lost more and more land,
and thus more and more power. One may add that it lost at the same
time its links with the peasantry, since military obligations tended
to be restricted to aristocratic clienteles. When the aristocracy lost
interest in the state, it simply disappeared. At the final crisis of the
state, say in the eleventh century in France, public dissolved into
private at the political-ideological as weIl as at the economic level.
The Roman-Carolingian tradition of the powers and responsibilities
of the state either disappeared or was transmuted into something
new: the privatized or contractual system based on personallordship
which is traditionally called "feudo-vassalic", or simply "feudal".
We cannot pursue these themes here, but it must be noted that it
is very easy to be misled into seeing all these processes as teleological,
viewing "fully formed" military feudalism and the seigneuries as the
logical and inevitable result of the economic relations of private
property (with the usual addition of the supposed similarity in
structure between two separate relationships of dependence, vassal-
age and serfdom). I believe even Bloch thought this, and Anderson
falls into the trap when he identifies northern France as the focus of
the "balanced synthesis", which "generated feudalism most rapidly
and completely and provided its classic form". 31 "Classic" or not,
the experience of northern France was far from universal. The
Italians, who saw their "national" state vanish even more quickly
than did the French into a world of private loyalties, maintained its
public ideology in their cities up to their flowering in the Communal
period. And though it is very likely, as Jan Dhondt pointed out, that
the feudal mode could not ultimately support such a geographically
extended political unit as the Carolingian empire, it certainly did not
require the extinction of all political power; Normandy and Norman
England, as "feudo-vassalic" as any society, show an undiminished
political power that certainly had Carolingian (and Anglo-Saxon)
roots, though the modes of expression had changed. The point I
would prefer to emphasize is, however, different. Each of the
numerous tiny political units of the post-Carolingian period had a
different balance of ideology and power - public or private, Roman-
Carolingian or contractual, centralized or seigneurialized - and each
31 M. Bloch, Feudal Society, trans. L. A. Manyon (London, 1961); Anderson,
Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, pp . 154-7, and very explicitly, Anderson,
Lineages of the Absolutist State, pp. 402-12 . Anderson's conscious privileging of the
state is responsible for this; see Hirst, "Uniqueness of the West". His description of
the feudal social formations is, however, most useful: Anderson, Passages from
Antiquity to Feudalism, pp. 154-96.
PAST AND PRESENT NUMBER 103
has to be explained; but ultimately the differences between them,

and indeed between them and any of the other systems of medieval
Christian western Europe, are a matter of superstructure. By the
definitions used in this artide, all were feudal, for they were all
based on the politics and economics of landowning, expressed in its
different ways.32
It is possible, even likely, that the chief social group that benefited
from the fall of the Roman state and the transition to feudal society
was the peasantry. It was not, at any rate, the Roman aristocracy;
the new Germanic states had their own ethnic aristocracies. Some
Roman families changed their names and began to command arm-
ies - that is to say, became German; but most others became
politically marginalized, with the noteworthy exception of those in
southern France, easily the least Germanized area inside the successor
states, where the Roman aristocracies maintained their hegemony for
many centuries. The end of the Roman state was in the long-term
interests of the aristocracy as a dass; but not always in those of the
individual families involved in its breakup. The peasantry, however,
were almost certainly better off; the mechanisms of surplus extraction
were in the seventh to eighth centuries less efficient than they had
been in the fourth. Rent-taking in the empire was conditioned by
the fact that tax took much of the surplus; the aristocracy needed
time to catch up with the possibilities engendered by its absence.
This assertion is, it must be said, totally speculative; but it would
go a long way to explain the apparent poverty of the early medieval
aristocracy - and even, sometimes, of kings. People built smaller
and cruder buildings, wore simpler dothing, bought fewer luxuries
from the east. I do not think this can be explained, as it often is, by
the idea that peasants produced smaller surpluses than under the
empire; no economic or social mechanism has ever existed which can
explain why political changes can produce a permanent productive
dedine on the part of a subsistence peasantry. What must have
happened is that peasants kept more of it for themselves. And the
not insignificant dass of peasant owners which had survived the wars
and patronage agreements of the fifth century will have found that
very little surplus was demanded of them at all; instead, the Franks
and Visigoths, at least, expected them to serve in the army them-
32 J. Dhondt, Etudes sur la naissance des principautes territoriales en France, [X'-X'
siede (Ghent, 1948), pp. 253-8. For discussion of the shift from public to private, see
Bloch, Feudal Society, passim; for arecent model survey of the problem (based on
southern France and northern Spain), see P. Bonnassie, "Genese et modalites du
regime feodal", in Struccl4res feodales etfeodalisme dans l'occident mediterraneen (Ecole
fran~aise de Rome, Rome, 1980), pp. 17-44; cf. the articles on Italy in the same
volume by G. Tabacco, R. Bordone and G. Sergi (pp. 219-61). Some of these states,
notably late Saxon England, even taxed, though this development was a new and
differently based socio-economic development, and relatively economically marginal
(except to kings).
FROM THE ANCIENT WORLD TO FEUDALlSM 31

selves. Such peasants survived next door to or often among the
tenants of the feudal estates of the sixth to eighth centuries. It may
have only been in the Carolingian period - in fact aperiod of
widespread affirmation of aristocratic power, alongside a weakening

of peasant involvement in the army which was the latter's strongest
political defence - that the major step was taken in the extension
of feudal social relations to nearly everyone in society, in the large-
sc ale subjection and expropriation of peasants by the aristocracy. 33
It was in the Carolingian period too that most of Europe witnessed
a major weakening of what remained of the old concept of slavery.
The problematic of the transition fram slavery to demesne serfdom,
via the practice of labour service, has traditionally been seen as a
basic feature of the origins of the feudal mode; as should by now be
clear, it seems to me to be marginal. The feudal mode englobed all
early medieval tenants, whether free or unfree, paying rent or doing
labour service (which is really simply a form of rent, though more
under the contral of the landowner than is rent in kind or money).
But in fact the idea of labour service as a semi-servile halfway
institution between the slave plantation and feudal rent-paying is
not, it is now clear, even empirically valid. Its historicallogic has a
certain inexorable beauty; unfortunately, it did not happen like that.
When the Romans abandoned the slave mode, they went straight
over to rent-paying tenants. (References to corvees are to trivial
duties, and restricted to Africa; they were perhaps versions of the
public corvees required by the state.) Only one early text refers to
heavy labour service, a papyrus from mid-sixth-century Padua;
labour service survived in parts of northern Italy until the tenth
century, and hence, or otherwise, it came to parts of southern
Germany in the early eighth century and to northern France, the
horne of the classic bipartite "manorial system" of the polyptychs,
in the late eighth to early ninth centuries. EIsewhere, throughout
the early medieval period, labour was rare and usually insignificant,
as a number of recent studies of southern France have shown. There
were by then quite a lot of slaves on the land again, thanks to the
fifth- and sixth-century wars, but most of them were simply tenants
and did not owe labour service either. Only one major problem of
analysis remains to be resolved in this context: the fact that the
binary division between demesne (reserve) and tenant plots seems to
pre-date labour service. Merovingian villas of the sixth to seventh
centuries have thus been said to have demesnes cultivated directly
by slaves, separate from free rent-paying tenants. (So indeed did
JJ A. R. Bridbury, "The Dark Ages", Econ. Hisl. Rev., 2nd ser., xxii (1969), pp.
526-37, esp. pp. 532-3, puts similar ideas very nicely. For the fall of the free peasantry
under the Carolingians (despite the attempts of kings to protect them), see E. Muller-
Mertens, Karl der grosse, Ludwig der fromme, und die Freien (Berlin, 1963); G. Tabacco,
I liberi del re nell'Italia carolingia e poslcarolingia (Spoleto, 1966).
estates in the north-west of Spain in the tenth century.) These

demesnes may even have shown a weak survival of the slave mode,
englobed in the relationships characteristic of feudalism. Increas-
ingly, however, it seems that the size or even sometimes the existence
of these demesnes has been exaggerated; those that were not smaB
enough to be cultivated by a few slave households as a sort of "horne
farm" may often in reality have been divided into servile tenures. In
the areas, predominantly in southern Europe, where labour service
was rare or unknown, the status of slave was already a legal category
alone, though carrying with it heavier rents; by the Carolingian
period it was unnecessary, and disappeared during the ninth and
tenth centuries. In zones, mostly in the north (though including the
Po plain) where labour service was important, the changing concept
of servile dependence came to have some links with labour service,
and the principle that serfs were legaBy unfree continued to last as
long as labour did, sometimes (in England) into the late middle ages,
or (in eastern Europe) weB beyond. It is this which has led to the
traditional identification of the two by historians; but the link is a
new feature and cannot be seen before about the ninth century. The
tenants of early medieval Europe must in fact have descended from
la te Roman coloni and free peasants far more often than from slaves. 34
The manorial system is not, however, entirely irrelevant to the
concerns of this article. The system, in its first great age in the
monasteries of the Carolingian empire, is the clearest sign yet that
34 For late Rome, see Finley, Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology, pp. 123-7;
Bloch, Slavery and Serfdom, pp. 1-31; Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 803-8 (pace
King, Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom, pp. 164-70). C. Verlinden, L'esclav-
age dans I'Europe medievale, 2 vols. (Ghent, 1955-77) is surprisingly unhelpful,
regarding slavery almost exdusively as a legal category. France: F. L. Ganshof,
"Quelques aspects principaux de la vie economique dans la monarchie franque au
VII' siede", Settimane di studio, v (1958), pp. 74-91: R. Latouche, The Birth ofWestern
Economy, trans. E. M. Wilkinson (London, 1961), pp. 64-84; G. Fournier, Le
peuplement rural en basse Auvergne (Paris, 1962), pp. 201-16; A. Verhulst, "La genese
du regime domanial dassique en France au haut moyen äge", Settimane di studio, xiii
(1966), pp. 135-60; all of these tend to stress direct slave cultivation of early demesnes.
No demesnes are visible on the estates of St. Martin ofTours in the seventh century:
Documents comptables de Saint-Martin de Tours a l'epoque merovingienne, ed. P.
Gasnault and J. Vezin (Paris, 1975), a reference I owe to Paul Fouracre; there are
few or no corvees or demesnes in the far south in the ninth century: E. Magnou-
N ortier, La societe lai"que et l' eglise dans la province ecclesiastique de N arbonne (Toul-
ouse, 1974), pp. 138-43; J.-P. Poly, "Regime domanial et rapports de production
feodalistes dans le Midi de la France, VIII'-X' siedes" , in Structures feodales et
jeodalisme, pp. 57-67. Michel Rouche generalizes Gasnault and sees everyone in the
seventh century, slaves and coloni alike, as rent-payers, with more evidence: Rouche,
L'Aquitaine des Wisigoths aux Arabes, pp. 210-14; cf. also his "Geographie rurale du
royaume de Charles le Chauve", in M. Gibson and J. Nelson (eds.), Charles the Bald
(Brit. Archaeol. Reports, Internat. ser., ci, Oxford, 1981), pp. 193-211. Italy:
Wickham, Early Medieval Italy, pp. 99-II2, for references. For Spain, see C.
Sanchez-Albernoz, Viejos y nuevos estudios sobre las instituciones medievales espafiolas,
3 vols. (Madrid, 1978-80), iii, pp. 1365-1405, 1553-74; he puts emphasis on skilIed
specialist duties, agrarian or industrial, for slaves in demesnes, a feature also found
in Italy, Anglo-Saxon England, and the France of the polyptychs.

the non-productive classes of Europe were beginning to rediscover
how to extract all the surplus out of the peasantry. The luxury
commercial upturn of the ninth century, reinforced from the tenth
century onwards, could be seen as one of its results. We are entering

the period of "croissance" which marks the "first feudal age" - a
period of growth which, in so far as it expressed itself in luxury
expenditure, was often largely achieved at the expense of the
peasantry.35
IV
The details of the individual history of the various parts of the empire
of course differ from these models, posed for the most part in the
context of the development of France and Italy. We cannot look
at them all. Byzantium, however, produces some very instructive
contrasts in its evolution, and I will finish by pointing some of them
out. As we have seen, the fourth to fifth centuries saw the growth of
the structural opposition between state and landowners in the east
as much as the west; what we know of sixth-century Egypt also
shows considerable advances by large owners in one of the firmest
reserves of an independent peasantry in the empire. But the state did
not fall. It did not even fall in the eastern equivalent of the barbarian
invasions, the seventh-century occupation of Syria and Egypt by the
Arabs and of the Balkans by the Slavs. Why not?
The first problem that has to be faced here in making comparisons
with the west is whether the two histories are strictly comparable.
The fifth century saw the overrunning of every part of the west; the
seventh century in the east at least left the Byzantines with Anatolia
and the Aegean. But, as al ready noted, the point about the Germanic
states is not that they replaced the western empire; it is that they
ultimately failed to reproduce the state power of their Roman prede-
cessors. The tax-raising state continued in the east both in the
Byzantine and Arab parts of the former unitary empire. Not only
this, but the seventh to eighth centuries in Byzantium appear to show
an eclipse of aristocratic power. The state patronized generals and
their armies, at the expense of the local civil aristocracies; the latter
thus lost their independent role to new state subordinates who were
initially more reliable, and indeed more useful. The old noble
families disappear from our sources; it is not until the ninth and tenth
centuries that they (or, more likely, the new military landowning
families) return in the texts to trouble the smooth functioning of the
mechanisms of government. In the power-struggle between state and
aristocracy at the moment of crisis, it was the aristocracy which lost.
As argued above, the Byzantine aristocracy was perhaps not so
35 See Duby, Early Growth o[ the European Economy, passim.
strong as its western counterpart, and that must be one reason for
its failure. Some of its richest members were in Egypt, which the
Arabs had taken, and the Arabs maintained the political and financial
strength, in a new state larger than that ofthe Romans at their height,
to dominate them. The smaller nobility, on the other hand, would
still have found the hierarchies of the state and the career attractions
of bureaucratic officialdom in Constantinople a powerful focus, often
exceeding that of landownership. The peasantry, with a stronger
collective organization and identity than in much of the west, often
long resisted the attempts of aristocrats to become their landlords,
however grateful they were to them for protecting them against
taxation. All of these differences, essentially differences of degree,
helped the state to maintain its force at the moment of crisis. So too
did the nature of the crisis; the Persians and Arabs were external
military conquerors, actual or potential, not internal alternatives,
seductive in their disorganization, like the early German kingdoms.
The wars lasted a long time, but the periods of actual conquest in
the early seventh century were relatively short. Few civilians were
given the opportunities to exploit the situation; instead, the state
did. In fact this essentially political capacity to exploit the situation
to its own advantage was the most evident reason for the Byzantine
state's survival in the east. The militarization of the state did not
initially lead to decentralization, since the army took some time to
acquire lands, either by replacing or marrying into the politically
marginalized civil aristocracy; and these lands were still effectively
taxed. Thus the army was renewed, but the financial weight of the
state did not at all diminish. This coup shows best of all how the
age of wars, first in the west and then in the east, represented not a
necessary turning-point, but only the possibility of a turning-point,
in the balance of modes of production. In the west the balance
changed; in the east it did not. Indeed, the failure of feudalism in
the seventh century in the east set its development back for many
centuries. It was only perhaps in the twelfth century (and still more
after the conquest of Constantinople in I204) that it really began to
replace the tax-raising state as the dominant mode in Byzantine
society; it was a slow development, however, and masked by the
vast and organized ideological structure of the Byzantine imperial
system. 36
36 For Byzantium, good introductions are Patlagean, Pauvrete economique et pauvrete
sociale, pp. 236-96, and her important analysis, again from a Chayanovian standpoint,
'''Economie paysanne' et 'feodalite byzantine''', Annales. E.S.C., xxx (1975), pp.
1371-96. There were other modes in Byzantium as weil, of course; trade was not
insignificant, and sometimes more independent than it had been under Rome. For
the seventh century conjuncture, I am grateful to discussions with and advice from
Michael Hendy and John Haldon; cf. J. F. Haldon and H. Kennedy, "The Arab-
Byzantine Frontier in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries: Military Organisation and
Society in the Borderlands" , Zbornik radova Vizantoloshkog instituta, xix (1980), pp.
79-II6, and J. F. Haldon, "Considerations on Byzantine Society and Economy in the
Seventh Century", in J. F. Haldon and J. Koumoulides (eds.), PerspeClives in
(eont. on p. 35)
FROM THE ANC1ENT WORLD TO FEUDALISM 35

It is evident from this brief characterization that the Byzantine
empire managed to preserve the dominance of the ancient mode,
despite the continued existence of the feudal mode, until well after
1000. The only problem that arises is one of categorization. One of

the keys to the ancient mode is the city/country relationship, with
the city strengthened by its fiscal powers. But in the seventh and
eighth centuries the urban society of the Byzantine east collapsed.
The exact motors of this are almost totally obscure, but its collapse
was in large part the price paid for the survival of the state at the
expense of the civil aristocracies, the bases of urban life. Their
survivors concentrated themselves in Constantinople; the state aban-
doned all pretence of taxing through cities, and organized the process
direct, with a centralization of authority far surpassing Diocletian's-
on a rather smaller scale, however. The empire could be seen as
having become one giant city-state concentrated on Constantinople.
But we must recognize that we are here touching the very edge of
the arena within which the concept of the ancient mode hel ps us to
understand how a society works. The tax-raising basis of the central-
ized Byzantine state fits quite as easily into a more eastern pattern-
with the (partially imitative) Arab empire of the seventh to tenth
centuries and, indeed, the Sassanians in Persia before it and consider-
able variety of states after it, reaching through the Ottomans and
Safavids to the present day. These states, like those of the Romans
and Byzantines, had the problem of balancing tax-raising with land-
ownership, but often over very wide areas and without the institu-
tional mediation of cities. They were very often quite successful too.
The problem of how these systems fit into the category of the ancient
mode of production is scarcely worth posing: they evidently do not.
But the differences between them and, say, the social formation of
the Roman empire seem to be differences in degree, not in type.
I discuss this problem elsewhere in more detail, but a few points
should perhaps be made here in conclusion. The first is that to
imagine these eastern systems as included within the traditional
Marxist category of the "Asiatic mode" is totally unhelpful; the
category is hopelessly inadequate. Besides, to say that the eastern
systems are of a separate mode to that of Rome at all seems to me to
be too sharp a distinction. Samir Amin has recently reformulated
this mode as a "tributary mode", an idea which has a considerable
(n. 36 conc.)
Byzantine History and Culture (Amsterdam, forthcoming), for analyses along the lines
I have set out. The nature of Byzantine feudalism has had a lot of Marxist discussion,
not all very constructive, and much rather over-schematic, for example in Recherches
internationales a la lumiere de Marxisme, lxxix no. 2 (1974). In seventh- to eighth-
century Byzantine Italy, isolated from the rest of the empire, the tax network seems
to have collapsed rather earlier: Wickham, Early Medieval Italy, pp. 75-9, and
especially T. S. Brown, Gentlemen and Officers: Imperial Administration and Aristocratic
Power in Italy, 504-800 (London, 1984).
array of possibilities; not least that it is possible to regard the mode

as having a number of subtypes, one of which would be the ancient
mode. The bypassing of cities would thus simply be accounted for
by the transfer from one subtype to another of the "tributary" mode.

Are we back to butterfly-collecting? I think not, for two reasons.
First, because such a formulation re-establishes something that we
are rat her inclined to forget: that Europe is one end of a large
continentallandmass, with some evidently sophisticated societies in
it. It is unhelpful to assurne that each one of the economic systems of
Eurasia had a completely independent morphology until capitalism
swept them all away. Amin's "tributary mode" focuses us on one
common denominator from Rome to China, that of tax, which, we
must recognize, always coexisted with well-rooted and antagonistic
institutions of landownership. Secondly, the formulation gives full
emphasis to the specific and crucial features of the ancient mode: its
dependence on the structure of the city/country relationship and the
dominance by the former over the latter. We have seen the basic
importance of this relations hip for how the Roman empire worked.
The decentralization of the empire through its cities must further be
seen as a basic presupposition in the analysis of its final disintegration,
at least in the west, something that in the Eurasian context seems to
be actually unusual. The empires of Asia in this respect do have a
more stately stability, as dynasties replaced dynasties onward through
time. In the west, Europe was faced with the degradations, but also
the possibilities, of feudalism. 37
University 01 Birmingham Chris Wickham
37 Wickham, "Uniqueness of the East"; S. Amin, Unequal Develapment, trans. B.

Pearce (Hassocks, I976), pp. I3 ff. The bypassing of the cities as tax-raising foci
could also, it can be noted, occur in the west, at least where cities were in retreat
after the end of the empire and the decline of taxation itself, as in Frankish Gaul and
Visigothic Spain.
3
THE NIKA RIOT: A REAPPRAISAL
Geoffrey Greatrex
THE uprising which took place in Constantinople in January 532 has long attracted the
attention of scholars, the first significant contribution being J.B. Bury's magisterial article of
1897.[ My present aim is to re-examine the Nika riot, and to set it in its wider context: it will
be argued that the significant place assigned to it in ac counts of the reign of Justinian distorts
the reality of late fifth-sixth century Constantinople. The riot was by no means an isolated
outbreak of popular discontent, but just one in a whole series of bloody confrontations in the
capital. 2 It has engaged the interest of historians more than other disturbances for the same
reason that Iustinian's reign attracts such frequent biographies, while Anastasius' remains
neglected: the wealth of sources available for the riot of 532 is much greater than for any other
such event.
Constantinople, like the other major cities of the eastern empire in the early sixth century,
was a violent place. J This stemmed in part from the existence of bands of partisans whose
activities reached their peak in this period; these will be discussed more fully later. More
general causes can be traced, however. A general increase in population has been observed,
which was eventually brought to a sudden halt by the plague that swept the empire in 541-2 and
at regular intervals thereafter. 4 The imperial capital was the destination of many provincials~to
such an extent that Justinian was forced to create a new post in 539, that of quaesitor, in order
to check the large numbers arriving in Constantinople. In 532 it is known that there had recently
been an infiux of provincials into the capital, who may have come in part to protest at measures
[ 'The Nika riot', lHS xvii (1897) 92-119, cf. J.B. Bury, History of the later Roman empire from the death of
Theodosius I to the death of lustinian ii (New York-London 1958) 39-48. There is a detailed treatment of the
uprising by A.A. Chekalova, Konstatinopol' v VI veke. Vosstanie Nika (Moscow 1986, henceforth Konstantinopol'),
cf. eadem, 'Narod i senatorskaja oppozitsija v vosstanii Nika', Vizantiskij Vremennik xxxii (1971) 24-39; note also
the review of the book by F. TinnefeId in lÖBG xxxviii (1988) 442-4. Mention should be made of the extensive
discussion of the riot in C. Gizewski, Zur Normativität und Struktur der Verfassungsverhältnisse in der späteren
römischen Kaiserzeit, Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrus-forschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte H.81 (Munich 1988),
who considers the riot from a sociological perspecti ve.
Briefer accounts may be found in E. Stein, Histoire du bas-empire ii (Paris 1949) 449-56, J. Martindale, Public
disorders in the late Roman empire, unpublished B.Lit!. thesis (Oxford 1960) 32-5, A. Cameron, Circus factions:
Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium (Oxford 1976) 278-80, J. Moorhead, lustinian (London 1994) 44-9 and,
most recently, J.A.S. Evans, The age of lustinian: the circumstances of imperial power (London 1996) 119-25.
I am grateful to Cyril Mango, James Howard-Johnston, Sam Lieu, John Matthews, Michael Whitby and Thanos
Fotiou for comments on this paper; it has also benefited significantly from the comments of the anonymous readers.
2 Riots elsewhere will not for the most part be considered here, though it should be noted that factional strife
was by no means confined to the capital, cf. the bloody riots in Antioch under Anastasius: Malalas, Chronographia
(henceforth Mal.) ed. L. Dindorf (Bonn 1831) 395-8 (tr. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys and R. Scot!, lohn Malalas. The
chronicle [MeIbourne 1986] 222-3), cf. Carneron, Circus factions, 198-201 on factions throughout the east. For a
catalogue of riots elsewhere, cf. Gizewski (n.l) 206.
3 Cf. e.g. Cameron, Circus factions, 294, on the 'relatively high level of popular disorder' tolerated by Roman
emperors, noted too by P. Veyne, tr. B. Pearce, Bread and circuses (Harmondsworth 1990) 392-3 and W. Nippel,
Public order in ancient Rome (Cambridge 1995) 112; cf. also E. Patlagean, Pauvrete economique et pauvrete sociale
aByzance, 4e-7e siecles (Paris 1977) 213 and Averil Cameron, The Mediterranean world in late antiquity (London
1993) 171-4. From 500 it may have become yet more violent as a result of the dosure of the theatres and the
consequent unification of theatre and circus rowdies, cf. Cameron, Circus factions, 225-7 and id., Porphyrius the
charioteer (Oxford 1973) 232, 239; but as Patlagean, op. cit., 211, notes, Anastasius' measures were not wholly
successful. Gizewski (n.l) 206-9, argues (not altogether persuasively) for an underlying discontent with the imperial
system behind the incidences of violence, while conceding that no effort was ever made to change it.
4 On the population rise and the influx into the cities cf. R. Fossier, ed., The Cambridge illustrated history of
the Middle Ages (Carnbridge 1989) 164-7, Patlagean (n.3) 302-3 and Cameron, Mediterranean world, 172, 180. On
the plague, cf. J. Durliat, 'La peste du VIe siede' in Hommes et richesses dans l'empire Byzantin i, V. Kravari, J.
Lefort and C. Morrisson (eds.), (Paris 1989) 107-19 with the remarks of J.N. Biraben, ibid. 121-5.
THE NlKA RIOT: A REAPPRAISAL 61
being implemented by the praetorian prefect John the Cappadocian. 5

As the seat of imperial power Constantinople differed from cities such as Antioch and
Alexandria, for it was here that the emperor had his residence throughout almost all of the fifth
and sixth centuries. A riot in Antioch might result in the death of the comes Orientis, but
inevitably another would follow, along with bloody reprisals. The ruler of the entire empire
might, however, be threatened by disturbances in Constantinople: hence riots there were of .
particular concem to the emperor (as weil as to historians, chroniclers and excerptors, as a result
of which we are much better informed about rioting in the capital than anywhere else in the
empire).6 Such a situation has been weil documented for a later period by Eric Hobsbawm. He
regards the relationship between the urban poor and the rulers in large pre-industrial cities as
'equally compounded of parasitism and riOt'.7 His analysis of such cities in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries can weil be applied to Constantinople. Of the three typical features he
identifies in riots in pre-political societies two may readily be observed in the disturbances
discussed below: (I) a claim to be considered-that is, the 'mob' expected to accomplish
something by rioting, and that the ruler(s) would heed its demands; (2) rioting was directed
against the rich and powerful; the third feature, a hostility for foreigners, was less often in
evidence in Constantinople. 8
Three further aspects of Hobsbawm's study of 'the city mob' should be mentioned. He
underlines the conservative nature of the mob, emphasising its underlying loyalty to the ruler,
who is seen as symbolising the people. The ruler is thus generally viewed as being a just
govemor, even if this characteristic is not observable in his servants; it is supposed that he
would rectify any such injustices as soon as he were made aware of them. The corollary of this
is that this loyalty may dwindle if the ruler fails to respond when these injustices are brought
to his attention; and if he fails to rectify them, like Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, then he risks
losing popular support altogether. 9 Second, Hobsbawm stresses that the mob did not consist
5 John Lydus, De magistratibus, ed. R. Wünsch (Leipzig 1903), tr. A.c. Bandy, Ioannes Lydus on powers
(Philadelphia 1983) iii 70 (p.162.1O-13), Zachariah ofMytilene, tr. F.W. Harnilton and E.W. Brooks (London 1899)
ix 14; Stein (n.l) 442-9 on John's measures and the influx, cf Gizewski (n.l) 168-9, Chekalova (n.1) 38 and Evans
(n.l) 125. Given that John had held the prefecture for less than a year by January 532 (cf Prosopography of the
Later Roman Empire iii, ed. J. Martindale [Cambridge 1992, henceforth PLRE iii] s.v. Ioannes 11), the impact of
his measures by this stage should not be exaggerated: he and his po1icies were a convenient scapegoat for later
writers, be10w n.96. Note too that ear1y in 1789 Paris 'was flooded with unemployed country workers and urban
poor', yet in general they 'played only a rninor, marginal role in the disturbances of that year' (G. Rude, The Crowd
in History, revised edition [London 1981] 200). On Justinian's measures later in the 530s, cf Justinian, Novellae (R.
Schoell and W. Kroll (eds.) (sixth edition, Dublin-Zurich 1954)) 13 (535) and 80 (539) with Stein (n.l) 455-6 and
A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire (Oxford 1964) 692.
6 The importance of the excerptors under Constantine Porphyrogenitus should be underlined: our text of Malalas
lacks many of the details conceming factions to be found in the Excerpta Historica: de Insidiis, C. de Boor (ed.)
(Berlin 1905), as will be noticed from the footnotes below. John of Antioch, the other chief source, survives entirely
through the labours of the excerptors. His fragments are cited from the edition by C. Müller, FHG iv (Paris 1851)
and v (Paris 1870). The sources for the Nika riot are amply dealt with by Bury, 'Nika riot', 92-106, supplemented
now by M. Jeffreys, 'Bury, Malalas and the Nika riot' in The sixth century: end or beginning?, E. Jeffreys and P.
Allen, eds. (Sydney 1996), 43-6.
7 E. Hobsbawm, Primitive rebe/so Studies in archaic forms of social movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries
(Manchester 1959) 115.
8 Hobsbawm (n.7) 111-12 for these features. The hostility of rioters in 512 towards the former praetorian prefect
Marinus was, however, in part based on his being an eastemer: Mal. 407.13 cf 407.17-18.
9 Hobsbawm (n.7) 118-19 with Rude (n.5) 226, 228-9, 241 on the conservatism ofthe crowd; cf also D. Field,
Rebels in the name ofthe Tsar (Boston, MA 1989) ch.!. Under the Roman republic the people assembled at games
tended to be more conservative than those who took part in cOn/iones, cf P.J.J. Vanderbroeck, Popular leadership
and collective behavior in the Late Roman republic (c. 80-50 BC) (Amsterdam 1987) 78. On the unpopularity of
Nicholas II in the wake of the attack on a peaceful demonstration in St Petersburg in lanuary 1905, cf J.N.
Westwood, Endurance and endeavour. Russian history 1812-1986 (third edition, Oxford 1990) 155-6. Note also lohn
62 GEOFFREY GREATREX
'simply of the scum' of the city, but of all the lower orders of society; despite the lack of
evidence about the composition of the mob in ancient cities and the prejudice of many ancient
sources, this point should be applied to the crowd in Constantinople (and Rome).l0 Finally, the
motivation behind rioting. This is viewed by Hobsbawm as a mechanism by which popular

grievances are aired, to which the ruler would respond. If he failed to satisfy the mob, it would
continue to riot until he did. In Constantinop1e, however, the relationship between emperor and
peop1e was more complex; and, as lustinian discovered, concessions to the people might not
always win the day.ll The particular features of imperial policy towards rioters will be
explored in this artic1e.
A particularly late Roman feature of urban unrest must not be passed over. The circus
factions were crucial to the riot of 532 and to many of the disturbances which preceded and
followed it. Thanks to the works of Alan Cameron it is now generally accepted that the factions
had little to do with political or religious interest groups, and much more with a genuine
fanaticism for horse racing in the hippodrome and other entertainments. The factions were
established in cities throughout the eastem empire and incorporated members of every stratum
of society. By the sixth century a significant element within the factions had become notoriously
violent, ever eager to seize an opportunity to murder members of the opposing faction. [2 Their
fanaticism frequently resulted in outbreaks of violence between the two major factions, the
Blues and the Greens, usually in the hippodrome itself, sometimes through much of
Constantinople. 13 But the violent strugg1es between Blues and Greens do not account for all
the unrest witnessed by the capital in this period. The reign of Anastasius was marked by
severallarge disturbances protesting against his increasingly open opposition to the Council of
Chalcedon: in 512, for instance, a crowd rampaged around the capital in protest at Anastasius'
addition of the words 'crucified for us' into the Trisagion. [4
Lydus, De mag. iii 69 (pp.160-1), stressing Justinian's ignorance of John the Cappadocian's wrongdoings.
10 Hobsbawm (n.7) 114 and Rude (n.5) 198-200 with P.A. Bmnt, 'The Roman mob', Past and Present xxxv
(1966) 23-4, repr. in M.L Finley, ed., Studies in ancient society (London 1976) IV (98-9) and T.W. Africa, 'Urban
violence in imperial Rome', Journal of interdisciplinary history ii (1971) 3-4. Rioting partisans in Constantinople
may actuaIly have targeted some of the poorest people, cf Mal. fr.43 (p.171.2-3) and Chronicon Paschale , L. Dindorf
(ed.) (Bonn 1832) (henceforth CP), tr. M. and M. Whitby, Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD (Liverpool 1989)
(henceforth CPW) 622.18-20, if 1tUPUKEVom'\<; means riff-raff, as translated by Jeffreys-Scott, 233, cf C. DuCange,
Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis [Lyon 1688], 1107. It may, however, refer rather to
'informers' (cf G.W.H. Lampe, A Patristic Greek lexicon [Oxford 1968] S.v. 1tupuKEv6ro), as C. Mango has
suggested to me.
[[ Hobsbawm (n.7) 115-6, cf Cameron, Mediterranean world, 174 and Nippel (n.3) 83, 86-7.
[2 Cameron, Circus factions, esp. seetions IV and VI and 272-3. Also id., Porphyrius, and 'Bread and circuses:
the Roman emperor and his people', King's College, London, inaugural lecture (London 1973), and the similar
condusions of G. Dagron, Naissance d'une capitale: Constantinople et ses institutions de 330 Cl 451 (Paris 1974)
363-4. For a survey of reactions to Cameron, cf G. Vespignani, '11 circo e le fazioni dei circo', Rivista di Studi
Bizantini e Slavi v (1985) 85-6; also A.S. Fotiou, 'Byzantine circus factions and their riots', JÖBG xxvii (1978) 6-7
(backing Cameron's interpretation). Recently D. Misiou has sought to portray the Blue faction as the shock-troops
of Justinian, 'Ot ~tVEtOt O''tum6rtE<; O''t1]v E1tOxi) to'll IO'llO''ttvtUvoi)' in C. MaItezou, ed., H KUElrJJ.lEptVi) ~0J1\ O''to
B'll~av'tto (Athens 1989) 43-73; but her view that Procopius is describing only the Blues in Anecdota, J. Haury (ed.),
rev. G. Wirth (Leipzig 1963) 7.8-14 is not convincing. See too C. Roueche, Performers and partisans at Aphrodisias
in the Roman and late Roman periods (London 1993) 138-40 and 154-5, on the pervasiveness of the faction
groupings throughout society and the consequent increase in the scale of riots. As she notes, ibid. 132, some partisans
identified themselves (in the hippodrome) by their profession, while others, presumably the most fanatical, were
seated simply as Blues or Greens.
[) Cf e.g. the disturbances at the Brytae festival in 500/1, on which cf Martindale (n.l) 28, apparently not in
the hippodrome; the riot of 498, however, reported in MaI. 394 and CP 608, started in the hippodrome, cf Martindale
(n.l) 27, but then spread all over the capital.
[4 Martindale (n.l) 30 assembles the evidence, cf. CPW 102 n. 321. Gizewski (n.l) 205-6, also offers abrief
catalogue of disturbanees.
THE NIKA RIOT: A REAPPRAISAL 63
In this consideration of the Nika riot, two lines of argument will be pursued. First, the
differing attitudes of Anastasius, Iustin and Iustinian to the factions will be explored. It will be
argued that Anastasius maintained an uncompromising stance towards them for the first decade
of his reign, although he became more tolerant later on; this did not lead to a decrease in the
number of disturbanees, however, which tended then to be directed against his anti-Chalcedon-
ian policies. 15 Under lustin the license of the factions went without serious check; the
emperor's nephew, Iustinian, played a considerable role in intensifying their rivalries by giving
massive support to the Blues in this period. Once on the throne, however, Iustinian reverted to
the position of Anastasius, and attempted to take a hard line against the partisans. After some
three decades of unrestricted, even encouraged, activity, the Blues and Greens did not believe
that Iustinian would maintain his stance; and hence the emperor had such difficulty in imposing
order on the capital in 532. 16 Second, it will be shown that little took place during the Nika
revolt that had not occurred before-for instance, the uniting of the factions or the near-fiight of
an emperor. In fact, the behaviour of both Iustinian and the rioters in 532 went along a well-
worn course already familiar from previous disturbanees, until a new emperor was hailed in the
hippodrome. 17
The importance of the hippodrome as the scene for the acc1amation of a riYal emperor
should be underlined. The hippodrome was the focal point in relations between the emperor and
the people, and played a central role in many of the riots which broke out in the capital: these
could take place in the hippodrome even if no games were being held, as happened in 550. The
emperor could be urged to attend the games if he were absent, and he in turn could sumrnon
the people there by an appearance in the royal box (kathisma). Here the people had the
opportunity of putting their demands to the emperor, and he of responding positively, or
ignoring them, or of sending in the troops against agitators. The seriousness with which the
acc1amations of the crowd were treated is underlined by a law passed under Leo, directed
against interpellatio tumultuosa and those stirring up the people. To know how to deal with the
demands and c1amours of the people assembled in the hippodrome was, as will be seen, one of
the toughest challenges facing an emperor. It is appropriate and unsurprising therefore that it
was here that the Nika riot had its beginning and end. 18
15 For this division of Anastasius' reign, cf. Cameron, Porphyrius, 236-43.

16 On Justin's attitude to the factions, cf. A.A. Vasiliev, Justin I. An introduction to the epoch of Justinian the
Great (Cambridge, MA 1950) 115-19, and below. MattindaJe (n.l) 85 suggests that Justin changed his stance in 525
rather than 527, from the time of his appointment of Theodotus as city prefect to control the factions (Proc. Anecd.
9.37-46). A fragmentary philosophicaJ work, the De scientia politica dialogus, which may weil date from the 520s,
lays great stress on the power of the partisans at this time-Ei~ IlKPOV ÖUV=tEtu~ (v 101); cf. Menae patricii cum
Thoma referendario De scientia politica dialogus, ed. C.M. Mazzucchi (Milan 1982) v 97-101 (pp.32-3). Mazzucchi,
xiii, places the work between 507 and 535; A. Fotiou, 'Recruitment shortages in sixth-century Byzantium', Byzantion
lviii (1988) 67 n.14 suggests that the work was set (if not composed) in the period leading up to the Nika riot.
17 Cameron, Circus factions, 183-4 and 'Bread and eircuses', 12-13, aptly eites Hobsbawm (n.7) 115: 'Both
sides knew how far they could go [in their rioting],-but in 532 the rioters went too far. Tbe acclamation in the
hippodrome of a rival emperor, selected by the crowd, had no precedents in Constantinople. Cf. also RuM (n.5) 242
on disturbances tending to follow a traditionaJ pattern.
18 Mal. 484 for a riot in the hippodrome when no games were taking place; id. fr. 43 (in de Insidiis pp.170-1,
tr. Jeffreys-Scott 232), for the factions asking for Justin to come and watch the races in 520. Mal. 407-8 for the
people flocking to the hippodrome when they hear of Anastasius' appearance there (in 512). For demands made by
the people in the hippodrome, cf. Carneron, Circus Factions 185-7; aJso Tbeophylact Simocatta, History, C. de Boor
(ed.), rev. G. Wirth (Leipzig 1972), tr. M. and M. Whitby (Oxford 1986) viii 7.9 (with p.220 n.33 in the translation)
for an exarnple of a chant of the factions with certain demands. On the hippodrome as the focus for relations between
people and emperor, cf. Z. Yavetz, Plebs and princeps (Oxford 1969) esp. 18-20, F. Millar, The emperor in the
Roman world (London 1977) 369-75, K. Hopkins, Death and renewal (Cambridge 1983) 16-19, Veyne (n.3) 400-1,
Cameron, Circusfactions, seetion VII, Dagron (n.11) 302-3 and esp.314-15; also Patlagean (n.3) 212-3, and the law
of Leo, Codex Justinianus (henceforth c.J.) P. Krueger (ed.) (eleventh edition, Berlin 1954) ix 30.2 (466).
***
Before the Nika riot is treated in detail, a distinction between various types of riots is
necessary. Three sorts may be distinguished for our purposes, which certainly do not exhaust
all the possibilities.\9 The first is that of riots over ecc1esiastical affairs, which were particularly
prevalent under Anastasius (and non-existent under Iustin and Iustinian). At first sight it rnight
be thought that these were nothing to do with the factions-and Cameron is surely right in
denying any straightforward linkage between Greens and Blues and supporters and opponents
of Chalcedon2°-but this does not imply that the partisans were not involved. 21 Although this
category of riot does not have a direct bearing on the consideration to be given to the Nika
revolt, it is worthwhile at least to note a few cases where partisans were probably involved in
such disturbances. In 496, for instance, there was a riot in favour of the deposed patriarch
Euphemius-in the hippodrome. 22 In 512 there was more serious and widespread rioting in the
capital against the opponents of Chalcedon, in which the pro-Chalcedonian former magister
militum per Orientem Areobindus was acc1aimed emperor. When Anastasius succeeded in
pacifying the riot, he entreated the rioters 'to stop murdering and attacking people at random'.
Whilst doctrinal matters could undoubtedly lead to the murder of selected opponents, the notion
of random killings is much more associated with the partisans?3 An outbreak of unrest as a
result of discontent over religious policy thus provided the partisans with an ideal opportunity
to carry out killings of their own.
The second type of riot is the relatively straightforward melee which was associated with
the chariot races, likened by Cameron to modem-day football hooliganism. This would generally
pit one faction against another, and could be sparked, for instance, by success in the races: thus
the Greens at Antioch were inspired to indulge in great bloodshed in 507 following Porphyrius'
victory in the hippodrome there. 24 Likewise in SOl the Greens ambushed the Blues in the
theatre of Constantinople during the Brytae festival, and killed three thousand of them (although
this seems more premeditated). The cancellation of games or other forms of entertainment could
also lead to general disturbances. 25
This second sort of riot, in which the violence of the partisans was directed chiefty against
other partisans, while a nuisance to the emperor, and disruptive of the tranquillity of the capital,
hardly endangered his rule. 26 The third and final type, however, involves the anger of the
\9 Cf. Cameron, Circusfactions 271, for his four-fold distinction; I omit from consideration here those riots over
economic factors (e.g. famine), and have altered his other categorisations somewhat.
20 Circus factions ch.VI.
2\ As Cameron countenances, Circus factions 153.

22 Theodore Anagnostes (= Theodore Lector), G.c. Hansen (ed.), Kirchengeschichte (Berlin 1971) 455; cf. Stein
(n.l) 166.
23 Mal. 408 for the killings at random; cf. Proc. Anecd. 6.25, far his emphasis on such random murders by the
partisans.
24 Cameron, Porphyrius 243 and Circus factions 277 (on the events of 507), ibid. 293-4 on the analogy with
hooliganism. Gizewski (n.l) 186, also has a category for this type of disturbance, although he includes religious riots
in it as weH; cf. T. Gregory, 'Urban violence in late antiquity' in Aspects of Gmeco-Roman urbanism, BAR
International Series 188, R. Marchese (ed.) (Oxford 1983) 143-5.
25 lohn of Antiochfr. 214b.2 on the cancellation of games in 493, 214c on the Brytae massacre, cf. Marcellinus
comes, Th. Mommsen (ed.), MGH AA XI.! (Berlin 1893) a.501.1-3 (reprinted with translation in B. Croke, The
Chronicle of Marcellinus [Sydney 1995]); lohn of Antioch,fr. 214e.12 on the cancellation ofraces in 514). See also
Martindale (n.l) 28 and the list of Cameron, Porphyrius 233-4. Many more examples of inter-factional fighting could
be provided from later in lustinian's reign (e.g. Mal. 490-1 on riots in 562).
26 Cameron, Circus factions 294-5, stresses that 'the typical faction riot was not a protest, it was a battle
between the two colours.'
partisans being directed against the authorities, which therefore presented far more of a threat
to the regime. There was always a danger that the second type of riot might lead to the third:
inter-factional fighting causes serious loss of life, so the troops are sent in; whereupon the
aggrieved faction complains at this heavy-handedness, demands the release of those arrested,
and may proceed to riot further. 27
Two key players may be sing1ed out in the reaction of the authorities to unrest in the
capital. The emperor is of course the prime figure, but the city prefect is also of great
importance. The maintenance of order in Constantinople was the prefect's responsibility, and
he could impose harsh measures (inc1uding the death penalty) on rioters. Ultimately, however,
his position depended on the emperor: in times of riots the dismissal of a prefect was often
demanded, and was an easy concession for the emperor to make. It was also just as easy to
unmake, as is shown by how quickly the praetorian prefect lohn the Cappadocian was restored
to his position after his dismissal in lanuary 532: he was back in office before the end of the
year. 28 Thus quite vigorous measures against rioters could be implemented by a prefect,
probably at the emperor's insistence; and should these attract more criticism than desirable, a
more popular appointment could be made to the prefecture and hostility towards the emperor
readily deflected. 29
The relation of these two figures to the factions could be of some significance to the
occurrence and intensity of riots. Clearly the primary aim of the emperor and his ministers was
to avoid riots of the third type distinguished above; a certain amount of inter-partisan fighting
need not have caused them any great concern. 3D Hence the easy option for an emperor was to
give his support to one of the two major factions, thereby ensuring that half of the partisans at
any rate would be inc1ined to throw in their lot with hirn rather than make common cause with
their enemies. Thus Theodosius 11 openly backed the Greens, and in the forty-two years of his
reign only one riot is recorded. 31 Marcian, on the other hand, backed the Blues, and took
punitive measures against the Greens following riots; whether these riots were occasioned by
imperial favour for the Blues after Theodosius' partiality for the Greens, is unc1ear. Leo's
sympathies are uncertain, though he was once thought to have supported the Greens, while Zeno
is known to have backed the Greens. lustinian took this option to a marked extreme during
much of the reign of lustin, but once on the throne his support for the Blues abated. 32
27 For instance, the riot in Antioch in 507 involved an attempt to arrest some partisans following an earlier
disturbance, Mal. 396.16-397.6; also the riot in Constantinople in 498 (on which below n.43), sparked by Anastasius'
refusal to release some Green partisans. This type of riot could also arise independently of the factions, it appears,
such as in the case of the massacre at Thessalonica in 390 or the riot in Rome in 355: both of these took place
following the arrest of charioteers, cf Cameron, Porphyrius 236. See also Gizewski (n.l) 186-7, noting how
disturbances may become uprisings against the regime.
28 Cf. PLRE iii s.v. Ioannes 11; the fact that Theodorus qui et Teganistes 57, PLRE ii, l. Martindale (ed.)
(Cambridge 1981), was prefect of Constantinople four times also implies a swift tum-over in city prefects, even if
it is not possible to date all his periods in office. On the powers and role of the praefectus urbi (city prefect), cf
Gizewski (n.l) 164-5, Dagron (n.12) 281-5 and Nippel (n.3) 98-100. In the early empire praetorian prefects such as
Sejanus and Plautianus likewise had been sacrificed to public opinion, cf Miliar (n.18) 374 and Nippel (n.3) 88.
29 A good example of such a dismissal is that of lulian, disrnissed c. 491 for being too harsh in his suppression
of the rioters, lohn of Antiochfr. 214b.2 and PLRE ii s.v. Iulianus 14.
30 As Cameron, Circus factions 184 and 294, notes.
31 This may, of course, be due in part to the nature of the sources of the period, as Cameron, Circus factions ,
184-5, and Martindale (n.l) 79-80, note. Mal. 351-2 on Theodosius' sympathies, cf Dagron (n.12) 351·2; Marcellinus
comes a.445.2, for the riot. Veyne (n.3) 393 argues that in the early empire the emperors usually backed the Blues.
32 On Marcian's sympathies, cf Mal. 368 with Dagron (n.12) 352; on Zeno's, Mal. 379; on Leo's, Cameron,
Circus factions 104 and 129. On imperial sympathies generally, Porphyrius 232-3. From accounts of riots late in
lustinian's reign, it appears that the emperor continued to favour the Blues to some degree-cf e.g. Theophanes, C.
de Boor (ed.) (Leipzig 1883) 236.15-16 (Justinian takes a long time to be reconciled with the Greens after rioting
The more dangerous alternative was to strive for impartiality and back neither faction.
Anastasius, for instance, decided to back one of the two rninor factions, the Reds. 33 Clearly
this could increase the chances of the Blues and Greens uniting, although this is not attested as
having occurred under Anastasius (save in Alexandria).34 His measures in dealing with riots
were often harsh, but in 498 he seems to have been forced to make some concessions following
a disturbance in the hippodrome. When he refused to release some Greens who had been
arrested, a riot broke out. The troops were then sent in, many buildings were burnt down, and
the emperor hirnself was nearly killed. But it is reported that in the end he appointed Plato, who
was patron of the Greens, as city prefect: even if the prisoners were not released, this must have
been a popular move with the Green faction at least. 35 Thus while Anastasius maintained his
neutral stance towards the Blues and Greens, he could improve his relations with one faction
or the other through an appropriate appointment to the post of city prefect. At the opening of
Justin's reign comes the first sign of the potential danger of the factions in the capital uniting:
in this case they jointly requested various favours from the emperor while he was absent from
the hippodrome, all of which he granted. The partisans then rampaged around the capital in
delight. 36
Justinian for his part combined the worst elements of the policies of Anastasius and Justin.
During the reign of his unc1e he gave overwhelming support to the Blues, exacerbating the inter-
factional rivalry in the capital. While Justinian was ill for a short period in 523, Justin sought
to c1amp down on the violence, and appointed a more hard-line city prefect, Theodotus. His
measures against the Blues proved too harsh, however, and he was soon disrnissed by the
emperor; Procopius alleges that Justin then had to conceal hirn in Jerusalem for his own safety.
Clearly the power of the factions had reached unprecedented heights. 37 From the mid-520s,
however, Justin and Justinian tried to curb the excesses of the partisans. According to Procopius
the Blues became 'the most discreet men in the world', having lost Justinian's support.
Procopius also reports that no direct action was taken against the partisans, however. Once
Justinian had become co-emperor in April 527, further measures were undertaken: Malalas
in 559) and Mal. Ir. 51 (pp.175-6, translation in Jeffreys-Scott 305-6). where troops intervene specifically against
the Greens; also Theophanes 243.5-9, where Justin II menaces the Blues by reminding them that Justinian is no
longer alive.
33 Mal. 393 and cf Cameron, Porphyrius 241 and n.2.
34 In 516, cf Mal.fr. 41 (pp.l69-70). Theophanes 162.27-163.16, Theodore Lector 522, with Martindale (n.l) 10.
35 Mal. 394 and Ir.38 (p.168), CP 608; below n.43.
36 Mal. Ir. 43 (pp.170-1) and cf Vasiliev (n.16) 116-17 and the notes of Jeffreys-Scott (n.2) 232. Vasiliev, loc.
eil. suggests that the factions united in favour of Vitalian, which is possible (though the state of the text makes the
connection uncertain); if this view is correct, the parallel with the Nika riot would be strengthened. The restlessness
of the factions was of some importance during the deliberations over Anastasius' successor, it should be remembered:
cf Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De cerimoniis, U. Reiske (ed.) (Bonn 1829) i 93.
37 Justinian's support for the Blues: Proc. Anecd. 7.1-7; 22-33; 39-42 (with Patlagean's comments [n.3] 227-8);
also 8.2 (Justin witnesses this license in the hippodrome but fails to pay heed to it) and Evagrius, Ecclesiastical
History, J. Bidez and L. Parmentier (eds.) (London 1898), iv 32. Anecdota 9.35-42 for the case of Theodotus (in the
Loeb translation of H.B. Dewing 'the Emperor' is given in place of 'Justinian' at §39 on p.115), cf. PLRE ii S.V.
Theodotus 11 and Bury (n.l) 22 and n.6. On his measures, cf also Vasiliev (n.16) 117. Theophanes 166.26-33 (cf
Mal. 416), states that the license of the factions went unchecked for five years from 519/20, until the sixth year of
Justin's reign. There is an interesting independent account of Justinian's backing far the Blues in this period in John
of Nikiu, The Chronicle 01 John, Bishop 01 Nikiu, tr. R.H. Charles (London 1916) 90.16-23 (pp.134-5): according
to John, Theodotus arrested Justinian for his activities, but released him when he fell ill. The people then called for
a good emperar and for new officials, whereupon Justin sought to regain popularity by replacing Theodotus with
Theodore; Theodore, along with the new comes Orientis, Ephraem, then proceeded to put an end to the inter-factional
strife. Cf the account of Mal. 416-17 and the comments of Jeffreys-Scott (n.2) 235.
describes lustinian's actions thus: 38

Kat Ei<; ltücro.v ltOA.tV 'tii<; . Prol'o.i1Cf\<; ltoA.ttfio.<; ltOt1'\cro.e; l'€"(ttA.l1V Ko.tucrto.mv· Kat EV EKUcr'tl)
ltOA.€t Ko.tEltfl'ljIf 8fio.<; crUKPo.<;, t'OOtf ttl'ropl18iiVat toue; (l't<l!;io.<; 1'\ q,ovou<; ltOtOUVto.<;, Oltoiou
0' {xv \l1tUpXrom I'EPOU<;, t'OOtf I'1'l WA.I'txv ttvo. tou A.omou 'tiiv Oio.vÖ1)ltotf Clto.!;io.v ltOti'lcrat,
q,o~ov EVOft!;Ü!'fVOe; Eie; ltucro.<; tue; Elto.PXlo.<;. tv ot . AVttOXfl<;x. 'tiJ I'f-yUA.1J ltpÖe; OA.lyov KatpÖV
E"(tVOVtO EV q,tA.i<;x. oi /iiil'ot.
He established a secure, orderly condition in every city of the Roman state and despatched sacred
rescripts to every city so that rioters or murderers, no matter to what faction they belonged, were to be
punished; thus in future no one dared to cause any kind of disorder, since Justinian had struck fear into
all provinces. For a short period the factions of Antioch were on friendly terms.
Malalas 422.14-22, Ir. Jeffreys-Scott (n.2) 242-3
It may be no coincidence that once they were faced by equal severity, the factions became more
inclined to unite. Thus they did so in lanuary 532, when the city prefect Eudaemon was holding
in custody partisans of both Blues and Greens-an obvious incentive to the two sides to unite,
particularly when one representative of each faction escaped the hangman's noose.39 lustinian,
however, remained tme to his rescripts of 527 and refused to acquiesce in the demands of the
factions to release the two partisans; and for this stance he reaped the reward for the indulgence
shown to the partisans over the preceding years.
***
In order to put the course of the Nika riot into a wider perspective, it would be helpful to
compare it with other disturbances. We are here most concerned with the third type of faction
riot distinguished above, in which the wrath of the partisans was directed chiefty against the
government, but paralle1s from both the second and third types will be cited. If we take the case
of the Nika riot as a paradigm for a faction rising against the authorities, it will be possible to
illustrate both how it was sirnilar to and different from other such riots; it will also be seen how
typical the actions of both sides were, and how in the end they led to such an atypically large
effusion of blood. For the sake of convenience the sequence of events of the Nika riot will be
split up into a number of phases.
Phase one: the execution of the partisans. The city prefect Eudaemon had arrested some
partisans, and found seven of them guilty of murder. He decided to have them executed at
Sycae, across the Golden Horn, by various means, but one Green and one Blue were saved from
hanging by the breaking of the scaffold. The reaction of the bystanders was to 'acc1aim the
38 Mal. 417, for measures against the factions in 524/5 (cf. Theophanes 170.24-28), noting too the banning of
speetacles and dancers throughout the East. But cf. R. Scott, 'Malalas, the seeret history, and lustinian 's propaganda' ,
DOP xxxix (1985) 99-104 for Mal. reflecting official sources rather than reality- a not unlikely possibility in this
ease, cf. Patlagean (n.3) 211. On the Blues beeoming crCO</lpovtcrtatot, cf. Anecdota 7.3 with Vasiliev (n.16) 119
n.14; also Scot!, art. cit. 103-4, on the fear ($6ßoe;) said by Mal. here to have prevailed at this time.
39 Mal. 473 and Theophanes 184.4-15, for the bungled exeeution of two of the partisans; Theophanes states that
the scaffold broke twice. Gizewski (n.l) 238 diseusses this episode in detail. Mal. 491.16, referring to the aftermath
of factional violenee in Constantinople in 562, states that some partisans 'were even beheaded' (ttvte; M Kat
Clltftl'fllhlcrav); this would seem to imply that the execution of partisans was rare, and hence that Eudaemon's
measures were unusually harsh, cf lohn Lydus, De mag. iii 70.2 (p.162.17-18). It is possible that the partisans had
been restive on account of the lack of the eonsular games usually held in early lanuary (on which cf Bury (n.l) 347
and n.2): no consuls had been appointed in the east since Justinian held the office in 528 (with the possible exception
of Decius in 529), cf. PLRE iii 1457. For another good example of factions uniting in the face of repressive
measures, cf Theophanes 230.5-14: the Samaritans, in the face of lustinian's measures against them, combined to
form a Green-Blue faction in 555 (Prasinovenetoi- the same word used in the Nika riot).
emperor' upon witnessing this, and to rescue the two partisans; in light of the conservative
nature of 'the mob' noted above, such a loyal acc1amation should not occasion surprise. Some
monks from the monastery of St Conon then took the two partisans across cO the church of St
Laurence, where they were put under surveillance by the prefect's troopS.40 These events took
place on Saturday 10 lanuary 532, and on the following Tuesday (13 lanuary) the factions
c1amoured for the pardon of these two men, still trapped in the church of St Laurence.
lustinian's refusal to acquiesce in their demands- in fact to give any response whatsoever- led
to the first serious outbreak of rioting. 41
Paralleis may easily be found. In the great riot at Antioch in 507 the praefectus vigilum had
attempted to arrest some troublemakers from the Green faction. These sought refuge in a church
outside the city, but were seized by the prefect Menas nonetheless; one of them was even
murdered in the church itself. Not surprisingly this led to a full confrontation between the vigiles
and the Green faction; the Blues in this case sided with the vigiles, however, such was the
rivalry between the factions in Antioch at the time.42 Even c10ser to the situation in 532 was
that faced by Anastasius in 498, when the Greens appealed to hirn during the chariot-races to
release some members of their faction who had been imprisoned by the city prefect 'for
throwing stones'. Anastasius' reaction was more stolid than lustinian's : he refused their
demands, and immediately sent in the troops when the factions then proceeded to riot. The
crowd in the hippodrome was surrounded by the soldiers and resorted to extensive incendiarism.
Although much of the centre of the city was damaged, many were arrested and punished;
Anastasius sensibly offered a sop to the Greens, however, by replacing the previous prefect with
Plato, their patron. 43
One further interesting parallel may be offered. In 607, during the celebrations held to mark
the wedding of the comes excubitorum Priscus to the Emperor Phocas' daughter Domentzia, the
emperor took offence at the action of the demarchs of the Blues and Greens: they had set up
the laurata of the coup1e alongside the imperial ones, and so Phocas ordered that the demarchs,
40 Mal. 473-4; Theophanes 184. Cf Theophanes 115. where (in 467) the crowd approves of the response of the
arraigned philosopher Isocasius to the praetorian prefect Pusaeus ; they therefore acclaim the emperor (Leo). who
spares Isocasius when this comes to his attention. Cf also Rude (n.5) 228-9; the interpretation of Gizewski (n.l) App.
XV. 238, who thinks it impossible that the crowd can have genuinely acclaimed the emperor, should be rejected.
Sycae was a frequent site of executions, cf CP 565, 694 with CPW 143 n.403 (also on the nearby monastery of St
Conon). On the location of the church of St Laurence (in the Pulcherianae), cf R. Janin, Le Siege de Constantinople
et le patriarcat oecumenique. iii Les eglises et les monasteres (Paris 1969) 301-4.
41 Stein (n.l) 450 n.l on the initial events taking place on Saturday. It seems highly improbable that the Akta
dia Kalopodion - the record of an altercation between a mandator of Justinian and representatives of the Blues and
Greens reported in Theophanes, 181-4- should be placed on the Saturday as weil; if they do belong in 532, the
disunity of the factions only three days before they collaborated is striking. Bury, ' Nika riot' 118, places the Akta
on Sunday January 11,532 (followed by Evans (n.l) 123); Stein (n.l) 450 n.1 corrects the day. Against the placing
of the Akta at this point cf B. Baldwin, 'The date of a circus dialogue' , REB xxxix (1981) 305 and M. Jeffreys,
' Appendix: A lacuna in Theophanes' text of Malalas?' in E. Jeffreys, R. Scott and B. Croke (eds.), Studies in lohn
Malalas (Sydney 1990) 271 , andMartindale (n.l) 31. Cameron, Circus fa ctions 327, prefers to place them earlier
in Justinian's reign, while P. Karlin-Hayter favours keeping them in 532, 'Les "AK'tu btd KUAumlblOv- le contexte
religieux et politique', Byzantion xliii (1973) 101. She wants to separate the Akta, however, from the uprising, cf
'Factions, riots and acclamations' , Study III in Studies in Byzantine Political History (Aldershot 1981), 8-9, but cf.
CPW 113-4. See now PLRE iii s.v. Calopodius land C. Mango and R. Scott with G. Greatrex, The Chronic/e of
Theophanes Confessor (Oxford 1997) 281 n.8 for a discussion of the dating.
42 Mal. 396.16-397.6, cf Cameron, Circus factions 151.
43 Mal. 394-5, cf. CP 621 (a.498) and above n.35; see also CPW 100 n.316 for a discussion of the dating of
this riot (perhaps to be placed in 507), though Cameron, Porphyrius 234, is satisfied with CP' s dating to 498, cf also
Martindale (n.1) 27, 29. Cameron, Circusfactions 286, notes the similarity between the appeals of 498 and 532. The
release of prisoners was a common
' issue in disturbances' , cf Cameron, Circus factions 276, citing instances in 498,
532 and 563.
Theophanes and Pamphilus, be beheaded. But when they had been ordered to stand naked at
the stama in the hippodrome, the crowd shouted 'Long live our merciful emperor!', and
elamoured incessantly for the release of the men; and for once Phocas proved element. Here
again the chief factions were united in their appeal for mercy, since the leader of each one was
under threat, and Phocas wisely bowed to their wishes. 44
Justinian's reaction, however, trod an unfortunate middle course between acquiescing in
the demands of the factions and sending in the troops. His failure to respond in any way to the
demands made has at least one precedent in the early empire-but, rather ominously, that of
Domitian, who also ordered the crowd to be silent. 45 Anastasius in effect brought matters to
a head right away by launehing the troops against the factions in the hippodrome. Much of the
centre of the capital was bumt down in the ensuing tumult-in fact, almost exactly the same
buildings as were destroyed in 532-but Anastasius had at least seized the initiative from the
start of the riot of 498.
Phase two: widespread rioting. The factions cried out for the pardon of the partisans until
the twenty-second race (out of twenty-four), and when Justinian consistently refused to answer
them, they all of a sudden united; their watchword was 'Nika', a typical acelamation of the
factions. 46 It should be stressed that this was not the first time that the two major factions had
joined forces: this is known to have occurred twice before, once under Anastasius and once
under Justin. While both of these instances are known to us from Malalas, it is only in the text
preserved in the Excerpta de insidiis that the reconciliation of the factions is reported. The
occasion in Anastasius' reign dates from 515/16 and took place in Alexandria; it pitted partisans
against soldiers and many buildings were destroyed in the course of it. 47 The second occasion
of which we are aware comes early in Justin's reign. On this occasion (in 520), according to
the excerptor, the factions united after the soldiers had intervened to quell a disturbance in the
hippodrome. But as has been noted above, they then joined fore es in revelry, which was further
heightened on the following day when the emperor granted them the favours they had
requested. 48
That Justinian can have been unaware of the potential danger of the factions uniting is
therefore impossible. The experience of his unele may have strengthened his resolve not to bow
to the demands of the crowd, since, when Justin had granted their wishes, the factions had rioted
nonetheless. So far, however, there was nothing in the course of events which need have
worried Justinian unduly: measures could always be taken against the ringleaders among the
factions at a later stage.
While the rioting was taking place, the emperor and his entourage-probably ineluding the
historian Procopius-took refuge in the palace. This was an easy move to make, since the imp-
44 For this incident. cf Theophanes 294 and lohn of Antioch.fr. 218e; also PLRE iii s.v. Theophanes 3.
45 Cameron, Circus factions 166-7 and below n.107.
46 Stein (n.l) 451 n.1 ascribed lhe choice of lhis term (as opposed to tu vincas in Latin) to adesire to avoid
infiltration by the troops; but it is in any case frequently found at the start of inscriptions of the partisans-vt1(~ 1't
~UX'l1 .. ·, cf S. Borkowski, Inscriptions desfactions aAlexandrie (Warsaw 1981) 76, Cameron, Porphyrius 76-80 and
Roueche (n.12) 4 and no.46 (pp.99-117). Mal. 474.7-10 on lhe c1amours at lhe races and cf. CPW 115 n.347 (for
lhe probable total of twenty-four races). The suddenness and unexpectedness of the riot is rightly stressed by
Gizewski (n.l) 151, cf Procopius Wars, l. Haury (ed.), rev. G. Wirth (Leipzig 1962-3) i 24.1.
47 References at n.34.
48 References at n.36.
erial palace was connected to the kathisma in the hippodrome. In the face of a riot in favour of
the patriarch Macedonius in 510 Anastasius had likewise shut hirnself inside the palace. 49
Phase three: the attack on the praetorium. On the evening of Justinian's refusal to give a
response in the hippodrome (Tuesday 13 January), members of the factions surrounded the
praetorium of the city prefect Eudaemon, demanding the release of the two partisans. When no
response was forthcoming, they set fire to the building, wruch was situated on the Mese. It was
probably now that the crowd succeeded in liberating the prisoners housed in the praetorium.
Thereafter no more is heard of requests for the sparing of the two partisans; the issue had now
been ec1ipsed by the actions of the partisans. 50
Again, there was nothing new in rioters singling out for attack the headquarters of the city
prefect. Protesters against a grain shortage in 408 bumt down the praetorium of the city prefect
Monaxius, while a c10ser parallel to the situation in 532 may be found in 603, when partisans
did the same to the praetorium of the city prefect Leontius. 51
Phase Jour: Justinian's attempt to continue the games on the moming of Wednesday 14
January. This proved to be a failure, and was met by further outbreaks of incendiarism. 52 There
are no obvious parallels to this move of Justinian, but it is possible to conjecture his line of
thought. On the one hand, he feit it necessary to stand firm in refusing the demand to release
the two partisans; on the other, he wished to defuse the situation by a gesture of some sort. In
the past, emperors or city prefects had cancelled races as a result of factional violence, often
sparking further bloodshed;53 in this instance Justinian was attempting the reverse-to win back
49 Proc. Wars i 24.10. on Justinian's withdrawal; Theophanes 154.15-16 for that of Anastasius. on which see
Martindale (n.l) 29-30. Procopius' presence is accepted by Bury, 'Nika riot', 94 and Martindale (n.l) 32, but (in the
author's view, unconvincingly) denied by NJ. Austin, 'Autobiography and history: some later Roman historians and
their veracity' , History and historians in late antiquity, B. Croke and A.M. Emmett (eds.) (Sydney 1983) 62. On the
connection between the kathisma and the imperial palace cf. R. Guilland, Etudes de topographie de Constantinople
byzantine i (Berlin 1969) 463 with the map by C. Mango in G. Dagron and C. Mango (eds.), Constantinople and
its hinterland (Aldershot 1995) 319.
50 On the attack on the praetorium (of the city prefect) in 532, cf Mal. 474.14-16, Theophanes 184.12-15; before
the assault the crowd refers to the two partisans at St Laurence, who must therefore have still been under guard in
the church. Proc. Wars i 24.7 on the release of the prisoners, cf Cameron, Circus factions 276 and Dagron (n.12)
239. Cf also Theophanes 239.12-13: in a riot of 563 partisans again broke into the prison. On the location of the
praetorium see the Appendix below.
51 CP 571 (aAI2) with CPW 62 n.210 on the case of Monaxius; CP 695 (a.603), for Leontius, with CPW 145
n.407. Note also Theophanes 297 and John of Antiochfr. 218e, for an occasion in 609 when the Greens burnt the
praetorium and other government buildings in response to executions by the city prefect Cosmas (Cosmas 19 in
PLRE iii). On the tendency for the praetorium of the city prefect to be targeted for destruction, see Cameron, Circus
factions 276, J.F. Matthews, Western aristocracies and imperial court, A.D. 364-425 (Oxford 1974) 19-20 and
Dagron (n.12) 238-9.
52 Mal. 474.20-475.1 (not in CP, which has a lacuna here). J. Bardill alerts me to the fact that Mal. does not
specifically place this fire on the Wednesday; it merely takes place 'at daybreak' following the events of (Tuesday)
13 January. But since the next event in Mal. is the demand of the mob for the dismissal of certain officials, which
(it will be argued below) took place on Wednesday, the date of the fire seems secure. The fires of Tuesday-
Wednesday constitute my first and second conflagrations, cf the Appendix. By this point the riot had gained a certain
momentum of its own, independent of the demands which had been made to the emperor; cf Gregory (n.24) 145
for another case of demands being lost in the escalation of violence and Rude (n.5) on 242-3 on the remarkable
momentum which might develop in a disturbance.
53 Note Cameron, Circus factions 275 on Justinian's offer at this point; also ibid. 276 and n.6, where he cites
instances of rioting following the cancellation of races, from John of Antiochfr. 214b.2, and Mal. 484 (with the
additions of the Tusculan fragment, cf Jeffreys-Scott (n.2) 290). The second of these cases, however, merely
concerns a melee in the hippodrome between partisans: they had congregated there when no races were being held
(but not because they had been cancelled). A second instance can be supplied nonetheless, from John of Antioch,
fr. 214e.12 (when Anastasius cancelled races in 513). Cf also the riots which broke out when the city prefect Helias
the favour of the people by circenses at least.

Still, there was no sign that the riot was any more serious than previous disturbances. What
was beginning to become apparent, however, was Justinian's vacillation between a hard-line,
Anastasian, policy (send in the troops) and the more indulgent attitude of his unc1e (assent to
the demands of the factions). It was this evident hesitation on the part of the emperor which
emboldened the rioters and hardened their stance towards the govemment. It also made a
massacre almost inevitable, if the emperor was ever to regain fuH control of the capital.
Phase jive: new demands from the rioters. When the rioters failed to be mollified by
Justinian's offer to restart the games, they proceeded to set fire to the hippodrome. They then
shifted their demands, now calling for the dismissal of certain officials, namely the praetorian
prefect John, the city prefect Eudaemon and the quaestor sacri palatii Tribonian. It is at this
point that some scholars wish to distinguish the Nika uprising from previous riots: the demand
for Tribonian's dismissal is seen as indicative of senatorial manipulation of the rioters.
According to this view, the riot had now become a fuH-scale attempt to bring down the
emperor, rather than an ordinary faction disturbance. 54 Yet there was nothing new in an
emperor being assailed with demands for the removal of unpopular officials: as recently as
under Justin, the hard-line city prefect Theodotus was removed from office, as was mentioned
earlier, and left for Jerusalem for his own protection. 55
In fact it is possible to account for the rioters' choice of officials. Eudaemon was an
obvious target for the wrath of the factions, having condemned seven of their number to death
and then refused to release two from this sentence. To some scholars John is an unlikely object
of the rioters' hatred: for he was, supposedly, a man of the people, and a keen backer of the
Green faction. 56 To Procopius, however, John's wicked policies were largely responsible for
the uprising, as it seemed also to his contemporary John the Lydian. Whatever view is taken
of John's policies (and bearing in rnind that he had not held office for very long by 532), it is
c1ear not only from John the Lydian and Procopius, but also from Zachariah of Mytilene, that
he was regarded as the chief adviser to the emperor. Hence, like many praetorian prefects before
him, he incurred wrath for the unpopular policies of the emperor, for which he may or may not
have been responsible. 57 The fact that he is regarded by John the Lydian as a supporter of the
Greens, and popular with the lower elements of the population, will hardly have been of help
forbade the celebration of the Brytae in 500, also reported by John of Antioch,fr. 214c.
54 So Cameron, tentatively, Circus factions 186 'almost certainly senatorial agents', cf 279. Martindale (n.1)
87, suggests that agitators among the partisans may have put forward the name of Tribonian. Gizewski (n.1) 163-4,
sees the riot as moving from a 'mobilisation' phase to a reforming one, while Chekalova (as Tinnefeid (n.1) 443
notes) even seeks to distinguish separate senatorial groups. RuM (n.5) 243-4, however, rightly stresses the role of
chance developments in disturbances, which may later be perceived as the work of conspirators.
55 Anecdota 9.37-42 on Theodotus; cf also Anastasius' frequent dismissal of city prefects (such as Iulianus 14
(in 491), Helias (in 500) and Constantinus 13 Tzuruccas (501), all in PLRE ii), and see Cameron, Circus factions
185-7, for earlier instances. Although we are not specifically told that their removal was demanded by the factions,
it is most likely that they were dismissed on account of their harshness in combatting the partisans. A prefect could
also be removed, it appears, for failing to act sufficiently vigorously-cf the case of Zemarchus in 565, Mal. fr.51
(p.176, tr. Jeffreys-Scott (n.2) 305-6). The tendency of crowds to focus their complaints on individuals is noted by
RuM (n.5) 240-1, and cf P. Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (Madison, WI 1992) 87.
56 Cf e.g. Cameron, Circus factions 102.
57 Cameron, Circus factions 186 and Nippel (n.3) 88 for other instances, e.g. Elagabalus' prefect Eubulus in
222, or Severus' prefect Plautianus, above n.28. In 512 the house ofthe praetorian prefect Marinus had been set upon
by an angry mob, incensed by his anti-Chalcedonian views, above n.8; and in 602 Constantine Lardys, a former
praetorian prefect, was killed by supporters of Phocas, cf CP 694 with CPW 143 nA03 and PLRE iii s.v.
Constantinus qui et Lardys 33. On John's prominence as an adviser of the emperor, cf Proc. Wars iii.1O.7-18 and
John Lydus De mag. iii 69 (p.160) quoted by Cameron, Mediterranean world 121.
to the prefect: for, if he was indeed a backer of the Greens, they will have been unimpressed
by his failure to obtain the release of the Green partisan held by the city prefect. 58
Finally, and most problematically, Tribonian. It is usually argued that, being heavily
occupied in preparing the Digest at this time, he can hardly have been an unpopular official in
the eyes of faction rioters.59 Several factors should be borne in mind, however. First, Procopius
accuses hirn of venality in both the Wars and the Anecdota: he would alter laws to suit the
highest bidder, and was also in the habit of flattering the emperor exorbitantly.60 While the
first of these qualities might have had more impact on the bidders- hence, presumably, the
wealthy- the second is of greater relevance to the rioters. For it implies that he too, like John,
was viewed as a dose associate of the emperor, and could therefore reasonably be viewed as
responsible for his policies. 61 The three officials named by the crowd were, in effect, the three
highest government officials resident in the capital: the magister officiorum, Hermogenes, was
away in the East most of the time, occupied in negotiations with the Persians. Furthermore, legal
scholarship had not spared previous eminent jurists from the twists and turns of politics: Ulpian
was murdered by the Praetorian Guards, having held great influence with the young Alexander
Severus. Both he and Paulus mayaiso have suffered banishment under Elagabalus.62 Thus it
is not so surprising that demands were made for Tribonian's removal, as weil as for that of John
and Eudaemon: they were viewed as the architects of Justinian's refusal to agree to the earlier
request of the factions .
Phase six: the supine imperial response to the demands. So far Justinian had refused to
pardon the condernned partisans, but equally had failed to oppose the destruction taking place
in the city. Now he shifted his policy and dismissed all three officials, just as had been
demanded of hirn. A few points require examination here.
First, why did Justinian bow to the crowds at this point, having previously stood firm? Any
reponse must take into account the fact that probablyon the same day as the three officials were
removed, troops were despatched to break up the riots. The lacunose text of the Chronicon
Paschale may profitably be consulted here. When the text resurnes after the lacuna it reads as
folIows :
~ ~'tUXEV ' a")J..: ÖtE !tOA.A.T\ -ytV1ltat avuYKTI, tötE !tOtEtC; ö. tßouAEuaro. Kai dltEV autoic; 6
ßamAEuc;, ' El;tA.eatE ouv Kai J.lUeEtE tivoC; xupw atamul;oumv.
' ... at randorn. But when a serious ernergency arises, then you do what you have decided.' The ernperor
said to thern, 'Go out and discover why they are rioting.'
CP 620.14-16, tr. Jeffreys-Scott (n.2) 27663
58 John Lydus, De mag. iii 62 (p.152) for John's support for the Greens. Whitby and Whitby plausibly suggest
that John only becarne an enthusiastic supporter of the Greens following his re-instatement to office, in order to avoid
being dismissed again, CPW 116 n.349.
59 So Martindale (n.l) 86-7.
60 Anecdota 13.12, Wars i 24.16, cf 25.2; cf also Honore, Tribonian (London 1978) 53-5, who is not surprised
at the demands for Tribonian' s removal.
61 Whether or not Procopius' allegations are accurate is less important than that they were made in the first
place: Tribonian was perceived to be venal and sycophantic. Honore (n.61) 53-4 and n.1I8 suggests that the
frequency of changes to the law may have reinforced this impression.
62 On Ulpian, cf T. Honore, U/pian (Oxford 1982) 37-46; on Paulus, OCD' 785-6 ('Iulius Paulus').
63 Cf. the translation of CPW 115; but il tj3oUA.Eooro is perhaps better translated as 'what you have resolved'
than 'as you are advised' .
Thenceforth, like Malalas but generally at greater 1ength, the Chronicon Paschale goes on to
tell how the emperor sent out Basilides, who was deputising for the magister ojficiorum
Hermogenes, together with Constantiolus and Mundus, to ascertain the demands of the crowd.
The rioters demanded the resignations discussed above, and Justinian, upon hearing the news,
replaced the officials. Tryphon replaced Eudaemon as city prefect, Phocas took over from John
the Cappadocian as praetorian prefect, while Basilides received Tribonian's post. 64
There has been some debate as to who the speaker is when the text resurnes in the passage
of the Chronicon Paschale quoted above. It has been suggested that it is the empress Theodora,
who is reported by Procopius to have urged her husband to stand his ground. Various factors
make such a view unlikely. Theodora's speech, according to Procopius, was delivered on the
final day of the uprising~Sunday 18 January~and this receives some confirmation from
Theophanes. 65 Secondly, the advice offered in the Chronicon Paschale seems to be of a more
conciliatory nature than that of Theodora, since the emperor's response was to send out
emissaries to the crowd. Furthermore, Justinian spoke to them (Kai EhtEV au"toi~), which points
to several advisers~most probably those whom he then despatched to the rioters, Le.
Constantiolus, Mundus and Basilides. 66
The procedure of using intermediaries to gauge the will of the mob was not unusual. A good
example is provided by a riot in 408, also reported in the Chronicon Paschale, in which the
rioters had bumt down the praetorium of the city prefect Monaxius. In response to this two
magistri militum, along with a consul and two other officials, went to meet the crowd; they
defused the situation by immediately agreeing to the demands of the rioters. 67 Such encounters
might not always be successful, however: in 512 a crowd rebuffed an attempt at conciliation by
the magister ojficiorum Celer and the magister militum praesentalis Patricius by showering them
with stones. 68 Thus Justinian's emissaries were no doubt selected from those who would be
acceptable to the rioters; the two military figures among those sent out, Constantiolus and
Mundus, had spent little time in the capital, while the other, Basilides, was sufficiently popular
to be promoted to take the place of one of the ousted officials. 69
Phase seven: the troops are sent against the rioters. When the dismissal ofEudaemon, John
and Tribonian fai1ed to calm the crowds, Justinian finally had resort to force. The chronology
here is rather confused: it is unc1ear whether Belisarius was ordered against the rioters on
64 On the text of CP at this point, er. CPW 115 nn.346-8; also Bury, 'Nika riot' 98-9 (esp. 98 n.3) and Cameron,
Circus factions 324-5. CP provides the names of the new officials, absent from Mal., but mistakenly has Rufinus
in place of Tribonian, cf. CPW 116 n.349 and Mal. 474-5. Mal.'s text conceming the despatch of Basilides,
Constantiolus and Mundus is somewhat unclear: these three go out in order to silence the rioters, who are demanding
the dismissal of the three officials, perhaps with armed assistance (IlE1:U ßOlleE(a~ [475.2]). Meanwhile the senators
sent out to ascertain the wishes of the crowd relay them to Justinian, who accedes to the demands. It seems as though
Mal. believed that two groups were sent out of the palace with slightly differing briefs, surely mistakenly; cf Bury,
'Nika riot' 99, who argues that oUf text of Mal. here is the work of an epitomator.
65 Proc. Wars i 24.33-8 (Theodora's speech), Theophanes 184.27-30 (preparations for flight, discussed below).
This is against the view of Whitby and Whitby, CPW 115 n.348.
66 Michael Whitby has argued that the advice to Justinian is too blunt to be that of advisers (pers. comrn.); I
would, however, draw attention to (e.g.) Proc. Wars i 1\.16-18, a speech by the quaestor Proculus, addressing Justin
and Justinian in forthright terms (and using the second person singular for the emperor).
67 CP 571 with the comments in CPW 62 n.21O.
68 Marcellinus comes, a.512. On the background to this incident, cf. G. Greatrex, 'F1avius Hypatius, quem vidit
validum Parthus sensitque timendum' , Byzantion lxvi (1996) 125.
69 Cf PLRE iii s.v. Constantiolus (in the East in 531 investigating the defeat at Callinicum), Mundus (usually
in the Balkans, even if, according to Mal. 466, he was appointed magister militum per Orientem after Callinicum),
and Basilides.
Wednesday 14 Ianuary or on the following day. Tbe other event which took place at this point,
most probablyon the Tbursday, was the 'rush to the house of Probus' .70 The crowd made for
the house of the youngest nephew of Anastasius and hailed hirn as emperor; Anastasius' two
eider nephews, Pompey and Hypatius, were still encamped in the palace with Iustinian. Once
it emerged that Probus was not at horne, the people set fire to his house.
First, the chronology of these events. Bury argued that Belisarius' sortie should be placed
on the Thursday, since otherwise this seems like an eventless day in the rniddle of the riOt. 7 1
But the Chronicon Paschale states that Belisarius 'cut down many [riotersl until evening'
(621.17), which appears to indicate that we are here dealing with events on the same day as the
dismissal of the officials, that is on the Wednesday. In response to Be1isarius' sortie the crowd
set fire to much of the centre of the city, either on the Wednesday evening or on the
Tbursday.72 Then on Tbursday the rioters moved to acc1aim an alternative emperor, and sought
out Probus: hence it is not an empty day, as Bury thought. 73
Next, the rationale behind these developments. Iustinian had followed the advice of his
advisers (whoever in fact they were), and accepted the demands of the crowd. Yet this had
fai1ed to improve his position: the mob remained outside the palace. 74 He therefore decided
that it was at last time to have resort to the military option: Belisarius, whose loyalty was above
suspicion, was sent out with a force of Goths, who could also be depended on not to defect to
the rioters. Although his force succeeded in killing many, the remaining rioters responded by
setting fire to more buildings. 75 Iustinian's calling out of the troops against rioters dispersed
through much of the city (it must be presumed) was a new development: usually they were
deployed against crowds in the hippodrome, where they could be most useful. For there the
crowd was hemrned in, and had difficulty in escaping from the soldiers. 76 But in more
dispersed urban fighting, the troops would tend to be at a disadvantage, their discipline being
counteracted by the rioters' knowledge of the city's topography: thus Gainas' Goths had been
massacred by the crowds in 399. 77
The acc1amation of Probus is a puzzle indeed. The episode of the rush to his house is very
reminiscent of the attempt to enthrone Areobindus in 512: in that year a crowd gathered at
Areobindus' house, in the course of a major riot against Anastasius, and acc1aimed hirn emperor.
Like Probus, he wisely was not at horne, and so the crowd saw fit to burn down his house. But
the parallel ends there. Tbe disturbance in 512 was inspired by Anastasius' increasing opposition
70 So described by Bury, 'Nika riot' 119, reported by CP 622 and Theophanes 184.21-4, cf. CPW 118 n.352.
71 'Nika riot' 107, cf. Gizewski (n.\) 155; CP 621.15-17 on Belisarius, cf. Mal. 475.9-10.
72 This conflagration, while devastating, was scarcely more so than that which had occurred during some of the
earlier riots in the capital, it should be noted: the area around the hippodrome had suffered greatly in the rioting of
498. On the buildings destroyed in this fire, see the Appendix (conflagration 3[a]).
73 The acclamation of Probus takes place in CP (622) immediately before the events of Friday 16 January:
hence they most likely took place on Thursday . Thus the main event of Thursday, rather than being Belisarius ' sortie
from the palace, as Bury argued, was the acclamation of Probus (in response to Belisarius' attack).
74 CP 621.\4-15 .
75 CP 621.15-622.2 and cf. the Appendix below for a discussion of the topography of the buildings destroyed
by the fire.
76 Cf. the events of the Sunday, and also Mal. 394.22, where it is expressly stated that the people were hemmed
in (in 498). Note also Zonaras' belief (xiv 6, vol.3, L. Dindorf (ed.) (Bonn 1870) 272.22-4) that the crowd were
unwilling to enler Ihe hippodrome for fear that Ihey would be Irapped there, Bury, 'Nika riot' 105.
77 Zosimus, Histoire Nouvelle iii F. Paschoud (ed. and Ir.) (Paris 1986) v 19.3-4 wilh J.W.H.G. Liebeschuelz,
Barbarians and Bishops (Oxford 1991) 117-18; Grunas' forces may not have been exclusively GOlhs, cf A. Cameron
and J. Long. Barbarians and po/itics at the Court 0/ Arcadius (Los Angeles 1993) 205-6. In 562 imperial lroops
likewise had considerable difficully in putting down a riot which spread across the Golden Horn to Sycae, Mal. 490-
\.
to Chalcedon, and Areobindus was a fitting replacement for hirn, being a staunch supporter of
the Counci1. 78 Probus, on the other hand, was indubitably an opponent of the Council: hence
it is rather surprising that he should be acclaimed emperor only twenty years later, especially
given the pro-Chalcedonian attitude of most Constantinopolitans. His only claim to the throne
in fact was his relationship to Anastasius. 79 It may be suggested that he was chosen on account
of the lack of any other suitab1e candidate: all other high-ranking figures were either in the
palace with Justinian or outside the capital altogether. It is possib1e that his cousin, Pompey,
suffered the same fate in 512, when his house was burnt down by the mob; he was a supporter
of Chalcedon, and hence he too may have been acclaimed emperor (to replace his own uncle)
through the lack of any other suitable candidates. 80
Bury believed that the hailing of Probus as emperor marked a tuming-point in the riot:
henceforth the object of the rioters was to overthrow Justinian altogether. 81 Yet, as has been
shown, not only was Probus hardly a plausible candidate, but he had also avoided the
acclamation of the mob. More importantly, when Justinian later made his appeal to the peop1e
in the hippodrome, many of them received his speech favourably; in the case of the disturbance
under Anastasius, the people were actually pacified by such an entreaty, and no more is heard
of Areobindus. It is preferable therefore to see in this development adesire to provide the riot
with some focus-to intimidate the emperor still more, to extract further concessions. And in the
short term, with both Anastasius and Justinian, this is what was accomplished. 82 Only if the
candidate acclaimed actually took up the gauntlet - as Hypatius later did-was the character of
a riot transformed and the overthrow of the emperor became a serious possibility. Probus,
moreover, suffered only a brief exile after the riot, and was still alive to provide shelter for the
zealous anti-Chalcedonian John of Ephesus during his visit to the capital in the early 540s. 83
Phase eight: continued incendiarism on the part of the rioters. On Friday 16 January the
rioters bumt down the praetorium of the praetorian prefect, and the whole area around St Sophia
suffered extensive damage from the fire. The archives housed in the praetorium were destroyed,
a development much to the advantage of known trouble-makers among the rioters. 84 No
imperial response was forthcorning, but Justinian must by this stage have ordered troops
stationed in Thrace to march to the capital. They arrived the following day and proceeded to
engage the rioters.
78 Cf. PLRE ii s.V. Fl. Areobindus Dagalaiphus Areobindus I and Greatrex (n.68) 127-8. Theophanes 159.14-19
reports that the crowd hailed Vitalian (rather than Areobindus), and notes that Anastasius took refuge on an estate
near Blachernae, such was his fear of the rioters.
79 Vasiliev (n.16) 136-48 provides an excellent account of the jubilation of the people of Constantinople at the
accession of a pro-Chalcedonian emperor in 518. On Probus' relationship to Anastasius (and Hypatius and Pompey),
cf most recently R.W.B. Salway, 'What's in a name? A survey of Roman onomastic practice from c. 700 BC to AD
700', JRS lxxxiv (1994) 142-3.
80 As I have argued elsewhere (n.68) 130-1. Origenes, mentioned by Procopius (Wars i 24.26-30) as asenatorial
opponent of Justinian, is nowhere else attested and is clearly not a significant figure, cf. PLRE iii s.v. Origenes.
81 'Nika riot' 119, cf Gizewski (n.l) 164 and Evans (n.l) 122.
82 It is possible that certain sections of the crowd directed the rioters to Probus' house, cf Rude (n.5) 208-9 for
the course of a riot being diverted by the involvement of new elements. Gizewski (n.1) 178, while accepting that
the move to Probus ' house could be part of a crowd dynamic or an attempt to wrest further concessions from the
emperor, prefers to view it as part of a wider senatorial plot. But given the precedents for this development, I think
Gizewski's other options more plausible, above nn.53, 55 on the momentum which can develop in disturbances and
the role of chance factors.
83 Cf Greatrex (n.68) 129 and PLRE ii, s.v. Fl. Probus 8.
84 CP 622 with CPW 118 n.353 on the storage of archives, noting a parallel incident in 608 (alluded to above,
n.48, and placed in 609); cf the Appendix for the location of this praetorium (of the praetorian prefect).
Phase nine: the arrival of the garrisons of Thrace. They entered the city, presumably from
the west, on Saturday 17 January. A fierce melee with the rioters ensued, in which many
buildings adjacent to the Mese were bumt down. 85 At the dose of day the troops probably
retired into the palace, where debate among Justinian's advisers will have been as fierce as ever,
since even the arrival of troops from Thrace had failed to bring the disturbances to an end.
Indeed more of the city had been destroyed in the last two days than in the early stages of the
riot, or in any riot that had taken place under Anastasius. A new strategy was required if the
situation was to be mastered.
At this stage in the riot not only does the pace of events quicken but the quantity of
available evidence also increases markedly. Procopius' account is heavily weighted towards the
events of Sunday 18 January, and the Chronicon Paschale and Malalas both offer detailed
accounts. Theophanes too is of use, offering important information not to be found elsewhere.
The difficulty comes in establishing a chronology for the events of Saturday evening and
Sunday: any sequence of events proposed will depend heavily upon the interpretation placed on
Justinian's and Hypatius' actions. Tbe following account attempts to make use of all the various
pieces of evidence, but necessarily remains a hypothesis.
Phase ten: the final suppression of the riot. The various stages to the condusion of the
Nika riot will be examined individually, starting with the developments on the Saturday evening.
(1) As Bury argued, and has generally been accepted, it was on the Saturday evening
(rather than the Sunday) that Justinian dismissed Hypatius and Pompey from the palace. What
still remains disputed is the reason for this step: Justinian was weil aware that the crowd might
compel them to assurne the throne since the brothers themselves pointed this out to him, while
beseeching hirn not to dismiss them from the palace. One thing is dear, however: Procopius'
suggested motive- that Justinian feared an assassination attempt by the brothers if they remained
in the palace- is highly unconvincing, and even in his own account is put forward only as an
alleged reason. 86 If either of the brothers had ever wanted to murder the emperor, then they
were hardly likely to do so now that he had the backing of the troops from Thrace.
Another reason must then be sought. Tbe key figure in this explanation is Hypatius: it will
be argued that he did in fact act as Justinian's agent in suppressing the riot, although this was
never officially acknowledged by the emperor. 87 How this fits with the events of the following
day will be examined below.
(2) Very early on the moming of Sunday 18 January Justinian made an appearance in the
hippodrome. As has been noted by others, he seems to have been attempting a repeat of
Anastasius' successful appeal to the rioters in 512 to des ist from their activities. In that year
Anastasius had appeared in the imperial box (the kathisma) without his diadem, and thereby
sufficiently impressed the rioters to bring the disturbances to a halt. Justinian, while not bare-
headed, bore the Gospels with hirn, and frankly acknowledged his own error in not assenting
to the demands of the factions at the start of the riot. He offered to pardon the rioters, and
85 CP 621-2 with the comments on the buildings destroyed in CPW 120 nn.356-7. This is conflagration 5(a)
of the appendix below. For soldiers setting fire to buildings to gain control of the streets cf Herodian, K.
Stavenhagen (ed.) (Leipzig 1922) vii 12.5-7, who notes the massive destruction caused in the process (at Rome), with
Brunt (n.lO) 10 (= 82-3).
86 Wars i 24.19-21; the other reason he mentions is that it was ordained that this should happen. On the
dismissal of the two from the palace on Saturday evening, cf Bury, 'Nika riol' 108. Procopius' explanation is,
however, accepted by Stein (n.!) 453, effectively just paraphrasing Procopius.
87 The brothers may nevertheless have been reluctant to perform the task entrusted to them, cf Proc. Wars i
24.20. If the compliance of Hypatius is rejected, it may be supposed that lustinian simply miscalculated (as so often
during the riol) in releasing the two brothers.
received a favourable response from some quarters. But others hurled abuse at hirn, and he
withdrew into the palace. He then dismissed the senators who remained with hirn, ordering them
to guard their own residences. 88
Conciliation had manifestly failed. If the crowd would not be assuaged by its emperor
appearing with the Gospels, then there was only one option remaining: to suppress the rioters
by force. And there was only one way that they could be crushed by armed force- inside an
enclosed space, i.e. the hippodrome. Now Iustinian could have had troops standing by in case
his appeal should be unsuccessful, and they could then have proceeded to massacre those they
found there. But this would mean an indiscriminate slaughter for which he would bear direct
responsibility, endowing his reign with a notoriety from which it might never recover; in such
a way Tsar Nicholas n's popularity was irreparably damaged in the wake of the massacre of
unarmed civilians in 1905. 89 Furthermore, the presence of troops might give the populace cause
to doubt the sincerity of his apology in the first place. Hence another mechanism for assembling
the people in the hippodrome was required, and here Hypatius could serve Iustinian's cause. For
Anastasius' nephew was apparently faced with an impossible situation once confronted by the
rioters: failure to accept his acclamation could lead to death, while acceptance of it would be
manifestly disloyal to Iustinian. This assumes, however, that he did not have some sort of
understanding with the emperor, whereby he would accept the acclamations of the partisans if
the emperor's appeal to the crowd failed. Such an arrangement is heavily hinted at in the
sources: in the Chronicon Paschale Hypatius declares to Iustinian after the suppression of the
riot 'Master, it was a great labour for us to assemble the enemies of your power in the
hippodrome'. Likewise Procopius recounts how Hypatius urged his brother to be of good heart
despite their predicament following the suppression of the riot, since 'in the beginning they had
been forced by the people against their will, and afterwards they had come to the hippodrome
with no thought of harming the emperor.'90 Further traces of such an arrangement will be
noted below, as the later events of Sunday are recounted.
(3) Following Iustinian's withdrawal from the hippodrome the people came upon Hypatius
and greeted him as Augustus. He was taken to the Forum of Constantine, where he received some
improvised imperial regalia, and from there proceeded to the hippodrome, together with his brother
Pompey and the former praetorian prefect Iulian. 9\ Once he took his place in the kathisma he was
once again acclaimed by the crowds as Augustus. Iustinian, informed of these developments,
moved to have the palace (which was connected to the kathisma) sealed off. So much we are told
by the Chronicon Paschale, which presents a viewpoint from outside the palace. 92 Procopius, on
the other hand, offers a glimpse of what was taking place inside the court, and this can be
combined with the reports of Theophanes and the Chronicon Paschale here. 93
88 CP 623-4, Mal. 475.12-16, with CPW 121 nn.358-9.

89 Above n.9 on this event; Justinian would be in an even worse position than Nicholas, since he would have
been present at the slaughter in person, and hence could not avoid responsibility for it. Alternatively, the emperor
may have overestimated his chances of calming the assembled people.
90 CP 627.4-6, cp. 624.22-3, Hypatius' first message to Justinian, 'See, I have assembled together all your
enemies in the hippodrome; do what you command'; Proc. Wars i 24.56.
9\ CP 624 on these events. CPW, 122 n.360 on Julian, with PLRE iii s.v. Iulianus 4- he had preceded lohn the
Cappadocian as praetorian prefect. Only CP records his involvement here, and in terms which faH to make it c\ear
whether he was a willing or unwilling participant; his fate after the riot is unknown. Cameron, 'The House of
Anastasius', GRBS xix (1978) 264-7, ascribes two epigrams concerning Hypatius to this Julian, cf also id., 'Some
prefects called Julian' , Byzantion lxvii (1977) 47 and id. and Averil Cameron, 'The cyc\e of Agathias', JHS lxxxvi
(1966) 12-13.
92 CP 624. \3 and above n.49 on the connection between the kathisma and the imperial palace.
93 Proc. Wars i 24.32-53.
According to Procopius Iustinian now. considered evacuating the capital by ship. A few lines
of Theophanes should be brought to bear in this context; he states that
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The emperor, in terror, wanted to load his money on to a dromon and get away as far as Herakleia in
Thrace, leaving the magister militum Moundos to guard the palace, along with Moundos' son, 3,000 men,
Konstantiolos and the cubicularii.
Theophanes 184.27-30, tr. Mango-Scott (nAI) 279
Bury believed this entry was misplaced and that it refers to deliberations at an earlier stage of
the riot. Others have wished to shift Procopius' scene of Iustinian's deliberation and Theodora's
harangue back to an earlier phase. There is no need to tamper with the sources in this instance,
however. For the Chronicon Paschale, at its most detailed here, confirms that at just this stage
there was indeed talk in the palace of a pull-out by the emperor. According to its account, to
be considered more fully below, it was reported to Hypatius that Iustinian had fled the capital,
although the information was incorrect. There is no reason therefore to reject the placing of
Procopius' and Theophanes' information here. 94
What are we to make of Iustinian's contemplated flight? It is clear from Procopius and
Theophanes that the emperor had by no means lost the will to fight; rather, it may be suggested,
he wished not to be present in the capital when the final struggle against the rioters took place.
This stemmed in part perhaps from uncertainty as to whether he would prevail against those in
the hippodrome, but may equally have been due to adesire to distance hirnself from the carnage
which would ensue no matter who won. For there can have been little doubt that in any
confrontation in the hippodrome the several thousand soldiers ofthe emperor (as is evident from
Theophanes' passage) would easily outmatch the disorganised crowd. If, however, Iustinian
could return from Heracleia in the wake of a slaughter of the people, he could claim that his
troops had over-reacted and sack a few commanders to redeem his reputation. Such a view of
Iustinian's motives for abandoning the capital is in line with his constant attempts to find a
peaceful solution to the riot; it also accords with Procopius' description of the emperor in the
Anecdota, where his 'easy-going disposition' and accessibility come in for criticism. 'For even
men of low estate and altogether obscure had complete freedom, not merely to come before this
tyrant, but also to converse with hirn and to enjoy confidential relations with hirn.' It would not
be surprising therefore if Iustinian were unwilling to risk massive unpopularity by being held
directly responsible for a massacre in the hippodrome. 95
94 Theophanes 184.27-30; Proc. Wars 1.24.32. Bury, 'Nika riot' 104, points out that the sentence after the one
quoted in Theophanes belongs on Saturday. But the sentences following that one clearly refer to the events on
Sunday and Hypatius' acclamation in the hippodrome. More likely, therefore, the sentence which intervenes between
the one quoted and the aceount of Sunday's events is misplaced. Whitby and Whitby, CPW 115 n.348, wish to place
Proeopius' episode earlier on, but see n.62 above for a rejeetion of this view; cf also J.A.S. Evans, 'The 'Nika'
rebellion and the Empress Theodora', Byzantion liv (1984) 381-2 (with idem [n.l] 124) on the speech ofTheodora
at this point, whieh owes much to classical models and probably little to what may aetually have been said at the
time. Another good exarnple of an emperor' s withdrawal (by a dromon laden with imperial treasures) is furnished
by Mauriee, who escaped with his family thus in the night of 22 November 602, Theophylact viii 9.7 with the
translation of Whitby and Whitby (n.18) 223 nA7.
95 Anecdota 15.11-12 (tr. Dewing) for the quotation and cf also the passage cited by Cameron, Mediterranean
world 125 (Anecdota 13.1-2), as weil as her comments there. Honore (n.60) 23-4, also draws attention to the
emperor's aeeessibility and Procopius' criticisms of this; Justinian's eharacter will be considered further in the
eonclusion below. Gizewski (n.l) 160 n.232 believes Justinian intended the troops merely to maintain control ofthe
(4) At this point whatever arrangement Iustinian had with Hypatius was effectively
nullified. Hypatius sent a candidatus Ephraem to the palace to report to Iustinian that the people
were gathered in the hippodrome (and hence, presumably, the troops could be launched against
them). The news brought back by Ephraem, which he had acquired from the emperor's doctor
Thomas, must have shocked Hypatius. For Thomas told Ephraem that Justinian had left the
capital and that the way lay clear for Hypatius to make hirnself emperor. Once Ephraem relayed
the news to Hypatius, the pretender 'seemed to sit more confidently in the imperial box' and
to give ear to the popular outcries against Justinian. Armed Greens arrived in the hippodrome,
ready to force their way into the palace to instali Hypatius. 96
The most plausible explanation for these developments is that they represent a breakdown
in communications. Thomas mistakenly inferred from the talk of an evacuation that Justinian
had actually left, and informed Ephraem of this in good faith. Given that Thomas was,
according to the Chronicon Paschale, 'dearly loved by the emperor', it is difficult to suppose
that he was seeking to betray his master. Altematively, Justinian may have propounded the news
hirnself, in order to lure on Hypatius; but this is unlikely, given that he had his enemies
assembled in the hippodrome now anyway. Thomas paid a heavy price for his inaccurate
information: he was executed when Justinian leamt of his report to Ephraem. Ephraem was
banished to Alexandria. 97
(5) Decisive action was now unavoidable for Justinian. An attack on those in the
hippodrome was required, and plans were carefully laid for the onslaught. Narses was sent to
divide the factions and gather support for Justinian among the Blues. Then Belisarius and others
approached the kathisma from witl\in the imperial palace. Mundus and Mauricius, however,
parted company from Belisarius en route, and made their way around the Sphendone, taking up
positions by the gates of the hippodrome nearest to its southem end. Belisarius' brief was to
enter the kathisma from the palace and capture Hypatius; he was foiled, however, by the refusal
of the soldiers in the kathisma to open the doors to hirn. Since by now everything was staked
upon putting the riot down by force, and the other commanders were awaiting Belisarius' arrival
in the kathisma to launch their attack, Justinian was forced to order his commander to enter the
hippodrome by another route. Hence Belisarius had to make his way around the northem end
of the hippodrome and enter it through the stoa of the Blues. Once he launched his attack from
here, the other commanders followed suit and an indiscriminate slaughter followed. By the end
of the day some 30,000 people lay dead, Blues as well as Greens, innocent as well as guilty:
the Chronicon Paschale notes the detail that 'even Antipater, the tax-collector of Antioch
Theopolis, was slain' .98
palace, while reinforcements were summoned; but, as he notes (155 n.220), 3000 men was a sizeable force, which
could certainly therefore have quelled the riot by itself (even if some forces had taken the side of the rioters, CP
626.12-14).
96 CP 624-5, 625.8-11 for the quotation (from CPW 122). On the armed Greens who arrived to aid Hypatius,
cf Theophanes 185.6-8, CPW 123 n.362; they came either from the Flacillianae palace (Theophanes, ep. Proc. Wars
i 24.30) or Constantianae (CP), both of which lie not far from the Chureh of the Holy Apostles (indicated on the
map). The Helenianae palaee, near the Troadesian porticoes, had also lapsed from imperial control, cf Proc. Wars
i 24.30.
97 CF 628.8-11 for the fate ofThomas and Ephraem with PLREiii s.v. Ephraemius and Thomas 5. That Thomas
was executed in no way precludes the idea that he made an unwitting mistake: lustinian could still regard hirn as
guilty in part for causing Hypatius to turn against hirn. The two were also useful seapegoats for diverting
responsibility from the emperor.
98 On the numbers killed, cf. Stein (n.l) 454 n.2; on the various figures given cf. CPW 125 n.366, rightly
stressing what a large proportion of the population of the capital even 30,000 was (perhaps as much as 10%). CP
626 on the indiscriminate nature of the troops' actions and the presence of Antipater in the hippodrome. I intend to
deal more fully with the topography of the assault on the hippodrome elsewhere. That the assault on the hippodrome
depended on the appearanee of Belisarius is clear from Proe. Wars i 24.52, where Mundus only engages when he
(6) On the day after the suppression of the riot, in the morning of Monday 19 1anuary 532,
Pompey and Hypatius were executed. The property of rebellious senators was confiscated.
Although lustinian proceeded to take measures against any remaining partisans who had acted
against hirn, the officials appointed during the riot remained in place. The capital was tranquil
for some time, and the emperor hastened to inform all the other cities of what had taken place
in Constantinople: he had overcome the usurpers, thereby justifying the drastic method by which
the riot had been suppressed. 99
Henceforth the factions would never unite again--save, on occasion, to oppose foreign
invaders, such as the Persians who attacked Antioch or the Kotrigur Huns who threatened the
capital in 559. An emperor such as Maurice or Phocas might try to rally the factions to his
support, but invariably the backing of one entailed the enmity of the other. 1OO Nor would the
factions ever threaten the regime again, although rioting took place quite frequently from the
late 540s onwards. The factions played only a minor role in the downfalls of Phocas and
Maurice: the army was of much greater importance. 101 Thus while Maurice fell, lustinian
survived-chiefly on account of the enduring loyalty of his commanders and soldiers: very few
troops defected to Hypatius, although others took a neutral stance. 102
Conclusion
The Nika riot was both typical and atypical of popular disturbances in the capital in this
period. It began routinely enough, as has been shown, with demands for the release of partisans,
and then for the dismissal of officials. It even ended typically, in an assault on the hippodrome;
what was unusual was the bloodiness of the onslaught. Nearly all the actions and reactions of
the mob and the emperor had precedents in the recent past, yet the scale and length of the riot
were without parallel. It has been the aim of this artic1e to argue that the chain of events which
made the Nika riot unique was for the most part accidental: the relationship between mler and
people broke down through aseries of misunderstandings. lustinian constantly gave off different
signals to the populace, at one moment seeming lenient, at another uncompromising. Hence it
seemed to the rioters that if they persisted in their rioting an initial 'no' might become a 'yes';
this continued for a long time, but once the rioters had spurned his final attempt at conciliation
has seen Belisarius break into the hippodrome. Although Procopius may seem to be overemphasising the roie of
Belisarius here, a co-ordinated attack was cleariy vitai to the success of the operation.
99 CP 628, Mal. 476-477.1; aiso Theophanes 185.27-186.2, where he notes the exiie ofeighteen patricians, cf
CPW 126 n.369. Property was aiso confiscated, but that beionging to Probus, his cousin Olybrius, and the chiidren
of Hypatius and Pompey was retumed early in 533: Proc. Wars i 24.57-8, Mal. 478.18-2i and cf Cameron, 'House
of Anastasius' 266-7. For Gizewski (n.1) esp. 148, 177-8 and Chekalova (n.i) 25-6, and Konstantinopol' (e.g.) 135-6,
senatoriai opposition to Justinian is crucial; yet, as Gizewski admits himseif, 183, the figure of eighteen is not iarge,
even in the Senate ofthe sixth century (on which cf Jones (n.5) 529 and 1221-2 n.16); see furtherbeiow, p. 83. Note
aiso the stress in CP 627.20-22 and Mal. 476.22-477.1 on the imperial pretensions of Hypatius, weil brought out by
Gizewski (n.i) App. XVII, 239.
lOü Note the disputes which broke out at Phocas' accession, Theophyiact viii 10.10, as weil as the divisions
between the factions when Heraclius was nearing Constantinopie. John of Antiochfr.2i8f.3-5 with CPW 151 n.423;
and cf the support which the imperial troops in Antioch received from the Blues while trying to subdue the rioting
Greens there in 507, Mal. 397. A minor exception to the statement above is the occasion in 607, described in n.44;
but there the factions, although united in their demands, did not have recourse to violence. See also n.39 for
(Samaritan) Greens and Biues uniting in Caesarea in 555.
101 As Cameron argues, Circus factions 265.
102 Proc. Wars i 24.39, 47 and CP 626.12-14, on the defection of some forces. Ciearly, however, most remained
ioyal to the emperor; on the forces avaiiabie to the emperor, cr. CPW 115 n.351 and 121 n.363 with Gizewski (n.1)
155 n.220 and 172. As Rude (n.5) 266 remarks, 'It wouid seem [... ] to be aimost a truism that the key factor in
determining the outcome of popuiar rebellion and disturbance is the loyalty or disaffection of the armed forces at
the govemment's disposal'.
on the Sunday morning, the emperor could no longer tolerate the situation. 103
Central to this interpretation of the riot is the conduct of the emperor. A comparison with
the behaviour of lustinian's predecessor Constantine on two separate occasions is instructive.
On one occasion Constantine found himself the object of jeers from the Roman populace, as
Libanius relates. He consulted his brothers as to what course of action he should pursue. One
advised that he send in the troops forthwith, and volunteered to take charge of the operation
himself. The other thought it preferable to ignore them altogether, and it was this course which
the emperor followed. 104 At another time, according to Eunapius, Constantine was distressed
at how little applause he drew in the theatre at Constantinople; it was suggested to him,
however, that the cause of this was one of his advisers, Sopater. The emperor did not hesitate;
his counsellor was executed. 105 Whatever the truth of these anecdotes, they illustrate neatly
occasions on which it was prudent to react and on which it was not. General discontent could
safely be ignored, provided that there was no particular focus of dissatisfaction. Areaction of
some sort, however, was required when specific grievances were aired. An emperor such as
Gaius, apparently unconcerned at popular opinion, might instantly despatch troops to arrest all
the ringleaders when there were demonstrations during games. Such stern rneasures, for all their
brutality, were effective, and reduced the people to silence. 106 A few ernperors ventured to
refuse popular demands, doing so by having their herald silence the crowd; no further violence
appears to have been needed. 107 But most emperors were more receptive to the will of the
people: they could be prevailed upon either to spare a criminal or to execute ahated official.
Thus for instance Tiberius bowed to the demands of the people to free a certain comedian and
Otho gave way to demands for the execution of Tigellinus. 108
lustinian was embarking on a dangerous course therefore when he failed to offer any
response whatever to those demanding the pardon of the two partisans. He may have had in
mind the injunction of Diocletian contained in the Codex lustinianus, the first edition of which
had been issued less than three years previously:
Vanae voces populi non sunt audiendae nec enim vocibus eorum credi oportet quando aut obnoxium
crimine absolvi aut innocentem condemnari desideraverint.
Tbe worthless voices of the people should not be listened to. Nor is it right to give credence 10 their
voices when they demand either that the guilty should be acquitted or that the innocent should be
condemned. I09
103 For a simiiar verdict. cf. Cameron, Circus factions 280 and id., 'The House of Anastasius' 264: the Nika
riot, he states, was 'a sorry tale of vacillation and misjudgement'. Cf. Bury (n.i) 39 on how the riot on Saturday
would ordinarily have been quelled without difficulty. Rude (n.5) 263-4 notes how fatal a hesitant policy towards
the crowd couid be.
104 Libanius, Or. xix 19, vol.2, R. Foerster (ed.) (Leipzig 1904), cf A.F. Norman, Libanius. Selected works ii
(Cambridge, Mass. 1977) 281 and note a, an anecdote noted by Nippel (n.3) 92.
105 Eunapius, Vitae sophistarum, J. Giangrande (ed.) (Rome 1956) vi 2.7-11 (462-3), noted by Millar (n.18) 374.
It is unclear whether the suggestions were made to Constantine in the theatre itself.
106 Josephus, Antiquitates ludaicae xix 4.25-6, vol.4, S.A. Naber (ed.) (Leipzig i893) with Dio Cassius lix i3.4,
vol.2, u.P. Boissevain (ed.) (Berlin 1898), Africa (n.lO) 10-11 and Cameron, Circusfactions 162-3; cf. Anastasius'
prompt resort to armed force, noted above. At the very end of bis reign Justinian followed a similar line, cf Mal.' s
approving verdict on the harsh measures of the city prefect Julian in 565,fr.51 (pp.175-6, tr. Jeffreys-Scott [n.2] 305-
6).
107 Millar (n.18) 68 and 371-2 on this behaviour ofDomitian and Hadrian, with Cameron, Circusfactions 166-7.
108 Millar (n.18) 373-4 and Africa (n.lO) 10-11.
109 C.l. ix 47.12, precise date uncertain; see Millar (n.18) 374 (for the translation) and n.44. Jones (n.5) 477
far the date of publication of the first edition (7 April 529). Cf. RouecM (n.12) 133 on the laws in the Theodosian
Code against govemors seeking the favour of the crowds by means of lavish games (Codex Theodosianus, T.
Mommsen and P. Meyer (eds.) (Berlin 1905) xv 5.1; aiso xv 5.2.1 and 9.2).
Date Event Phase
58
Saturday 10 lan. The execution of the partisans from which two escape
Tuesday 13 lan. Widespread rioting 1-2

Attack on the praetorium and liberation of prisoners 3
Wednesday 14 lan. lustinian tries to continue games 4

New demands of the rioters 5
lustinian accedes to the demands 6
Belisarius' sortie against the rioters 7
Thursday 15 lan. The rioters acc1aim Probus 7
Friday 16 lan. Further incendiarism 8
Saturday 17 lan. Arrival of troops from Thrace 9

(evening) Hypatius and Pompey dismissed 10.1
Sunday 18 lan. lustinian appears in the hippodrome 10.2

Hypatius acc1aimed emperor 10.3
lustinian contemplates flight 10.3
Hypatius hears of this in the hippodrome 10.4
lustinian decides to assault the rioters in the hippodrome 10.5
Monday 19 lan Execution of Hypatius and Pompey 10.6
SUMMARY OF EVENTS DURING THE NIKA RIOT
Such a policy may have suited the soldierly Diocletian, who spent litde time in imperial
capitals, but it ran quite contrary to usual imperial practice, as has been seen. The emperors
Valens and Valentinian, on the other hand, as also reported by the Codex, were clearly more
inclined to countenance clemency:
Indulgentia, patres conscripti, quos liberat notat nec infamiam criminis tollit, sed poenae gratiam [acit.
A pardon, Conscript Fathers, brands those whom it frees; it does not take away the infamy of crime but
grants remission of punishment as a favour. IIO
Iustinian was ill suited to follow the precedents of Gaius, Diocletian or Anastasius. He was
easily approachable, ready to spare his enemies, and eager for popularity: his consular games
in 521 had been on a most lavish scale. 11I Hence his initial firmness soon gave way to a
desire to placate the mob, but the people reacted badly to his change of heart. One parallel for
110 C.l. ix 43.3, with the comments of Gizewski (n.!) 165 n.245 on the right of an emperor to offer pardon to
those condemned by law. Translation from C. Pharr, The Theodosian Code (New York 1952) ix 38.5.
1II On lustinian's consular games (in 521), cf. Marcellinus comes a.521 with Vasiliev (n.16) 93-4: 288,000 solidi
were spent on them. His munificence as consul in 528 was no less remarkable, cf. CP 617 with Croke (n.25) 124.
See above p. 78 on the accessibility of lustinian, and note also the passages cited by Roueche (n.12) 6-7, C.l. xi 41.1
and esp. Nov.105.1 (536), in which lustinian encourages spectacles for the people. His clemency was displayed on
numerous occasions; note, for example, his sparing of the plotters Artabanes and Chanaranges in 548/9 (Proc. Wars
vii 32.51) and of a Green partisan in the 560s, Mal.fr.50 (p.175, Ir. leffreys-Scott (n.2) 305).
82 LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE EVE OF ISLAM
such inconsistent behaviour may be found in the brief principate of Vitellius, who was
enthusiastically acclaimed by the people of Rome in the summer of 69 AD, and yet whose death
in December of the same year was also joyously received. 112 It has been argued convincingly
that the cause of this swift fall from popularity was 'the inconsistency of his political actions.
He frequently followed two contradictory policies at once ... '. Vitellius constantly sought to gain
the approval of the people, but as his fortunes waned, and Vespasian's generals drew near to
Rome, he could not decide how to react: three times he tried to lay down his throne, but by his
third attempt he was no Ion ger believed to be acting in earnest. l13
The events of 10-18 January could not be undone by the emperor. He could, however, seek
to justify his actions by the way in which the disturbances were reported: the blame could thus
effectively be shifted onto others. Over aperiod of time several justifications were developed.
The first has already been touched on: the riot was presented as a straightforward attempt at
usurpation by the nephews of Anastasius, with significant senatorial support. As has been seen,
however, the role of the senators appears to have been limited, and our principal sources make
little mention of them. 114 Only one year later the family of Anastasius was rehabilitated, and
by the 550s a rather different picture of the riot was being presented. Procopius and John Lydus,
our two sources from this decade, put the blame chiefiy on John the Cappadocian, who is even
accused by John of harbouring imperial ambitions. ll5
In conclusion, the uniqueness of the Nika riot lies more with the emperor than with the
'mob': had Anastasius ever shown such hesitation, he too could have been unseated.
Comparison with the disturbances studied by Hobsbawm and Rude, as weIl as with those of the
early imperial period, has shown how rulers and ruled were expected to adhere to certain
patterns of behaviour in their dealings with one another. Consistency and decisiveness were
important attributes for an emperor; Justinian possessed neither. He was no more unpopular than
Anastasius, it should be emphasised; but he was more concerned for popular opinion, and
consequently unprepared to match uncompromising rescripts with firm action.
GEOFFREY GREATREX
University oi Wales, Cardiff
112 Cf z. Yavetz, 'Vitellius and the "Fickleness ofthe Mob"', Historia xviii (1969) 557, with Tacitus Historiae,
E. Koestermann (ed.) (Leipzig 1969) ii 55 and iii 85.
113 Yavetz (n.I12) 559, for the quotation; 560 and 564-8 on his efforts to win popular favour and his vacillation
over his resignation. Also Tacitus Historiae, iii 70: by the end, according to Tacitus, he was no longer an emperor,
onl y a cause for war.
114 Marcellinus comes a.532 for the emphasis on the role of the senators and the nephews of Anastasius, with
the comments of Croke (n.25) 126, Gizewski (n.l) 239 and Bury, 'Nika Riot' 93. See above n.99 for the reports of
CP and Mal. on this.
115 Bury, 'Nika riot' 94, for the throwing of the blame onto John the Cappadocian, cf G. Greatrex, 'The
composition of Procopius' Persian Wars and lohn the Cappadocian', Prudentia xxvii (1995) 4-5. John Lydus, De
mag. iii 62.1 (p.152.22-3), on John's unlikely imperial aspirations. The partisans also came to be assigned much of
the blame: cf Proc. Wars i 24.1-6 and MaI. 474.8-10 (the Devil inspiring the factions to unite).
Appendix: the conflagrations during the riot

Archaeological discoveries have added much to our knowledge of the topography of Constantinople since
the appearance of Bury's article. Hence the map (fig.l) differs in several respects from that of Bury; the
purpose of this appendix, it should be noted, is neither to review nor propound new theories as to the
location of monuments or buildings, but merely to offer a chronological analysis of the fires during the
riot based on recent research." 6
10
8 {--<-0
00~ PRAETORIUM
. {<J OF THE PREFECTS
7 0" ~
o0(:...0'?-
cJ ~o.J!''l,Q:-'?
~,r.)o r,vop BATHS OF
oQ:- ",-<' 'iY ALEXANDER
« c:<'
HOSPICE OF
EUBULUS
SENATE 4
HOUSE 6 5 ST EIRENE
3
HOSPICE OF
2 ST SOPHIA SAMSON
MESE
AUGUSTAEUM
FORUM OF
CONSTANTINE SENATE
PALACE OF CHALCE
ANTIOCHUS
~ BATHS OF
,P ZEUXIPPUS
PRAETORIUM OF
CITY PREFECT
({ 0° GREAT PALACE
~ KATHISMA
HARBOUR OF
JULIAN SEA OF MARMARA
1. BASILICA STOA. 2.OCTAGON . 3. sr

THEODORE OF SPHORACIUS. 4. HOUSE OF'
SYMMACHUS AND PALACE OF LAUSUS . 5.CISTERN OF PHILOXENUS. 6. AQUILINA. sr
7. TROADESIAN PORTICOES. 8. HOLY APOSTLES. 9. ST. LAURENCE 10. ST. CONON.
FIG. l
116 Bury's discussion of the topography of the city, 'Nika riot', 109-14, map on p.1I0. For more recent
discussions of the location of monuments cf (e.g.) Guilland (n.49) i-ii, C. Mango, Le developpement urbain de
Conslanlinople' (Paris 1990), idem, Studies on Constantinople (Aldershot 1993) and J. Bardill, 'The palace of Lausus
and nearby monuments in Constantinople: a topographical study', AJA 101 (1996) 67-95. I arn much indebted to
Jonathan Bardill for advice on topographical matters and for the preparation of the map which accompanies the
article.
Bury divided the various fires which struck Constantinople during the riot into three conflagrations.
He argued that the first of these took place during 13-14 J anuary and destroyed the buildings around the
Augustaeum and St Sophia; the second, on Friday 16 January, hit the region north of St Sophia, while
that of the following day (Saturday 17 January) devastated the Mese and the buildings on either side of
it. 117 There is no need to challenge his placing of the final two conflagrations, but the first is rather
more problematic.
That there was some incendiarism on Tuesday 13 January is dear, for Malalas reports that the crowd
burnt down the praetorium of the city prefect; and this should probably be connected with Procopius'
mention of the liberation of prisoners from the oecrflom'tPlOV .118 This praetorium should be placed along
the Mese, between the Augustaeum and the Forum of Constantine; it was the headquarters of the city
prefect." 9 Difficulties then arise as to whether the rioters embarked on any further acts of arson on this
day: Malalas' account goes on to relate the burning of the Chalce, St Sophia and the public colonnade
as if they took place immediately after the destruction of the praetorium. The Chronicon Paschale,
however, places the destruction of these monuments, as weil as of the nearby Senate house, on the night
of Wednesday 14 January andlor Thursday 15 January.120 This conflict is best resolved in favour of the
Chronicon Paschale, by far the most detailed and reliable source available. l21
Since there is no contradiction with the Chronicon Paschale, it is possible to credit Malalas'
statement that on the morning of Wednesday 14 January, in response to Justinian's attempt to restart the
games in the hippodrome, the crowd set fire to part of the structure itself; the fire then spread to the
porticoes by the Baths of Zeuxippus. 122 This should be treated as aseparate conflagration since there
is no evidence that it spread elsewhere; likewise the attack on Thursday on the house of Probus, situated
near the Harbour of Julian, is aseparate, and rather less important, fire. 123
The city thus suffered most in the last three days of the riot. Probablyon the night of Wednesday
14 January and the following day the Chalce, the Portico of the scholarii, protectores and candidati, the
Senate house, the Augustaeum and St Sophia were burnt down."4 The next day saw the destruction of
the area near the praetorium of the praetorian prefect; the fire spread to the bath of Alexander, the
hospice of Eubulus, the basilica of Illus, two imperial houses, the church of St Irene and the hospice of
Samson. 125 Finally, on Saturday 17 January, it was the turn of the soldiers to indulge in arson: they set
fire to the Octagon in order to dislodge the rioters there, but in the process ignited the whole region
around the church of St Theodore of Sphoracius. The fire spread westwards along the Mese, destroying
the Portico of the Silversmiths, the House of Symmachus, the church of St Aquilina, as far as the Arch
117 Bury, 'Nika riol' 114-15.

118 Malalas 474.17 and Proc. Wars i 24.17 (clearly at the outset ofthe riot) with Dagron (n.12) 239 and above
n.50.
119 Cf Dagron (n.12) 239, Mango, Studies (n.116) Addenda I.
Malalas 474.18-19, CP 621.20-622.2. CP is slightly unclear here as to whether the buildings were bumt
120
down on the Wednesday or the Thursday; it was apparently in reaction to the attack of Belisarius, on which see
above phase seven. Theoph. 184.26 places the destruction of St Sophia on the Friday; despite Mango-Scott (n.41)
284 n.40, CP should be followed here.
121 Cf the comments of leffreys-Scott (n.2) 276 and CPW 112-13,117 n.351. As Whitby and Whitby note, CP
is here probably the best witness to the original text of Malalas, despite Bury's doubts on this, 'Nika riot' 100.
122 Malalas 474.20-475.1 and above n.52.
123 CP 622.4-6, according to which the fire at the house of Probus was soon extinguished (but note Theoph.
184.23-4). Guilland (n.49) ii.7 places the house near the harbour of lulian, cf R. lanin, Constantinople byzantine2
(Paris 1964) 416 and CPW 118 n.352.
124 CP 621.20-622.2, above n.120.
125 CP 622.6-15 with CPW 118 n.353. On the location of the praetorium of the praetorian prefect, in the Forum
ofLeo, Mango, Studies (n.116) Addenda 2-3; it is referred to by CP as the 'praetorium of the prefects', 622.7-8, and
is so labelIed on the map. It was a natural target in the wake of the demands for the dismissal of lohn the
Cappadocian. Cf also Bardill (n.1I6) 84.
in the Forum of Constantine. 126 The rioters, apparently fleeing eastwards, responded by setting fire to
the Magnaura palace and the Libumon, situated to the east of the Augustaeum, and evidently still intact;
the fire was soon extinguished, however. 127
The sequence of conflagrations can perhaps best be summarised by a table.
THE CONFLAGRATIONS DURING THE NIKA RIOT
Date Area destroyed (Phase)
Tues. \3 Jan. Praetorium of city prefect 3
2 Wed. 14 Jan Part of hippodrome;

porticoes by Baths of Zeuxippus 4
3(a) Night of Wed. 14 Chalce, Portico of the scholarii,

Jan.-Thur.15 Jan. protectores, candidati; Senate House,
Augustaeum, St Sophia 7
3(b) Thur. 15 Jan. House of Probus 7
4 Fri. 16 Jan. Praetorium of praetorian prefect,

two imperial houses, Bath of Alexander,
Hospice of Eubulus, SI. Irene,
Basilica of Illus, Hospice of Samson 8
5(a) Sat. 17 Jan. üctagon, SI. Theodore of Sphoracius,

Portico of Silversmiths, House of Symmachus,
St Aquilian, Arch in the Forum of Constantine 9
5(b) Sal. 17 Jan. Libumon and Magnaura 9
126 CP 622.21-623.9 with CPW 120 n.356 and Bardill (n.116) 84-5. On the destruetion a10ng the Mese, cf John
Lydus, De mag. iii 70 (p.163.21-2). See n.85 above for another instanee of soldiers having resort to arson in order
to defeat the inhabitants of a large city.
127 CP 623.9-11. On the loeation of these two plaees cf. CPW 120 n.357, C. Mango, The Brazen House
(Copenhagen 1959) 57 -8 and A. Berger, Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos, Poikila Byzantina 8 (Bonn
1989) 268 and n.219 (who interprets CP as referting only to the Liburnon being burnt).
4
THE JUSTINIANIC PLAGUE REVISITED
Dionysios Stathakopoulos
In mid luly 541 a plague epidemie broke out in the small eity of
Pelusium at the mouth of the Nile and was subsequently disseminated
to the entire Mediterranean basin and even as far as Yemen in the
South and Finland in the North.! It eonstitutes the first historieally
reeorded eertain appearanee of true plague. Contemporary populations
witnessed what was to be the beginning of aseries of outbreaks that
ravaged the Mediterranean world until 750. This eyde of epidemies
has been conventionally termed lustinianic Plague. 2 In this study the
most important works devoted to tbis series of events will be critically
surveyed with the goal of establishing the status of research on this
topic so far, and the possible questions that need to be addressed in
the future.
Works Surveyed
P. Allen, 'The "Justinianic" Plague', B 49 (1979) 5-20.
J.-N. Biraben, Les hommes ef la peste en Franee et dans les pays europiens et
mediteraneens, 2 vols., Civilisations et Societes 35 (Paris-La Haye 1975).
J.-N. Biraben, J. Le Goff, 'La Peste dans le Haut Moyen Age', Annales ESC 24 (1969)
1492-1510.
T.L. Bratton, 'The Identily of the Plague of Justinian. Parts I, H', Tran.vaetions and
Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia 3 (1981) 113-180.
R.S. Bray, Armies of Pestilenee. The effeets of pandemies on history (Cambridge 1996)
19-47.
M.-H. Congourdeau, 'La societe byzantine face aux grandes pandemies', in E. Patlagean,
ed., Maladie ef societlf Cl Byzance (Spoleto 1993) 21-41.
L.I. Conrad, 'Die Pest und ihr soziales Umfeld im Nahen Osten des frühen Mittelalters',
Der Islam 73 (1996) 81-112.
1. Procopius, De BeUo Persico (= Bella H) II 22, 6, ed. J. Haury, corr. G. Wirth

(Leipzig 1962) (thereafter Procopius, BP); for the date cf. Kislinger-Stathakopoulos 88;
on Yemen cf. C. Robin, 'Guerre et epidemie dans les royames d' Arabie du Sud,
d'apres une inscription datee (He siede de I'ere chretienne)' , Comptes Rendus de
I'Academie des Inseriptiones er Belles-Lettres (1992) 215-234; on Finland cf. T. Seger,
'The Plague of Justinian and Other Scourges. An Analysis of the Anomalies in the
Development of the Iran Age Population in Finland', Fomvännen 77 (1982) 184-196.
2. The first to use this term was Allen (1979).
G. Contis, 'The Impact of Plague Pandemics on the Byzantine Empire', in l. Sevcenko,

G.I. Litavrin, eds. Acts of the XVIIIth International Congress of Byzantine Studies.
Selected Papers: Main and Communications, vol. 1: History (Shepherdstown, WV

1996) 128-145.
CI. Dauphin, La Palestine bywntine. Peuplement et populations, 3 vols. BAR
International Series 726 (Oxford 1998), val. H, 512-518.
M. Dols, 'Plague in early Islamic History', Journal of the American Oriental Society
94 (1974) 371-383.
J. Durliat, 'La peste du VIe siecle', in P. Zech, cd., Hommes et richesses dans I'empire
Byzantin I (IV-VII" siecles) (Paris 1989) 107-119.
D. Harrison, 'Plague, Settlement and structural change at the dawn of the Middle
Ages', Scandia 59 (1993) 15-48.
D. Keys, Catastrophe: an investigation into Ihe origins of Ihe modern world (London
1999).
E. Kislinger, D. Stathakopoulos, 'Pest und Perserkriege bei Prokop. Chronologische
Überlegungen zum Geschlehen 540-545', B 69 (1999) 76-98.
K.-H. Leven, 'Die "Justinianische" Pest', Jahrbuch des Instituts für Geschichte der
Medizin der Robert-Bosch-Stiftung 6 (1987) 137-161.
M. McCormick, 'Bateaux de vie, bateaux de mort. Maladie, commerce, transports
annonaires et le passage economique du Bas-Empire au Moyen Äge', in Moifologie
sodali c culturali in Europa fra tarda antichita e allo Medioevo (Settimane di
studio deI Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo 45. Spoleto 1998) 35-118.
W. McNeiJI, Plagues and People (Harmondsworth 1976/1979.
E. Patlagean, Pauvrete economique el pauvrete sociale Cl Byzance 4e-7e si(x[es
(Civilisations et Societes 48. Paris 1977).
J.c. RusselI, 'That earlier Plague', Demography 5 (1968) 174-184.
P. Safris, Ecollomy ami Society in Ihe Age of Justinian (unpublished Doctoral thesis,
Oxford 1999) 97-104.
V. Seibel, Die große Pest zur Zeit Justinians I. und die ihr voraus und zur Seite
gehenden ungewöhnlichen Natur-Ereignisse (Dillingcn 1857).
D. Stathakopoulos, Loimos kai limos. A Systematic Survey and Typology of Epidemics
and Famines in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine World (284-750) (unpublished
Doctoral Thesis, University of Vienna; forthcoming in Birmingham Byzantine and
GUoman Monographs).
G. Sticker, Die Pest I. Abhandlungen aus der Seuchengeschichte und Seuchenlehre
(Gießen 1908).
D. Turner, 'Thc Politics of Despair: The Plaguc of 746-747 and IconocIasm in the
Byzantine Empire', ABSA 85 (1990) 419-434.
Scholarly interest for the Justinianic Plague dates back to the middle
of the 19th century. We can assume that the dramatic outbreaks of
cholera that ravaged European populations for the first time in the
1830s and 1840s aroused a general interest in epidemics of the past. 3
3. Cf. McNeill 242-243, 249-350.
257
DIONYSIOS STATHAKOPOULOS
Furthermore the publication of byzantine historical works in the Bonn

Corpus (CSHB) from 1828 onwards certainly helped to raise
consciousness on that particular period in the German-speaking world. 4

Seibel (1857) writing before the isolation and clinical description of
the plague bacillus in 1894 and also before the discovery of the
disease's propagation mechanism, collected a large number of unusual
phenomena from the early 6th century to the 560s that preceded and
accompanied the outbreak of the plague: earthquakes, volcano
eruptions, comets, floods, famines, locust-plagues and droughts -
to name the most important ones. He regarded both the plague and
these phenomena as Palt of a whole that he called an 'overwhelming
revolution' and justified this collection by claiming that it constituted
a tuming point for the population of the Empire, though he did not
attempt to show in what direction these events led. The first five
waves of the epidemie are discussed - roughly until 600 - in a
pioneer work of clearly deterministic character whose importance
today lies primarily in the field of the history of plague-related
research rather than being a contribution in the study of the disease
itself. Remarkably enough, Seibel's understanding of the plague is
hardly different from that of his sources, 6th-century Byzantine authors.
His views were adopted and his text merely paraphrased by Haeser
though with a limited use of sources (mainly Euagrius, Procopius
and Agathias) for the third edition of his highly influential History
of Medicine (1882).5 By the turn of the century this perception of
the plague had been established as standard. Roughly at the same
time von Kremer (1880) published his extensive study on epidemics
in the Orient, based on Arabic sourees. Von Kremer's article is quite
similar to that of Seibel. He also presents the plague embedded in a
series of unusual phenomena and merely reproduces the content of
his sources when describing the course of the epidemics. As it was
the only work that made Arabic texts on the plague accessible to an
4. H. Hunger, Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner, Handbuch der

Altertumswissenschaften XIIJ5 1.2 (Munich 1978) I, 247-248.
5. H. Haeser, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten,
val 3: Geschichte der epidemischen Krankheiten (3 Jena 1882, repr. Hildesheim-New
Yark 1971) 37-53.
258
audience without knowIedge of this Ianguage, its propagation was

considerable. Sticker (1908), Russell (1968), Biraben-Le Goff (1969)
and Biraben (1975) (for alI these cf. infra) have all relied heavily on
this work and as such took over all of its shortcomings. These were
picked out for the first time by Dols (1974: 374) who provided a
study that has since replaced the former's work. According to DoIs,
von Kremer 'limited hirns elf to a very small number of primary
sources, main1y the work of as-Suyiiti [a fifteenth-century author],
which was a high1y abbreviated account', he 'did not distinguish
between epidemie diseases', he was ignorant of the meehanism of
the disease, as this was diseovered more than a decade later, and
finally 'his erroneous belief in plague as a localist miasma strongly
influenced his interpretation of the causes of plague in the Middle
East' .
The discovery and clinical description of the plague bacillus in
1894 by A. Yersin as weIl as the eausal connection of its outbreaks
with rats and their fieas during the third plague pandemie (1894-1914)
in Hong Kong irrevocably changed the perception of this infeetion
and consequently the direction of plague research in his tory. 6 As such
it is surprising that the work of the clinicist G. Sticker (1908: 24-35),
who had been a member of the German Plague Commission monitoring
the disease in Bombay in 1898 does not show any marked difference
from that of the previously reviewed studies. He reproduces the
content of his sources without any critieal commentary, resulting
often in in ace urate observations. To name but the most important
one, he has included in his survey outbreaks of diseases he has
identified as plague, although they occurred before 541 and the sources
do not include information that would point to this identification. A
positive contribution of this work is thc compilation of a chronology
of the epidemie that for the first time extends beyond the sixth century
and reaches the actua1 end of the cycle in the 750s. This is neither
compiete nor accurate; Byzantine sources are used only for the first
6. Cf. L.F. Hirst, The Conquest of Plague: A Study of the Evolution of Epidemiology
(Oxford 1953); H. Kupferschmidt, Die Epidemiologie der Pest. Der Konzeptwandel
in der Eforschung der Infektionsketten seit der Entdeckung des Pesterregers 1894,
Gesnerus Supplement 43 (Aarau-Frankfurt am Main-Salzburg 1993).
259
two waves of the plague (541-544 and 558), while the rest has been
collected from Western sources and the work of von Kremer.
Nevertheless it constitutes the first effort to present the plague's

visitations in a larger chronological frame, though without any
discussion of the possible results this phenomenon had for
contemporary societies.
In the first half of the twentieth eentury interest in the Iustinianic
Plague declined, if we are to judge by the scholarly output on this
subject. On the other hand, medicalliterature on this disease flourished
after the epidemiological success that brought the third pandemie to
a halt in 1914. Two of the most important works on the plague were
written in this period and eonstitute the most valuable referenees on
this topie until today: Lien-Teh (1926) and Pollitzer (1954).7 It is
possible that the medieal progress on the plague eaused a shift in
seholarly interest in that direction and less in that of historical research
on the disease. 8 As a result we encounter only brief presentations of
the disease in general handbooks of Late Antique and Byzantine
history. Of these we may mention those in Bury and Stein as the
most noteworthyY While both refer mainly to the first two outbreaks
of the epidemie (due to the ehronological frame of their work) the
latter introduces a large number of additional sources to doeument
the presenee and the dissemination of these visitations, thus creating
a new standard set of information that has hardly been augmented
sinee. Although the author also embeds the disease in a set piece of
natural eatastrophes his approach is not deterministic: he eonsiders
these phenomena as faetors that aggravated the financial and eeonomic
7. W- Lien-Teh, A Treatise on Pneumatic Plague, Publications of the League of

Nations III Health III 13 (Geneva 1926); R. Pollitzer, Plague, World Health Organisation:
Monograph Sedes 22 (Geneva 1954).
8. An exception is the short study by B. von Hagen, Die Pest im Alterum (Jena 1939),
in which the author proves that Proeopius' deseription of the plague in Constantinople
in 542 is independent from its model, Thucydides' aeeount of an epidemie in Athens,
apart [rom some similar words and phrases. The same verdiet is given in: F. Bornmann,
'Motivi Tucididei in Procopio', Atene e Roma 19 (1974) 138-150
9. J.B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to
the death of Justinian, vol. 2 (London 1923) 62-66; E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire
I1. De la disparition de I'empire d'occident a la mart de Justinien (476-565), ed. J.-R.
Palanque (Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam 1949) 756-761, 841.
260
position of the Empire and goes into some detail on this particular
aspect of the plague. Other similar works refer to the epidemic in
some few sentences (Vassiliev) or not at all (Ostrogorsky).l0

In the last thirty years of the twentieth eentury research on Justinianie
Plague has taken off. As a eonventional starting point we may take
the artiele of Russell (1968). There the author elaborated on ideas
he had already made public in a previous work ll and attempted to
present the disease's mechanism of dissemination and its effects on
the Byzantine Empire and the Mediterranean world in general. In
order to do so he argued that the demographie and economic situation
of the Empire before the plague was thriving: Asia Minor and the
Balkans, Syria, Egypt and North Africa are described as having lived
through a true Golden Age. Especially Syria 'experienced a great
sixth century' (Russell 1968: 175). Recently Foss has shown in a
lengthy article that this view is oversimplistic. 12 Antioch was visited
by two devastating earthquakes in 526 and 528 and subsequently
destroyed by the Persians in 540 before it was hit by the plague in
542 leaving much of the city in ruins. In contrast, the neighbouring
town of Epiphania seems to have been left untouched by such calamities
and offers a picture of growth and prosperity throughout the sixth
century, while a similar trend emerges from the city of Bostra and
its territory in the south. Russell describes the economy of the Empire
before the plague as flourishing, then makes a chronological leap in
writing about the emergence of the Theme system and its benevolent
resuIts for the population, although this complex clearly belongs to
the later seventh century13 and as such is irrelevant to the context of
pre-plague economy and administration. Finally the author discusses
the situation on the various fronts of the Empire, arriving at the
10. A.A. Vasiliev, History of Ihe Byzantine Empire 324-1453 (Madison 1928/1958)
162; G. Ostrogorsky, Geschichte des byzantinischen Staates, Handbuch der Alterum-
swissenschaft XII I 2 (Munich 1940/1963).
11. J.C. Russell, Late ancient and medieval population, Transactions of the American
philosophical society 48. 3 (Philadelphia 1958) 40-45.
12. C. Foss, 'Syria in Transition, A.D. 550-750: An Archaeological Approach', DOP
51 (1997) 189-269.
13. Cf. J.F, Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century: the Transformation of a
Culture (thereafter Haldon), (Cambridge2 1997) 214-215.
261
conclusion that Justinian's 'Reconquista' would have been an easy

task as: 'morale was excellent, money was abundant, and manpower
was sufficient' (Russell 1968: 178). This aB serves as aprelude to

the outbreak of the plague that, according to the author, destroyed
these prospects. Abrief presentation of the chronology of the epidemie' s
waves proves to be quite inaccurate as Russell has taken any mention
of epidemie disease as referring to the plague without any critieal
view on his material. As a result he postulates that Constantinople
was ravaged by the disease at intervals of less than four years, from
the initialoutbreak in 541/542 until 622. This is far from being
correct: the city experienced visitations of the plague in 542, 558,
573-574, 585-586, 598 or 601 and c. 619 at intervals of c. 14 years
on average. 14 A further weak point in RusseB's work is his use of
numbers reflecting population decline that are not based on any facts
but are the product of speculation. He mentions an estimated population
loss for Egypt during the century near that of the second plague
recurrence, as 20%-25%, referring to a previous article of his 15 where
this is not explained but merely stated. Furthermore he ascribes a
total general 10ss of population of around 20%-25% for the first
outbreak (541-544) and a total decIine of about 50%-60% of the pre-
plague population in the period 541-700. The absence of any
epidemiological or demographieal model to support this makes his
assumption quite questionable, leading us to agree with McNeill
(1979: 291) who wrote of Russell that 'his method is open to objection,
and the data on which his caIculations are based remain both
fragmentary and dubiously accurate ' .16 Russell attributes to the plague
a number of long-term effects: shortage of manpower, decrease of
14. Stathakopoulos, Loimos kai limos (thereafter Stathakopoulos). chapter m. 1.3.5.1.

15. J.c. Russell, 'The population of medieval Egypt', Journal 01 the American
Research Centre in Egypt 5 (1966) 71.
16. McNeill diseusses in that partieular seetion Russell's numbers of population
deeay as deseribed in his Late Antique and Medieval Population 71-87, but since the
same methodology and the same material was used in his subsequent works this
juxtaposition is justified. Further eritieism eomes from Dols (1974: 371. n. 3) who
wrote that 'many statements [of Russell] are not based on primary sources for the
period but rely heavily on very questionable eomparisons with the Black Death and
its effects on Europcan population'.
262
taxes, the failure of the Justinianic programme to recapture the West,

ultimately even the encouragement of nomadic populations that led
to the emergence of Islam. His concluding remarks are characteristic:

'The plague by its sheer power moulded sixth- and seventh-century
society into a new demographie and social pattern - the pattern
which was to persist throughout the rest of the medieval period and
which, in modified form, remains today. The Byzantine area became
more Hellenistic and Oriental and its emperors showed even more
of that Caesaropapism whieh marked its religious and political life'
(Russell 1968: 184). We have chosen to refer to this article extensively
as it constitutes the beginning of a specific view of the Justinianic
Plague and its results that has dominated until today. Using only
partial evidence that supports this pieture of dramatic decline and
leaving out any elements that might point in the opposite direction,
it is clearly a very simple and straightforward view of history, where
one particular agent - in this case the plague - can cause the
transformation of a whole culture by means of an avalanche-effect.
It would surpass the scope of this paper to deal with this particular
view in detail, but some short remarks will suffice to show that it
stands on unstable ground. After the mid 540s the Byzantine Empire
fought successfully on different frontiers: In Lazica (549-557),
defeating the Moors in Africa (546-548) and wiping out the Ostrogoths
in Italy (550-561).17 It is contradictory to assume that a population
loss of the magnitude of 20%-25% took place as a result of the first
outbreak and at the same time ascribe the military accomplishments
of the late 540s and 550s to a 'short economic revival' between the
first two waves of the plague or merely the 'momentum' , as Russell
(1968: 180-182) does. The monocausal attribution of the faHure of
the Reconquista to the plague is equally implausible as it does not
take into consideration such factors as the exhaustion of resources
due to long-Iasting warfare and the extraordinary building activity
17. Cf. Bury, op. cit. 113-123, 147-148,252-286; B. Rubin, Das Zeitalter lustinians,
val. I (Berlin 1960) 345-373 (Lazica); val. H, ed. C. Capizzi (Berlin 1995) 44-58
(Africa), 181-200 (Italy).
263
earried out und er that emperor. 18 Finally we should remark that

Byzantine 'Caesaropapism' is by no means an outcome of the post-
plague period. Its beginnings are closely knit with those of the Eastem
Roman state and we may even note that the ideology behind it reaehed
one of its highest points during the rule of lustinian, decidedly be/ore
the outbreak of the epidemic. 19
In 1969 a groundbreaking article on the lustinianic Plague was
published by Biraben-Le Goff. 20 Combining a short but profound
medical and epidemiologieal presentation of the disease based on the
latest scientific data and using a wide range of sources they have
succeeded in providing a basic reference work for all future attempts
to deal with this subjeet. Although this article is primarily eentred
on the history of the disease in the barbarian West, both the Byzantine
Empire and the Islamie realm are taken into account. Furthermore a
clear methodologieal device for the identification of plague-related
information from the sources is established in this study: in those
cases where adescription of symptoms is absent only those texts that
refer to the disease by means of one of its prineiple symptoms, the
swellings in the groin or armpit area, are taken into consideration.
As a result the information on the plague is separated from that
coneeming other epidemies. Another important contribution of this
work is the establishment of a detailed ehronology of the plague
waves from 541 to 767, whieh is presented in aseparate table followed
by various maps indicating the routes that the infeetion traversed in
eaeh of its visitations. Finally the article ends with abrief diseussion
of the possible repereussions of the epidemie. Although in their
essence the proposed models do not differ from those forwarded by
18. 1.L. Teall, 'The barbarians in lustinian's armies', Specufum 40 (1965) 294-322,
esp. 315-319 has shown that the short term effeets of thc plague were probably the
remions behind the more or less inactive campaign years 542-545.
19. Cf. Haldon 282-289.
20. In 1975 Biraben reproduced almost the identical text of this artic1e in his work
Les hommes et la peste en France ef dans fes pays europeens et mediteraneens, val.
I, Civilisations et Societes 35 (Paris 1975) 25-50. Apart from same minor additional
remarks on thc lustinianie Plague this book does not offer any supplementary material
on this pandemie, while it eonstitutes an exeellent study of the second pandemie, the
Blaek Death (1347-1841).
264
Russell (1968), Biraben and Le Goff present them not as absolute

and unique results of the disease but embed them in a general context.
According to them population decline was not caused solely by the

plague but also through extended warfare and large scale invasions
of barbarian peoples. They assume that the series of epidemies created
favourable conditions for the Avaro-slavic descent on the Balkans
and the Lombard incursion into Italy and even for the emergence of
Arabic power in the Orient. Furthermore they speculate that the
disease ravaged the Mediterranean world more intensively and
repeatedly than the regions of north-western Europe, being as such
one of the causes for the gradual shift of power from the south to
the north, as far as the Western part of the Empire is concerned.
Biraben-Le Goff presented the plague as an important factor in the
course of Late Antique social, demographie, political and economical
history without reverting to extremes either by stripping it of any
long-term significance or by ascribing to it alone the transformation
of the whole period. Despite its significance, however, this study also
has some limitations. Their unclear citation of the sourees, by chapter
rather than by seetion or page, makes their references difficuIt to
follow, while their plague chronology contains also a substantial
number of mistakes. 21 As an example, we may note their misin-
terpretation of a passage by Euagrius in which the author states that
the plague seemed to break out in the first or second year of each
indiction. 22 If we take this mention literally it would signify that the
author recorded outbreaks for the years 552-554, 567-569, 582-584
and 597-599. It remains unclear why Biraben-Le Goff record the
presence of the plague in Antioch for the years 557-558, 572-574
and 590, as neither the years in question correspond to the first two
of any indications nor does Euagrius explicitly state that these
seemingly periodical outbreaks occurred in that city. Nevertheless,
this work set a high standard in plague research and was to be widely
used in the following years, though often in an uncritical way.
21. These are pointed out and discusscd in detail in Stalhakopoulos, chapter In.
1.3.5.1. I will limit myself to stating only one important case in this study.
22. Euagrius, Ecclesiastical History, ed. J. Bidez-L. Parmentier (London 1898), repr.
Amsterdam 1964) IV 29, p. 178, 1-2.
265
The fruitful work of these two scholars aroused much interest in

the Justinianic Plague, which was now approached from various
different positions. Dols (1974) provided an excellent artic1e on the

presence of the disease in earIy Islamic history.23 Based on a much
wider range of sources than von Kremer, whose limitations he made
dear (cf. supra), the author provides asolid chronology of the epidemie
waves according to Arabic material, thus widening both the perspective
of research on this subject and the geographical frame of the plague's
dissemination. Furthermore he indudes some brief discussion on the
effects of the disease in contemporary populations as weIl as remarks
on how it was perceived within the Islamic set of mentalities.
In 1976 McNeill published a highly influential book that viewed the
history of mankind from the scope of its struggle with epidemie diseases.
The Justinianic Plague plays only a minor part therein (1979: 119-124,
128-131), but due to the book's overwhe1ming success the author's
views have certainly shaped the public perception of this phenomenon.
The author does not go into a detailed analysis of the sources (of which
he dtes only Procopius) nor does he provide a chronology of the
outbreaks. Instead he considers the plague in a larger context, both
chronologically and geographically, by pointing to similarities with
contemporary phenomena as recorded in Chinese sourees. Furthermore,
he is the fIrst to address in some detail the matter of the disease's origin
as linked to one of the ancient plague foci, either at the foot of the
Himalayas or the region of the Great Lakes in Central Africa, though
he does not rule in favour of either with certainty. His approach to the
subject of the plague's long-term results is quite similar to that of
Biraben-Le Goff (1969) yet in a less relative and more emphatie manner
ascribing a major part of 'the failure of Justinian's efforts to restore
imperial unity in the Mediterranean [... ] in good part to the diminution
of imperial resourees stemming from the plague' (McNeill 1979: 123).
23. Later on he took over the content of this article in almost identical manner in
his The Black Death in the Middle East (New Jersey 1977) 13-31. Furthcrmore, several
years later an even more detailed analysis of early Islamic plague chronology was
published, which should be used additionally to this work: L.I. Conrad, 'Arabic Plague
Chronologies and Treatises: Social and Historical Factors in the Formation of a Literary
Genre', Studia Islamica 54 (1981) 51-93.
266
Around the same time Patlagean published her thorough

investigation on poverty in Byzantium which includes a section on
the plague (1977: 85-92). The author examines only the first two
waves of the epidemie in detail, but has given full weight to a number
of aspects surrounding the disease and its results. She considers
extensively the problem of terminology, or rather the lack of specific
terms referring to the plague in Greek,24 furthermore she explores
the possibility of a sex-bias and the issue of a socia} differentiation
as reflected in the disease-induced mortality. Along with the long-
term effects of the disease on the size of the Empire's population
already noted, Patlagean brings into discussion the insignificance of
monastic foundations after the 550s as an indication of this decline
(Patlagean 1977: 427). Although all these aspects are presented in a
sketchy way, the certain hand of the author gives them validity as
new topics to be explored in detail.
The work of Allen (1979) can be perceived in this manner. Among
its principal advantages we may count a detailed discussion of the
plague's symptomatology based on the narratives of Procopius,
Euagrius, Agathias and John of Ephessus. The work of the latter is
presented extensively in this article for the first time after brief
mentions in Stein (1949) and Patlagean (1977); it constitutes a key
point of this study.25 The author comments on the number of victims
as reported by the sources reflecting a total mortality of c. 57 % for
the first outbreak of the epidemie in Constantinople, a figure which
she aecepts as plausible, adding up to a total mortality rate of roughly
one third of the contemporary population. Allen presents a short
chronology of the plague visitations, which incIudes only apart of
the aetual outbreaks. Regarding the seventh century, during which
the sources on plague epidemics in the Byzantine world become
24. The issue of the tenninology of the plague is discussed in detail in: D. Stathakopoulos,
'Die Tenninologie der Pest in byzantinischen Quellen', lÖß 48 (1998) 1-7.
25. The text of the second part of lohn of Ephesus' Ecclesiastical History, which
inc1udes a lengthy narrative on the plague, was until recently only available in Syriac
or in a modern Latin translation. In 1996 it was translated into English and annotated
by W. Witakowski in: Pseudo-Dionysios oi Tel-Mature, Chronicle, Part Three,
Translated Texts for Historians 22 (Liverpool 1996).
267
sparse, this is seen as a sign that the disease 'seems to have reeurred
at greater intervals' (Allen 1979: 14). This is not entirely correct.
There is a rich information flow on such phenomena from both Arabic

and Byzantine sourees concerning outbreaks in regions under Islamic
rule. I have argued e1sewhere26 that at least Constantinople would
have been hit by most, if not all, of these epidemics and as such we
may reconstruet the presence of the disease in this period with the
help of the Arabic outbreaks. The disease's periodicity did not grow
larger in the seventh eentury, but smaller - as its six recurrences
with an average inter-epidemie period of c. ten years suggest.27 It is
noteworthy that the author reaches 716/7 in her chronology but does
not refer explicitly to the last outbreak of the plague in the late 740s,
although there is an abundance of both Greek and Arabic sources
that refer to it in detail. A short presentation of the epidemie in the
West is also included, along with a discussion of the plague's long-
term results, mostly dependent on Teall (1965) and Biraben-Le Goff
(1969). An important eontribution of this study lies in the establishing
of the connection between the supposed population 10ss and the
emergence of legislative measures to ensure the uninterrupted
eultivation of land through the effort to tie farmers to their land.
Finally, the question of the epidemic's origin is addressed, largely
based on McNeill (1976).
The increased interest in the plague is evident from a number of
articles published within short intervals. In 1979 Bakker analysed
Procopius' account of the disease without adding anything new to the
status of the research so far. 28 In 1981 Bratton published an extensive
study on the Justinianic plague in what appears to be a synthesis of
previous work on this topic with little personal contribution. The
largest part of the study is taken up with the linking of modem medical
data to those that derive from the narrative of Procopius, who is -
with the exeeption of one short mention in Euagrius - the only
Byzantine source used in Bratton's work. The most important feature
26. Cf. Stathakopoulos, chapter III. 1.3.5.1.

27. Stathakopoulos, ap. ci!.
28. EJ. Bakker, 'Procopius en de pest van Iustinian', Hermeneus 51 (1979) 147-152.
268
of this article lies in the effort to show that the dramatic population
decline of roughly half the inhabitants of Constantinople during the
first outbreak of the plague is highly exaggerated; instead he opts for

an estimated total mortality of about one third of the citizens.
The emergence of AIDS in the early 1980s, its subsequent medical
description in 1983 and its rapid spread thereafter created a new,
increased consciousness of the role of epidemie diseases in both
everyday and scholarly discourse, igniting the discussion on such
issues both in the present and in the past. Furthermore, the metaphorical
link of AIDS with the plague, which characterised the early stage of
the disease's publie pereeption, as was observed and diseussed by
Sontag (1989),29 certainly helped to draw attention to that earlier
disease. The study of the seeond pandemie, the Blaek Death, profited
a great deal from this movement, but as the following titles will
indicate, a large number of works devoted to the Justinianic Plague
emerged in the same period as weIl.
Leven (1987) published an article that combines an overview of
the research on the disease so far and personal thoughts on the subject.
A trained physician, the author devotes the largest part of his study
to comparing the symptomatology given in Byzantine sources (mostIy
Procopius, Euagrius and John of Ephesus) with modern medical data,
arriving in some cases at new conclusions. For instance, he supports
the notion that in Euagrius' narrative the presence of the pneumonie
form of plague is indicated. His conviction that this disease was in
fact true plague is evident, a position from which he seems to have
distanced himself in later papers. 30 A further positive contribution lies
in the constructive criticism on the rhetorically exaggerated number
of victims as recorded in Byzantine sources and its uncritical acceptance
in modern research on thc disease. The author dcnies the possiblc
29. S. Sontag, Aids and its Metaphors (New York 1989).

30. While in this article he writes of 'the first eertain plague epidemie in history'
(p. 137) in his dissertation (Habilitationschrift) K-H. Leven, Pest in der byzantinischen
Literatur (6. bis 15. Jahrhundert) Ursprünge und Wirkungen eines Motivs (submitted
in Freiburg i. Br. 1993), which will be published shortly, he seems less confident of
this identification in writing 'the detailed descriptions of symtoms [... ] allow with
high possibility for a modern diagnosis of bubonie plague under the primary condition
of the questionable status of such cnterprises' (p. 289).
269
LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE EVE OF ISLAM - - - - 1 0 1
DIONYSlOS STATHAKOPOULOS
veraeity of these numbers as weIl as the mortality rates that have

been computed from then, and aeeepts as plausible the approximate
pereentages of population 10ss as formulated by RusseIl (1968) (cf.

supra). He includes in bis discussion on1y the most weIl documented
outbreaks of the epidemie, the first two and the last one, while he
also eomments on the plague's impact on contemporary mentalities.
In the following years a noteworthy article by Durliat (1989)
appeared that differed in more than one respect from previous works
on the plague. The author used a wide range of sources (inscriptions,
papyri, eoins, arehaeologieal findings, legislation), apart from the
conventional historical Byzantine writings, in an effort to de-emphasise
the eatastrophie role - mostly in the demographie and economie
field - that the disease allegedly played, and as has been repeatedly
argued in the majority of the scholarly work on this subject so far.
He was the first to draw attention in the study of funerary inscriptions
as indicators of the presence of the plague in a specific place or
region, a practice that has since proved to be a fruitful enterprise in
the research on the epidemic's dissemination. 3 ! Durliat certainly
exaggerates his assumptions in order to prove his point, but I believe
that his position is not that of a 'revisionist' (as has been claimed
lately32), but is rather an attempt to show the discrepancy between
the infonnation provided by some Byzantine authors and that gained
through the modern quantitative analysis of other sources. 33 In a
comment published in the same volume as Durliat, Biraben showed
31. Durliat reeorded the plague's presenee in Nessana, a town in the Negev area, in
late Oetober-early November 541. Conrad (1996: 95) discovered data on the possible
dissemination of the epidemie in two other nearby towns, Rebovot and Eboda, in
November-Deeember 541. Finally Dauphin (1998: 512) and Kislinger-Statbakopoulos
(1998: 88), though independently from one another, Iinked this outbreak with information
from funerary inseriptions from Gaza dated to tbe seeond half of August 541, tbus
providing a possible route of the infeetion from the eoast to the mainland, a movement
whieh is eompatible to tbe testimony of Proeopius, BP II 22, 9.
32. P. Sarris (1999) 99 n. 1. 1 wish to tbank Dr. Sarris for allowing me to inelude
his work in tbis paper and Professor J.F. Haldon for facilitating this transaetion.
33. Cf. also the discussion, in a more moderate tone, in L. Conrad, 'Epidemie Disease
in Central Syria in the Late Sixtb Century: Some New Insights from the Verse of
ijassan ibn Tbabit', BMGS 18 (1994) 55-58.
270
THE JUSTINIANIC PLAGUE REVISlTED
the former's weakness regarding the epidemiologie al aspeet of the

disease and how his may be refIected in the source material. 34
The last, massive outbreak of the plague was thoroughly discussed

in an artic1e that was published shortly after (Turner 1990). It inc1udes
an extensive coverage of all sources referring to it, both Greek and
Latin, and then proeeeds to situate the epidemie, its pereeption and
effeets in the general eontext of the period: the lconoc1astie movement,
the depopulation of both urban and rural areas and the 'fostering of
monastic activity in rural areas' (Turner 1990: 427). A subject whieh
is touched upon, but not elaborated, is the intrinsic similarities which
are evident in all Byzantine narratives on this outbreak, and indicate
the existence of a common source. 35
Little that is new is to be found in Contis (1991/1996). Both
pandemies, the Justinianic Plague and the Blaek Death, are presented
interchangeably, which does not da justice to either of the phenomena.
Furthermore the author seems to accept the information provided by
the sources at face value, while the discussion that derives from his
presentation remains quite superficial. In contrast, the excellent work
by Harrison (1993) sets the lustinianic Plague in its proper context
as one of the formative agents of Late Antique demographie and
economic changes. He begins by basing his assumptions on a short
presentation of medical data on the disease, emphasising the dangers
that derive from imposing these modem findings on historical material.
He is particularly interested in challenging the widely accepted view
of the plague as the major force behind the social transformation of
the period. In this light he shows various weak points in Russell's
(1968) line of argumentation and stresses the chronological and
geographical variation in the levels of prosperity from region to
region, thus dcmonstrating thc inadequacy of thc simplistic vicw of
a Golden Age before the plague and a dark period thereafter. Instead
he introduces the concepts of restructuration and adaptation as models
34. J.-N. Biraben, Rapport: La peste du VI" siede dans ['Empire Byzantin, in P. Zech,
cd. Hommes et richesses dans l'empire Byzantin I (Ive'vne siecles) (Paris 1989)
121-125.
35. This topie has been discussed in some detail by Stathakopoulos, chapter IIl.
1.3.5.1.
271
DIONYSIOS STATHAKOPOULüS
to explain the impact of the disease in both Mediterranean and N orthem

Europe. The urban decline and the recession of cultivated soils in
favour of pastures and woodland have been so far perceived as a

certain indication of population dec1ine. 36 Rarrison argues that this
can also be interpreted as a movement towards a more silvo-pastoral
structure independent of demographie decrease. Furthermore the
importance of extensive and lasting warfare during the reign of
Justinian should not be overlooked as a factor bringing about the
devastation of rural areas, manpower shortage and the exhaustion of
resources. Moreover the regression of one type of settlement may
proceed hand in hand with the expansion of another kind (Rarrison
1993: 36). This by no means denies the overall significance of the
plague and its impact on Late Antique history, but nevertheless proves
that it had not been the only formative force behind this movement.
Equally valuable, though in quite a different context, is the study
of Congourdeau (1993) in which the author sums up material on the
perception and means of reaction to the plague taken from
contemporary sources on both pandernics. She discusses the two basic
attitudes present in Byzantium to the origin of epidernics: the rational
and medical explanation of them as having natural causes and the
patristic perception of pestilence as divinely sent punishment.
Furthermore she exarnines the concept of contagion and the possibility
of flight as a means to escape the plague.
In anticipation of bis forthcoming study on 'The Plague in the Early
Medieval Near East' we can draw attention to the exceptional article
of Conrad (1996) wbich incorporates the results of various of his works
on tbis subject, along with a wide range of source material and a large
bibliographical section. Based on these he develops a clear analysis
of the status of plague research so far. Re dismisses the number of
victims as recorded in contemporary sources as either rhetorical figures
or the products of unfounded speculation and as such does not find
36. Cf. J. Koder, 'Historical aspects of recession of cultivated land at the end of
la te antiquity in the east Mediterranean. Evaluation of land surfaces cleared from
forests in the Mediterranean region during the time of the Roman Empire',
PaläoklimaforschunglPalaeoclimate Research 10 (1994)/Special Issue ESF Project
'European Palaeoclimate and Man' 5, 157-167.
272
any eredibility in the efforts to produee realistic estimates of population

decline at any period. He then proeeeds to diseuss the presenee and
the impact of the epidemie, first on urban and then on rural environments.
In the former he stresses how house-eonstruetion teehniques, lack of
hygiene and density of oeeupation, both within eaeh household and
in the more general eontext of urban agglomerations, facilitated the
dissemination of the disease. He approximates the mortality of the
first wave in a city as large as Constantinople at roughly one third or
even half of the eontemporary population, but ascribes a somewhat
lower pereentage to the later visitations of the disease. He argues that
the plague was equally present in rural surroundings - a fact that
had not been clearly established so far - and provides evidenee for
this from Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Thrace. A further important feature
of his work lies in the distinction he makes on the epidemie's impact
on sedentary and nomadie populations, showing that the latter were
left largely untouehed throughout the two-century reeurrences of the
disease. Finally, he draws attention to the effects of the plague and
challenges the notion that it was the sole cause for all events that
followed its outbreak. He sees massive flight from the disease as an
equally important factor in the abandoning of rural settlements, along
with the mortality induced by it in the first place. As such he makes
it clear that the secondary effects of the plague also helped to shape
contemporary societies and should therefore be considered along with
its short-term effects in particular the increased mortality.
More conventional works on the subjeet continued to appear side
by side with these significant studies, for example, that published by
Bray (1996). He includes an extended medical diseussion of the
epidemie, but while relying in his analysis heavily on previous works,
does not seem to have occupied himself with the sourees indcpendently
of his references.
McCormick (1998) discussed the plague in a wholly new eontext,
the evolution of the system of maritime transport from the fourth to
the seventh centuries. He utilises the epidemie (primarily its first
outbreak) to show how it was passively transported over the
Mediterranean aboard a network of ships - prineipally those carrying
the annona from Egypt and Africa to Rome and Constantinople. A
specifie example he gives illustrates how the disease moved by water
273
DIONYSlOS STATHAKOPOULOS
not only in the Mediterranean, but also from a port of entrance (in
this case, Marseille) up the Rhone as far as Lyon (McCormick 1998:
58-61). In his general discussion on the epidemic he stresses the

regional variations of population movement in the various provinces
of the Empire and distances hirnself from the concept of the plague
as being the sole destructive force in the period.
In the same year a number of other works on the plague were
published. Dauphin (1998) discusses the presence and the impact of
the epidemic in Palestine using epigraphic material together with the
traditional written sources and covering, though only in a short outline,
the whole period of the presence of the disease in the region from
541 to 750. In commenting on the population decline in this area
under Islamic rule she assigns an important part to the plague, adding
that famines, migration due to the Persian and later the Arab invasion
and the warfare itself were equally to be included among the principal
factors of this process.
Kislinger-Stathakopoulos (1998) drew their attention to the first
outbreak of the epidemic in 541. In aminute investigation of Procopius'
account juxtaposed with a large number of other sources they presented
a detailed chronological and geographical framework of the plague's
dissemination and attempted to explain the movement of the disease
based on modern epidemiological data. Finally in 1998 a breakthrough
study on the plague was published by French paleomicrobiologists,
wherein a method was developed which enabled scholars to isolate
chromosome material of the plague bacillus found in the dental pulp
of 16-18th century bodies buried in mass graves in Provence. 37 This
method has not been applied to older skeletal material as yet, but its
application is extremely promising for the future of research on the
Iustinianic Plague, as it could c1arify aspects of the epidemic's
chronology and geographical dissemination in a secure manner.
Only quite recently two studies that examine the Iustinianic Plague
from the perspective of a more general context have been published.
37. M. Drancourt, et al., 'Detection of 400-year-old Yersinia pestis DNA in human

dental pump: An approach to the diagnosis of ancient septicemia', Proceedings 0/ the
National American Academy 0/ Scienses 95, 21 (1998) 12637-12640.
274
Sarris' (1999) work is eentred primarily on the history of the Apion

family, holders of huge estates in Egypt, as refleeting the sodal and
eeonomie changes witnessed during the reign of Justinian. The plague

is discussed in eonneetion with the status of the family's estates and
the author clearly adopts the notion that the epidemie 'had a major
demographie impact on both urban and rural communities' (Sarris 1999:
98). In order to prove his point he introduees numismatie and
papyrological data. 'The instability of the eopper coinage' and 'the
appearanee of light-weight solidi' during the very years of the plague's
visitation indicate 'a crisis in state finanees' 'which is most readily
explicable in tenns of the fiscal consequences of agrarian depopulation'
(Sarris 199: 102). He also points to what appears to be a positive
trend in the security of tenure enjoyed by lessees of land in Egypt
after the middle of the sixth eentury (Sarris 1999: 103) - a tendency
that was also observed in England in the aftennath of the Black Death. 38
The study that completes this survey was also published in the same
year. The work by Keys (1999), published as a book and in the form
of a two-part television doeumentary screened on Channel 4 (UK),
enjoyed great popularity and as such made his views widely known
outside the scope of a specialist scholarly community. His approach
is a deterministic one, as he admits in the book's introduction. His
aim is to establish a causal link between a climatic phenomenon that
appeared in 534, the so-called Dust-veil event, and a number of events
that followed. Among these he includes the plague. He discusses the
question of the disease's origin (Keys 1999: 15-23), which he plausibly
situates in Central Africa and links its dissemination to the
Mediterranean with the large scale commerce in African ivory, that
was particularly intensive in that period. The dissemination of the
discase is discussed extensively; thc author follows thc prcscnce of
the plague not only in the Eastern Mediterranean but also in Yemen,
Britain, Ireland, Gaul and Spain. The impact of the epidemic is
presented in particularly bleak colours, making it responsible - among
other things - for the decline of urban markets, the undermining of
the rural economy as weIl as sharp manpower shortage, especially
38. Haldon 146.
275
evident in the army, which was allegedly hit more fiercely than the
rest of the population. The climatic anomalies of the 530s were
uitimately responsible for the outbreak of the plague, the rise of the
Avars and the Avarosiavic seizure of the Balkans, the Persian occupation
and the emergence of Islam. It would surpass the scope of this paper
to analyse this connection in detail, but it seems safe to say that as
it stands it constitutes an over simplistic, monocausal explanation of
historical causation that does not do justice to the complex it appears
to discuss. The natural phenomena certainly played an important part
in population movements of the period: it is quite logical, for exampIe,
that a nomadic people will react to a prolonged climatic anomaly in
order to save its livestock and consequently to preserve its own
existence. Nevertheless, it is a huge step to assume that the nomadic
Avars descended to the south and invaded the Byzantine Empire merely
as a result of climatic phenomena. The same may be said of the
eruption of tbe plague. Climatic anomalies may in fact have caused
the multiplication and subsequent migration of wild rodents infected
with this disease to move from their foci towards human habitation
in East Africa and thus disseminate the disease. But such climatic
phenomena were not infrequent - though admittedIy the Dust-veil
event seems to have been a particularly lasting one. This model cannot
explain why the plague broke out the moment it did; it provides a
possible explanation, but not a certain one, as it concentrates on only
one particular aspect of historical causation and leaves out many others.
Research on the plague has today reached a high standard, with
often contradictory positions being argued for its role in particular
periods, and a large source base that has been accumulated over a
century of scholarly work. Future studies on this topic will need to
take both these parts into consideration and move into discussing
particular aspects of the disease that have not been explored in detail
so far: the epigraphic material, for example, can certainly yield fruitful
results, provided its limitations for historical interpretation are accepted.
Equally promising is the medical identification of the disease through
the isolation of bacterial DNA. The Justinianic Plague still has a lot
to disclose.
University of Vienna
276
5
THE ORIGINS OF THE MANORIAL ECONOMY:
NEW INSIGHTS FROM LATE ANTIQUITY
Peter Sarris
BETWEEN the fifth and the seventh centuries AD, the lands bordering the
shores of the Mediterranean underwent profound social, political and
cultural change, study of which has constituted one of the most fruitful
areas ofhistorical research of the past forty years. 1 This process of change
is most readily discernible in terms of political history. Over the course
of the period, a unifying trans-Mediterranean Roman hegemony broke
down. In the eastern Mediterranean, from the seventh century onwards,
a rump Roman state found itself engaged in a protracted struggle for
survival, initially against the forces of Sasanian Persia, and subsequently
against an expansionist Islamic foe. 2 In much of the west, the Roman
Empire gradually faded awayas a militarily and governmentally effective
power structure during the fifth century, with aseries of sub-Roman,
'barbarian' successor kingdoms emerging in its place. 3 The chronology
and character of this process of transformation in its political aspect can
be reconstructed with a fair degree of accuracy. In relation to the history
of cultural forms, intellectual traditions and social organization,
however, the pattern is rather more opaque. In particular, his tori ans
have struggled to ascertain what effects the demise of the Roman state in
the west had on agrarian social relations and relations of production.
This situation has been the result largely of a lack of understanding of
the nature of the late Roman agrarian economy. Historians have a
general sense ofwhat medieval rural sociery looked like in the west - or at
least in the central Carolingian lands - by the eighth and ninth centuries,
but they have not been able to compare or contrast this picture with
what went before. Although there existed great regional diversity within
the early medieval agrarian economy, the evidence of the late Mero-
vingian and early Carolingian polyptyques would suggest a world in
1. See J. D. Howard-Johnston, 'Introduction' in J. D. Howard-Johnston and P. A. Hayward

(ed.) The Cult ofSaints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1999), pp. 1-24, p. 1. This
article is based on a paper, versions of which were delivered to the Medieval History Seminar at the
Universiry of Oxfard (1999) and subsequently to the Medieval Social and Economic History
Seminar at the U niversiry of Cambridge (2001) and the Centre far Rural History at the U niversity
ofReading (2001). I am grateful tu those who attended these seminars far their general enthusiasm,
helpful comments, and near-uniform courtesy, as also to Mr. T. F. Stone of All Souls College,
Oxford, who read the whole in draft. Within this article, the standard papyrological conventions are
adhered to. In relation tu legal texts, the following abbreviations are used: Codex Theodosianus ~
Codex Theodosianus, ed. Th. Mommsen (2 Vols., Berlin, 1905); Nov. Val. ~ Novellae Divi
Valentiniani, ibid. Val. I, part I, pp. 73-154: Codex Iustinianus ~ Codex Iustinianus, ed. P. Krüger
(Berlin, 1877); J Nov. ~ Iustiniani Novellae, ed. R. Schöll and W. Kroll (Berlin, 1895).
2. See M. Whittow, The Making ofOrthodox Byzantium (London, 1996).
3. See R. McKitterick, 'Politics', in R. McKitterick (ed.) The Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2001),
pp. 21-5 6.
280 THE ORIGINS OF THE MANORIAL ECONOMY:
which royal government, the Church and most secular lords derived the
mainstay of their daily revenues and resources from variants of what
Verhulst has described as the classic bipartite manor. 4 In what Verhulst
presents as its 'most mature form', the bipartite manorial system one
encounters between the Loire and the Rhine, between the Rhine, the
EIbe and the Alps, and in norrhern and central Italy, consisted of
an equilibrium between, and a dose link in terms of exploitation with, the

two parts that together constituted the unit of ownership referred to as the
villa: one patt, that is the demesne ... was cultivated directly for the lord of the
domain mainly by the farmers among whom the other part of the estate was
divided, the so-called tenements or holdings. The tenants could cultivate the
latter for themselves in exchange for services, deliveries of goods and
payments to the lord and his demesne. 5
But how newwere such bipartite arrangements? What did they owe to
what had gone before? We simply do not know, although in recent years,
most scholars have tended to concur that they constituted a novel
system, largely created by Frankish royal government in the eighth and
ninth centuries. 6 As a result, the hypothesis proposed by Fustel de
Coulanges in the late nineteenth century, that the early medieval
bipartite manor was essentially a survival of pre-existing Roman estate
structures, has been widely rejected. 7 Thus the author of one recent
study of the early medieval economy has asserted that
Rather than some kind of fossilized late Roman legacy, these large and
complex agrarian establishments are now seen as a distinctly Carolingian
phenomenon ... Though they may have preserved and developed elements
inherited from the Roman economic and social order, bipartite estates prove
now to have emerged from socia!, politica!, and agrarian conditions specific
to severa! regions of the early Middle Ages. 8
The relative lack of understanding of the agrarian economy of the late

Roman west is, of course, a result of the paucity of extant source
materials for the period, and, in particular, a marked absence of
documentary evidence. Vntil the appearance of the late Merovingian
4. C. Wickham, 'Rural Society in Carolingian Europe' and A. Verhulst, 'Economic Organis-

ation', in R. McKitterick (ed.) The New Cambridge Medieval History - Volume 11: c.700-900
(Cambridge, 1995), pp. 5'0-37 and pp. 481-5°9.
5. A. Verhulst, ibid. pp. 488-9.
6. A. Verhulst (ed.), Le grand domaine aux epoques merovingienne et carolingienne (Gent, 1985) -
see his comments in the 'Introduction' - pp. II-20.
7. W. Goffart, Rome's Fall and After (London, '989), p. '93, notes II7-18, and N. D. Fustel de
Coulanges, Recherehes sur quelques problemes d'histoire (Paris, 1885), reprinted as Le colonat romain
(New York, 1979), pp. 183-4.
8. M. McCormick, Origins 0/ the European Economy - Communications and Commerce
AD300-900 (Cambridge, 2001), p. 7. See also M. Innes, State and Society in the Early Middle Ages
(Cambridge, 2000), pp. 77-82, which includes a useful bibliography for Carolingian estates.
A LATE ANTIQUE PERSPECTIVE 281

and early Carolingian po/yptyques of the eighth and ninth centuries, the
historian of the late Roman and post-Roman west is largely reliant on
the occasional, perhaps idealized, reference to rural life found in the
literary sources, the far from straightforward testimony of the barbarian

law codes and the somewhat piecemeal archaeological record. 9 For much
of the eastern Mediterranean world for the same period, the situation
with regard to documentary sources is not in fact that much better. The
social historian is yet again obliged to piece together what he can from
the literary evidence, from epigraphy, and from archaeological evidence
of often somewhat dubious excavational quality. These sources failing,
one is forced to attempt to view early Byzantine society through the
disjointed and frequently misleading prism of the hagiographic
sources. 10
The only region of the late Roman world, east or west, for which
sufficient documentary evidence exists to engage realistically in study of
the agrarian economy and of agrarian social relations is Egypt, from
which there survive valuable collections of documentary papyri. In
recent years, these papyri have revealed interesting and significant
features of the late antique economy. On the basis of the Egyptian
documentary sources, a relatively clear picture of late Roman agrarian
social relations for the region has emerged. Yet, to date, little effort has
been made to examine to what extent the Egyptian sources can be seen to
resonate with the testimony of the more fragmentary evidence for the
Eastern Empire at large, or what light they might shed on contempor-
aneous developments in the west.
The reasons for this are readily identifiable: to many, the very notion
that me Egyptian papyri might tell one anything of agrarian conditions
elsewhere in the late Roman Eastern Empire, let alone of conditions in
the west, has seemed deeply improbable. Such certainly was the position
of Bloch, as enunciated in his classic essay on 'The Rise of Dependent
Cultivation' :
No doubt Egyptian and Mrican evidence can throw precious light on the
origins of the Western seigneurie. But only if we ask of them what they can
legitimately supply. That is, information, not about the actual thing that we
are studying, but about analogous things. In short, we must treat them as
documents of comparative history.l1
9. See B. Ward-Perkins. 'Land. Labour and Settlement'. in Averil Cameron, R. Ward-Perkins,

and M. Whithy (eds), The Cambridge Ancient History Volume XIV - Late Antiquity: Empire and
Successors Ai) 425-600 (Cambridge. 2000). pp. 3'5-45. pp. 3'5-20, and J. Percival The
Fifth-Century Villa: New Life or Death Postponed'·. in ]. Drinkwater and H. Elton (ed.),
Fifth-Century Gaul: A Cri,is ofldentity? (Cambridge. 1992), pp. 156-64 and pp. 156-7.
IO. On hagiography. see P. Rousseau 'Ascetics as mediators and as teachers'. in J. D.
Howard-Johnston and P. A. Hayward, The Cult ofSaints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Age,
(Oxford, 1999) pp. 45-59-
Ir. M. Bloch 'The Risc of Dcpendent Cultivation', in M. M. Postan (ed.) The Cambridge
Economic Hi,tory of Europe, Volume L- Agrarian Lift in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1966), pp.
235-9 0 , p. 237·

Bloch' s objections to the use of evidence from Roman Egypt for the
pre-history of the early medieval economy were weIl founded; they can
be taken too far, however. Of course, within the late Roman Empire,
agrarian conditions would have varied enormously from region to region

and from place to place. The varying availability ofland and labour, the
differing intensity of urbanization, the variety of soil and crop types,
disparities in terms of the requirements ofirrigation, not to mention the
proximity of a ho stile foe, would aIl have carried with them major
implications for the rural economy.12 Nevertheless, in response to Bloch,
it can be argued that the historian has litde choice but to follow the grain
of such sources as are available. The proper historical method must be to
attempt to build up a picture of agrarian social relations and relations of
production for that region of the Roman world for which the best
evidence exists, and then to see to what extent this evidence is
reconcilable with the testimony of the more piecemeal sources extant
from other regions of the late Roman world. If, given the geographical
diversity and the disparate inherited customs and traditions evoked by
Bloch and others, the historian nevertheless finds so me sort of match,
this may be highly suggestive. Such being the case, it is important that
historians of the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages take the
new picture emerging from the Egyptian papyri into account.
Papyri have survived in considerable numbers from most parts oflate
Roman Egypt, with the unfortunate exception of Alexandria and the
Nile Delta, where the climate is least conducive to papyrological
survival. 13 In terms of elite landholdings, the most extensive and
concentrated collection of sources relates to the properties of the Apion
family in the vicinity of the Middle Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. 14
These papyri, dating from the fifth century through to the early seventh,
permit one to reconstruct both the history of the family and the
economic character of its estates.
The earliest member of the Apion family of whose identification we
can be confident is a certain Flavius Strategius, who is first attested in the
currently available papyri in March 439, and who is later recorded as a
town councillor (curialis) of Oxyrhynchus, a member of the imperial
inner circle in Constantinople, bearing the tide of comes sacri consistorii,
and curator of the Oxyrhynchite estates ofEudocia, wife of the Emperor
Theodosius II. It is possible that this Flavius Strategius of the mid-fifth
century is to be identified with the Strategius recorded in the
correspondence ofIsidore ofPelusium, to whom Isidore wrote a letter of
12. For diversity within the west, see C. E. Stevens, 'Agriculture and Rural Life in the Later
Roman Empire', ibid., pp. 92-125.
'3. See J. Keenan 'Egypt', in Averil Cameron, B. Ward-Perkins, and M. Whitby (ed.) The
Cambridge Ancient History Vo/ume XlV - Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors AD 425-600
(Cambridge, 2000), pp. 612-37.
'4. See P. A .V. Sarris, 'Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis,
'999), pp. '7-I04·

congratulation upon his accession to the office of dux of the Egyptian
province of Augustamnica. Similarly, it is tempting to identify this early
Flavius Strategius as either the grandson or great-great grandson of the
Flavius Strategius recorded in 349 as vir perftctissimus et praeses

Thebaidos.1 5 Certainly, the Apion family would appear to have adhered
to the . tradition of papponymy which was relatively common at the
time. 16 Thus, in 497 we find Flavius Strategius' grandson, also called
Flavius Strategius, holding the rank of comes domesticorum. 17
By the early sixth century, members of the family were actively
engaged in imperial politics in Constantinople. Flavius Apion, son of the
comes domesticorum of 497, held the titular rank of Praetorian Prefect
('5°3/4, when he played a vital part in the Roman Empire's crushing
counter-attack against the forces ofSasanian Persia at Amida, overseeing
the provision of grain to one of the largest armies ever amassed for a
single campaign in the Eastern Empire' s history.18 In 510, however,
Apion fell from favour at court, was denounced as a 'pederast and
heretic', and exiled to Nicaea. Ir was only upon the accession of Justin I
as Emperor in 518 that Apion was rehabilitated and his family's
advancement in imperial service able to resurne. One of Apion' s sons,
Strategius, served as Augustal Prefect of Alexandria and comes sacrarum
largitionum - chief financial minister of the empire. 19 In the late sixth
century, members of the family effected prestigious marriage alliances.
One head of the family married a niece of the Emperor Justin Ir, whilst
another went on to marry a certain Eusebia, daughter of a Sicilian
landowner by the name of Rusticiana who was both a correspondent of
Pope Gregory the Great and a granddaughter of Boethius. By the early
seventh century, the head of theApion family could claim consanguinity
not only with three emperors Oustin I, Justinian and Justin II), but also
with the distinguished western aristocratic lines of the Anicii and
Symmachi. It is only with the Persian invasion of Egypt from 616-20
that we lose sight of the family, although a member of a cadet branch
would appear to have been alive as late as 625, perhaps indicating so me
degree of cooperation on his part with the Persian forces of occupation. 20
Of the various types of documentation found amongst the Apion
papyri relating to the family' sestates, the most informative is that
represented by the so-called general estate accounts, or, as the
documents most often describe themselves, 'accounts of receipts and of
items of expenditure'. 21 Certain of these survive papyrologically in a
'5. Ibid., p. 12.

,6. T. Gagos and P. van Minnen, Settling a Dispute - Toward a LegalAnthropology 0/Late Antique
Egypt (Michigan, 1994), p. '9.
' 7. P. A. V. Sarris, E
' conomy and Sociery in rhe Age ofJusrinian' (Oxford D .Phil. thesis, 1999),
p . 12.
18. Ibid., p. 10.
'9. Ibid., pp. 10-13.
20. Ibid., pp. 10-15.
21. See POxy XIX 2243(a), verso, lines 87-8 'Aoy(a<;) AYII.lf!(a,wv) Kai avaAwf!(a,wv)'.
relatively undamaged form, whilst a much larger number survive which

represent eicher fragments of such accounts, or more focused documents
relating to matters such as the collection or expenditure of a single
product, such as wine. 22 Ir is from the first body, the relatively

undamaged sets of general accounts, that a concrete sense of the overall
structure of the Apion estates may be derived. Between them, the
documents concern life on different parts of the Apion family's
landholdings in the vicinity of Oxyrhynchus for aperiod covering some
thirty-five years, from C.557 to 590.23
Fot documents drafted over the course of so long a chronological
span, the Apion general statements of account conform to a strikingly
uniform pattern. Each represents a set of annual accounts for primarily
rural properties drafted by individuals bearing the title of pronoetes or
'overseer'. In three out of four cases, the accounts are structured around
settlements described as epoikia. Each set of accounts typically covers six
or seven such localities. The first half of each set of accounts lists the
quantities of produce and payments recorded in coin collected from
individuals and groups from each settlement. At the end of the income
entty for each settlement, one tends to find these sums added together,
and the sum total of receipts from the group of settlements as a whole is
then calculated. 24 The accounts then proceed to list expenditure,
typically beginning wich payments of an essentially charitable nature, to
churches and suchlike associated with the epoikia, followed by payments
to estate employees and artisans. 25
Next, in addition to further wage payments, one encounters details of
what might be conceived of as capital expenditure: costs associated with
the purchase of animals, the maintenance and repair of boats, the
acquisition of jars for the vintage, etc. 26 Finally, the total sum of
expenditure is reckoned and subtracted from the aggregate sum of
income, producing a figure of net revenue fot the group of settlements
minus their hypothecated costS?7 One is then typically informed of the
number of instalments in which chis net revenue was paid to the Apion
household' s central bureau in Oxyrhynchus over the course of the year. 28
By far the most extensive set of general estate accounts is that found
on p. 0"0" 3804, which, in terms of receipts, concerns seven epoikia. 29 In
relation to the epoikia, the account details the sums contributed by
individuals and groups from each of the settlements, with the
individuals often described in terms of their parentage, and, almost
22. See P Oxy XVI '9II (complete account): P Oxy XXVII 248o (wine account).
23. POxy XVI '9II, LV 38°4, XIX 2243(a), XVIII 2195.
24- See P Oxy LV 38°4, lines '4'-2 for total sumo
25. Ibid., lines 145- 8, line '51, and 158.
26. Ibid., lines 225-40.
27. lbid. , lines 270-5.
28. See P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis,
1999), pp. 20-3·
29. P.Oxy LV 38041ines I-14°.

,0
invariably, place of origin. In most cases, the individuals are described
as 'apo tou autou ktematos' - 'from the same landholding' - indicating
that each epoikion was associated with a particular ktema or division of
land. 3l A certain amount of specialization would appear to be evident

between the epoikia, with the estate engaging in a wide range of
agricultural and semi-industrial activities including cereal and vit-
icultural production, animal husbandry and the milling of oleaginous
vegetables.
This diversified picture of production on the Apion family' s
Oxyrhynchite estates is confirmed by the expenditure section of P. O.ry.
38°4. The primary significance of the expenditure account, however, is
that one finds mention therein of land described as autourgia or
'self-working' land. Many of the costs associated with the valorization of
the autourgia are recorded to have been deducted from the revenues
derived from the epoikia. Thus, for example, the expenditure seetion of
p. O.ry 3804 records payment to fieldguards from an epoikion in return
for their having guarded hay belonging to the 'landowner' s autourgia';
aracus beans were purchased for the sowing of the same; two oxen, two
bulls, two heifers and one she-goat were bought 'for the landowner's
autourgia called Outside the Gate'. 32
Inherent to the structure of the Apion estates as recorded in P. O.ry
3804 was thus abipartite division between the ktema of each epoikion, on
the one hand, and, on the other, 'auturgical' land, some at least of the
costs associated with which were hypothecated to the estate settlements.
The autourgiawould appear to have represented land held and exploited
'in hand'. This picture is confirmed by the other general estate
accounts. 33 As documents drafted by individuals apparently responsible
primarily for the collection of revenue from the epoikia, the general
accounts tell one nothing of the actual returns from the auturgicalland,
which would appear to have been recorded on a separate set of
documents drafted by a different body of estate officials. However, the
impression from the sources is that production upon the in-hand was
extensive, and highly significant in terms of the internal economy of the
Apion household. This impression is based on two facts emergent from
P. O.ry 38°4. First, the net cash revenue derived from the epoikia on ce the
hypothecated costs were deducted was extremely modest: just over 480
solidi for the entire year. 34 Second, the revenue in kind from the epoikia
described in P. O.ry 3804 is recorded as having matched expenditure
exactly. This would suggest that the autourgia, and not the ktema,
represented the main source of surplus production on the Apion estates,
30. Ibid., column 11, lincs '5-39.

31. Ibid., lines '5-39.
32. Ibid., lines 24'-2, 25'-2 and 267-9.
33. See the disCllssion of these documents in P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economyand Society in the Age of
Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1999), pp. 17-53.
34. P. Oxy LV 3804 lines 276-80.
and thus the main source of the family's private income, the surplus
furnished by the autourgia probably having been sold at market. 35
The general estate accounts also provide vital insights as to the
character of labour on the Apion estates. As already no ted, the epoikion

entries within the general accounts tend to take two forms: payments
made by named individuals or other named groups, and payments of a
communal character, typically 'from the collective' or koinon of those
labourers resident in a given setdement. 36 In relation to those payments
made by named individuals or named groups, one is rarely informed of
what it is for which payment was being made, although that these
payments were primarily rental in character seems inherendy likely.37
On the rare occasion when such payments are explained, they te nd to be
for the rent of a capital item such as an oil-press, or in relation to a piece
ofland. 38 In most instances when the collective or koinon is mentioned,
one is informed of the purpose of the contribution, be it the payment of
tax (collecred via the landlord), the rent of a dovecote, rent on land, etc. 39
One would thus appear to be presented with a list recording individual
payments for which named individuals were liable, and collective
payments foe collective charges such as the fiscal imposts incumbent on
the community, and the rents due on presumably commonly enjoyed
amenities and land. The different categories of entty would appear to
have been meant to distinguish between types of imposr rather than
types of resident. The koinon would appear to have comprised the
entirety of the individuals and groups listed separately in the same
epot'k'lOn entry. 40
The inhabitants of each epoikion were thus organized into a
'collective' or koinon responsible for payments ofboth a fiscal and private
character. In addition to rhe payment of the taxes foe which they were
liable, and rents in cash and crop, the inhabitants of the epoikia would
also appear to have been liable to labour services wirh respect to the
autourgia. Thus the expenditure section of P. Oxy 3804 records
auturgicalland to have been cultivated by inhabitants of the epoikion of
35, Ibid.• line 273. See P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Soeiery in the Age of Justinian' (Oxford
D.Phil. thesis, '999), pp. 235-7. For the highly eommereial eharaeter of produetion on Egyptian
large estates, see J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity - Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic
Dominance (Oxford, 2002).
36. P. Oxy. LV 3804 line 34.
37. The fact that the revenues eolleeted from the epoikia were used to meet che private needs of
the household itself would suggest that the paymems were primarily private (that is remaI) in
eharaeter rather chan publie (that is, fiseal). When paymems are fiscal in eharaeter, they are
deseribed as such. See P. Oxy LV 3804line 30. for further diseussion of the private eharacter of the
Apion estates, see P. A. V. Sarris, 'Eeonomy and Soeiery in the Age oflustinian' (Oxford D.Phil.
thesis, 1999), pp. 181- 209 and J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity - Gold, Labour, and
Aristocratic Dominance (Oxford, 2002), pp. 89-100.
38. P. Oxy LV 3804 lines 77 and 134.
39· Ibid., lines 30, 3', 34, '33, 125.
40. P. A. V. Sarris, 'Eeonomy and Soeiery in the Age ofJustinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1999),
pp. 35-6.

LuciuY A similar picture is suggested by the testimony of P. Oxy 2243(a)
and P.Oxy 1913.42 P. Wash. Univ. II 102, a document dated palaeo-
graphically to the fifth or sixth century, records the number of workers
required from a list of epoikia 'for the sowing of the landowner's

autourgia'Y The inhabitants of the epoikia would not, however, appear
to have been the only group to have worked on the in-hand. It is
primarily with regard to auturgical land that one finds mention of
families of workers styled paidaria, who would appear to have been of
servile status, and who may have engaged in direct agricultural
. 44
pro duct!on.
On the basis of the estate accaunts, therefore, the Apion properties in
the vicinity of Oxyrhynchus emerge as having constituted bipartite
estates, the in-hand of which was worked both by a servile workforce
apparently resident on the autourgia, and byworkers, typically described
as georgoi or 'land labourers', resident in estate settlements termed
epoikia who, in addition to the labour they provided on the autourgia,
also paid rents in coin and kind with respect to the amenities and lands
associated with each settlement.
This picture is canfirmed by the contractual papyri found within the
Apion collection, and in particular, the extant 'contracts of surety'.
These represent agreements made with the Apion household whereby an
individual provided surety that a third party would fulfil his obligations
with respect to the landowner and his property. A number of these
documents cancern sureties provided with respect to agricultural
workers resident in estate epoikia and, as such, recard the terms on which
a significant proportion of the Apion workforce was employed. The
most informative of these is P. Oxy 2478, in which a certain Zacharias,
'oikonomos of the Church of the Holy Resurrection', provided surety
that a certain Aurelius Pambechius, inhabitant of an Apion-owned
epoikion, would 'abide and remain ... on the landowner's orchard and
look after and cultivate everything'; and that he would both pay the dues
to which he was liable and meet 'the services to the landowner
customarily provided by him'.45 These 'landowner's services' look very
like the labour services with respect to the autourgia discernible in the
estate accounts.
The Oxyrhynchite Apion papyri constitute the single most extensive
collection of sources relating to late antique great estates for any part of
41. P Oxy LV 3804 lines 196-8.

42. See P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Sociery in the Age of Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis,
1999), pp. 38-44.
43. P Wash. Univ. 11, 102, lines 1-3.
44. P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Sociery in the Age ofJustinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1999),
pp. 40-2 and P Oxy LVIII 3960 line 60 - an account dealing with wine production in which the
paidaria would appear to have been direcdy involved. That these paidaria were of servile condition
is suggested by the fact that within the account they are contrasted with 'free workers.
45. POxy XXVII 2478 lines 16-21: 'Lla~ IlLÖO~Eva~ nap 'alJLo':' f; 'EeOU~ YEOUXLKa~
DnfpYjoLa~'.
the post-Diocletianic Roman world. The rather more fragmentary

papyrological collections concerned with the agrarian possessions of
other Egyptian landowning families would suggest that the bipartite
structuring of estates was not, however, unique to the Apions. Thus, for
the vicinity of Oxyrhynchus, we possess the contract of employment of a
late sixth-century estate administrator by the name of Ieremias. This
overseer (epikeimenos) was employed to oversee production on the 'new
plantations' and the 'great lands of the landowner', which may have been
auturgical properties. 46 Most significantly, the contract draws a distinc-
tion berween landholdinfs described as the topoi of the estate (tes ousias)
and the ktema tes ousias. 4 As seen above, the word ktema was used in the
Apion papyri to signify land associated with the estate settlements or
epoikia. By analogy, the topoi of the estate with which the ktema is
contrasted in Ieremias' contract, are likely to have been auturgical
landholdings. A parallel distinction berween topoi and ktemata is found
in the Apion contract P. Oxy 3641, where, once again, it would appear to
differentiate berween land held and exploited in hand and the ktemata of
the estate settlements. 48
Beyond the region of Oxyrhynchus, highly suggestive evidence in
relation to the autourgia emerges from the Arsinoite account
P.Iand.inv.65J. This document consists of a set of accounts of receipt
and expenditure in hay associated with livestock deployed on an estate
property in the vicinity of a village by the name ofTo Skelos. Much of
the hay required to feed the estate livestock was obtained from
meadowland associated with the property itself, but a considerable
portion was both purchased and requisitioned from, or at least delivered
by, agriculturallabourers resident in other settlements belonging to the
estate. 49 As in relation to the Apion properties, one would appear to be
dealing with an estate held and exploited in hand, certain of the costs
associated with which were met by agricultural workers, styled georgoi,
resident on other estate-owned properties. The estate in the vicinity of
T 0 Skelos would appear to have been substantial, the land under plough
having been estimated at approximately IOO acres. 50
In terms oflabour, an association berween a directly managed in-hand
and bodies of estate employees termed paidaria is recorded for the
vicinity of the Egyptian city of Hermopolis in P.Bad. IV 95, which, as
with the Apion papyri, records entire families of such workers to have
been employed by the estate. 51 The residence of agricultural workers in
46. P.Oxy X1X 2239 lines 12-13 'Ta !-teraAu YEouXLKa'.

47. Ibid., lines 13-14. See the note to line 14 for the reading T6:n:0.
48. See P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian (Oxford D.Phil. thesis,
1999), pp. 62- 3·
49. T. Reekmans, A Sixth-Century Account oIHay (Brussels, 1962), pp. 14-16 and p. 10.
50. Ibid., pp. 14-16. See also the discussion in P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Society in the Age of
Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1999), pp. II5-16.
51. M. Schnebel, 'An Agricultural Ledger in P.Bad 95', The journal oIEgyptian Archaeology xiv
(1928), 34-45, at 42-3.
estate-owned epoikia is recorded for the Oxyrhynchite in P. O>ry 2724,

3512,3955,4398, and P. Wash. Univ. 125, as also in a number of Arsinoite,
Heracleopolite, and Hermopolite documents. 52 The deployment of the
labour of the inhabitants of the epoikia on the estate in-hand would

appear to be attested in the overseer' s work contract P. O>ry 2239. 53 In
addition to P.Iand.Inv. 653 encountered above, the hypothecation of the
resources of the epoikia to the needs of the in-hand is also evident from P.
Ant. III 190, as also P.Bad IV 95, in which instance revenues derived from
the settlements, on this occasion styled choria, were spent both on labour
costs and wages associated with the in-hand and other requirements of
the central household. 54 On the basis of the surviving papyrological
record, it would seem reasonable to postulate that the key structural
characteristics of the Apion estates were replicated in the fifth and sixth
centuries both on non-Apion properties in the vicinity of Oxyrhynchus
and on other large estates in Middle Egypt more generally.
Large estates of the Apion type were not, one should note, a historical
constant within the Egyptian agrarian economy. Whilst Rathbone has
revealed the existence of a number of third-century large estates
strucrured after a manner closely analogous to that of the Apion
properties some three hundred years later, the landowning elite ofEgypt
in the third century would appear to have been far more reliant than
their sixth-century counterparts on the straightforward leasing out of
land: that is to say, members of the landowning elite were primarily
rentiers. 55 By the time one reaches the fifth century, however, such
evidence as exists would suggest that directly managed large estates were
becoming increasingly common, indicating a fundamental restructuring
of agrarian conditions. This is evident from the toponymic record, with
the word for village proper (korne') coming increasingly from the fourth
52. P. Oxy XXXIV 2724, XLIX 3512, LVIII 3955, LXIII 4398, P. Wash. Univ. 125, and note also P.
Amh. 11 149. For documents mentioning estate epoikia in other regions, see for example, B. G. U 11
36+ CP.R. X 65 and 127, P. Vindob. Sijp. 7 and P.BadIV 95, in which instance the settlements are
sryled choria. For the equivalence between choria and epoikia, see J. Banaji, Agrarian Change In Late
Antiquity - Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance (Oxford, 2002), p. '75. For discussion of
Oxyrhynchite epoikia, see idem. 'Agrarian History and the Labour Organisation ofByzantine Large
Estates', in A. K. Bowman and E. Rogan (cd.), Agriculture in Egyptftom Pharaonie to Modern Times
(Oxford, 1999), pp. 193-216, pp. 208-212.
53. P. Oxy XIX 2239 lines 13-16. leremias, who makes no mention of collecting rent or taxes from
the workers concerned, agrees to '[:n:a]pamcEtJaom 'tOU<; :n:o.vta<; YHÜPYOU<; ... EV ~Ko.O't(;'
'to:n:w Kal tv ~Ko.mw K'tf]fla'tl ['Cll]<; aiJ'tl1<; Duola<; [0]:n:ELpm 'tu<; YEOUXLKU<; flllxavu<; Km
<jnrtEuom uKav8ia<; Kalll'tOlflW<; EXE[L]v :n:uoav o:n:OuÖf]V OUVELoEVEYKE1V H'<; ßEA"tlOVa
<'njJLV 'tu '4-tE'tEpa YEOUXLKU ayp[m]KLKU :n:paYf!ma'.
54. P. Ant. III 190, !ine 35: P.Bad. IV 95, lines 75-6. Note the discussion in P. A. V. Sarris,
'Economy and Sociery in the Age of Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1999), p. 123.
55. See D. Rathbone, Economic Rationalism and Rural Sociery in Third-Century AD Egypt
(Cambridge, 1991), pp. 182-3; J. Rowlandson, Landlords and T enants in Roman Egypt: The Social
Relations ofAgriculture in the Oxyrhynchite Norne (Oxford, 1996), p. 284 (leasing ont ofland) and
J. Banaji, 'Rural Communities in the Late Empire: Economic and Monetary Aspects' (Oxford
D.Phil. tlresis, 1992), pp. 134-63.

century onwards to be replaced with the terms most commonly
associated with the settlements of the great estates: epoikion and
chorion. 56 Likewise, in the papyrological record, the types of documen-
tation most commonly associated with directly managed large estates,
such as estate accounts, become proportionally more significant as one

enters the fifth century, whilst leases can be seen to decline In
incidence. 57
This process would appear to have gone hand-in-hand with an
increasingly marked concentration of landed wealth within Egyptian
society. Families such as that of the Apiones in the sixth century were
trans-regionallandowners, owning property not only in the vicinity of
their horne town, bur also elsewhere in Egypt and beyond. Thus in
addition to Oxyrhynchus, the Apion family owned property near other
Middle Egyptian cities such as Cynopolis and Heracleopolis, as weil as
urban property in Constantinople and Alexandria, and possibly even
agricultural estates in other regions, such as Sicily.58 By contrast,
members of the civic elite ofEgypt in the third and early fourth centuries
had tended to limit their possessions to the territorium of their native
city. 59 This process of concentration had a long antecedence. The social
and economic influence of larger landowners had been bolstered at the
beginning of the third century through the introduction throughour
Egypt of municipal-style government on the traditional Greco-Roman
mode1. 60 The enrolment of the dominant locallandowners into the new
curiae had provided them with the opportunity to entrench and extend
their economic interests through deploying their imperial connections
and affinities against their neighbours and social inferiors. 61 Diocletian's
reorganization of Egypt at the beginning of the fourth century had
further stren.§thened the administrative hold of the civic elite over the
countryside. 2
Certainly, by the mid-fourth century, the fiscallandlists preserved for
Hermopolis reveal the existence of a dominant stratum within local civic
landowning society, the members of which far ourstripped in terms of
56. P. Pruneti, I Centri Abitati dell'Ossirinchite - Repenorio Toponomastico (Papyrologica

Florentina IX, '98,), pp. Io-II. For chorion as an equivalent to epoikion, see P.Bad. IV 95 and].
Banaji, Agrarian Change in lAte Antiquity - Cold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance (Oxford,
2002), p. 175.
57. J. Rowlandson, Landowners and T enants in Roman Egypt: The Social Relations 0/Agriculture in
the Oxyrhynchite Nome (Oxford, '996), p. 281 and p. 284.
58. J. Gascou, 'Notes critiques sur quelques papyrus du Ve et VIe s', Chronique d'Egypte, xlvii
(1972) pp. 243-253. For other families, see J. Banaji, 'Rural Communities in the Late Empire -
Economic and Monetary Aspects' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1992), pp. 167-8.
59· Ibid., pp. 134-63.
60. A. K. Bowman and D. Rathbone, 'Cities and Administration in Roman Egypt' , Journal 0/
Roman Studies, lxxxii (1992), 107-27; R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993), p. )).
61. D. Rarhbone, Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Third-Century AD Egypt (Cambridge,
'99')' pp. 18-20 and p. 70.
62. A.K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs (Oxford, '990), p. 81.

landed wealth their fellow curiales. 63 As Bagnall has written: 'In
Hermopolis ... 38.8 percent of the total land (owned by city-dwellers)
was owned by six members of a single family'. 64 A similar concentration
of landed wealth has been inferred by Rowlandson for fourth-century
Oxyrhynchus. 65 The emergence of this dominant cohort of landowners

amongst the ranks of the fourth-century curiales is mirrored in the
contemporaneous appearance in the pafyri of individuals of inßuence
and prestige styled propoliteuomenoi. 6 By the mid-fourth century,
therefore, it would appear that provincial society in Egypt was coming to
be domina ted by a highly select group oflandowners. This trajectory was
fuelled partly by the on-going 'privatization' and standardization of the
ancient Ptolemaic land categories, a process in effect complete by the
end of the fourth century, but also by the ever tighter administrative grip
of city over countryside. 67
That having been said, whilst one should pay dose attention to the
social and political authority of the propoliteuomenoi of the mid-fourth
century, one should not overstate the extent of this dass' s direct
economic preponderance of provincial society. The figures for mid-
fourth-century Hermopolis would suggest that a majority of the land
around the city was not owned by curiales of any sort whatsoever, but
rather by autonomous peasants. 68 By contrast, in 572 the Apion
household alone contributed some 37 per cent of all the imperial taxes
levied upon the lands within the territoria of the cities of Oxyrhynchus
and Cynopolis, conveying a dear sense of the extent of the family's
dominance of local landed society by the end of the sixth century.69
Between the fourth and the sixth centuries, the concentration oflanded
wealth would appear to have quickened, with the more widespread
distribution of directly managed large estates testifYing to this. The
dosest one gets to an eye witness account of this process is to be found in
an open letter written in Coptic in the fifth century by Abbot Shenoud
to an Egyptian landowner from the city ofPanopolis. The abbot berates
the landowner in the most vivid of terms for the exploitation of his
agricultural workforce, dedaring to hirn:
63. A. K. Bowman, 'Landholding in the Hermopolite Nome in the Fourth Century', Journal 0/
Roman Studies, Ixxv ('985), '37-63; R. Bagnall, 'Landholding in Late Roman Egypt: The
Distribution ofWealth',Journal o/Roman Studies, lxxxii ('992), 128- 49.
64. R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, '993), p. 69.
65. ]. Rowlandson, Landowners and Tenants in Roman Egypt: The Social Relations of
Agriculture in the Oxyrhynchite Nome (Oxford, '996), pp. 278-9 and pp. 283-4.
66. A. K. Bowman, l'he Town Councils 0/Roman Egypt (Toronto, '97')' pp. '55-8.
67. ]. Rowlandson, Landowners and T enants in Roman Egypt: The Social Relations of
Agriculture in the Oxyrhynchite Nome (Oxford, '996), pp. 282-3.
68. R. Bagnall, 'Landholding in Late Roman Egypt: The Distribution of Wealth', Journal 0/
Roman Studies, lxxxii ('992), 128-49, p. '42.
69. P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Sociery in the Age of]ustinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, '999),
pp. 95-6.

Your godlessness is rnatched by the way in which you afflict the poor with
your oppressions ... You carry off their beasts with their carts and their hay
and take thern to your plantation and rnake thern drive round and round
beyond their powers ... Your people give thern calves and cows to rear,
distributing thern arnong the holdings till they are fuH grown, and then take
thern ... to say nothing of the bread and wine and fodder and hay and barley
for your beasts and all rhe rest. 70
AI; Keenan has noted, the prosopographical testimony of the papyri

would suggest that not only was the scale and structure of elite
landholdings undergoing a transformation during the fourth and fifth
centuries, but so too was the social character of the elite itself. Soon after
Constantine' s defeat ofLicinius in 324, one begins to find mention in the
papyrological sources of individuals holding imperial civil and military
office bearing the name Flavius - the principal gentilicium, or family
name, of the Emperor Constantine hirns elf. This title was apparently
adopted by them upon their entry into imperial service. 71 As the fourth
century progressed, these Flavii can increasingly be seen to have come to
dominate the higher echelons of imperial and civic government. 72
Concomitantly, they appear to have emerged to the fore oflocallanded
society?3 To Banaji, this phenomenon can be seen to have represented
part of a process whereby a 'bureaucratic elite was consolidating its social
dominance' ?4 Ir is ahistory that one can see neatly encapsulated in the
rise of the Apion family. As noted above, from a fifth-century
background in imperial service, associated with the management of
imperial estates in the vicinity of their native polis of Oxyrhynchus,
members of the family can be traced through to the sixth century and
thereafter, holding so me of the highest offices the empire had to offer,
whilst the family' s own properties expanded and developed in the
neighbourhood of Oxyrhynchus and beyond?5 The Apion family was
the embodiment of the emergent trans-regionallandowning aristocracy
of service of late Roman Egypt.
It is important to appreciate that the emergence of this new
aristocracy of service would not appear to have been limited to Egypt.
Rather, the fourth century witnessed aseries of transformations in the
character of the provincial and senatorial elite of the Eastern Empire at
large. This transformation was the result of two distinct processes which
70.]. Barns, 'Shenoure as a hisrorical souree', Actes du Xe Congres International de Papyrologues

(Wroclaw, T964), pp. '51-9, pp. '57-9.
71. J. Keenan, The Names Flavius and Aurelius as Status Designations in Later Roman Egypt'
(Part I), Zeitschrift for Papyrologie und Epigraphik, xi (1973), 33-63, 37-40.
72. Ibid., 47.
n Ibid., Part 11, ZPE, xiii (1974), 283-3°4, 285.
74. J. Banaji, 'Rural Communities in the Late Empire: Economic and Monerary Aspecrs (Oxford
D.Phil. thesis, 1992), p. '34.
75. For the expansion oftheApion estates, see P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economyand Sociery in the Age of
Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, '999), pp. 92-104.

coalesced in the late fourth century, processes which, whilst undoubt-
edly favouring certain 'new men', especially those engaged in military
careers, benefited above all members of the already emergent upper
echelons of provincial curial society, the so-called principales of the
imperiallaw codes, who as early as 328 one finds described in the sources
as constituting a SOft of privileged inner cirde within the city councils of
the empire, and who would appear to have been equivalent to the
propoliteuomenoi of the Egyptian papyri. 76
The first, and by far the most important, of these processes was the
dramatic expansion in the late empire in the number of weil
remunerated, cent rally appointed military and bureaucratic posts
occasioned by the so-called 'Diodetianic' reforms of the late third and
early fourth centuries. The most important aspect of this expansion in
the imperial bureaucracy was that it opened up new opportunities for
social advancement to those members of the provincial curiae wealthy
enough to afford the education required for entry into imperial service.
The 'special relationship' with the imperial authorities that the holders
of these new posts enjoyed bolstered their already considerable resources
of patronage, authority and prestige, thereby permitting them to begin
to extend and consolidate their hold on local society.77
The second development of significance to social relations in the east
was the foundation and growth of the senate of Constantinople. The
creation and expansion of the eastern senatorial order by Constantine
and his fourth-century heirs was part of what has been described as an
attempted 'broader mobilisation of political manpower' on the part of a
new dynasty, aimed at '(generating) from scratch sufficient support to
create a working governmental machine in the eastern Mediterranean'. 78
Once again, the mainstay of those elevated to the senatorial order in the
east would appear to have been drawn from 'the old wealth of the
Mediterranean world: the richer elements of the curial dass,?9 Member-
ship of the eastern senate was increasingly opened up to a wide range of
imperial civil and military officials: that is to say, to members of the
newly expanded imperial bureaucracy.80 Although many of the families
that comprised this new senatorial elite necessarily focused their
ambitions on Constantinople, most were obliged by the imperial
authorities to maintain a certain level of involvement in the civic
councils of their native poleis, and thus came to form areal and effective
bond between provincial society and the imperial centre. 81
76. See G. E. M. de Ste Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Creek World (London, 1983), pp.
47 1- 2.
77. P. Heather, 'New Men for New Constantines? Creating an Imperial Elite in the Eastern
Mediterranean', in P. Magdalino (cd.), New Constantines (Aldershot, 1994), pp. II- 44, p. 20.
78. Ibid., p. 12 and p. 16.
79· Ibid., p. 17·
80. Ibid., p. 12.
8r. Ibid., p. 26.
294 THE ORIGINS OF T HE MANORIAL ECONOMY:

The fourth century thus saw the emergence in the eastern Mediter-
ranean of a new imperial aristocracy of service, the leading members of
which were enrolled into the senatorial order. Members of this new dass
are recorded in the sources not only as figures of extraordinary influence

and power at court, bur also in the localities of the empire. 82 In
particular, from the mid-fourth century onwards, the legal sources bear
witness to the process whereby, not only in Egypt, bur throughout the
Eastern Empire, the wealthier and more powerful members of this new
elite forced aside their social competitors and won mastery of local
landed sociery, restructuring agrarian social relations after the manner
recorded in the Egyptian papyri. This is at its most evident from the
imperial constitutions on agrarian patronage (de patrociniis vicorum)
recorded in the Theodosian and Justinianic Codes.
Patronage - the deployment of the influence of the more powerful
members of society to the benefit or disadvantage of their social inferiors
- was, of course, a basic fact oflife in the Roman world. In many ways it
was regarded as a positive social good, providing a structure and
cohesion to social relations that bound together otherwise divergent and
potentially conflicting dasses. 83 From the mid-fourth century onwards,
however, one finds evidence of growing imperial concern at the fiscal
implications for the Roman state of the burgeoning powers of patronage
enjoyed by members of the new imperial aristocracy of service.
Members of this new elite, by virtue of their dual social identity as
both representatives of central imperial government, and figures of
authority and prestige in locallanded and civic society in their own right,
played a pivotal role in the administration of the empire. Nowhere was
this dearer than in relation to the collection of the imperial taxes on
which the state was dependent for its very existence. The holders of
senatorial rank were entrusted with a range of obligations and duries
with respect to the smooth running of the fiscal system. As Heather has
no ted:
Amongst other things, (they) were responsible for auditing their loeal curias
and, probably most important of all, for tax equalizations, when tax
assessments were adjusted to take account of population and other changes.
The de facto power generated by the ability to influence one' s neighbours' tax
assessment can hardly be overstated; as St Basil ofCaesarea put it, control of
the tax census gave a man the opportunity to bendit his friends, harm his
enemies, and generally make a lot of money.84
For the hard-pressed rural communities and peasant families of the

empire on whose shoulders the bulk of the land tax - the main source of
82. Ibid. , pp. 27-8.

83. See P. R. L. Brown, Power and Persuasion in Lote Antiquity (Madison, (988), p. 79.
8+ P. Hcathcr, 'New Men far New Constantines? Creating an Imperial Elite in the Eastern
Mediterranean', in P. Magdalino (ed.), New Constantines (Aldershot, 1994), pp. 1I-44, p. 28.

imperial fiscal income - rested, the social implications of such
arrangements were dear. In order to lessen or escape the fiscal burdens to
which they were liable, they needed to acquire for themselves the
patronage of a leading local magnate, a member of the imperial
aristocracy, who alone possessed the authority and power required to

lighten their load. From the perspective of the aristocrats themselves,
this situation offered the chance to expand their own reserves ofland and
labour, either by drawing onto their estates such dients as they attracted,
or by incorporating into their existing properties the smallholdings of a
patronage-hungry peasantry. Ir was an opportunity which members of
the new imperial aristocracy of service would appear to have seized with
considerable alacrity.
The imperial legislation on agrarian patronage records that, as a
result, agreements began to emerge between individual peasants or rural
communities and powerful local patrons holding imperial office,
whereby the patron would either agree to intercede on behalf of his
dient with the imperial authorities to negotiate a lower rate of taxation,
or would take it upon himself to directly alleviate his dient's fiscal
burden. From such initial arrangements, the practice developed by
which the patron and dient conspired to pretend that the local
potentate, rather than the lesser landowner, was the legal possessor of the
land on which the imperial taxes were levied. In the short term, this
provided the dient with the means of escaping the land tax; whilst in the
medium term, it allowed the patron a chance to extend his own estates,
by turning a fictional transfer of property imo an actual one. 85
The second recorded form of agrarian patronage consisted of the
Right of individual peasants and their families onto the estate of a local
patron, and the peasants' subsequent abandonment of the taxes and
liturgical duties to which they had hitherto been liable. Both these
practices were deemed by the imperial government to potentially
undermine the fiscal system. The first form of patronage had the effect of
transferring land into the hands of a powerfullocal figure better placed
by virtue of his connections, inRuence and authority, to evade taxation
than was a lesser landowner. Moreover, even if the patron paid the taxes
due on his newly acquired lands, ifhe held senatorial rank, he is likely to
have done so at a lower rate than did his more humble neighbours. 86
Either way, the net result would have been a diminution of imperial
fiscal income. The second form of patronage, associated with the
abandonment of land, necessitated the reallocation of fiscal and
liturgical obligations amongst those members of the fugitive's village
who had not Red. This increased the fiscal burden on those left behind,
85. By far the best discussion of chis remains F. de Zulueta, 'Patronage in the Later Roman
Empire', in P. Vinogradoff (ed.), Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History Volume I (Oxford, 1909)
part II, pp. 3-78.
86. See P. Heather, 'New Men for New Constantines? Creating an Imperial Elite in the Eastern
Mediterranean', in P. Magdalino (ed.), New Constantines (Aldershot, 1994), pp. II-44, p. 27.
and intensified the press ure on the remaining inhabitants of the village
either to take flight themselves, or for the community as a whole to
simply hand itself over to a local potentate.
Much of the evidence on agrarian patronage contained within the

Codex Theodosianus refers explicitly to conditions within Egypt. T 0
suppose on the basis of this, however, that such patrocinium was limited
to Egypt, or even that it was a peculiarly highly developed phenomenon
there as against elsewhere in the empire, would be to fundamentally
misconceive the nature of the codification. First, as de Zulueta no ted ,
Egypt played a particularly important role in the fiscal framework of the
Roman state, furnishing the corn supply on which the imperial capital of
Constantinople as weil as a number of other eastern cities were
dependent. As a result, 'its disorders were of the first importance' .87
Second, with very few exceptions, laws contained within the Codex
Theodosianus, irrespective of the imperial officials to whom they were
initially issued, were, by virtue of their inclusion in the Code, meant to
be of general application, and thus were presumably included with a
view to conditions across the empire as a whole. 88 Third, the presence
within the Codex oflaws addressed to individual provincial governors, or
concerning individual provinces, must be understood in the context of
the method of compilation adopted by those charged with drafting the
work. Whilst for laws issued after 398, the compilers were content to
limit themselves to legal texts preserved archivally in Constantinople, for
laws issued before that date they would appear to have been much more
dependant on the archives of provincial governors, either because the
laws they sought were not preserved in the imperial capital, or because
they wished to check the text of the laws recorded there for
authenticiry.89 The Egyptian and Alexandrian archives would appear to
have provided a particularly fruitful source in this respect.
The first recorded constitution on agrarian patronage contained in
the Codex Theodosianus was issued by Constantius II in 360 and refers to
conditions within Egypt. The law makes it clear that the main culprits
exercising such illicit patrocinium were imperial officials - members of
the 'aristocracy of service'. The patronal nexus, Constantius declared,
was to be ended, and the colonorum multitudo were to meet their
obligations. 90 In either 368 or 370, Valentinian and Valens repeated the
proscription for the empire at large. 91 A second constitution concerning
Egypt was issued in 386.92 The flight of agriculturallabourers to those
other rhan their legitimate employers was twice legislated on in 386, and
87. F. de Zulueta, 'Patronagc in the Later Roman Empire', in P. Vinogradoff (ed.), Oxford
Studies in Social and Legal History Volume I (Oxford, 1909) pan II, pp. 3-78, p. 6.
88. A. M. Honore, Law in the Crisis ofEmpire 37'r455 AD (Oxford, 1998), pp. 128-9.
89· Ibid. , pp. 138-9.
90. Codex Theodosianus XI, 24, I, p. 613.
91. Codex Theodosianus XI, 24, 2, p. 613.
92. Codex Theodosianus I, 14, I, pp. 50-1.

again in the years 393-5. 93 In 395, the comes Aegypti was again asked to
crack down on men of high standing who had taken control of entire
villages. 94 The following year a non-Egyptian measure was promulgated
prohibiting senators from taking over the lands of curiales. 95 Further
trans-imperial legislation was issued in the late 390S, redoubling the

punishments for those 'qui dientelam susceperint rusticorum' or 'qui
fraudandorum triburorum causa ad patrocinia solita fraude confuge-
rint'. The former are identified as induding high ranking civil servants
and military officers. 96 Agrarian patronage exercised by members of the
imperial aristocracy of service emerges as a cause of constant concern to
the imperial aurhorities across the empire throughout the mid-to-Iate
fourth century. In spite of repeated legislation, the patronal nexus could
not be fully broken.
Accordingly, in the early fifth century the imperial authorities
dedared that they were ready to reach a limited accommodation with
those who had probably gained the most from illicit patrocinia - the
great landowners. Such transfers ofland and labour as had been effected
by the year 397 were to be accepted as legitimate, so long as the new
possessor did not evade the liturgical duties and fiscal responsibilities
incumbent upon both property and person. The further growth of
estates through patronage remained illegal, however, and in order to give
effect to this prohibition, the constitution went on to seek to bolster the
autonomy and cohesion of the larger villages or metrocomiae of the
empire. 97 This attempt to halt the further expansion of estates through
patrocinia was, however, unsuccessful. In 430, for example, Antiochus
Chuzon, as Praetorian Prefect, was obliged to issue a swingeing series of
cutbacks in tax rebates 'evidently aimed', in the words of Jones, 'at
wealthy tax evaders'.98 The legislation on patrocinium of the fifth and
sixth centuries preserved in its emended form in the Codex Iustinianus
alerts one to the extent to which the ongoing advance of agrarian
patronage remained an imperial preoccupation. Constitutions on the
subject were promulgated by the Emperors Marcian and Leo in the fifth
century, as well as by Justinian in the early sixth. 99 A general measure
against agrarian patronage was issued in 535, and the eastern authorities
can still be seen to have been legislatin~ on the subject during the reign of
Tiberius II in the late sixth century.l 0
93. Codex Theodosianus V, 17, 2 (a.386), p. 238: Codex lustinianus XI, 51, 1 (386?) p. 443, XI, 52, 1
(393-5) p. 443·
94- Codex Theodosianus XI, 24, 3, pp. 613-14.
95. Codex Theodosianus VI, 3, 3, pp. 248-9·
96. Codex Theodosianus XI, 24, 4, p. 614.
97. Codex Theodosianus XI, 24, 6, pp. 614-15.
98. A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire (3 vols, Oxford, 1964) I, p. 206.
99. Codex lustinianus XI, 54, I, p. 444 - constiturion of Leo of 468 which refers ro earlier
legislarion by Marcian not included in rhe Code, XI, 54, 2, p. 444 - probably Jusrinianic.
IOO. ].Nov XVII, 13, p. 125. ForTiberius II, sec M. Kaplan, 'Novelle de Tibere II sur les «maisons
divines,;, Travaux et Memoires, viii (1981), 237-45.
The papyrologieal and legal sources for the Eastern Empire thus
eoneur in reeording an apparently substantial restrueturing of agrarian
soeial relations during the fourth and fifth eenturies, as members of a
new imperial aristoeracy of service expanded their own landholdings.

The main imperial eoneern was with the fiscal implieations of this
proeess of estate expansion, and it is upon the fiseal dimension that the
imperiallaws thus foeus. The very appearanee of these laws, however,
alerts one to the general trend. This restrueturing of agrarian soeial
eonditions would appear to have been resultant from a number of
faetors, first and foremost amongst which was the emergence of the new
imperial aristocraey of service itself. The influenee and power exereised
by members of this dass would appear to have been suffieient to have
oecasioned a signifieant reconfiguration of rural society. Seeond, as
reeent arehaeologieal work has demonstrated, the period from the fourth
eentury to the early sixth witnessed considerable demographie expansion
in the eastern Mediterranean. 101 The implications of this expansion
would have been two-fold. From the perspeetive of the peasantry,
espeeially in those regions where good quality land may have been
relatively searee, higher population levels may have resulted in the
repeated subdivision of landholdings between a growing number of
surviving heirs. Many peasants may have found themselves in possession
of plots of land ineapable of furnishing them with mueh by way of
return, whilst pasture for livestock would have become inereasingly
scaree as ever more land was turned over to arable. Demographie
expansion may thus have provided a further ineentive, beyond the
workings of the fiseal system, to plaee oneself sub patrocinio.
From the perspeetive of the patron, the inereased size of urban
markets resultant from demographie growth would have provided a far
greater ineentive to engage in large-seale production on estates. This
would have rendered the aequisition of new land highly desirable, and
the creation of an expanded pool of resident labour essential. Members
of the landowning elite prevented demographie expansion from splitting
up and subdividing their own estates by taking advantage of the legal
instrument of the jideicommisum to seek to ereate a form of familial
inalienability over land, similar in intent to the perpetual entail
employed by aristoeratie families in early modern Europe. 102
In Egypt, the proeess of estate expansion ean be seen to have gone
hand-in-hand wirh the more widespread introduction of abipartite
strueturing of estates. But to what extent was this true of great estates
beyond Egypt? The dearth of doeumentary evidenee does not assist one
in answering this question. However, certain indieations do exist. For
example, the toponymie evidenee of the Egyptian papyri is mirrored in
101. See, for example, C. Foss. 'The Near Eastern Countryside in Late Antiquiry: A Review'
Journal ofRoman Archaeology Supplementary Series, xiv (1995), 213-34.
102. See D. Johnston. The Roman Law ofTrusts (Oxford, 1988). pp. 250-4.

the epigraphic evidence for Palestine. lt has been no ted above in relation
to Egypt that, from the fourth century onwards, the words rypically
associated with the settlements of the bipartite estates - epoikion and
chorion - increase in frequency in the sources, whilst the word rypically
used for an autonomous village - korne - decreases. Likewise, in the

contemporaneous inscriptions from Palestine, one finds that settlements
previously termed komai come increasingly to be redesignated epoikia or
ktemata, as seen, the word used in the papyri to designate allotments of
land conjoined to the estate settlements. 103 Hirschfeld has associated this
phenomenon with the archaeological evidence from Palestine for the
emergence of what he describes as 'industrial complex' estates. 104
In the absence of documentary sources, however, the most suggestive
evidence is yet again provided by the legal texts. On the basis of the
extant papyrological evidence, it is apparent that by the sixth century the
mainstay of the agrarian workforce employed on the Egyptian bipartite
estates, or at least, that portion of the workforce resident in the estate
epoikia, bore the imperial legal designation of c%ni adscripticii, that is,
agricultural workers legally bound to reside on the estate in perpetuity,
an obligation also incumbent upon the workers' heirs and descendants.
This is at its most evident from documents acknowledging the receipt by
an estate employee of a capital item or loan furnished by the landowner,
and the contracts of surety contained in the papyrological dossiers, in
which the workers are typically styled enapographoi georgoi, the Greek
equivalent of the Latin legal term. By virtue of the fact that these
documents established potentially actionable agreements, those drafting
them would have been careful to record the precise legal status of the
parties concerned. 105
From an imperial perspective, this obligation to reside in perpetuity
on the estate resulted from the fact that the peasant had agreed to be
enrolled (thus 'adscripticius') on the estate's tax register. Demanding
that the peasant, and his heirs, remain on the estate in perpetuity
represented an attempt on the part of the imperial authorities to
introduce an element of fixity and predictability to the collection of
taxes. lt was rypically, although not necessarily, through the estate that
the c%nus adscripticius was meant to pay the imperial taxes to which he
was liable, a practice known as estate autopragia or self-collection. The
adscription of an agricultural worker and his family resulted from a prior
agreement made between the worker and the landowner that the peasant
103. Y. Hirschfeld, 'Farms and Villages in Byzantine Palestine' , Dumbarton Oaks Papers, li
(1997), 33-7 ' , 36.
104- Ibid., 46. Similar evidence is increasingly emerging in relation to early Byzantine Syria,
where the epigraphic evidence shows great landowners to have played an important part in the
maintenance of village institutions. See F. Trombley, 'Epigraphic Data on Village Institutions: An
Interregional Comparison', in L. Lavan (ed.), Recent Research on the Late Antique Countryside
( 2004).
105. See P. A. V., Sarris 'Economy and Society in the Age of}ustinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis,
1999), pp. 54-77 and p. '31.
300 TH E ORIGIN S O F THE MANORI AL ECONOMY :

would reside on the estate, such as one finds recorded in the Egyptian
contracts of surety.106 A private contractual arrangement was thus
reinforced by means of imperiallaw. Both in relation to the adscripti-
ciate and the associated phenomenon of autopragia, the imperial
government played an essentially reactive role. 10? Both practices can be

seen to have developed autonomously at a provincial level, under a
variety of terminological forms, the imperial authorities responding to
emergent practice on great estates by attempting to provide a public legal
framework and a unifying legal vocabulary with which to describe and
regulate private contractual arrangements, in so far, that is, as the terms
of these arrangements potentially impinged upon public fiscal concerns.
Certainly, the practice of estate workers paying their taxes to the
imperial aurhorities through the intermediary of their employer is
attested in the papyrological record long before any mention of the
adscripticiate in the legal sources for the empire at large, or of
enapographoi in the papyri. Tax collectives oflabourers paying their fiscal
dues via their landowner are recorded in the mid-third-century estate
accounts preserved in the Heroninos archive. l OS An agricultural worker
bearing the de facto status of an enapographos georgos is also recorded on
the fifth-century P. Oxy 3584.109 That he was not described as such would
appear to have been resultant from the fact that this imperial, legal
designation had not yet been uniformly adopted in Egypt, the legal
institution only taking shape, even in the imperial legislation, in a
piecemeal fashion throughour the course of the fourth and fifth
centuries. 110 By the end of the fifth century the legal status of the
adscripticius had essentially been established, and its terminological
usage had become widespread. The way in which one can see the
imperial authorities in the fourth and fifth centuries piecing together a
new legal vocabulary and institutional framework with wh ich to
describe and regulate the lives of agricultural workers resident on large
estates yet again alerts one to the extent to which the period witnessed a
significant restructuring of agrarian conditions.
The imperiallegislation thus records the adscripticiate to have been
an empire-wide institution. Inevitably, the legal sources are primarily
concerned with the institution's fiscal dimension, rather than its social
106. Ibid., pp. 54-77.

107. B. Sirks, 'Reconsidering the Roman Colonate' , Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung for
Rechtsgeschichte, cx (1993); Romanistische Abteilung, cx, 331-69.
108. O. Rathbone, Economic Rationalism and Rural Society in Third- Century AD Egypt
(Cambridge, 1991), pp. 404-7.
109. P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Society in the Age of]ustinian' (Oxford O.Phil. thesis, 1999),
p. 183.
HO . See I. F. Fikhman, 'Oe nouveau sur le colonat du bas empire', Papyrologica Florentina, xix
(r990), 159-79, who notes that certain of the legal issues concerned with the status of the
adscripticius were still being addressed by the imperial authorities inta the sixth centuty. For
terminological variety, see A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire (3 Vols. , O xford, 1964) 11,
P.799, who notes that the western chancery in the fifth century tended ta describe adscripticii as
coloni originales and by other such terms.
A LATE ANTlQUE PERSP EC TlVE 301

or economic aspects. Nevertheless, the economic character of the
adscripticiate does emerge from the legislation. The first point to note is
that, as Sirks has commented, from none of the descriptions of coloni
adscripticii encountered in the legal sources would one derive the
impression that they primarily represented a dass of tenant farmers. 111

Thus, far example, in a constitution dating from 440, coloni are
explicitly contrasted with tenants. 1I2 Their responsibilities, in so far as
they are described, comprised the paying of the taxes to which they were
liable, and the provision of labour. Thus, in a Greek constitution of
Anastasius, coloni are described as obliged to 'wark the land and pay their
tax,.113
So if not primarily tenant farmers, what were they? J ustinian provides
the answer. In two Greek constitutions, J ustinian describes the
landowning employers of the coloni adscripticii as the 'masters of the
choria' .114 As seen above, chorion is used in the Egyptian papyri as a
synonym for epoikion. A similar phrase is used in the Secret History of the
sixth-century Greek author Procopius, in which he describes land-
owners as 'the lords of the choria'.115 The coloni are thus explicitly
associated with what, in the light of the Egyptian papyri, would appear
to have been the settlements of the bipartite estate. It is, however, in a
third Greek constitution ofJustinian's, Novel 162 dating from 539, that
one finds the most explicit legal description of the economic character of
the adscripticiate. The coloni are defined as 'inhabitants of the choria ...
and workers of the fields ... for this indeed is what the designation of
colonus means' .1 16The colonus adscripticius of the late antique great estate
was thus defined by his residence on the estate settlement and his
readiness to provide the landowner with labour. This emphasis on the
provision of labour service, in particular, would strongly suggest the
presence of a directly managed es ta te in-hand.
Although the evidence is necessarily limited, taken together, the
testimony of the papyrological sources from Egypt, the epigraphic
evidence from Palestine, and the legal texts for the empire at large would
suggest two condusions. First, that the fourth and fifth centuries
witnessed a fundamental resttucturing of agrarian conditions in the
eastern Mediterranean, characterized by the growth of large estates
owned by members of the new imperial aristocracy of service. Second,
that many of these estates would appear to have been bi partite in
lll . B. Sirks, 'Reconsidering rhe Roman Co!onare', Z eitschrift der Savigny-Stiftungfur Rechts-
geschichte, cx (r993) ; Romanistische Abteilung, cx, 33T-369, 334-5.

IT2. Ibid., 334- 5, note 10 and Nov. Val. VI, I p. 83. See the discussion in P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy
and Society in rhe Age of Justinian (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, (999), p. 133.
II3. Codex IustiniarlUs XI, 48, '9, p. 441 'avuYKo.1;üvtm Kui Tl']v yfjv yeWpYElV KUl TO TEAÜ~
JtUpEXELV'.
II4. JNov. 157 and 163, p. 734 and p. 750 - 'TWV xwp'wv ÖEOJtOTU~ ' .
II5. Procopius, Anecdota, ed.!tr. H . B. Dewing (London, 19[9) XXII 40, p. 266 'TWV xwp'wv
K1JP'Ü1J~' .
II6. JNov. 162, p. 748 - 'OL'Kr']TÜPU~ TWV XWPLWV ... Kui TtüV aypwv Epyo.TU~ . .. TÜUTÜ
yap 61'J TO TÜU KÜAWVÜU j3üUAEWl JtpOOPYJf[U'.

structure, comprising a directly managed in-hand (the autourgia) and
estate-owned settlements (epoikia or choria) and associated allotments
(ktemata) on which the coloni adscripticii dwelled. The ubiquity of this
form of estate structure in the late antique east is perhaps suggested by
the fact that one of the Creek terms used in relation to the settlements of
the great estates - chorion - was to come to serve as the standard medieval
Creek word for 'village'.117 Just as the emergence ofbipartite estates in
fifth-century Egypt was recorded for posterity in the moralizing
correspondence of Abbot Shenoud, so too may one find the same
process described, this time for fourth-century Syria, in the homilies of
John Chrysostom, who denounced Antiochene landlords who
impose unceasing and in tolerable payments on them (the peasants) and

require of them laborious services ... What sight could be more pitiable than
when having toiled the whole winter through in frost and rain, spent with
work, the peasants return with empty hands and even in debt, dreading and
fearing more than this ruin and more than hunger, the torments inflicted by
the overseers, the seizures, the demand notes, the arrests, the inescapable
forced labour?118
Whatever its effects on the peasantry as represented by Shenoud or

Chrysostom, the emergence of these large estates is likely to have made a
positive contribution to the wider economic development of the Eastern
Empire at this time. In recent years, archaeologists and numismatists
have become increasingly aware of the extent to which the period from
the fourth to the early sixth centuries in the eastern Mediterranean was
associated not only, as already seen, with demographie expansion, but
also, more gene rally, with economic growth. 1l9 That this expansion in
economic resources was associated with a concentration and rest-
ructuring of landownership should not occasion surprise. For, as
emerges with particular clarity in relation to the properties of the Apion
family, the aristocratic estates of the late antique east were emphatically
non-autarkie enterprises. Rather, production on the great estates was
highly commodified: labour was rationally and flexibly organized, with
workers being directed between estate properties; a certain amount of
specialization would appear to have characterized the holdings which the
Jl7. That bipartite estates survived in the Eastern Empire into the seventh and eighth centuries
and beyond is suggested by a number of indications. Thus, for example, the autourgia of
ecclesiastieal estates is mentioned in the deerees of the Seeond Council of Nieaea in 787. See J.
Albergio, p·P. Joannou, C. Leonardi and P. Prodi (ed.), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta (2
Vols, Freiburg, 1962-3) I, p. 123. I intend to address this issue in a forthcoming re·examination of
the Byzantine 'Farmers' Law'.
n8. John Chrysostom, Homi/y in Matthew LXI.3. Sec F. Field (ed.), Joannis Chrysostomi
Archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani Homiliae in Matthaeum (3 Vols, Cambridge, 1839) H, pp. 206-7.
Jl9. See B. Ward-Perkins, 'Land, Labour and Settlement' and 'Specialized Production and
Exchange', in Averil Cameron, B. Ward·Perkins and M. Whitby (ed.), The Cambridge Ancient
History Volume XIV - Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors AD 425-600 (Cambridge, 2000), pp.
315-45 and pp. 346-91.
A LATE ANTlQUE PERSPECTlVE 303

estate comprised, and the surplus produced by the in-hand would
appear to have been marketed, presumably via the various estate-owned
shops and warehouses attested in the sourees. Both conceptually and
practically, estate management was highly monetized. 120
This commercial drive on the part of the managers of aristocratic

properties was a natural by-product of the essentially urban focus oflate
antique aristocratic culture. Aristocratic landowners, resident in or near
the cities of the empire from which they exercised their governmental
and official functions, possessed avested interest in ensuring that the
surplus furnished by their estates was exchanged for cash. Only with
such cash could they engage in the feats of competitive consumption and
of civic and religious euergetism by which they established their standing
in society. The extrovert, urban-focused lifestyle of the late antique
aristocrat was predicated upon the commodified exploitation of his
estates. Such being the case, a concentration of landownership in the
hands of members of the new imperial aristocracy of service is likely to
have been one of the major factors that contributed to the economic
expansion of the period. As in parts of the late medieval and early
modern west, economic growth went hand-in-hand with the rise of great
estates. 121
Irrespective of such late medieval and early modern analogues, the
implications of the eastern sources for our understanding of contempor-
aneous developments in the late Roman and early medieval west are
potentially far-reaching. For that part of the late Roman world for which
the most evidence exists, it is possible to chart the emergence from the
fourth century onwards ofbipartite estates strikingly similar in terms of
structure to those encountered in the polyptyque evidence ofFrankia and
Italy in the eighth century. It can no longer be safely assumed that the
early medieval bipartite manor was a post-Roman, let alone a
Carolingian, creation. Rather, the late Roman evidence from the east
leads one back to the hypothesis ofFustel de Coulanges, that in parts of
the west, including parts of Gaul, late Roman estate structures may have
survived the period of transition of the flfth and sixth centuries
substantially intact. The polyptyque evidence of the eighth century may
reflect not so much the emergence of a new agrarian order, as the more
widespread use after c. 700 of highly durable parchment, rather than, in
western conditions, the more ephemeral medium of papyrus, on which
to record an already existing social reality.122
Certainly, there are a number of indications that point in this
I20. See P. A. V. Sanis, 'Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian' (Oxtord D.Phil. thesis,
1999), pp. 1-99 and J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity - Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic
Dominance (Oxford, 2002), pp. 190-2I2.
121. See S. H. Rigby, English Society in the Later Middle Ages- Class, Status and Gender (London,
1995), pp. 65-6.
122. See C. Wickharn, 'Rural Society in Carolingian Europe', in R. McKitterick (ed.), The New
Cambridge Medieval History - Volume 11 C.70o-C.900 (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 510-37, p. 5I!.
304 THE ORIGINS OF THE MANORIAL EC ONOMY:

direction. In the Eastern Empire, the restructuring of the agrarian
economy from the fourth century onwards can be seen to have resulted
from a dynamic process of elite formation which led to the emergence of
a new imperial aristocracy of service. Although the creation of the

Constantinopolitan senate played an important part in this process, the
key catalyst for the emergence of this new elite was provided by the
dramatic expansion in the number of bureaucratic and military posts
occasioned by the administrative reforms introduced by the emperors of
the late third and early fourth centuries. 123 These reforms, one should
note, were uniform to the empire as a whole, east and west. Most
significantly of all, there is considerable evidence that, throughout the
Roman world, they would appear to have had very similar social and
economlC consequences.
AB both Matthews and W ormald have noted, as in the east, the fourth
century in the west saw the emergence of a new imperial aristocracy of
service with strong provincial roots, members of which were enrolled
into the western senatorial order. 124 On the basis of the archaeological
evidence, the emergence of this new aristocracy in the pars occidentalis
can be seen to have coincided with what has been termed a
fourth-centUlY 'villa boom', indicating that it was associated with a
restructuring of agrarian conditions. From Britain to Italy and from
Gaul to North Africa, the fourth century saw the widespread construc-
tion of elite properties in the countryside characterized by the splendour
of their design and the opulence of their decoration. 125 Thus, for
example, Scott has noted of Roman Britain that
It was the fourth cemury that witnessed ehe greatest developmems (in the
villa landscape); many villas were substamially enlarged at this time .. .The
fourth century also witnessed the first major agricultural innovations since
the late lron Age, including changes in both arable agriculture and animal
husbandry'1 26
At the same time, a growing capitalization of agriculture in the late

Roman west has been noted by McCormick, who has commented on
how
123. See, for example, Averil Cameron, The Later Roman Empire (London, 1993), pp. 39-41 and
pp. 54-5·
124. See]. Matrhews, Western Aristocracies and lrnperial Court (Oxford, [975) and C. P.
Wormald, 'The Decline of the Western Empire and rhe Survival of irs Arisrocraey', Journal 0/
Roman Studies, lxvi (1976), 217-26.
125. See C. R. Whirraker and P. Garnsey, 'Rural Life in the Latcr Roman Empire', in Averil
Cameron and P. Garnsey (ed.), The Carnbridge Ancient History Volurne XIII: The Late Empire
(Cambridge, 1998), pp. 277-311.
126. S. Scotr, Art and Sociel] in Fourth-Century Britain - Villa Mosaics in Context (Oxford, 2000),
p. 79 and p. 107. Note also her discussion of rhe Gallic. ]ralian, NorthAfrican and Spanish evidenee
- ibid., pp. 107- [[.

A further sign of agrarian economic growth comes from the new understand-
ing of water mills. These expensive and complex mechanical installations
signal investment for productivity. They represented a major and highly
profitable release of human oe anima! power from the labour necessary to
grind grain for da~ly ?read. We now know that ther had lSRread much more
wldely In late antlqUity than was even recently belteved. '
Greater capitalization of estates would appear to have gone hand-in-

hand with more intensified commodification oE agricultural production,
and a dos er integration oE regional economies discernible from the
archaeological evidence of fourth-century Mrican Red Slip ware, the
'volume and geographie distribution' of which 'peak in the late fourth
century'.128 fu in the east, the emergence of the fourth-century
aristocracy of service in the west can be seen to have been associated with
the introduction oE new and more eEficient forms of agricultural
production and a quickening oE patterns of exchange.
The estates of our late Roman western aristocrats shared other
characteristics with those of their eastern counterparts. Both east and
west, these aristocrats would appear to have enjoyed access to the
resources of trans-regional estates. Thus, in a famous example, the Greek
Vita oE St Melania records that she and her husband owned properry
throughout the western provinces: in Italy, Spain, Sicily, Africa,
Mauretania, Britain, and, the hagiographer adds, 'the other regions'. 129
Both east and west, these late antique landowners took an active interest
in the management of their properties: in the fifth century far Gaul,
Paulinus of Pella describes how he personally drove on his estate
workers; Sidonius Apollinaris berates correspondents of senatorial stock
for what he regards as their excessive interest in agriculture, just as, in
sixth-century Oxyrhynchus, we can see members of the Apion family
intervening directly in estate affairs. 130
As in the late Roman east, the ascendancy of the new imperial
aristocracy of service in the Eourth-century west was associated with an
increasingly marked concentration oflanded wealth in the hands of this
new elite. As Whittaker and Garnsey have remarked, 'the overwhelming
weight of the evidence goes to show that the gap between the rich and
127. M. McCormick, The Origins of rhe European Economy - Communicarions .nd

Commerce, AD 300-900 (Cambridge, 2OOT), p. 10.
128. Ibid., p. 55.
129. D. Gorce (ed.), Vie de Ste Milanie (Paris, 1962), H, p. 146.
'30. Paulinus oEPella, Eucharistieon, in H. G. Evelyn White (ed.ltr.),Ausonius- Works (2 Vols.,
London, 1921) 11, p. 320, lines 19'-3; Sidonius Apollinaris in W. B. Anderson (ed.lrr.) Sidonius -
Poems and Letters (2 Vols., London, 1936 and 1965) I, letters I, 6, pp. 362-66, 11, '4, pp. 481-83, I1,
letters VIII, 4, pp. 412-16, .nd V111, 8, pp. 436-4°; PMert. 96 - a letter concerning the inhabirants
of an Apion-run KTrHla is described on /Jerso as 'rca(pa) TOÜ yrOl·'Xou'. Instructions given by
members of the family are also included in certain of the estate accounts and olher documents. See
P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy and Society in the Age oE Justinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1999), pp.
84-5
the poor widened'.131 Certainly, for the fifth century, the Greek
historian Olympiodorus of Thebes provides estimates for the annual
incomes of the upper and middling senatorial grades in the west which,
in the words of de Ste Croix, 'almost beggar belief. I32

The eastern and western aristocracies of late antiquity were thus
unified in terms of genesis and character. Both east and west, the
emergence of these elites would appear to have led to a restructuring of
agrarian conditions and a concentration in the ownership of landed
wealth. Moreover, one should note the extent to which these elite
families were inter-related, the wealthiest among them owning land
across the empire as a whole. It has already been seen that by the late
sixth century the Apion family may have owned property not only in
Egypt, but also in Sicily, and perhaps elsewhere in the empire. Likewise,
for the fourth-century west, Ammianus describes how members of the
senatorial order would 'hold forth unasked on the immense extent of
their family property, multiplying in the imagination the annual
produce of their fertile lands, which extend, they boastfully declare, from
farthest east to farthest west' .133 In another passage, Ammianus teils of
howa relative ofMelania, a certain Petronius Probus, was renowned for
his great wealth, owning estates 'in almost every part of the empire' .134 In
the fifth century, in addition to property in Bordeaux and Marseilles, the
Gallic landowner Paulinus of Pella inherited estates in Greece. 135
For the east, the documentary papyri and legal texts permit one to
chan the extent to which the dynamic process of elite formation that
characterized the fourth century not only transformed Roman agrarian
sociery in terms of redistributing wealth within it, but also led to a
reconfiguration of the agrarian economy's underlying structure. Bipar-
tite estates, centred upon an in-hand, would appear to have become a
widespread feature of life within the Eastern Empire. Given the
similarities and affinities between the respective elites, why should the
same not also have been true in the west?
Yet again, one runs up against the absence of evidence. It would be
naive, however, to mistake this for evidence of absence. That bipartite
estate structures existed in the late antique west is certainly suggested by
a number of sources. As has been noted, the historian Olympiodorus of
Thebes provides estimates for the annual incomes of western senatorial
families. The terms in which he describes these incomes are highly
131. C. R. Whittaker and P. Garnsey, 'Rural Life in the Later Roman Empire', in Averil Cameron
and P. Garnsey (ed.), The Cambridge Ancient History Volume XIII The Late Empire (Cambridge,
1998), pp. 277-3 11, p. 299·
132. G. E. M. de Ste Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Creek World (London, 1983), p. 120.
133. Ammianus Marcellinus Res Cestae XIV.6.IO, see W. Hamilron (rr.), Ammianus Marcellinus-
The Later Roman Empire (Landon, 1986) p. 47, and J. C. Rolfe (ed.ltr.), Ammianus Marcellinus (3
Vols., London, 1935-9) I, p. 40.
134. Ibid., Vol. III, p. 72
135. See A. H. M. Jones, J. R. Martindale and J. Morris, The Prosopography ofthe Later Roman
Empire -1 (AD 260-39,) (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 677-8.
A LATE ANTlQUE PERSPECTIVE 307

informative. Olympiodorus states that many senatorial households
received incomes 'from their ktemata' of more than four thousand
centenaria of gold a year, not induding the wheat, wine and all the other
goods in kind, which would bring in a third as much again in gold if
marketed. l36 As seen above, in the papyrological sources from Olympio-

doms' native Egypt, the word ktema was used to designate the allotments
associated with the estate-owned settlements (epoikia or choria) from
which households such as the Apions received rents. Ir has been noted in
relation to the Apion estates that the produce furnished by the in-hand
(autourgia) is likely to have been marketed. Olympiodorus would appear
to be describing a similar arrangement in relation to fifth-century
western senatorial estates.
Some of the most suggestive evidence for the existence of bipartite
estates in the late Roman west emerges from Italy. In the fifth century,
the Latin Vita of St Melania the Younger records that, within the
peninsula, she owned sixty settlements termed villulae inhabited by servi
agricultures. 137 Whether these servi really were slaves, or something
approximating more to coloni is undear. In the imperiallegislation on
agricultural workers, coloni adscripticii were legally defined as being in a
position analogous to that of slaves: the master' s power over them was
modelied upon the rights of the dominus over his slaves according to the
Roman law of persons. Both servus and colonus were placed 'in domini
potestate' - 'within the power' of his master. 138 Thus, in the sixth
century, Justinian had considerable difficulty in differentiating between
slaves and adscripticii, given this dose similarity of legal status. 139 A
similar blurring of the distinction between slaves (mancipia) and
non-servile agricultural labour is discernible in the evidence from
sixth-and seventh-century Gaul. Thus a Merovingian will dating from
643 refers to 'mancipiis tam servos quam et ingenuos'.140 If Melania's
servi agricultores were effectively coloni adscripticii, then her villulae may
have approximated to the epoikia or choria of the eastern bipartite
estates.
By the time one reaches the sixth century, there is irrefutable evidence
for the existence ofbipartite great estates within Italy. The fragmentary
ecdesiastical estate accounts contained in the sixth-century Ravenna
papyri record agricultural workers on landholdings most commonly
'36. See R. C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire:
Funapius, O/ympiodorus, Priscus, and Malchus: 2 - Text, Translation. and Historiographical Notes
(Liverpool, 198)), 41.2 pp. 204-205.
')7. See G. E. M. de Sre Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (London, 1983), p.
25 8.
138. See, far example, Codex Iustinianus XI·52.1 p. 443.
'39. See G.E.M. de Sre Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (London, '983), p.
25 2 .
'40. M. J. Tits-Dieuaide, 'Grands domains, grande et petite exploitation en Gaule mero-
vingienne: remarques et suggestions', in A. Verhulst (ed.), Le grand domaine aux ipoques
merovingienne et carolingienne (Gent, 1985), pp. 23-50, p. 35.
112 TH E ORIGI N S O F THE MA N ORIA L ECONOMY:
termed coloniae, not only making what essentially appear to have been
payments of arental character, in both coin and kind, to the landowning
institution, but also providing up to three days' labour service a week -
'per ebdomada operas' .141 At the end of the sixth century, the letters of
Pope Gregory the Great mayaiso indicate abipartite division of estates
in Sicily. That the coloni on papal estates paid rent is weil attested. That
coloni in Sicily may also have performed labour services, however, is
perhaps suggested by a letter contained within his correspondence in
which Gregory expresses concern that impoverished and indebted
agricultural workers termed rustici should not suffer by virtue of the
services they might be obliged to render 'in angariis' to an unscrupulous
creditor, although the character of such angariae is not, alas,
elucidated. 142
No evidence equivalent to that of the Ravenna papyri survives for late
Roman Gaul. However, significant details do emerge in the second
quarter of the fifth century from the writings of Salvian of Marseilles,
who, in Book V of his De Gubernatione Dei, presents the reader with a
vivid porrrayal of agrarian conditions in the late empire. This picture is
entirely consonant with that emergent from the legislation on patronage
found in the Codex Theodosianus and the depiction of conditions in the
fourth-and fifth-century east contained in the writings of John
Chrysostom and Abbot Shenoud.143
Salvian explicitly describes formerly independent peasants handing
over their plots of land to a great landowner in return for that
landowner' s protection - his patrocinium - and their becoming his tied
coloni. As noted earlier, according to the imperiallegislation on agrarian
labour, the tied colonus of the great estate, like the slave, was placed
within the legal power ofhis master. As such, in legal terms, he was iuris
alieni - subject to the legal authority of another, in this instance, his
employer. An understanding of this legal terminology is important if
one is to make sense of Salvian's description of how 'pauperes et
egestuosi ... tradunt se ad tuendum protegendumque maioribus, dedit-
icios se divitum faciunt et quasi in ius eorum discionemque
transcedunt'.144
By virtue of this, the peasants are described as having been deprived of
such property as they had formerly owned. This would have freed them
from their obligations with respect to the land tax, but, as with the coloni
adscripticii of the Apion estates, these coloni continued to be liable to the
capitatio tax incumbent upon their person, which they paid through the
14I. P. Ravenn. 3 Column I, I-}.

142. D . Norberg (ed.), S. Gregorii Magni Registrum Epistttlarum (Brepols, 1982), V, 7, p. 274-
143. for rhe legal parallels, see G. E. M . de Ste Croix, The Llass Struggle in he
t Ancient l.reek
World (London, 1983), p. 481.
144. Salvian de G ubernatione Dei, in K. F. von Halm (ed. ), Salviani Presbyteri M assiliensis Libri
Qui Supersunt (Monumenta Germaniae Historie. - Auetorum Antiquissimorum r.l) V, 38-9, p.
62.
A LATE ANTlQUE PERSPECTlVE 112

landowner, whom Salvian describes as an 'invader': 'cum possessio ab his
recesserit, capitatio non recedit ... rebus eorum incubant pervasores et
tributa miseri pro pervasoribus solvunt' .145 In accordance with the
imperiallegislation, Salvian presents the status of the tied estate colonus
as an inheritable one, and, crucially, one associated with the perform-

ance of labour services, suggesting abipartite division of the estates on
which the peasants now found themselves. Thus he writes that 'post
mortem patris nati obsequiis iuris sui agellos non habent et agrorum
.. , 146
munllS enecantur .
Salvian' s account then proceeds to describe such coloni fleeing to the
estates of other great landowners ('fundos maiorum expetunt').147 The
new master provides the agricultural worker with accommodation,
presumably in the estate-owned settlement, thereby once again tying
hirn to the estate :'nam suscipiuntur ur advenae, fiunt praeiudicio
habitationis indigenae'.148 Salvian presents a moving portrayal of the
deracinated existence of the coloni: 'they are driven not only from their
wealth but from their social status. They are exiled not only from their
property, bur even from themselves (exulantes non arebus tantum suis,
sed etiam a se ipsis)' .149
The alienation of the colonus by virtue of the social character of his
directed labour on the great estate is also a theme in the east: in both the
papyrological and legal sourees, the Greek word paroikos is used as a
synonym for the standard Greek term for the adscripticius, that of
enapographos. 150 As a word designating an individual whose life consisted
of insecurity and toi!, paroikos comes to be used metaphorically to
describe the Christian soul living in a fallen world, alienated from its
creator. 151
Salvian thus describes an expansion of what would appear to have
been bipartite estates in fifth-century Gaul. That abipartite structuring
of estates may have survived into the sixth and seventh centuries is
suggested by a number ofMerovingian wills that describe the properties
with which they are concerned in unusual detail. Thus, for the sixth
century, the will of St Yrieix, dating from 573, records 'Nonniacum
domum nostrum, cum aedificiis, vineis, silvis, pratis, et pasculis, vel cum
omne iure suo'. The document then goes on to describe how the estate
also included agricultural workers termed mancipia, listed by name,
along wirh their wives and children. The mancipia, we are informed,
were obliged to work the estate vineyards, whi!st their wives were obliged
145· Ibid., V, 42- 3, p. 63.

146. Ibid.. V, 43, p. 63·
'47· Ibid., V, 43, p. 63·
148. Ibid., V, 45, p. 63.
149· Ibid., V, 44-45, p. 63·
' 50. See P.Oxy L 3584 and Codex iustinianus 1,2,24, p. I7- I8,jNov. 7, proemium, p. 5,,jNov
120, I, p. 578.
151. See G. W. H. Lampe, A Patristic Creek Lexicon (Oxford, 1961), p. 1042.
310 THE ORTGINS 01' THE MANORIAL ECONOMY:
to pay an annual cash rent. The will then goes on to dictate that the
mancipia were to be left in peace to make use of small divisions of land
allotted to them, although they possessed no right to sell these
allotments: 'peculiaria vero eorum, compellos et vineolas, nullo inquie-
tante possideant, ea vero conditione, ut nec vendare nec alienare

praesumant'.I52
Labour services on an in-hand (in this instance consisting of
vineyards), allotments, rent: the will details each of the key features of
the bipartite estate. The document then proceeds to describe another
property, the fundus Sisciacus, which was similarly structured, the
in-hand eomprising both vineyards and fields. I53 On a third property,
described as 'Eustriaco portionem nostram', forty-five mancipia along
with their families had been gran ted their liberty, although whether
from a servile or semi-servile condition is unclear. Accordingly, only
vestigial remains of the estate' s former structure are discernible.
Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the property were still expected to pay
dues to and transport goods on behalf of the monastery to which the
property was bequeathed. The monastery was also to inherit authority
over twenty-four 'servi nostri' who remained unemancipated. 154 For the
seventh eentury, the charter of Nizezius, dating from 680, describes
'eurtes nostras indominicatas, eum eeclesiis aud solariis, et viverio et
fructuario, piseatoriis, molendinis, simul cum apendiciis suis. .. eum
servis et eolonis'.
As Tits-Dieuaide has commented, the property thus consisted of a
diversified in-hand worked by both servile labour and coloni who were
presumably 'etablis sur des terres dependants des curtes'. 155 The evidence
of the wills is confirmed by the testimony of the extant Merovingian
formulae from the sixth century onwards. On the basis of these,
Hägermann has concluded 'daß bereits um 600 wesentliche Elemente
der Grundherrschaft klar erkennbar werden'.I56 Fragmentary though
the evidence is, it is possible to identify bipartite estates in Gaul and
Frankia from the early fifth century through to the late seventh. The
charter ofNizezius brings one to within a generation of the early eighth
century, when, in the words ofVerhulst: 'sur base du fameux passage I, 13
de la Lex Baiuvariorum et de la Lex Alemannorum il situe l' existence
eertaine du domaine biparti classique'. 157
152. M. J. Tits-Dieuaide, 'Grands domaines, grande et petite exploitation eIl Gaule lllerovingi-
nenne: remarques et suggestions', in A. Verhulst (ed.), Le grand domaine aux ipoques merovingienne
et carolingienne (Gent, 1985), pp. 23-50, pp. 26-8 and p. 36.
'53· Ibid., pp. 36-7.
'54· Ibid., p. 37·
'55· Ibid., pp. 33-4·
156. D. Hägermann, 'Einige Aspekte der Grundherrschaft in den fränkischen Formulae und in
den Leges des Frühmittelalrers', in A. Verhulst (ed.), Le grand domaine aux ipoques mirovingienne et
carolingienne (Gent, 1985), pp. 51-77, p. 64·
'57. A. Verhulst (ed.), 'Introduction', in Le grand domaine aux ipoques mirovingiennes et
carolingienne (Gent, 1985), pp. 1I-20, p. 16.
A LAT E ANTl Q U E PER S P EC TIVE 3II
That, certainly in parts ofGaul, and, perhaps, Italy, late Roman estate
structures should have survived from the flfth century through to the
eighth substantially intact is perhaps less surprising than one might at
first think. AB WormaId has so forcefully argued, with the possible
exception ofVandalic Africa, the early medieval successor kingdoms of

the fifth-and sixth-century west were built upon a dose symbiotic
relationship of collaboration and cooperation berween members of the
Roman senarorial elite and the reges et duces of the barbarian
newcomers. J 58 This pattern of collaboration is likely to have meant that
whoever ulrimately gained from the demise of the Western Roman
Empire, it is unlikely to have been the peasantry.
Of course, even if the underlying structure of agrarian relations of
production did survive the politicaI and military upheavals of the fifth
century substantially intact, the context in which estates existed and
operated would have been transformed. The demise of the Roman state
as a tax-raising structure, combined with the widespread dedine of
urbanism, would have dealt a body-blow to the monetary economy of
the former Roman provinces, severely curtailing the opportunities and
incentives for great landowners to engage in commodified production.
The consequent retreat oflandowners in much of the west from civitas to
villa meant that a form of estate strucrure that had arisen in the context
of the highly urbanized, highly monetized, and highly eommerciaIized
world of the fourth century came to take on an increasingly autarkie
aspect. 159 In the medieval phrase, a lord would be expected to 'live off his
own'.
Trinity College, Cambridge & All Souls PETER SARRIS

College, Oxford
158. C. P. Wormald, 'The Oecline of the Western Empire and the Survival of its Aristoeraey'
Journal 0/ Roman Studies, lxvi (r976), 21 7-26.
'59. The greater n eed - resultant from demonetization - for the landowner to live direetly off the
produec ofhis own estates would appear to have led to a greater consolidation and regionalization of
landownership. Demonetization rendered trans-regional ownership ever less praetieal. Demoneti-
zation is also likely to have resulted in a diminution of the size of estate in-hands, and a growth in the
size of the conjoined allotments of the estate settlements. On the late antique great estates, such as
that of the Apions, the coloni were rewarded for their labour on the in-hand by means of a wage in
land (in the form of aeeess to the allotmenrs ofthe ktemata), but also aeash wage. As coinage became
seareer, the importanee of this 'wage in land' would have inereased. This inerease in the size of the
'wage in land' would have been funher eatalysed by thc shortage of agriculturallabour resultant
from the bubonie plague of ehe sixth, seventh, and eighth eenturies . See P. A. V. Sarris, 'Economy
and Soeiety in the Age of}ustinian' (Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1999), pp. 107-8 and pp. 127- 9, and J.
Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity - Gold, Labour, and Aristocratic Dominance (Oxford,
zooz), pp. '90-212. For bubonie plague, see P. A.V. Sarris, The Justinianie Plague: Origins and
Effeets', Continuity and Change, '7.Z (Z002) pp. 169-8z.
6
RULING THE LATE ROMAN AND EARLY BYZANTINE
CITY: A CONTINUOUS HISTORY*
Mark Whittow
The basic thesis of this article is that the decline of the curiales in the
provincial cities of the la te Roman empire was merely an institutional
rearrangement. Historians have tended to place too much weight on
this development, so missing the underlying strengths of the city and
the social elites who lived there. If the focus is shifted away from the
history of institutions , the continuous history of the late Roman urban
elite right through to the early seventh century and beyond is revealed.
This has important implications for our understanding of the late
Roman period and the background 10 the Islamic conquests of the
seventh century, and leads me to take issue with the current orthodoxy
which suggests a growing social and economic malaise afflicting the
empire from at least the 540s onwards. 1 It also makes the general
point that to confuse the history of transitory institutions with the
history of the society which underlay them is likely to be misleading.
In what follows I have not attempted any sort of general survey.
Discussion is limited to the late Roman provincial cities of the Near
East and their elites in the fifth to early seventh centuries A.D.,
and even within that range the coverage is obviously patchy, even
eccentric, but I have tried to point to what I see as especially significant
pieces of evidence. I have excluded Egypt because my knowledge of
it is largely based on secondary materials - although I should point
to the recent work of J. Gascou and L. S. B. MacCoull as very much
in line with the conclusions I would draw from evidence taken from
elsewhere in the Near East. 2 Taking a rather Ottoman definition of
"Near East" I have, however, included Thessalonika. Naturally I am
* In the preparation of this article I am very grateful to J. I. Catto, C. Mango,
J. Matthews and B. Ward-Perkins for their advice and encouragement.
1 For example, E. Patlagean, Pauvrete economique et pauvrete sociale cl Byzance,
4'-7' swcles (Paris, 1977); H. Kennedy, "The Last Century of Byzantine Syria: A
Reinterpretation", Byzantinische Forschungen, x (1985), pp. 141-83; H. Kennedyand
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, "Antioch and the Villages ofNorthern Syria in the Fifth
and Sixth Centuries A.D.: Trends and Problems", Nottingham Medieval Studies, xxxii
(1988), pp. 65-90.
2 J. Gascou, "Les grands domaines, la eite et l'etat en Egypte byzantine (se, 6e et
7e siecles)", Travaux et memoires, x (1985), pp. 1-90; L. S. B. MacCoull, Dioscorus of
Aphrodito: His Work and his World (Berkeley, 1988).
aware that what I have to say has implications for the picture of
Byzantine cities in Asia Minor du ring the seventh to ninth centuries
presented most fully by Clive Foss, but I shall not be discussing them
in this article. 3
I
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CUR/ALES
Some aspects of the history of the Roman city in the Near East are
fairly weIl known, and much of what I have to say in this first section
is I hope uncontroversial. 4
The Romans arrived in the eastern Mediterranean in the early
second century B.C., and over the course of the following two hundred
years took over the entire region. Despite the considerable impact of
Hellenism, cities on the Greek model were not universal. Manyareas
such as Anatolia and the fringes of the Fertile Crescent facing the
desert were in this respect comparatively backward. Even so, by their
conquest of Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, the
Romans had gained control of a wealthy and prosperous world,
famous for its great and, in many cases, ancient cities: Athens,
Ephesus, Antioch, Alexandria and many others. 5
To tap this wealth the Roman conquerors did not have an adminis-
trative system that they could impose in the manner of some nine-
teenth-century colonial empire, and in practice they had no choice
but to turn to the existing local elites. Over wide areas these were
already based in cities, but where they were not the Romans encour-
aged this development. Hence, barring a few exceptional areas, the
Roman empire in the east du ring the first three centuries A.D. was in
3 See C. Foss, "The Persians in Asia Minor and the End of Antiquity", Eng. Hist.
Rev., xc (1975), pp. 721-47; C. Foss, "Archaeology and the 'Twenty Cities' of
Byzantine Asia", Amer. Jl. Archaeol., lxxxi (1977), pp. 469-86; C. Foss, Byzantine
and Turkish Sardis (Cambridge, Mass., 1976); C. Foss, Ephesus after Antiquity: A Late
Antique, Byzantine and Turkish City (Cambridge, 1979); cf. M. Whittow, "Sodal and
Political Structures of the Maeander Region of Western Asia Minor on the Eve of the
Turkish Invasion" (Univ. of Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1987), pp. 44-192.
4 A. H. M. Jones, The Greek City !rom Alexander to Justinian (Oxford, 1940);
A. H. M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1964; repr. 1986), i, pp.
712-66; A. H. M. Jones, Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces, 2nd edn. (Oxford,
1971); P. Garnsey and R. Salier, The Roman Empire: Economy, Society and Culture
(London, 1987), pp. 20-40. The best short introduction to the Roman city is provided
by J. Reynolds, "Cities", in D. Braund (ed.), The Administration of the Roman Empire,
241 B.C. - A..D. 193 (Exeter Studies in History, xviii, Exeter, 1988), pp. 15-5l.
5 Jones, Greek City !rom Alexander to Justinian, pp. 1-84; Jones, Cities of the Eastern
Roman Provinces.
RULING THE LATE ROMAN AND EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 5

effeet a eonglomeration of autonomous eities, eaeh with a surrounding
territory. The eities were responsible for a number oftasks, including
the repair of roads and the occasional billeting of soldiers, but in
imperial eyes their most important duty was to organize the payment
of taxes. Cities were grouped in provinces, and were to some extent
supervised by the provincial governor. A vivid description of what
this meant in practice is preserved in the letters of Pliny the Younger,
written while he was governor of Bithynia, in north-west Asia Minor,
from A.D. 111 to A.D. 113. The letters show that his approval was
required for major building projects, and that he acted in effeet as a
judge of appeal and ombudsman for Bithynia; but provided a city
paid its taxes, and fulfilled its other commitments without financial
and political scandal, it eould fairly expeet to be left to its own
devices. 6
Obviously this was rather more complieated in practice than abrief
summary implies. Among the hundreds of cities in the Near East
there was a wide variety of differing arrangements, refiecting their
past histories and the cultural differences behind the Hellenized
fa~ade, but overall there was nevertheless a general and broadly
similar pattern. Cities were ruied by a hereditary oligarchy of land-
owners who together made up a council, known in Latin as a curia,
in Greek as a boule. These councillors - the curiales or bouleutai -
were responsible for collecting taxes, the performance of any other
duties required by the imperial government and the general mainten-
ance of the city. For the members of this oligarehy the city was not
only an eeonomic centre, but the focus of their politicaI, social and
eultural lives. 7
6 Pliny, Epistularnm libri decem, x (ed. R. A. B. Mynors, Oxford, 1963, pp. 292-
349). Although Pliny's governorship was in fact somewhat out ofthe ordinary, because
he had been sent by the emperor Trajan "to examine the accounts of the cities, for it
is weil established that they are in disorder" , it seems clear that he was not equipped
with any exceptional powers above those normally available to a provincial governor.
The letters thus reinforce the impression that under normal circumstances the cities
were left to deal with their own affairs: see R. J. A. Talbert, "Pliny the Younger as
Governor of Bithynia-Pontus", in C. Deroux (ed.), Studies in Latin Literature and
Roman History, 2 vols. (Collection Latomus, clxviii, Brussels, 1980), ii, pp. 412-35.
7 Jones, Greek City !rom Alexander to Justinian, pp. 129-46, 170-91, 211-50,
259-304; Iones, Later Roman Empire, i, pp. 724-31. While it is essential to bear in
mind that they had not escaped the !imitations of the pre-industrial world, there has
arguably been a tendency to underestimate the economic role of Roman cities: see
K. Hopkins, "Economic Growth and Towns in Classical Antiquity", in D. Abrams
and E. A. Wrigley (eds.), To'ums and Societies (Cambridge, 1978), pp. 35-77;
D. P. S. Peacock, Pouery in the Roman World: An Ethnoarchaeological Approaeh
(London, 1982), pp, 152-9; the remarks of Reynolds, "Cities", pp. 47-8; R. H.
Hilton, "Medieval Market Towns and Simple Commodity Production" , Past and
(cont. onp. 6j
Continuing work on these urban elites has done much to reveal

their world in considerable and growing detail. Someone used to
working with the extremely scanty sources of the medieval Byzantine
world looks enviously at the huge body of inscriptions available to

the ancient historian. Two features ofthis elite and its cuhure apparent
from this material need special note here. One is the essentially
competitive building programmes which erected hundreds of public
baths, gymnasia, temples (including a great many to the imperial
cuh), stadia, stoas, agorai, theatres and monumental arches over
the whole Near East. The building of such monuments and their
adornment with inscriptions and statues far surpassed any strictly
utilitarian need. They were an occasion for competitive display be-
tween curiales and between cities. A curialis would pay for the erection
of a new public bath as a demonstration of status. Another curial
family would respond with a riyal act of civic generosity. And both
would be commemorated by statues with inscriptions lauding their
fine qualities, and recording how a grateful curia had erected this in
their honour - they themselves, however, had to foot the bill. In
turn there was rivalry between cities. What one city had, another
wanted bigger and grander. Hence, for example, the numbers of
increasingly large theatres erected even by the small cities of western
Asia Minor. 8
This peculiar cultural phenomenon has of course been a blessing
to the tourist industries of the late twentieth-century Near East. But
it is easy to forget when visiting these monumental piles of marble
that we are seeing a theatre without players. These structures were
the setting for a cultural display of power and community, which
demonstrated both the elite's role within the city and the city's pride
in itself, its pre-eminence in its territory and its place within the wider
world. The public spaces and temple precincts should in the mind's
eye be filled with processions and ceremonies; the stadia with games;
and the theatre, not so much with actors, but with crowds and claques
shouting acclamations: as in first-century A.D. Ephesus, with the
crowd filling the theatre chanting "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!".
The function of these buildings was not primarily 10 fulfil a need for
theatre seating, market buildings or running tracks, but as part of
(n. 7 cant.)
Present, no. 109 (Nov. 1985), pp. 3-23, describes the role of English medieval towns
in a way which may be applicable to the Roman world; cf., for example, M. I. Finley,
The Ancient Economy (London, 1975), pp. 123-49.
8 See F. D. De Bernardi, Team classici in Asia Mirwre, 4 vols. (Rome, 1966-70),
i-iii, passim, iv, pp. 14-17.

the rather extraordinary cultural behaviour ofthe Roman curial elite.
That behaviour was not an inevitable part of urban life. Given another
cultural pattern the dominance of the ruling elite and the pride of the
city as a community could well be expressed without this particular

paraphernalia. 9
The second feature to be noted is that despite the importance of
the horne city as a focus of curial culture, at least the more important
families operated at the same time on a larger stage. Recent work has
done much to reveal the complex ties linking curial families from
different cities, and in turn connecting them to the society of the
provincial capital and the Roman government. Thus, to take a well-
documented example from Asia Minor, it has been shown that in the
first and second centuries A.D. while one branch of the Licinii lived
in the Lycian city of Oenoanda, another was based in the rather more
important centre of Kibyra, forty kilometres to the north and inside
the neighbouring province of Asia. The latter branch was also linked
by marriage to another curial family honoured in both Kibyra and
the Phrygian city of Akmonia. Further ties linked the family to the
city of Pergamon. The Licinii also played an important role at
Ephesus, the capital of the province of Asia, where they paid for new
buildings and were honoured by statues and inscriptions. One of
these reveals their friendship with an important Roman official, the
imperial procurator, L. Vibius Lentulus. Throughout the first and
second centuries members of the family held the office of asiarch,
underlining their pre-eminence in the province at large. This is one
example among many. The curial elite did not exist in local isolation,
but should instead be seen as part of a wider network binding cities
and provinces together, and linking them in turn to the imperial
government. '\0
In the third century A.D. the Roman empire faced a political and
fiscal crisis. Two aspects are of especial interest here. First, inflation
9 Jones, Greek City !rom Alexander co Justinian, pp. 229-40; S. R. F. Price, Rituals
and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 101-
46; C. Roueche, "Acclamations in the Later Roman Empire: New Evidence [rom
Aphrodisias", Jl. Roman Studies, lxxiv (1984), pp. 181-8; L. Robert, "Documents
d'Asie Mineure", Bulletin de correspondance hellenique, ci (1978), pp. 64-7,74-7. Note
also the importance of a major cult-site as a source of pilgrims and revenue, for
example, the temple of Zeus at Aezani, "on a scale more appropriate to Ephesus or
Pergamum than to an otherwise obscure Phrygian city": B. Levick and S. Mitchell
(eds.), Monuments !rom the Aezanitis (Monumenta Asiae Minoris antiqua, ix, Jl. Roman
Studies monographs, iv, London, 1988), pp. xxiii-xxiv, xxxiii-xxxiv.
10 R. A. Kearsley, "A Leading Family of Cibyra and some Asiarchs of the First
Century", Anacolian Studies, xxxviii (1988), pp. 43-51.
wrecked city finances. Previously the curiae had drawn revenues from
civic lands, money endowments and local taxes, tolls and dues. Their
financial autonomy was signalIed by the ability of almost every city
in the east to mint its own bronze coinage. By 260, however, the
silver content of the denarius - the principle coin in which city
revenues were collected - had fallen from between 80 and 90 per
cent when Pliny the Younger was in Bithynia to a mere 1 to 2 per
cent. As inflation soared, the amount of debased coin issued from the
imperial mints rose with it in an attempt to keep pace with the
empire's financial demands. The empire was flooded with almost
worthless coin, severely devaluing any fixed rents and endowments
in money. At the same time, as the intrinsic value ofthe coin became
greater than that of the debased denarii of which they were supposed
to be lesser denominations, the minting of local bronze coinage
was abandoned as no longer economic. Since many curiales were
landowners with access to goods in kind, they were able to respond
as individuals by putting up prices and rents; but as members of the
curiae, accustomed to draw on the revenues provided by endowments
that were now so devalued as to be almost worthless, they found
themselves in increasing difficulties. By the late third and fourth
centuries many cities were facing financial crisis, and it had become
clear that, if they were to continue to fulfil the administrative duties
they had been entrusted with since the first Roman conquest of the
east, a much greater degree of central government involvement was
required. ll •
However, if the cities could no longer carry the costs of administra-
tion without outside help, then in the eyes ofthe imperial government
their financial autonomy lost much of its point. Cities still owned
considerable estates and levied local taxes which, like the imperial
government, they could increase or transrnute from cash to kind to
surmount the effects of inflation. Fourth-century emperors soon
moved to confiscate these to the imperial fisc. The consequences need
to be seen in perspective. Even in the first and second centuries A.D.,
11 Jones, Later Roman Empire, i, pp. 22-36; Jones, Greek City from Alexander to
Justinian, pp. 241-51; M. Crawford, "Finance, Coinage, and Money from the Severans
to Constantine", Au/steig und Niedergang der rämischen Welt, ii.2 (Berlin, 1975), pp.
567-75. For a reassessment of third-century debasement and inflation which em-
phasizes the underlying strengths of the Roman economy through this period and hence
the ability oflandowners to overcome these problems, see M. Corbier, "Devaluations,
inflation et circulation monetaire au In< siede", in H ommes et rickesses dans l' empire
byzantin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1989), i, pp. 195-211. I hope to return elsewhere to third-
century developments and their consequences for the late Roman elite.

governors such as Pliny in Bithynia could interfere in a city's finances;
and by the end of the fourth century a third of the confiscated civic
revenues had generally been restored to cover such expenses as wall
building. Later there is evidence that many cities had done much to
recover their financial security, and one should not exaggerate the
ability of la te Roman government 10 run local affairs, but even so,
looking at the picture given by the Theodosian and Justinianic Codes
of the fourth- to sixth-century world, it is clear that compared with
the first and second centuries there had been a fundamental change,
creating a financial environment far less favourable to the city curiae. 12
All, however, was not gloom. The second aspect of the third-
century crisis and its aftermath follows on from the first. The growing
involvement of central government in the direct administration of the
provinces created numbers of new posts and with them a new role
for provincial eIites. For the eastern provinces this was reinforced by
the creation of a new capital at Constantinople. Compared with the
laissez-Jaire administration of the pre-fourth-century empire, the late
Roman provincials of the N ear East had new opportunities for
infiuential employment and, in the growing imperial court in Constan-
tinople, a new focus for politicallife. 13
The combination of financial press ure and more attractive options
elsewhere inevitably undermined the status of the curiales. This
process is weIl documented in the Theodosian Code and in the
writings of Libanius, and, thanks above all to the work of A. H. M.
Jones and J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, "the fiight ofthe curiales" has
now become an established feature of the historiographical land-
scape. 14 Key to the process was the fact that although membership
of the curia was by law a hereditary duty compulsory for any male
who fulfilled the property qualification, senatorial rank, an official
post or membership of the clergy enabled those liable to escape curial
duties. As official rank increasingly brought status and power (one
should think of the informal advantages of access to the provincial
governor, the imperial court and the ability to exercise local patron-
age, as weIl as the formal authority of the office) and at the same time
12 Jones, Creek City from Alexander to Justinian, pp. 251-8; Jones, Later Roman
Empire, i, pp. 732-4, ii, pp. 1301-2.
13 Jones, Later Roman Empire, i, pp. 42-52, 366-75, 687-9; J. H. W. G. Liebe-
schuetz, Antioch: City and Imperial Administration in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford,
1972), pp. 186-92; G. Dagron, Naissance d'une capitale: Constantinople et ses institutions
de 330 a 451 (Paris, 1974), pp. 147-90.
14 Jones, Later Roman Empire, i, pp. 737-57; Liebeschuetz, Antioch, pp. 174-86.
the avoidance of expensive and burdensome duties, dearly nearly

everyone who was able to es cape from the curia did so.
The remaining curiales were left with the burden and dedining
status. Libanius, whose writings on the curiales have been analysed

by Liebeschuetz, shows them in the fourth century being bullied and
beaten by imperial officials. As weIl as the payment of taxes, for
which they were held personally liable - Libanius again has grue-
some stories of curial bankruptcies - they were also responsible for
the upkeep of heaps of dassical masonry and the performance of such
civic ceremonial as the games: all part of an increasingly obsolescent
cultural apparatus. 15
The imperial government was not, however, prepared as yet to let
the institution ofthe curia and the curiales lapse. Even after Diodetian,
the empire remained comparatively short of administrative officials
for astate of its size and sophistication, and it still found the curiales
useful. They were in effect a hereditary dass of unpaid minor adminis-
trators, and as such were an advantage the government did not wish
to abandon. The curiae were also by this date ancient institutions,
dosely associated with Roman cities. The emperor and the imperial
elite regarded cities as a fundamental feature of Roman civilization
which it was their duty to protect. It would have seemed dangerous
to allow the curiae to disappear. As a result, throughout the fourth
and fifth centuries a steady stream of imperiallegislation was issued
to safeguard their position.1 6
However, for the same reasons that so many wished to avoid the
office, the legislation failed, and by the sixth century the imperial
authorities seem to have lost interest and given up. Two important
references deserve quotation. One is from John Lydus's De magistra-
tibus, written in the 550s, which reveals that by that date curiae were
a thing ofthe past. In a passage discussing the wearing oftogas, John
Lydus remarks that "this custom continued in the provinces as long
as the curia ruled the cities; but when they were abolished [togas too
disappeared]".17
John Lydus was an antiquarian and a conservative who regarded
change with regret. Justinianic reforms of the prefect's office were to
hirn by definition a disastrous falling off from earlier perfection. Yet
15 Liebschuetz, Antioch, pp. 166, 173, 183-6.

16 C. Mango, Byzantium: The Empire 01 New Rome (London, 1980), p. 35; Jones,
Greek City !rom Alexander to Justinian, pp. 147-8.
17 John Lydus, Peri archön tes rOmawn politeias, i.28 (ed. A. C. Bandy, Ioannes
Lydus on Powers, Amer. Philosophical Soc., Philadelphia, 1983, p. 44).

despite this his own career is illustrative of those trends which were
destroying the curiae. He was a native ofPhiladelphia in western Asia
Minor. His family was quite well connected, and he had obviously
had an expensive education. In the past they would certainly have

been liable to service on the curia, but in fact John had long since
left his native city. Through the patronage of a wealthy relative he
had become a civil servant, working in the office of the praetorian
prefect of the east in Constantinople. The imperial capital was now
his horne, and its bureaux were the institutions to which he appears
to have felt the warrnest loyalty. 18
The second reference to the end of the curiae is from Evagrius'
Ecclesiastical History. Evagrius, who was writing in the early 590s
about events that occurred long before he was born, criticizes the
emperor Anastasius' introduction of the office of vindex into provincial
cities in order to collect taxes. According to Evagrius, "As a result
of this the taxes were greatly was ted away and the glory of the cities
fell apart. For previously those of noble family had been recorded in
the registers of the city, each city regarding those on its council as
equal to senators". Evagrius is being less than precise, but clearly by
the time of writing at the end of the century the curia and the curiales
were things of the distant past. 19
Like John Lydus, Evagrius too was of a family which would
formerly have been liable to curial duties, in this ca se from Epiphaneia
(modern Hama) in Syria. How much contact he maintained with his
native city is unclear, but his career was certainly based on Antioch,
where he was a successful lawyer, well connected with influential
figures in the province and at court. He went on to become legal
advisor to Gregory, patriarch of Antioch (570-93), and in 588 ac-
companied hirn to Constantinople to defend the patriarch from a
charge of incest. He also managed to attract imperial favour and he
was granted senatorial rank, first by Tiberius II, with the rank of
quaestor, and then by Maurice, with that of honorary prefect. Like
the career of John Lydus, that of Evagrius again illustrates the forces
that had undermined the city curiae. 20
18 Ibid., introduction, pp. ix-xxvi; M. Maas, John Lydus and the Roman Past
(London, forthcoming).
19 Evagrius, Ekklesiastikes hislOrias, iii.42 (ed. J. Bidez and L. Parmentier, The
Ecclesiastical History 0/ Evagrius, London, 1898, p. 144).
20 Ibid., vi.7 (ed. Bidez and Parmentier, p. 226); P. Allen, Evagrius Scholasticus the
Church Historian (Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense, etudes et documents, xii, Louvain,
1981), pp. 1-4,250; for date, see P. Allen, "A New Date for the Last Recorded Events
in John of Ephesus' Historia Ecclesiastica" , Orientalia Lovaniensia periodica, x (1979),
pp. 251-4.

The exact chronology of the disappearance of the curiales need not
concern us here. The Justinianic Code and the Novellae still show
some traces oftheir existence, and it seems that they survived in some
form in Italy into the seventh century.21 But in general they had
disappeared throughout the Near East by the mid-sixth century. The
relative silence about their departure should not cause surprise. As
suggested, the imperial government had seen advantages in their
survival, and was certainly not going to enact any formal abolition.
The curiae simply withered away to be co me an institution without
content. Nor do I wish to analyse in detail the particular institutions
that replaced them. Work is continuing to reveal their successors,
but it is al ready clear that the key figures in the post-curiae Roman
provincial city were the bishop and clergy, the major landowners (of
whatever rank), and certain lay officials with financial and judicial
responsibilities, such as the ekdikos tes poleäs ("city advocate") and
the pater tes poleäs ("father of the city"). 22 The question I want to
address here is: what were the consequences of this change?
According to Jones and Liebeschuetz the answer is that they were
very serious indeed. The disappearance ofthe curiales led to a decline
in morale, and the loss in provincial cities of an independent sense
of community. Jones has written, "As the councils lost their richest
and most enterprising members, as their revenues were curtailed,
and as civic patriotism decayed, the cities lost initiative and vitality".
Liebeschuetz in turn points to the gloomy result: easy surrender to
the Persians and Arabs - in short, the fall of the Roman empire in
the east. 23
While I have no wish to disagree with their analysis of institutional
change, I think Jones and Liebeschuetz err in the import an ce that
they ac cord to it. Concentration upon institutions and institutional
arrangements instead ofwider social, political and cultural structures
can arguably mask more important factors wh ich lay behind them.
Institutional continuity can hide dramatic change, and vice versa. To
see the decline of the curiales as equivalent to the ruin of the cities
and the impotence of their elites is, I suggest, misleading.
21 Jones, Later Roman Empire, i, pp. 759-63; T. S. Brown, Gentlemen and OjJicers:
Imperial Administration and Aristocratic P(JWer in Byzantine Italy, A.D. 554-800 (British
School at Rome, London, 1984), pp. 16-19.
22 Jones, Later Roman Empire, i, pp. 760-6; D. Claude, Die byzantinische Stadt im
6. Jahrhundert (Munieh, 1969), pp. 114-29; C. Roueche, "A New Inscription from
Aphrodisias and the Tide 'Pater tes poleös''', Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies,
xx (1979), pp. 173-85; G. Dagron and D. Feissel, Inscriptions de Cilicie (Travaux et
memoires, monographies, iv, Paris, 1987), pp. 215-20.
23 Jones, Later Roman Empire, i, p. 757; Liebeschuetz, Antioch, pp. 256-65.
RULlNG THE LATE ROMAN AND EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 13

II
THE WEAL TH OF THE LA TE ROMAN CITlES IN THE
NEAR EAST
There is a growing body of evidence for the continuing prosperity of

the Roman cities of the Near East in the sixth century. Much of the
material has come from archaeology, but new evidence has also co me
from the analysis of relatively well-known wrinen texts. Despite war,
drought, flood, disease, locusts, cattle pest and sheep murrain - all
ofwhich, of course, were familiar problems, which urban civilization
in the Near East had faced for centuries before the sixth and would
continue to do so without significant change until very recent times -
and also, contrary 10 a widely held opinion, despite the plague, which
first appeared in the region in 541-2 and which returned at intervals
until the eighth century, cities throughout the Near East preserved
their prosperity right through the sixth century and into the seventh,
and in many cases beyond. 24
This is not the occasion to rehearse the evidence in detail site by
site, but certain key points must be noted. First, on a significant and
growing number of sites all over the Near East, there is evidence of
major building work after 550. The evidence is concentrated in
24 There is not space here for a detailed discussion of the consequences of the sixth-
century plague, but comparison with the better-documented effect of the Black Death
upon fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Europe, together with consideration of the
archaeological evidence for late sixth-century prosperity in town and countryside
(the towns will be discussed below, but note in addition the evidence for the villages
of the Hauran in southern Syria, showing marked rural wealth in the late sixth and
early seventh centuries), suggests that the current catadysmic interpretation may be
greatlyexaggerated. Since there are no quamitive documemary sources for this period
and the literary sources are totally inadequate, a better understanding of the plague
will only come through archaeology, which by its nature will be a slow and cumulative
process: see A. R. Bridbury, "The Black Death", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xxvi
(1973), pp. 577-92; J. M. W. Bean, "Plague, Population and Economic Dedine in
England in the Later Middle Ages", Econ. Hist. Rev., 2nd ser., xv (1962-3), pp. 423-
37; C. Dyer, Standards 0/ Living in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 274-
7; M. Sartre, "Le peuplement et la developpement du Hawran antique a la lumiere
des inscriptions grecques et latines", in J.-M. Dentzer (ed.), Hauran I, i (Paris, 1985),
pp. 197-8; M. Sartre, Rostra: des origines cl l'Islam (Paris, 1985), pp. l36-8; J. Durliat,
"La peste du VI' siede: pour un nouvel examen des sources byzantines" , in Hommes
et richesses dans ['empire byzantin, i, pp. 107-19; cf. Patlagean, Pauvrete economique et
pauvrete sociale, pp. 85-92; L. I. Conrad, "The Plague in the Early Medieval Near
East" (Princeton Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1981), pp. 357-414, 448-82; Kennedy, "Last
Century of Byzamine Syria", pp. 182-3; J.-N. Biraben, "Rapport: la peste du VI"
siede dans I'empire byzantin", in Hommes et richesses dans l'empire byzantin, i, pp.
121-5. Note also that M. Dols, The Rlack Death in the Middle East (Princeton, 1977),
is not a useful base for comparison since the documentary materials for the fourteenth-
century Near East are not much better than those for the sixth, while late medieval
Islamic archaeology, especially for the countryside, has hardly begun.

Jordan and Palestine, and to a lesser extent in Syria. For example,
at Gerasa (modern Jerash) in Transjordan, four new churches were
erected which can be dated by their mosaic inscriptions to 559, 565,
570 and 611. In 584 a major restoration was finished at one of the
city's baths. Work on the cathedral at Gerasa is dated to 629. Further
south, at Madaba, a new cathedral was built in 595-6, and work on
the decoration was only finished in 607-8. At Caesarea Maritima on
the Palestinian coast a new colonnaded street was laid out after 562.
Similar work can be pointed to at Antioch and Apamea in Syria, at
the Decapolis cities of Scythopolis in Palestine and Pella in northern
Jordan, and at Jerusalem itself. 25 This, however, is not the geography
of late sixth-century prosperity. It has been asserted that Palestine
and Jordan were exceptional, deriving their wealth from the pilgrim
traffic and an inftux of pious settlers, but this does not stand up to
dose investigation. 26 Most of these sites fall outside the "Holy Land" ,
and in any ca se these examples can be matched by others from Asia
Minor and beyond such as Ephesus and Miletus in western Asia
Minor, Thessalonica in Macedonia and in Constantinople itself. 27
25 In the following discussion of the archaeological evidence, in addition to the
printed sources cited in the notes, I have benefited greatly from the very kind help of
C. J. Lenzen at Beit Räs, A. G. Walmsley and P. M. Watson at PeHa, and
A. McQuitty and J. Johns at Khirbat Färis. For Gerasa, see C. H. Kraeling (ed.),
Gerasa: City ofthe Decapolis (Amer. Schools ofOriental Research, New Haven, 1938),
pp. 172, 227, 232-4, 249-51; F. Zayadine (ed.), Jerash Archaeological Project, 1981-
1983, i (Amman, 1986), pp. 16-18, 137-62, 303-41; for Madaba and Mount Nebo,
P.-L. Gatier, Inscriptions de la Jordanie, ii (Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie,
xxi, Paris, 1986), pp. 87-9,93-4, 101-5, 109-11, 125-6, 127-38, 141-6, 179, 186, 189;
for Caesarea Maritima, R. C. Wiemken and K. G. Holum, "The Joint Expedition to
Caesarea Maritirna: Eighth Season, 1979", Bull. Amer. Schools of Oriental Research,
ccxliv (1981), pp. 27, 31-40; R. J. BuH, E. Krentz and O. J. Storvick, "The
Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritirna: Ninth Season, 1980", in W. E. Rast (ed.),
Preliminary Reports ofA.S .O.R. -SponsoredExcavations, 1980-1984 (BuH. Amer. Schools
ofOriental Research supplement, xxiv, Winona Lake, 1986), pp. 38-42, 51; C. J. Len-
zen, "The Byzantinellslamic Occupation at Caesarea Maritima as Evidenced through
the Pottery" (Drew Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1983); for Antioch, J. Lassus, Les portiques
d'Antioche (Antioch-on-the-Orontes, v, Princeton, 1972), pp. 148-51; for Apamea,
J. Balty (ed.), Apamie de Syrie: bilans des recherehes archeologiques, 1973-1979 (Fouilles
d'Apamee de Syrie, mise., xiii, Brussels, 1984), pp. 495-7; J. Napoleone-Lemaire and
J. Ch. Balty, L'eglise cl atrium de la Grande Colonnade (FouiHes d'Apamee de Syrie, i/
1, Brussels, 1969), pp. 68-9; for Scythopolis, G. M. Fitzgerald, Beth-S han Excavations,
1921-1923: The Arab and Byzantine Levels (Pubns. of the Palestine Seetion of the
Museum of the Univ. of Pennsylvania, iii, Philadelphia, 1931), pp. 6-7,46,59; G.
M. Fitzgerald, A Sixth Century Monastery at Beth-Shan (Scythopolis) (Pubns. of the
Palestine Section ofthe Museum ofthe Univ. ofPhiladelphia, iv, Philadelphia, 1939),
pp. 15-16; for PeHa, see below, n. 30; for Jerusalem, A. D. Tushingham (ed.),
Excavations inJerusalem, 1961-1967, i (Toronto, 1985), pp. 88, 101-4.
26 Cf. Kennedy, "Last Century of Byzantine Syria", pp. 178-9.
27 For Ephesus, see H. Gregoire, Recueil des inscriptions grecques-chretiennes d'Asie
Mineure, i (Paris, 1922), pp. 39-42, nos. 110-1145 ; R. Heberdy, "Vorläufiger Bericht
(cont. on p. 15)

The small city of Anemourion (modern Eski Anamur) in Cilicia
might also be added to the list. Although no major new building has
been identified as dating from this period, the evidence from recent
Canadian excavations has shown that the city remained prosperous

until struck by an earthquake in the decade around 580. Despite this
disaster , and the Persian wars which followed, Anemourion was able
to recover, and substantial finds of seventh-century pottery and coins
indicate that by the later 620s the community had regained much
of its former prosperity and commercial role in the region. 28 The
conditions peculiar to Jordan and Palestine are not those ofthe ancient
world, but eighteenth- and nineteenth-century under-development
which preserved the sites, and the good fortune of twentieth-century
regimes relatively favourable to archaeology.
Even in Palestine and Jordan it needs to be remembered that
conditions have not been ideal. Over the Near East in general, other
periods, classical and biblical, have usually had priority, and the late
Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic remains have not received the
attention they deserve. Interpretation has also been hampered by a
tendency to presume the effects of the plague or the Islamic conquest
and date finds accordingly. 29 It is also regrettable that the standard
(n. 27 cont.) ..
über die Grabungen in Ephesus, 1905/06", Jahreshefte des Osterreichischen
Archäologischen Institutes in Wien, x (1907), Beiblatt, pp. 67-73; W. Wilberg, Die
Agora (Forschungen in Ephesos, iii, Vienna, 1923), pp. 82-3; for Miletus, Gregoire,
Recueil des inscriptions grecques-chritiennes, pp. 71-2, no. 225 ("Hieronda" is an error
for Miletus); for Thessalonika, J.-M. Spieser, Thessalonique et ses monuments du IV'
au VI' siecle (Bibliotheque des ecoles franr;aises d' Athenes et de Rome, ccliv, Paris,
1984), pp. 157-64, 170-3; for Constantinople, C. Mango, Le diveloppement urbain de
Constantinople (IV'-VII' siecles) (Travaux et memoires, monographies, ii, Paris, 1985),
p. 53; R. Janin, Constantinople byzantine, 2nd edn. (Paris, 1964), pp. 34, 108, 115,
123, 134, 153, 161-2, 168, 199, 210, 218, 231, 351.
28 J. Russell, The Mosaic Inscriptions of Anemurium (Österreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Denkschriften, cxc, Vienna, 1987), pp. 21-2;
H. Williams and P. Taylor, "A Byzantine Lamp Hoard from Anamur (Cilicia)",
Anatolian Studies, xxv (1975), pp. 77-84; C. Williams, "A Byzantine Well-Deposit
from Anemurium (Rough Cilicia)", Anatolian Studies, xxvii (1977), p. 175-90;
C. Williams, Anemurium: The Roman and Early Byzantine Pottery (Pontifical Institute
of Medieval Studies, Subsidia medievalia, xvi, Toronto, 1989), pp. 115-18; J. RusselI,
"Excavations at Anemurium (Eski Anamur), 1971", Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi, xx.l
(1973), pp. 204-5; J. Russell, "Excavations at Anemurium (Eski Anamur), 1972",
Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi, xxi.2 (1974), p. 157; J. RusselI, "Excavations at Anemurium
(Eski Anamur), 1973", Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi, xxii. 2 (1975), pp. 124, 127-8; J. Russell,
"Excavations at Anemurium (Eski Anamur), 1976", Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi, xxv.l
(1980), pp. 267,270,273; J. Russell, "Excavations at Anemurium (Eski Anamur),
1985", Echos du monde classique 1 Classical Notes and Views, new ser., v (1986), p.
180.
29 M. C. Mundell Mango, "Artistic Patronage in the Roman Diocese of Oriens,
313-641 A.D." (Univ. of Oxford D.Phil. thesis, 1984), pp. 5-6.

of excavation and field-work has often left a great deal to be desired.
To anyone familiar with British archaeological sites the cavalier
attitude to stratigraphy, and the carefree destruction of levels on the
way down to Roman mosaics and walls - of both of which there are
quite recent examples - may come as a surprise. The later period
has too often not been of interest, and evidence for continuity ignored.
Given this background the amount of evidence that has become
available is doubly striking, and the impression is confirmed by those
sites which have been dug recently and without preconceptions.
One of the most important of these is Pella of the Decapolis, on
the east side of the Jordan valley. Pella was already an ancient city
in the Roman period, but in fact on the central tell very little Roman
material survives in situ because of its destruction by new development
in the late Roman period. New houses, churches, baths and colon-
nades testify to the wealth and urban culture of the city which las ted
through the sixth century and without interruption into the seventh
and eighth. 30
A similar picture could be drawn for two other Decapolis cities,
Gadara (modern Um Qeis) or, as yet on a lesser scale, Capitolium
(modern Beit Räs). In each case not only is there no evidence of a
decline in the second half of the sixth century, but there is no
archaeological sign of the Islamic conquest either. 31
A second essential piece of evidence has been brought into the
picture by the work of Marlia Mango. As already remarked, there
has long been a tendency among archaeologists and art historians to
presume that buildings and objects pre-date the onset of the plague
30 R. H. Smith, Pella of the Decapolis, i (Wooster, 1973), p. 164; A. McNicoll,
R. H. Smith and B. Hennessy, Pella in Jordan I, 2 vols. (Canberra, 1982), i, pp.
103-21; A. Walmsley, "PellaiFihl after the Islamic Conquest (A.D 635-c.9OO): A
Convergence of Literary and Archaeological Evidence", Mediterranean Archaeol., i
(1988), pp. 143-53. The la test re port to appear on Pella takes a much gloomier view
of the city in the seventh and eighth centuries, but its conc1usions in this respect have
been largely rendered out-of-date prior even to publication by current work at the site:
see R. H. Smith and L. P. Day, Pella ofthe Decapolis, ii, Final Report on the College
ofWooster Excavations in Area IX, the Civic Camplex, 1979-1985 (Wooster, 1989), pp.
8-9.
31 U. Wagner-Lux, E. W. Krueger and K. J. H. Vriezen-Van der Flier, "Bericht
über die Oberflächen-forschung in Gadara (Umm Qes) in Jordanien im Jahre 1974",
Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins, xciv (1978), pp. 135,144; U. Wagner-Lux
and K. J. H. Vriezen, "Vorläufiger Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Gadara (Umm
Qes) in Jordanien in den Jahre 1976-1978", Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins,
xcvi (1980), p. 58; B. Mershen and E. A. Knauf, "From Gadar to Umm Qais",
Zeitschrift des deutschen Palästina-Vereins, civ (1988), pp. 128-32; C. J. Lenzen and
E. A. Knauf, "Beit Ras/Capitolias: A Preliminary Evaluation of the Archaeological
and Textual Evidence", Syria, lxiv (1987), pp. 21-46.

in 541-2. In particular art historians have been very reluctant to date
any objects with a markedly classical decoration to the second half of
the sixth century. At both Antioch and Apamea the first attempts to
date the mosaics were seriously skewed by this prejudice. Hence the
importance of a number of silver objects dated either by inscription
or by official stamp. The system of official stamping of silver was
introduced und er Anastasius at the beginning of the sixth century
and lasted into the reign of Constans 11 in the second half of the
seventh. Apart from allowing such extraordinary treasures as the
series of silver plates found on Cyprus and decorated in a highly
classical manner with scenes from the life of David to be dated 10
A.D. 613-29/30 - a late date that would have been resisted on art
historical grounds - the date stamps extend the evidence of the
inscribed pie ces to reveal a great body of silver objects produced in
the second half of the sixth and the early seventh centuries. 32
The evidence of the objects themselves is supported by that from
contemporary sources. Late Roman churches throughout the Near
East were treasuries of silver. Not only silver liturgical objects, but
silver revetments which covered their walls. The houses of the wealthy
laity were similarly storehouses of riches in silver. In 540, 573 and
again in the seventh century, Syria was invaded by the Persians. On
each occasion they extorted huge sums from the Roman cities trying
to buy off the invaders; and after each attack the cities recovered. In
540 Chosroes I entered Apamea, taking "not just 1,000 pounds of
silver, nor even 10,000 pounds of silver, but all its gold and silver".
By the time the Persians came back, just over thirty years later in
573, the citizens of Apamea had replenished their wealth to provide
yet another huge booty. Edessa, eighty kilometres to the east, man-
aged to escape relatively lightly in 540, paying two hundred pounds
of gold. Two years later a member of one ofthe city's leading families
tried to ransom her grandson from the Persians for two thousand
pounds of silver. In 544 Chosroes appeared again. His initial demand
was for fifty thousand pounds of gold, but after adesperate defence
Chosroes agreed to withdraw with a payment of five hundred pounds
of gold. The Persian attack in 573 failed, but in 609 Edessa was
captured. Its churches alone produced 112,000 pounds of silver
32 M. C. Mundell Mango, Si/ver fram Early Byzantium (Walters Art Gallery,
Baltimore, Md., 1986), pp. 3-6, 11-15; Mundell Mango, "Artistic Patronage in the
Roman Diocese of Oriens", pp. 5-6, 115-232; E. C. Dodd, Byzantine Si/ver Stamps
(Dumbarton Oaks Studies, vii, Washington, D.C., 1961), pp. 1-35, 178-94, catalogue
nos. 58-66; J. P. C. Kent and K. S. Painter (eds.), Wealth of the Roman World, A.D.
300-700 (London, 1977), pp. 102-15.
which the shah lOok back to Iraq. The amount of silver is quite
striking in itself, but the key point here is that for the cities of the
Roman N ear East in the second half of the sixth century this fortune
in precious metal was a replaceable asset, and as such it is important

evidence of their underlying prosperity. Like the Danegeld in the
eleventh-century kingdom of England, which produced the millions
of silver pennies found in Scandinavia, these payments are above all
evidence of the wealth of a society which could afford to pay and pay
again. 33
A third point, of great importance, takes us back to to the evidence
of buildings erected in the second half of the sixth century. If one is
going to use this material as a rough index of the prosperity of late
Roman cities in the decades after the plague, one must be quite
sure to be looking at the sort of building which was important to
contemporaries. Leaving aside private houses, one has 10 keep in
mind that there had been a dramatic change in the sorts of public
building wealthy Romans wanted to pay for. In the first and second
centuries A.D. leading citizens had wished to build public baths,
gymnasia, stadia, theatres and temples. By the sixth century, fashion
and cultural values had changed. However wealthy, these men were
no longer interested in such structures. Theatres might still fulfil a
residual function in some larger centres (although nobody would
want to build a new one); grand public baths - as opposed to smaller
commercial or private baths - were in general redundant; and
gymnasia, stadia and tempi es were only valuable as a source of
building materials. The Christian Romans of the sixth century wanted
to display their wealth and status by building monasteries, hospitals,
old peoples' hornes, orphanages and, above all, churches. Therefore
these are the buildings which reftect late Roman urban wealth. 34
33 Procopius, Hyper tonpolemon, ii.l1.24, ii.12.31-4, ii.13.3-6, ii.26.13-22, 39,45-
6 (ed. J. Haury, re-ed. G. Wirth, Procopius Caeseriensis opera omnia, Bibliotheca script.
Graecum et Romanorum Teubneriana, 4 vols., Leipzig, 1962-4, i, pp. 201-3,209-10,
270-1,274-5); Procopius, Anekdota, xii.6-10 (ed. Haury, re-ed. Wirth, Procopius, iii,
p. 78); Evagrius, Ekklesiastikes historias, v.lO (ed. Bidez and Parmentier, p. 206);
lohn of Ephesus, Ecclesiastical History, vi.6 (trans. R. Payne Smith, The Third Part
o[ the Ecclesiastical History o[ John, Bishop o[ Ephesus, Oxford, 1860, pp. 385-7); Le
chronique de Michelle Syrien, ed. and Fr. trans. J.-B. Chabot, 4 vols. (Paris, 1899-
1910), ii, pp. 312, 402-3, 411; Anonymi auctoris chronicon ad annum christi 1234
pertinens, Lat. trans. J.-B. Chabot, i (Corpus scriptorum christ. orient., cix, Script.
Syr., lvi, Louvain, 1952), pp. 162, 176-7, 180-1; MundeIl Mango, "Artistic Patronage
in the Roman Diocese of Oriens", p. 115; P. H. Sawyer, "The Wealth of England in
the Eleventh Century", Trans. Ray. Hist. Soc., 5th ser., xv (1965), pp. 145-64.
34 Claude, Byzantinische Stadt im 6. Jahrhundert, pp. 65, 74-6, 78, 102, 201-2;
B. Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Public Buildings in
(cont. on p. 19)

This point is reinforced if one remembers that, compared with
their ancestors of the first and second century, sixth-century citizens
had a changed, or at least changing, attitude to public space and city
planning. The process has been recently discussed by Hugh Kennedy

in this journal. Before the seventh century, Near Eastern cities had
seen their regular grid street plans gradually transformed into a
network of narrow alleys, the open space of the agora or forum
replaced by the covered souk, and public ceremonial in the open air
give way to performances in the enc10sed environment of the cathedral
and soon the mosque. In other words the visual culture of the
ancient Hellenistic city, the polis, was being exchanged for something
different. Classicists and other modern admirers of symmetry , formal
open spaces and monumental planning may prefer the aesthetic of
the polis, but in historical terms it is a neutral change. It does not
imply a value judgement on city life. 3s
Sixth-century city dwellers seem to have taken for granted the
presence of ruins in their midst. The existence of a derelict and
useless temple or gymnasium was perfectly compatible with pride in
a wealthy and well-maintained city. The fact that archaeologists may
have found a ruined gymnasium in the heart of an ancient city is
therefore no guide to the prosperity or otherwise of that city as a
whole. 36
A final point concerns the copper coinage. So far I have presented
the evidence of monumental buildings and silver objects. The disap-
pearance of copper coins does not necessarily prove the total collapse
of an economy, but c1early an active monetary economy needs low-
value coins for regular sm all transactions, and gold and silver alone
will not wholly fulfil this role. Copper coins virtually disappear in
Britain and Gaul in the fifth century, become very rare in most parts
of Italy in the sixth century, and would do the same in Asia Minor
in the seventh. There seems little doubt that in each case the disap-
(n. 34 cont.)
Northern and Gentral Italy, A.D. 300-850 (Oxford, 1984); G. Dagron, "Le christianisme
dans la ville byzantine", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, xxxi (1977), pp. 4-11; cf. Kennedy,
"Last Century of Byzantine Syria", pp. 149-57, 162-4, 170-9; Kennedy and Liebe-
schuetz, "Antioch and the Villages of Northern Syria", pp. 66 f.
35 H. Kennedy, "From Polis to Medina: Urban Change in Late Antique and Early
Islamic Syria", Past and Present, no. 106 (Feb. 1985), pp. 11-15.
36 At Constantinople the senate house in the forum of Constantine still showed signs
of fire damage in the tenth century, suggesting that it had never been fully restored
after the fire of 465: Constantine the Rhodian, Stichoi, 11. 117-18 (ed. E. Legrand,
Revue des etudes grecques, ix, 1896, pp. 39-40); Mango, Developpement urbain de
Gonstantinople, p. 51; Ward-Perkins, Glassical Antiquity co the Middle Ages, pp. 33-4,
39-40, 45, 203-29.

pearance of copper is linked to economic decline, and the reverse,
that is the existence of a relatively abundant copper coinage, as in the
lands of the Caliphate from the seventh century onwards, is a sign of
an active economy. For the Near East the mid-sixth century is not a
significant date in the history of its copper coinage. On all those sites
where we have sufficient evidence to judge, copper coins continue to
be relatively abundant through the second half of the sixth century
and into the seventh. In Syria, Palestine and Egypt, that would
continue to be so throughout the seventh century and beyond. Their
presence, not only at such great cities as Constantinople, Ephesus,
Antioch and Gerasa, but also at a village such as Dehes in the
limes tone massif of northern Syria, is strong evidence to support the
impression given by the buildings and the silver of a fundamentally
prosperous economy. 37
III
RULING THE LATE ROMAN AND BYZANTINE CITY
The evidence for the continued prosperity of cities in the Near East
throughout the sixth century obviously does not square very wen
with a picture that sees the decline of the curiales as having a decisive
importance. Both Jones and Liebeschuetz are of course aware of this
difficulty. Jones had hirnself excavated a group of sixth-century
churches at Jerash in 1929, and it is not surprising that when he came
to discuss the decline of late Roman cities he was forced to do so in
such imprecise terms as "loss of initiative and vitality" and "the
37 The most comprehensive discussion of the copper-coin evidence throughout the
Mediterranean world will be Bryan Ward-Perkins's book on the decline ofthe Roman
economy, now in preparation. The seetion on copper coinage was first presented at a
seminar in Oxford on 29 January 1990. See, for Constantinople, R. M. Harrison,
Excavations at Sar{1fhane in Istanbul, i (Princeton, 1986), pp. 278-372; for Ephesus,
Foss, Ephesus after Antiquity, .Pp. 197-8; H. Vetters, "Ephesos vorläufiger Grabungs-
bericht, 1981", Anzeiger der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist.
Klasse, cxix (1982), p. 101; S. Karweise, "Münzliste", Anzeiger der Österreichischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, cxx (1983), pp. 123-65; S. Karweise,
"Vorausliste der ephesischen Fundmünzen, 1983-1985", Anzeiger der Österreichischen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, cxxiii (1986), pp. 110-57; S. Karweise,
"Fundmünzen Ephesos, 1986", Anzeiger der ÖsterreichischenAkademie der Wissenschaf-
ten, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, cxxv (1988), pp. 105-22; for Antioch, F. O. Waage (ed.),
Ceramics and Islamic Coins (Antioch-on-the-Orontes, iv/I, Princeton, 1948), pp. 109-
12; D. B. Waage, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Crusader Coins (Antioch-on-the-
Orontes, iv/2, Princeton, 1952), pp. 148-66; for Gerasa, Kraeling (ed.), Gerasa, pp.
501-3; for Dehes, J.-P. Sondini et al., Dihes (Syrie du nord) campagnes I-lI! (1976-
1978): recherches sur l'habitat rural (Institut fran<;ais d'archeologie du Proche-Orient,
publication hors serie, xv, Paris, 1980), pp. 267-87, 300-1.

collapse of morale" .38 Yet if one approach es the practical workings
of political, social and cuIturallife in the late Roman and Byzantine
city in the same mann er that we have just tried to look at the economic
evidence - that is, trying to take it on its own terms, rather than
setting it against a bench-mark in the form of classical Roman civic
life - it is very hard to trace the lack of vitality and collapse of morale
which is supposed to be there.
The numbers of inscriptions surviving from the fifth and sixth
centuries are not totally insignificant, and they constitute a useful
source of evidence. However, putting up such inscriptions was clearly
at least relatively a declining fashion, and there are nothing like the
riches of classical epigraphy to shed light on late Roman cities.
Instead, the historian does have the advantage of a large body of
hagiographie literature. This only covers certain cities, and it varies
a great deal in quality, but the best does reveal late Roman city life
in aseries of vivid snapshots with very little parallel in the earlier
period. Here I want to look briefty at four such snapshots. 39
The first is of Seleukia and the neighbouring cuIt-site of St. Thekla
in Rough Cilicia in south-east Asia Minor, whose world in the mid-
fifth century can be seen through the eyes of the anonymous author
of the Life and Miracles of St. Thekla. The author, in the past
misidentified as Basil of Seleukia, was none the less a cleric, and he was
probably writing between 468 and 476. St. Thekla was a legendary
companion of St. Paul, and the Life, although an important source
for fifth-century attitudes, is essentially a work of fiction. However,
her cult in the fifth century was very real, and the M iracles are, within
the bounds of the genre, a genuine record of the saint's impact-on
Seleukia and its region. 40
Areader of the M iracles familiar with the earlier world of Roman
cities dominated by the curial elite is soon aware that this late Roman
city is rather different. Curiales are only mentioned once, and these
are not from Seleukia, but from the sm all inland city of Eirenoupolis.
In Seleukia itself the key figures are the bi shop and clergy, a few lay
officials and a number of important laymen from leading families. A
38 Jones, Later Roman Empire, i, p. 757; Kraeling (ed.), Gerasa, pp. vii, 355.
39 On late Roman inscriptions, see C. Roueche, Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity
Cl!. Roman Studies monographs, v, London, 1989), pp. xix-xxvii; on hagiography
as a source for late Roman and Byzantine eities, slightly dated but still useful is
D. Z. D. F. Abrahamse, "Hagiographie Sources for Byzantine Cities, 500-900 A.D."
(Univ. of Miehigan D.Phi!. thesis, 1967).
40 Vie et miracles de sainte Thecle, ed. G. Dagron (Subsidia hagiographiea, Ixii ,
Brussels, 1978), pp. 13-30, 107-39.
civic militia is also mentioned, but in practice the inhabitants of

Seleukia relied on outside imperial forces for defence against their
aggressive neighbours, the Isaurian mountain tribesmen. Yet at the
same time the Miracles depict in Seleukia a society of considerable

"vitality", indeed more precisely, a society of notable self-confidence,
and self-awareness as a community.41
This stands out in several ways. First of all the bi shop of Seleukia
and the c1ergy of the city and the shrine of St. Thekla are depicted
as the leaders of the community. Bearing in mind that this is a work
of hagiography written by a c1ergyman one c1early needs to discount
what he has to say, but even so their role is striking, and it is
particularly interesting that they are described not as a group apart
but as an integral part of society, lay and c1erica1. 42
Seleukia is portrayed as a community aware of its identity expressed
through the cult of St. Thekla. The panegyris of the saint has replaced
the ancient games as a combination of feast, fair and occasion for
civic ceremonial, bringing in profits and expressing Seleukia's pride
in itself and its position as chief city of the region. The fact that the
cult-site of St. Thekla was not in the city itself, but one and a half
kilometres to the south, does not detract from the relationship, any
more than did the distance between Ephesus and the shrine ofDiana,
or Rome and the tomb of St. Peter. 43
The sense of identity and self-confidence also comes out in the
Miracles' ac counts of Seleukia's relations with other cities. With
Tarsus and Antioch-in-Pisidia, both seats of metropolitan arch-
bishops, the attitude is one of rivalry. St. Thekla punishes a metropoli-
tan ofTarsus who tries to prevent his citizens attending her panegyris,
and the author of the Miracles sneers at Antioch's pretensions to be a
rival cult-site ofSt. Thekla. Other smaller cities, such as Eirenoupolis,
whose bishops were suffragans of the metropolitan of Seleukia, fell
within Seleukia's social and cultural orbit, and the relationship is
expressed by stories of St. Thekla leaving her sanctuary to perform
mirac1es there. The author of these works, and implicitly the city he
came from, was very aware of Seleukia as a community and had a
definable view of the outside world. Seleukia and St. Thekla were at
the centre, beyond that was its own region of Rough Cilicia, distinct
41lbid., pp. 123-30, 384.
42lbid., p. 126.
43 lbid. , pp. 59-73,97, 135-6, 294, 376-80; on panegyreis, see S. Vryonis Jr., "The
Panegyris of the Byzantine Saint: A Study in the Nature of a Medieval Institution, its
Origins and Fate", in S. Hackel (ed.), The Byzantine Saint (Studies Supplementary
to Sobornost, v, London, 1981), pp . 196-226.

from the Cilician plain around Tarsus, both separated by mountains
from Anatolia, where lay Antioch-in-Pisidia, and beyond that the
distant imperial capital of Constantinople. It is difficult to believe
that civic patriotism could ever have meant much more. 44

The second snapshot is of Thessalonika in Macedonia as seen
through the first mirac1e collection of the Miracles of St. Demetrius,
written by Archbishop lohn of Thessalonika, probably shortly after
610. 45
Like Seleukia in the fifth century, Thessalonika has the character-
istic ruling elite of a late Roman city. The curia has completely
disappeared. In their place the leading figures of the city are the
archbishop and c1ergy, a number of administrative officials (mostly
associated with the eparch of Illyricum whose headquarters were in
the city), and a circ1e ofleading laymen. Like Seleukia, Thessalonika
is portrayed as an independently minded, self-aware community,
very conscious of what it is to be a citizen of Thessalonika as opposed
to astranger. 46
Again, since this is the work of an archbishop ofThessalonika, one
should be prepared to discount the dominant role given to the
archbishop and c1ergy and to the shrine of St. Demetrius as the sole
focus of civic identity and loyalty. Other large churches, such as the
rotunda of St. George or the basilica of the Virgin acheiropoietas, were
presumably riyal foci in Thessalonika which the archbishop chose to
ignore. Yet even so, the Miracles do contain a remarkable amount of
information about the city's elite as a whole. Notably, various laymen
figure prominently. When the kiborion - the structure revetted in
silver which formed the saint's sanctuary - was burnt down, wealthy
Thessalonikan laymen paid for its rebuilding. Two of them are
named: Menas, who gave sixty-five pounds of silver, and lohn, a
former barrister (like Evagrius, the author of the Ecclesiastical His-
tory), who gave forty pounds. 47
44 Vie el miracles de sainte Thecle, ed. Dagron, pp. 24-5,44-7, 109-12,294; important
later evidence confirming this picture of the late Roman ruling elite in a Cilician city
is provided by the documents of the Council of Mopsuestia held in 559-60: see
G. Dagron, "Two Documents Concerning Mid-Sixth Century Mopsuestia", in
A. E. Laiou-Thomadakis (ed.), Charanis Studies: Essays in Honor of Peter Charanis
(New Brunswick, 1980), pp. 19-26.
45 P. Lemerle, Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de saint Demetrius, 2 vols. (Paris,
1979-81), ii, pp. 32-4, 36-44.
46 Ibid., i, pp. 57-67, 94-5, 98, 119, 126, 146, 161-2; G. Dagron, "Les villes
dans l'Illyricum protobyzantin", in Villes et peuplement dans I' Illyricum protobyzantin
(Collection de l'ecole fran<;aise de Rome, lxxvii, Paris, 1984), pp. 10-19.
47 R. Janin, Les eglises et les monasteres des grands centres byzantins (Paris, 1975), pp.
358-62,375-80; R. Cormack, Writing in Gold (London, 1985), p. 63; Lemerle, Plus
anciens recueils, i, p. 95.
The eparch of Illyricum was certainly an outsider from Constanti-

nople, but his staff were part of the community. When the church
of St. Demetrius caught fire, it was neither the archbishop nor a
clergyman who lOok charge in the church and directed the fire-
fighters, but someone described as "head of the Dacian office of the
eparchs of Illyricum". Just as the Miracles 0/ St. Thekla show the
clergy and laity together making up the elite of Seleukia, so this work
reveals the clergy, the leading laity and those with official posts
together forming a social network which domina ted Thessalonika. 48
The Miracles 0/ St. Demetrius also plainly show an elite which has
embraced a new Christian culture. In the middle ofThessalonika lay
an abandoned public baths, reused as temporary housing for refugees
escaping the Avar and Slav invasions. As the restoration of the
kiborion shows, the Thessalonikan laity at the end ofthe sixth century
were not short of funds. Had they wished it the baths could have
been restored, but they were no longer in fashion. Instead, wealth
and status was displayed in the building and decorating of churches.
These years saw the major rebuilding of the basilica of St. Demetrius,
and, if arecent redating is correct, the building of a large new church
of Hagia Sophia. 49
Both Thessalonika and Seleukia were important cities, and it has
been suggested that their vitality was untypical of sixth-century urban
life as a whole. While larger cities, in particular provincial capitals,
may have continued to thrive, the smaller ones were declining, and
it is among them perhaps that one should be looking for the serious
consequences of the disappearance of the curiales. so
Two such smaller cities are the subject of the remaining two
snapshots. The first is Emesa (modern Horns) in the Orontes valley
of western Syria, which can be seen through the extraordinarily vivid
stories preserved in the LiJe 0/ St. Symeon the Pool. The LiJe itself
was composed by Leontius of Neapolis at some point in the first half
of the seventh century, but in fact his only source, which he repro-
duced with the addition of a vacuous introduction and conclusion
and a few other minor modifications, was a much earlier collection
48 Lemerle, Plus anciens recueils, i, p. 126, ii, p. 176.
49 Ibid., i, p. 150; Spieser, Thissalonique et ses monuments, pp. 170-3; K. Theohar-
idou, The Architecture of Hagia Sophia, Thessaloniki (Brit. Archaeol. Reports, internat.
ser., cccxcix, Oxford, 1988), pp. 155-7; cf. R. Cormack, "The Classical Tradition in
the Byzantine Provincial City: The Evidence of Thessalonike and Aphrodisias", in
M. MuHett and R. Scott (eds.), Byzantium and the Classical Tradition (Birmingham,
1981), p. 113.
50 Roueche, "New Inscription [rom Aphrodisias", pp. 184-5.

of anecdotes describing Symeon's activities in Emesa, which had
been compiled in the city shortly after Symeon's death, probably in
the 560s or 570s. 5 \
The stories make no mention of any curiales, and as at Seleukia

and Thessalonika, the city appears to be domina ted by the familiar
late Roman ruling elite of clergy and landowning laymen. The picture
they give of Emesa in the second half of the sixth century is of a lively,
thriving community. The stories describe a world of innkeepers, grog
shops, fast-food seHers (lupins!), glass-blowers and amulet-makers.
Emesa appears as the market centre for the surrounding countryside.
Peasants come into the city to sell their produce and presumably to
buy from other traders; mule-drivers service the local merchants,
some of whom we leam travel as far as Jerusalem to do business at
the great panegyris at Easter. Emesa also provides baths for men and
women, and a living for prostitutes and beggars - saintly and
otherwise. 52
More important perhaps than this evidence für the city's continuing
economic prosperity, the stories also show us that later sixth-century
Emesa was still a social and cultural centre. Several references to
large houses employing numbers of servants, dancing-girls and
singers make it quite clear that the locallandowning elite lived in the
city. One curious feature is that although the Life talks frequently of
the deacon John, St. Symeon's principal patron, who was plainly a
wealthy and influential figure in Emesa, there is no mention of the
bishop. Eschewing speculation, this is at the least a peculiar silence.
The stories clearly present only a partial picture of Emesa, but they
strongly suggest a successful urban community, not one losing vitality
or morale. 53
The final snapshot is of a smaHer city still: Anastasioupolis, a city
of Galatia on the Anatolian plateau in Asia Minor, whose world can
be seen in the Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon. This was written by a
monk in Theodore's monastery in the early seventh century, shortly
after the saint's death. 54
51 Leontios de Neapolis, La vie de Synuion le fou et vie de Jean de Chypre, ed.
A.-J. Festugiere and L. Ryden (Paris, 1974), pp. 2-9; C. Mango, "A Byzantine
Hagiographer at Work: Leontios ofNeapolis", in 1. Hutter (ed.), Byzanz und der Westen
(Österreichische Akademie der Wissenshaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Sitzungsberichte,
cdxxxii, Vienna, 1984), pp. 25-33.
52 Leontios de Neapolis, Vie de Symeon lefou et vie deJean de Chypre, ed. Festugiere
and Ryden, pp. 79-85, 88-lO0.
53 Ibid., pp. 83-6,93-6,99-100.
54 Vie de Theodore de Sykeon, ed. A.-J. Festugiere, 2 vols. (Subsidia hagiographica,
xlviii, Brussels, 1970), i, pp. v, 152-3, 160-1.
The Life mentions several cities, but it gives most information for
Anastasioupolis. On one level the late sixth-century city is very
different from what it would have been three hundred years earlier.
Instead of classical types of public buildings only churches are men-

tioned, and a cult-site of Artemis has become a derelict ruin whose
impotent demons the young St. Theodore can easily subdue. The
major feast of the city's year has become the panegyris of the local
saint. The curia and with it the curiales have disappeared, and the
city is now dominated by an elite made up of the clergy and various
leading landowners led, it appears, by the bishop.55
When in the la te 580s or 590s Theodore became bishop of Anastasi-
oupolis, he in effect took on the role of leader, or at least chairman,
of the city's elite, and the dire consequences of his failure to fulfil
this role indicate how essential it was. The bishop was chosen, as the
Life explains, by the "clergy and leading landowners" ofthe city. To
start with they were faced by a difficult basic decision. Did they want
someone with influence at the courts of men or of God? If the
latter then St. Theodore of Sykeon, whose intimacy with God was
demonstrated by his miracles, was an ideal candidate. Other cities
too are known to have chosen ascetic miracle-workers as their bishops.
Yet whoever was chosen could not simply pass the time in holiness.
He was the head of what amounted to the city's wealthiest property-
owning corporation, and had by his office one ofthe dominant voices
in local politics. In addition to his spiritual duties the bi shop was
expected to manage the wealth of the church for the benefit of the
city's ruling elite who had given it, and encourage unity among that
elite. On all these grounds Theodore was not a success. He spent too
much time at his monastery and on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and not
enough in his see. At Anastasioupolis he was accused of wasting the
church's resources on the poor, and of encouraging rebellion among
55 Ibid., i, pp. 4, 13-14, 18, 36, 49-50, 54, 169. In formal terms Anastasioupolis
was arecent foundation, having been raised to the rank of city by the emperor
Anastasius in the early sixth century. Previously it had been a regeon (imperial estate)
called Lagania. However, like other regeones in Asia Minor and Palestine (such as
GadaralUmm Qais), Lagania had been a comparatively developed urban settlement-
it had abishop before the mid-fifth century - and there is no evidence to suggest that
late sixth-century Anastasioupolis was very different in character to the other more
ancient cities ofGalatia. Its status as a regeon was no more than an anomaly. Anastasiou-
polis forms the focus for discussion here simply because St. Theodore was its bishop,
and as a result the Life provides rather more detail than for the older neighbouring
cities. Very much the same case could, however, have been made for them: see K.
Belke and M. Restie, Galatien und Lykaonien (Tabu la imperii Byzantini, iv, Vienna,
1984), pp. 125-6; Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 713, 715, 720, 877; see below, n.
58.

the tenants of church lands, whose rents were coIlected by leading
laymen. It also seems that he was not an effective chairman of the
councils ofleading citizens and c1ergy who met in the bishop's palace.
He alienated not only the leading laity, but the c1ergy as weIl, and it
seems very c1ear that everyone who matte red in late sixth-century
Anastasioupolis was relieved when he resigned. 56
The problems posed by St. Theodore suggest why most cities
thought it prudent to concentrate on inftuence at the courts of men.
The citizens of Arsamosata, for example, a city in Mesopotamia,
having failed in the later sixth century to per suade Harfat, a wealthy
landowner of pious disposition, to be their bishop, went instead for
his less pious, but equaIly wealthy kinsman who had served on the
staff of the local governor. After the experience of St. Theodore it
is more than likely that in choosing his successor the citizens of
Anastasioupolis foIlowed Arsamosata's wise example. 57
In many ways, then, late sixth-century Anastasioupolis was differ-
ent from an earlier Roman city, but the Life also shows that much
remained the same. The text is best known to modern historians for
the vivid picture it gives of thriving peasant villages in the late sixth
and early seventh centuries, and it is certainly of great historical
significance for that reason; but in fact read as a whole it makes c1ear
that the villages were of far less importance than the cities, which
just as in the second or third century were the real centres of Galatian
life. Small cities such as Germia, Eudoxia, Juliopolis, Pessinous and
Anastasioupolis appear as economic and social centres inhabited by
the local elite. The inhabitants of the countryside stilllooked to the
city as a place where they paid taxes and rent, sold their produce on
the market and went to find landlords and officials. In turn the minor
Galatian cities looked to the provincial capital, Ankara, for a high er
level of authority and inftuence represented by the provincial governor
and his staff. The fact that the elite now inc1uded the c1ergy, that
villagers went to the city to find their bishop, and that the bishop
and c1ergy in turn looked to the metropolitan archbishop, like the
provincial governor with his seat in Ankara, does not lessen what
appear in this text to be the fundamental continuities of Galatian
life. 58
56 Vie de Theodore de Sykeon, ed. Festugiere, i, pp. 58-67.
57 John ofEphesus, Lives ofthe Eastern Saints, ed. and trans. E. W. Brooks, 4 pts.
(Patrologia orientalis, xvii.l, xviii.4, xix.2, Paris, 1923-5), i, pp. 158-60.
58 Vie de Theodore de Sykeon, ed. Festugiere, i, pp. 11-12,30,39-40,80-2,85,138-
45, 155; Belke and Restie, Galatien und Lykaonien, pp. 163, 166-8, 181-2, 189,214-
15,247.
In view of the opinion that small eities were in serious decline by

the late sixth eentury, this picture of the small cities of north Galatia
is rather striking. Although one of the main routes linking Constanti-
nople to the east passed across Galatia, bringing business to roadside

inns and the like, most of the region is otherwise remote from the
major centres of Asia Minor. Its climate and landscape is typical of
the Anatolian plateau: treeless plains, and land of by no means
exceptional fertility, which has often been used for stoek-raising in
preference to arable agriculture; hot and dry in summer, bitterly cold
in winter. Cities were a comparatively re cent social phenomenon
there, most, as already noted, being Roman foundations. Without
the evidence in the Life ofSt. Theodore, Anastasioupolis, for example,
would only be known as a bare name on eeclesiastical and geographical
lists. Plainly if a small remote city such as this had an active urban
elite at this date, then so too may many others of which little but the
name survives. 59
IV
A CONTINUOUS HISTORY
Cities in the seeond and third eenturies A.D. were economie centres,
acting at the very least as markets for the surrounding countryside.
They were also political and social centres where the loeal ruling
elites lived and from where they dominated the rural world, and
where those elites found "a setting for the eultural display of power
and eommunity". In turn the eities were arranged in a hierarchie al
network whieh joined loeal elites to the wider world of the provinee
and to the imperial goverment beyond.
It should now be clear, even from the very small seleetion of
evidenee diseussed here, that the same ean be said of the provineial
eities of the fifth, sixth and early seventh eenturies. By this period
major eultural ehanges had either oecurred or were in progress.
Romans of the la te empire no longer wished to build and deeorate
eities on the classical model. Christianity and the ehureh were inereas-
ingly the dominant eultural force. Yet underlying these ehanges the
evidenee shows the fundamental eontinuity in the role of the eities,
and of the elites who lived in them.
S9 S. MitchelI, "Population and Land in Roman Galatia", Aufsteig und Niedergang

der römischen Welt, vii.2 (Berlin, 1980), pp. 1055-6, 1067-8; E. Honigmann (ed.),
Le Synekderrws d'Hierokles (Brussels, 1939), p. 35; Notitiae episcopatuum ecclesiae
Constantinopolitanae, ed. J. Darrouzes (Paris, 1981), p. 207.
RULlNG THE LATE ROMAN AND EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 29

The c10se relationship of the church and the landowning laity is a
particularly good illustration of how changing culture could mask
continuity. Sources such as the saints' lives discussed here are exam-
pies of the evidence which demonstrates that bishop, c1ergy and

landowners - the ruling trinity of the late Roman city - came from
the same social background. Whereas in the second century a member
of a leading local family could look forward to a curriculum vitae
inc1uding service on the curia and perhaps a priesthood to the local
cult, foHowed by a similar position at the provincial capital, in the
sixth century an equivalent young man might weH go into the church.
This was not necessarily an actof particular piety, but merely an
expression of how the late Roman elite organized itself. In the same
way, just as expenditure on public baths, temples and gymnasia had
once bought and confirmed status and membership of an elite, so in
the sixth century did the founding of churches and monasteries, and
expenditure on mosaics and liturgical silver. 60 The church was largely
city based, focused on the urban bishop. The whole process was in
effect a confirrnation of tradition al patterns, save in a new Christian
gUlse.
In a study of Coventry in the English midlands during the fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries, it has been shown how the expense of
redundant municipal offices, duties and ceremonials was driving
the local urban elite away from the city and into the countryside,
contributing to a crisis of dec1ine. 61 That most Roman cities seem to
have been able to avoid this fate is arguably in part because they did
not fall into the same trap. The disappearance of the curiales, far from
being a disaster for Roman provincial cities, was part of the process
whereby their landowning elites - like all such successful and
enduring elites - adapted to changing circumstances. Rather than
c1inging to the c1assical culture of the curia, the ruling elites of late
Roman cities embraced the new Christian world. Since the second
century much had changed, but, as the four snapshots discussed
above so c1early demonstrate, a great deal remained the same. So
much so that one can reasonably talk of a "continuous history" .
Oriel College, Oxford Mark Whittow
60 What appears 10 be a sirnilar process has been documented for the territory of
the Tuscan city of Lucca in the eighth and ninth centuries, when landowners ceded
land 10 the church in order "10 be co rne associated with the bishop and the power
structures of the city, for such gifts were very often associated with entry into the
episeopal clientele": C. J. Wiek harn , The Afountains and the City: The Tuscan Appen-
nines in the Ear~v Middle Ages (Oxford, 1988), p. 65.
61 C. Pythian-Adarns, Desolation 0/ a City: Coventry and the Urban Crisis o/the Late
Middle Ages (Carnbridge, 1979), pp. 48, 262-5.
7
SYRIA IN TRANSITION, AD 550-750:
AN ARCHAEOLOGICALAPPROACH
Clive Fass
INTRODUCTION
I n late antiquity, Syria was a rich and important province o[ a great empire, as it had
been for centuries. lt contained many flourishing eities set in a densely populated
countryside whose inhabitants built churches and houses of elegandy carved stone. In
the sixth eentury the country suftered an unparalleled series of disasters in the form of
earthquakes, plague, and foreign invasion. Early in the seventh it passed under the con-
trol of the Persians, who had barely left when the victorious armies of Islam definitively
removed it from the orbit of Constantinople and Christianity. This was not the end, but
the beginning o[ another glorious epoch in which Syria became the center of a vast em-
pire and was again t;cllned tor its great cities ancl monuments.
The cities and monuments of that period had little in common with their Roman
forebears. In place of grandiose public works-theaters, stadia, gymnasia, agoras, and
colonnaded streets-the "Islamic city" offered the mosque and the bazaar. The change
retiected the deep differences in the social, economic, and above all religious structure
of the Roman and U mayyad states. The polis, in the words of a well-known essay on this
subject, had yielded to the rnedina. 1
This study is intended to address these ditferences and the process of transformation.
lt examines city and country alike in two widely separated regions of Syria: the Orontes
Valley with two of the greatest cities, Antioch and Apamea, and the country around them,
and one lesser city, Epiphania; and the Hauran with its metropolis, Bostra. These regions
have been chosen pardy because they are very different from each other: the north with
its hills and valleys is a transitional region between the Mediterranean and the interior,
while the south is largely steppe hordering on the desert.
The main reason [or selecting these regions, however, lies in the kind of information
they can provide about the crucial period of transformation. Conventional written
A List of Abbreviations is found at the end of this artide.

I Scc H. Kcnncdy, "From Polis to Maclina: Urban Change in Late Antique am! Early Islamic Syria:' Post
rmd Present 106 (1985), 3-27 , for the urban changes; and idem , "The Last Century 01' Byzantine Syria: A
Reinterpretation," ByzF ]0 (19H5), 141-H4. The latter makes extensive Ilse of the archaeological evidence,
basically 01' cities, over a much wider region than that «lvered in this study. It will soon be apparent that the
interpretation offered he re is very different [rom Kennedy's.
190 SYRIA IN TRANSITION, A.D. 550-750
sources reveal surprisingly linIe about these two hundred years and are especially poor
on the seventh century. The major texts-Theophanes amI Nicephorus in Greek, Ba-
ladhuri and Tibari in Arabic, and the Syriacchronicles-were mostly written long after
the age ofthe conquests, and their accounts, however circumstantial they appear, are tull
of contradictions and problems. In any ease, they have little to say about eonditions in
city 01' country in Syria at any time in this age. From them, it would not be possible to
reeonstruet an image of the country in these eenturies.
It is therefore neeessary lo turn to another kind of source, one that remains to be
fuUy exploited: the material reeord. Syria is filled with imposing remains of late antique
and early Islamie monuments, both urban and rural. Such material ean be o[ enormous
value for understanding the questions to be approaehed here, i1' examined in detail and
brought together to support conclusions. In partieular, the areas to be studied have a
rieh arehaeological record including one city excavated extensively and two others at
least partially, and a huge number 01' viUages surveyed.
This study, therefore, examines these northern and southern district.s with two ques-
tions in view: What did the Arabs lind when they arrived to conquer this land, and how
did they trans form it during the first century oftheir rule? The present survey discusses
these regions during the two hundred years of transition, examining the archaeological
record (without neglecting the historical, however exiguous it might bel and integrating
the results in the hope of obtaining a view of the country under J ustinian, at the time of
the conquests, and under the Umayyads. The survey ends with the fall 01' the Umayyads
and the transfer of the eapital of the Islamie state outside Syria. 2 Ir begins in the north,
with Antioch.
ANTIOCII
Antioch, the greatest city 01' the Roman East, seal 01' a patriarch and 01' a governor
who ruled a vast and strategie area, suffered an unparalleled series of calamities in the
sixth century. A devastating lire in 525 was followed the next year by a severe earth-
quake.'l The quake of 528, which virtually demolished the city, was even worse. Recovery
had barely begun when the city was captured-for the first time in three hundred
years-by the Persians, who burned it to the ground and deported its population in 540.
These disasters were followed by the bubonic plague in 542, another earthquake in 551,
a cattle plague in 553, another earthquake in 557, a recurrence ofthe bubonic plague in
560, the Persians in 573 who burned the suburbs, and still more earthquakes in 577 and
588 (the latter especially damaging). A drought killed the olive trees of the region in 599;
the next year an infestation of weevils ruined the crops.
Accounts of some of these disasters are so detailed that the condition of the city in
the sixth century can be imagined, i1' not exactly described. The quake 01' 526 and the
'This work was begun and sporadically continued during stays at Dumbarton Oaks, where it was greatly
facilitated by that institution's Byzantine librarian, Irene Vaslef. Most of the project was executed during a
very productive stay al thc Institute tür Advanced Studies, Hebrew Cniversity of Jerusalem. ~fy sintere
thanks to the director and secretary 01' the Institute, 10 Y. T~arrir, who ürganized the group in whieh I
participated, ami to Richard Harper, who kindly put the faeilities of thc British School of Archacology at
my disposition.
3 Für this and wh at föllows, see G. Downey, A Historv o{ Antioch in Syria (Princcton, 1961), 520-71 passim.
CLIVE FOSS 191
fire that followed it are said to have destroyed the whole city, including a1l the major
ehurches. 4 It caused enormous loss oflite since it struck at dinnertime on a day when the
city was crowded with visitors for the feast of the A~cension. The damage was so severe
that the government contributed 3,000 pounds of gold for reconstruction, with an extra
1,000 for rebuilding the churches. The work had no sooner begun than the second quake
struck in 528 (evidently there was something lett to destroy). This provoked the citizens
to change the name of the city to the more auspicious Theopolis, the "City of God," to
avert further manifestations of divine wrath. Reconstruction continued for a decade until
the next disaster.
In the spring of 540, the Persian king Chosroes I crossed the Roman frontier. After
sacking Sura and holding Hierapolis to ransom, he burned the city of Berrhoea (Aleppo),
though allowing the defenders of its acropolis to surrender. Most of them deserted to
hirn because they had not been paid. In J une, as the Persian army approached Antioch,
many fled with their money. Chosroes demanded 1,000 pounds of gold but only got
insults from the citizens, unwisely confident in the strength of the walls and the newly
reinforced garrison. As the attack began, many people were crushed in the rush to es-
cape. The Persians then broke through the walls, enslaved the survivors, looted the city,
and burned it to the ground, with the exception of the cathedral. They also burned the
suburbs. Having made his point, Chosroes withdrew. He visited Seleucia and Apamea
and held Chalcis and Edessa to ransom before finally leaving Roman territory.5
There is no doubt that the damage on this occasion was enormous and that the previ-
ous work of reconstruction was wiped out. Yet the fact that there was much left: to burn
shows that the previous accounts were exaggerated, however serious the earthquakcs
might have been. Once again the imperial government came to the reseue. Justinian
took a special interest in restoring Antioch which, according to the contemporary, though
not eyewitness, historian Procopius, was so devastated that the whole street system had
disappeared and people could no Ion ger loeate their own property. The government
brought in artisans and workers, carted off debris, piled large stones over destroyed sites,
and laid out new colonnaded streets, markets, blocks of houses, water channels, foun-
tains, and sewers. Baths were built, along with a grand new church of the Virgin, a poor-
house, a hospice, and an inn. J ustinian also rebuilt the walls, strengthening and reducing
their circuit to exclude the island in the Orontes, formerly a palatial district. 6 For the
moment, Antioeh rose from its ruins, only to succumb to further troubles. Despite the
work of Justinian, there can be no doubt that the city was devastated and left with a
much reduced population by the end of the sixth century.
Nevertheless, Antioch survived, though necessarily much diminished from its former
rnagnificenee. It was captured by the Persians in 610 and remained under their control
for twenty years. Nothing is known of this period, nor of the brief Byzantine reconquest,
which was soon followed by the advance ofthe Arabs, who took the city in 638 and ruled
it for the next three hundred ycars.
For the Arabs , Antioch was an irnportant fron tier fört and base for further expansion.
After 646, when the governor Muawiya dcstroyed the Byzantine forts between Antioch
IIbid., 521-26.
'Procopius, Wars 2.5-12; see 2.H-10 for Antioch. See also thc discussion ofDowney, Antiach, 533-45.
'Procopius, Buildings 2.5, discusscd by Downey, Antioch, 544-53.
and Masisa (Mopsuestia in Cilicia) to create a kind of no-man's land between the two
antagonistic powers, the city became the advance post for Islam. The caliph Othman
(644-658) had a permanent force stationed there, supported by lands assigned to it. The
garrison was reinforced in 663 by Muawiya, then caliph, who brought in Persian troops
from Baalbek and Horns. Detachments from Antioch were posted to outlying bases such
as Cyrrhus, though later, as the frontier advanced, part ofthe Antioch army was penna-
nently transferred there. 7
Antioch at first was included in the jund, or military district, of Horns (Emesa); Mua-
wiya or his son Yazid (680-683) separated off the northern cities, including Antioch, to
form the new jund ofQinnasrin (Chalcis). As the Arabs made further conquests, the prov-
ince of Qinnasrin was subdivided, with the frontier bases, including Antioch, made into
the new district of al-Awasim by Harun al-Rashid (786-809). According to some accounts,
Antioch succeeded Mambij as the capital of this district." During this time the city is
mentioned merely in its administrative role, which is reflected in the presence of a mint
for copper coinage in the early eighth century." These coins, however, form only a single
issue and are extremely rare, especially when compared with those of Qinnasrin ancl
Aleppo, the major mints of the district. They suggest that the economic importance of
the city was limited.
The seventh and eighth centuries, here as elsewhere, are extremely obscure. Actual
descriptions of the city date only from the tenth century and later, when it was noted as
a place with long walls within wh ich were fields and mills; that is, the walls ofJustinian
now included much unoccupied space. The city had substantial churches, including the
round church of St. Mary, built by Justinian, still richly decorated with gold, silver, and
mosaics. The caliph al-Walid carrieel offseveral ofits columns to adorn his great mosque
in Damascus. 1Ü The survival ofthe churches indicates a certain vitality of the city and its
Christian community, which had endured through so many catastrophes anel changes of
regime. These sketchy sources alone would suggest that Umayyael Antioch preserveel the
appearance of a city, though much reduced from its earlier glory, and that its position
on or ne ar the frontier assureel its continuing importance, not, as before, as a great me-
tropolis and center of trade and production, but as a bulwark of the fron tier and a base
for campaigns against Byzantium.
Antioch was an extremely large Roman city with a center covering about 5 km" (Fig.
A). This area contained the palace, amphitheater, theater, hippodrome, several large
baths, anel lavish private villas. lJ nfortunately, little has been uncovered, as the site is
'Al-Baladhuri, 17" Origins afthe Islarnic State, cd. and trans. I~ K. Hitti (New York, 1916), 180 (troops
transferred), 226 f (Othman), 230 (Cyrrhus).
'Thc sourees, whieh are not at an consistent, are analyzerl in C. Le Strange, Palestine under the MDslmns
(London, 1890), 35-38.
"See the valuable survey of Shraga Qerlar, "Copper Coinage of Syria in the Seventh and Eigbtb Century
An," Israel Numismatic]ournal 10 (1988-89), 27-39, with tbe table, p. 37. The coins in question are of the
aniconic series j, dated by Qedar to 710-800, but see S. Album, "Crnayyad and Abbasid Relationsbip Is
Rethought," The Ce/a.t,ar 3.6 (1989), i, xxii-xxv, and ibid., 3.7 (19H9), i, xxiii, xxv, who dates thern more closely
(3.6, xxii) to thc 90s AH. (709-719).
[('See tbe IOth-century accounts of Mas'udi, ibn Hawkal, Istakhri, and Ibn al-Fakih, eited in Le Strange,
Palestine, 367-70. For the general question of continuity over a long period, see H. Kennerly, "Antioch: From
Byzantium 1O Islam anel ßack Again," in The City in Late Anliqnily, cd. H. Rich (London, 1992), 181-98.
N 5DOm
Hippodrome Walls of Justinian

Walls
8ath
A
A
8ath
8ath
C
Stadium
8ath F~
ci
P
~
~
ocffl)
Theater
Th eater
o §'
Q: ".'"
o cfp.c:: '$:.";
filo
~;f ,0
...V
Amphitheater
to
Daphne
Fig. A Antioch
\
"" J.Halaqa
Mediterranean
Sea ,Dehes
ANTIOCH BERRHOEN
ALEPPO
J.Barisha
CHALe lS
CHALCIS
Kaper Koraon
N 100 km
..,0
-, .'1, J.Zawiye
J.zawiye
Tarutia
c
() 2 3
::.
:;,
CI)
Key APAMEA
APAMEA
1'.
l'
N Kapropera
J.Ansariye
J.Ansar;ye LARISSA
N Serjilla AI-A
AI -A ·la
' la
N al-Nu'man
Ma'aret al-Nu 'man EPIPHANIA
EPIP HANI A
Hills
Limestone Hills N
above 500 m
o 10
10 50km
50 km EMESA
Fig. B Sites of northern Syria

North
Northgate
gate NN
N 100 500m
500m
basilica
basilica
Roman
Roman
baths
baths
Agora House
Hause of
Hause Console
Cansore
House Cap!tals
of
of the
the Capltals
Oeer Cansole
Console
Deer
.. Hause
Hause
Nymphaeum
Nymphaeum Pilaster Hause
decumanus Pilaster Hause
decumanus ..Latrine
Latrine
Tric1inos
Tricrinos
Aotunda
Rotunda House
Hause
Theater
Theater Cathedrat
Cathedral
Atrium Church
Atrium Church
Fig. C Apamea
100 200 m
Roman
legionary camp
Umayyad
farmhouse
Jami al-Mabrak
Mosque
Reservoir
of Umar
Basilica
Nymphaeum Church 01 Sergius,

Tetrapylon
Bacchus, and Leontius
Nabatean Arch
Reservoir
South
Cathedral
Baths
Palaee
Theater
Reservoir
Hippodrome
0
Deir al-Adas
0,
"§, Kafr Shams
'"
Mediterranean Inkhil
Sea
m AI-Leja
Jabiya > Msayke al-Hayat
-I
Nawa
BOSTRA
>
Z
sr 100km \TI
> sr
Key al-Kafr
Above 1000 m J.Druse

BOSTRA
,Salkhad
Samma
Umm al-Quttein
Rihab Umm al-Jimal
Kh. al-Samra
Oasr al-Hallabat
Hammam al-Sarakh
Fig. E Sites of the Hauran

1 Territory of Antioch, the v~lJagc of Qirqbize
2 Tenitory of Antioch, ruins of Baqirha

:3 Ihqirha, east church (546)
4 Dar Qita, church of St. Sergius, cntrance gate (537)

5 Dar Qita, chllrch 01' St. Sergills, capital
6 Dar Qita, tower (551)

Bamukka, olive press
B Dehes, enlrancc gate and court yard of house

9 Dchcs, house with upper veranda
10 Apamea, colonnaded street with votive column

11 Apamea, wall of colonnaded street with painted inscription
12 Apamea, blocking of main colonnade

13 Apamca, main colonnade, structures built onlo pavemenl
14 Apamea, decumanll.l; structure built into street (rzghtforeground), blocked colonnadcs behind
Li Apamea, Atrium Church, main apsc in foreground
I(j Apamea, Atrium Church, buttress built aver slrcet

17 Apamea, Cathedral, cntrance fi'om decunwnus (529)
J 8 Aparnca, Cathedral, opus sectile floor behind apsc

J9 Apamea, Triclinos House, biockillg uf colonnade
20 ,\.pamea, l'riclinos HOllse, brick ovcn

21 Apamca, Console House, atrium

22 Apamea, Console HOl1sc, apsc inserted into colorll1ade
23 Apamea, COl1So1e Housc, late blocking (l~ji)

24 Bostra, rcmains 01' main colonnadcd street
25 Bostra, "abatean arch

26 Bostra, south balhs
27 Bostra, church 01' Sts, Sergius, Bacchus, and Leolllius, main apsc
28 Bostra, palace easl of the church of Sts. Sergius, Bacchus, and Leontius
29 Bostra, basiliea
:00 Bostra, mosquc of Umar
31 Bostra, mosque of Umar, external stairway

32 Bostra,Jami al-Mabrak
33 Rostra, Jami al-lVIabrak, earlicsl momg

34 Bostra,Jami al-Ylabrak, mihrab

35 Umm al-Jimal, tower of barracks

36 Tnkhil, palatial building
37 lnkhil, palatial building, nichc

38 Deir al-Adas, mosaic of came1 caravan (722)

CLIVE FOSS 193
buried in several meters of sill. The excavations did, however, reveal numerous luxurious
villas with mosaic pavements, some of the street system, and a few public buildings, most
of them outside the walls of Justinian. They provide enough material to enable a dirn
outline of development to be perceived. Most ofit, as would be expected from the history,
reveals massive destruction followed by partial rebuilding and some continuity, often on
a vastly changed scale, under the Arabs.
The excavations ofthe main colonnaded street not only reveal the enormous destruc-
!ion by earthquakes and Persians and the vast work of reconstruction of J ustinian, but
also provide visible confirmation for the account of Procopius. They show that work be-
gan after the earthquakes of 526 and 528, when the colonnades and adjacent shops were
restored and a temporary paving laid at a slightly higher level. Much more massive was
the work carried out after 540. In this project the old pavement was taken up, and the
street was covered with debris that formed the base for a new paving of fme basalt blocks.
The new street was somewhat narrower than the old, but had sidewalks with a new drain-
age system below. These abutted the new colonnade behind which a pavement of opus
seclile covered the old mosaics. With sidewalk and colonnades, the street was more than
26 m wide; the reconstruction was on a monumental scale. In another spot, a circular
plaza was restored with a new paving. In all this, such a great effort was made to retain
the ancient magnificence of the city that the laudatory tone of Procopius' description
seems welljustified. 11
Other excavations within the Justinianic walls provide scattered but suggestive evi-
dence. A large bath (bath F), of the lavish kind that adorned Roman cities, stood near
the wall below the slopes of the acropolis. It bears a mosaic with an inscription that calls
it the dClIlosion and shows that it was restored from the foundatioIlS in 538, at which time
a pavement of opus sectile was also added. The rebuilding was on a smaller scale than the
original; some parts were leh in ruins. The restoration had hardly been finished when
the whole building was destroyed by fire, probably in 540, and abandoned. '2 Similarly, a
large house with exedra and portico near the west wall was damaged, then poorly re-
stored, then finally destroyed by fire, a sequence also reflecting the events of 528 and
540. I'". Finally, another house on the slopes of the acropolis hili shows the same devel-
opment. 14
The area left outside the new walls had a different fate. Excavations here concen-
trated on the island in the Orontes, site of the palace of Valens, the hippodrome, and
broad colonnaded streets. The hippodrome was abandoned and its stones used for build-
ing the new wall. The lavish bath C was ruined in the earthquakes and never restored,
as was the adjacent stadium to wh ich it may have been connected. The smaller bath A
was also ruined, but its peristyle court at least was restored in the late sixth century.15
Antioch's most famous suburb was Daphne, set in a grove wiLh abundant springs, site
ofthe temple of Apollo and later ofa church ofthe Archangel Michael, and ofnumerous
"See Antioch, V, esp. 148-51 (general summary), 21-29, 94 f, 99, andAntioch. 1,93-100.
"Antioch, III, H f.
"Ibid., 11 f.
I4Ibid., 9-11.
., Hippodrome: J. Humphrey, Rmnall Cinuses (London, 1986),456; barh C ami sradium: Antiach, I, I 'l-;l'l;
balh A: ibid., 4-7.
194 SYRIA IN TRANSITION , A.D. 550-750
villas. Chosroes visited the site in 540, sacriÜced to the Nymphs, and destroyed only the
church. Justinian had it rebuilt, but the earthquake of 577 is said to have ruined the
emire place. 16 The excavations offer only scattered evidence. Numerous coins from
the local theater indicate activity continuing until the reign ofTiberius 1I (578-582), as
do those from a large building of uncertain purpose, where the final destruction took
place after 583. One large, complex villa was apparently restored after the earthquakes
and occupied until the early seventb century, wbereas the grcat villa at Yakto, famous
tor its mosaics portraying tbe life of the city, was apparently never reoccupied after the
earthquakes. 17 This all suggests considerahle damage in the early sixth century, as at
Antioch, with some activity continuing after the earthquake of 577 (when somc buildings
must have been restored), hut tape ring offby the end ofthe century. The site appears to
have been abandoned thereafter.
Evidencc for the succeeding age is even less satisfactory, largely becausc the remains
were not dated with any accuracy. They show, however, that Antioch had fundamentally
changed. None ofthe great churches was discovered, but the later descriptions show that
scveral of them continued to stand despite all the disasters and that thcy, along with the
walls, formed the main adornment of Umayyad Antakiyah.
The excavations along the main street reveal a fundamental change. New structures,
all of uncletcrmined purpose but sometimes very solidly built, were insertecl clirectly
on the pavement and over the colonnades. Wells were dug to provide a water supply in
an age when the aqueducts were no longer functioning. This activity seems tel be Umay-
yad, Abbasicl, and later. l " It appears that the inhabitants of this time built their houses (if
that is what the structures represent) in convenient open spaces. These were far easier
to occupy than the former residences and public buildings, many of them converted to
heaps of rubble that the authorities no longer had the resources to dcar.!"
The evidence from other parts of the city is similar. The three sites within the walls
were alreacly abancloned in the sixth century, but those on the island show signs of later
activity. The former hippodrome was filled with houses with stone walls, and apparently
long occupiccl. Gravestones from the site are of the ninth and tenth centuries. 20 The
Roman bath Band a large house stood side by side just south of the hippodrome. The
house was divided into smaller rooms, am! many ofits openings we;-e blockecl. The new
rooms extended out into the lane that had provided the cntrance to the bath and were
built against the tacades ofhoth; these levels are described as Byzantine and "early Cufic,"
that is, probably Umayyacl. They represent occupation on a new and smaller scale after
the destructions of the sixth century, and show no substantial change du ring the follow-
l<i procopius, Wars 2.11.6-13; idem, Bllildings 2.9.29; Evagrius 5.17.

I7Anliod" IJ, 57-94 (theater); 1, 107-13 (Iarge building), 95-147 (Yakto); IH, 25-3 1 (villa).
"Antioch, V, 99-1 IR, 148-51. Little evidence für dating these structures was repürted , but some of t.hem
at least. appear tü be earlier than the 10th century. In one place, the püttery sequence was continuüus
through the 7th century (Antioch, IV.I, 157 f); inscriptions (uninformative) found in the street di~ are ofthe
9th-11th centuries: Antioel!, ll, 166-69. Many üfthe medieval remains cliscovcrecl in these excavations be-
lüng to the Byzantine reconquest ami are therefüre omiued he re.
19 1 dü nüt see any evide nce fi"lnll the re ports that these buildings renen the transformation of th e street
into a medieval suq; they seem rather 10 represent a much simpler phenomenün. The structures associated
with the narrüwing ()fthe street intü small passages are ofthe 11th cemury: Antioch, V, :11-29.
" Humphrey, Roman Circuses, 456; Antioch, 1,34- 11.
CLlVE FOSS 195
ing age. 21 The former grand bath C, ruincd in the earthquakes, bccame a quarry, with
limekilns installed in its ruins; later, crude rubble walls were inserted."" An area immedi-
ately to the south, with numerous small rooms, water pipes, and cisterns, saw consider-
able rebuilding, always on a small scale. Pottery ofthe sixth and later ccnturies indicatcs
continuity of occupation through the transition from Roman to Arab rule. 23 The large
bath A, near the Orontes, came to be filled with debris ancl rubble walls. 24
This material, though fragmentary, suggests that life in the city continucd long
beytmd the Arab conquest, but on a rclatively small scale. The great public buildings of
antiquity no longer functioned. They either lay in ruins from the various earthquakes
ami fires or were transformcd, with small dwcllings occupying their interim"s. Likewise,
the wide boulevards were occupied by humble buildings. The city ofthe L'mayyads and
their successors seems to have been a place with little of its ancient urban character, but
rather a vast field of ruins with occupation on a small scale, often in ancient buildings or
strects. Thc surviving churches would have towered over such a settlement, dwarfed
already by its massive walls. If the area of settlement on the island was continuous with
that of the center, the city still occupied a considcrable extcnt, but the island could
equally weil represent a separate, rural community outside the walls. Later sources men-
tion gardens and open space within the walls, a situation that probably prevailed alrcady
by the mid-seventh century.
Thc archaeological evidence is scattered and specific to a few parts of the site. For a
more general view of the period, the coins and pottery found in the excavations offer a
valuable supplement, especially useful for undcrstanding cconomic developments, both
in the city and in relation to other regions.
Coins found in the cxcavations clearly reftect continuing activity, though nothing
more specific, as they were published witllOut findspots. As might be expected, there are
large numbers from J ustinian, then a continuing sequcnce through the rcign of Focas,
after which the city fell to the Persians. 25 Although the Sasanians are only directly repre-
sented by two coins of Chosroes II, the 52 bronze coins of Heraclius presumably repre-
sent activity during their occupation of the city as weil as du ring the short period of
Byzantine reconquest. The number increases after the Arab conquest: the 70 coins of
Constans II (641-668) represent the money used in the region befOl"e the Arabs began
to strike their own types, as do thc 18 imitations of that series. 26 Most of the coins of
Constans are of a short period, 645-648, evidently a time of some special activity. The
23 so-called Arab-Byzantine coins represent continuity until the last decadc of the sev-
enth century.
"l/lntioch, I, 8-1R.
"Antioch, I, 19-31; evidence for dating the "Arab" remains (pcrhaps coins) was not givcn.
"IAutioch, I, 1-3. The rcport mentions "Cufic" sherds, whieh apparently means material ofthe 9th century
Ol' laler.
'IAnfioch, 1,4-7; the late walls, callee! "eufic or laler," are givcn the date 01' ca. 1000.
""Thc ßyzantinc coim are tabulated in Antioch, IV.I, 148-68. The totals given here !i)r those 01' Heradius
and Constans 11 differ from the pllblishecl figllres because it has been possible ro corrcct a fcw allributions.
11y sincere thanks to Brooks Lcvy, curator oi" the numislnalic collection at Princeton, for allowing tne to
examinc these loins.
~(;There is n1uch controversy ahout the dating of the itnitation Ryzantine anel thc "Arab-Ryzantine" coins.
For a rerent reasonable sUlnmary. see Qcdat~ "Copper Coinage."
196 SYRIA IN TRANSITIOI\, A.D. 550-750
A great increase comes under the later Umayyads: the reigns of Abd al-Malik (685-
705) through Hisham (723-745) are represented by 178 coins, to wh ich the 330 undated
aniconic types may be added. These reilect the growing importance ofAntioch, especially
as a military base. They also show its connections with the region: the mints most fre-
quently represented (in descending order) are Damascus, Aleppo, Qinnasrin, and Homs;
none of the rare coins struck in AnLioch iLself were discovered.
[yen more impressive are the 1,067 Abbasid coins, which attest the growing role of
the city after the establishment of the Awasim ancl show activity that continued into the
tenth century. Ofthose that can be specifically identified, the largest numbers come from
the reigns of al-Mansur (754-775; 70 coins) and al-Mahdi (775-785; 134 coins). These
reveal a change of orientation: most ofthe coins of al-Mansur were struck in Syrian mints
(Aleppo, 49; Qinnasrin, 12), but a1l the legible pieces of al-Mahdi come from lraq (Kufa,
55; Baghdad, 25). By the late eighth century the whole focus of the empire had moved
to Iraq, and Syria was becoming a more peripheral region. 27
The pottery from the excavations also provides valuable information about economic
conditions. 27a Vast quantities were uncovered all over the si te but rarely in stratified con-
texts, as the levels investigated were highly disturbed. Nevertheless, the general picture,
Iike that of the coins from which it differs considerably, is of real interest. North African
Red Slip ware begins to reappear in the reign ofJustinian, reflect.ing the reconquest of
the western Mediterranean and renewed contacts between it and Syria. More common,
though, is the contemporary Phocaean Red Slip ware, imported fr'om western Asia Minor
along the route that eventually led to Constantinople.
Both of these types yield to pottery that imitates the North Ah-ican, apparently made
locally when the imported ware was no longer available. lt appears to date to the mid-
seventh century, reflecting a break in contact with the Byzantine Empire that may be
associated with the Arab conquest. This pottery is of a lower quality but still maintains
classical forms. lt thus shows areal continuity of material culture on a basic level through
the period of transition. On the other hand, its relative rarity may suggest declining
resources and population. These wares are often associated with painted Coptic pottery
from Egypt, reflecting a changed pattern of trade, a time of contact with the Islamic
world rather than with the Byzantine Mediterranean. On the whole, though , these late
wares, along with the glazed pottery that begins to appear in the eighth century, are far
less common than the earlier, confirming the picture from the sources and the remains
of a smaller and evidently pOOl'er community.
This picture is consistent but does not agree with the numismatic evidence, which
implies increasing activity. As the documentation is sparse, only a tentative explanation
may be offered. It is possible that the pottery and remains reflect the state of the civil
population, while the mins represent military activity, being used to pay the troops or in
markets set up to supply them. There may have been large armies in the city without a
correspondingly substantial civil population. Lacking adequate publication of the differ-
"See the lists in Ant;och, IV 1, 109-22; they incluele a vast number 01' imitation anel cast coins, which
presumably represent the coinage üf Syria in the 9th century, when lew regular bronze coins were struck;
see tbe eliscussion of George !VI ilcs, ibiel., 117 f.
""/lnlioch, IV 1,56-59.
CLlVE FOSS 197
ent c1asses of evidence, however, it is impossible to corrclate them with any degree of cer-
tainty.
In any case, all the physical evidence shows an enormous change in the life of the city
between the sixth and eighth century. Recorded disasters, most of them natural, are
sufficient to explain the disappearance of the great ancient metropolis. Although the
Persians played a role in its dec1ine, there is no evidence that the Arab conquest was a
factor. The Arabs appear rather to have found a city already largely ruined and to have
maintained it on a relatively small scale. The Umayyad city consisted of small buildings
standing amid the ruins and occasional great churches of the earlier age. Arab Antakiyah
maintained some importance as a military base but never regained the appearance of a
great city. The evidence is scattered and limited, especially tor this period, but adequate
to show a general development. More specific and dear data come from the territory of
Antioch, where carefully studied standing remains enable the development of the entire
region to be envisioned.
The Territory of Antioch
Being a great metropolis, Antioch had a huge territory that stretched 100 km into
the interior and a similar distance north and south. 2k Although most of it consisted of
mountains and hills, it did inc1ude one broad and fertile plain northeast of the city
around a large marshy lake.""
This was the best agriculturalland, but it provides little evidence for the periods in
question because it has been continuously occupied. The plain is covered with mounds,
the sites of prehistoric and later settlement, many of which have been investigated. Late
antiquity has left little trace here, probably because the landowners, who would have
built houses of permanent materials, had their villas in the city, while the locals lived in
houses of reeds and mud brick that have left no trace. The plain was more densely occu-
pied in subsequent periods, but no conclusions about Umayyad or Abbasid settlement
patterns may be drawn, because the surveyors inc1uded everything from the seventh
through the eighteenth centm'y in one category.30
One site, however, is suggestive. The mound of Chatal Hüyük contained an entire
village of dosely packed houses of mud brick, containing three to four rooms-some of
them stables-with floors of packed earth, arranged on streets paved with small stones.
A stone stairway led up from the plain, and the settlement was surrounded by a fortifica-
tion wall. As no chronology was determined (the site is called merely "Byzantine/medieval
Arab"), it can only be taken as a possible example of living conditions over a long period
without enabling any development to be tollowed.'1
The most spectacular and detailed evidence comes from the limestone hills east of
Antioch, which form an almost unbroken series of ranges stretching some 120 km from
"See rhe discussion 01' G. Tchalenko, Villag!'s antiques de La Syrie du nord (Paris, 1953-58), III, 12-14, wirh
the map, p. [)7.
"See R. J. Braidwüüd, /'vlaunds in the I'Lain afAntioeh (Chicago, 1937), 8-11, 38, for rhe general physical
conditions.
3<ITbid., map XII, p. 45, am! map XlII, p. 46.
3lR. C. Haines, Excallations in the l'lain of Antioch, TI (Chicagü, 1971), 10-13.
198 SYRIA IN TRANSITION, A.D. 5.50-750
north to south. Because the phenomena they represent are common to the whole district,
this large area, which was comprised in the territories of Antioch and Apamea, will be
considered as a whole, though aspects peculiar to the territory of Apamea will be

treated below.
Three main groups ofhills cOinprise the system: the Jebel Siman/Halaqa in the north,
about 50 km east of Antioeh; the Jebel Barisha/A'la/Wastani, above the Orontes; and the
Jebel Zawiye, whieh stretches south as far as Apamea (Fig. B). The main Roman and
modern highway 1"rom Antioch to Berrhoea runs through a gap that, together with the
adjacent fertile plain of Sermeda, separates the two northern ranges. Both of these, as
weil as the northern part of the Jebel Zawiye, were included in the territory of Antioch.
These rocky hills rarely rise more than 800 m above the surrounding plains. They
are not high enough to provide refuges, Iike the neighboring mountains of the Amanus
or the Lebanon, but nevertheless are elitTicult of access. Although the Roman highway
passes between the ranges, no road leads into them. Only steep tracks, impassable by
wheeled vehicles, connect them with the neighboring plains, anel communication within
them is by similar tl·acks. The Jebel Zawiye is more isolateel, rising very steeply from the
Orontes but sloping more gently toward the east.
This is all a marginal region, remote but not inaccessible from the neighboring cen-
ters of population, but short of all natural reSOUl'ces except stone. The limes tone hills
contain no source of water; all must be stored in ei sterns from rainfal!, and no irrigation
is practicable. Although this is not an obvious first place to settle if lanel is available in
the plains, the hills offer certain advantages. Their location provides relative security
without inaccessibility, anel their altitude makes them suitable for raising fruit anel olive
trees in the adequate loeal heavy, stony soil. The region also has enough small basins and
open country for pasture and cultivation.
These hills contain the well-preserved remains of some seven hundred villages, all
fincly constructed of solid stone (Figs. 1-7)."" The viJlages range in size from a few houses
Lo more than a hundred. Most have churches; very few include public buildings of any
kind. Thanks to eletailed studies and surveys, the nature ofthe villages, with their histori-
cal anel economic development, is weil established. They may therefore be discusseel in
general, with specific treatment reserved för Dehes, which has been at least partially ex-
cavated.
Although these settlements are beautifully constructed of elressed stone, sometimes
with elegant deeoration, they are definitely all villages; characteristically urban structures
are almost totally absent. The vast majority ofthe buildings, some 95 percent, are houses.
They are clustered together, sometimes in a seemingly ordered fashion, as they were
often built to face the sun, but without any regular planning. There al'e llormally no
" For thc villages ami their hOllses, see G. 1)ne, Les camjJagl/es de La Syrie du rund (Paris, 1992), 13-8-1. For
the inlportance of this ".lork, and a general slllnmary of its contents, see Iny review, "The Near East.ern
Countryside in Late Anti'luity," in The Roman and Ryzantine Near East: Same Recent ArchaeoLogicaL Research, ed .
.J. lIumphrcy (Ann Arbor, 1995), 218-22. This region and its villages are placed in the broad context of the
laIe anti'lue Levant in the excellent study of e-L. Gatier, "Villages du proche-orient protobyzantin," in Tlw
Bvwntine and Fad) l\1mnic Near East. ccl. G. King amI A. Camcron (Princcton, 1994), 17-48; this work is hlled
with insiglus of vallle tür Lhe whole region studied here.
CLlVE FOSS 199
streets or open public spaces, no buildings that can be identified as offering public ame-
nities, and, in the entire region, only five baths. Churches, on the other hand, are abun-
dant; some villages have several.

The villages were largely self-contained and inward looking; blank walls face the out-
side, arranged for protection against marauders or wild animals, but without formal for-
tification. Life centered in the houses, which are normally two-story structures ticing an
endosed court yard. Although the number of rooms may vary from one to thirteen, most
houses had three to four rooms, arranged side by side on the upper floor, with an open,
usually colonnaded veranda overlooking the court. The rooms, which average about
5.5-6 m square, have been taken as the dwellings of an individual timily unit. The
ground floor was reserved for animals, which were watered or fed from the numerous
stone mangers found there. Likewise, the court was used not for recreation or a garden,
but for the animals. The houses had no running water, no latrines, and no special facili-
ties for bathing. In tict, they are all highly unspecialized. It is impossible to tell from
their appearance what activities were practiced in them or what occupation, beside agri-
culture, their owners followed. Many houses show signs of enlargement, presumably to
accommodate added family members.
Each village was part of an agricultural landscape.'l·l They stand in relativcly dose
proximity to each other, separated by 3 to 5 km. Each village had its own distinct territory
defined by boundary markers and walls of stones deared from the fields. They range
from less than 3 to more thall 10 km 2 , with the smallest in the rugged hills of the north
and the largest in the more open country of the Jebel Zawiye, which oftered greater
possibility for planting crops. In all cases the crops were the result of dry farming: this is
an area of limited raintill, where water was a valuable commodity, stored in cisterns.
There is no evidence for irrigation, only troughs in the ficlds used for watering livestock.
The economy of these villages was mixed, with the raising 01' olive trees the predomi-
nant but not exdusive form of production. Vast numbers of olive presses stand in alld
around the villages. Some are located in the houses or in underground chambers, but
the majority are on the outskirts (some villages are even surrounded by them), either in
the open or in chambers with powerful presses. The latter required a work force of ten
to twenty men. Their importance was overwhclming. In forty-five villages studied in
detail, there were 245 presses (with more certainly buried or undiscovered); only six of
these villages had none. Most ofthe presses appear to have belonged to private owners. '\4
Fruit trees were also an important element of the agricultural economy, as were grapes,
wheat, beans, and vegetables. In addition, each village kept livestock stabled on the
ground floor of the houses, as shown by the vast numbers of mangers, and pastured in
fjelds that can be distinguished from cropland by their shape as marked out by stone
walls.
Much of this production was Ilecessarily for sclf-sufficiency, but the olives, and quite
probably the wool and meat from the animals, would have formed items oftrade enabling
the villagers to accumulate the surplus whose results are so manifest in the fine construc-
lion of houses and churches. Their abundant remains also show that the building indus-
:>:lFar the region and its economy, see Tate, Campagnes, 191-271.
·"Ibid., 51-55, with details ofoperalion, and 2,17 f[
200 SYRIA IN TRANSITIO N, A.D. 550-7 50
try was of considerable importance. Inscriptions indicate that the builders were ol cal
people, pcasants like the others, who lived in the same houscs and presumably practiced
their trade in intervals between farming . Like the workers in the olive presses, they would
have received salal'ies , so that a c ertain amount of cash could circul ate in the loeal econ-
omy. T he villages eontain no identifiable shops 01' bazaars; local trade was appare ntl y
carried on in houses or stalls and quite probably at local or regional fairs. Surpluses were
most probably sold to the nearby citi es, of which the re was a remarkable number. It is
unlikely that the villagers dealt directly with any external markets, but rather used mid-
diemen in the cities. In any casc, trade was clearly of great importance and generated
substantial profits that were invested in construction and accumul ation of precious
metal s.
Understanding the history of this region depends on establishing a chronology for
the buildings.'15 Although many, especially the churches, bcar dated inscriptions, the vast
majority offer no such obvious evidence. They are, however, built in varying styles of
masonry that can be corrclated with those of dated buildings to establish criteria appli ca-
ble to the whole. Detailed and sophisticated work with the eye and thc computer has
made it possible to attribute virtually all the buildings to periods of thirty yeal's or more
and therefore to draw conclusions about the development of thc region.
T he statistics so created show that the whole region saw almost constant expansion
for more than a centUl'y [rom about 350. Activity reached a peak in the late flfth century,
then d ecreased until about 550. By that time , the whole region was far mOl'e dense!y
populated than previously. Calculations have been based on the c hanging mlmber of
rooms in a village or district. This can bc detcrmined by thc varying masonry styles of
additions made to the houses. This is a sensible way o[ evaluating the progress o[ the
villages, as many ofthem might have a seemingly stable number ofhouses, but the houses
themselves were ac tually expanding, thus implying areal growth in population. By 550,
there were anywhere from three to eight times as many rooms in the various parts o f the
region as there had b een two centuries earlier. Although the rates of growth within the
region were varicd, the differences between the villages tend to level out, so that most
came to be of similar size. The density of rooms per square kilometer rose even more
dramatically: in the Jebe! Halaqa, from four to thirty-three ; in the J ebe! Zawiye, where
growth was generally slower, from six to twcnty-five. The evidence consistently portrays
an increasing density of population through late antiquity.
The increasing population did not bring impoverishment.% On the contrary, houses
were constantly expanding, while the quality of construction and de coration improved.
It would appear that the land was supporting a large r population at an equal 01' higher
standard of living in the sixth century a s it had at the beginning of the period. All the
evidence indicates that this was a vital, expanding countryside whose population was
able to generale and retain a considerable surplus. Part ofthe surplus went into the fine!y
constructed houses, part of it was stored in the form of plate in the churches, or hoarded
''' See the detailed discussion ofTate, Campagne" 87-1 88 , based o n compute r analysis, and (mueh easier
to tü llow) his general hi story and conclusio ns, 27 5-350,
"6 For what folIows , see the general conclu sions of 'late. Cmnpagnl's, 343-50. an d hi s discussion 01' earlier
th eories , 7-9.
CLIVE FOSS 201
in old coin. '\7 Evidently, neither landlords nor the state, whose rapacity is usually stressed
in discussions of this period, were capable of draining the wealth of this region , nor were
the large cities that surrounded it so parasitic that (hey could consume its wealth. Late
antiquity was plainly a thriving period , whose prosperity culminated in the late fifth and
early sixth centuries.
lf the theory that each village room housed one family is correct, it should be possible
to make an appmximate calculation of the population, allowing for wide margins of er-
ror.'" With SOllle seven hundred villages having an average of about a hundred rooms
each, the total could be on the order ofthree hundred thousand for the entire hili coun-
try, the great majority of it in the territory of Antioch. Although such a figure may be wide
ofthe mark, it could provide a point ofreference and suggest that the total population of
the region was extremely high, for these regions are marginal, settled after the more
fertile plains have already been occupied. They, too, would have supported a large popu-
lation in late antiquity, probably tar more than these hills. There is no way to estimate
the numbers, but the total for the entire territory of Antioch would have been impres-
sively high.
The elegant stone masonry of houses and churches represents the most visible ele-
ment of rural prosperity in this district, but there was much else. The local churches
were also used as a store of wealth in the form of silver plate and liturgical objects, whieh
accumulated over a long period oftime and represented a substantial capital. The recon-
struction of one such treasure (which had been dispersed after its discovery) hints at far
greater local resources than might otherwise have been suspected."9
The village of Kaper Koraon, in fertile rolling country below the northern slopes of
the Jebel Zawiye, contains few remains of antiquity, with nothing to suggest that it was of
any special importance. Nor does it appear in the historical record. It possessed, however,
a remarkable treasure of at least fifty-six silver objects, some of very high quality. They
include patens, ehaliees, spoons, crosses, lamps, lampstands, and all kinds of liturgieal
vessels as weil as sheathing for crosses and icons. Some bear figurative decoration in
relief, ancl many have inscriptions.
The inscriptions show that several of the objects were gifts of imperial officials, nota-
bly Megas, who had a high position in the capital in the late sixth century. These were
pmbably cases of local men who had successful careers for which they expressed their
gratitude to the church of their native village and its saint, Sergius. Analysis of the inscrip-
tions suggests that a few prosperous local families gave the silver to the church over a
century, from about 540 to 640.
The dedications beginjust after the l'ersian attack on Syria in 540, when Chosroes 1
systematieally looted the whole area. Some of this silver may therefore have replaced
goods lost then. Other objects have been associated with the Persian attack of 573 by
their dedication for the repose of particular individuals in the years following that event.
"For a loeal cxamplc 01' a surprisingly rieh hoard 01' gold wins, see below, p. 227.
""Tbis is all highly speculative. 'lare, Campagnes, I il'l-il(i, calls idemiflcation 01' individual rooms wirh
bmily units "vraisemblable" ancl ei res olle inscription in its support, Ifthc hypothesis has mcrit, a calculation
\Youlcl be worth makillg.
19Published ami analyzcd in M. M. Mango, Silverjrom E(Jrl~ Brzantiuf//" 7fte Kaper Komon unil Relaleil Treas-
lIJes (ßaltimore, 1986), on whieh these remarks are basecl.
202 SYRIA IN TRANSITIO N, A. D. 550-750
The latest datable pieces, 01' the reign 01' Heraelius or Constans 11, show that generosity
(ancl by implication prosperiLy) continued at least until the time of th e Arab invasions.
Although this treasure is the most spectacular of the region, there is evidence to
suggest th at it was far from unique . Fragmentary treasures of a f ew objects, comparable
in size and quality to those of Kap er Koraon, have been associated with two neighboring
villages .4() They suggest that such accumulations of capital may have been widespread in
the region, and thus give a greater depth to the image presented by the architecture.
Not only were the villagers prosperous , but they m anaged to save a good deal to glorify
their churches ancl provide a store of wealth readily available in an emergency. These
treasures, ofcourse , were not melted down but buried for safekeeping at some such time,
which, in the case of Kaper Koraon, was after the early seventh century-but how much
later cannot be determined.
The treasures indicate that wealth could continu e to accumulate (or be replaced)
after the disasters of the seventh century, but the arch aeological record suggests th at the
region entered a less felicitous time in the second half of the sixth century. After 550,
growth appears to end; there are virtually no houses that can be assigned a later d ate .
On the other hand, several churches b ear inscriptions that continue through 610 , after
which they, too, offer no evidence. Most 01' this, however, involved n ot new construction
but additions to existing buildings. It appears, therefore, that the period 550 to 610 was
one of relative stagnation, when housing was not expanding but limi ted resources were
still available for church constmctio n . Expansion of chlll'ches would correspond with the
continuing deposit of treasures in them.
No single factor explains the change after the mid-sixth century. The invasions that
afflicted Antioch and destroyed Apamea are unlikely to have penetrated to this hili coun-
try, so unsuited to th e movement of armies. Certainly, devastation of the cities would
have had a highly negative effeet on the local market economy. More serious could have
been the eflects of the plague that struck the whole empire in 542-544 and recurred
in th e Levant several times during the rest of the century. Although the cities suffered
tremenelously, the e ffect of the plague on the countryside is less evielent. The nume rous
local elimatic aberrations, with swarms of locusts , elrought, anel famine , on the other
hand , coulel not have faileel to amict this well-populated countryside .
All these factors should have tended to reduce the rural population, but, as discussed
below, th ere is evidence that it was stable or even increasing. Most probably, external
circumstances produceel a eleteriorating economic situation that combineel wiLh the large
village population to lower the local standard 01' Iiving and eventually to lead to a kind
of Malthusian crisis in which the people became increasingly poor."l The evidence to
support this notion, anel much of the general interpretation ofthese sites, came from the
one village where the re was some excavation.
Dehes is one of the larger villages 01' the JebeJ Barisha east of Antioch. It has fifty-
foul' houses with a total of 187 rooms, but no distinctive features (Figs. 8, 9). Its houses
and churches are typical; it has produced few inscriptions, none of thern dateeI. It was
chosen for eloser stuely largely because it seemed so typical. Aseri es of sondages w er e
'" Ibid ., 228-37, Herh Misona and Phela rreasures.

"la lc, CamjJagnes, 340, calls this a "Malthusi an crisis"; see his whole discussion, 335- 42.
CLIVE FOSS 203
carried out in onc complex ofbuildings, which had form edy bcen identified as a m arket,
with stoas, an andran, or public meeting place, and an inn. The first result of the new
study was to show conclusively that all th e buildings were houses and that their occupants
practiced a variety of activities including the raising 01' livestock (there were numerous
mangers on the ground floors). Earlier theories of a variety of building types and func-
tions and overwhelming concentration on olive production were laid to resl by these re-
sults 4 "
The village showed two main p eriods of activity, with the constructions of thc fourth
ccntury being greatly expanded in th e sixthY Like the rest of the r egion , it appears to
have reached its height in the sixth century, after which there is no evidence for further
construction. This site, though , enabled thc subsequent his tory of a village to be p er-
ccived in some detail and to be followed until a fin al abandonment.
Three dwellings , consisting of two, three, and füur buildings, were studied; all show
a similar development. After the expansion of th e sixth cenlury, there is aperiod of
stagnation and deteriorating conditions but no abandonment.. On th e contrary, people
stilllived here in simil ar or greater numbers than before, and activity continued, but of
a differe nt order.
In the first house, there was a constant rise 01' ground level on both floOl's (all these
lHJUses have two stories) reflecting accumulations of dirt and debris.+1 In some cases, this
was made into a Hoor ofbeaten earth, then cvcntually covcrcd with a rough paving. One
Llpstairs interior colonnade was blocked , apparently to provide an additional room , while
one of the courts was divided by a rough wall. Coins and pottery allow these develop-
ments to be dated. AccLlmulation of rubbish seems to have been common in the seventh
century; the crude pavemcnts may belong to the eighth or laler. In any case, the house
was occupied through the ninth century.
The roof 01' one part of the second house collapsed in the mid-seventh century.45 It
was later propped up with beams, and a new floor was laid incorporating broken roof
tiles. As thc level of this interior floor continued to rise, soil was added to produce a l evel
l1oor, which necessitated construction of a new threshold, apparently in the early eighth
century. Likewise, soil accumulated in the courtyard ancl was p eriodically leveled ; a
poody constructed dividing wall and a shed were built here at about the same time as
th e re pairs done to the house. In house and court alike, occupation continued into the
ninth century.
T he third house shows a similar development, but lack of finds at an intermediate
level may suggest that it was abandoned around the early seventh century.°16 In any case,
it was reoccupicd and continued in use , Iike the others, at least into the ninth century.
Pottery and coins provide the chronology and imply a grcat deal about the economic
lire of the village. 47 T he pottery hecomes abundant in the sixth century and ,'emains so
" This a(count has lü llowed lhe new inlerprer.alions based originally on tbis si te and expanded by Tale .
for a summary of earlier work on the region, see my review (above, nole ,12), 213- 18.
"., For wh at folIows, see J.-E Sodini et al., "oebes (Syrie du nord), Campagnes I- III (1976-1978): Reche r-
ches sur l'babitat rural," Syria 57 (1980), 1- 304.
" Ibid. , 14-93.
" Ibid ., 93-144.
'fi lbid. , 144-80.
ol7 Pou e ry: ibid., 234-66; coins: 267-H7.
through the eighth. It consists mostly o[ cooking ware oflimited types without imported
material, but still indicative of considerable activity in these houses. ~10re surprising is
the continuous sequence o[ coins from the early sixth through the early ninth century.
They are particularly common für the seventh century, when they contain a large munber
of imitations of Byzantine coins of types orten [ound in Syria but datable only to the
second half of the century. In any case, they indicate an aclive money economy in the
village and continuing economic relations with the outside world.
This evidence is all consistent and highly revealing. The villages, if conclusions may
he drawn from what seems a typical example, were not abandoned at all after the sixth
century, nur did their population decline drastically [or a long time. Rather, it appears
that they continued to he occupied but became increasingly poor anel more squalid.
There was no new construction, only efforts to maintain huildings that were centuries
olel. Litde care was taken for appearances: rubble and elirt accumulateel and were simply
converted into floors, with an occasional eflort to lay a pavement. vVhen the roof fell
elown, it was simply propped up anel its broken tiles incorporated into the pavement. Yet
the inhabitants were still there and apparently in the same numbers. Except for part of
the third house, which may have heen abandoned for a time, occupation continueel on
the olel scale anel may even have increased. Division 01' rooms and courtyards coulel have
been elesigneel to accommodate more people.
The end did not come with the cessation 01' construction; the buildings were not
simply abaneloneel as they stooel, but containeel a large population throughout the Umay-
yael perioel. The major change comes in later centuries, beyonel the pel·iod consielered
here.
The evidence from these villages enables Antioch tn be seen in the context of at least
part o[ its territory. City ancl country both prospered until the time 01' J ustinian, when
the city began to sutfer elisaster aher elisaster. As late as 540, consielerable resources were
still available for major works of reconstruction. Thereafter, though, decline seClns to
have been constant, so that the Arabs would have captured a largely ruined city in 636.
Its population was prohably greatly reduced by then, ultimately hecause of the plague of
542 and subsequent years. Uneler the Umayyaels, and continuing long into later centu-
ries, Antakiyah hael some importaIlCe as a military base anel even flourisheel as a regional
center, but never regaineel the size 01' importance it had had in the sixth century.
The development of the countryside is roughly parallel, except for demographics.
The villages flourished until the mid-sixth century, when they hegan to stagnate. Their
changeel conditions surely reflect the reduction of the city anel the markets it presented
for their agricultural proelucts, rather than any etfect ofthe plague. As the econornies of
the city and its territOl·y were always closely tied, drastic change in one necessarily in-
volved the other. The villages, however, were not depopulated. On the contrary, the rural
population seems to luve remaineel high weil into the Umayyael perioel. The only major
change was increasing poverty anel squalor, especially aher the mid-seventh century. It
would appeal' that the Arahs found a countryside with as many, or more, people as it
coulel support and that their regime dielnothing to change local conelitions. The villages
remaineel elensely populateel, increasingly pOOl', an"d overwhelmingly Christian. The re-
gion contains no Muslim builelings that may be assigneel to these perioels. In all this,
Antioch and its territory invite comparison with the ill1lI1eeliately aeljacent cit y ofApamea,
which has heen excavated on a far greater scale.
CLlVE FOSS 205
APAMEA
Apamea was one ofthe greatest cities of Syria, the center of a ri ch agricultural district
and horne of an aristocracy oflandowners whose mansions dominate the site . Because of
extensive excavations, often reported in considerable detail, it is possible to learn a great
deal about its development. It provides some of the most important evidence for the
period of transition, showing clearly a great change from a classieal metropolis to a poor
and crowded town fu\1 of ruins. Part of the cause lies in the historieal circumstances,
about whieh the sources reveal httle in general, though they provide much detail of a
tew spectacular incidents, fundam ental to the city's developmen t.
The Persian king Chosroes 1, after destroying Antioch, announced that he wanted to
see Apamea. 4H The imperial ambassadors agreed on condition that he take only 1,0 00
pounds of silver from the city ancl retUl'n, leaving it unharmed. (They were, of course,
in no position to resist if he chose not to keep the bargain.) The king soon arrived under
the wa\1s of the city with his entire army. The inhabitants, naturally in astate of panic
because the defenses of the region seemed to have collapsed entirely, appealed to theil'
archbishop Thomas, who brought out Apamea's most saCl'ed rehc, a piece of the Holy
Cross, and carried it in procession around the church. As he moved , a miraculous flame
follow ed hirn, illuminating the entire building, a clear (and accurate) sign that the city
would be spared. The vast crowd that witnessed the miracle included the historian Eva-
grius, th en a child, visiting the city with his parents from his native Epiphania. ~' 9
Whe n Chosroes arrived, he asked the bi shop (who was evidently in charge) whether
the citizens planned to man the walls in defense. The bishop assured him that this was
not the case, opened the gates, and welcomed the Persian king into the city. Once inside ,
Chosroes demanded not the 1,000 pounds agreed upon but many times that amount, in
fact, all the treasures of gold and silver. As resistance was impossible, he accumulated a
vast sum, even ta king the gold and jeweled casing of the Cross, which the bishop surren-
dered on condition of being able to keep the holy relic itself. Then, behaving hke an
cmperor, Chosroes ordered the customary cllariot races to be held in the hippodrome,
ancl favored the Greens because he knew thatJustinian was a partisan ofthe Blues. vVhcn
the Blue driver gained the lead, the king had him held back so that victory went to his
own team . After that, he departed p eacefully.
This narrative, from contemporary accounts, shows that thc city was not destroyed
in 540 but was no doubt severely impoverished. Even if Chosroes did not manage to find
all the precious metal, much of the wealth of the church and city would have flowed into
his hands, leaving the place with such diminished resources that some effect might be
expected in the archaeological record . One tangible r esult of these eve nts was soon evi-
dent in the cathedral, where the miracle of the fire was portrayed on the ceiling, only to
perish when the church was destroyed in the next encounter with the Persians. 5 0
In 573, Adaarman, a general of Chosroes, who was still on the throne and once again
at war with the Rom ans, made a sudden and unexpected attack across the Euphrates,
-HlThe narrative is ta ke n ('roln Procopiu s, Wars 2 .11.

"'See his a~count 01' the miracle in Hist. EccL. 4.2 6; il agrees ve r y closely with that 01' Procopius.
"" See the previous note. Another structure of the period, the poorhouse 01' SI. Romanus restored by
.Jllstinia n, is not discllssed here becallsc it a ppears to have been in the territory rat her than the ~ ity 01'
Apamea. ProCOpillS, Buildings 5.9.27, des~ribe s it as hypo Apameian. lt has not been located.
devastating a region that had known peace for a generation and was unprepared to
resist. 51 After looting the suburbs of Antioch, he approached Apamea and campecl outside
the city, described as formerly prosperous ancl weil populatecl but now in dedine. Its
walls hacl collapsed through age, so the inhabitants. were in no position to resist, but
offered the general a ransom, which he feigned to accept. When he enterecl the city,
however, he lootecl it completely, then brought all the citizens and booty outside the walls
and proceedecl to burn Apamea from one end to the other. People ancl loot he took to
Chosroes, then at the borcler fortress of Dara. Among the captives were the bishop, who
aclministerecl the city, ancl the people from the surrounding villages; sources give the
ümtastic total of 292,000. Whatever the number of prisoners, there is no cloubt that this
event, weil atteste cl by contemporary \\Titers, was an overwhelming catastrophe from
which the city coulcl not recover. When Antioch hacl sufferecl a similar fate in 540, the
government had still had the resources to undertake extensive reconstruction. By now,
however, the empire was relatively poor ancl overstrained and in no position to rebuilcl
such a large city. There is no doubt that life continued and that some parts were restored,
but Apamea had forever lost its ancient magnificence.
In May 611 the Persians, this time lecl by a new Chosroes, captured Apamea and helcl
it for almost twenty years. Nothing is known of this periocl, nor of the brief Byzantine
reoccupation that followed. The Arab conquest of 636 ['eceivecl only routine treatment
in the accounts ofthese great events, but fragmentary information shows that life contin-
ued after it. iwo bishops of this time are known: Thomarichos, who died in 666; ancl
George, who moved to Martyropolis in 713, perhaps because the see could no longer be
maintained!,2 The earliest Arab traveler, Yakubi, writing in 891, clescribes Apamea as an
ancient Greek city on a lake, now in ruins." Although it later recoverecl, Afamiyah was
never of much consequence in either the Lmayyad or Abbasid period: it was not an
administrative center, nor were coins struck there. The sources thus all suggest that the
destruction of 573 was amortal blow to the city.
The Remains
Apamea was a great Roman city, covering an area ofabout 3 km" (Fig. C). It was laicl
out on regular lines with streets that followecl the points of the compass and clivicled it
into blocks of 55 m on a side. Most of these insulae were occupied by the grand houses
that were such a prominent feature of this city.51 Apamea was the horne of the rich land-
owners who formecl the ruling dass here as in most Roman cities. As late as 570, it was
describecl as the place where all the nobility ofSyria resided. 55 Though that is an exagger-
ation-Antioch, after all, was also the site of many great villas-the city was certainly the
seat of the aristocracy who controllecl the rich agricultural clistrict of the plain ami adja-
"'The following accollnt is based on thrcc co!ltcmporary historians, who all wrote in the last two decades
(Jf the sixth century: .lohn of Epiphania (in FHG, 1V.275), his relative Evagrius (Hist. Erd. 5.10), and .John of
Ephesus, Hi.lt. Ecd. b.b. Later s(Jurces are derivative, though Michael the Syrian (Chronicle 2.312) adds some
details of Adaarman's campaign.
"Theophanes, Chronograph;a 348, 382, both casllal mentions.
"'Qllotcd in Lc Strange , Palestine (above, note 8), 384.
54 Discussion of these honses tills most 01' the volume Aj)(Jmee M 13.
"'See the Piacenza pilgrim, inJ. Wilkinson,Jernsalem Pilgrims (Warminster, 1977),89.
CLlVE FOSS 207
cent hili country. They lived in huge houses-as large as the fora of small North African
towns-that often occupied entire insulae. In this part of the empire, the rich Iived in the
cities; houses in the countryside are almost invariably those of peasants, with none oi" the
amenities, decor, or ceremonial spaces found there.
To judge by the number of mansions, found in all excavated parts of the site, this
aristocracy dominated the city and thus patronized other construction. Although the
public buildings are poorly known, Apamea contains several magnificent churches, most
of them bllilt on unusual or innovative plans. The remains of those, like the houses,
illllstrate both the wealth of the city and the enormous transformations it underwent.
They show the profound change, more visible here than anywhere else in the region,
from a great and sophisticated urban center to a squalid vast village, crowded with people
and their animals living side by side.
StTeets and Public Buildings

The city is surrounded by a long circuit of walls only partially preserved and never
studied. They were extensively rebuilt in the third century, when they came to incorpo-
rate a tripIe triumphal arch that stood outside the north gate. Later, a single gate with
high niches and consoles that perhaps held statues was built directly behind it. This work
lllay have been carried out in the time ofJ ustinian, but its function, whether defensive
or decorative, is uncertain. 56 In any case, the walls were apparently in good condition in
540, when Chosroes wanted to know whether they were going to be lllanned, but dilapi-
dated by 573, when the city surrendered to the Persians without resistance.
The gate opened onto the boulevard that ran in an undeviating line due north and
south through the center of the city, which it defined. A product of Roman city planning
of the second centllry, the street (or caTdo) was Iined with colonnades for its fulllength of
almost exactly 2 km. Its course was divided into three approximately equal parts by sig-
nificant monuments: two tal1 votive pil1ars on the north and the crossing oi" the main
east-west street (the decurnanus) on the south (Fig. 10). The street was 20 m wide and
paved with large polygonal limes tone blocks; the colonnades on either side added an-
other 17.5 m to the width. Behind them were various pllblic buildings or the elegant
two-story stone facades oi" the shops that Iined most oi" the street.
This grand street existed without major change until the sixth century. Ey then, the
colonnades were paved with mosaics and the walls painted (Fig. 11). The mosaics seem
to have run the whole length oF the street. One better-preserved seetion south of the
junction with the decumanus bore figurative representations including items of signifi-
cance in the local economy: a train of camels, representing the trade on which Apamea
thrived, and a nOTia, or water wheel, evidence of the irrigation so important for the local
agriculture. An inscription of 459 provides the date For that mosaic, which stretches for
some 100 m.-" The walls, though of good ashlar, were covered with stucco and painted.
The decoration often imitated marble, or, more commonly in later periods, consisted of
""AntCl " (19~6), 407 f; summary clcscription in J ßalty, G'IIide d'Apamee (ßrusscls, 1981), 169, 183.
-"See C. Duliere, Alosaiq'lles des portiques de la grande colonnade (= Fouilles d'Apamee, iVlisc., fase. 3) (ßrussels ,
1974).
a simple design of red lines on a white background. This system apparently continued
through the sixth century. ',s
In the time o[ J ustinian, parts o[ the street received a fine new paving of squarecl
limestone blocks that replacecl the badly worn Roman paving. The new sUl'face, visible
south of the junction with the decumanus and about 200 m north o[ il, was parl of a
complete rebuilding of the street. This includecl steps across its entire width that blocked
the street to wheeled traffie. The pavement itself was slightly inclined clown from the
center; it met a new sidewalk on each sicle, which overrocle the olcl stylobate ancl reclucecl
the wiclth of the street from 20 to 12 m. Pedestrians presumably used these, while pack
animals took advantage of the open part of the street. A pavement of marble plaques
that covered the mosaics of the colonnacle completed the visible parts o[ the project.
Beneath all this was a new system of clrainage. Fincls of pottery under the new paving
date the work to the first halfofthe sixth century. It was thus probably one ofthe many
projects completecl here in the time o[ J ustinian.""
J ustinian also markecl the street in a much more prominent way by ereeting a tetra-
stylon, a monument composed of foul' monolithic columns 8 m high, crownecl with
meter-high eapitals. lio It is dated by its association with the new pavement and has natu-
rally been compared with a similar structure on the main street o[ Ephesus. That appar-
ently bore statues of the tOUl' evangelists, but the purpose of this monument has not been
determined. In any ease, it formed part of a monumentaIredesign of the street.
The grancl colonnade lecl to many o[ the public monuments of the city as weil as
other utilitarian structures. 61 A Roman bath stood behind the street at the level of the
first votive column; its later history has not been rep0rled. About 300 m south, opposite
the second votive column, was a large circular colonnaclecl builcling of uneertain pUl'pose.
Immediately south of it, below the seccmd votive column and directly behind a small
temple ofTyche, was the agora, a long rectangular space o[ some 45 X 150 m prececled
by a colonnacled passage that conneeted it to the street. This entranee passage became
a reservoir in the sixth century, though the agora itself seems to have undet'gone no
significant change. 6e
A monumental nymphaeum adornecl the street just above the crossing wilh the decl1-
manus. It shared its water supply with a publie latrine that lay behind it, off the street.
This was built in the shape of a small atrium, with eighty to ninety seats on benches
around a central colonnacle. In the tihh or sixth century, the eentral basin was dug
deeper, the balustrade between the columns was raised, and the floor was paved with
mosaics.'" üpposite the nymphaeum was a long hall that stretched about 100 m nm'th
[rom the decumanus, where it was entered by a monumental stairway. The structure was
-"See L. Rcckmans in Apmnee 1969, 117-21.

59 See, in general, Ralty, Cuide, 46-84 passim, and A!Jamee 1969,41 f. Sondages in the street are reported
in Apamee 1%9, 61-(iH; the latest pottery they revealcd (illustratcd, 63) is Phocean Red Slip ware, form 3,
dated to thc late 5th/early 6th century.
"See thc summary report in Syr;a (iO (1983), ~94.
ii' Most 01' the huildings that follow have not been published. Fm a general sketch, see Balty, Cuide, 53,
64-77; cf. below, note 6:1, för the nymphaellm and latrine.
"'Entrann:: Syria 60 (1983), 296, and ibid., 63 (1986), 393 f.
6:lA!mmfe M 13, 141-50.
CLlVE FOSS 209
open to the grand colonnade, had an apse at its north end, and was paved with opus
sectile. It was apparently a product of this period, but its h.mction is unknown.'i1 Beyond
the decurnanus lay two great churches, discussed b elow. In sum, the grand colonnade was
the foeus of the city, providing a facade für and access to the main publie buildings of all
kinds, a role it maintained through the sixth century.
Later ages brought considerable change to th e appearance and nature ofthis monu-
mental area, evident in every part of it. The colonnades were all blocked with walls of
spoils and rubble; other walls extended out into the street (Figs. 12, 13) .65 Whether the
small rooms thus created wel'e shops or dwellings has not been determined, but the
variety of materials and construction techniques suggests several phases of occupaney
over a considerable period. Ancient sarcophagi used as troughs far watering animals
were installed at the base 01' a pillar between the two votive columns. The long hall at the
junction 01' the two main streets was divided by intrusive walls, perhaps 01' houses, an d
much destroyed by the activities of a limekiln inserted into it."" All these construetiollS
mark a dear hreak in the life of the city and a fund amental transformation in which the
ancient regular plan was abandoned, open spaces were filled in the most casual fashion,
and a rural appearance replaced that of the ancient city.
Dating these transformations would be of great value in understanding the develop-
ment 01' the city, but little evidence has been discovered. The most substantial consists of
coins found in blocking walls in the eolonnade 01' the southern part of the street, near
the Atrium Church. 67 They were originally attributed to 627-629, to suggest that the
period 01' Persian occu pation was one of serious disintegration of the regular urban plan
and that this time was one of relative anarchy. Closer inspection of the coins reveals,
however, that they are imitations of Byzantine types, struck some time after the Arab
conquest.'iK The initial stages of transformation, then, may perhaps be assigned to the
middle 01' the seventh centUl'y or later.
'''Briefly reported in Spin 60 (1983), 296.

""The excavator,.J. C. ßalty, has an explanation ofthese transformatiolls (/I/mlllee 1969, 41 1', anel ApamPe
/972, 17 f~ repeatcd in Kle1lla 2 [1977], 11 -14) that seems very elifficult to accept. First, he supposes that the
closing of the strcet to wheeleel traflic in the 6th century llleant that it lost its role as thc main street of the
city in favor of cross 0 1' siele streets. But this neglects the significance 01' pack animals, which wuld still use
the street, as weil as Roma n legislation forbiddin g whecled trallic within cities in any case. Then he postulates
that, as a consequence, the shops hegan to expa nd out Ol1to the side\\'alks, as the strecl was now rcserved
für pedestrians, ancl that this f(mned the ge nesis of medieval suqs such as f'lllnd in other cities. There is
actually no evidellce that the street was used by pedestrians or that such suqs were eve r cstablished in Apa,
<Hea. Finally, he proposes that thc colonnades , now frccd from their crowd of pcdestrians by construction 01'
thc sidewalks, (ame tu be used by wheeled tratlic. A moment's visuali7.ation of chariots roaring by in front of
the shops will not inspirc con fide nce. This notion is hased on what appears to be whcel ruts in the pavcmclll
of the w lonnade o pposite thc Atrium Chllrch, but in !aCl these are neither deep nor consistent and may
represent something quite diffe rent, such as ba ses for the walls 01' illlHlsive structures.
';" "Ji-ollghs: /IntCI I (1932), 237; I()n~ hall: Sy,ia 60 ( 198'1), 29ß; thc other changes have not been reported
but are manifest in most parts of the colonnade .
<i7 Reported in AjmlllPe, 1.1, 136, nos. 4 and 24; for their proposed signih(ance , see Apamee 1969, 42 , and
:ijHIIl/te 1972, 18.

'''Thanks to deal' illustration of the wins, it is possible to see that they bclong 10 an cnormollsl y comlllon
se ries of imitations, found all over the Levant but rarely studied. Note panicularly in no. 4 (see the previolls
not.e) the absence of (rosses on thc crowns of the three hgures , and the backwa rd N in the ANNO of the
reve rse. This coin appears 1O be unique, and may be a prototype for an abundant se ries of'~"'rab-Byzantine"
wins struck at Tiberias in Palestine, also undated , but certainly issucd under Umayyad authority. Coin 24 is
210 SYRIA IN TRANSITION, A.D ..5.50-7.50
The agora underwent similar transformation, apparently in two phases. In the earlier
phase, brick walls were inserted into the open spaces; subsequently numerous small
troughs were installed, with rings for attaching animals between the columns. The agora
would appear to have become a sort of caravansary. The reservoir at its entrance mani-
fests three periods of deposits, one ending in 573 (ami thus representing the destruction
of the city), another through 613 (the l'ersian conquest), and a third continuing into the
mid-seventh century. Much of the actual structure was destroyed when a limekiln was set
up nearbyY" The circular building north of the agora succumbed to a similar fate as its
marble columns and dccoration were burned into lime. 70
The nymphaeum was also transformed. Its basin was largely ülled with debris, appar-
ently at a time when the water supply was no longer functioning, and in the seventh
centUl-y a tomb of a type found e!sewhere on the site was inscrted above it. 71 Evidence
for the latrine is the most specific: coins found there cover the period from Justinian to
Heraclius (613/6), to indicatc continuous use. Three later pieces ofthe mid-seventh cen-
tury may indicate reuse, but nothing later than that was found; this building, then, was
definitely out of use after the seventh century.
The grand colonnade was intersected by side streets at regular intervals of 110m,
and passages led through the back wall halfway between each street. The main cast-west
strect, thc southern decumanus, crossed the boulevard about 1,500 m south of the city
gate; it, too, was lined with colonnades. Thc crossing was marked by two tripie arches
that continued the colonnade of the cardo. 72 The decumanus led to two of the most impor-
tant buildings of the city, thc theater, about 500 m to the west, and the Cathedral, an
equal distance lo the east.
The decumanus, in the area near thc Cathedral, was lined with shops, one of which
contained a kiln for making lamps. More than three hundred of these were discovered
unused, thrown into the portico in front of the shops. The numerous coins ti-om these
shops stop with the issues of Justin I (518-527), suggesting that, in this area at least,
serious damage (as from an earthquake) was ne ver repaired. 71 Shops on the other side
of the street, however, manifest the same blocking and extension of small rooms as those
ofthe main street (Fig. 14). These structures have not been dated. 74
Little is known of the later history of the theater, built against the slope of the hili
that came to form the medieval citade! of Qal'at al-Mudiq, the successor of Apamea.
"Medieval" walls discovered on the mvea and in front of the stage building suggest that
it was eventually fortified, a work attributed to the "Arabs" but probably ofthe Byzantine
reconquest in the tenth century or even later. 7 :'
morc typieal ofthe imitations ofwppers ofeonstans Ir that seem to havc fonncd the bulk ofSyrian currency
in thc years after the Arab conquest.
""Agora: Apamfe 1972, 22-26, with rcference to "Byzantine ami Arah" coins only. Entrance: Syr;a 63
(1986),39'1, dated by wins, but the nature and significanee of the deposits have not been explained.
7('AntCII (19~2), 240.
7JApameeMI3,148-50.
"AntCliO (1941), 1151'1'.
?cl Balty, (;,lide, 104.
74 But see the discussion, below, ofthc Trielinos House, whieh liesjust behind these shops.
'" Walls are reported in Apanuie 1972, 143-53. Coins, however, are of the Byzantine reconquest (Apmnie
1909,91 n. 4), while the pottery is primarily ofthe 12th-13th cemury (:V!. Rogers, ibid., 253-70).
CLIVE FOSS 211
The ChUTches
Most of the excavated buildings of Apamea are in the southern part of the city on
or near the grand colonnade 01' the southern decumanus. They indude three large
churches-the Rotunda, the Atrium Church, and the so-called Cathedral-and three
lavish houses: the Tridinos House adjacent to the Cathedral, the Pilaster House on the
decwnanus , and the Console House adjoining it on the north. This best-known part of
the city provides extensive evidence tor the periods in question.
The size and loeation of the Rotunda, whieh oeeu pies a double bloek at the intersec-
tion of the two streets, suggest a building of considerable importance. 76 U nfortunately, it
is preserved only at ground level and has been only partially excavated. Consequently,
its history is unknown. The church consists of a vast rotunda with an interior colonnade
25 m in diameter and projecting semicircular niches on the northeast and southeast.
The rotunda led through a broad rectangular transept to a large round apse whose bema
extended out into the transept. Additional rooms flanked the transept and extended
behind the apse. The room south of the apse, which had entrances to both apse and
transept, was paved with a fine opus sectile. The eastern part consisted of a rectangular
colonnaded court that led to the grand colonnade. l\ either the date nor purpose of this
impressive building has been determined, but the dose resemblanee of its plan to that of
the round church on the acropolis of Scythopolis invites comparison; that, too, is un-
dated. 77 The suggestions that this church is of the Justinianic period, and that it was
possibly built to house Apamea's most famous relie, a piece of the True Cross allegedly
brought to the city by St. Hclena, are worth considering. 7H
Evidence for the excavated Atrium Church (Fig. 15), which stands on the grand col-
onnade opposite andjust south ofthe Rotunda, is far more abundant. 7" It reveals several
stages of reeonstruction and evidenee for changing occupation in a late period. The
church now visible replaced a smaller structure ofthe early fifth century that in turn had
been built over a synagogue."U It is ofsubstantial size, measuring 38 X 36 m and spread-
ing over 1,120 m", and manifests an unusual plan. The main entrance was from the cardo,
where the wall behind the east COl01ll1ade was pierced by ftve doors leading to an atrium
of 35 X 22 m. Simple geometrie mosaies decorated the floors of its colonnades, while the
central part was paved with marble. Five doors on the cast led into the church, while
rooms on the south gave access to a paved hall adjacent to the south aisle of the church
and aseries of rooms whose significance will he considered he!ow.
The central part ofthe church formed a rectangle much more broad than long. It was
divided into two spaces: the narthex and side aisles, which may have supported galleries,
separated from the rectangular nave by arcades on columns. The nave was in turn con-
nected to a square chance! flanked hy re!iquary chape!s that led to the main apse, heavily
constructed, polygonal on the outside, and containing a synthronon. The north chape!
76See the summary descriptiün in Apomee 7969, 39, ami Ralty. Guide, 148.
"See G. M. Fitzgerald, Be/h-Shan Exuwa/ions, 1921-1923: 1/1e Arab ond Byzon/ine Levels (Philadelphia.
1931), 18-26.
7sThe association o[ the chureh with the reli<: was slIggested hy L. Reekmans in a disclIssion: Apmnee
/972.247.
7!'Reported in great ifoften confusing detail in Apa",;e, 1.1. Für the 6th-century choreh. sec 27-82.
"'Für this carly chureh, sec Ajmm,,", 1.1 , 13-22; the synagogue has never been published.
212 SYRTA Tl\' TRAl\'SITION, A.D. 550-750
sheILered three marble cofTers, so constructed that holy oil could be poured over the
relics and collected in small boltles. According to the inscriptions on them, one contained
relics of Sts. Cosmas and Damian and others, amI the second those of St. Theodore and
other saints; the third was uninscribed."l
Although little remains above ground, it appears that the church was built of regular
limestone ashlar blocks, solid in the apses and elsewhere alternating with tripIe bands
of brick. Such rnasonry finds far more paralleIs in Constantinoplc or Asia Minor than
in Syria. R2
The church was extensively decorated in a lavish style. H" In the north reliquary
chapel, which had been darnaged by fire, a pavement of fine opus sectile replaced earlier
mosaics.""l Similar decorative cut marble covered the side ai sI es and apparently the entire
cenu'al nave. The walls were revetted with marble 01' covered with mosaics, column capi-
tals were painted in red and gold, and stucco adorned the arches of the arcades.
The plan of this church, which has attracted little attention, is actually quite remark-
able. While its side aisles and prominent apse suggest the rudiments of a basilical plan,
it far more resemhles a centrally planned church of a kind often associated wilh a dome
(though there was clearly not a dome here). Similarities may be observed with the plan
of the fifth-century church at Meriamlik in Cilicia or basilica B at Philippi of ca. 540. In
some ways, it seems aprecursor of the plan of the church of the Dormition at Nicaea,
which may have been built as early as the late sixth century. The closest actual parallel
to the plan, however, is the reception room of the cathedral of Parenzo, a structure with
dose Syrian connections built around 570. All this suggests a date in the age of Jus-
tinian."'
The excavators have reached a similar conclusion by a different route, attributing a
major destruction of Apamea to earthquakes in 526 and 528. RIi These, however, are at-
tested chiefly for Antioch, which they leveled, and also for Seleucia and Laodicea, both
on the coast. Even if an earthquake whose epicenter was some 90 km away could have
inflicted such damage on Apamea, there is no evidence at all that these earthquakes did
so. They see m to have represented the movement of a fault along the coast rather than
in the Orontes Valley. Hence they cannot be used to provide evidence f(lr anything at
Apamea. That does not me an that there were no such earthquakes here, rnerely that they
are not attested.
dl For these reliquaries, see Apmnee, 1.1,57-64.

H'The excavators remark on the prohable inflllence of the capital on plan and material: AjJnmep, 1.1, 141 f.
1'\$ Für the Illosaics and opus sectile, see P. Doncccl-Voüte, Les jHl.7.)nnenls des eglises byzanlints fie Syrie eL du Lilmn
(l.ouvain, 1988). 216-25.

cHThe excavators (ApaJIlee, 1.1, 6;1-69) present Cl different interpretation of the renlains, by rnaintaining
that the entire church was seriollsly elamaged by the lire anel that the elecoration represents restoration after
that event, datablc, perhaps, 10 573. As Far as T can deLennine, the lire is attcsted only in thc martyrion.
\vhieh in any G1Se was incorporated from the earlier structure. Ir seems more probable that there \vas onl}'
one major 6th-century phase in the chure:h.
"'AJustinianic elate is also sllpporteel by the masoIlry orthe siele apses, wh ich doscly resernblcs that orthe
cathedral, datahle to this period (see below): Aparnee, LI, pI. xxiii. For plans of the other possihly relateel
churches, see R. KrautheimCl~ End) Christian ami Hywntine Anhitl'ctulf (Harmonelsworth, 19(6), 245. 253,
290,280.
K<iAparlll'p, 1.1, 64-69. As these earthquakes recur frequently in the pllblications, they are worth a eligTes-
si on here.
CLIVE FOSS 213
In any case, the sixth-century church underwent some modifications. A small baptis-
tery with a rectangular font revetted with marble was added to one of the rooms south
ofthe church. Structural changes induded the division ofthe west aisle or narthex by two
heavy walls adjacent to the main entrance and the creation of a porch outside that door.
A final rebuilding took pi ace at a time when the life of the city had profoundly
changed.'7 In this, the dlUrch still maintained its original size and plan, but its new ma-
sonry incorporated spoils from the church itself, the street, and other buildings. The
north wall of the atrium, and much of that of the north chapel, was reinforced by a
sccond wall that used many spoils, induding pieces from the arcades of the nave. Great
buttresses of spoils-cornices, doorjambs, and pieces apparently from the colonnade of
the street-were built out over the east-west street that ran along the church (Fig. 16).
The space between the buttresses, which dosed the street to circulation, was filled with
rubble. The main apse received a hcavy reinforcement on a deep foundation that in-
duded cornices, column bases and drums, and some pieces with the original stucco still
adhering to them. A new paving of weil-cut limes tone blocks covered the old mosaics and
IIflUS spr;tile of the nave and atrium, and the colonnades of the atrium were suppressed.
The martyrion, however, was maintained, its reliquary cotfers supported by reused capi-
tals. The rebuilding seems to have been occasioned by an earthquake rather than a fire.
This work implies a severe break in the life of the city. The church itselt; along with
the main colonnaded street and undetermined other parts ofthe city, had evidently been
ruined, but resources were still available for a major reconstruction in which the old
luxury was abandoned, to be replaced by a functional style. Adjacent streets were c!osed,
aml the appearance of the whole district became far less regular and elegant.
The church eventually became the center of a graveyard. RR Boches were buried under
the paving of the atrium and in the fill between the external buttresses: fifteen graves
were uncovered in the church and thirty-two in wh at had been the street to the north.
The bodies were laid on their backs, with the feet to the east, indicating that the burials
were Christi an and implying that the church was still functioning at the time they were
made.
The final deterioration ofthe church took place in two stages. In the first stage, most
of the openings were carefully blocked with walls of mortal'ecl rubble. A basin, apparently
associated with the manufacture of glass, was installed in the western part of the atrium,
and two rooms were built in what had been its south colonnade. No traces of occupation,
however, were found within the church itsel[ In a final period, which may have extended
over a considerable time, walls of spoils, usually without mortar, were chaotically inserted
into the building and the open sp'lCes. By this time, the church was dearly 110 longer
functioning.
The sequence of development is dear enough: the elegant J ustinianic church, after
some minor moclifications, was extensively rebuilt with spoils, then blocked in two stages,
the first of which indicates continuing systematic organization. The problem is that of
chronology. Although dates have been proposed for the various stages, the evidence is
open to question and interpretation. Any disCllssion needs to begin with the greatest
"Apamee, 1.1,83-92.
"For the gTaveyarrl anel the last stages of the church, see Apanuie, 1.1, 97-110.
214 SYRIA IN TRANSITION, A. D. 550-750
break in the life of the city: its destruction by the Persians in 573, a catastrophic e vent
that involved the ruin and depopulation of the entire city. Urban life did not come to an
end with this , but it surely had a major effect on all the buildings of the city.
It has been supposed that the s ix th-century church had to be rebuilt after a fire,
wh ich has been associated with the Persian attack. 1fthis were correct, it would show that
the city rose [rom its ashes with success and opulence and that great resources were
available for the rebuilding of the church in the old style, in other words, that Apamea
was still vital and prosperous. Evidence for dating this stage, however, is extremely tenu-
ous, consisting o[ only one coin of 575 found in the rebuilt f()Und ations o[ the apse of
the north aisle.
The reconstructio n that uses many spoils is certainly indicative 01' a major change in
the life of the city. The large number of spoils that it incorporates shows that destruction
had been extensive. This has been attributed to an earthquake 01' perhaps thc Persian
occupation of Apamea in 613, although there is no indication that the Persians did any
damage to the city on that occasion. The most significant evidence fOI' dating this work
seems to come from the large north buttresses.S'l Coins found in the fill between the m
are all earlier than 573. The fill was evidently brought here horn some ruined part of
the city, as it is not stratified but contains a variety of material. That would tend to suggest
substantial rcconstruction (and clearing of other sections) after the Persian clestructionYo
Material associatecl with the burials is less helpful for this question , because many of
the graves were dug into the fill just discussed. This includes potte ry of the seventh to
eighth ce nturies as weil as coins from the fifth and later. Weil d a table objects such as
coins , however, were rarely found in unambiguous association with the graves. Much
material ofthe mid-seventh century andlater found in and around the graveyard on the
street suggests that the transformation ofthat area b egan after the Arab conqucst 9 1 One
01' the tombs there procluced a carbon 14 date of ca . 700, ancl a coin associated with the
glass manufacturing in the atrium was Abbasicl , showing that such activity continued into
the ninth century.
The eviclence, though often clifficult to interpret, reveals a general development. The
Atrium Church was completely rebuilt in a lavish style in the time of Justinian; it was
probably severely damagecl in the Per sian sack of 573, then rebuilt on the same plan
but with much material reused from the church itself and other buildings. The heavy
buttressing on the north side blocked the street that had existed there. At some point,
debris from ruinecl parts 01' the city was brought in to fill the area between the buttresses,
which was eventually used as a graveyarcl. Burials were also macle in the atrium. These
'YApalluie, I.l, 103 f; coins: ibid. , 110.

90 Coins: Aparnee, 1.1,110. On the olher hand, sume ofthe d e posits described and illustrated (nos. 67 .1. 20,
67.1.21, and 67.1.39: ibid., 111-33) contain Umayyad pottery and lamps as weil as material from the 6t h
century. It seerns difficult to d et.ermine how thc fill was distinguished from goods deposited with the burials.
My thanks to Shulamit H adad für help in analyzing the potte ry.
"The evidence of t.h e coins, tabulated in an appendix (Apamtie, LI, 136 f) , i, [ar from dear. T hose d e-
scribed a, Iying beneath the necropolis (nos. 6- 9 , 11 , ancl 19) ra nge in date h'om Anastasius t.O the mid-8th
century, while those found o n the 'treet, and thus perhaps lost b efore thc filling was clepositcd (nos. 10,
13-17), are mostly ofthe 6th century, with o ne each of Heraclius a mi Constans 11. This may suggest that the
space was filled in the mid-7th century. Certainty is impossible beeause the insertio n of tbe graves has fre-
que ntl y disturhed the stratigraphy.
CLIVE FOSS 215
graveyards seem to have begun in the mid-seventh century. At about the same time,
industrial installations occupied the atrium, where they continued into the Abbasid pe-
riod. By then the church building was blocked up. Eventually the whole area was chaoti-
cally occupied. There seems to be no evidence for dating the last stages.
The Cathedral of Apamea stood on the decumanus, some 500 m northeast of the
Atrium Church."" It had a grand entrance from the street, where a monumental staircase
built over the colonnade extended into the street (Fig. 17). This led to a square colon-
naded courtyard, some 40 m on a side, with a [oUlHain in the center and mosaics in the
porticoes. The church itself, on the south side of the court, could be entered from the
north or west. In plan, it was a domed tetraconch about 50 m wide, with the dome
supported on four massive pillars joined by exedral colonnadesY" The eastern pillars,
though, were connected by a stone apse, beyond which projected a massivcly constructed
chancel containing a synthronon and altar. As usual, the church was richly decorated: the
floors were covered with mosaics and olms sectile (Fig. 18) and the walls revetted with
marble.
If this church was indeed the eathedral, it eontained the rehe of the Holy Cross de-
seribed in connection with the Persian visit of 540. No part of the building has been
identified as the horne of this famous objeet, but other rehes were discovered. Co[[ers
eontaining rehes of Sts. Jude, Callinieus, Jolm, and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, and
another without inseription, were set up in the chance!. A channel leading from them
through the masonry of the apse allowed holy oil to be poured over the rehes and re-
eeived outside the church. 94
Like that of the Atrium Church, the plan of the Cathedral is more centralized than
basiliea!. Its central and eastern parts show a strong affinity to the cathedral of St. John,
built in Ephesus by Justinian around 540. Such a resemblance is appropriate, [or this
ehureh ean be dated quite closely. The pavement leading from the street to the ehurch
contains a marble plaque showing that it was laid by the bishop Paul in 529. 95 Similarly,
the figurative mosaie in the tetraeonch names the same Paul, as does the opus sectile o[
the ambulatory and one of the capitals of the eentral eolumns. Paul is a known historieal
figure who defended Orthodoxy against the Monophysites at a eouneil in Constantinople
in 536; he was evidently a prelate o[ eonsiderable influenee and accomplishment. 96 The
church, then, is a strueture of the early years of J ustinian's reign.
The Cathedral was the center of a whole complex of outbuildings. Parallel to the
g'The church has not been published; see the sketch in Balty, Guide, 106-15, and the preliminary rcport
in Ajmmee /972, 187-205. It is considcrcd the eathedral beeause it was built by the archbishop Paul, a hypoth-
esis that receives support from the similarity of its plan with that o[ the cathedral o[ Sr. John in Ephesus
(see below).
"For the plan ofthis church, 1 agree with the interpretation o[ Donceel-Voüte, Pavenwnts. 203-15, esp.
204,212 n. 36. The excavators supposed that the church was originally a tetraconch, into whieh the pillars
welT insertcd , to produce two distinct periods. In addition to the implausibihty of such massive construction
leaving an earher plan intact (the work has only to be visualized), the photographs in AntCI 10 (J 941), 120 r,
and ibid., 4 (1935), 201 f, show clearly that the pillars are primary, with the interior apse added to them.
91 Reliquaries: AntCl 4 (1935), 201 f; channel: Donceel- Voüte, l'avements, 204.
g"Date as corrected by Donceel-Voüte, Pavements, 210.

""For Paul ancl his work, see J. Balty, 'Teveque Paul et le programme architectural et decoratif de la
cathedrale d'Aparnee," in Mi/anges d'histoim anrienne et d'archiolagie offertlis rl Paul Collart (Lausanne, 1976),
31-46.
216 SYRIA IN TRANSITlü]\;, A.D. 550-750
projecting chapel, but not connected with it, were two apsidal rooms and one rectangular.
The northern room was a funerary chapel, with systematic burials in the f1oor. Beyond
it was a group ofrooms aHJUnd a court, much disturbed by later occupation. The chapel
south of the church, finely paved with opus sectile, had an altar in its apse. Between the
bema and the funerary chapel was a square baptistery with three apses containing the
baptismal font and reliquaries. There was another baptistery south of it, connected with
a large room where banquets for the catechumens were held.
\!\Test of the church and on axis with iL was another colonnaded court with rooms
around it, and north of that yet another that led to a Roman bath that had been incorpo-
rated into the complex. These may have formed part of the palace of the bishop. The
first court is aligned with the largest ceremonial room of the adjacent Triclinos House
(discussed below), with which this complex may have been connected. The Cathedral
and its dependencies thus formed a vast complex, comparable to such others in Syria as
those ofGerasa or Rusafa, which manifested the power and wealth ofthe local metropoli-
tan bishop.
Like the Atrium Church, the Cathedral complex saw major changes. In the first
phase, seventeen shops were built into the porticoes of the north (entrance) colonnaded
square and over its pavement. /I.!lother group occupied the court at the northeast corner
of the complex. Their regular arrangement attests a degree of organization, and finds
reveal the function of some of them. These indude many objects of iron: hinges, pieces
of door frames, a folding stool, and llUmerous nails. üne room contained a bronze tri-
pod. These were evidently shops, perhaps forming a kind of market. They apparently
contain little material for dating.
The entire area east of the church became a graveyard, whose burials have the head
to the west, and are thus Christian. Like the Atrium Church, the Cathedral was evidently
regarded as a suitable place tür burial. Tombs in the elaborate apsidal south chapel built
on or into the marble f100r contained lamps that have been dated to the seventh-eighth
centuries, as weil as a coin of the seventh century.
The fate of the church itself is less dear. If it was the cathedral, it was burned down
in 573, as the contemporary account dearly states. Yet no traces o[ destruction have been
reported, any more than any evidence of\ater rebuilding; nor was the f100r disturbed. It
is possible that the ruined structure was simply abandoned but still considered sacred
enough that nothing was built inside it, though there was much activity around. Alterna-
tively, it may not have been the cathedral at all.
At a later period, the large north court saw occupation of a different kind. After the
colonnades had collapsed, their drums were rolled between the remaining bases to form
crude walls tür stalls. The pavement was lifted except where it served as f100rs for the
small rooms built onto it. These structures are without plan and contain virtually no
archaeological material. Their dating, therefore, has not been determined.
The development of the Cathedral resembles that of the Atrium Church, though the
evidence is less dear. I t was a major construction of the time of] ustinian, datable to 529,
the center of an elaborate complex o[ buildings. These continued to function normally
until a group of shops was regularly built into one of the courts at an uncertain time. In
the seventh and eighth centuries, Christian burials were inserted into two of the chapels.
Finally, the whole complex fell into chaotic disrepair, with casual reuse of its building
CLIVE FOSS 217
material. Both churches became the centel's of graveyards and show deterioration of
their fabric in two distinct stages.
These were far from being the only churches in Apamea, but no otllers have been
excavated. 97 Among them is a vast basilica, as large as any of the churches studied, near
the grand colormade in the northern part of the city. It is the only basilica within the
walls. Another, much smaller, staod about 500 m beyond the north gate; being sur-
rounded by buildings, it was probably a monastery.9H
The remains of the excavated churches provide no dear evidence for their history
after the middle of the seventh century, but there is almost nothing to suggest that Apa-
mea remained anything but a Christian city in the first centm'ies after the Muslim con-
quest. The only indication of a Muslim presence is a small mosque installed in the nOl,th-
ern part o[ the grand colonnade."'J It consists of a single chamber with a mihrah on the
south, preceded by a small paved court. Stairs hehind it led to a platform apparently used
[or the call to prayer. The building is very small and fits entirely within the colonnade; it
has not been dated. Its position on top of a meter of debris suggests that it was not built
immediately after the conquest, hut its simple plan might indicate a relatively early date.
In any case, it would appear that Islam was barely established in Apamea, if at all, during
the centuries here considered. The mosque could even have been huilt for travelers pass-
ing along the street, which remained part of the main route along the Orontes Valley.
The H01L\eS
Apamea, as already noted, was the seat of a rich aristocracy whose wealth was power-
fully reflected in grandiose houses. Since many of these residences have been excavated
or at least explored, they provide enormously valuable evidence [or the social and eco-
nomic development o[ the city and reveal aseries of transformations essential for under-
standing the development of the region. Together with the churches, they provide the
main source [or the history of Apamea in the period considered here.
The axis of the Cathedral and the court immediately hefore it would lead, if pro-
jected, to the center of one of the main apsidal reception rooms o[ a huge villa, the
Triclinos House, immediately ta the west.'oo It was set back from the street, with a garden
or open space on its north, and contained some eighty rooms arranged around one large
colonnaded peristyle and two smaller ones. Three large apsidal halls, evidently the main
reception rooms, abutted on the peristyle and were in turn connected with a labyrinth
of sm aller rooms. An upper floor that rose above the central part of the house was
reached by a monumental stairway; the north gallery of the peristyle attained the height
of the colonnades o[ the main street.
The whole villa appears to be of the fourth century, the date of its earliest decoration,
and may have served as the residence of a high o[ficial, perhaps the governor. The house
was decorated with great luxury. The main reception halls had carpets of mosaics show-
97S ee the list in Apamee 1972, 248.
'>SAntel 9 (J 939), 206.

09BrieHy described in Balty, Guide, 52; cf. Apartu!e lVI13, 95.
,ooThe excavations are not yet puhlished; scc thc summaries in Balty, Gnide, 85 f, and esp. Aparnee 1969,
105-15.
ing landscapes amI mythieal fIgures; simpler geometrie mosaics adorned many other
rooms. The walls of the north reception room were decorated with an elaborate cut
marble , ami (he capitals of its facade bore heads among the leaves. Elsewhere, induding
the upper floor, there was much decoration in stucco, marble, and mosaic. Rebuilding in
the fihh century resulted in only minor changes to the plan but added a splendid mosaic
of hunting Amazons. 'OI
A devastating flre brought major change to the western part o[ the house, where the
upper floor was destroyed and the main reception hall and its dependencies badly dam-
aged. An iron stool, door hinges, and window grilles were found burned into the mosaics,
together with coins, the latest of Justinian. As a result, the north reception room was
rebuilt with opus sectile over its mosaic and a nymphaeum installed in its apse. Its role
as the eentral reception room was taken by the east apsidal chamber, which received a
magniflcent mosaic with a hunting scene, dated to 539 by its inscription. 102 In other
rooms, painted pIaster and polychrome stucco were used in the redecoration. It was
probably at this time that a small bath was added to the complex. At this stage, the owner
evidently had sufficient resources to undertake a major restoration that maintained the
original splendor of the house.
In a later period , the nature ofthe house completely changed. The colonnades ofthe
peristyle were blocked to create aseries of small rooms (Fig. 19). Cisterns, brick ovens,
stone vats, basins, and storage jars were found throughout the complex, even inserted
into the mosaics of the most luxurious rooms (Fig. 20). Plainly, the old order had broken
down, and the house was occupied in a completely different way by a different kind of
people. The chronology ofthese changes, which may have extended over a long period,
has not been determined.
North of the house, in an area that seems to have been left open, an entire complcx
of more than flfty small rooms filled the space between the house and the decurnanu5 and
extended out onto the pavement of the street. Remains of cisterns, basins, mills, presses,
and crucibles suggest commercial activity, perhaps aseries of workshops, all dustered
together in no evident pattern. The walls show numerous stages ofblocking and transfor-
mation that suggest long occupation. Although the chronology has not been established,
pottery and coins of the seventh century probably date the beginning of the transforma-
tion ofthis area. '03 In the great house itsclf, the rooms around the peristyle perished in
a fire that brought down the roofand upper story. No evidence for dating was discovered.
The district adjacent to the Cathedral, like most of the center of Apamea, was domi-
nated by the large and luxurious houses that are such a mark of the entire city. One of
them, the Pilaster House, stood immediately opposite the Cathedral, on the north side of
the rleculnanus. I01 Modern road construction has obliterated its southern half, but enough
survives to reveal a peristyle house of55 X 35 m, wiLh rooms arranged around the eentral
101 Discussed in C. Duliere, La mosa(que des Amazones (= Fouilles d'Apamie, lvIise., fase. 1) (Brussels, IgöR),
and dated to the second half of the 5th centnry.

"'"See J. Ralty. La grande mosaique de chasse du Trielinos (= Nmilles d'Apamie, Mise., hlSC. 2) (Brussels, 19fi9),
who advances the theory that the inscription refers only to the restoration, not the original mosaic whose
style, it seems, wonld he more appropriate to an earlier periocl.
101 Apamee 1969, 114 n. 2, mentions coins of Constans II and the U mayyads but gives no indication of their
quantity or findspots. The sonclagcs in this area, reportecl in Apl1mee 1972. 113-40, show that it was empty,
with no material hom the 4th-6th centuries.
""Apamee A113, 79-95.
CLlVE FOSS 219
court. The largest, on the north, had an inner raised section and stood higher than the
colonnade. On the east, another large room apparently adjoined a second court that
stretched to the next street. Geometrie mosaics, some elaborate, decorated the t1oors.
A substantial rebuilding resulted in only minor changes to the plan. A fountain was
added in one of the rooms ofT the colonnade, with a reservoir and latrine behind it and
a fine limes tone pavement in front of the fountain and in the central colonnades. The
[ountain was connected with the city water supply. It was perhaps at this time that the
southern colonnade ofthe peristyle was blocked 0[[ to become an apsidal space, perhaps
a kind of reeeption ehamber, with a mosaic pavement. I w, \\Talls of this period were decor-
ated with painted stucco. Coins found in the latrine suggest an early-sixth-century date
for the rebuildings.
The house subsequently deteriorated in two stages. At first, some parts were aban-
doned: the fountain and latrine no longer fi.ll1ctioned, and the space behind became a
dump. The southern part ofthe house, partially destroyed, was abandoned. Many open-
ings, including the spaces between the columns of the peristyle, were blockcd with ma-
sonry that imitates the late antique, using many spoils and roof tiles in place o[ bricks.
Large rooms werc divided, often into several mueh smaller units. The main reeeption
room, [or example, eventually was divided into six small spaces. The inhabitants of this
period consumed a [ür am(JUnt of chicken and pork, somewhat less beef and fish, and a
preponderancc of meat from sheep and goats. Sy this time, horses and donkeys were
also present in the house. IOG
In the seeond stage, division increased, using much poorer rnasonry and following
no recognizable plan. Occupation became concentrated in the central court and the small
rooms around it. Each of these (several of which were built into the former colonnades)
had its own threshold and door, but some were so small as to be suitable only [or animals.
Hones indieate that donkeys, horses, and an occasional carnel were to be found in the
house and that sheep and goats still provided most of the mcat in its occupants' diet,
which included beef and chicken but less pork and fish than previously.107 Other rooms
wcre built out into the street. The old paving blocks were torn up and replaced by stone
or broken brick. A weil was dug into the room with the [ountain, and basins, perhaps
associated with winemaking, were installed e1sewhere.
Coins found in the dump behind the fountain range from the period ofJustinian to
the mid-seventh century, suggesting that the first stage of transformation may have be-
gun in the sixth or carly seventh century. Most of those from the peristyle and adjacent
rooms are o[ the seventh and eighth centuries, indicating a concentration o[ activity
there. An Abbasid potsherd (8th-9th eentury) found in the rough wall that divides a
large chamber in the eastern part of the house shows that changes were continuing at
that time. The pottery in general continues into the tenth century, indicating a long
period o[ occupation after the house had changed its nature.
This house was adjoined on the north by the Console House, a large Roman structure
""'NoCl Duval, in Apmnee 1'v113, 471, suggestcd thc hmction of thc apsidal spacc. Thc cxcavators assign its
construction to a second phase of rebuilding, for which no evidence was presented. Rather, the fine masonry
of the apse (much superior to the mortared rubble 01' the other repairs) suggests that it dates from an early
period of the hOllse.
[()(;See Apamee AlB, 308, with the table on p. 349.
107 See the previous note.
of 52 X 32 m, entered through a doorway with an elaborate cornice and a Iimestone-

paved vestibule that led to the central colonnaded court (Fig. 21).1(" This was surrounded
by rooms: small ones on the north and west, apparently f(lr storage and service; a large
dining room on the south; and the major reception room on the east, with a vestihule
and several annexes. IO " This room, separated from its vestibule by an archway, rose
higher than the eolonnade and was Iighted by glass windows. The colonnade in fi'ont of
it was partially blocked with marblc chance! plaques, while the north and south inter-
columniations were covered by a metal grille. Together with its upper floor, the house
had an area of ahOllt 1,900 m". The floors were covered with geometrie mosaics, while
the walls of the main reception room bore a figural decoration of painted stucco and
imitation marhle.
Subsequent additions, which especially affected the courtyard, brought no funda-
mental change. An apse was added to the east end of the north colonnade (Fig. 22),
and a monumental fountain 01' reservoir was built into the eourtyard, bloeking the west
colonnade. The [me masonry of the structures indicates that they are of a prosperous
period. The opus secLile that replaced many of the mosaics is probably contemporary. On
the north side of the house, a small room was huilt out into the street, eovering the
existing drain; it had a small passage that connected the upper story with the drain.
Coins found in it span the period from J ustinian to 610, suggesting that the rebuildings
are ofthe sixth century and that the house continued in use without further change until
the early seventh at least. Large quantities of fish bones were also found in this drain,
most of them of eatfish from the loeal marshes. They induded, however, several remains
of marine fish, indicating commercial relations with the coast and the wealth of the own-
crs who cmIld eat imported fish. 110 In this period, fish was a major item in the inhabitants'
diet; in subsequent periods, it seems to have vanished from their tables almost entire!y.
The house may have been temporarily abandoned, then reoceupied. 111 At that time,
parts o[ the colonnades and many doors were blocked, apparently dividing the house
into several smalleI' units (Fig. 23). Further changes were more substantial: the great
reception room collapsed and was walled off except for a weil cut in its ftoor. The upper
story also collapsed, and pieces from it were used to block openings. An oven was in-
stalled in the south colonnade, apparently now open, and a retaining wall was built across
the street to hold back debris there. By this time, people lived in the ruins together with
their animals, which induded cats, dogs, chickens, goats, cattle, donkeys, horses, and
camels (bones of all were found under columns that collapsed in an earthquake). Their
diet, like that in the Pilaster House, was predominantly meat tl-mn sheep and goats, with
less beef, pork, and chicken; the heads of the sheep and goats had all been cut in half
f()r making stew.
""Aparnie 1\113. 19-40.

IODThe cxe3vators have suggested that the nürth suite uf rOOIOS discreetly connected to each other may
have been a gynaeceum; its proxinlity to the main entrance, however, makes this unlikely. \,,",omen's r00111S
were more prohably out of sight on thc upper floor.
IIüS ee the discussion in Apanuie lHi3, 291-303, and the tahle on p. 348.
III Evidence for abandonnlent rests on the discovery of fragments of\v<111 decoration in the lnain reccption
room on a Iayer of debris up to 30 cm thick (ApamCe 1\1 13, 36). The debris lOuld, it seems, equally weil have
accumulated at a later time, after the roof of this part of the house collapsed. In general, the coins from the
building (tabulaterI, ibicl., 240 f, 252) show a remarkably continllolls sequence from the 6th throllgh the
earl y 9th century.
CLIVE FOSS 221
At this stage the house had lost all its original functions and was occupied as aseries
o[ small uniLs by people and animals. These changes took place over aperiod whose
major stages may be indicated by coin finds. Coins in the drain over the north street
show that it was still in use until the early seventh century. A Sasanian dirham found in
one of the north rooms is lone attestation (on the whole site) of the Persian occupation;
it is not associated with any destruction. Coins ofHeraclius of615-626, however, portend
major change, as they were found on the pavement of the main reception room under
pieees of fallen wall decoration. They presumably reached Apamea d uring the B yzantine
reoecupation and indicate that the most important room was still standing then hut
ruined soon after. In any case, the weH installed in that room is dated by eoins to about
660, and the retaining wall ,\Cross the street may be contemporary."2 In the mid- to late
seventh century, therefore, the house was in ruins, though still oecupied. The coin se-
quence continues through the early ninth century, the great majority o[ coins found in
the eourtyard and north wing. Oceupation was reso-icted to this part of the house and
may have ended earlier than in the neighboring Pilaster House.
Two more houses stood side by side about 100 m north o[ the decwnanu5 in a district
evidently [ull of such mansions, between the Console House and the grand colonnade.
The House of Console Capitals is as monumental as any studiedY3 It occupies about 90
X 50 m, with a long peristyle of 56 X 24 m. The plan is unconventional: the main cere-
monial room on the north, flanked by smaller rooms and an inner court, is entered
through a narrow opening rather than being open to the peristyle. Paralleis with houses
in the nearby hills have suggested that this is the dwelling of a rurallandowner. In any
case, the main rooms were paved with fine geometrie mosaies, and all show traces of
various late antique rebuildings. The small court behind the reception room has a pave-
ment of squared limes tone hlocks that strikingly resembles that of the sixth-century
street.
At some point while the house was still functioning, a monumental cistern with a
föuntain behind it was installed across the south side of the court. It was care[ully built
of cut limestone and bands ofbrick. The colonnades were partially blocked with walls of
neatly laid rubble, which perhaps correspond to the grilles in the porticoes ofthe Console
House. This work appears to be contemporary with a new fine pavement o[ brick and
limestone. No evidence for dating these or other late antique phases was discovered.
The house deteriorated in two stages. In the first stage, the building was still standing
hut put to new uses. Its spaces were subdivided, a weil replaced the cistern, new pave-
ments were laid, and the large basins were used for garhage, including remains of ani-
mals and fish, the vast majority of them catfish. 114 A coin o[ Constans II (655/8) föund in
the basin may date this period. The second stage, as elsewhere, was chaotic: poor rubble
walls hlocked open spaces and divided rooms; a wall was assembled from column drums
to divide the court; and animals were everywhere. Troughs were set up in the peristyle,
and attachments for animals were found on large blocks throughout the structure. This
stage, wh ich represents the complete ruralization of a notably urban structure, is proh-
"'Coin evidence: Apamie 111 13, 36 f.

mApamee ,\dl3, 107-25.
IHS ee Apamee A113, 291-303. A5 in the ca se o[the Consolc Houst:: . fish vanishes fwm the loeal diet. though
here somewhat later. after the mid-7th eentury.
ably to be associated with coins and pottery of the eighth-tenth centuries. The people of
this time seem to have reoccupied the house and destroyed all earlier remains.
lmmediately adjacent on the west was the House of the Deer, o( which only part has
been excavated. 115 The house comained the usual peristyle with a large reception room
opening onto it, an apsidal dining room, and smaller rooms. The house was grand but
poorly built. On the other hand, it had a rich decoration of mosaics (some bearing animal
figures), stucco, and fIuted columns. The mosaics were dated to the sixth century. Marble
sigrna-shaped dining tables were (ound, one of them appropriately in the apsed room.
Fragments of glass and mosaic indicate that the upper story was also weil decorated.
The most remarkable find was a bronze divination table, exactly like one discovered
at Pergamum and cOlTesponding to a remarkable scene in Ammianus Marcellinus where
members of the imperial court were using such an object to consult the will of the gods,
with fatal results. Evidently, such superstition was still popular here in the sixth centUl·y.
The divination table was found in a layer of destruction caused by the burning of the
house. ~Iany parts collapsed, causing rubble to accumulate up to 2 m in sorne rooms;
most o( the mosaics show traces of burning. It seems likcly that this reflects the Persian
destruction of 573. After this, the house was abandoned: 30-60 cm of fill drifted in before
partial reoccupation began. In that, the peristyle was blocked and adjacent rooms di-
vided. The few coins discovered seem to indicate that the reoccupation was ofthe seventh
and eighth centuries. Subsequently, the place was destroyed again and abandoned.
Evidence from the few other houses that have been partially excavated or studied is
rarely detailed but shows that the development of the southern part of the city finds
paralleIs elsewhere. The House of the Doric Peristyle, immediatcly north of the House
of Console Capitals, had rooms around a large counyard and a vestibule paved with
basalt and limes tone in acheckerboard pattern.!!6 In a late period, the main entrance
was blocked ancl a battery of mangers set up in a room entered from the colonnade.
Many marble pieces were stored in another large room, apparently for reuse after SOlne
disaster. Here, too, the transformation seen elsewhere is clearly present in outline. Like-
wise, the House ofthe Aqueduct, in the northern part of the city east of the grand colon-
nade, received aseries of mangers in a late occupation. ll7
The House ofTrilobe Columns, in the middle ofthe city just west ofthe grand colon-
nade, also stands in a neighborhood of mansions. It was a large peristyle house of the
usual kind, richly decorated with marble and mosaic. In the sixth cemury it was partially
rebuilt, with a monumental entry, its vestibule paved in otJllS sectile, and a basin installed
in one of the rooms. All this was eventually destroyed in a fire. Subsequently, apparently
in the mid-seventh century, its court was reoccupied, the colonnades were blocked to
create smaH rooms, and two weHs were dug. As often, the inner rooms, probably reduced
to piles of rubble, show no trace of reuse. The house was occupied into the Abbasid
period. 'lR The adjacent House of the Bilobe Columns, which stands on the grand colon-
115 Apamie NIl 3, 155-69.

III'See the summary report in Syr;a (i() (1983), 292-94.
117 See the previous note.
IIsThe report (AjJamee jHlJ, 181-93) is remarkahly pOOl' in discussing chronology; the handful 0[' coins
faund suggesls a scquenec; the pottery, some of whieh indieates mueh later (re)oeeupation. was nOI dis-
ellssed.
CLIVE FOSS 223
nade, has not been published, but a small sampie of coins may suggcst that it was aban-
doned in the late sixth century.119
These houscs provide some of the most important and spectacular evidence für the
transformation of an ancient city, in a consistcnt pattern of development observable
throughout the site. 120 They show an unambiguous transition from urban to rurallife,
from wealth to poverty. From their evidence alone, it is clear that the Apamea of the
Umayyads ancl Abbasids was a complctcly diffcrent kind of settlement from that of Jus-
tinian.
In all cases, the houses show tremendous continuity ti-mn the time of their construc-
tion (often Roman) through the sixth centUlT They were grand mansions, evidently of
a rieh and sophistieated aristoeraey, who had many dependents and für whom publie
funetions-banquets, receptions, and the like-were an essential part of life. They lived
in their spacious pri"ate domains, almost entirely closed to the outside but open within
onto a colonnaded eourtyard. The deeoration manifests the wealth oft he owners, usually
in the form of mosaics or opus sectile on thc floor, cut marble or stucco on the walls-a
carpet of color throughout. By the time of Justinian, these people were living as they
had for three or four hundred years.
The age of J ustinian brought ehangcs, nonc profound. Perhaps because of an earth-
quake, or in sorne cases from ehanging fashions, much rebuilding took place. In the
Triclinos House, whieh suffered from a fire, the work can be precisely dated to 539 by
the inscription of the new mosaics. Sometimes opus sectile replaccd mosaies (House of
Trilobe Columns), and oft:en new structures were inserted: apsidal chambers-perhaps
a new kind of reception room (Pilaster and Console houses)-or monumental fountains
and ei sterns (Console and Console Capitals houses). In all cases, the rebuildings were of
the same high quality and opulence as the original construction. Where they can be
dated, they belong to the sixth eentury, clearly a time when the owners still had the
rcsourecs and dcsire to rebuild or transform their houses.
Three of these grand houses subsequently suffered serious damagc: thc Dccr and
Trilobe Columns houses burned, and the House of the Bilobe Columns was abandoned.
Evidenee from the excavations is sparse but points to the late sixth century. It is surely
logical to see in this the em~ets of the destruction of the city by the Persians in 573. On
the other hand, the Console House seems to have eontinued its normal existence into
the early seventh century. This may suggest that the aecounts of destruction arc exagger-
ated or that the tire moved out ti-om the main boulevard and had less etfect on the
pcri phcry of thc ei ty.
In any case, the next stage, emnmon to all these houses, is of profound transforma-
tion, the first of two steps toward abandonment. In this, large spaces are divided, colon-
nades blocked, wells dug, and some parts abandoned, yet the work oft:en manifests some
eare. The Pilaster and Console Capitals houses show this first stage most clearly. Similar
phenomena are visible in the Console House, but he re there seems to have been morc
serious damage in an early stage. \Vhere such work ean be dated, it appears to be of the
119Apa111Ce MI3, 246, far a comment in the disCllssion ofthe coin finds.
""See the important synthesis orJ. Ralty, "Note sur I'hahitat romain, hyzantin et arabe d'Apamee," in
Apamie MB. 471-506.
seventh century, usually around the middle. The evidence is cleal-est in the Console
House, where the decoration of the main reception room collapsed (anel was never re-
paired) after about 630, and a weil was installed in the same room around 660.
These changes are momentous: an entire way of life had disappeared, yet the mem-
ory of antiquity was still alive. The most obvious explanation, and the one usually
adopted, is that the owners fled the city and never returned, that is, the ancient aristoc-
racy ceased to have a place in Apamea and thus no longer set a tone or maintained the
urban amenities that had always characterized the city. Whether they managed to take
their wealth with them or not, it is evident that the place they left behind was tar pOOl-er
than it had been.
Historical circumstances, combined with the archaeological evidence, may enable the
situation to be reconstructed. The great changes lOok place between the late sixth and
mid-seventh centuries. The first stage was surely the destruction of the city in 573. Con-
temporary writers, natives of the region, unambiguously report universal devastation
and depopulation. This must have leh its mark on the city. When people did return, as
they certainly did, they made an effort to restore or maintain their way of life. Apamea,
however, could never have been more than a shadow of its former self after 573.
The next stage was probably associated with the great Persian war that began in 602
and brought the fall of Apamea in 61l. This surely would have provoked the flight of
those with the means to take refuge elsewhere, but there is no indication that the Persians
inflicted any serious damage on the city which , after all, lay in a rich region they intended
to keep as part of their empire. It would be more valuable in good condition (the raid of
573 was designed to inflict damage on an enemy state and hence is not lo be compared
with the conquest). On the other hand, their occupation may have represented areal
turning point in the life of the city in that the aristocraey probably fleel, leaving their
dwellings to be oecupied by others; they too may have believed that the Persians had
come to stay. Unfortunately, the excavations have ielentifieel no specific evielence for the
Persian perioel: only one coin, from the Console House, certainly represents this time.
When the forces of Heraclius returneel in 630, it is possible that some of the old
aristocraey eame with them anel perhaps once again tried to restore their houses. The
Arab eonquest, however, followeel so soon-after only six years-that little major work
can have been accomplisheel. Presumably the aristoeraey (ifthere were any left) fleel once
again, this time never to return.
The first stage of transformation of the houses certainly inelicates that a different
population is at hanel. The ielea of large open houses, with much space tür public fune-
tion, is given up altogether, anel mueh more o[ the sur1~lce is put lo functional use. On
the other hanel, some parts of these houses were elefinitely ruined anel not repaireel,
probably results of the tire of 573. The olel style of decoration is also abandoneel: wall
stuccos [all 0[[ anel are not replaceel; new pavements of cheaper materials are laieI. The
aqueelucts are apparently no longer [unctioning, [or wells are elug. These changes seem
tn occupy the miel-seventh century, perhaps occurring as early as 630, certainly in plaee
by 660, that is, they eoinciele with the Arab conquest and the elecaeles following it.
This appears to have been a time of transformation but also restoration. Houses are
reoccupieel, anel some work is elone in a style that imitates the late antique. This suggests
CLIVE FOSS 225
that the standard set by the aristocracy had not entirely disappeared, though the re-
sources to maintain it were no longer available. The phenomenon has a Clll'ious parallel
in Asia Minor, where massive fortress walls were built over and from the ruins of an eie nt
cities destroyed in the wars of the seventh centUlT In most cases, these use regularly
arranged antique stones to give a kind ofdassical appearance, as ifit were still considered
necessary for the existenee of a city of whatever kind. In other words, the ancient mental-
ity had not e1isappeared, however changed the circumstances. This first stage, then,
which still manifests a certain order, seems to belong to the time after the conquest.
Division of spaee has an important implication. Not only was the aristoeratie appear-
ance given up, anel the whole concept of the house changeeI, but the population was
different. Although the transformations ean eertainly be interpreted as refteeting impov-
erishment-plainly the new inhabitants were not as rich as the olel-it does not mean
that the population hael e1edineel. On the contrary, e1ivision 01' space indicates a need for
rooms, surely beeause there were more people living in the houses. The phenomenon is
universal in these houses and suggests that the population actually inereased at this time.
Such an increase presumably represents an influx h-om the countryside, whether as refu-
gees or as part ofthe eternal process ofnatural increase, always more rapid in the country
than the city. The implications of this will be consielered below.
In many cases, the houses manifest a seeond stage of transf()rmation in whieh any
semblanee of order is gone, and space is divided chaotically with any materials at hanel.
In this stage, whieh may have affected e1ifferent houses at different times and overlappeel
with the previous one, the spaces, whether rooms or simply divisions in colonnades, were
much smaller, life seems to have been more concentrated in the courtyard and colon-
nades (probably because many of the interior rooms hael collapsed), and people liveel
together with their animals in dose quarters. Where an upper floor hael surviveel, the
people probably Iived there and kept their animals in the courtyard. In any ease, stalls,
mangers, anel attachments for animals are common in the houses, cooking was done in
the court, anel rubbish was deposited everywhere. Such changes are visible in virtually
all the houses. Ruralization was now eomplete: Apamea no longer preserveel a trace of
urban domestic Iife but resembleel a great village, different from othe,'s only in its vast
size and shabbiness.
Where this stage can be e1ated, it seems to begin in the eighth eentury, though it
cannot always neatly be separateel fi'OIn the former stage, and in some eases there is only
one stage, more like this than the first. It apparently represents Iife in the late Umayyael
anel Abbasid periods, a Iife that at Apamea rarely extenels beyonel the tenth century anel
often enels by the early ninth.
The evidence from the churches complements that 01' the houses. They show that
Apamea thrived and grew in the reign ofJustinian, when the Cathedral and its elaborate
complex were built anel the Atrium Church was lavishly reconstrueteel. All this work is
on a much grander scale than anything observable in the houses. Yet the Atrium Church,
at least, suHered as mueh in the Persian attack of 573 as e1iel the houses. It eventually
rose from its ruins but in a less elegant form. The greatest changes came in the seventh
century, when both churches were invaded by graves. This appears to coinciele with the
general ruralization of the houses. At this time, the Atrium Church was blocked up. Fi-
226 SYR1A 11\ TRA1\SlTION, AD. 5rjO-750
nally, in aperiod that finds a dose parallel in the houses, the churches were taken over
by the poor and chaotic small-scale occupation which universally marks the demise of
organized civic life at Apamea.
The Territory ofApamea

Apamea controlled a large territory whose limits are known in the nOl·th, where it
adjoined that of Antioch in the northern part of the Jebel Zawiye. 121 Its limits in the other
directions are uncertain, but in the east the desert, in the west the steep Jebel Ansariye,
and in the south the territOl'y of Larissa would provide suitable boundaries. It would in
any case have induded much of the Orontes Valley and surrounding plains. This discus-
sion treats only the area immediately adjacent to the city as weil as the Jebe! Zawiye. The
basalt plains and hills to the east will be considered below with the territory of Epiphania,
as they merge imperceptibly into it, whatever its exact limits may have been. 122
Some of the most fertile territory of the city was in the Orontes Valley, where no
remains have survived. The excavations of Apamea, however, have produced sorne ex-
treme!y suggestive information about the environment of this region by studying the
remains of animals. The remains of fish show a great increase in the proportion of catfish
by the mid-seventh century.123 In modern times, when the central Orontes became a
great marshy lake, people would move to the marshes, catch the catfish, salt them, and
ship them over a large area. It would appear that the increase in catfish represents ex-
tension ofthe marshes and thus environmental degradation, either from environmental
change or political reasons, that is, adequate drainage was no longer being maintained.
Certainly, medieval Arab trave!ers, beginning in the late ninth century, portray Apamea
as situated on a lake, sometimes described as aseries of lagoons. I "4 This situation may
have developed in the period of transition.
Similarly, the increase in the consumption of chickens, sheep, and goats while fewer
pigs and canle were being eaten, a phenomenon that becomes notable after the mid-
seventh century, may be taken to indicate environmental deterioration, with shrinking
forests and less agriculture, partly perhaps because of the increase of the marshes. Pigs
and cattle both appeal' to have been slaughtered very young, perhaps another sign of
scarcity of pasture. Finally, the increasing predominance of goats over sheep mayaiso
indicate increasing poverty.125 Certainly, increasing poverty would correspond with the
changing nature of the remains, while the disorganization they imply would well suit the
notion of environmental degradation.
The steep face of a range known as the Jebe! Shahshabu stands immediately above
the east side ofthe Orontes Valley. Behincl it, on the northeast ofApamea, is a smailleve!
plain that gradually rises toward the limes tone hills. This plain, which has been surveyed,
contains the remains of an anonymous ecdesiastical site about 2 km from Apamea, while
the hills offer a similar site at Huarte. The former, called by the surveyors Site 13, was
121 Sec thc map in Tchalenko, Villages, IU, 57.
'''The highway from Harna to Aleppo is taken here as an arbitrary dividing lim" as used by regional
surveys. Lands east of the highway are discussed below, with Epiphania.
"'Apamie Ml3, 291-303.
124See the citatiollS in Le Strange, Palestine, 381.
""See the disCllSsion ami tables in Ajwmee Mi3. '105-(jO,
CLIVE FOSS 227
formerly identified with the well-known monastery ofNikertai. '26 These are the only sites
of the entire region that have been the subjecl of systematic surveying and excavation.
Site 13 consists of a basilical church with a large atrium and an adjacent complex of
builelings that includes an olive press. Graves within the church suggest that the buildings
fürmed a monastery. The church was constructed of well-arranged limestone blocks and
had a limes tone pavement. lt was evidently an unpretentious structure with a mosaic
decoration that has left few traces. The church was destroyed in the sixth century (no
date has been established), then rebuilt using spoils from the original structure, and
reoccupied through the late seventh century. A second destruction füllowed, then a par-
tial reoccupation at a time when a good deal of earth had accumulated on the ruins. In
this final stage the olive press was no longer used, but poor walls, evidently of habitation,
filled its interior. This final occupation has been dated by a coin La the early ninth century.
This small site might be taken as an example of a development that finds its paralleIs
in Apamea. The first destruction could have been the work of the Persians of 573, with
the reconstruction following soon after. The fmal destruction has no dated counterpart
at Apamea but suits the stage between the organized and chaotic late levels, while the
final occupation corresponds to that seemingly disorganized period in the city.
Such information alone would be of value, but the site offers much more, in fact a
spectacular and unexpected amount of wealth. A hoard of 534 Byzantine gold coins (all
but 18 were solidi) was founel carefully hidden in the wall of one of the rooms north of
the church. It contains a continuous sequence of coins from Maurice (582-602) through
Constantine IV (668-685). The greatest number (285) are ofHeraclius; the latest is dat-
able to 674-681. Judging by their state of preservation, the coins were selected from
those in circulation near the time of their deposit. They appear to represent the capital
of the local community, which evielently possessed more wealth than could be imagined
from the remains. The coins suggest that the region adjacent to Apamea maintained its
prosperity at least through the late seventh century.
North ofthis site, Huarte stands in limestone hills at the foot oftheJebel Zawiye, 12
km horn Apamea, next to the route from the plain to the mountain. lt was the site of
two basilicas and a baptistery, the latter rebuilt in the early sixth century. 127 Subsequently,
the site was systematically abandoned; the inhabitants emptied the buildings (not even
any coins were found), which were leh to deteriorate. As the church shows little sign of
use, it may have been abandoned in the late sixth or early seventh century, perhaps
when the inhabitants fled from one of the invasions. Eventually the roof collapsed, a few
squatters arrived, pillaged the church, and desecrated the graves. The whole complex
was finally destroyed in an earthquake, perhaps in the mid-ninth cenlury. Although no
substantial chronology is available-it is not possible to tell when or why the place was
deserted-this site confirms the picture of transformation and abandonment visible at
"Nikertai."
["lFür Site 13, see M.-T and P Canivet, "Sites chretiens d'Apamcne," Syria 48 (1971), 299-314, and the
summary of P. and M.-T Canivet, Hilarte (Paris. 1987), 69-83. The actuallücation of Nikertai, ne ar :Vla'aret
al-Nu'n1an anel same 30 kIn Ilortheast ofAparnea, was determined by J-P. Fourdrin, "Note snr la localisation
de Nikertai," REB 51 (1993), 177-H3. For thc hoard of gold coins f(lUnd here, see C. Morrisson, "Le tresor
hyzantin de Nikertai," RBN 118 (1972), 29-91.
mSee Canivet and Canivet, Huarte, 2H-4" (geography) and 86-91,317 (remains).
The territory of Apamea included most 01' the Jebel Zawiye, the rugged massif that
stretches nortlleast of the city. This is the steepest of the hill regions, rising sharply from
the Orontes Valley to heights of more than 1,000 m, then sloping gradually to the steppe
in the east. A1though this district is undulating and cut by wadis, it is more favOl'able to
cultivation than the hills to the nOl,th. lt has more soil and at present supports a )arger
population, with cultivated ftelds, pastures, and orchards. It is the most prosperous part
of the whole hill country.'2R
Conditions in late antiquity were similar. The remains show clearly that the Jebel
Zawiye had larger villages, bigger houses, and more land per village than elsewhere.
Configuration of the fields and general scarcity of mangers in the houses indicate that
livestock raising was of minor importance and that local crops were varied, with wheat,
grapes, olives, and fruit trees predominating. The large presses found at a few sites have
suggested that this area orientated itself to a market economy at a relatively early date
and that its success there was a major factor in the evident prosperity.129
Like the rest of the hili country, the Jebel Zawiye experienced considerable growth in
late antiquity. In 550 the number of rooms in the village houses was four times what it
had been in 350, and the amount of land per room had declined from 13 to 4 ha. This
meant that the district, was densely populated, though not so much as the northern hills.
It would thus have been able to maintain a higher level of prosperity. It seems to have
reached its peak of development rather earlier than the other districts, though inscrip-
tions show that building activity continued tbmugh the sixth century. Clear evidence for
later periods is lacking because no sites have yet been excavated, but the remains have
suggested that the decline of population everywhere observed may have affected this
district sooner than others.I:l O Although there are no excavated villages, two that have
been surveyed may serve for the rest and indicate the kind of information available here.
The largest site, Kapropera, stands on the wadi that separates the two parts of the
jebet, at the intersections 01' roads that lead across the hills.1:\1 lt was surrounded by
smaller villages and at least four monasteries. With its 850 rooms , it was twice the size of
the next largest villa ge and five times as populated as Dehes in the territory of Antioch.
Its large extent (the remains stretch over an area of 3 X 2 km) suggests that it was a town
or regional center, but the remains, despite their size and variety, are fimdamentally the
same as those ofother vilJages. The site contains one large church and four smaller ones,
and numerous houses with many rooms each. Most remarkable is a large underground
olive press whose size has suggested production for an external market. Although there
are few inscriptions to provide chronology for its development, the northern part of the
village appears to have been built up in the sixth century, while an inscription from one
of the surrounding monasteries indicates that the local road was paved in 563, toward
the end of the reign of Justinian. 132
Kapropera preserves its name in the modern al-Bara, a sure indication of continued
'''Für the geography, see Butler IIB.3, 10.0-11, ami 'l<:ha1enkü, Villages, IU, 59 f.
12!l See Tale, Campagnes, 251 t~ 264. 307, and passim.
uOTale, Campagnes, 342 .
1'11 See Tchalcnkü. Vil/ages, BI, 41 f. 87-90, and pis. cxxxvii-cxxxix with text; Tate , Camjmgnes, index, s.v.
l:l2 Tcha1enko, Villllges, Ill, 33.

CLlVE FOSS 229
occupation. In fact, medieval sources reflect its later importance, but evidence for the
intervening period is elusive. Mihrabs added to the villa ge churches cannot be dated, but
the local smallmosques are all of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Only a graffito that
appears to bear the date 140 A.H. (758, i.e., early in the Abbasid period) suggests that
occupation continued here, but in what form cannot be determined.l'I"
Another village of great interest is Serjilla, about 5 km southeast of Kapropera. 114 It
originally consisted of about thirty houses, some with as many as sixteen rooms. In the
center was a large basilical church with outbuildings, and north of it, overlooking a wadi,
a public bath, a highly unusual structure in these hills.':l·, Its mosaic inscription indicates
that it was built by a local notable in 473. Next to it is an ambiguous small building that
may have served a public purpose, also a rarity in villages that consist alm ost exdusively
of houses and churches. 136
The local church appears to have been enlarged in the sixth century. One of its out-
buildings, a three-aisled structure south of the main church, has a mihrab built into its
south wall.1:\7 The construction suggests that it was adeled at a time when the rest of the
complex was in elisrepair. Unfortunately, no evidence für elating it has been published.
Because of the lack of excavation, the territory of Apamea presents a far less devel-
oped image than the city. Where specific information is available, though, it tenels to
corresponel with what the larger urban excavations have revealeel. In the area immeeli-
ately aeljacent to Apamea, the physical environment of the Orontes Valley seems to have
eleteriorated in the miel-seventh century, the apparent time of ruralization of the city.
The small excavation of "Nikertai" shows a elevelopment like that of Apamea, with ele-
struction in the sixth century, reoccupation on a smaller scale, then a seconel elestruction
fülloweel by a poor occupation. It offers, however, evielence for surprising wealth in the
hoard of gold Byzantine coins buried arounel 680 anel shows that the Umayyael perioel,
here at least, had centers of real prosperity. The small si te of Huarte, with its destruction
in the late sixth or early seventh century and squatter occupation afterwarel, can easily
fit into the general picture.
The Jebel Zawiye, with its large villages and fjelds, conforms to the image of the
wealthy late antique metropolis, anel it is not hard to image the owners of the urban villas
having their estates here. U nfortunately, this region teils far less of the period of transi-
tion: only the bare fact oflater Muslim occupation and probably continuity through the
centuries following the conquest can be established. The territory ofApamea, therefore,
provides a highly valuable supplement to late antiquity, but, except for the elistrict closest
to the city, is less satisfactory for the Islamic perioel.
'''H. C. Butler, Publications of an American Arclweological Expedition (0 Syria (New York, 1903-30), IV, 193 f,
no.17.
I:l'Surveyed hy Butler I1B.3, 113-33.
n"Butle]; Am.erican Expedition, TI, 288-93. See also G. Charpentier, "Les bains de Serdjilla," Syria 71 (1994),
113-42, and for the broader context, idem, OlLes petits hains protobyzantins de la Syrie du Nord," Topoi 5
(1995), 219-47.
1:l(ISee Tate, Campagnes, 73, who accepts this as a possible andron, a term whose definition he questiol1s 011
the same page.
""Butler, American Expedition, TII, 195.
EPIPHANIA/HA\1A
The City
Epiphania, which stands on the Orontes some 50 km southeast ofApamea, was never
of much consequence in antiquity. It is of interest here, howcvcr, as the center of a region
that contains extensive remains of late antiquity and as an example of a place that gained
importance under the Arabs, who called it by its more ancient name, Hama. The city has
been partially excavated , and the adjacent region, which adjoins the territory ofApamea,
has been thoroughly explored.':l8 Information from this district provides a valuable sup-
plement to that from the better-known cities tu the north.
Except for its role as a road station and bishopric in the diocese of Apamea, the
history oflate antique Epiphania is almost totally obscure. lt did, however, have the curi-
ous distinction ofbeing the horne oftwo late-sixth-century historians, John of Epiphania,
whose fragmentary history covered the period 572 to 592, and his relative, the much
more important Evagrius, author of the Ecdesiastical HistOTY written in Anlioch in 594.
Their existence at least suggests an important local tradition of education. The city was
perhaps fortified by Justinian; it fell tu the Arabs in 636.
The Umayyads included Hama in the jund of Homs (ancient Emesa, about 50 km
south), under whose administration it remained. lt was never a mint during the period.
The earliest description, from 884, portrays it as a castle with stone walls containing
buildings of stone. I:l9 The main market lay below the castle hili, with a fort of its own,
many shops, bazaars, and houses of merchants. The Orontes, flowing through the tuwn,
turned the great waterwheels that are still a characteristic feature of the locallandscape.
At that time, it was evidently a place of some prosperity-far more so than Apamea-
but not a great city, for the source calls it a village.
The archaeological evidence is poor but suggestive. ' 40 The excavations concentrated
on the acropolis hili, a broad, round tell covered in Roman and late antique limes by
large houses. Most of the remains, however, were so disturbed by later constructions and
intrusions that a complete piCtlUT could not be drawn. The most important building was
the House of Mosaics, a villa whose main wing of seven rooms all paved with mosaics
occupied 30 X 20 m. This building remained in use through the periods studied here.
Its mosaics were defaced at some point: the central figurcs werc all removed and only
the margins and geometrie panels allowed to subsist. Such activity is most probably to be
attributed tu the widespread iconoclasm of Yazid 11 (720-724). The other houses, too
poorly preserved to describe, also appear tu have been in continuous use. The hili was
surrounded by a fortification wall that may have been built by J ustinian; it was in any
'"' It is not possible to speak of thc territory of Epiphania because its extent. is unknown. lt presumably
included the Jebe! 'Ala immediately tu the east, but so me 01' the acljacent land s presumably belonged to
Larissa , on the Orontes between Apamea and Epiphania. Virtually nothing is kno",n "bout that city: see the
arriel e "Sizara" (its anci e nt name, prescrved in the modern Shayzar) by 1':. Honigmann in RE, IlIA,
418 f(192i).
139 Ahmad ihn at-'Iayyib, quoted by Yakut in Le Strange, Palestinf, 3.~9.
140 For what folIows , see G. Ploug, Hama: FouiU" et recherehes, 1931- 1938, III/ l: The Graeco-RlJlnan Town
(Copenhagen, 1985), 15 (general problems), 86-96, 11.';-21 (House of Mosaics), 121- 28, 171-84 (mosaics),
all reported in great detail.
CLlVE FOSS 231
case rebuilt later and contimied in use. [11 Such evidence, though fragmentary, indicates
a development very different from that of Antioch and especially Apamea. No ruraliza-
tion is evident here; city life in large and comfortable houses apparently continued with-
out interruption.
The lower town, also, seems to have prospered. lts most important structure, the
cathedral, survived but underwent a significant transformation. Inscriptions show that it
was dedicated to the Virgin, that it had the right of asylum, and that it was rebuilt in
595. This city, which had not undergone the calamities of Antioch and Apamea, was
evidently prosperous enough at such a late date to undertake major construction. 142
Later, either immediately after the conquest or-perhaps more probably-under the
Umayyads, it was converted into the great mosque ofthe city (or, alternatively, the mate-
rial ofthe church was reused for building the mosque). [13 In any case, Hama, unlike the
cities so far considered, had a large mosque by the eighth century, a fact that has impor-
tant implications for the transformation from a Christian to a Muslim city. The mosque
was restored by al-Mahdi (775-780), a work paid by the taxes of Horns. [11
The only other buildings mentioned in the lower town have both vanished: the winter
baths, paid tor by a certain Elias who took pity on the poor ofthe city, apparently in the
sixth century, and the fort al-Mansuriyya, mentioned by Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib as standing
next to the market. [15 Its name indicates a construction ofthe caliph al-Mansur (754-775)
and reflects, like the description above, the continuing significance of Hama.'46
The coins provide a useful, though limited, supplement to the archaeological evi-
dence. The numbers identified are small but indicate continuity. There were 8 ofJ ustin-
ian, 14 through Focas, ancl19 ofHeraclius (fr'om 612 to 636, evidently showing activity
during the reconquest). The 35 coins of Constans II represent the early years of Arab
rule, while the 27 Umayyad and 41 Abbasid pieces, too poorly preserved to identify
111lts remains were found in the excavations; see Hama, III/l, 121-28. Abu 'l Ficht, a loeal historian of
great learning who wrote in the 13th eentury, attributes the wall to "Istinus" (text in E J. Riis et al., Hama:
Fouilles et recherches, 1931-1938, IV/2: Le.I verre,.;es et poterie.\ mfdiivales [Copenhagen, 1957], 305); this might
mean Justinian, but could as weil be emended to read "Constantine" (Homo, IH/l, 117).
1'''Sec fGLS)r 2000-2002, with eornrnentary and referenees. The dated inseriptions oeeur on arches on
the west face of the mosque; they state that these stones were plaeed in 595. They probably reler to a
reconstruetion but could indicate (as has sometirnes been supposed) that the church was actually built at
that time.
II\Although the 13th-eentury historian Abu'l Fida (in Hamo, 1V/2, 302) re ports that the church beearnc a
mosque imrncdiatcly aher the conquest, there is considerable debate about its date and construetion. P. J.
Riis, "Note on the Early Christian Basiliea in Harna," Bervtus 4 (1937),116-20, supposed that the l1losque
was inserted into the preexisting church, with appropriate modifications, a position ardently espoused by
K. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Arr:hitecture, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1969), I, 17-21, against the theory of J. Sauvaget,
La rnosquee omeyyade de Midine (Paris, 1947), who saw the mosque as an entirely Umayyad construction, reus-
ing the stones ofthe chureh. Sinee the building was destroyed in 198~, conclusions can no longer be drawn,
but the excellent photographs of Creswell seem to show that thc lower walls of the mosque are in si tu anel
thus incorporatc those of the ehurch. This does not, of course, predude an extensive Cmayyad recon-
structioll.
111 See the passage of Abu'l Fida in the previous note.
""Bath: fGLSyr 1999; fön: see above, note 139.
l"i1 have omitteel disCllssion ofthe 5th-eentUl-Y Christian basiliea cliscovered in the lower town southwest
of the acropolis. Ir was eventually abandoncd ami a house of several rooms, with a large oven, built over its
ruins, on a meter of debris. As these remains have not been dated, they cannot be usecl here; see the note in
Syria 62 (1965),139.
dosely, indicate continuity.117 The pottery is less useful: wares of the sixth and seventh
cenluries were not reporteeI, but Samarra pottery ofthe late ninth shows the same conti-
nuity anel an orientation toward Iraq.14"
The Distriet
The region consielered here extends from the vicinity ofHama to Ma'aret al-Nu'man,
about S5 km north, at the eastern edge of the Jebel Zawiye, ancl is about 40 km wide.
The southern part presumahly formeel the territory of Epiphania; the association of the
rest is unknown, but as the region forms a wholc that has been weil explored anel shares
many common characteristics, it is convenient to treat it here. The southern section is a
plateau, while the rest consists of rolling country with settled agriculture, bouneled on
the west by the limes tone hills anel the Orantes and trailing off into the elesert on the
east. The desert regions, which have their own ecology anel social structure, are not
lreated here. 119 The rest, however, was elensely occupieel by villages-more than two l1Un-
elreel sites have been explored-with remains of much interest for the periods under
discussion. LOO
The district dosest to Hama is the plateau of al-'Ala, which rises just east of the city
and comprises a roughly triangular elistrict some 15 km east-west by 10 km north-
somh. l5I This fonns the southCl'n outrielcr of a rolling basalt country that stretches north
about 70 km to the Jebel Hass. The plateau rises steeply on most sieles, but slopes more
graelually towarel the elesert in the east. The top of the plateau, which is relatively flat
anel fertile, now contains numerous villages, usually not much more than 2 km apart,
almost inevitably built on ancient sites. Because of continuous occupation anel poor con-
struction of basalt set in soft mOl'tar, staneling remains are few, but aelequale to inelicate
a considerahle density of occupation-comparahle to the limestone hills of the north-
anel a variety of buildings. Because the buildings teneleel to employ huge stone lintels,
many of them inscrihed, the region has proved rieh in epigraphieal data that enable its
development to be pereeived,
The architecture of this region is consistent: each village had numerous houses, sorne
quite large anel all comparable in scale to those of the limestone district, anel churches,
always on the basilieal plan. It eontains one monastery. Almost every village hael a tower
for lookout and defense. These towers provide the most obvious contrast with the lime-
I "See A. Papanicolaou-Christensen et al., Hama: FOllilies etmeherehes. 1931-1938. JITj3: The Graeco-Roman
Objals 01 Clar, Ihe Coins and Ihe Acmpolis (Copenhagen, 1986), 62 f (Byzantine), and G. Ploug et al., Hml/a:
Fouilies et reche rehes. 1931-1938, IV/3: Les petits ohjets rnedihlaux saulles verreries I't IJOteries (Copenhagen, Itj(jCj),
142-64 (Islamic), Of the 35 coins 01' Constans II, 29 are of a type struck in 641-648; there was also one coin
01' Constantine IV, struck in Sicily ti70/ti!lO, the latest Byzantine coin reported in the whole region,
'''Hmna, IV/2, 127 f.
14< 11 have therefore omitted disCllssion 01' the major site of al-Anderin, the city of Androna, j,)r whieh see
Butler ITB.2. 47-6:1,
1"oThese districts were sllrveyed in detail in 1904-5 by the Prineeton expedition of H. C. Butler, whieh
concentrated on the nonh and south, and in the 19:10s by Jean Lassus, wh" made a tho]'ough study of the
remains on 192 sites (a kw of thcm alrcady stlldied by 13utler) in the center: lnventa;re archiologiqae de la
region au nord-es! de Harna (Beirut, 1935). As far as possible, I have treated the southern plateau separately,
since it ran be associated '\vith Hanla and oITers sotne distinctivc charactcristics.
1'01 This distriet was sllrveyed by thc Buller expedition (IIB,I), whieh then followed the eclge ofthe desert
(a region not studied here), to return into the nonhern part 01' the hill district, disellssed below.
CLIVE FOSS 233
stone hills. A.s this district was more open to the east, it was vulnerable to raids from the
desert. Inscriptions on the towers, therefore, make frequent reference to defense and
proteetion. Most of them date to the sixth century, as do those of all the churches. The
towers are normally single structures in or adjacent to the village. One village, however,
has an actual fortress, a rectangular citadel with square corner towers, of a kind more
commonly t(mnd in the country to the north.,c,e
The largest village, it-Tuba at the northern edge ofthe plateau, contains a church of
582, a tower, and several houses of two main plans."''' The smaller are simple structures
of two stories, with columns in front facing an endosed and paved court with a weil
leading to a cistern in the middle. Mangers show that the ground floor was reserved for
animals, while the occupants lived upstairs. They resemble the houses of the limestone
district. The larger houses have more rooms, or more than one wing, similarly arranged
around a court. Their ground-ftoor rooms hadnarrow slits instead of windows and were
prohably used for livestock. They are of a !arger and more complex plan than those of
the north. Houses in other villages, when they can he descrihed, usually follow these
plans. The monastery, at Nawa in the eastern part of the region, consisted of a basilical
church with rooms around a large adjacent court, and a tower."" The church was built
in 598, as was that of the neighhoring village, which contained houses of the normal kind
built around three or four sides of a court. Here, as elsewhere, monastic architecture
hardly differed from domestic.
The inscriptions reveal the most surprising aspects of this district: its late develop-
ment and continued prosperity.'55 Most of the inscriptions date from the sixth century
and indicate construction of all kinds, whether ecdesiastical, domestic, or defensive. In
Ein, as noted above, all the churches and towers that can be dated are of the sixth century.
There are very few earlier inscriptions of any kind. Most impressive is the growth that
seems to have taken place in aperiod when other regions were stagnant. 01' the fihy
dated inscriptions, eleven are of the reign 01' Justinian (a prosperous time throughout
the region), but twenty-fully halfofthe total-are from the subsequent forty years until
605, the date of the last. The inscriptions of the later years do not indicate any change
in activity or occupation: they are not confined to defensive works or churches, but ap-
pear to reflect equally domestic, ecdesiastical, and military activity."r,
The later his tory of this district is completely unknown. No identified remains or
inscriptions of either the Umayyad or Abbasid period have been reported, but there is
no reason to suppose that it was abandoned. People could have gone on living in the
same houses, villages, and conditions without leaving any distinctive trace. It is dear,
however, that they did not construct major buildings or anything that can be dated later
'~"This is at LJIIlIll Harteyn, discussed by Lassus, Inventaim, ~ I 0 Ir A reused inscription of!J(i I lIlentioning
a kaslron may indicate that anmher fort stood at Kllnbus: publishcd by W. K. Prentice in Butler IIIB.I, nos.
846, 865. The f(lrtresses in general are considerccl below.
""Butler HB.I, 19-22.
'''Ibid., 13-16.
"; I have tabulated thc inscriptions (which are not listed separately in the publicatiollS) below in the Ap-
pendix.
'~'hStrictly speaking, the inscribed lintels wuld as weil wme h~om churches as houses. Those that lack
specific ecclesiastical content, however, are probably from houses, whieh in this region cmployed dispropor-
tionately large lintels.
than 605. As in the better-known limestone hills, the burst of activity in the sixth century
seems to have been followecl by a stagnation that is difficult now to apprehend.
The ill-defined rolling country to the north offers similar characteristics, but with
some notable differences. It contains an equally dense network ofvillages built 01' basalt
and rarely weil preserved. Most have succumbed to the effects of poor construction as
weil as later settlement, but in this region in the early twentieth century many sites were
deserted, occupied only by the Bedouin whom the travelers frequently have occasion to
mention. The geography of the area makes it more suitable für nomadism than the areas
already considered, a factor that certainly would have affected its development.
The villages normally had numerous houses 01' the types found on the plateau and
churches, usually of a basilieal plan. In a few places, though, the architecture is more
varied and sophisticated. The district also contains a few larger sites, one of which may
even have been a city. The major differences between this and the A'la concern its earlier
development, the larger number of defensive works, the information providecl by the
inscriptions, and the evidence for continuity under the Muslims.
Although the vast majorit y of the sites were villages, one place stands out by its size
ancl buildings. Kerratin, the ancient Tarutia, about 20 km east 01' Ma'aret al-Nu'man in
the northeast corner of this district, covers an area of almost 3 km". Unlike most 01' the
local sites, it appears to have been a market town where merehants and peasants of the
region exchanged their goodS. 157 Most 01' its buildings are houses, orten quite large,
crowded together on narrow passages. Many of them have elaborate entrances, such as
might be found in a city, but only narrow slits in their walls, probably indicating that the
ground floor was reserved für livestock, as in a village. The major monument is a church
of60 X 26 m, the largest in the entire region. It was a basiliea built in 505, with a narthex
and atrium that contained a ['esidence, evidently for the clergy. Inscriptions from the site
are almost entirely from the fifth and early sixth centuries; the latest is of 539. The site
inclucles a guardhouse and a tower, built in 510 by an imperial official, John, who pro-
claimed in verse that he had made the country secure. 15B
This chureh suffered a peculiar fate. It was eventually transformed into a fortress: its
walls were all buttressed, towers were added to the sides, its narthex was bloeked, and
cross walls were built in the interior. The style of the fort resembles that of others in the
district and thus raises a problem: was the church sacrificed to the needs of defense
already in the sixth century, implying a major increase in insecurity, or was the work
done by the Muslims? Ir the latter, they seem to have feit the need to fortify the country
at a time when the ülterests of local Christians could be sacrificed or perhaps when the
site had been abandoned. Without dating, such questions may be raised but not an-
swered.
As in the plateau, defensive towers are common through the region, though appar-
ently not associated with every settlement. In addition, there are several real fortresses,
some of them simple large enclosures, others citadels, usually square with square corner
towers, above the settlements. 1.;9 Although the towers were built throughout the period,
'''Sec the comments of Gatier, "Villages" (as above, note 32), 35.
'''RutleI' lTR.2, 71-93; inscriplions: Butler IIlß.2, nos. 970-1002; JollIl: 992-993.
15"Enclosures: Qasr Shteyb (Lassus, lnventaire, 115-18) and apparently Ma'an and Qasr al-Mharram (dis-
cussed belnw); citadels: Abu Habbe (ibirl., 47-51), lJmm al-Halahil (ibid., 57-78), and Umm Harteyn (ahove,
CLIVE FOSS 235
the forts appear to be concentrated in two decades, 556-577 , evidently a time of in-
creased insecurity or reorganization of the defensive system.I(iO
Inscriptions allow the nature and, in one case, thedevelopment of these forts to be
understood. The fort at U mm al- Halahil in the north is called a xeneon, that is, it was a
barracks for troops passing through the area. Although this is not a frontier district,
it borders on the vast arid region of Chalcis, where the defenses of the fi:ontier were
organized. 'G'
The fort at Ma'an, in the eastern part, was built in 541 by two imperial officials, a
comes and an asecretis, and proclaims Justinian who "saved all the cities," an optimistic if
not ace urate deseription of aperiod that saw the destruction of the greatest of all of them,
Antioch, but surely referring to substantial works of defense necessitated by that disaster.
The fort of Qasr al-Mharram, in the center of the district, consisted originally of three
separate towers built in 551. Later, this defense was evidently feit to be inadequate, and
in 574 they were joined by walls and made into a single large fortress. 1G2 All these works,
towers and forts alike, attest to the growing insecurity of a relativcly easily accessible
district open to attaek from the east.
While most of the architecture is typical of villages, a few plaees in the northern part
of the district ofter a surprising variation. The village of Fa'lul, for example, has a build-
ing that may be a bath, as weil as a church of the Archangels , built in 527, that has a
curious circular nave with a gallery appended to its basilieal plan; it apparently had a
dome in brick. Mi'rayeh, abOllt 12 km east, next to the town of Tarutia, likewise has
a church of an octagonal plan. 'ü ·, No explanation of these variations has been oflered.
Inscriptions, in addition to those already discussed, illustrate the role ofboth military
and civil officials, in contrast to the inscriptions ofthe plateau that mostly name individu-
als or the church. A tower in Tell Hazne in the north was built in 563 by a periodeutes;
another inscription in the same village names a cleruch and primiskrinarios. A certain
Macedonius, whose title is missing, and his notary .lohn were responsible for the fort at
Abu Habbe. '1i4
The inscriptions show a much more even ehronologieal spread than those of the Ala.
More than half of them are of the flfth and the early sixth century, with only a moderate
number from the reign of Justinian, and more continuing through 602 , the date of the
last. j(l" This area, then, continued to fiourish through the sixth century but had already
been weil established much earlier. There is no later epigraphic evidence.
note 152). Because oi' POOf preservation of thc rcrnains, iL is not ccrtain lhat thc t\VO types of rortress are to
be distinguished.
160 Sec the general remarks 01' Butlcr lIlA, i-ii.
)GI For this fort in the context of \\'hat may have been a regional defensive SystClll, see \V. Liebeschuetz,
"The Defences of Syria in the Sixth Century'-· Studien zn den !v1iütärgrenzen Roms, IT (= Ronner Jahrbüchn;
Beiheft 38 [1977]), 492 f.
lWLassllS,lnventaim, 143-50. Only one ofthe towers is actllally dated, but the olhers appear to be contem-
porary. anel in any (ase \vere a1l joined by the later walls.
IG'Fa'lul: Butler lIB.2, 95-100; :\li'rayeh: ibid., 69 f.
161T'cll Hazne: LasslIs, hwentaite, 28-31; Abu Habbe: ibid., 47-57.
]ÜC> See the list in Lassus, lnventaire, 230 C tu \vhieh I have added inscriptions fronl thc northcrn district,
published by Butler, to arrive at the following dislrihntion: 4th century: 2; 400-449: 12; 450-499: 13; 500-
526: 22; 527-56.0: 8; 566-602: 15. When those of Kcrratin are aclcled (sec belDW), thc importance ofthe 5th
century becoilles even more pronounced.
Although the Muslims have left no inscriptions , traces of their occupation survive .
They indude several small mosques, usually built into or over late antique ruins, a la rge
rectangular building that employs spoils, and a structure that appears to be a station on
the road from Hama to Ma'aret al-Nu'man.'6G Unfortunatcly, as no ne of Lhem can be
dated , they provide no deal' evidence for the transformation of the region. More intri-
guing, and possibly to be associated with a Muslim period, is the fate ofthe great church
o[ Kerratin, discussed above. That site was eertainly oceupied in a Muslim period, as it
contains a house that was turned into a mosque by installing a mihrab into its south wall;
the tower added to its eourtyard apparently functioned as a minaret.' 67
The only lslamic site ofany eonsequenee lies at the northern extremity ofthis district,
adjacent Lo Lhe limestone hills northeast of Apamea. Ma'aret al-Nu'man, the aneient Arra,
has a long history that eontimles into modern times. Although it appears to have been
of litde distinction in late antiquiLy, it played a role in early Islamic history, when it was
noted as Lhe center of a rich agricultural district that produced grain, olives, and grapes.
It also prospered from its location on an important route from Damascus and Hama to
northern Syria. Sources record that it was conquered by the Arabs in 637 and lOok its
name from Nu'man ibn Bashir, a eompanion of the Prophet, who died in 684; that the
ealiph Cmar II died ne ar it in 720; and that in 822 Abdallah ibn Tahir, the governor of
the Abbasid ealiph al-Mamun, put down a major revolt there and destroyed the town's
fortifications. '6R
According to al-Baladhuri, Ma'aret al-Nu'man was famed for its palaces. This prob-
ably indieates that it had large houses of the type found in a few of the sites o[ this district.
Its great mosque was eonverted from a ehureh, perhaps soon after the conquest, and its
mund citadel and town walls may go back to an early period; it was, in any case, fortified
in 822. Because the site has not been studied, no specific information is available about
its development, but there is no doubt that it was, after Hama, the most important town
of the l-egion, apparendy a site o[ Muslim settlement.
Hama shows a notably different development fr-om its greater neighbors, Antioch and
Apamea. Unlike them, it seems to have undergone no catastrophe in the sixth century
but to have fiourished until the eve of the Arab conquest, and Lhen to manifest a remark-
able degree ofcontinuity. The evidenee ofthe houses on the acropolis , however fI-agmen-
tary, is unambiguous: urban life, as represented by luxurious dwellings, continued with-
out a break through the period of transition.
The lower town manifests a further su-iking differenee-a substantial Muslim pres-
ence. Mosques are virtually absent from the sites so far considered, but that of Hama is
large, placed in a dominating centrallocation, and represents conversion or replacement
o[ the cathedral. Other structures and texts show an unbroken development weil past
the period treated h ere. Hama, then, suggests that desolation was hardly universal in
thc Omntes Valley and that the Muslims took advantage o[ a fiourishing site to estab lish
themselves in a substantial and unambiguous way.
The countryside, on the other hand, bears a dose rescmblance to the limestone hills.
'66 Mosques: Butler IIB.2 , 16,67 r, ami Lassus, Tnventaim, 9 , 83, 115-18; building: Lassus, ibid., 14 ; road
station( ?): Lassus, ibid., 185 .
'6' Buller IIB.2, 77.
'""For this ami the following information, see the comprehensive artiele ofN. Eliseefin EI' (1984).
CLIVE FOSS 237
Allowing for differences in rates of survival (a restlit of the lower quality of masonry used
here), it appears to have been as densely populated as the areas further north and to
have prospered through late antiquity. Construction of all kinds is attested until the be-
ginning ofthe seventh century. Unlike the northern countryside, where activity dedined
in the mid-sixth century, the immediate area of Hama seems to have I10urished then
and until the Persian invasion. Thereafter the problems are those of the north: lack of
inscriptions invites a superficial conclusion of widespread abandonment, but in fact there
is no reason to suppose that the villages did not continue to be occupied through the
C mayyad period if not later.
Like the nOl-th, this countryside was almost exdusively Christian. Muslim remains of
the period are rare, though with suggestive exceptions. The cathedral of Kerratin was
certainly no longer in use as a church, anel the town has Islamic buildings. Ma'aret al-
Nu'man stands out as one place that actually grew after the conquest, evielently because
of changing patterns of trade. It would appear, like Hama, to have been a major site of
Muslim settlement, while most of the surrounding country continued the life it had
long known.
Here, as in the north, it seems that the Arabs found a densely populated countryside
to which they brought few changes. Without excavation or detailed surveys, however, it
is impossible to follow its fate and determine whether the major settlements continued
to exist as centers of a network of villages or whether the villages were largely deserted
in the eighth century, as so often appears elsewhere.
BOSTRA
Bostra was a substantial Roman city, capital of the province of Arabia, se at of a legion,
and center of a network of roads that radiated in all diI'ections (Fig. D).I69 It also con-
trolleel an exceptionally large territory. Powerful walls of the third century endosed an
urban area of about 1,000 X 600 m. The main public anel aelministrative buildings stood
on broad colonnaded streets, the most important running in a straight line between the
east anel west gates, with others intersecting it, rarely at right angles. The walls led to the
vast legionary camp on the north edge ofthe city and left the hippodrome and amphithe-
ater outside their circuit in the south. 17 () A massive theater anel a large reservoir domi-
nated the southern district, while similar reservoirs lay in the eastern and western parts
of the site, reflecting the arid nature of this region dose to the edge of the great Syrian
elesert. Aithough written sources are rare, inscriptions and remains, some excavated, pro-
vide the basis for reconstructing the his tory.
l""For the site, see the general description o[ Butler IIA.4, 215-17; and for its history, M. Sartre, Bostra
des origines a
!'Islam (Paris, 1985), esp. 88-152 . .vly sincere thanks to Fran~ois Villcncuvc, who read this section
with great care and made many valuable suggestions. 1 am also grateful to Bert de Vries für his COlmnents
about lJllllll al-Jilllal.
l7°For the location ofthe camp, see R. Brulet, "Estampilles de la Ille legion Cyrenaique a Rostra," Berytus
,12 (19H4), 175-HO. Existente 01' the camp is attested by undated brick stamps; its fate in late antiquity has
not been determined. The same is true of the hippodrome (Humphrey, Roman Circuses [ahove, note 15],
492-95) and the amphitheater (R. al-.vloughdad et al., "lJn amphitheatre a Bostra?" Syria 67 [1990], 201-4).
The hippodrome is under excavation by the Syrian Department 01' Antiquities, but the results have not
yel appearcd.
238 SYRIA 11'\ TRA1'\SITION, A.D. 550-750
Rostra passed most of late antiquity, its most fiourishing time, in peace. Written
sources rarely have occasion to mention it until the end ofthe period. In 581, the Ghas-
sanids, long allies of the empire settled in the region, rose in revolt after the treacherous
capture of their chief. They besieged Bostra, defeated the forces that sallied from the city
against them, and finally withdrew after receiving the property their former leader hael
deposited in the city; they nevertheless ravaged the countryside and infiicted consider-
able local damage. 171 The Persian occupation, which must soon have followed their cap-
ture of Damascus in 613 and lasted until the peace of629, fmds no special mention, nor
does the brief period of Byzantine reoccupation. In 635, Bostra surrendered to the
Arabs; sources report that the governor was driven into the city (presumably after being
defeated) and that the population agreed to pay the Arab poil tax. 172
During this whole period, names of the metropolitan archbishops are attested in a
continuous sequence until the Arab conquest. 171 Bostra was a center of Chalcedonian
orthodoxy, following the policies of the emperor, but embedded in a countryside that
was largely Monophysite. The conflicts this situation surely generated are not recorded.
The inscriptions of Rostra reveal considerable prosperity in late antiquity, culminat-
ing in the reign ofJustinian. 174 They proviele many details ofurban life and buildings and
especially show the importance of the imperial government and the local metropolitan
archbishop in the financing of public works.
The walls were extensively rebuilt in the reign of Justinian, apparently in 541, when
the invasion ofChosroes into Syria was arecent memory and current threat. Inscriptions
show that the work was financed by the emperor and archbishop, and some ofit executed
by a doukikos, member of the staff of the dux. '75 Churches, likewise, were the product of
imperial generosity anel support of the archbishop, though in these cases the work was
carried out by ecclesiastical ofhcials. None of the churches mentioneel has been located,
but that eleelicated to Job is perhaps to be identified with the poorhouse Procopius men-
tions as built by J ustinian in the city.176
A certain silversmith was responsible for restoration of the aqueduct, while the guilel
of goldsmiths was chargeel with supervising unspecified public works executed at public
expense. '77 These artisans, who were also the main bankers of a city, were men of consiel-
erab!e wealth whose importance was shown in the seats permanently reserved for them
in the theater. A final inscription, also of an unspecified buileling, again names Justinian
anel the archbishop John. 178
This intensive construction, which has no parallel in the history of Bostra, represents
a height ofprosperity. Building was especially active in the first fifteen years ofJustinian's
reign, before the great plague. It depended heavily on the centra! government and on
the archbishop (notably John, named in seven of these ten inscriptions), who in this time
17IJohn 01' Ephesus 3.42; see below, p. 252.

172Baladhuri 173, 193; er. 234.
I"See Sartre, Bostm., 99-118, for the his tory ofthe loeal church.
174See Sartrc, Bostm, 114!~ 127-29, and the individual inscriptions in the !ollowing notes, whieh should
be consulted with Sartre's valuable commentary.
17[, fGL~yr 9130, 9135, 9136; only the first is dated, but the others appear to be contemporary.
176Churches: fGLS]r 9128, 9132, 9133. 9137, 9138; poorhouse: Procopius, Buildingl 5.9.
177fGLSy,. 9134, 9129.
l"fGf5yr 9131.
CLIVE FOSS 239
was responsible [or public works and finances. The inscriptions give the impression that
the bishop was the dominant figure in the local administration.
l\i one of the inscriptions names the local governors or civic authorities. This is espe-
cially surprising as Bostra was the seat of two administrations, the civil headed by the
flTaeses anel the military under the dux, who had formerly commaneleel the legion sta-
tioned at Bostra. Although the legion is last mentioned in the early fifth century, anel the
frontier elefenses had undergone much modification involving smaller, more mobile
units, the dux evielentlv still helel considerable power. 179
The jJraeses was the subject of a special law of J ustinian issued in 536, wh ich raised
him to the high rank of moderator and gives an official view o[ the problems o[ the local
administration. 'RO The law notes that the province ofArabia was rich but its treasury pOOl'
because of an extensive cOlTuption that caused many to come to the capital to complain.
The problem is eliagnosed as a weak administration, in which the pmeses was often forced
to follow the orders of the dux. In the new regime, the moderator woulel have sufficient
rank to resist both the dux anel the phylarch (commaneler of the tri bai allies discussed
below), taxes woulel be collected, order would be maintained, anel the dux would restriet
himself to purely military affairs uneler threat of severe punishment. The consequences
are unknown, but the inscriptions certainly do not inelicate any greater role for the moder-
ator than [01' his preelecessors, anel the fate of similar administrative changes attempteel
by Justinian in other provinces suggests that these reforms were ineffectual.
The burst of activity attested by the inscriptions is as surprising for its quantity as its
sudden end. There are no inscriptions datable to the period between J usLinian and the
Arab conquest. This need not indicate urban decline, since plainly a great deal of new
buileling was available to be used, but stanels in notabl e C!Jntrast to other cities, like Ger-
asa, the second city of Arabia, anel, as will be seen, to the country arounel Bostra itself. ' 81
The City
The remains present the image of a late Roman city that assumeel its shape in the
early third century. ,"2 Christianity brought substantial additions to the eastern part of
the city, while the Umayyael perioel saw considerable new development.
A network of colonnaeleel streets forme eI the matrix o[ the city. Although none is as
granel as the boulevards of Apamea or Gerasa, the totallength of colonnaeles is far larger
than in other cities since they ran along all the streets in the central area. The major axis
was the east-west street of more than a kilometer marked at both ends by triumphal
arches, the western Roman, the eastern Nabatean, and in the center by a tetrapylon at
the intersection of the main north-south street (Figs. 24, 25). The sO'eet was almost 9 m
179Legion: for Legio 1[[ Cyrenaica, see RE, s.v. "Legio"; for last mention, see Notitia Dignitaturn, On'ens
37.5.21.
IS"Justinian, Novel 102, De Aloderatore Arabiae.
ISI See the discussion of Sartre, Bostra, 128 f.
'''Für the individual buildings, scc thc comprehensive survey of Butler IIA.4, 215-95 (to which funher
reference will not be given unless buildings offer material of specific intercsl here), and tor thc Roman city,
A. Segal, Town Planning and AnhitectuTe in Provincia Arabia (Oxford, 1988), 49-73 (general), and K. Freyberger,
"Einige Beobachtungen zur städtebaulichen Entwicklung des römischen Bostra ," Damaszener Mitteilungen 4
(1989), 4.5-fiO (analytical).
246 - - - - LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE EVE OF ISLAM
wide, with sidewalks that added another 5.5 m; hehind them were the finely built two-
story facades of shops and other structures. East of the tetrapylon, another arch marked
the entrance to the street leading south lo the theater whose bulk dominated the Hat site;
this part of the city was the site of the major public buildings. The next intersection ,
marked by a monumental nymphaeum, led to a la rge public bath that included a long
vaulted hall with an open colonnaded area adjoining the north-south street. "" Another
bath stood on the south side of the main street, where it was approached by a colonnad ed
porch that led to th e main octagonal chal1lber with semicircular niches and the usual
complex ofbathing rooms (Fig. 26). All these buildings appear to have remained in use
in late antiquity.
The greatest late antique activity lOok place in the eastern part of the city, where the
whole district around the Nabatean arch was extensively rebuilt. Recent excavations here
have revealed a large church whose size and plan suggest identification as .the cathe-
dra!.1 "4 It forms a square 45 m on a side, within which is a circular colonnade 30 m in
diameter. Semicircular exedrae fill the corners of the square, and a chance! on the east
leads to the main sanctuary whose apse contained a synthronon and episcopal throne.
Another large apsidal chance! on the south contains the baptistery, which could also be
entered from the west. The whole structure apparently had a propylaea on the west, with
monumental steps leading up from the level of the arch. The building was richly decor-
ated with marble revetments and mosaics and employed many spoils carefully arranged.
Although the construction has not been dated, coins and pottery indicate considerable
activity in the late sixth century, which apparently included laying a new limestone paving
over at least some of the earlier mosaics.
An elaborate structure 01' two to five stories built around a colonnaded court stands
close to the cathedral , in the same orientation. Its upper Hoor contains a large apsidal
reception room, which, together with the size and complexity of the building, indicates
that it was a palace. Proximity to the cathedral suggests that it was th e seat of the metro-
politan archbishop. Together with another large building of sil1lilar orientation to the
south, it shows that the whole quarter was completely redesigned, p erhaps in the mid-
fifth century, to accommodate the new ecclesiastical cOl1lplex. 185
The street that leads north from the Nabatean arch passes the best-known church of
Bostra, dedicated to Sts. Sel-gius , Bacchus, and Leontius. 186 This was formerly identified
'''So identifled by Freyberger, "Einige Beobachtungen"; it was f()rmerly collSidered to be a market build-
ing. Ir has been partially e xcavated: see R. al-Mukdad amI J-:Vt. Dentzer, "Les fouilles franco-syriennes a
Bosra (19RI-1987)," AArchArSyr 37.8 (1987- 88), 229.
''' See the report of ].-M. Dent7.er, "Fouill es franco-syriennes a 1'est de 1'are nabateen (1985-1987): Une
nouvelle cathedrale aBosra?" in L a Siria. amba cli Roma a Biwncio, ed. R. Fario li Campanati (Rave nna,
1989), 13-34.
" "Butler lIA.4, 256- 61; cf. Dentzer, "Fou illes," 31-34.
IO"The church has been the subject of mll ch disClIssion because 01' its plan and re lativdy good state of
preservation: see Butler llA.4, 281-86; E. Kle inbaueI; "Tbe Origin anrl Functinns of the Aisled Tetraconch
Churches in Syria and Northern Mesopotamia," DOP 27 (1973), 107 f(för its rel ation to other churches oE'
similar plan); and tbe recent excavation reports of R. Farioli Campanati , "Relazione sugli sC<lvi C ricerche
deli" Missione italo-siri"na aBosra," in Campanati (as ahove, n ote 184). 4r,- 92 (general), anel R. Farioli
[Campanatij, "Gli scavi della chiesa dei SS Sergio, Bacco e Leonzio a Bostra," B eryt'/ls 33 (1985), 61 - 74 , hoth
with tüll reference to carlier \vork. The most recent cxcavations are reported in R. Farioli Campanati, " Bosra
Chiesa dei SS. Sergio, Bacco e Leonzio: I nuovi ritrovamenti (1988- .1 989);' in L.a Syrie de Bywnce {] I'Islmll, ed.
p. Canivet and.J. Rey-Coqu ais (Damascus , 1992), 173-7H.
CLIVE FOSS 241
as the cathedral, but now appears to have been a pilgrimage church. Like the newly
discovered church, it is of a tetraconch plan, with a circular col0l1l1ade and exedrae
within a rectangle, and three projecting apses on the east (Fig. 27). Although the entire
structure is comparable in size to the cathedral (it measures 37 X 50 m), its interior
colonnade, which apparently supported a dome, is only 13 m in diameter and thus sub-
stantially smaller than that of the cathedral. The church was richly decorated with im-
ported marble revetments and mosaics. An inscription shows that it was built in 512, and
excavalions have determined that it long continued in use, with additions that indude
apsidal rooms beside the main apses, apparently the ends of a colonnade around the
church.
Another palatial building stood immediately to the cast of this church; it has rooms
on three levels around a colonnaded court and includes a triconch reception hall (Fig.
28). Apparently of the sixth century, its hll1ction has not been deterrnined. 'H7 North of
the church, hut not connected with it, is a vast basilica with an apse facing cast and
apparently an internal colonnade (Fig. 29); another similar structure stood on its
north. lHH Although neither the date nor purpose ofthese structures has been determined,
they appear to be late antique.
Unlike the other cities studied here, Bostra had a major place in lslamic tradition.
Although the sources record little of its history beside the mere fact of its conquest in
635, and that it was the capital of the district, Iw.ra, of Hauran in the military province,
orjund, of Damascus under the l;mayyads, its association with the Prophet has guaran-
teed its continuing signiÜcance for Muslims. 'H " The town was irnportant enough to have
been a mint for copper coins in the early eighth century, but they appear tn have been
struck in very small quantities on only two occasions. 1'l() One event, at the end of the
period here considered, was evidently of great consequence: the eanhquake ofJanuary
749 is reported to have "swallowed up" the city; evidence of its effects will be seen in
the remains. " "
A well-known story relates that Muhammad, when he was a boy, accompanied a cara-
van from Mecca to Syria. When it reached Bostra, the natural entrepöt for such trade,
at the edge of the desert, he was hailed by a Christian rnonk, Bahira, who företold the
glory of his mission. Bahira could know this because he had access to unaltered versions
of the Christian scrip tu res {i'om which the name and mission of Muhammad had not yet
been deleted. '92 Other traditions recount that the rnerchants of Mecca frequently trav-
eled to Syria, especially Lo Bostra. Two caravans a year are supposed to have connected
the two cities, for trade in wine and cereals as weil as armor and metalwork, suggesting
'" Butler 111\.4, 2ilti-Hil, and 260 f,)r the date; there is anolher similar building, poorly preserved, directly
across thc strecL The surveyed structure \vas formerly identifled as thc bishop's palace, as the ChUfCh was
considered to be thc cathedral.
'''Butler IIA.4, 265-70.
""Con'luest: Baladhuri 173, cf. 19:1, 2;l4; province: Ibn Khorelaelbeh 77 ami Yakubi (in Le Strange, Pales,
tine, 42:;), both writing in the 9th century.
""'Sec the table in Qcdar, "Copper Coinage" (as above, note 9). 'l7.
""Reported by Michael the Syrian 9.22 (trans. J. B. Chabot [Paris, 1899-1910], H, 5(9); cf. K. Russell,
"The Earthqllake Chronology of Palestine anel Northwest Arabia frolll the 2nd through the Mid,9th Century
An," RASO/i. 260 (1985), 47-49.
""See A. Abel, "Bahira," in EI (1960), with full references; but see also P. Cnme, MnUln Tmde and Ihe Rise
afIs/mlt (Oxford, 1987), 219 f, with analysis of the unhistoricity 01' this story.
that contact between them was o[ real importance [or both. 193 Finally, the camel who
brought the first copy of the Qur'an to Syria is supposed to have stopped and knelt down
just at the edge of Bostra by the city walls. 1'14

vVhatever such traditions may be worth, it is deal' that Muslims settled early in Bostra
(01' made many converts there) and that the Umayyads permanently changed the [ace o[
the city. EI, Their major contribution was the great mosque of Umar, which stands in the
middle ofthe city on the eastern ofthe two north-south colonnaded streets (Fig. 30). It
forms an irregular square of about 34 m on a side and has an arcaded portico on the
east that gave aecess to the street, evidently still in use at the time ofbuilding. The mosque
is weil built, almost entirely [rom spoils, and contains a tripie colonnade around three
sides of the central space and a projecting semicircular mihrab, perhaps the oldest of its
kind, on the south. It is roofed with stone slabs and has an external staircase that led up
to a structure on the root; an early form of minaret (Fig. 31 ).1% An inscription o[ 720,
which names the builder al-Harith and the caliph Yazid, refers to the construction ofthe
minaret ancl provides an approximate date for the original structure. 197 Some rebuilding,
perhaps of the internal colonnades, was executed by the emil; apparently the local gover-
nor Othman ibn al-Hakam, in 745. The inseriptions show that the mosque existed in the
early eighth century; it may owe its name to the caliph Umar II (717-720), who could
have begun the construction. Alternatively, it could have been attributed to the more
famous caliph ümar (634-644), under whom the city was conquered, as part ofthe gen-
eral association of Bostra with the earliest period of Islam. In any case, the erection o[
such a dominant building in the middle of the city shows not only that the place was
of real importance in the Umayyad period but also that Islam had established a major
presence there.
A second mosque is more enigmatic. The small Jami al- Mabrak at the north west cor-
ner of the Roman wall is supposed to mark the place where the camel bringing the
Qur'an knelt (Fig. 32). Its earliest part consists oftwo small chambers separated by a wall
of extremely fine masonry; the southern chamber contains a projecting apsidal mihrab
(Figs. 33, 34). The arch, pilasters, and decoration of the mihrah bear such a striking re-
semblance to the late antique ecdesiastica! architecture o[ the region that an early date,
probably Lmayyad, seems assured. 19R This, too, indieates an important Muslim presence,
which may perhaps have dominated the northern part ofthe city as the Christian contin-
ued to do in the eastern section.
Disuse of the Roman walls indicated by the construction of this mosque may reflect
the establishment o[ firm contro! over the region by the Umayyads. At some point, how-
ever, the openings of the theater were blocked up and the building converted into a
1'l"See Sartre, Boslm, 129-32; these traditions, too, are worthless aCUlrding to Crone, Meccau 1}ade, 115-19,
J 38 f, 196-99.
E"See A. Ahel, "Rosra," in Hf', 1276.
1'l3See, in general, S. Ory and S. Moughdad, "Bosra, eite islarnique en Syrie," Archeolug;a 148 (1980), 22-33.
'''''See the deseriptions of Butler lIA.4, 289-92, and espeeially of K. C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architectum,
II (Oxford, 1940),484-91, with eriticislll of earlier theories. That the earl, Illinaret was not thc present
square tower is shown hy J. Bloorn, tvlinmet, Symbol oI Islam (Oxford, 1989), 31 f.
E" For this and the following, see.J. Sauvaget, "Les inseriptions arahes cle la Illosquee cle Bosra," Syria 22
(J 941),53-65.
E"See Butler lIA.4, 294 f, and Ory and Moughdad, "Bosra," 26, for the clating.
CLlVE FOSS 243
fortification. This has been associated with the great tri baI disturbances that afAicted the
last decades ofUmayyad rule, but no date for the work has been determined. " '"
The establishment of Islam certainly did not obliterate Christianity. Bishops are at-
tested through the period ofPersian occupation until635, the date ofthe conquest, after
which there is a long gap. The organized church was evidently in trouble in the first
years of Arab rule: Pope Martin I in 649 had to entrust the churches of Arabia and
Palestine to Bishop .lohn of Philadelphia because there were only two bishops left in the
province.~oo Yet a text and an inscription (considered below) indicate that bishops were
in place in the eighth century, suggesting that the church recovered, at least temporarily,
while the remains show that the Christian community fiourished through the Umayyad
period.
The cathedral continued to stand and evidently to funetion for a eentury or more
after the Arab conquest. Excavations in the building uncovered sherds of the Umayyad
period, together with evidence that trenches had been dug to inspect the foundations of
the colonnade after an earthquake of the seventh or eighth century, probably the great
quake of 749. If so, the church apparently survived that catastrophe. It was eventually
occupied by domestic installations, apparently at a much later time. 201
The fate of the other tetraconch church, dedicated to Sts. Sergius, Bacchus, and
Leontius, was much ditlerent. Its dome and colonnade collapsed, and the magnificent
ehureh oflate antiquity was replaeed by a small three-aisled basiliea."02 This ineorporated
the chancel, which was extended by two rows of columns reused from the original church
to occupy a fraction ohts central space. It employed a new pavement ofbasalt blocks laid
over the rubble of the destroyed church and including an inscription that names an
archbishop .Jacob. Its crude lettering, careless spelling, and lack of the usual tides suggest
a date in the seventh or eighth century.20'1 The excavators have tentatively dated the new
structure to the seventh century; it may more probably represent rebuilding on a much
redueed seale after the earthquake of749. It shows in any case that the Christian commu-
nity no longer had the resources to maintain two such large and elaborate churches.
Excavations in secular buildings show significant transf()rmations in this period. The
large bath in the center of the city was completely destroyed and abandoned for some
time. Part of it was reoccupied by an establishment that made extensive use of animal
bones, perhaps for producing luxury goods. These changes have not been dated. 204 The
south baths, between the main street and the theater, were severely damaged in the
quake of 749. They were still in active use in the late sixth and early seventh eenturies,
then saw a second period of activity after the quake when bread ovens were inserted over
the ruins of the hypocausts, while the eastern part of the building, still standing, was
used for artisan and industrial activity. The building was abandoned altogether by the
early ninth century. 2no,
'''''See Ory and Moughdad, "Bosra," 28.

'"°For the 7th-eentury ehureh, sec Sanre, Bostra, 115 f, ancl "Arabia" in DHGE.
201 Dentzer, "Fouilles," 26-28.
"" :Vlost recently described, wirh plans, by Farioli [Campanari], "Gli seavi della ebiesa."
oe" See the commcnts of Sanrc, Bos/ra, 117.
2O"See al-Mukdad and Dentzer, "Les fouilles aBosra," 229.
""See S. Berthier, "Sondage dans le seeteur des Thermes Sud aBusra," Berytus 33 (1985), 5~46; er. al-
Mukclael anel Dentzer, "Les t"uilles aBosra," 228 f
244 SYRIA 11\ TRAI\SITION, A.D. 550-750
Similar changes affected the squarc by thc Nabatean areh. The pavcment was partly
demolished and the blocks taken away, probably around the turn of the seventh century.
During the Umayyad period a large drain waS sLillmaintained, but intrusive walls show
that the open spacc was no Ion ger being maintained. The district appears to have been
abandoned in the Abbasid period. By then it had been Ülled with small structures-
residences, shops, or industrial installations-that manifest various stages of construc-
tion, most of them apparently of thc U mayyad period. C06
The excavations have uncovered one building relating to this period outside the city
center. This is a substantial house built on the tell of the prehistoric settlement at the
northwestern edge of the city immediately within the Roman walls. At the time of its
construction, these walls were no longer in use, as the house stands at the very edge of
the hili, leaving no room for fortifications. I ts loeation, over!ooking fields and vineyards,
suggests that it was a tarmhouse. It was weil built ofbasalt blocks on a deep stone [ounda-
tion, with walls covered with mud piaster and floors of stone slabs. Six or more vaulted
rooms 0[6 X 5 m formed a wing that faccd onto an unpaved court where cooking vcssels,
refuse pits, and bones of sheep and goats show that many domestic activities were carriecl
on. Finds of pottery, lamps, and glass show a relatively high standard of living but one
consistent with that o[ successful peasants. Thcre is no evidcnce that the house was a
suburban villa. Finds, especially of pottery, suggest that the house was a construction of
the carly Umayyad period. It was occupied for a century until it was suclclenly clestroycd
and abandoned as a result of the great earthquake of 749. eo7
The archaeology, far more than the historieal sources, allows the development ofBos-
tra to be visualized. lnscriptions from the reign o[ J ustinian attest more construction, o[
secular and ecclcsiastical buildings, than known from any other period. The written rc-
cord is otherwise silent. Yet the remains confirm the sixth centm'y as a fiourishing time,
with the ehurch of Sts. Sergius, Bacchus, and Leontius built and the great cathedral
redecorated. Prosperity eviclently continued until the Persian occupation.
The tate of Bostra under the Persians, the Byzantine reoccupation, or the early ca-
liphs is unknown. Under Umayyad rule, however, it became a major Muslim ecntcr. Thc
substantial mosque of U mar can be seen as a triumphal sign o[ the new rulers and their
religion, implanted in the center ofthe city. Islam also brought the mosque ofal-Mabrak
but certainly did not obliterate Christianity. On the contrary, the cathedral was main-
tained through the whole period. The church of Sts. Sergius, Bacchus, and Leontius,
though, had a diffcrent fate, bcing reduced to a small basilica constructcd within its
spacious interior. Whether this indicates a decline o[ the Christian community or, as
seems more likely, the results of the great earthquake of 749, has not been determined.
Normal urban life also appears to have continued, to judge by the remains of the south
baths and construction ofthe comfortable farmhousc at the cdge of the city.
"";j. Dentzcr et a1. , "Sondagcs prcs dc I'are nabatecn aBosra," Betytus 32 (1984).16'1-74; the sequcnce of
development is not very dear. See the summary ofal-Mukdad and Dentzer, "Les fouilles aBosra," 224 f.
""See the reports of). Wilson and M. Sa'ad, "Thc Domestie Marerial Culturc ofBusra from thc Nabatcan
to the Umayyad Periods," Berytus 32 (1984), 35-148, esp. 40-52, and H. Seeden, "Busra, 1983-84: Second
Arehaeologieal Report," Damaszener Mitteilungen 3 (1988), 400-411. The excavators refer to this building as
a "Cmayyad farmhouse ," bur the renlains include much laLe antique pottery; thc building may in fact be
earlier than suggested. For the few coins found on the site, of the Iate 6th through mid-8th centuries, see G.
Rotter, "Die Münzen des umayyadischen Hauses in Busra," Ber~tus 33 (19H.i), 47-50.
CLIVE FOSS 245
It seems that the life of Bostra continued without a major break until the devastating
earthquake of 749, wh ich shook the cathedral and destroyed the baths and the farm-
house. As the chronider reports, the city was "swallowed up." Subsequently, it vanishes
from history, not to reappear in any significant context until the eleventh century.
The Region 0/ Bostm

Bostra controlled an exceptionally large territory, comprising the plain ofthe Hauran
and much of the adjacent Jebel Druse, an area of about 80 X 40 km (Fig E).20R In addi-
tion, it was the natural (and ecdesiastical) center of a much larger region of southern
Syria that includes the volcanic plain of al-Leja. This begins some 40 km north of the
city and occupies an area of about 35 X 40 km . The plain of Batanea, which slopes away
from the Leja on the west, manifests some important regional differences associated with
a new element of the population, the nomad tribes. As extensive surveys have been car-
ried out in the entire region, it will all be considered here, beginning with the district
dosest to Bostra. eog
The written sources reveal somewhat more about the countryside than th e city. They
narrate, in particular, the history of the Ghassanids, who played a tremendously impor-
tant role here in the sixth century; they will be considel'ed below in connection with the
region they inhabited. Sources show that much of the area was devastated in the Ghas-
sanid revolt of 581 and that the great earthquake of 749 affiicted at least the western
part: Nawa and Deraa, both northwest of Bostra, are specifically mentioned. 210
Both the plain of the Hauran and the adjacent mountain are weil suited to agricul-
ture and thus intensive settlement. 2 11 The rich volcanic soil of the plain has always sup-
ported cereal crops and livestock raising. Pasturage and local transhumance have been
important at all times , but settled agriculture becam e the dominant form of land use in
Roman times. Rainfall is adequate for normal production, but irrigation is difficult be-
cause of the long summer drought, during which water may be drawn from wells or
carefully stored in cisterns. The mountain , on the other hand, has more abundant water,
especially on its western slopes (the eastern, which lead down tu the desert, al'e much
dryer); its soil, however, is stony. This land was used for vines, fruit trees , and some olives.
It is possible that rainfall was more abundant in antiquity, allowing greater production
in both regions . It is estimated that 90 percent of the plain and most of the slopes of the
"'"See A. Alt, "Das Te rritorium von Bostra," ZDPV 68 (1951), 238-45.

"'''The most importa nt surveys are those 01' Butler lIA. 5 and ibid., 7, and J.·M . Dentzer, Hauran, I (Paris,
1985). For a mnvenient historieal sketch of the region in the period considered here, see M. Sanre, "Le
Hawran byzantin a la veille de la conquete musulmane," Bi/ad al-Sham 2 (1987), 547-96. The arehaeologieal
ev idenee for the entire region is summarized with full referenees in H. MaeAdam, "Settlements and Settle-
ment Patterns in Northe rn ancl Central Transjordania," in King and Cameron, Near East (as above, note
32), 53-68.
2IoGhassanid revolt: see above, note 171 ; eanhquake: above, note 191.
", Doris Miller's thesis, "The Lava La nds ofS yria: Regional Urbanism in the Roman Empire" (New York
Un iversity, 1984),8-55, provides an exeellent aecount ofthe geography of southern Syria; the rest deals with
the Nabatean and Roman periods, with much useful background for the present study. For the geographie
conditions of th is region, see P. Gentelle, "Elements pour une histoire des paysages et du peuplement du
Djebel Hauran septentrional," in Hauran, 1 (as above, note 209), 19-62, and F. Villeneuve, "L.:economie
rurale et la v ie des ca mpagnes dans le Haura n antique," ibid., 63-136, esp. 67-71,121-26.
246 SYRIA IN TRANSITION , A. D. 55 0-750
mountain were cultivated. The Leja, with its undecomposed volcanic rock, stands apart
as a district more suitable tor shepherds and bandits, but cultivation was extensive
around its edges, especially in the plain of ßatanea, wh ich has abundant sources of water
and a rieh soil.
This agricultural wealth produced an intensive settlement comparable to that of
northern Syria. The region contains the remains of innumerable villages, separated by
3-5 km in the most fe rtile districts. Villages were built everywhere that water was avail-
able , usually on slightly higher ground than the surrounding fields. Although some are
abandoned , many are still occupied and thus the subjeet of constant rebuilding that has
often obscured earlier remains. In addition, the vast majOl-ity of the buildings were con-
structed of basalt blocks set in mud mortar that have often collapsed into piles of rubble.
Because of their poor preservation and a general lack of excavation, the villages of this
district do not offer the kind of specific information available for the limestone hills, but
nevertheless present general traits that allow a develo pment to be traced.
They show primarily that this wasan area of intensive late antique settlement. Virtu-
all y all the sites have remains of that period and usually far more of them than of any
earlier or later time. Like northern Syria, this area reached the height ohts development,
the culmination of a long period of occupation, in the sixth century. Similarly also, it
shows both continuity and change in the first century of Arab rule, with an almost univer-
sal desolation by the end of the ninth century.212
This was essentially a region of villages; Bostra is the only large city, and the smaller
cities, which function ed as bishoprics, are hardly more than large villages .m The villages
themselves, which blanketed the whole area, were connected by paths that radiated out
in all directions toward their neighbors, forming abasie network through which the Ro-
man roads centered on Bostra cut in straight lines. T he roads were a major intrusive
element in this landscap e, inlersecting it and connecting it with the outside world . An-
other was the villa, cente l- perhaps of a large estate, brought by the Romans to the imme-
diate vicinity of Bostra only. Monasteries wel-e also added to this system in late antiquity;
they tended to resemble villages, often occupying marginal land on the edge of the re-
gion. The villagers thus constiluted the overwhelming majority ofthe settled population.
They had close neighbors, however, who practiced a v ery different way of life-the no-
mads. These lived in the desert to the east but also had a m;uor presence in Batanea,
northwest of Boslra; they will be discussed in connection wilh that region.
The villages varied in size from a few houses to small towns.2 14 Each had its own
territory defined by boundary markers and its own civic organization with officials, a
council , common funds, and land set aside for common purposes. 2 1'> Villages were rarely
fortified and were built on no regular plan _ Houses w ere oriented as the owne,-s chose
and connected simply by irregular passages between them. In some ca ses, lhey were set
close enough togethe r for their walls to form an outer line of defense, suitable against
" ' See the dear state ment of Butler in his introduction to the southern Hauran, IlA.2, 66.
"" For wh at folIows, see Ville neuve , 'Teconomie ," 11:1-16 (v ill as) , 118-20 (monasteries).
''' The following is based on VillenclIve, "L economic," 76-89.
' ''' De tails ofthe organization are known from inscriptions: see Villeneuve , ' T eco nomie ," 79-89, a disclls-
sion that does not disting llish periods; most o frhe eviclence appea rs to be Roman. but some at least pertains
to late antiquity. There is also mllch mate rial ()f interest in H. MacAdam, "Epigraphy ami Village Life in
CLIVE FOSS 247
wild animals 01' bandits but not sustained attack. The towers so characteristic of other
regions are rarely found here. This reflects not only the distance of the region from the
frontier, with the raids of Persians and their allies, but also the establishment of a new
defensive system, which made use of the nomad tribes. Villages often contained much
open space, some of it evidently used for storage of water, some perhaps for communal
meetings; they were normally surrounded by cisterns (in addition to those in the houses)
and graveyards. Occasionally they had baths or other public buildings but for the most
part contained only houses and churches.
Village houses followed a consistent basic plan with a unit 01' two adjacent rooms and
two floors: the lower, with mangers, for the animals, the upper for residence. The houses,
which could be expanded to include several such units, faced onto enclosed court yards.
[ach house had its own existence separate from that of its neighbors; the houses were
closed to the exterior, their main facades opening not onto astreet but onto the inner
court yard. In this they resemble the houses 01' northern Syria and reflect a mentality in
which privacy and private property were fundamental. The proprietors were evidently
peasant farmers, exploiting their own piece ofland ne ar the villa ge but sharing in many
common activities.
Lack of excavation and the long continuity of the same building traditions have made
dating the village structures extremely difftcult. 216 Many houses and especially churches,
though, do bear building inscriptions. They indicate that the region developed early in
late antiquity: in most sites, the inscriptions are predominantly of the fourth and fifth
eenturiesYl7 Later inseriptions are less eommon but suffteiently numerous to show eonti-
nuity through the early seventh century. The latest inscriptions are considered below.
Arehiteetural deeoration also provides some evidenee for development and compari-
son. 218 In general, denll'ation is less common in late antiquity than in earlier pCl'iods; it
tends to be limited to lintels and eapitals and to be simpliÜed. The riehest decoration
appears in the west, in the district noted {(lI' its larger houses, while in the Hauran it
tends to be of low quality. By the sixth century, however, a simple stylized decoration
becomes universal, as the Greeo-Roman tradition of decoration disappears in favor of
local traditions. In all this, the region seems far less vital artistically than northern Syria.
The ehurches of Bostra form a notable, though extremely limited, exception to this
pattern.
Study of the houses, based on the limited ehronologieal evidence available, has sug-
gested that large houses beeome more eOinmon in late antiquity and thus that inereasing
Southern Syria during the Roman ami Byzantine Periocls," Berytus 31 (198,\), 103-15, but it also f,tils to sort
out the information hy periocls. See most recently M. Sanre, "Communautes villageoises et stmetures soei-
ales d'apres I'cpigraphic dc la Syrie du Sud," in üpigrafia dei villagio (Facnza, 1993), 117-35, and especially
J. D. Grainger, "Village Government in Roman Syria and Arabia," Levant 27 (1995),179-95, who shows that
the villages had no real independence hut were c1early suhordinated to the governors.
2ltiThcrc have been SOllie exeavations, but litde HIate rial relevant für the present subject has been revealed:
see below on Msayke and Si', p. 254.
"'See the tahul"tions in Butler ITA.2, 347-51, a list that includes dated buildings but not all the dated in-
scriptions.
21'See J. Dentzer-Feydy, "Demr architectural et developpement du Hawran dans I'antiquite," in Haumn,
T (as above, note 2(9), 261-309, esp. 299-308.
prosperity accompanied the maintenanee or even increase in the number of sites. There
is no doubt that the region continued to flourish despite Persian and Arab conquests. In
the Umayyad period, however, the evidence dunges its nature and thereafter gradu-
aHy disappears.
The vast majority of the sites in this district are villages, but some are larger and
more complex than the others, perhaps because they had a special function in the loeal
administration or economy. In addition, one region, which is considered below, had a
special development because of the introduction of a new element into the population-
tribaI nomads used for regional defense.
The waHed town of Umm al-Jimal (whose ancient name is unknown) rises from the
Hat, dry basalt plain some 25 km southwest of Bostra."l9 It was the largest place between
Bostra and Philadelphia (Amman) and center ofthe densely populated district with more
than seventy villages that stood at the southern edge of the region of Rostra.
The site forms an irregular rectangle, some 800 m long and 300-500 m wide, sur-
rounded by Roman walls that were abandoned by the early fifth century.220 TllInbs ex-
tended outside the walls, as did the aqueduct that led to hills several kilometers away.
The area within the walls contained a great deal of open spaee that often bears traces of
pens for animals.2~1 Two buildings of the town were especially dominant. The so-called
praetorium by the west gate contained two groups of rooms in a large court yard. On the
south was a simple suite of four chambers, while the northern rooms, some of them rising
to two stories, stood around a colonnaded atrium.""" One of the rooms is an unusual
vaulted cruciform chamber whose paralle!s suggest it was an audience hall. The building
is difücult to date but appears to be of the sixth century.22'l
The other structure also appears to be associated with administration, in this case
military. Standing at the south end of the open spaee, near the south wall, it consists of
aseries of rooms around a large rectangular court yard; it has a projecting chape! and
two towers with aseries of short Christian invocations on a white stone that stands out
in stI'iking contrast to the black basalt of the structure (Fig. 35). Chapel and towers ap-
pear to have been added in the sixth century. The building has been plausibly identified
as a barracks. 224 I ts construction represents a major change in the life of the settlement,
which had been primarily a military base in the fourth century. These barracks were
evidently desiglled to house a far smaller detachmellt of troops, while the town enjoyed
a domestic life based primarily on agriculture. This transformation reflects the change
in imperial poliey from large military bases on or near this frontier to reliance on the
21"It forms the suhject of an cntire volume, IIA.3, of tbc Butler survcy; see the general introduction,
149-53. References to individual buildings will be given as necded. The site has been partially excavateel,
wirh results that change earlier views: see B. ele Vries , "The Umm al-Jimal Project, 1972-77," BASOR 244
(1981) , 53-72, and ielcm, "Tbe lJmm al-Jimal Project, 1981-1992," AAJonl37 (199:1), 433-60. A major re-
port, in two volumes, by ele Vries anel his collaborators is now in press.
'""For the development ofthe site in the periods studied here, see de Vries (1993), esp. 448-54.
"ISee Dc Vries (1981), 63; but strictly speaking these could have heen set up at any period untilmodern
times hy local Beelouin who sheltered their Hocks in the ruins.
"'Butler IIA.3, 160-66.
'""De Vries (19RI), 70.
''"Butler IIA.3, 166-71; dc Vries (l9RI), 70.
CLlVE FOSS 249
Ghassanid allies, who maintained a high degree of stability during the sixth century; they
are discussed bclow.
Umm al-Jimal COlltains no less than fifteen chu1"ches, all simple hall churches or
three-aisled basilicas, none of any great architectural or decorative distinetion. 225 The
largest, which encroaches on the open space, bears a date o[ 557. Most ofthe others are
undated. The abundance o[ churches has not been explained. 221i
Houses covered the greatest part of the occupied space. 227 They are laid out on no
regular plan but are simply separated by gaps and passages rather than streets. The
houses are of the usual type, built in two-storied blocks around courtyards, with any
decoration visible only from the inside; the exteriors are usually blank and forbidding.
Normally, the ground floor contained stables, with mangers for sheep and goats 01" larger
be asts, and barns for storage o[ [odder; latrines, where they exist, are on this level. As
usual, the residences were upstairs. The town contained more than 120 such house
blocks; it may have had a population o[ five thousand.
Although a military and administrative role is indicated by the barraeks and prae-
torium of this large town, its function was primarily agricultural. Mangers in the houses
show that here, as in the villages, animals lived directly beside the people, while the great
open space in the center has led to a variety of explanations, most recently that the town
functioned as a market for animals. Ir was in any case the center o[ a district with a
sophisticated system [or collecting and distributing water and with extensive terracing
für fields. The town mayaiso have prospered from a caravan trade along the roads that
led through it from the Gulf of Aqaba, Bostra, and Damascus.
Although Umm al-Jimal stands out in this flat elesert region, it is not unique but
might be best understood in the context of similar sites elsewhere. Sha'rah in the north-
west part of the Leja, [or example, oflers many similarities. 22H It is of comparable plan
anel size, about 600 X 500 m, has large houses irregularly arranged, and also contains
many open spaces whose function has not been determined. Pagan cult, storage ofwater,
common community [unctions, or a camp for nomads have all been suggested. The site
has not been excavated.
One part of this district manifests an exceplional elevelopment, revealed by the re-
mains anel surely to be explained by historieal circumstances. The villages of Batanea,
west of the Leja, seem to have been [ar more prosperous than any others, with larger
houses built on a more complex plan. 229 At Nawa, for example, some ofthe houses consist
of several wings, with the usual stables anel courtyarels, but one of them has in aeldition
a side building with a reception room on the grounel floor. This arrangement is totally
uncharacteristic, as the ground floor was normally reserveel for animals anel related activ-
''''Butler TTA-'l, 171-94.

22 fi Khirbet al-Sanll-a (see below, pp. 253- 54) presents a similar situation. Geofh-ey King suggcsts lhat the
large number of churches may reflect a multiplicity of secls, but there is no cvidence to support such a no-
tion. See his "The Umayyad Qusur and Rclated Settlements in Jordan;' Bilad al-Sham 4 (Amman, 1989),74.
22'Butler IIA.3, 194-205, to be revised by the discoveries ofG. Corbett, "Investigations at Julianos' Church
ar Umm el-Jimal," l'BSR 25 (1957), '19-61, esp. 43-49, who shows that many or the houses had provisions
for animals and makes suggestions about the function of the great open space; cf. de Vries (1981), 53-6,\.
'''See the description in Hauran. 1 (as above, note 209), 83-89.
22"For this district ami its houses, see Villeneuve, 'Teconomie," 104-13.
ities. More enigmatic are the houses 01' Kah Shams , which have untypically large doo
and windows, several entrances, and no stables. In this, they differ entirely from tl
normal peasant house, which is closed to the outside and has its animals in the courtyar,
In all these ca ses, the architectural decoration is much richer than usual in the region.'
Even more impressive is the palatial building at Inkhil (Figs. 36, 37).2·\( It consists of
great vaulted hall, flanked by chambers on three levels, and numerous other rooms.
is built with finely cut and finished basalt blocks without mortar and bears an elabora
sculptural decoration inside and outside.
Neither the date nor purpose of this building has been determined, nor have tl
differences that the other houses manifest been explained. To some extent, the presen.
oflarge houses could simply reflect the agricultural wealth of the district; Nawa, in pa
ticular, was praised in the tenth centUl'y for its wheat and cereals. 232 Absence of stabl
could be explained by positing that the owner was the proprietor of landed estates ar
did not raise cattle. Association of this district with known historical circumstances, h01
ever, may provide a more profitable line of inquiry.
Nawa was supposedly destroyed in the earthquake of 749, but, as noted above, w
prosperous in later centuries, and many of its houses still stand. Although the his tory .
the sites of this district has not been determined, they were immediately adjacent to 01
place that was of great importance in the sixth century, that is, Gabatha, better known
the Arabic form Jabiya, the headquarters of the Ghassanid princes. 233
These powerful allies, on whom the empire came to depend heavily, werc original
Arab nomads in the Hejaz. They were settled within the Roman frontiers by Anastasiu
who conduded a formal alliance with them in 490. During the wars with Persia und,
Justinian, they became an extremely important element in the offensive and defensi'
policies of the empire. Their chief, Arethas (al-Harith, 529-569), received the title
patrician , one of the highest in the empire, and was given control of a large part of tl
Syrian frontier to defend against the Persians and their allies, the Arab tribe ofthe Lak
mids. Justinian promoted hirn in 531 when the normal system of defense, with fronü
forces commanded by duces, had proved ineffectua1. 234 The tribai chief thus played tl
dual role ofphylarch , or head ofhis people, and defender ofthe Roman frontier. In th
capacity, he had equal authority with the dux of Bostra, with whom he usually cooperate
often to the detriment of the civil governor. He did not, however, live in Bostra but
open country where the imperial authority could not be so directly exercised over hirn.'
The tribes thus established in Syria protected the frontier and trade nmtes and pu
sued an aggressive policy against the Lakhmids. In addition to their usual activities
,"USee Oentzer-Fcydy, " Oecor architectural," 300-307, with illustrations.

231 Butler lIA.312-15, d a ted with much hesitatioll to the 2nd century; but see Oentzer- Feydy, "Oec
architectural," 307 n. 74, with a later (but unspecified) dating based on the decoration. Fran~ois Villeneu
(personalcoIIlIIlunication) is inclined to favor a 5th-century date.
23211hqdisi, cited in Vilieneuve , 'TecoIloIIlie," 122; the foliowing explanation is that ofViliellcuve.
233 For the Ghassanids, see the comprehensive and massively documented study 01' Irfan Shahld, Byzanli1
and the Ambs in the Sixth Centur)' (Washington , O.C. , 1995); and specifically for the region studied he'
M. Sam'e, Hais etudes sur l'Ambie romaine cl byzantine (Brussels, 1982), 155-93. See also M, Sartr·c, "Oe
phylarques arabes dans l'Arabie byzallline," Le Museon 106 (1993), 145-53,
" "See Procopius, Wars 1.17.47-48,
' '' Sartre, ]}'oisetl1des, 164,171,180 f.
CLlVE FOSS 251
stock raising and caravan trade, they made huge profits in Roman service. The increase
in their resources, and settlement in an agricultural district, led to their sedentarization,
at least in part (the details are unknown), and to a good deal of building." '6 The Ghas-
sanid princes became major patrons of architecture, both civil-palaces and audience
halls-and ecclesiastical, for they were enthusiastic Monophysites who patronized their
church throughout the region they controlled. Remains of their work are visible in the
region east ofDamascus, near the Euphrates and north ofBostra, and numerous monas-
teries, most of which have not been located, are attributed to theit- patronage.":l7
Only one building in this district, at al-Hayat east of the Leja, is indisputably a work
of the Ghassanids; it bears an insCl"iption showing that it was built in 578 by a jirocumtoT
under the patrician Alamoundaros (al-Mundhir, Ghassanid ruler, 569-582). This great
palatial house consists of some thirty-five rooms on two and three levels around a court-
yard 10m square. The court is uncharacteristic in being relatively small and completely
shut in; it is therefore unsuitable [or keeping animals and seems more to resemble the
inner courts of an urban house. 2 :l8 This building by itself shows that some o[ the nomads
were settled and that their leaders had considerable wealth.
The great camp ofthe Ghassanids, their military headquarters and hlI1ctional capital,
was at Jabiya. The site, of which Iittle sUl'vives, consisted o[ tents and houses as well as a
monastc ry dedicated to St. Sergius (whom the Ghassanids patronized in their famous
seat of Rusafa)."3" It occupies an appropriate setting on hills adjacent to a large plain
whose rich soil and abundant water provided ample fodder for Hocks and herds of the
tribes; even in modern times it has been a summer pasture for tribes from Arabia. It
stands in convenient proximity to the natural routes to Palestine, Jordan, Damascus, and,
of course, the Roman frontier.
Although there are no surviving remains at Jabiya to attest the architectural patron-
age for which the Ghassanids were renowned, it seems at least possible that their presence
can explain the unusual architecture of the neighboring villages of Batanea. Their largc,
richly decorated houses could reHect the wealth of the tribaI chiefs, and the architectural
peculiarities their different way of life. Their houses did not need to be completely c10sed
in, like those of peasants, and could have larger doors and windows because they had no
one to fear; they, essentially, ruled the countryside. The lack of stables in many of them
could indicate that the horses and camels that gave these fighters their mobility shared
a common military pasture. The enigmatic audience chamber on ground level at Nawa
would suit a tribai chiefand finds a much grander parallel in that ofal-:'vlundhir himself
outside the walls of Rusafa. Finally, it seems possible that the palace at Inkhil might have
23ti For sedentarization, see also the brieft'emarks of Villeneuve, ''L economie," 116- 1H.
23' For summary lists ofGhassanid buildings , see FE, s.v. "Ghassan," ami Creswell , Early NluslirnArchitecture,
1 (as above, note 143),636 f; sec also J. Sauvaget, "Les Ghassanides et Sergiopolis," B)wntinn 14 (1939),
115- 30, and espeeially Sanre, Trois ';tudes, 178-8R, a comprehe nsive treatment of Ghassanid historieal geog-
raphy. Note also the rece nt disCllSsion of Irfan Shahid , "Ghassanid and Umayyad Structures: A Case of
Byzance apres Byzance," in Canivcl and Rey-Coquais, La Syrie (as above, note IH6), 299-307.
"" Plans and descriptions in Butler 1lA.5, 362 r.
"' See, in general , H. Lammens and J. Sourdel-Thomine, "al-Djabiya ," in EI, especially valuahle for t.hc
Tslamic period. The sire is descrihed by L. Caetani in Annali dell'lslam (Rome, 1905- 18), III, 927 f; for the
rnonastery and further referenccs, see Sartre, Trois etndes, 179.
belonged to a Ghassanid chief. To establish that, of course, proper analysis of the decOl'a-
tion would be necessary so that a date could be eletermined. 210
Presence of the Ghassanids also explains another peculiarity of the entire region here
studieel-its lack of elefensive slructures. Except for the walls of Bostra anel the forts of
lhe frontier (mostly outside this region), there are virtually none of the towers that are
ubiquitous in many regions further north. This lack corresponels closely to the regions
occupieel or protected by the Ghassanids, whose job was to defend the fron tiers of the
desert, while the Romans continueel to maintain numerous anel powerful fortresses along
the Euphrates anel in northern Syria, where major invasion by lhe Persians might be ex-
pected. 211
The Ghassanids functioned as valuable allies until the reign of Maurice (582-602),
when they fell out with the Romans. Al-Mundhir was captured by treachery anel sent
into exile in 582, an event that provokeel a massive revolt by his followers. 212 When the
emperor cut off their supply of grain-an important means of controlling them-they
ravaged large elistricts of Arabia and Syria, besieged Bostra, and only desisted when
al-Munelhir's son al-Nu'man was alloweel to assurne the phylarchy. In 584, however, he
too was exiled, and the Ghassanid confeeleration broke up into numerous smaller units.
Although some continued to fight alongsiele the Romans as late as the Arab invasions,
their power was broken, anel the country, which had elepended so heavily on them for
ilS defense, lay open to attack [rom a totally unexpecteel quarter.
The his tory of the Ghassanids allows the development of one part of this region to
be unelerstood, but for most of it late antiquily can only be seen in general terms, with
some indication o[ increasing prosperity through the sixth centmy which, here as else-
where, seems to mark a high point. There is, however, some remarkably specific evielence
for the crucial period o[ transition in the first half of the seventh centmy. Inscriptions of
churches, usually associated with new mosaic floors , show continuity through the Persian
anel Arab conquests and beyond. The Umayyad presence is prominent in several parts
of lhe region, as standing remains and surveys reveal. Thereaftel~ however, settlement
seems to come to an alm ost universal end.
Although the Persian occupation (613-630) has left virtually no trace in Syria, two
sites in the southwestern part ofthis region show activity during that time. Samma, some
20 km west o[ Bostra, contains five groups of buildings, mostly houses, and an outlying
monastery consisting of several rooms around a courtyard and a basilical church dedi-
cated to St. George 243 One of the monastic buildings bears a building inscription of 624.
This relates not to the entire complex but to the addition of two rooms adjacent to the
apse of the church. 244 It nevertheless shows that normal activity was going on and that
the Christian community here had the [reedom and resomces to add to its church.
'"" See abovc, note 218, and note that Butler at first believed that the combination of c1assical and oriental
elements in the decoration indicated a late date, and evcn me ntioned the Ghassanids. He "pted, however,
für th e 2nd century because 01' the quality of the work.
'" These points are made by Sauvaget, "Les Ghassanides er Sergiopolis."
"'Sa nre, TI-oill!tudes, 189-94, much of ir based on Jollll 01' Ephesus '>.42 r.
'" Butler lIA.2, H3-87.
"'See thc analysis 01' GeofIrey King, "Two Byzantinc Church es in Norrh Jordan a nd Their Re-Use in tbc
lslamic Period," Damaszener Mitteilungen I (1983), 111-36, esp. 126-33 .
CLIVE FOSS 253
Even more remarkable is the site of Rihab, 40 km southwest of Bostra and actually
much doser to the city of Gerasa; however, its inscriptions, which name the archbishop,
show that it lay in the territory 01' Bostra. The site, which is ta.irly large (800 X 400 m,
with a small fort outside), contains an unusual number of small churches, all richly decor-
ated with mosaic pavements. 215 As most of these are dated, a complete sequence can be
followed. It reveals a surprising amount of activity at an unexpectedly late date. In SOlne
cases, the nature of the activity is not specified, but many inscriptions state that the
church was built and the mosaic finished in the year named. The mosaics name the
archbishop of Bostra and the donors, who are often churchmen, but mention no civic
officials.
The inscriptions of these mosaics indicate considerable activity in the late sixth cen-
tury, with churches (or at least their mosaics) dedicated in 582 (a restoration), 594 (new
church), 595 (mosaic), and 605 (church). The work continues, as if without interruption,
through the Persian period. The church of St. Stephen was built and its mosaic finished
in 620, and three years later the mosaic in the small chape! 01' St. Peter was laid. 24G
Although these are only two sites out ofhundreds, they suggest that the Persian occu-
pation did not cause serious disruption, at least in some areas. N otable in this context is
that the mosaic of St. Stephen (like that of 605) specifically mentions the consubstantial
(hmnoousios) Thnity, that is, it decorated an Orthodox church. Likewise, the appearance
ofthe archbishop o[Bostra in the inscriptions at Rihab and Khirbet al-Samra (see be!ow)
shows that the metropolitan church was still operating. This is all the more surprising
because the Persians were known to have favored the Monophysites, who often welcomed
them. In this area, they seem to have allowed the Orthodox church to function normally.
Evidence for succeeding decades is similar. The brief perioel of Byzantine reoccupa-
tion (630-636) is also attesteel on two sites. At Salkhael, on the Jebel Druse east of BostTa,
a church was built in 633, while Rihab was the scene of still more activity.247 There the
mosaic in the church of the prophet Isaiah was dedicated in 635, anel the chape! of St.
Menas was built in the same year. These inscriptions, which date to the very year of the
Arab conquest, are the latest from this remarkable site.
A similar site stands 25 km southwest of Umm al-Jimal, in the southernmost part of
the Hauran, at the edge 01' the elesert. Khirbet al-Samra, like Rihab, was ne ar the limits
of the diocese of Bostra but was not at all remote, as it stood on the main highway be-
tween the metropolis, Amman, anel Petra. 248 It may represent the ancient Hattita, nameel
in the Peutinger Tablc. The town was small (only about 200 X 220 m) but densely occu-
pied. A rectangular fort built by Diodetian on the same plan as that of Umm al-Jimal
occupieel the center, with a network of houses all around it. There was no real outer wall
'" For Rihab, see .\1. Pi~~irillo, Chiese e masaiei della Giordania settentTionale (jerusalem, 19H 1). (j~-9(). The
mosaics and their inscriptions are now wel! illustrated in idem, The lvTosaics ojJonjan (Amman, 1993),310-13.
"" Picciril!o, Chiese, 73 f, 80 ff.
m Salkhad: P. Le Bas and W. H. Waddington, Inscriptions grecqnes et latines reweillies!in C;rhe et en Asie Minfl.lU'
(Paris, 1870), no. 1997; cl'. the tahle in R. E. Brünnow ami A. von Domaszewski, Die PT01!ineia Ambia (Strass-
burg, 1909), ITI, 359 f; Rihab: Pi~~irillo, Chi"" 71-77.
'4'See the preliminary report of J.-l~ Humbert and A. Uesreumaux, "Khirbet es Sam!'a," in Contribution
Fan(aise iI l'nrchiologiejordonienne (Am man, 1989), 113-21. Thc Illosai~s are illustrated amI discussed in Pi ce ir-
iHo, i\!losaics, 302-9. For the cemetery, see R. Savignac, "Excursion en 'Ji-ansjordanie et au Kh. Es-sam!'a,"
RevBibl3-! (1925),110-35.
254 SYR1A 11\.' TRAI\.'S1TION, A.D. 550-750
but a kind ofbarrier, which appears hastily huilt over the ruins of houses. The site con-
tains at least eight churches, most of them decorated with mosaic floors. Although no
details have been published, it appears that several of them were rebuilt after aperiod
of dedine or abandonment and that the most flourishing time für this town came in the
early seventh century. Two mosaics are specifically dated to 637 and 639, while a third,
like them, bears the name ofTheodore, who was archbishop of Bostra around 620-640.
This site, then, was I10urishing at the time ofthe Arab conquest. Likewise, its large ceme-
tery, which contains some eight hund red tombstones, somewhat more of them inscribed
in Aramaic t.han in Greek, seems to have been most extensively used in the seventh cen-
tury. The site was still occupied in the early eighth century, when some of the mosaics
were defaced by iconodasts, but appears to have been entirely abandoned by the early
ninth cent.ury.
Although Rihab falls silent, the Arab conquest seems to have caused no disruption in
church construction elsewhere in this countryside, if the example of Salkhad may be
considered t.ypical. There the church huilt in 633 received a new atrium in 665, the gift
of the son of the original donors. 24 'l
Later evidence is scattered. In the Jehe! Druse, the excavations at Si', a Roman temple
complex abandoned in the fourth century, have revealed traces of Umayyad reoccu-
pation, induding a winepress built on the former paved courtyard. The settlement was
abandoned at the end ofthe Umayyad period. 200 An inscription from Rimet Hazem ne ar
Suweida in the same district attests substantial building in the form of a reservoir dated to
the reign ofal-Hisham (727-742), but the associated site was apparently not excavated. 2S1
Another excavation, of two rooms in two houses at Msayke in the southwest corner
of the Leja, has produced some intriguing but fragmentary evidence. 252 Each house con-
sists of a large number of tiny rooms or spaces built around or adjacent to court yards. In
the first house, the excavated room was apparently added in the Abbasid period and
occupied continuously until the fifteenth century. In the other, the room was rebuilt in
the late Byzantine or early Umayyad period. It was then abandoned and reoccupied at
a much later date. In this case, it seems dear that the village continued through the
period of transition weil into the Middle Ages, though perhaps with some interruption.
Two other sites are more informative. Al-Kaff, northeast of Bostra, was a long-
established site with gardens and vineyards and numerous buildings, now fragmentary;
inscriptions show activity from the fourth centlll'y through the late sixth."'" Its church of
St. George, however, was dedicated in 652, and another inscription reveals that a house
or a church was built from its foundations as late as 735. This is the latest Christian
inscription from the region.
A church in Deir al-Adas, northwest of the Leja in the rich region of Jahiya, was
'""Salkhad: above, note 247. Assignmcnt to this period oftwo othcr inscriptions, al Mellah and Samrna,
has been proved erroneous; see I~-L. Gatier, "Les inscriptions grecques d'epoque islamique (Vlle-Vllle
siedes) en Syrie du sud," in Canivet and Rcy-Coquais, La Syrie (as above, note] 86), ] 45-57.
''''J. Dentzer, "Six campagnes de fouilles a Si"" Damaszener IHitteilungen 2 (1983), 82.
',lSee A. Rihawi, "Decouverte de deux inscriptions arabes," AArchSyr 11-12 (1961-62), 207-11.
'''See A. Guerin, "Premiers sondages archeologiques a Msayke, un village du Leja," lJEODam 45 (1993),
33-46.
"'lButler IIA.5, 325 f; er Gatier. "Les inscriptions," 147 f.
CLIVE FOSS 255
decorated with a mosaic that filled its nave. Ir bears a date of 722 and portrays activities
that were characteristic and essential in local economic life: a grape harvest and a caravan
of camels bearing jars, perhaps of olive oil (Fig. 38)."',4 As the site is on the main road
from Damascus to Tiberias in Palestine, the second scene is especially appropriate.
The district ofJabiya is an especially suitable place for such late activity, for it did not
lose its importance wiLh the collapse of the Ghassanids. Because iL was a long-established
site for an encampment of Arah nomads, the Arabs made use of it as soon as they arrived
in the country.2"" According to the traditions of the conquest, Jabiya was the site of their
first major camp in Syria and of a skirmish wiLh the Byzantines before the fateful battle
of the Yarmuk. In 638 the caliph U mar himself came he re to hold a meeting of the main
Arab commanders at which the terms and organization of the conquests were decided.
As a result, the troops came here to collect their pay, and the pi ace essentially functioned
as the capital of the new fund or province of Syria.
The importance ofJabiya continued under the Umayyads, despite the establishment
of Damascus as the regular capital by Muawiya (657-680). Although Muawiya himself
tended to reside in Damascus, most ofhis successors maintained their nomadic traditions
by moving constantly and often staying at Jabiya. 2 C,!i Consequently, it was here that the
Syrian notables assembled to choose Marwan ibn al-Hakam as their caliph in 684 and
later to recognize the sons ofAbd al-Malik (685-705) as his successors. In the early eighth
century, however, Jabiya lost its role as the main camp was shifted north of Aleppo to a
location more convenient for the expeditions against the Byzantines that formed an es-
sential part of Umayyad military life. Now that the southern region was pacified, and
Arabia was no longer central to the new ancl expanding state, Jabiya was no longer suit-
able as a great center. Its region, however, still had the strategic location on caravan
routes that the mosaic of Deir al-Adas reAects.
The Umayyad presence is also notable in the southern part of the district, which
manifests a great deal of continuity and contains a distinctive building complex of that
period. At that time, this district. was of special importance because of its location between
Arabia and Syria, and its largest town, Umm al-Jimal, prospered ti-mn the caravan trade
between them."'7 Excavations at U mm al-Jimal reveal suhstantial occupation in the
eighth century: Umayyad pottery is found in the open space, and the praetorium and
one of the house complexes were rebuilt. 2 ' B The praetorium may have undergone a pe-
riod of ahandonment in the seccmd half of the seventh century, marked by piaster fallen
from the walls, but in the first half of the eighth a new cobblestone floor was laid and the
building reoccupied. It bore a decoration of piaster and may have presented a luxurious
impression comparable to the more famous desert castles of the U mayyads. It remained
in use until the end of the Umayyad period. Similarly, house XVIII, a large well-built
courtyard house ofthe usual type and the only one excavated, was occupied in the Umay-
yad period, which is represented by two levels of cobblestone Aoors. Around the end of
"'Illustratecl and rliseussed in Doneeel-Voüte, Pavements (as above, note 83), 45-54. Thc mosaic was for-
merly dated to 621: see Gatier, "Les inscriptions," 248.
"'For what folIows, see "al-Djahiya" (as above, note 239).
"'''This aspeet orthe Umayyad caliphs is nicely skctched in Creswell, Earl; lHuslimArchitecture, I, -102-6.
""See King, "Umayyad Qusur," 71-80, esp. 72-75.
""De Vries (1981), 63-65, 70 f, and idem (1993), 44H, 452.
2.56 SYRIA IN TRANSITION , A.D . .5.50-7.50
that age , the roof eollapsed and th e strueture, like the rest of the site , was abandoned
until modern times. """
The only speeifieally Umayyad complex of bllildings in the whole region (outside
Bostra) stands in its sollthernmost part, in the steppe .50 km sOllth of Bostra, at the edge
of the desert. It consists of a fort , Qasr al-Hallabat, with a mosque, and a bath , Hamma m
al-Sarakh, with adjaeent waterworks and agricultural installations. The fort forms a
square 38 mon a side, with rooms around a central eourt. 2li i! An inseription of .529 shows
that it was restored b y the dux Fl. Anastasius, whose work consisted of raising th e walls
and adding the corner towers. It is possible that t h e fort went out of use in the sixth
century, to be occllpied by monks. It was in any case reused by the U mayyads, who added
an extensive decoration of carved stlleeo and painted piaster on the walls and geometrie
mosaies on the Iloors. 26 ! Relatively abundant pottery indicates continuity through the
ümayyad period, with abandonment thereafter.
Immediately outside the walls stands the small mosque of 10 X 12 m, weil built o[
limestone blocks laid without mortar. 262 It has a prayer room with a double colonnade
and a projecting round mihrab, with a poreh around three sides. A stepped platform near
one corner was probably used for th e call to prayer. Stylistie considerations date it to
about 72.5-730. The bath stands a kilometer to th e east and consists of a rectangular
audienee hall and three bathing rooms of which the largest (only 3 .7 X 3.2 m) was
domed. 2G ' Adjacent to it are a weil, a water tank, and a strueture where the animal that
drove the mechanism fo r pumping water into the tank worked. The bath is built in the
same style as the mosque and is contemporary with it.
These huildings were part of a larger system that supported the m. Surveys have re-
vealed a sophistieated system for capturing and storing water, with a large cistern whose
walls contain Umayyad potsherds indieating rebuilding and maintenanee in that period.
Nearby are poorly preserved houses and a large area of walled terraeing for agrieulture.
The publie parts of the complex evide ntly depended on an infrastructure in whieh water
was the most essential element but that also required workers and food production. In
all eases, pottery shows oeeupation throllgh the Umayyad period, perhaps continuing
into the ninth eentury. 2G4
This site constitutes a reereational outpost on th e edge ofthe desert of a kind fa miliar
from grander examples in Jordan and Palestine. Standing in isolation, it has no implica-
tion for urban settlement of the region but retlects instead a new development, the in-
stallation of a governing dass with eonsiderable mobility, content to establish bases away
from the cities hut easily aeeessible to the steppes and desert with whieh it had been
"O"The re seems to be no ev idence for occupa tion betwee n the Umayyads and the 20th century; the earth-
qua ke of 749 lIIay have provoked abandonment of the sire, according Lo de Vries (1993), 449, 4.1)2.
,,;uPla n and discussion in Butler IIA.2 , 70-77; for the chronology and outlying buildings, see the de railed
survey 01' D. L. Kcnnedy, Arcilaeological F xplorations on tile Roman FrontieT in North-East Jordan (Oxford, 1982),
17- 68.
";'See G. Bisheh, "Excavations ar Qasr al H allabat, 1979," AAJOTd 24 (1980), 69- 77. For the mosaics, see
Piccirillo, Mosa;cs, 350 [
"" See Creswell, Harty M uslim Arch;tecture, 502- 5 , and Bisheh, " Excavations."
26:< Butler IIA.2 , 77-80; Creswell, Early Muslim. A rchitecture, 498-5 02; cl'. C. Bisheh , " Hammam al Sa ra h in
the Light of Recent Excavations ," Damaszener Mitteilungen 4 (1989), 225-30.

' "'See below, note 268 .
CLIVE FOSS 2.17
most familiar. The buildings most likely represent the dwelling of an L mayyad prince or
notable, established near the desert from which the regime drew its manpower and
support. 265
This southernmost region of the Hauran, now included in the Kingdom of Jordan,
provides some of the best evidence for settlement pattern in the periods of interest be-
cause of surveys that paid much attention to pottery.""" They covered the region from
Samma in the west to the foothilIs of the Jebel Druse. The results are remarkably consis-
tent, with a few variations within sites and between them. In general, the pottery, like
the remains, attests an intensive occupation of the area in late antiquity; every site sur-
veyed was occupied. More comprehensively than the remains, it shows an almost equally
intensive occupation du ring the Umayyad period; only a few sites or parts of sites weIlt
out of use. The evidence of the pottery is too abundant to be explained by nomads or
other transients; it is plain that the sites continued to be occupied. As the remains contain
virtually nothing that is specifically Muslim (except for the complex described above,
which is not part ofthe village economy), it appears that the population remained Chris-
tian. 267 The general lack of building activity so characteristic of earlier years, however,
suggests that they were poorer than previously. All this comes to an end in the ninth
century, if not earlier; after that, there is a long gap on all sites, lasting for four hundred
years or more. 268
Rostra fiourished in the sixth centm'y and under the U mayyads, to succumb to the
earthquake of 749. lts territory offers important supplementary information that puts
the city into a context and provides striking evidence for the seventh ce ntury, which at
Rostra is extremely obscure. In the sixth century, the whole region was flourishing, with
innumerable villages and severallarger settlements that prospered from a carefully main-
tained agriculture. Notable among them is Umm al-Jimal in the south. The region was
largely demilitarized, protected not by the Roman legions in their camps but by the new
auxiliaries, the Arab Ghassanids, who had their base in this very district. Their presence
probably accounts for much of the observed prosperity, notably in Batanea, the fertile
district ne ar their main camp of Jabiya.
26CSee the rernarks ofCreswell, above, note 262.

'''''See G. King et al., "Survey of Byzantine and Istamic Sites in Jordan, Second Season Report," AA]ard 27
(1983), 385-436, esp. -105-15 and 420-31, and eidern, "Sorne Churches of the Byzantine l'eriod in the
Jordanian Hawran," Danwszener ]vfitteilun{!;en 'l (1988), 35-75. A survey 01' thc adjacent southern region
around LlIlm al-Quttein has produced similar rewlts, with dear evidence ofgrowtb tbrougb tbe 6tb century,
continuity througb tbe C rnayyad period, and abandonrnent in the 'lth/l Oth (entury: see U. Kennedy and
P Freernan, "Southern Hauran Survcy, 1992." I.evant 27 (J 995),39-73, esp. 60.
:w7King, "T\vo Byzantine Churches," 111-36, reports the conversion of t\\'O churches int.o mosques by the
destruction o[ their apscs and the addition 01' tower rninarets. He suggests that they may be Umayyad or
perhaps more likely Mamluk, the tilIle when the area was again reoccupied, though on a smaller scale. In
fact, since the tower minaret ",.ras introduced only in the 9th century, the ~'falllluk date may bc considered
certain; see Bloom, lvlinanl (as above. note 196), 55.
""The date of abandonment of these sites, like that of Urnrn al-Jimal and its neighhors, depends on the
analysis ofcerarnic finds. Traditionally, the pottery !ound here was idcntificd as Umayyad and wnsidered to
end in thc mid-8th ccntury. More recent analyses, which are only beginning to find their way into the general
literature, however, show that this pottery continued into the Abbasid period ancl that the not ion of a suelelen
abandonment in thc mid-8th century can no longer be sustained. See, für example, MacAdarn, "Settlements"
(as above, note 209), 56 n. 35, and J.-P. Sodini el al., "De la ceramique hyzantine a la ceramique omeyyarle,"
in Canivet and Rey-Coquais, La Syrie (as above, note 1R6), 195-218.
258 SYRIA IN TRANSITIO/\, A.D. 550-750
The archaeology of this region (not the written sources, which are virtually nonexis-
tent) makes a special contribution in showing continuity through the seventh centm'y.
Most notable are the churches of Rihab, which show continuous construction, always at
the same standard, uninterrupted by the Persian invasion or the Byzantine reoccupation,
until the arrival of Islam. Likewise, Khirbet al-Samra appears to have reached its peak
in the early seventh century and to have flourished into the ninth. Umm al-Jimal, on the
other hand, may have suffered some contraction in the seventh centm'y but was certainly
ftourishing in the eighth.
As in Bostra, the Umayyads have left their mark on this entire region. Their major
constructions appear to have been in the south, at Umm al-Jimal, Qasr al-Hallabat, ancl
Hammam al-Sarakh, but inscriptions and mosaics show acLivity until the end of the pe-
riod. The villages south of Bostra are especially informative, with deal' evidence of un-
interrupted occupation through the Umayyads and probably into the ninth century.
The region reveals another extremely important aspect of the post-Byzantine period,
coexistence of Christians and Muslims, as already evident at Bostra. The countryside
evidently remained Christian; the villages of the south have no mosques, nor even does
U mm al-Jimal. The Muslim presence affected the city and the region adjacent to the
desert and certainly also Jabiya, which has left no remains. Otherwise, the district contin-
ued to support a large Christian population, ruled hy Muslims who appeal' to have been
concentrated in specific districts.
This does not mean that Christians andl\rabs were somehow distinct in these peri-
ods. In fact, the local population was largely Arab in origin, and the tribaI Arab element
had been powerfully reinforced by the arrival and settlement of the Ghassanids, whose
role was of great significance. They not only entered the empire peacefully and estab-
lished themselves in it, but provided a model for the coexistence of nonlads and settled
people and a model for nomads themselves to settle-Iessons that could certainly have
provided an exemplar for their successors of the desert who arrived in the seventh cen-
tury and by Umayyad times had settled in many places, yet maintained their moving
camp, often at Jabiya, the very center of the Ghassanids.
CONCLUSIONS
The material studied here reftects the abundance and variety of the archaeological
re cord of two widely separated regions of Syria in the crucial period from Justinian to
the end ofthe Umayyads. It provides information about city and country alike in the two
centuries oftransition. It should therefore support substantial answers to the two central
questions with which this study began: What did the Arabs find when they conquered
Syria, and how did they transform it during the first century of their rule? These ques-
Lions might best be approached by viewing the material in a chronological framework in
order to follow the broad developments and determine the importance ofregional difler-
ences.
Syria flourished under Justinian, with city and country sharing in a general prosper-
ity. Even when disaster struck, major efforts were made to restore destroyed cities and
looted wealth. Antioch, of course, suffered tremendously from the earthquakes of 526
and528, but most of all from the Persian sack of 540. Yet even after that, the government
CLIVE FOSS 259
had the resources and will to undertake a large-scale restOl'ation of public and private
buildings, wh ich has been amply confirmed by excavations. Nevertheless, much of the
city remained in ruins, and full recovery was precludedby the succeeding disasters.
Antioch, though, appears as an anomaly when seen in the larger context. lts neigh-
bor, Apamea, certainly Hourished, with extensive construction and decoration ofchurches
and palatial houses, all in the most lavish late antique style. The Cathedral was built
around 529, the Atrium Church completely rebuilt in the same pCl'iod, and several of
the houses-notably the Triclinos House, which had been partially destroyed by a fire in
539-manifest extensive reconstruction or embellishment. These were true urban man-
sions, where an ancient way of life continued virtually unchanged in the great reception
halls, elegant court yards, and abundant dwelling rooms.
Likewise, the countryside that formed the territories of these two cities continued to
prosper. The region best studied, the hili country, apparently reached the height of its
activity somewhat earlier, around 480, but construction continued until the middle of
the sixth century, by wh ich time the population had increased tremendously in every
district. The lone excavation of Dehes confirms the sixth centUl'Y as the time when the
village reached its peak.
Bostra also was the scene of great activity in the first years of J ustinian, with inscrip-
tions that attest construction of public works until about 540, and archaeology indicating
extensive construction in the area around the cathedral and the church of Sts. Sergius,
Bacchus, and Leontius. Its territory also seems to have reached a height of development
in the sixth century, as is evident throughout, but especially at the largest site, Umm al-
Jimal, where the barracks and praetorium can be assigned to this time.
In most cases, there is evidence for continuing prosperity through the end of the
sixth century, though with significant regional differences. Epiphania provides the most
striking examples: its cathedral was built (or rebuilt) in 595, and its countryside seems to
luve fiourished more than ever before. The district closest to the city provides abundant
evidence for the last three decades of the century, while construction (especially of forts)
in the northern distri(t was very active from 556 to 577. At Rostra, the epigraphical
record is silent after 540, and the archaeology provides nothing specifically clatable to
the la te sixth century, but the countrysicle evidently fiourishecl uncler the administration
of the Ghassanicls until their rupture with Constantinople in 582.
Apamea sufferecl the Ütte of Antioch in 573, when it was sackecl and clestroyecl by the
Persians. The remains clearly confirm widespread devastation, but even here there was
a major effort at recovery. The Atrium Church was rebuilt, and rubble was brought in
from other parts of the city, where major eHorts of cleaning and reorganization had ap-
parently been made. Several of the houses were clestroyed, but the Console House went
on functioning normally until the end of the century.
Antioch offers little specific evidence, though the sources narrate a dismal sequence
of continuing disasters from which the city could hardly have recovered. The picture of
the hill country is more complex. Residential construction ceasecl arouncl 550, but
churches were still repaiI'ecl or expandecl past the enel of the century. Yet wealth was still
available to be stored, as the Kaper Koraon treasure shows: it was accumulated after 540,
in part at least to replace gooels looted then. It appears that the population had reached
the maximum level that the country could support anel that the region had entered a
period of stagnation but not total impoverishment. The excavation of Dehes suggests
that this was not a time of population decline but that the same level of occupation was
maintained through the century.

As the datable building activity in the reign of J ustinian seems confined to its first
fifteen years, it is natural to suppose that the devastating bubonic plague that struck the
empire in 542 was a proximate cause of change and demographic decline. This idea is
fundamental to some current interpretations of the Near East in the period of transi-
tion. 2G9 It seems to have a certain plausibility: Antioch was plainly in decline, most con-
struction in the hills stopped by mid-century (an approximate dale that could easily re-
flect the plague), and even at Bostra, far in the south, there is no evidence for public
works after 540. The plague certainly did strike and affected this area (Antioch is specifi-
cally attested, and Evagrius, a local man, is a witness to its recurrence later in the een-
tury). It would necessarily have had a powerful negative demographie effeet, especially
in the cities. Yet the evidence from the region as a whole is ambiguous at best and tails
to support any generalized notion of population decline or fundamental change.
There are dearly areas, both urban and rural, that continued to flourish after the
plague. Apamea was still a major city, with its churches and houses apparently in full use
as late as 573; it could still be described as the home of the Syrian aristocracy in 570.
The territories of Apamea and Antioch may have stagnated, but there is no evidence that
their population declined; quite the contrary, the excavations of Dehes show unchanged
occupation through the end of the century, and the treasure of Kaper Koraon indicates
that wealth was still being stored, even in small places, for a centUl'y after 540. Most
striking is the evidence hom Epiphania, where the large houses of the central hili contin-
ued to function without change into the Umayyad period, and the cathedral could be
built or restored at the end of the century. Even more impressive is the record of activity
in its territory, which surprisingly shows increased construction after the reign of J ustin-
ian. Finally (though here there is less specifically dated evidence), the territory ofBostra,
stretching far to the south, exhibits no change or dedine at all in the decades after the
plague. Umm al-Jimal could even build its largest church in 557, and the survey ofthe
southern distriet revealed no pattern of ahandonment until centuries later.
None of this me ans that the plague had no effect but does suggest that it was not
sueh a widespread disaster as it has been portrayed, and especially that it was not the
agent of fundamental change. It would appear that its ravages were repaired rather
quickly. The archaeology, of course, does not allow events to be followed year by year
and has many serious gaps, but when the mass of evidence is considered, it shows that
much of this country was still prospering in the late sixth century. The plague need not
even be the sole explanation for the regions that do seem to manifest serious transfor-
mation.
Antioeh suffered enough disasters, even without the plague, to destroy a normal city.
The plague no doubt compounded its problems and accclerated its decline. Reduction
2m It is the main conclusion 01' Kennedy. "The Last Century" (as above, note 1), 183: "The transition ti'om
amiquc to medieval Syria oeeurred in thc ycars aftcr 540 not after fAO." See also L. Conrad, "The Plague in
Bibd al·Sham in Pre·lslamie Times," in Proteeding' ofthe Sympo,ium on Bilad al·Silarn during the BJwntine Period,
I!, ed. M. Bakhit and M. Asfimr (Amman, 1986), 143-63. He maintains, after a careful and detailed treat·
melll of the evidence, that thc various plagues of the 6th (entury would have had a sCl·ious negative effeet
on the demography of Syria.
CLIVE FOSS 261
of the city, demographically and economically, would naturally have had a serious cfrect
on its territory. The major market für village products would have been severely reduced,
a factor perhaps significant in the stagnation of construetion in the hills. Yet it is not the
only explanation. Ey this time, it appears that this country was reaching saturation point,
that it simply oluld not accommodate many more people, and that it had as much good
stone housing as it needed. The "Malthusian crisis" of Georges Tate may be adequate to
account für the stagnation. Similar!y, in Rostra, the outburst of public works in the early
years ofJ ustinian may have been adequate to supply the needs o[ future generations.
Activity in the north came to a sudden end at the beginning of the seventh eentury.
The last inscriptions from the hill country are of610 and [rOln the region of Epiphania,
605. Nothing is known of Antioch or its territory for the next decades. These years, of
course, coincide with the great war between the Romans and Persians, whieh began in
602 and brought the Persians to Antioch in 610 and to Damascus in 613. All Syria was
under Persian occupation unti! their last troops recrossed the Euphrates in 630.
The Persian period in Syria is poorly known. Most sources deal with the war itsel[,
whose theater was in Asia Minor, around Constantinople, and in Armenia and Mesopota-
mia. In those regions, fighting was omstant and hitter, destruetion savage and wide-
spread, as the Persians attempted to strike a fatal blow at their adversaries. 2 7<J Vet in Syria,
their administration appears to have been peaceful, since they planned on permanent
oecupation of it and Egypt. The little surviving information indieates that they set up a
regular administration ancl intervened , as their Roman predecessors had done, in the
ecclesiastieal confticts of the day.271 The archaeological record of the region south of
Syria, in modern Jordan, suggests that notions ofwidespread destruction by the Persians
are extremely exaggerated and that life went on mueh as it had bef(lreY2
The material evidence for the period of Persian occupation is extremely limited, as
the archaeology rarely allows developments to be assigned to precise decades. Only
where dated inseriptions or sufficient eoins in a dearly identified eontext are available
may exact dates be assigned. Except [or the southern part o[ the region, no dear picture
emerges, yet some general trends may be discerned.
The north, as noted, suddenly ceases to provide evidence for construction. It would
appear that resources were no longer available in this region, most exposed to the actual
fighting in the first years of the war, and perhaps most vulnerable to government<J exae-
tions. The Persians, in any case, seem to have done nothing to improve or change the
situation. They, too, may have needed the resources or manpower of the region for their
war effort in neighboring Anatolia and, later, Mesopotamia.
Apamea has produced a rare piece of evidence in the türm of a Sasanian silver coin
[ound in the Console House, which appears to have been occupied normally until at
least 610. Its tale during the next twenty years is undear. There is also no evidence from
Epiphania, but here, too, the inscriptions of the countryside come to an abrupt end in
605, never to resume.
The Persian war and oceupation would eertainly have had one major effect, whieh
",0Sec C. Fass, "The Pcrsians in Asia Minor and thc End of Antiquity," EHR 90 (1975), 721-47.
See the useful survey of M. Morony, "Syria under the l'ersians. 610-629," in l'roreedings 0/ Ihr Serond
271
Symposium on Ihe His/ory o( Bilad ol-Slwm du ring Ihr: Farlv !slamic Period. T (Amman, ] 987), 87-95.
"'Thc evidence is reviewed by R. Schick, ']ordan on the Eve of the y[uslim Conquest, A.D. 602-634," in
Canivet and Rey-Coquais, La Syrie (as above, note I HG), 107-20.
262 SYRIA IN TR./\NSlTION, A.D ..S50-750
would eventually leave its traces in the entire material record-the Aight of the aristoc-
racy. vVhereas peasants hael little to gain ancl much to lose by leaving their ancestral
lands, the rieh were in a position to make their way safely to Roman territory before the
enemy approacheel and might weil have feared the approach of a new force likely to
covet their money and property.m \Vhen they were gone, their houses presumably lay
open to eonfiseation or new occupation. In any case, the patronage that maintained the
traditions of Greco-Roman urban life, with all its amenities in the form of public works
anel services, would have collapsed. The urban structure, with its monumental public
huildings, depended on a network of wealth anel inftuence based on the great landowners
anel their allies, the imperial officials. The officials departed with the Roman government
(Ol~ if they stayed, most probably lost their inAuence); the aristocracy is unlikely to have
lingereel long after them. Patronage of secular public works probably collapseel with the
arrival of a Persian administration.
The Persians, though, did not arrive in huge numbers; they still had a major war to
fight anel seem to have been more indineel to deport populations for service elsewhere
than to bring in theil own."71 Basically, the population remained what it had been belüre:
an urban Greek-speaking population embedded in a eountryside whose native language
was Aramaie 01' Arabic, all of it Christian anel mostly of the ~fonophysite persuasion.
A1ready by the sixth century, the Church had assumeel a major role in loeal administra-
tion. The few sources that diseuss this area suggest that the Persians dealt with the reli-
gious authorities, leaving them considerable power, though favoring the anti-imperial
Monophysites. Religious patronage, therelüre, need not have been affeeteel, except in-
sofar as the Persians might have extracted higher taxes to pay for the war effort ancl the
costs of occupation.
Continuing ecdesiastical activity is manifest in the south, where life seems to have
continueel without any visible break. A1though the record of Bostra itself is silent, its
tenitory has produced rare dated evidence. Churches were built 01' repaired at Samma
(624) and at Rihab (620 anel 623), in areas where activity had been continuous für the
previous several decades. Nearhy Khirbet al-Samra seems to have reached its height in
the early seventh century. Here, at least, it is dear that the Persian occupation hael no
eleleterious elfects. There may have been another bctor in the eontinuing prosperity and
importance of the southern region. Islamic sources have much to say of the trade be-
tween the Arabian peninsula and Syria, with Mecca anel Bostra specifically figuring. It
would appear that such trade continued without interruption during this period (wh ieh
was the time of the rise to power of the Prophet in Medina). Ir so-and the evidence is
open to serious criticism-such trade might have been a factor in the continuing pros-
perity of the south contras ted with the apparent lack of activity in the north.
In sum, the Persian period may have been of great importance by provoking the
departure of a dass of people who had maintained the urban ülbric for many centuries,
thus interrupting the continuity of an urban life already badly shaken in the north by
the disasters ofthe previous centUl'y. The effects on the cities may not luve been immeeli-
""This point is weil made by F. Donner, The Early Islmn;r Conquests (Princeton, 1981),48 f, and by J. Balty
in AjJamee iV1l3, 498-501.
274In sonlC arcas, though, later sources da inuiGJte that Persians \vere settled, onI)' to be moved around
by Arab caliphs; see Baladhuri 117, 118.
CLIVE FOSS 263
ate, but in the long run their traditional existenee was fatally undermined. Yet the coun-
tryside, exeept in areas dose to the war zone, eontinued normally, possibly aided by trade
with the Arabian peninsula.

The Persians were eventually defeated, and the forces ofEmperor Heraclius returned
in triumph in 630. The restoration of imperial rule was ineredibly brief. After the batde
of the Yarmuk in 636 and the fall of Antioeh in the following year, Syria became an
Islamie eountry, the seat of a governor and soon of a great empire. These short years are
naturally almost impossible to pereeive in the arehaeology. Yet their traces appeal' pre-
cisely where evidence of the Persian period is most abundant, in the territory of Bostra.
A church was built in Salkhad in 633 and two at Rihab in 635. Onee again, it seems that
li fe continued normally in this region. The effeet of the reeonquest, whieh may have
brought some administrative change and return of the aristoeracy, eannot be identified
at the other sites.
It is now possible to approach the first of the questions with whieh this study began:
Wh at did the Arabs find when theil' conquering armies arrived in Syria? The answer will
vary with the region. In the south they [ound a ftourishing distriet with many villages,
some of which still had the resourees to deeorate their churehes 01' eOllstruct new ones.
There are no evident signs of major change in this district, which seems to have contin-
ued mueh as it had been under J ustinian. The loeal eapital, Bostra, also appears to have
been in good condition, with its baths and large churches fUllctioning normally. The
available evidenee, however, does not reveal a detailed pieture of the city.
There was one aspect o[ this southern district especially relevant to its new masters.
The whole region, and much more, was already aeeustomed to the settlement and domi-
nation of Arab tribes, in the form of the Ghassanids, who had protected it under the
suzerainty ofthe emperor. They did not actually rule, for imperial officials still controlled
the loeal administration. Yet they provided a model [or the future rulers. The loeal popu-
lation was aeeustomed to onee nomadie Arabs, who had setded and assimilated, living in
villas like the loeals but still maintaining their mobile army and using as their headquar-
ters a vast eamp at Jabiya. It is surely not an aeeident that the :\1'uslims ehose the very
same spot for their main military base in the region and perhaps not a coincidence that
in Syria, unlike Mesopotamia or Egypt, they settled in the towrts with the loeal popula-
tion, as the Ghassanids had done, rather than building separate garrison cities.
The region of the Orontes had a varied appearanee. Epiphania was apparendy still
prosperous, with a relatively new cathedral and luxurious oeeupied houses. The eountry
to the east and north was densely populated but had produeed no new construction since
the beginning of the century. In that, it resembled the hill eountry to the north, the
territories of Apamea and Antioch. The innumerable villages of this region were appar-
ently still oeeupied and supported as large a population as they could, but in a less ftour-
ishing state than be[ore. They seem no longer to have had the resourees to erect new
houses 01' churches but were still capable of aecumulating treasure. The Arabs would
have found a large and not altogether impoverished rural population in the entire coun-
tryside east of the Orontes.
The great cities ofthe north, though, had a less ftourishing appearance. Apamea had
barely risen [rom its ruins, and its vast mansions may al ready have betrayed the absence
of their aristocratie owners. A.ntioeh, likewise, was a wreek. The long series of disasters
264 SYRIA IN TRANSITION, A.D. S50-7S0
had left the city mostly ruined and many parts of it abandoned. Life went on, but at
a much reduced scale. Here alone, the Arabs would have found a civilization already
transfonned, with the great public works of antiquity abandoned or ruined and the "e-
duced population living in conditions far inferior to those of their predecessors of a
centUl"y earlier.
In other words, much of the area studied here, especially the countryside, was still
intact and apparently enjoyed the same social and economic conditions as it had through
late antiquity. It had a large population, who used money and stored treasure, however
much their trading patterns may have been altered by the Persian occupation or the
connections with Arabia. The church still functioned and in the south had the resources
for construction. At least two of the cities, Bostra and Epiphania, seem not to have suf-
fered any major change. Only the greatest of the cities, Antioch and Apamea, had lost
their ancient glory, the result of events that had long preceded the Arab conquest.
The great events that marked the permanent transfer of this whole region from the
Roman Empire to an Islamic state have left no trace in the archaeological record. Syria
seems to have capitulated peacefully, for the sites show no trace of destruction that can
be associated with the arrival ofthe Arabs. In fact, the southern district once again seems
to have continued its normal life, to judge by the new mosaics laid in the churches of
Khirbet al-Samra in 637 and 639, that is, in the years immediately after the conquest.
EIsewhere the picture is more varied, with some real transformation taking pi ace in the
city and countryside alike during the century when the new conquerors ruled their vast
empire from this very country. The remains reveal many changes in the seventh and
eighth centuries, with some districts rising ancl prospering while others fall further and
further into decay.
At Antioch, a general devclopment is c1ear though impossible to follow chronologi-
cally. During the Umayyad period, when it served as an important military base, the
city lost whatever remained of its ancient urban appearance. Only a few great churches
remaineel standing, and still in use, as signs of a departed splenelor. Otherwise, public
buildings and large houses were divided for a small-scale occupation especially evident
in the streets, former broad boulevards now often blockeel by intrusive building. Most of
the great villas, like those in the comfortable suburb of Daphne, had long since been
abandoncd. The Umayyael city, it would seem, had the appearance of a town or village.
The hili country around Antioch and Apamea contil1l1ed to support a large popula-
tion but in conditions of increasing squalor. The excavations of Dehes reveal a pI ace
whose population had not elec1ineel, who still grew their products anel traded them-
finds of coins show continuing economic activity-but whose houses were falling down
around them. When parts ofthe houses collapsed, they were simply propped up, rubbish
was leveled to make new flom's, and more activity took place in the courtyards. One
house may have been abaneloned around the time of the conquest, but it was soon reoc-
cupied. The general impression is of a large population living in eleteriorating conelitions
through the entire period. The impression might have to be qualified by the Kaper Kor-
aon treasure, whose latest objects are of the time of the Arab conquest. Whether this
silver was buried because of the arrival of the Al'abs or much later, it shows that some
village churches still had considerable resources. The population of this elistrict was and
CLIVE FOSS 265
remained Christian; there is no trace of Muslim settlement or conversion to Islam in the

entire region.
The most striking and detailed evidence comes fromApamea, where the city under-
went what the excavators aptly call a process of deurbanization. Fundamental change
±rom an urban to a quasi-rural environment is evident in every part o[ the site. The
colonnades of the grand boulevards were blocked, and structures, probably shops, ex-
tended out into the streets in a process that seems to have begun in the middle of the
seventh century. The major churches still stood but were surrounded by graveyards that
intruded into the outlying buildings of the ecdesiastical complexes.
The fa te o[ the houses was most drastic. Their large rooms and courts were divided
and put to new use in aseries of operations that involved fiürly careflil work. It seems
dear that they were transformed from the residences of individual aristocratic families
to those o[ numerous peasants 01' artisans who often established small-scale production
in the houses. The process of transformation seems to have been especially active in the
mid-seventh century: in the Console House, for example, the wall decoration collapsed
after 630, and the weil was built into the great reception room around 660. Other houses
offer similar, ifoften less precise evidence. It appears that the first stage oftransförmation
followed the Arab conquest, under circumstances that ean be better imagined than de-
scribed.
The remains dearly indicate a major change of population, a process that probably
began at the time of the Persian invasions, may have been temporarily arrested by the
Byzantine reconquest, but no doubt accelerated under the Arabs. Those who le[t were
evidently the aristocraey, abandoning their houses that filled mllch of the center of the
city. They were replaced by people who lived on a smaller scale, presumably representing
an influx from the eountryside. The population of the city thus inereased rather than
diminished as more people lived in each house. The reasons [or such an infillx may have
to do with the degradation of the local environment that the excavations have suggested,
as weil as an increasing pressure ofpopulation in the villages. Umayyad Apamea, then,
no longer had the appearanee of a city but still supported a large population, though at
a much lower standard of living than in previous centuries. This population was over-
whelmingly Christian. It still used existing churches around which it was buried. There
is only one trace of the new religion, in the small mosque bllilt in the main eolonnade.
Its size and loeation show that it was not intended to serve a large congregation but may
have been built largely [or travelers passing along the route that töllowed this street.
Muslims are also absent from the territory of Apamea, whose development seems to
have been similar to that of Antioch, as far as can be judged without excavation. Yet it
offers one anomaly in the form of the treasure of Site 13. This large hoard of gold coins
was buried arollnd 680 and represents the coinage in circulation at that time. Although
there is no way to determine the circllmstances of its deposit or the identity of its owner,
the mere existence of such a treasure indicates that the region was not altogether impov-
erished but that considerable money was still circulating in the immediate sUlToundings
of Apamea.
Epiphania (Hama) forms a reh'eshing contrast to this general image of desolation.
The city seems not to have suHered at all: its large houses were still occupied in the eighth
centUl'y as they had been in the sixth, and the Umayyads brought major construction of
a kind not yet encountered. The cathedral was transformed into (or replaced by) a large
mosque, which stood in the center of the city. This indicates a major Muslim presence,
in contrast to the regions to the north. Similarly, the countryside has traces of Muslim
settlement in the form ofsmall mosques. Although these cannot be dated, it appears that
Ma'aret al-Nu'man became an important Muslim settlement also in this period.
The southern district, as before, follows a different development, first evident at Ros-
tra, which continued to playa role in regional administration. Here the Cmayyacls
showed the dominance of Islam by building a large mosque in the center ofthe city. The
smaller mosque of al-Mabrak by the walls probably was also their work. Likewise, the
large farmhouse at the edge of the city was also a product of this periocl. The establish-
ment of Islam did not entail the disappearance of Christianity, för the calhedral and the
other large church were still in use. The fate of the public buildings is less clear; one of
the baths may have continued to function, the other was ruined and abandoned. The
square by the Nabatean arch was occupied by intrusive buildings, suggesting a pattern
of occupation similar to that of the other cities. The major break here came not with the
Arabs but with the great earthquake of749, wh ich devastated the city and left little stand-
ing. Until then, Bostra appears to have been a flourishing place, like Hama, one that
retained its earlier prosperity but assumed a new, Islamic appearance.
The territory of Rostra continued its peaceful and prosperous existence, with a few
major additions. Churches were still being built or repaired and other works constructed
as late as 735. Existing churches still functionecl at Khirbet al-Samra, where the mosaics
were clefacecl in the iconoclasm ofthe 720s. Umm al-Jimallikewise saw substantial recon-
struction in the early eighth century, perhaps after aperiod of deterioration. All these
sites were Christian, as was the vast majority ofthe population throughout this southern
districL But as in Bosra, Islam makes its appearance here. The camp at Jabiya was main-
tained as a major military base until the early eighth century, though it has leh no mate-
rial trace. More substantial is the complex of fort (Qasr al-Hallabat), mosque, and bath
(Hammam al-Sarakh) at the very southern limit of this districL These struclures formed
part of an organized settlement with a sophisticated system of irrigation that represents
a new phenomenon of an aristocratic dwelling on the bounds of the desert of a kind
familiar in greater examples in Jordan.
What, then, did the Arabs do with the regions they conquered? For the most part,
they seem to have left them alone. The great cities of the north and their territories
continued to deteriorate, with little added to their fabric. Only the smallmosque at Apa-
mea attests a Muslim presence, though the military establishment at Antioch would also
have been represented in constructions that have not been discovered. Only at Hama
did the Umayyads bring major change in the form ofa large central mosque and perhaps
with scattered settlements in its countryside. The image of Rostra is similar to that of
Hama: a substantial Muslim presence in the city, with an occasional new center in the
territory that remained overwhelmingly Christian.
All this suggests that the Muslims did not arrive in overwhelming numbers and that
they settled primarily in tbe cities from whicb they could rule tbe rest. Tbey appear to
have left the Christian population to its own clevices, only administering it ancl collecting
taxes. They rarely settled in the countryside, though lhey did establish one new site on
CLIVE FOSS 267
the edge of the desert. Nor did they create an "Islamic city." Where evidenee of their
settlement is available, it appears that they simply inserted their new buildings into an
existing fabric, but were eareful to plaee them in dominating central positions. This is
especially evident at Hama, where the mosque replaced the existing cathedral, but at
Rostra mosques shared the urban space with equally grand churches. This implies a
degree of peaceful coexistence throughout the Umayyad period, with Muslims and
Christians living side by side in some of the cities, themselves embedded in an almost
entirely Christian countryside. The Muslims were dearly a small minority of the popula-
tion concentrated in a few places rather than scattered through the region. m
Where Muslims settled, they brought major changes to the existing cities in the form
of mosques, but otherwise the life of the late Roman city and country continued as it had
been. Places that were prospering in the late sixth eentury, like Epiphania and the region
of Bostra, continued to fiourish under the new rulers. Cities that were al ready in decay
went on deteriorating. The countryside in the north, stagnating since the sixth centUJ-y
or the Persian occupation, also sank to a lower level. None of this, however, constitutes a
sharp break with the past; the transition was gradual throughout the region. The drastic
breaks had occurred earlier-on several occasions at Antioch, in 573 at Apamea-and
were to come again at the end of this period.
The end ofthe U mayyads gene rally marked the end of prosperity in this region. The
most drastic discontinuity in urban life was brought by the great earthquake of 749. This
affiicted a wide area, induding Bostra, which was "swallowed up" and never recovered.
\Vhether it so a[[ected Umm al-Jimal is less dear, but occupation seems to cease around
this time. The whole southern district, which had flourished continuously, now seems to
undergo major change; there is no evidenee o[ construction in churches or villages after
735. Although no dear break can be identified elsewhere, it is dear that conditions
in the ninth ancl tenth centUJ-ies were far less favorable than they had been under the
Umayyads.
At Bostra, oeeupation seems to end in the ninth eentury. Its territory, also, became
deserted: the Muslim settlement south o[ U mm al-Jimal produeed no evidenee later than
the ninth century, nor did the whole southern distriet. Apamea was inhabited until the
early tenth, but the final period was one of inereasing squalor, with poor disorganized
use of the surviving buildings. The ehurehes appear to have been abandoned and the
houses oeeupied by peasants who built tiny stalls tor their animals. By 891 the plaee
could be deseribeel as a ruin. The hili country, to judge by the examplc of Dehes, also
eleteriorated, to be abandoned altogether by the ninth or tenth eentury.
T\vo eities stand out from this general image of desolation. Hama prospered under
the Abbasids, who restored the mosque anel built a new fort. It could be deseribed as
fiourishing in 884. Antioeh, Iikewise, profi ted from its strategie loeation near the frontier
to retain some importanee [or eentUJ-ies after. In general, though, the evielenee dearly
identities the age of the Umayyads as the last perioel of prosperity this country was to
know for four hundred years. Thc eighth eentury marked the end, and for some plaees
the eulmination, o[ a fiourishing age that had begun with Alexander the Great, i[ not
earlier. Thereafter, universal desolation affiicted these regions until the time of the Ayyu-
'''See Donner, Earl] Conquests, 245-50, on the migration and settlement of Muslim Arabs in Syria.
bids in the twelfth century. The causes of that fundamental change certainly include civil
war, the increasing settlement of nomacls, ancl the transfer of the capital from Damascus
to Baghclacl; considering them would go lar beyoncl the aims of this study.
In sum, the archaeology allows regional clevc10pments to be clearly perceived. The
areas studied here prospered in the sixth century, were to some extent disturbed by the
Persian occupation, ancl were transformed in varying degrees \mder the Umayyads.
Their real dedine came in the ninth centUl'y or later. These conclusions are far from
answering the major questions about the nature of the Islamic conquest and transforma-
tion of Syria, but can provide a stepping-stone toward a more profound consideration of
the problems. Ir the material studiecl here were combinecl with that from other parts of
Syria, ancl especially with the abundant archaeological record ofJordan, real progress
might be made toward understanding one of the great events of western history, as weil
as the natures ofthe late Roman and Umayyacl empires. Much remains to be done, but
when it is clone, it will necessarily take careful account of the archaeological documenta-
tion and integrate it into the general his tory of the age.
Lniversity of Massachusetts, Boston
Abbreviations
Antiach: Antiach on the Orontes, all published in Priru:etün:
I: The Excavations 0/1932, ed. G. W. Elderkin (1');\4)
11: 1fte Excavations, 19))-1936, er!. R. Stillwcll (1938)
IH: The Exwvlltions, 1937-1939, ed. R. Stillwell (1941)
I V.l: Ceram;cs and Islam;c Coins, ed. F. O. Waage (1948)
V: IJ's portiques d'Antioche. ed. J. LasslIs (l9i7)
Apamh: Fonilles d'Apanu'e, all pllblished in Brussels:

Apamee 1.1: J. N"poleone-Lemaire and J. Balty, regtise (l atrium de I" grande colonnade (1969)
Aparnee Ml3: Ajmmee de Spie. Bilan des recherches arcfu'ologiques, 1973-1979: Aspeäs rie {'architeetare
domestique ri'Apamee (Fouilles "·Apmnee. Mise. , fase. 13), er!. J. Balty (19tH)
Aparnee 1969: Apamee rie Syrü,. Bilun ries mcherches archPologiques. 1965-1968 (~ Fonilles d'/lj}{l1nee, Misc,
hls<':' 6), er!. J. Balty (1969)
Aparnie 1972: Ajmmee rle S)Tie. Bilan ries recherches archeologiques, 1969-1971 (~ Fouilles d'Apamie. ivlisc.,
fase. 7), ed. J. and J. Balty (1972)
Butler: H. C. Butler, Syria: Publiwtions of the Pr;neeton University Archaeological ExtJerlition\ to Syria (Leiden,
1907-49)
CLlVE FOSS 269

ApPENDIX: DATED INSCRIPTIONS FROM AL-A'LA
The texts are all published by W. K. Prentice in Creek and Latin Inscriptions frmn Syria
(= Butler IllB.l, 1-42). The names are those of village sites.
C = church H = house L = lintel T = tower

344 Mishrifeh: L? 565 Sheikh Ali Kasun: L
362 Halban: fragment 570 Tell id-Deheb: L
373 Ir-Ruheibeh: H 573 It-Tuba: H
454 Mishrifeh: stone 575 Nawa:L
468/77 Nawa: C? 575 Abu'l Kudur: L?
470 Tell id-Deheb: L 577 Umm et-Tuweineh: C
484 Nawa: fragment 579 Sabba: C?
489 Tell id-Deheb: L 580 Idnin: L
506 Sheikh Ali Kasun: T 582 It-Tuba: L
530 Ir-Ruheibeh: L 584 Mishrifeh: L
534 Halban: fragment 586? Zabbudeh: L?
541 Halban: T 590 Zabbudeh: L
542 11 'Anz: L 592 Zabbudeh: L
544 Sabba: L 593 Tell id-Deheb: architrave
547 Sabba: L 597? Mishrifeh: church plaque
557 Ir-Ruheibeh: fragment 598 Sheikh Ali Kasun: L
559 Nawa: L 598 It-Tayibeh: fragment
560 Temek: L 598 Deir Nawa: monastery
561 Kunbus: T 599 Nawa: C
564 Ir-Ruheibeh: L 605 Sheikh Ali Kasun: L
8
RECRUITMENT IN ROMAN ARMIES FROM JUSTINIAN
TO HERACLIUS (ca. 565-615)
Michael Whitby
1 Introduction
THE NATURE of Roman annies in the sixth century 1is rightly regarded as
important for an understanding of military and administrative developments
in the seventh century, when late-Roman arrangements were eventually
superseded by the Byzantine system of military organization based on the
themes: there may be dis agreements about the date of the change and about
whether it was a grand reform instituted by a particular saviour of the state
or a gradual and piecemeal transformation, but it is accepted that change
occurred, For the sixth century there is a relative abundance of evidence
concerning warfare, not just in the Greek historians Procopius, Agathias,
Menander Protector, and Theophylact Simocatta whose classicizing works
1 The dales of my tide are approximate, a convenient half century, but it is not my intention
to describe in detail the annies of Iustinian (for which see A. Müller, "Das Heer Iustinians
nach Prokop und Agathias", PhiloZogus 71 (1912), 101-38; K, Hannestad, "Les fOl'ces
militaires d'apres la guerre gothique de Procope", Classica et Medievalia 21 (1961), 136-83;
John L, TeaU, 'The Barbarians in Justiuian's Annies", Speculum 40 (1965), 294-322) nor
to grapple with the problems of possible military reorganization by Heraclius, which are
being examined by others. Relevant material from outside these limits will, however, be
examined. Thanks are due 10 all participants in Ihis Workshop for aseries of stimulating
sessions as weil as for specific comments on an earlier version of tlIis paper, 10 Peter
Heather and Mary Whitby for reading the paper even though they could not aUend the
Workshop, to Mark Whittow for acting as discussant, and to Averil Cameron as organizer
of thc Workshop as weil as editor of the proceedings.
2 7 8 - - - - LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE EVE OF ISLAM - - - - -
62 Michael Whitby
foeus on the eonduet of war and diplomaey,2 but also in Greek and Syriac
chronicles and ecc1esiastical histories, in Armenian narratives, and in Latin
letter collections, and this material can be supplemented by imperial

legislation and by papyri relating to military units stationed in Egypt and
Palestine. But in spite of this mass of evidence and of detailed studies,
notably in recent years by John Haldon, there are still serious problems
affecting our conception of the formation of the late Roman army.3 A.H.M.
Jones, in the standard work in English on the late empire, postulated a
substantial change in the methods of military recruitment at some point
between the early fifth and sixth centuries, with conscription disappearing
so that recruits had to be attracted into the army as volunteers. Jones
admitted that "the revolution in recruitment is a surprising one", since there
is no evidence that pay 01' general conditions of service had improved since
the days of compulsion in the fourth and fifth centmies, but he believed that
the new system worked quite wen for Justinian, who managed to maintain
the size and military effectiveness of his armies. fu the same chapter,
however, Iones also asserted that recunent mutinies in the sixtb century
indicated that conditions of service bad seriously deteriorated, a view that
he did not attempt to reconcile witb the apparent success of recruitment at
the time. 4 Roman military recruitment is not a simple' issue, and the
volunteer/conscript debate impinges on other issues such as the sources of
reeruits, the proportion of barbarians in the army, the possible role of land
as opposed to money eitber as an incentive to enrol for service 01' as the
underpinning of continuing service, and the significance of private fOl·ces.
These problems may be too complex for resolution, but the evidence
2 Note, however, the eomment of Gary A. Crump, Ammianus Marcellinus as a Military

Historian, Historia Einzelsehriften 27 (1975),47, "His reports reveal almost nothing about
the administrative funetioning oIlhe war maehine, beeause he limits his writing to matters
whieh bear direct1y on aetion in the field". This is just as applieable 10 sixth-eentury
historians as to Ammianus.
3 John F. Haldon, Recruitment and Conscription in the Byzantine Arl1fY c. 550-950. A
Study on the Origins of the Stratiotika Ktemata, Sitzungsberichte der Osterreichisehen
Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse 357 (Vienna, 1979) part A (20-40); also
idem, Byzantine Praetorians. An Administrative, lnstitutional and Sodal Survey of the
Opsikion and Tagmata, c. 580-900, Poildia Byzantina 3 (Bonn, 1984) eh. 1 (95-141);
idem, Byzantium in the Seventh Century. The Transformation of a Culture (Cambl'idge,
1990) ch.6; and für an attempt to set military matters in a bl'oader context, idem, "Ideology
and Social Change in the Seventh Century: Military Discontent as a Barometer", Klio 68
(1986), 139-90. John Haldon, "Military Service, Military Lands and the Status of Soldiers:
Current Problems and Interpretations", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 47 (1993), 1-67,
unfortunately appeared too late to be laken into consideration here.
4 A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire 284-602, A Social, Economic and
Administrative Survey (Oxford, 1964), eh. 17, esp. 668-70, 677-78.
Recruitment in Roman Armies 63
deserves another look and uncertainties over sixthwcentury practices may

benefit from being considered in a wider context.
The essence of my argument is that the Roman army remained a

powerful fighting machine throughout the sixth century, a machine that was
under central imperial control and that, generally, remained loyal to its
imperial master. Roman defeats in the seventh century were not the
product of a long-term and gradual decline in Roman military
effectiveness,5 but were, like the military crisis in the eastern provinces in
the third centmy, sparked off by civil wars and their attendant disruption to
imperial control, coupled with financial problems and the challenges of an
unfamiliar enemy.
2 Earlier Roman Practice

. From its very beginnings Rome had been astate in which warfare was
important far personal and national success;6 military vietories gave Rome
dominance aver its allies in Italy and in due course a Meditenanean-wide
empire. When the empire eventually eame to be controlled by an emperor
this man, Augustus, was a military dynast whase autharity, in spite of all
attempts to put a civilian face on the regime, depended on personal contral
of the annies.7 Subsequent emperors, if they wished to avoid the fate of
Nero, preserved links with their soldiers, presenting themse1ves as fellow-
campaigners bath figurativelyon coinage that was used to pay military
salaries and, especially in the ease of emperors who aseended the throne
without an existing military reputation, physically by participating in
eampaigns in the field. 8 The advice which Septirnius Severus, dying at York
in 212, Is alleged to have given to his sons, "be harmonious, enrich the
soldiers, and despise all the rest", encapsulated the basis of imperial rule. 9
Even for these wellwdocumented periods of Roman history, however, there
are uncertainties about the nature of military recruitment. Military service
was an obligation for all Roman citizens under the Republic, though until
the late second centUl)' Re. a property qualification was observed except in
5 Thi8 general thesis 1S similar to that argued with respect to Palestine by Benjamin Isaac in
his contribution to the Warkshop.
6 W.V. Harris, War and lmperialism in Republican Rome (Oxford, 1979).
7 For a variety of approaches to Augustus and bis image(s), see the contributions to Fergus
Millar and Erleh Segal, eds., Caesar Augustus: Seven Aspects (Oxford, 1984), and Anton
Powell, ed., Roman Poetry and Propaganda in the Age 01 Augustus (Landan, 1992).
8 See J.B. Campbell, The Emperor and the Rol1Ul11. Army 31 BCwAD 235 (Oxford, 1984),
32-69.
9 Cassius Dio 77.15.2 (trans. E. Cary, Loeb ed., vol. ix, Landon, 1927).
64 Michael Whitby
extreme erises such as the Hannibalie War, since membership of the army
was a privilege as weH as a duty,lO Since soldiers received no public
remuneration apart from a contribution towards living expenses, they had

to possess some independent livelihood; this was often a small farm that
could be worked by their own and their fami1y's labour. Legions were
enrolled by means of the dilectus, literally "choosing" , whose theoretical
operation is described, perhaps in somewhat antiquarian terms, by the
second-century B.C. Greek historian Polybius: one has to assurne that
comparahle levies were organized in the colonies and municipalities of
Roman Italy and in allied Italian states, and much of the practical burden of
effecting the levy will therefore have fallen on Ioeal elites in these pI aces .11
Regular reviews of the citizen lists provided a check on those who had not
fulfilled their military obligations: defaulters might be downgraded in the
census categories, flogged, imprisoned, 01' even sold as slaves. Ideally
Roman citizens knew their duty and volunteered to perform this, but in
reality the system was less perfect. A popular campaign where the prospect
of booty was good and the commander already possessed areputation for
success would attract crowds of genuine volunteers: Spurius Ligustinus,
aged over 50 an!i with 22 years of military service behind hirn (when 16
was the prescribed maximum), volunteered in 171 B.C. to fight in the Third
Macedonian War, proclaiming that he was content with a place in the ranks
even though he had already held the post of senior centurion four times.
But levying for unpopular campaigns, such as those in Spain in the 150s and
130s, would be complicated by the reluctance of individuals to come
forward on time, and might be thwarted by tribunician veto. Conscription
did not guarantee that a general would obtain an army when he required it,
and in these circumstances what made the difference between success and
failure were personal connections and reputation. A good example is Scipio
Aemilianus, famous as the destroyer of Carthage in 146, who was elected
consul for 133 in order to tenninate a difficult war in Spain by capturing
the enemy stronghold of Numantia: one Roman army had already
surrendered in inglorious circumstances outside this city, and levies for the
10 Far a tharough discussian, see PA. Brunt, Italian Manpower, 225 B.C.-A.D. 14 (2nd
ed. Oxfard, 1987).
II Palybius VI.19-21 (trans. W.R. Patan, Loeb ed., Landon, 1922-27), with a defenee of
its basie reliability by Elizabeth Rawsan, "The Literary Sources far the Pre-Maliall Army",
PBSR 39 (1971), 13-31, reprinted in eadem, Roman Culture and Sociery, Collected Papers
(Oxford, 1991) eh. 3; Brunt, Manpower, 625-34, ia more sceptical. In general, see
Lawrence Keppie, The Making 0/ the Roman Army, From Republic to Empire (Landon,
1984).
Spanish war had been repeatedly obstructed, but Scipio' s reputation and a
network of his personal friends throughout Italy ensured that he quickly
obtained the necessary troops, about 4,000 in total. In 107 another popular
leader, Gaius Marius'was able to enrol 5,000 troops at a time when military
pressures had created problems in the levy for other generals; Marius may
have circumvented these by abandoning the property qualification for
military service, but that he carne from Arpinum, a hill town in central
Italy, and had good local contacts in the Italian countryside were certainly
also a help.
Conscription, however, remained the basic method of filling the
legions for the civil wars of the late Republic and, although the lack of
references to recruitment problems in the SOUfees has prompted sorne
scholars to assert that the imperial army was essentially a volunteer force,
compulsion continued to be needed when emperors controlled the state: the
pool of recruits had been increased to inc1ude inhabitants of provinces, but
conscription was still the only method for producing men to serve hundreds
of miles from their homeland. Conscription, like taxation, was a fact of life
aud so provoked lütle comment in our SQurces, though it was intensely
unpopular wirh its potential victims.1 2 It was up to the emperor to
authorize recruitment, and it would have been the responsibility of
provincial governors or subordinate officials to give effect to imperial
orders, but as under the Republic the cooperation of local elites in
provincial cities, towns and villages will have made the process of
extracting recruits much easier.
In the second century A.D. volunteers may have become more
prevalent in armies as a result of greater reliance on soldiers recruited for
local service, and of improved terms and conditions of service, but this
change probably would not have survived the military catastrophes of the
third century. The mechanics of conscription are likely to have been
overhauled by Diocletian: he needed more recruits, and his provincial
censuses provided the detailed information for these men to be extracted
from a reluctant population. Prom Diocletian it was the responsibility of
eities, or of landowners or groups of landowners, to furnish recruits or a
monetary substitute (aurum tironicum) in those years and pI aces that
12 The continuing importance of eonseription undcr thc empire is argued by P.A .. Brunt,
"Conscliption and Volunteering in the Roman Imperial Army", Scripta Israelica Classica 1
(1974),90-115, reprinted in idem, Roman Imperial Themes (Oxford, 1990), eh. 9, 188-
214, hut played down in Graham Watson, The Roman Soldier (Ithaea, 1969) and idem, The
Roman Imperial Army (London, 1969). See also J.C. Mann, Legionary Recruitment and
Veteran Settlement du ring the Principate (Landon, 1983).
66 Michael Whitby
imperial authorities decided that bodies were not required. In the absence
of evidence it is assumed that Dioc1etian instituted this recruiting system,
though it is more likely that he adapted existing arrangements, inc1uding the

possibility of monetary substitution, to fit in with his overall taxation
reforms. 13 Enlistment was eneouraged by the granting of various tax
immunities and other privileges to veterans, depending upon their length of
service and the unit in which they served: immunity from the poIl tax
(capitatio) for the veteran rnight be extended to bis wife, and on occasions
to two other capita, veterans were exempt from market and customs dues
and from various compulsory Iocal services, and they were given aland
allotment with some start-up equipment or, as an alternative for a time, a
cash grant for the establishment of a busines8.l 4
Two main points of relevance to the sixth century should be drawn
from this survey of earlier Roman recruitment. First, the obligation on
citizens to fight for their state was such a common assumption that the
procedures whereby men were drafted into the army rnight provoke Httle
comment: thus Polybius, though fascinated by the Roman military system
and more informative than most Roman writers, glossed over the actual
enlistment of r.ecruits and focused instead on their distribution into
legions.1 5 Second, the recmitment process functioned most smoothly when
the officer(s) in charge of enrolment had the cooperation of Iocal elites at
city, town, and even village level: the right person in the right place could
find recruits where others drew a blank. This second point ean be
reinforced by a glance at a recruitment process that i8 quite weIl
documented and has certain similarities with Roman arrangements, namely
the enlistment of regiments from the Scottish Highlands in the eighteenth
century .16 In the Highlands the production of a regiment in time of military
need, for example the Seven Years War or the American War of
Independence, was a conscious act by a chieftain behaving as a military
entrepreneur in order to achieve sodal or political advancement. It was a
favoured way for chiefs, in disgrace for supporting the Young Pretender in
13 Iones, LRE, 615, for the assumption of innovation by Diocletian; for continnity see
Brunt, "Conscription", at 212-14 (all page references relate to the reprint).
14 G.Th. VII.20, ed. T. Mommsen and P.M. Meyer (Berlin, 1905); Iones, LRE, 617,
635-36.
15 Brunt, Manpower, 628.
16 A Scottish parallel is drawn by Brunt, "Conscription" (Addenda, 513), with particular
reference to military unl'est, citing lohn Prebble, Mutiny: Highland Regiments in Revolt
1743-1804 (London, 1977). Far the recruitment process I have relied on the stimulating
work ofBruce Lenman, The lacobite Clans ofthe Great Glen, 1650-1784 (London, 1984),
esp. eh. 9-10.
1745-46, to regain freedom, property and positions of influenee. Si mon

Fraser, Lord Lovat, whose father was exeeuted in 1747, was deprived of
the family estates until in 1757 he raised a regiment of 800 men on his
forfeited property and the lands of kinsmen, whi1e Ioeal Iairds added a
further 700 reeruits: this regiment, whieh won the battle for Quebee for
Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham, was the meehanism for the rein statement
of numerous Jacobite lairds; by the time that Fraser's Highlanders were
among the troops trapped into surrender at Yorktown in 1781 the Lord
Lovat was again a respeeted man of property and influenee. For successful
recruitment loeal links, or control of Ioeal patronage networks, were
essential sinee Highlanders, in spite of their poverty, were no more
enthusiastic about service in distant lands than Roman provincials: 17 the
eharacter and family of the person reeruiting are frequently cited as crucial
for the operation's suceess,18 but the cooperation of local clergy, taeksmen
(major tenants who then sublet their rented lands), and minor lairds also
assisted the process. Promises or blackmail, a variety of "special offers"
such as enlarged holdings, rent rebates and longer, or otherwise improved,
terms of tenure for the willing, threats of legal action for minor offenees
such as poaching or stealing wood, and physieal intimidation of tenants who
remained reluctant, 19 eneouraged the individual to enlist. 20 The end
17 Thus the independent companies of the Highland Regiment, the future Black Watch,
were disconccrted by the prospect of service in England and attempted to march horne from
Highgatc; see Anon., A ShOTt History 0/ the Highland Regiment, originally published in
1743, with a foreword by Colonel Paul P. Hutchison (Cornwallville, N.Y., 1963), 27-38.
18 E.g. Colonel David Stcwart oe Garth, Sketches 01 the Character, Manners and Present
State 0/ the Highlanders 01 Scotland, with Details 0/ the Military Service 0/ the Highland
Regiments (Edinburgh, 1822),11. 172,220; Loraine Maelean ofDoehgarroch, The Raising
0/ the 79th Highlanders (Society of West Highland and Island Historical Research,
Inverness, 1980), for which Allan Cameron of Erracht's reeruiting poster serves as cover
illustration; the poster proelaims "The past and well known Generosity of Major Cameron to
all his COUlltrymen who have applied to hirn on fonner oecasions, is the strongcst Pledge of
his future Goodness to such as shall now step forward and En1ist under his Banner."
19 John Maleolm Bulloeh, Territorial Soldiering in the Narth-East 0/ Seatlami dUl'ing 1759-
1814 (The New Spalding Club, Aberdeen, 1914), xxx. See also Stanley D.M. Carpenter,
Patterns 0/ Recruitment 0/ the Highland Regiments of the British Army 1756 to 1815 (St
Andrews University, unpublished M. Phi!., 1978) eh. 3. Aecounts of actual intimidation are
rare, and Stewart of Garth in particular tends to prcsent a picture of the Highlanders'
patriotic martial enthusiasm, but Lord Macdonald for example was given pennission to raise
the 76th Regiment from among his tenants by all necessary means, and there were also
delays in raising the 78th Ross-shire Highlanders in 1793 since the recruiting area had
already been subjeeted to the PI'OCCSS of clcarance for sheep farming (Stewart of Garth,
Sketches, II, 178-79).
20 Less orthodox measures were adopted by Jean, Duchess of GOI'don, who supposedly
kissed all recruits to the 89th Gordon Highlanders being raised by her son; to attract
reluctant volunteers shc is said to have placed a guinea between her lips: Lt-Col Greenhill
68 Michael Whitby
produet were regiments whieh straddled the apparent divide between public
and private mi1itary forees: they had been raised by private individuals for
personal ends, either from private estates or through family patronage

networks, but their employment, though intended to provide a private
benefit to their creator, was essentially in the public domain, to help the
English government in London to fight distant imperialist wars. 21
Population was a resource that eould be exploited in a variety of ways, and
a government needed the support of loeal gentry if this was to be ehannelled
into military service. Highland soldiers were not conscripts, but the
mechanics of their emolment warn against the assumption that a volunteer
army was regularly produced by purely voluntary means.
3 The Sixth-Century Army

The preceding survey of earlier Roman practice and the Scottish analogy is
intended to suggest three faetors of relevance to Iater Roman arrangements:
1) that evidenee for a very corumon aetivity like recruitrnent may be seanty,
but infrequeney of allusions does not prove that a practice was not
prevalent; 2) thafin practical terms eonscription and volunteering are not
such opposites a-s they might seem, since the former depends on a
willingness to eome forward, the latter on a degree of "eneouragement" for
the volunteers to emerge; 3) that, granted the nature of administration and
organization, tocal elites had to be favourably disposed, whether through
prospect of personal advance or good propaganda or some other means, if
manpower was to be extracted from the countryside for the armies.
With regard to the sixth century two preliminary issues, the main
components and the overall size of military forces, must be c1arified as far
as possible since both are relevant to the recruitment proeess. In the fourth
century, and through into the fifth, there were two basic categories of
Roman troops , mobile forees or comitatenses, and garrison troops or
limitanei;22 the comitatenses were commanded by emperors in person or
Gardyne, The Life 0/ a Regiment, The History 0/ the Gordon Highlanders I (Edinburgh,
1901), 13-14.
21 As Mark Whittow has pointed out, an important indirect consequence of this service was
the gradual integration of Scots into the British nation, a point with obvious paralleis
throughout the Roman world, from the bien ding of Roman and Italian through shared
military service in the Republic to the assimilation of non-Roman recruits in the lale empire.
22 For a succinct survey of the elements, see Iones, LRE, 607-14. For detailed
mvestigation of the Notitia Dignitatum and it8 connections with evidence about the anny in
narrative sources, see Dienich Hoffmann, Das spätrömische Bewegungsheer und die Notitia
Dignitatum (Düsseldorf, 1969). On the fourth-century army see also, more briefly,
Alexander Demandt, Der Spätantike. Römische Geschichte von Diocletian bis Justinian 284-
magistri militum, whereas limitanei were under the control of comites or

duces; the individual units in the two categories used different names for
their officers. The comitatenses were elite tl'OOPS while the limitanei, like
any static unit of soldiers, tended to decline in quality until apparently they
were no longer considel'ed to be real soldiel's.23 Thel'e may even have been
different methods of recruitment, with limitanei being required to enrol
theil' sons to succeed to a "family" position while comitatenses were
conscripts and/or volunteers with no hereditary obligation. Advice on
recruitment into the comitatenses i8 provided in Vegetius, Epitome o[
Military Science, a work probably composed in about 390 although it may
date from up to half a century later: 24 recruits should be levied from the
more temperate climes, whose inhabitants will combine the intelligence of
people who live near the sun and the bellicosity of peoples of the north,
while lacking their respective disadvantages; recruits should be drawn from
the rural population whenever possible, since they are tough, healthy and
steadfast, but if necessity entailed the enlistment of city dwellers these must
acquire the virtues of the rustics through energetic training; recruits from
certain backgrounds (fishel'men, fowlers, pastry-cooks, weavers, and
anyone with any contact with textile mills) are to be rejected, others
preferred (masons, blacksmiths, wainwrights, butchers, huntsmen), since
the safety of the state is based on recluits being levied who are outstanding
in both physique and moral quality.25 There was also a substantial noo-
Roman element within the army, drawn partly from trihesmen settled
within the empire under agreements or as prisoners of war, and partly from
external tribes. These might be enrolled in the limitanei, but it was more
common to employ them in elite units of the comitatenses and imperial
565 n. ehr. (Munieh, 1989), 255-72, and R.S.O. Tomlin, "The Army of the Late Empire"
in Jahn Wacher, ed., The Ronwn World (London, 1987) I, eh. 7.
23 E. Stein, Histoire du BaseEmpire II (Paris, 1949), 86, following 1. Maspero,
Organisation militaire de I'Egypte byzantine (Palis, 1912),44"45 (who was more eautious),
and R. Grosse, Römische Militärgeschichte von Gallienus bis zum Beginn der
byzantinischen Themenverfassung (Berlin, 1920), 275"76. Far some modifieations to
Masp6ro's eonclusians abaut the army in Egypt, see Rager Remandon, "Soldats de
Byzanee d'apres un papyrus trouve aEdfou", Recherehes de Papyrologie 1 (1961),41"93.
24 Vegelius, ed. C. Lang (Leipzig, 1885); succinct discussion of author and dating
arguments, with referenees to previous contributions, i8 pl'Ovided by N.P. Milner, VegetiU8:
Epitome ofMilitary Science, TIH (Livcrpool, 1993), xxi-xxix.
25 Vegetius, Epitome 1.1"7; cf. 11.5 for rceommcndation of a foufemonth training period
between selection and formal registl'ation on the military rolls.
70 Michael Whitby
bodyguards, or if large numbers of tribesmen were involved as federate

units under the command of their own leaders. 26
But distinctions did not survive uncontaminated, since even in the

fourth century there were transfers between the two categories of troops,
Le. limitanei served in mobile armies or comitatenses were posted to
frontiers, without the units involved necessarily being redesignated. 27
During the fifth century the development of the eastern Roman army is
obscured by lack of evidence,28 but in the sixth century a structure that is
basically comparable to the fourth century is visible. Frontiers were
guarded in the first instance by limitanei, although at key points units of
comitatenses, known variously as numeri, arithmoi, katalogoi or tagmata,
could be stationed as strengthening: at the recently reconstructed Palmyra
lustinian stationed an arithmos of soldiers, i.e. comitatenses, alongside
limitanei, allegedly to protect Jerusalem and other Roman territory.29 Such
joint postings might suggest that the boundary between these two groups
was being eroded, but lustinian's legislation to re-establish provincial
administration in Africa after the reconquest indicates both that there was
still a notional difference between their respective tasks, and that limitanei
were sufficiently "usefu! to be worth reintroducing into Africa.30 In 534
26 See J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz, Barbarians and Bishops, Army, Church and State in the
Age of Arcadius and lohn Chrysostom (Oxford, 1990), ehs. 2-3; Iones, LRE, 611-12.
Discussion offourth-century federntes has been somewhat eomplieated by the indiserirninate
applieation of the term "federnte" by Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth
Century (Washington, 1984), esp. Part Three, to the Arnb contingents which served in
fourth-eentury Roman armies, but this misuse of the terrn i8 dealt with by Jean-Michel
Carrie in his eontribution to this volume. See also Benjamin Isaae, The Limits of Empire.
The Roman Army in the East (Oxford, 1990), 235-51, for a elear diseussion of nomad
allies.
27 For evidence see Iones, LRE, 1091-92, n.28.
28 The fragments ofMalchus (00. and trans. R.C. Bloekley, The Fragmentary Classicising
Historians of the Later Roman Empire 11, Liverpool, 1983) provide the most useful
evidenee, reeording campaign preparations (18.1), numbers in hypothetical Roman armies
(18.2.14-18), the existence 01' operation of the Thracian, lllyrian and greater Praesental field
annies (18; 20), and above all highlighting the competition among Gothic groups to gain the
privileges of Roman military status, with the rewards being especially important for GOthic
leaders who could expect the Roman military system to underpin their own prestige; on
these events, see Peter Heather, Goths and Romans 332-489 (Oxford, 1991),265-71. The
picture of the anny in Malchus, however, i8 fragmentary, so that there remains a frustrating
gap between the worlds of Ammianus and Procopius. .
:1.9 Malalas, Chronographia, ed. L. Dindorf (Bonn, CSHB, 1832), p. 426.1-5; Iones,
LRE, 685-86. Benjamin Isaac has stressed to me the implausibility of this explanation in
Malalas, and suggested that a parallel might be found in the Iustinianic depIoyment of troops
at the monastery at Mount Sinai, where control of Arab movement is conneeted with a
religious Ioeation.
30 Co d.Iust. 1.27.2.8 (Corpus iuris civilis I, ed. P. Krüger, 10th ed. [Berlin 1929]).
Procopius, Wars N.8.21 (Opera Omnia. ed. I. Haury, rev. G. Wirth [Leipzig 1963-64]),
Justinian dispatched a unit of limitanei to Africa, and ordered Belisarius to

enrol suitable provincials into similar units so that frontiers could be
defended without the intervention of comitatenses and that the land be

cultivated, with the hope of encouraging other provincials to move into
these areas. Comitatenses are here distinguished from limitanei as a back-up
force, and it might be significant that limitanei had not been among the units
of the original expedition sent against the Vandals, but both comitatenses
and limitanei might be deployed in major armies on the eastern frontier,
and in generallarge expeditionary forces tended to be drawn from a variety
of units. 31
One area of disagreement concerns the military capabilities of sixth-
century comitatenses and limitanei. Joint deployment is interpreted as
reflecting a decline in the quality and prestige of the "stationary"
comitatenses, who conceded the main fighting role in the sixth century to
units specially raised either from warlike inhabitants of the empire (e.g.
Armenians, Isaurians or Illyrians), or from tribai groups. Both
comitatenses and the regional regiments are covered by the generic term
stratiotai, soldiers, although the newer groups are often mentioned under
their national labels.32 These higher-grade units were mostly cavalry,
whereas the "stationary" comitatenses and limitanei constituted the main
infantry element in the army; it i8 generally accepted that the quality of
Roman infantry had seriously declined by the sixth century, a view
apparently supported by accounts in Procopius of specific engagements.3 3
Such pessimistic assessments must not be pushed tao far, however, since
Procopius' evidence may be less conclusive than it seems,34 by the 590s the
explains Moorish raids by the sholtage of troops deployed on the frontier, who were also
still unprcpared - but their defensive purpose i8 deal'.
31 Mixed composition of large armies: Procopius, Wars 1.18.4-8; 11.16.1,16-17; III. 11;
V.5.1-4. Limitanei, cf. Isaac, Limits, 208-13; Teall, "Barbarians", 300.
32 E.g. Procopius, Wars 1.18.40; V.5.2; VII. 6. 10. In Maurice's Strategikon (ed. George
T. Dennis and Ernst Gamillscheg, Das StrGtegikon des Maurikios [Vienna, 1981]) the
Illyriciani are the only regional unit to be mentioned, and the advice about their deployment
indicates that they were regarded as among the best of the "Roman" regiments (ll.6.24).
33 Grosse, Militärgeschichte, 279; Stein, Ras-Empire, 87; Procopius, Wars IV.2.1-2, 3.4-
6; V.28.22, 24-27, and for general praise of the mounted arc her as the epitome of the
modern soldier, 1.1.12-15.
34 Thus the failme of the Roman infantry to pal'ticipate in the defeat of the Vandals at
Tricamaron in 533 was mel'ely a consequence of their inability to advance as quickly as the
cavalry (Wars IV.2-3), while the bebaviour of Tannut and Principius during the siege of
Rome (Wars V.29.38-43) could bc seen to vindicate their confidence in the capabilities of
Roman infantry (Wars V.28.24-27). lt i8 possible that Belisarius, primarily a cavalry
commander, adopted the traditional cavalryman' s contempt for infantry and so failed to lISC
it to its maximum potential, while at the same time infecting Procopius with his attitude.
72 Michael Whitby
Romans eould again deploy reliable foot soldiers,35 and throughout the
sixth centmy "ordinary" soldiers comprised a significant part of the army.
Tbe garrison of Asemus, garrison at is an example of a loeal defence force

(whether stationary comitatenses or limitanei is unknown, but probably the
latter) of sufficient quality to attract the jealous attention of the commander
of a mobile army: in 594 Peter, brother of Emperor Maurice, visited the
city, saw the gan:ison in review formation and promptly attempted to enrol
it in his army - the garrison took refuge in the city's church, while the
inhabitants barred the gates and abused Peter. 36 It rnight also be indicative
of the quality of limitanei that a Roman soldier whose heroism at Solachon
in 586 is singled out for praise came from the legio IV Parthica, a
contingent that had been stationed at Circeum in the fourth century and was
now based at Beroe.37
The best soldiers in the army were, however, enrolled in the
Federates, or other allied units of non-Romans (symmachoi), or the
Optimates, a unit newly created in the late-sixth century: the individual
superiority of these soldiers over ordinary recruits is reflected in the fact
that they were drawn up less deeply in the battle line.3 8 The nature of
sixth-centmy Federates i8 somewhat different from that of their fourth-fifth
century predecessors, as Procopius commented in relation to the Vandal
expedition of 533: previously the Federates had consisted entirely of
barbarians serving under treaties, but it was now possible for anyone to be
enrolled. Procopius' narrative reveals both that non-Romans rnight be
enrolled in ordinary regiments and that the Federates constituted part of the
regular army, an elite unit but subject to Roman military law. 39 This
erosion of the distinct status of the Federates rnight explain the creation of
the Optimates: if the Federates had become increasingly "contaminated" by
Romans, the best tribesmen might be drawn off into their own unit. 40
35 See Mauriee, Strategikon XI.2.66-70, 85-9 for infantry in use against Avars, and XnB
for reeommendations on training.
36 Theophylaet Historiae VII.3, ed. C. de Bool', re-ed. P. Wirth (Stuttgal't, 1972).
Asemus, a site that has not yet been investigated, as James Crow observed, had a tradition
of independent military action (Priscus fr. 9.3.39-80, in Blockley, Historians, records its
resistance to the Huns in the 4408). It is c1ear that people would defend their own loeality
enthusiastically, but this was the pllrpose of limitanei, and the information about Asemus
indicates that at least in one place the theory was capable of realization.
37 Theophylact II.6.1-9; Notitia Dignitatum 01'. 35.24, ed. O. Seeck (Berlin, 1876), for Hs
earlier loeation. Cf. also Isaae, Limits, 208-13.
38 Maurice, Strategikon II.6.23-40.
39 Procopius, Wars III.l1.3-4; Jones, LRE, 663-66.
40 Peter Heather has suggested that the Romans may simply have needed to create
additional ~1ite llnits at a time of increased military activity and recmitment.
Apart from these non-Roman elements, armies also relied heavHy on the
private bodyguards, or bucellarii, of their commanders, which could
number a thousand or more and have their own subdivisions into officers
and other ranks,41 and they might occasionally be fortified by the presence
of elements of the palace guards (scholae, candidati, protectores, and
excubitores).42
The issue of the military capability of limitanei is relevant to the
question of numbers in Roman armies of the sixth century. The only global
figure is offered by Agathias, who asserted that whereas in the past the
empire had been defended by 645,000 men, lustinian reduced this to no
more than 150,000, a total which the pessimistic tone of the passage
indicates is probablyon the low side. 43 The simplest way of explaining this
figure is to assume that Agathias has omitted limitanei from the lustinianic
figure, which is plausible since a critic of lustinian could allege that the
emperor had downgraded the limitanei by depriving them of pay and even
the very name of soldiers, so that they were dependent on charity for
surviva1. 44 If limitanei are discounted, Agathias' figure is consistent with
the sizes of mobile annies in the late sixth century: Maurice, Strategikon
regards an army of 5-15,000 as well-proportioned, and one of 15-20,000
41 Procopius, Wars VII.27.3, where Valerian thc magister militum per Armeniam takes
1,000 personal guards with him on being transfelTed to Italy in 547. It is customary to eite
Wars VII.1.20 as evidence that Belisarius at onc stage had the eolossal total of 7,000
bucellarii (Iones, LRE, 666; Walter E. Kaegi, Byzantine Military Unrest, 471-843: an
Interpretation [Amsterdam, 1981], 50-51; Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 45, n.124), but J ames
Howard-Johnston has urgcd that the passage must be treated with mueh greater caution
sinec ProeophJs was secking to cmphasisc the power and munificenee of Belisarius at thc
peak of his military glory; it i8 possible that the 7,000 horsemen whom Belisarius is said to
have provided from his own house were not in fact all bucellarii, but that Belisarius'
generosity extended to other units in bis army. Für further diseussion of bucellarii, see
seetion 9 below.
42 For all these elite units see Haldon, PraetorianJ, eh. 1; also R.I. Frank, Scholae
Palatinae: the Palace Guards ofthe Later Roman Empire (Papers and Monographs of the
American Acadcmy in Rome 23, Rome 1969). It is traditional to belittle the military
effectiveness in thc sixth century of all but thc excubitores, but note Mary Whitby "On the
Omission of a Ceremony in Mid-Sixth Ccntury Constantinople: Candidati, Curopalatus,
SilenLiarii, Exeubitores and Others", Historia 36 (1987), 462-88, at 465-66.
43 Agathias History V.13.7-8, ed. R. Keydell (Berlin, 1967); diseussion by Jones, LRE,
683-84. Walter E. Kaegi, Byzantium and the Early Islamic Conquests (Cambridge, 1992),
39, asse1ts that this is an exaggeration, but ignores the rhetorical context of Agathias'
remarks and offers no evidence in support of his claim. On the other hand, it is possible
that the figure of 645,000 is excessive, as suggested by Rarnsay MacMullen, "How Big
was the Roman Imperial Army?", Klio 62 (1980), 451-60, at 460. See also James
Howard-Iohnston, below.
44 Procopius, Secret History 24.13-14; Jones, LRE, 684. In reality limitanei survivcd into
the 5908, and may only have disappeared in the east and Balkans when these fron tiers wcre
overrun in the early seventh eentury.
74 Michael Whitby
as large. 45 Mobile forces would only represent a limited proportion of the

total military establishment of the empire, and onee the units of
comitatenses stationed in Africa, Italy, the Balkans as weIl as the east are
taken into consideration an overall figure of 150,000 or a bit more 1S
credible, and this might be doubled 01' even trebled if it IS accepted that
limitanei have been omitted. 46 Support for Agathias' pessimistic assessment
of Roman military strength might be sought in certain passages of
Procopius, for example bis account of Belisarius' opposition to Khusro's
invasion in 542, but Procopius' assertions about the paucity of Roman
troops are obviously intended to exculpate Belisarius from accusations that
he had passed over a chance to defeat Khusro. 47 Part of the problem for
Belisarius in 540 was that his authority in the east had been shared with
Buzes, who was in command to the east of the Euphrates where the majority
of Roman troops arrayed against the Persians were deployed throughout the
sixth century, whereas Belisarius' conunand was to the west of the river, an
area which the direct Persian attacks of 531, 540 and 573 reveal was less
heavily garrisoned. 48 Furthermore, Proeopius' rhetorical denigration of
Roman strength lias to be interpreted in tbe light of the fact that in 541
Belisarius had commanded a sufficiently large army to invade Persia
successfully, and that 30,000 men could be organized in 543 from the
different units along the eastern frontier for aggressive action. 49 Even in
540 most of the eities attacked by Khusro had galTison troops, though
shortage of pay had led to the disaffection of some of them.
In spite of Agathias' critieism it i8 by no means celtain that there had
been a significant overall dec1ine: his total, probably understated, of
l50,000 troops was defending regions to which 170,000 comitatenses had
been assigned roughly 150 years earlier at the time of the Notitia
45 Strategikon III. 8; 10; for further discussion, see section 6 below.

46 A doubling of numbers would be in line with the assessments of MacMullen, "Army"
and R.P. Duncan-Jones, "Pay and Numbers in Diocletian's Anny", Chiron 8 (1978), 541-
60, which are significantly more modest for limitanei than those of Iones (see further n. 50).
47 Shortage of troops: Wars TI.21; accusations, SeC1'et History 3.31. For discussion of
Procopius' rhetorical distortions in Wars II, see Avelil Cameron, Procopius and the Sixth
Century (London, 1985), 160-66, although she i8 prepared to accept at face value his
apologia for Belisarius' performance in 542.
48 Shared command: Wars II.6.1. On the distribution of Roman defensive forces, note in
particular the advice of the Lakhmid al-Mundhir to Kavad at Wars I.17.30-39, which does
support the view that Roman occupation of Mesopotamia contributed something to the
safety of Syria: see S. Thomas Parker, "Two Books on the Eastern Roman Frontier:
Nomads and ather Security Threats", Journal of Roman Archaeology 5 (1992), 467-72, at
468; contra Isaac, Limits, 395.
49 Procopius, Wars II.16, 24.12-21.
Dignitatum. 50 All such global figures for the late Roman army must be
treated with eaution, sinee at best they represent paper strengths and loeal
officers could profit personally from overstatement of numbers,51 but this

tendeney applied throughout late antiquity and there is no reason to suspeet
that Justinian's army was particularly bad in this respect: indeed lustinian's
unpopular use of logothetes to investigate individual units 52 might suggest
that his armies came to be eloser to their paper strengths than was normal in
the Roman empire.
4 Volunteers or Conscripts?
Information about recruitment in the late sixth century is meagre, but the
essential question with regard to tbe Roman, or interna!, element of these
50 Thus Iones, LRE, 684. It is customary to question Iones' figures as being too high
(Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 40-41, citing among others Duncan-Jones, "Pay", and
MacMullen, "Arrny"), and it is eertainly the ease that there are some mistakes Of
implausibilities in Iones' analysis of the Beatty papyri from Panopolis which led hirn to
aseribe excessive numbers to the units reeorded in this material. But MacMullen, who
adopts a guesstimate of 400,000 for the late Roman army (458), does not in fact radically
disagree with Jones about the size of the eastem mobile IIlmy (93,000 as opposed to Iones'
104,0(0), since his radieal downgrading of Jones' figures only concerns the limitanei (basic
unit size of 1,000 as opposed to 3,000 for Iones). MacMullen aeeepts that in the
comitatenses all legions comprized 1,000 men and auxilia 400: on thc basis of these figures
bis caleulation for the Notitia troop complement for the areas relevant to Agathias' complaint
about Justinian would be approximately 150,000 - Le. no significant change (though
MacMullen did not cany out this calculation, or note the simHarity of his own position to
that of Iones).
Dunean-Iones (546-49) i8 much more eautious than MacMullen, but his ealeulation
for Legio II Traiana also supports Jones' cstimate of 1,000 as the size of a legion in the field
army. Evidenee for the size of other uuits (auxilia) i5 at best ineonclusive, beeause it i8
rarely clear whether figures relate to a eomplete unH or a detaehment. Ground areas of forts
have been addueed in support of the notion of small units in the late Roman army, but as
Dunean-Jones observes il is not known to what extent individual garrisons represented the
entircty of a particular unit (549), and there i8 also the complication that some sm all forts
may have had accommodation on two levels, while at the other end of the speetrum there is
still evidence far the eonstruetion of larger fortresses: the fort at al-Lajjün in Jordan, buHt ca.
300 for Legio IV Martia, is reckoned to have been designed originally for a unit of 2,000
men and redueed to eater for 1,000 in the late fourth eentury (S. Thomas Parker, The
Roman Frontier in Central Jordan. Interim Report on the Limes Arabieus Project, 1980-
1985, BAR Int. series 340 [1987],813,816). On al-Lajjün, see also David Kennedy, "The
Roman Frontier in Arabia (Jordanian seetor)", Journal 01 Roman Archaeology 5 (1992),
473-89, at 476, who aecepts a figure of 1,500 for the garrison.
Thus when analyzing Iones's figures it is vital to maintain a distinetion between the
mobile army, where he may be roughly correct, and the limitanei, where overstatement is
more firmly identified. For further discussion of numbers, see seetion 6 below. Duncan-
Jones has restated his arguments in bis Structure and Scale in the Roman Economy
(Cambridge, 1990), 105-17,214-21.
51 Iones, LRE, 682; MacMullen, "Arrny", 452-56; Duncan-Iones, "Pay", 549.
52 Procopius, Secret History 24.5-11, and, for the activities of Alexander the logothete in
Italy, Wars VII. 1.28-33.
76 Michael Whitby
armies i8 whether conscription was in use. 53 Vegetius' advice presupposes

that men may be conscripted, while after the levy the new recruits are
subjected to probatio or approval by the civil authorities before their legal

admission to the army.54 In the Theodosian Code, compiled in the 4308,
compulsion is an unstated assumption underlying the seetion on recruits,
where the legal extracts are mostly concerned with evasions or exemptions
and especially with monetary substitution (aurum tironicum) for a
recruit. 55 The c1earest description of the mechanics of the system occurs in
the seetion on deserters, where it is stipulated that recruits collected for the
previous year's levy, i.e. those actually in the process of being conseripted
into the army, are not to be subject to the harsh penalties for desertion: 56 if
such new reeruits were killed, the landowners who had provided them
would simply have to find areplacement so that the provincial allocation
was fulfilled. A contemporary example of a recruit is provided by John,
father of the future S. Saba: an inhabitant of the village of Mutalaska in the
territory of Caesarea in Cappadocia, in 444 he was enrolled in the numerus
of Isaurians stationed at Alexandria and so migrated there with his wife
Sophia. while the young Saba was left with Sophia's brother Hermias; in the
4908 John died in Alexandria after aehieving a position of some distinction,
and consequent pr08perity, in the Isaurian regiment, and Sophia moved to
Jerusalem where Saba by now had a reputation as a monk. S7 It should,
however, be recognised that many details of the mechanies of the system
remain obseure, for example the regularity of the exaetion of reeruits and
hence how emperors ensured that man power needs were satisfied
adequately, but not to excess. 58
53 Rejected by Iones, LRE, 668, Haldon, Recruitment, 20; E. Stein, Studien zur
Geschichte des byzantinischen Reiches, vornehmlich unter den Kaisern lustinus 1I und
Tiberius Constantinus (Stuttgart, 1919), 122, argued that conscription was always possible,
but unnecessary until the demands of the Persian war in the 5703 forced a change.
54 Epitome 1.3-7.
55 G.Th. VII.13. Civilians preferred commutation to conscription: Ammianus 19.11.7, ed.
W. Seyfarth (Leipzig, 1978); Isaae, Limits, 303 for Talmudic pm·allels. I would not,
however, accept Jean-Michel ClUTie's interpretation of the recruitment system (abave, eh. 1)
as being normally no more than a justification for the extraction of an extra gold tax:
emperors regularly needed reeruits, sometimes desperately, whereas landowners were not
always enthusiastic about providing them and conscripts might be reluctant to serve,
especially in a military crisis. Emperors, or their officials, were capable of increasing tax
demands without having to resort to subterfuges that would have no more !han a cosmetic
effeet on the overall tax bill.
56 C.Th. VII.l8.14.
51 Life 0/ S. Sabas 1, 25, ed. E. Schwartz, Texte und Untersuchungen 49.2 (Leipzig,
1939).
58 The limitations to aUf knowledge are stressed by Jean-Michel Carrie (above, eh. 1). On
the specific question of numbers of recmits, one might speculate that, granted the existenee
Advancing by a century to the lustinianic Code and Digest at first

sight the balance of military legislation appears to be very different, and
this change is the primary reason for scholars to postulate a fundamental

shift in the nature of recruiting from conscription to volunteering. 59 It is
certainly true that the Theodosian Code contains a variety of measures
intended to ensure that recruits were produced when necessary and that they
remained in the army after enrolment, but it is noticeable that the two
sections on recruitment and deserters are dominated by what might be
termed "crisis legislation": the section on recruits can be divided into three
parts, 1) the reaction to Julian's Persian expedition, 2) the consequences of
the Gothic pressure on the Balkans and the Battle of Adrianople, and 3) the
western crisis of the late 390s through to 410, while the seetion on deserters
is dominated by laws from the second and third phases. 60 At a time of
military difficulty emperors attempted to improve the availability of
manpower with a mixture of threats and promises. The multiplicity of
legislation on recruitment in particular was generated by western attempts
to ban exemptions from conscription; the latter provoked demands for
immunities from powerful landowners, when concessions to these were.
admitted desperate attempts were made to drum up volunteers with
incentives, freedom and a grant of two soUdi to slaves, ten solidi for
freeborn recruits. It was then necessary to ensure thata11 recruits were
suitable military material. 61
The Justinianic compilations envisage a simpler system. This was
probably based on the traditional dilectus or compulsory levy,62 a fact of
life that did not require an imperial edict or rescript to confirm its existence
but which i8 alluded to in Arrius Menander, On Military Matters, an extract
of a comprehensivc military system, requests for new soldiers could have been adjusted in
the same way as thc indictional tax demand.
59 Jones, LRE, 668-70; Haldon, Recruitment, 20-2I.
60 C.Th. VI1.l3.2-6, 8-11, 12-21; 18.2-8,9-17.
61 G.Th. VII. 13.l2-2I, all issued from westcrn capitals (Milan or Ravenna) and to western
officials. Cf. Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, eh. 3, for the situation after Adrianople. Vegetius,
Epitome 1.7, noting the uselessness of a cowardly recruit oe someone unsuitable in other
respects, complaius that "recruits levied from landowuers have through the corruption or
neglect of those granting appmval been joined to the army onIy whcn they were the sort
their lords disdained to keep."
62 I use the term dilectus for the sake of convenicnce to designate a compulsory exaction of
tmops, without intending to imply that anything like the archaic Roman system was
maintained. As pointed out by Jean-Michel Carri~, the technical term in late antiquity may
wen have been praebitio tironum, "provision of recruits", but C.Th. VII. 13. 10 (A.D. 381)
demonstrates that dilectus could still be used as a general term to cover thc conscription
process.
78 Michael Whitby
of which was included in the relevant part of the Digest. 63 The emperor
was interested enough in having physical bodies fer monetary eommutation
to be guaranteed only in the ease of imperial1ands;64 this might also refleet

the ability of eastern emperors to dominate their landed aristoeraey in a
way that their counterparts in the west had never achieved. Presumably for
non-imperial estates eommutation was entirely at the discretion of the
imperial administration, and its application would have depended on the
scale of the military needs at any given moment. Landowners continued to
be grouped into reeruiting units (temones, capitula), whose members were
jointly responsible for the provision of a recruit; within each unit the
presidency, and with it the responsibility to provide the recruit (protostasia,
prototypia), rotated among the members and tbis was a significant burden
from which exemptions were granted. 65 It was necessary to retain laws to
prohibit the enlistment of certain categories of undesirable reeruits such as
slaves, tied tenants 01' members of loeal couneils who might otherwise have
been brought into the army through the operation of the dilectus. 66
Heretics, with the exception of Arians, Manichees, pagans, and Jews were
banned from th~ army, and stiff penalties for evasion of this prohibition
were deelared, ap. indieation that enthusiastie recruits might bribe officials
to connive in their admission to the ranks; refusal to accept Chalcedonian
orthodoxy could lead to dismissa1. 67 In all this the official intention is
clear: in theory either the army would receive from internal sources
however many recruits it needed in a particular year, or the emperor would
have the money either to expend on the type of diplomatie munificence that
would precede the recruitment into the army of tribai groups or to offset
the trouble and cost of finding an alternative internal recruit. To what
extent the theory worked in practice is a different matter, and a system that
was attuned to meeting regular needs is likely to have experienced
63 Digest LIX.16.4.12 (Corpus iuris civilis I, eds. T. Mommsen and P. Krüger, 16th ed.
[Berlin 1929]); this relates to the mutilation of a son to prevent his enrolment when a
dilectus for war has been declared. It is noticeable that provisions in the Theodosian Code
relating to mutilation (VII.22.1; 13.4,5. 10) were not incorporated into the Juslinianic
Code.
64 C.l. XI.75.3.
65 C.J. X.42.8; 62.3.Haldon, Recruitment. 21, arguing against the retention of
conscription, has to assume that these exemption c1auses are tralatician and so do not prove
the continued existence of Ws obligation; for references in C.l. 10 tenwnes or capitula and
their members, see Haldon ibid. n.S.
66 C.l. XII.33.2-4. With relation to lied tenants Iean-Michel Carrie has plausibly suggested
that the prime cancern was to prevent one landlord from attempting to fulfill his recruiting
obligations by presenting the tenant of a different landlord as bis recrui!.
67 Cod.lust. I.5.l2; discussion in Kaegi, Unrest, &2-82.
difficulties in coping with sudden demands. It i8 characteristic of the way in

which Roman law had always operated in the military sphere that the
foundations of the system, the dilectus and the monetary commutation of

recmits, are not explained in detail whereas attention is devoted to their
consequences. 68
In the Theodosian Code a hereditary obligation to serve is explieit,
but in the Justinianic Code the detailed provisions relating to this have been
removed: Jones concluded tlmt the obligation had been eliminated, though
Haldon was prepared to accept its retention for Iimitanei, at least in peaceful
parts of the empire such as Egypt. 69 In praetice, in the limitanei and the
more statie units of comitatenses it must have been eommon for son to
follow father. The status of soldiers was privileged, with various tax
exemptions being supplemented by a guarantee of paid service for life for a
certain proportion of men in each unit: 70 these benefits were enough to
ensure that sons wanted to follow their fathers in military service 01' that in
some places a non-military father might pay to have his son enrolIed, and it
appears that there was a waiting list for enrolment in the units in upper
Egypt at Syene, and probably also Elephantine. 71 1t is difficult to generalize
from tbis limited evidence, but this favourable impression of military
service i8 consistent with the performance of the garrison at Asemus,
garrison at, a unit with good morale and, probably, high local status, while
units in a mobile army could also welcome an imperial offer to eurol the
sons of deceased soldiers. 72 Thus a considerable element of hereditary
68 The paucity of references 10 aurum tironicum would also be explained if Jean-Michel

CarriC's suggestion is accepted that a single "combined military tax" had emerged by the
sixth century, Such simplification of the tax system could, a8 Michael Crawfard urged in
the Workshop discussions, be seen as a sign of increased efficiency and sophistication in
the imperial administration's procedures for ensuring the satisfaction of its financial and
material requirements.
69 Jones, LRE, 668 and 1277 n. 146, quoting a letter of A.D. 505 that authorises tbe
enrolment and payment of a recruit for a unit at Hermopolis, provided that he i8 of military
origin (ex genere oritur militari); Haldon, Recruitment, 21: cf. c.r Kraemer, Excavations at
Nessana, conducted by R.D, Colt, Jr., III.The Non-Literary Papyri (Princeton, 1958),22,
wbo suggested that the hereditary obligation on limitanei was breaking down in sixth-
century Palcstine as their land grants appear to bc alienable, but see bclow n, 273 for
unceltainty about the status of the unit in qllestion.
70 C.J.. XIT.46: Digest XLIX. 18; Procopius, Secret History 24.2-4; Jones, LRE, 675.
71 Jamcs G. Keenan, "Evidence for the Byzantine Army in the Syene Papyri", Bull.
American Society of PapYl'ologists 27 (1990), 139-50 at 144; Jones, LRE, 669. John,
brotber-in-law of Patermuthis, was enrolled in the localllnit at Syene in Egypt at a eost of
one solidus to his father Jacob, who was not a soldier (Pap.Monacensis 1: ed. A
Heisenberg and L Wenger, Veröjfentlichwlgen aus der Papyrussammlung der K. Hof- und
Staatsbibliothek zu München: Byzantinische Papyri [Leipzig, 1914]).
72 Thcophylact VII.!.7, far this popular aspect of Maurice's military reforms in 594. On
Asemus, see n. 36 above.
80 Michael Whitby
service did in practice exist in al1 parts of the anny, so timt the precise legal
position could appear less important. It might, however, seem strange if an
arrangement, which is believed to have functioned efficiently for

limitanei,73 was not maintained for other units and so it is relevant to
examine whether a general requirement for hereditary service subsisted
under the lustinianic code, and, if so, how widely this applied. It should not
cause surprise that a system which seems to have worked quite weIl did not
require detailed legislation to uphold its operation.
The first subsection of the relevant lustinianic chapter, "Concerning
the sons of military officials who die in warfare" , imposes an obligation of
hereditary service on sons of members of any office, wh ether the father is
still in post or not. 74 The second states that SODS of centurions ought to
follow their fathers' position (condicio).75 The third introduces a privilege
for soldiers, name1y that the eldest son of a soldier killed on active service
should be enlisted and inherit his father's rank up to that of biarchus; the
law was intended to provide support for the dead man's family, hut it would
also have encouraged continuity of family service throughout the army.7 6
Tbe second and,third subsections deal with details about military service,
but the first seems somewhat out of place, at least if it 1S interpreted with
the same intent that the provision had in the Theodosian Code, where its
scope is cIearly additional to provisions applying to veterans' sons, which
relate for example to municipal obligations or service in imperial
administration. If a reqnirement tor hereditary service is to be found in the
lustinianic Code, it mnst be assumed that its compilers, perhaps in the
interests of simplicity, intended this law to apply to alt forms of public
employment, military as weIl as civilian, since it would be legitimate to
describe a serving soldier as someone bound by an oath (adhuc sacramento
tenentur). On tbis basis the lustinianic chapter would be coherent, first
making a general statement about hereditary service and then introdncing
73 Haldon, Recruitment, 28.

74 C.l. XII.47.1= C.Th. VII.22.3.
75 C.l. XII.47.2, probably drawn from the same law as C.Th. VII.22.11, which is
primarily coneerned with possible eurial obligations of centurions' sons. This illustrates a
fundamental problem in using the Codes, narnely that many of their provisions are brief
extraets divorced from their legal context. In this case eomparison between the Codes might
suggest that in the sixth century inheritance of the military obligation was of mueh greater
importance than of the municipal (the coneern in the fifth eentury); this is not particularly
surprising in view of the declining importance of loeal eouneils in the sixth eentury, for
which see Jones, LRE, 759-66 and Mark Whittow, "Ruling the Late Roman and Early
Byzantine City: a Continuous History" , Past and Present 129 (1990), 3-29, esp. at 8-12.
16 C.l. XII.47.3; for discussion, see Haldon, Recruitment. 23-24.
specific points about sons inheriting their fathers' military status. Thls
hypo thesis would avoid the implausible assumption that, at a time of
military need, lawyers abolished a provision which served as a usefu!

supplement to conscription. 77
It should be accepted that conscription, and hereditary service if it
existed, applied to a11 Roman elements in the army, for units of comitatenses
as well as limitanei, and tbis is in keeping with the limited evidence for
procedures in· the late sixth century. Thus the emperor Maurice had to
institute a rigorous search for recruits, probably in the late 5808, when even
dergy were impressed into the army and the scribones who were in charge
of this recruiting caused great hardship as they dragged cbildren from their
parents and requisitioned contributions of livestock from the areas where
they were operating. 78 It seems that press ure was still being applied in the
early 590s, since Pope Gregory alludes in July 592 to areport of scribones
operating in Sicily and Maurice issued an ediet, to whieh Gregory was
objecting in 593, that attempted to regulate entry into the church by soldiers
and civilian officials.79 It 1S implausible that this initiative was intended just
for the upkeep of limitanei sinee Maurice at the time was desperately in
need of amabile army to fight the Avars and Slavs in the Balkans;80 rather
it is a sign that traditional arrangements had broken down. whether through
the flight of volunteers/conscripts or the disappearance of hereditary
replacements is uncertain, under the disruptive pressure of invasions wbich
produced adesperate need for recruits, and that natural places of refuge
77 The first Justinianle Code was prepared by a legal commission empowel'ed on 13

February 528, and üs conc1usions were enacted on 7 April 529; the second edition, the one
we possess, was enacted on 16 November 534: for dates and discussion, see Tony Honore,
Tribonian (London, 1978),212. During preparation of the first edition the Romans werc at
war with Persia, while the reconquest oI Africa and consequent fighting with Moors was in
progress during the revision; on neither occasion would a significant relaxation of
obligations to military service seem likely.
78 Michael the Syrian, Chronique XI.21, ed. and trans. J.B. Chabot (Paris, 1901), H, 362.
E.W. Brooks, in his edition of the contemporary eeelesiastical historian John or Ephesus
(CSCO 106, Scr. Syri 55, Louvain, 1936), conc1uded that this information probably
originated in John (cf. Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and His Historian.
Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Walfare [Oxford, 1988],111,147); Jan van
Ginkel, who i8 currently studying Juhn of Ephesus, has urged more eaution.
19 Sicily: Gregory, Registrum Epistolarum 11.38, eds. P. Ewald and L. Hartmann,
Monumenta Germaniae Historiae, Epistolae I (Berlin, 1887), 137, 9~11. General edlet:
Reg. III.61, 64.
80 Sieily is an unlikely recruiting ground far limitanei, since any recmils would immediate!y
have been transferrcd away from the island. The scribones were probably officcrs of the
excubitores, the most impartant element in the palace guard at the time (Jones, LRE, 658~
59).
82 Michael Whitby
from official investigations, such as churches and monasteries, were now

being searched.
A hint of the normal system may be preserved by Evagrius, who

explains the influence among the eastern army of the Patriarch Gregory of
Antioch by his generosity with gifts of money, clothing, food and other
things when the men had passed near hirn after being levied from the
register (stratologethentes ek katalogou).81 Although in Procopius the term
katalogos/oi is regularly used to designate a regiment,82 bis usage does not
determine the meaning of the term in Evagrius, particularly when used in
conjunction with anormal word fot enrolling troops, stratologeo,83 The
context in Evagrius is the attempt by Gl'egory to quell the mutillY of the
eastern army at Easter 589, so that the troops involved would have been
members of the mobile army, namely elite units such as the Federates and
Optimates, as weH as comitatenses and possibly limitanei; new recruits
passing through Antioch in astate of need are most likely to have been
conscripts for the comitatenses , impressed in western or central Asia Minor
and being moved east to join their uruts where food and clothing would be
less of a problem. 84 The imperial administration was interested in counting
its inhabitants f{lr taxation purposes, so that the notion of a muster roll or
register for conscription purposes is not a problem: the same list could have
fulfilled two functions, One should conclude that mobile arrnies were kept
up to strength, in part, by conscription: the silence in this respect 01'
Maurice's Strategikon, which does not contain penalties for evading the
81 Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History VI. 11, ed. J. Bidez and L. Parmentiel' (London, 1898),
229.1-6; thc sense is not rendered pl'ecisely either in the anonymous English lranslation,
"when they were passing his neighbourhood at the time of their enlistment" (His tory of the
Church by Theodoret and Evagrius IBohn's Ecclesiastical Library, London 1854}, 455), or
in A.l Festugiere's French version, "apres 1eur inscription sur le röle" {Byzantion 45
[1975}, 455).
82 B.g. 1.12.24 regiments at Dara, Il.18.16 regiments in Mesopotamia; see Haldon,
Recruitment, 24-25, though note that the phrase ek katalogou is not cOIumon in Procopius
(only four times: V.17.17; VI.S.l, 23.2; VIII.29.33; never in the context of enlistment).
Constantine Zuckerman plausibly explained the significance of katalogos as the term for
military units through the centrality af the list of members as the key faetar that defined and
constituted a group of soldiers, who were in practice often Iikely to split up and operate in
isolation as sub-units. The katalogos determined who was entitled to pay, judicial
privileges, and any other benefits of military status, and so was a suitable collective
expression.
83 The translation "regiment" would not in fact malm sense.
84 Presumably 6lite nnils wonld not have been in such an indigent state, while limitanei
would not have been drafted at so great a distance from their unils. It i8 unlikely that these
recruits were the men enrolled by Philippicus on Mount Afsouma (between Constantina
[Viransehir] and Amida IDiyarbakirl) in 584 (Theophylact I.l3.3), since they would not
have eome into contaet with Gregory. For an alternative interpretation, see Haldon,
Recruitment, 24-25, esp. n.18.
dilectus, is not indicative, sinee tbis was a military training manual

eoneerned with the produets of reeruitment not with the aetual proeess of
obtaining them.8 5
Reeognition of the eontinuing existenee of conscription does not,
however, mean tImt there were never problems in the supply of troops. Far
from it. Conscription was a eumbersome and unpopular method of
diverting manpower from the non-military to the military seetor, especially
if the conditions and opportunities of service seemed uninviting,86 and
above alt when recruits were needed quick1y: in 216 B.C. after the disaster
at Cannae two legions of enfranehised slaves were enrolled; in A.D. 9, after
three legions commanded by Quinctilius Varus were eliminated in the
Teutenberger Forest to the east of the Rhine, freedmen and members of the
urban plebs were eonscripted;87 and in the western military crisis of the
early fifth eentury special rewards were offered to attTaet slaves into the
anny,88 On these earIier oeeasions slaves were used when conseription was
eertainly the basic method of securing manpower, so that lustinian's
aeknowledgement that slaves might be enrolled in the army, even though
strictly illegal, is compatible with the continuing applieation of
conseription. 89 If the lustinianie armies numbered about 150,000,90
approximate1y 6,000 reeruits a year would have been required to sustain
theif size, if the standard length of military service was 25 years: obviously
easualties would inerease this number significantly, but granted the
existenee of some hereditary service and the attraetions of enlistment into a
Ioeal unit, it seems unlikely that the conscription process would have had to
furnish more than 3,000 men eaeh year from the whole empire. 91 If a
85 Strategikon 1.8. Haldon, Recruitment, 24, n.15 argued for a distinction between tbc
Digest whicb applied conscription to limitanei, and the Strategikon whicb applied to mobile
armies. Cf. also W. Ashbumer, "The Byzantine Mutiny Act", JHS 46 (1926), 80-109, for
a seventh-century code of military law which similarly shows no interest in the acquisilion
of Boldiers.
86 See A. Fotiou, "Recruitment Shortages in Sixth-Century Byzantium", Byzantion 58
(1988), 65-77, at 70-72, for the recommendations of the anonymous sixth-century text, On
Political Scienee, about improving the rewards of soldiers (iv.73); most of the specific
advice was legally in force under Justinian and his succcssors, tbougb not neccssarily
applied in practice if one accepls the criticisms of Procopius, .leeret History 24.
87 Brunt, Manpower, 418-20; "Canscription", 194-95.
8& C.Th. VII.l3.16; Jones, LRE, 614.
89 C.J. XII.33.6-7. For the opposite conc1usion, see Haldon, Recruitment, 26-27.
90 Excluding limitanei, whose unils I would assume were nOlmally mIed almost entirely
by hcreditary enlistmcnt or by volunteers who might have to wait for an opportunity to join.
91 Contrast the calculations of Jean-Michcl CarrUl, who postulated a total military demand
in the fourth century of about 30-40,000 annually (compared with a possible population for
the wholc empire of 75 million), a figurc that he suggested could be met by hCl'editary
service or barbarian recruitment. Only gucsses are possible about thc population of the
84 Michael Whitby
military crisis demanded the rapid creation of a new army, it would have
been difficult to find the equivalent of three or four years' normal intake
within a few months or in a single province;92 such an army would lack the
essential veteran element that provided stability and balance in units with a
more gradual turnover of per sonnet.
As in the Roman Republic,93 an individual general might find it
quicker to use bis own influence, and money if necessary, to raise an al111y,
rather than wait for regular conseription to produce troops. Thus in winter
544-45 Belisarius en route to Italy colleeted 4,000 volunteers in 'Thraee and
Illyricum: he had money to offer, good Ioeal connections since he
originated from Germania in the eentral Balkans, still possessed a good
military reputation, and was aecompanied by Vitalius the magister militum
per Illyricum. 94 The fact that Belisarius shorUy afterwards represented
these men as "quite few and miserable, with no 80rt of weapon in their
hands and utterly unaequainted with warfare" need8 to be interpreted in ÜS
eontext, an appeal to Justinian for more funds and soldiers. 95 The recruits
may have been impoverished countrymen,96 but there was no reason why
military training and discipline should not trans form them into effective
soldiers quite quickly.97 Another example of aleader using loeal contacts
sixth-ecntury empire, but if the pre-plague population of the eastern provinces was 30
million (cf. CYl'il Mango, Byzantium. The Empire of New Rome [London. 1980],23) and
dropped as low as 20 million thercafter, thc theoretical military demand would not havc been
cxcessivc.
92 Thesc gucsses are merely intended to illustrate thc possible seale of conseription.
93 Tbe ease of Seipio Aemilianus, cited in section 2 above.
94 Procopius, Wars Vn.l0.l-2; m.l1.21 for Bclisarius' origin. Pctcr Heather points out
thai although Belisadus used his own money in the first instance, Ihis is no guarantee that he
did not subsequently reeeive reimbursement from imperial funds. On the other hand, since
it was accepted that a military eommandcr in antiquity was likely 10 benefit personally from
his period of service, Ihere was a persistent expectation that a general should malm some
contribution to the costs. The c1assic example is that of the Athenian Timotheus, who
mortgaged his property in an attempt to finance a naval expedition in 373, but was Ihen
dismissed for failure to earry out orders sufficicntly quickly: for the family wealth, see J.K.
Davies, Athenüm Propertied Families 600-300 B.C. (Oxford, 1971), 506-12, esp. 509-10
for the mOltgages referred to in Demosthenes, Or. 49.
95 Procopius, Wars VII. 12.4: Kaegi, Unrest, 98, and Fotiou, "Shortages", 66-67 accept
Belisadus' complaints at face value.
96 For the poverty of soldiers, cf. Procopius, Wars IVA.3, and John of Ephesus, HE
V1.8, for oecasions when the prospecl of rieh booty led 10 indisciplined looting and even
desertion by pOOl' soldiers. Proeopius, Wars IV.16.13 (speech by Germanus to mutineers
in Africa in 537), cited by Fotiou, "Shortages", 66 n.6 as proof of the low status of
soldiers, is less sound as evidence since Germanus' words are clearly derived from thc
famous speech of Alexandcr to his mutinous army at Opis in 324 B.e., whlch is recorded in
Arrian (Anabasis VlI.9-W, esp. 9.2; trans. P.A. Brunt, Loeb [London, 1976-83]); Arrian
was an author who influenced Procopius in tenns of style and content.
97 Vegetius, Epitome 1.3, considers that even city dwellers might be transformed inlo
acceptable soldiers, given time and the right training (for his recommendations, see 18-28;
for suecessful recruitment is Mauriee on his dispatch to the east as magister

militum in winter 577-78: he came from Arabissus in Cappadocia, and en
route to the frontier he enrolled troops from bis native region, as wen as
from neighbouring Anzitene and Syria. 98 In winter 580-81 he was again in
Cappadocia, preparing for a major campaign down the Euphrates in the
following year; it IS possible that he was again recmiting, though the return
to Cappadocia would also have permitted his new recruits to go into winter
quarters near their homes. 99 An interesting aspect of Maurice's
recruitment, and perhaps also of the recmitment by his brother-in-Iaw
Philippicus on Aisouma in 584, i8 that he was able to emol traops shortly
after aperiod of severe erisis when the imperial adminstration and ather
generals in the east had made every effort to build, and rebuild, the Roman
armies: it is likely that familiarity with the networks of Iocal patronage
helped, and on the model of Scottish reeruitment, the Roman army probably
aequired at the same time a number of offieers from Cappadocia and the
other sources of reeruits. lOO If extemal leaders such as Theoderic Strabo
and Theoderic the Amal in the fifth century, 01' the Gha8sänid al-Mundhir in
the sixth, exploited their ability to provide traops to obtain from the
emperor rewards or recognition of their status, so one would expect a
Roman commander to ensure that his suceess at recruitment received
apprapriate reeompense. 101 Thus sixth-century armies were heterogeneaus
affairs which obtained their manpower in the same mixture of ways as their
imperial and Republican predecessors.
A final point that may provide some indication of how sixth-century
emperors viewed the overall effieaey of their recruitment system i8 the
evidence fm imperial attempts to alter the terms and conditions of military
service. Quite apart from the alleged removal of pay from limitanei and
suspension of the quinquennial donative, lustinian opposed the wishes of
also n.5 for a four-month initial period). There i8 relatively little information on training
procedures in the Strategikon (1.1; XII.B.2-3 for individuals; III.5; VI for formations),
though it notes, unsurpri~ingly, that unskilled men are capable of improvement (12).
98 John of Ephcsus, HE VI.l4.
99 Theophylact m.l7.5. For the dispersal of thc eastern army into winter quarters, see
Joshua thc Stylite 65, 81 (ed. and trans. W. Wright [Cambridge, 1882]), a practice which
should have eased logistical problems but certainly prevented rapid remobilization.
100 There i8 ahn08t no evidence about the on gins of junior officers in thc wars of the 570s
and 5808, but it might be significant that a man from Tm Abdin (the area adjacent to
Ai'souma) i8 mentioned as a commander in 587 (Theophylact 1110.6).
101 Anather fifth-century example is provided by Titus, who made a name for himself as
leader of a warband in Gaul, which was then hired by Leo I for service in lhe east; Titus
was granted the tide of comes, but was so impre8sed by the spiritual example of Darriel the
Stylite that he abandoned warfare - the emperor was not amused: Life of DanieI, 60-61, ed.
Hippolyte Delehaye, Les saints stylites, Subsidia Hagiographica 14 (Brussels, 1923).
86 Michael Whitby
soldiers in Africa to appropriate former Vandal lands and, probably, after

being thwarted over this, he reduced or withheld pay;102 he also organized
an audit of military accounts, a highly unpopular move which threatened

some of the privileges of veterans and pensioners. 103 Such measures
naturally provoked umest, and in some cases desettions or treachery,104 but
it appears that lustinian believed that the process of military recruitment
was sufficiently effective to cope with some reduction in the rewards and
privileges fot service - or at least that, at a time of econornic pressure
caused by simultaneous campaigning on the eastern frontier and in Italy,
military recruitment was like1y to prove more robust and flexible than the
empire's finances.1 05 It i8 perhaps significant that in military unrest in
Africa in the years 536-46, though economic grievances played their part,
the immediate cause of mutiny might weH be a non-financial factor, such as
restrictions on worship by Arian Christi ans 01' the personal unpopularity of
individual commanders.1 06 Although soldiers reacted when benefits were
removed, it would appeal· that they were aware of their privileged position
in relation to ordinary civilians so that chaHenges to imperial authority
remained 10calized. 107
Similar conc1usions could be drawn from Maurice's attempts to
intl"oduce military economies, in 588 a twenty-five per cent reduction in
pay to be offset by the reintroduction of a standard issue of arms and
changes to the length of active service, and in 593-94 the substitution of
distributions of c10thing and equipment instead of cash allowances to be
offset by provision of public maintenance for veterans and military
102 Far this, see further below n. 269.

103 Tones, LRE) 677-78; Procopius, Secret History 24; Wars VII. 1.28-36; Agathias,
History V.14.
104 Troops, probably limitanei, at Beroe joined Khusro in 540, an indication that Justinian
may already have terminated peace-time salaries for lirnitanei (Procopius, Wars 11.7.37);
same Isaurians betrayed Rome to Totila in 549, partly through lack of pay, but paltly also
through the lure of rewards given to previous traitms by the Goths (Wars VII.36.7).
105 Kaegi, Unrest, 52. Kaegi argues that Justinian could ignore the consequences of his
actions either through sheer ignorance, Of because discontent was confined to expeditionary
fOl·ces in distant provinces, but this is to overlook the potential impact on recruitment
throughout the empire if military service became very unpopular. On financial matters, see
Michael F. Hendy, Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy, c. 300-1450 (Cambridge,
1985), seetion H, esp. at 164-81 and 221-27.
106 Procopius,Wars IV.14.12-15, 21; 22.2-6; 26.10-12. For discussion, see Kacgi,
Unrest, 46-50.
107 Iones, LRE, 359-60; Kaegi, Unrest, 43, 63, talks of a gradual extension and
intensification of military discontent from the 5308 until it culminated in the overthrow of
Maurice, but this is to impose too general a pattern on events which, at least unti! the 590s,
were more specific.
orphans. 108 In Mauriee's case the activities of the scribones in the late 580s
and early 590s, discussed above, indicate that the recmitment system was
having diffieulty providing manpower at a time of military erisis in the

Balkans, which makes Mauriee's belief that pay could be reduced the more
l'emarkable: Maurice, however, had personal experienee of successful
recruitment, and the fact that in 594 the soldiers were prepared to accept his
package of reforms onee they had been fully explained, and to acelaim hirn,
suggests that the emperor had not completely lost touch with the priorities
of the ordinary soldier. 109 Within the army emperors could rely on the
traditional combination of harsh punishments, and the natural subservience
and superstition of ordinary soldiers to maintain discipline. 110 Adrnittedly
for Justinian and Maurice the need to save money was vital, a consideration
that may prompt anyone in charge of an economy to take irrational or
short-sighted decisions, but both emperors appeal.' to have believed that the
attractions of military service would not be destroyed by curtailment of
some of its advantages. It is not clear that their confidence was unjustified.
5 Warfare in the 570s

Roman experience during the 5708 can illustrate recruitrnent problems and
opportunities. My intention is not to provide a narrative of events, 111 but to
highlight aspects relevant to reeruitment and use these as a basis for
diseussing general themes in the light of military experience from the mid-
sixth to the early seventh century. fu 572 Justin II initiated hostilities against
the Persians witb the intention of overthrowing their king, Khusro; there
was the prospeet of an attaek on the Persian northern frontier by the Turks
of Central Asia, arevolt in Persarmenia promised support from there, and
as a result Justin sent his cousin Marcian to command on the eastern
fron tier. He was apparently expected to eampaign with the forces available
in the frontier region: in areport that is highly critieal of Justin' s
108 Theophylact m.1.2 with Evagrius, HE VI.4 (224.25-28); Theophylact VII.1.2-9.

H19 Theophylact VII. 1.9. Maurice eould, in addition, have assesscd the eonscquences of
Justinian's actions befOl'e deciding on his own measures. Contra, Kaegi, Unrest,72. In
general I find Kaegi's diseussion too negative, but even he admits that discontent in the
Balkans in the 590s "resnited from a highly unique combination of circumstances" (116).
110 Penalties: Mauriee, Strategikon 1.6-8; Kaegi, Unrest, 50. Superstition, see P. Goubert,
a
"Religion et superstitions dans l'arm~e byzantine la fin du VIe siecle", Orientalia
Christiana Periodica 13 (1947),495-500. For a first-eentUl'y parallel, see Tacitus, Annals
1.28-30, 44 and for penalties in the early imperial army, Campbel!, Army, eh. 7.
Confidence in ability to retain control: Kaegi, Unrest , 114, though I would not accept his
identifieation of "a contempt or disdain for the intelligence and persistence of the soldiers"
among emperors and their advisors.
111 For fuller diseussion, see Whitby, Maurice. eh. 9.
88 Michael Whitby
incompetence, Evagrius alleges that Marcian was not provided with a

suitable army or any other military preparation, but brought along very
few soldiers and those unarmed as weIl as having various labomers and
herdsmen drawn from the tax-payers (ek ton suntelon).112 The fact that the
initial Roman military action was a small raid into the frontier province of
Arzanene by 3,000 men eommanded by two loeal officers (Sergius from
Tm Abdin, Iuventinus the commander at Chalcis; also Theodore of
unknown origin) would reinforce the view that Marcian's army was
assembled from the eastern garrisons, supplemented by untrained
conscripts. It is quite like1y that many individual units were not at full
strength, 113 either because soldiers had been allowed to drift away on
extended periods of leave or because officers had deliberately refrained
from recruiting a full complement of replacements so that they eould
appropriate the pay and rations of under-strength units which they
commanded: hence rapid reclUitment in the face of a military emergency is
not surprising. 114 In 573, after initial successes, this army was shattered by
the appearance of the Persian king Khusro outside Nisibis, and during the
latter part of the year its remnants were unable to thwart a six-month siege,
which culminated in the capture of the major fronrier fortress of Dara, and
a Persian raid towards Antioch;115 the raid into Syria, led by Adarmahan,
encountered little or DO opposition. In Armenia the Romans achieved some
successes in conjunction with their Armenian allies, as wen as Colchians,
Abasgians and Alans (i.e. peoples from Georgia and beyond the Caucasus),
but the position in Mesopotamia was complicated by the withdrawal from
the confliet of al-Mundhir, the leader of the Ghassänid Arabs allied to the
Romans.
In 574 the Empress Sophia arranged a one-year tlUce with the
Persians after news of the disasters had deranged her husband Iustin's mind,
112 Evagrius, HE V.8 (203.28-33); the last phrase i8 probably an allusion tu conscripts
drawn from provincial tax registers. Stein, Studien, 51 n.7, identified these as non-
combatant support personnel, which is possible, though the comparable recruitment of
soldiers by Maulice in 578 might suggest otherwlse.
113 Cf. Michael Crawford, "Finance, Coinage and Money from the Severans to
Constantine", in ANRW 11.2, 560-93, at Appendix II (591-92). David S. Potter, Prophecy
and History in the Crisis ofthe Roman Empire. A Historical Commentary on the Thirteenth
Sibylline Oracle (Oxford, 1990), 21, 67-68, though disputing much of Crawford's
evidence, still accepts the principle that atmy units might have to be brought up to strength
für campaign purposes. See also n.270 below.
114 Cf. MacMullen, "Army", 453, 455, with Ammianus XX. 11.4, XXL6.6 far the
replenishment of units at the start of a campaign, and Libanius xlvii.31 (ed. R. Förster
[Leipzig, 1903-22]) for officers appropriating the pay of dead men.
115 Evagrius, HE V.9-1O; John of Ephesus, HE V1.6; Theophylact III.1O.6-11.2; Whitby,
Maurice,257-58.
and this was then extended fot a furthet thtee years by Tiberins, appointed
Caesar to manage affairs in place of Justin: at this stage the Persians had
wanted a longer truce of five yem's, whereas Tiberius preferred no more

than two or three years since he knew that this would give hirn enough time
to prepare the necessm'Y troops to face the Persians. 116 This assessment of
the time required to produce a new army was realistic, since in 576 the new
eastern commander, lustinian son of Germanus, had a large force that was
capable of thwarting Khusro's invasion of Armenia. In this crisis Tiberius
h,ad looked outside the empire for recruits, spending lavishly to "enlist the
best men from tribes beyond the Alps in the vicinity of the Rhine, and from
within the Alps Massagetae and other Scythian races", as well as drawing
men from the Balkans (Pannonia, Moesia, Illyricum) and Isauria. 1l7 It i8
unfortunate that Evagrius, alert to literary proprieties, uses imprecise
language here, but it is likely that Tiberius had recruited Pranks or
Burgundians from beyond the Alps, Goths or Lombards from Italy, and
perhaps also Bulgars, Sueves or Gepids ~ essentially any tribaI group within
reach of his money. The numbets recorded by Evagrius are fantastic ~
150,000 cavalry,118 and it is more likely that these recruits comprised the
so-called Tiberiani, a group 15,000 strong that was subsequently
commanded on the eastern frontier by Maurice. 119 These new troops
required some training, and so it 1S not surprising that lustinian, like
Maurice after his own recruiting drive, acquired a reputation as a
disciplinarian. 120 lustinian died in 577, and in the absence of a supreme
commander the subordinate Roman generals fell to bickering,121 until
Maurice was appointed as successor and conducted the recruiting operations
in Cappadocia mentioned above. 122 Maurice retained bis position as comes
excubitorum, commander of the palace guard, but was also made comes
foederatorum and presumably magister militum per Orientern; his
116 Menander, fr. 18.4, cd. and trans. R.C. Blockley (Liverpool, 1985); cf. Potter,
Prophecy, 21, for preparation time in the thil'd eentury
117 Evagrius, HE V.14 (209.27-210.2); also Theophylact 1II.12.3-4.
118 Cf. also the allusion in lohn of Ephesus, HE VI.l3, to 60,000 Lombards.
119 Tiberiani: Theophanes, Chronographia, 251,24-27, ed. C. de BoOf (Leipzig, 1883);
Cedrenus, Historiarum Compendium, 690, 14-15, ed. I. Bekker (CSHB, Bann, 1838-39).
120 Theophylaet III.12.7; Menander 23.3. Both generals presumably had to subjeet their
annies to the proccdures described in Vegetius, Epitome 18-28.
121 John of Ephesus, HE VI.27 (with WhiLby, Maurice, 268; contra PLRE III. 747, s.v.
Iustinianus 3). It was often difficult for commanders of loeal units to subordinate their
particular interests to tbe overall strategie needs of the eastern front (cL Procopius, Wars
II.16.16-18), hut if an emperor gave decisive backing to a commander-in-ehief this could be
quickly achieved (e.g. Narses in Italy in the 550s, Manriee in the east in 578-82).
122 Thcophanes, 251, 27.
90 Michael Whitby
appointment as comes foederatorum hag plausibly been seen as a sign that

the federate units had now been regrouped into a single large corps, as part
of a tighter organization necessitated by the recent large-scale

recruitment. 123 These enlistrnents in the 570s could have created a bulge of
veterans due for discharge in the late 5908, which may be relevant to the
behaviour of Roman troops then, especially to the discontent in the Balkan
annies. From Maurice's generally successful campaigns between 578 and
582 the only point worth noting is the settlement on Cyprus of several
thousand Nestorian (Persian Christian) prisoners fr om Arzanene; 124
Evagrius, describing this process in imprecise terms, refers to a revival of
agriculture and general repopulation, and states that large armies were
raised from the settlers whieh fought bravely against other nations. 125 At
the same time Tiberius eontinued to look west for recruits, hoping to use
the offering of eoronation gold from the senate in Rome to attract
Lombards for service in the east, ultimately with some suecess.1 26 In the
northern part of the frontier Roman fortunes fluctuated as they acquired or
lost the allegiance of additional elements among the Persannenians and
Caucasian tribes: the Persannenians, who had origüially thrown off Persian
suzerainty because of fears about Magian infiltration, were alienated from
the Romans by the misbehaviour of Roman troops and concern about the
Roman desire to impose Chalcedonian orthodoxy on the Monophysite
Armenians; 127 in the sub-Caucasus region Christianity kept some groups
loyal to Rome, though money, hostages, and finally transplantation of
populations was required to retain Roman authority over the Sabir Runs and
other tribes in Albania.l 28 In Armenia in 579 there was unrest in the
Roman army, caused partly by lack of pay and pmtly by a demand that the
soldiers be shown their regiments so that they could be confident of their
places in thell. The latter point is obscure: the troops perhaps included
detachments drawn from units located quite some distance from the
Almenian frontier, which may have been prevented from returning to their
123 Haldon, Praetorians, 100-101.

124 Theophylact, III.15.15; John of Ephesus, HE VI.15. The number recorded by
Theophylact i8 either 1O,090or 100,000, depending on how one translates the phrase "90 in
addition to 10 thousands", but if the larger figure is accepted it must be discounted as a
considerable exaggeration. The Chronicle oi Seert (Histoire nestorienne, ed. and trans. A.
Scher, PO 13, 1919) H.41 records 70,000 prisoners.
125 Evagrius, HE V.19 (21S,16-26).
126 Menander 22; 24.
127 John of Ephesus, HE VI.lO; ii.23-24.
128 Menander 18.5; 18.6.29-41.
horne bases where they could check on, or enjoy, the privileges of their
military status.129
On the southern sector of the frontier Roman relations with their

allies were similarly mixed: the alliance with the Ghassänid leader al-
Mundhir was patched up by Justinian in 575-76, and the Arab allies
cooperated in campaigns until 581, when an expedition to Ctesiphon ended
in recriminations over alleged treachery and al-Mundhir again witbdrew
from the conmet; in 582 be was arrested, after being inveigled by his
Roman patron Magnus to attend tbe inauguration of a church in the Syrian
village of Haurin, an act regarded as treacbery that prompted al-Mundhir's
son Nu'män to raid the villages of Arabia and Syria.1 30 The success of this
raiding over the next two years, in conjunction with Adannahan's incursian
into Syria in 573, reflects the concentration of Roman forees to the east of
the Euphrates, a fact which had facilitated the success of Persian invasions
in 531,540 and 542. 131
During these eastern campaigns the Romans were also active in the
Balkans. There the Avars were emerging as the dominant threat after
helping the Lombards to defeat the Gepids and frightening tbe Lombards
into migrating to Italy.1 32 At first the Romans held tbeir own, having
regained Sirmium and hence control of a key crossing point on the Sava
river during the subjugation of the Gepids by the Avars. Justin was
determined to defend tbis against Avar claims, and he believed that the
farces available in the Balkans were sufficiently strong to defeat the Avars
without the need for diplomatie concessions; in this Justin overruled the
advice of bis generals, in particular of Tiberius the comes excubitorum and
supreme eommander in the Balkans, and he was proved wrong when the
outnumbered Roman armies were defeated by the Avars in 570,133 It
seems that Roman garrisons along the Danube were capable of protecting
themselves and observing the known crossing points on the river, but that
129 Jolm of Ephesus. HE VI.28; Kaegi, Unrest, 67, offers no explanation. The grievances
over pay may be associated with the fact that Tibcrius had to pay his accession donative in
578 79, which, in addition to his consular extravagance, was bound to sU'ain imperial
e
resources; ultimately troops each received 9 solidi (John of Ephesus, HE IIU1, with
Hendy, Studies, 481).
130 Jolm of Ephesus, HE IIIAO-42. For Magnus, see Denis Feissel, "Magnus, Megas et
les curateurs des 'Maisons Divines' ,"Travaux et Memoires 9 ( 1985), 465-76.
131 Cf. above n. 48; far the success of unexpected Saraeen raiding, compare the attaeks of
Mavia in the 370s (diseussion of source in Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth
Century, eh. 4).
132 For discussion, see Whitby, Maurice, eh. 3, 85-89.
133 Menander 12; 15.
92 Michael Whitby
they were not adequate for a pitched batde. Thereafter the demands of the
Pendan war affected the defence of the Balkans. When Slav raiders ravaged
far and wide in 577 the only solution for Tiberius was to recruit the Avars
as allies and arrange for them to be conveyed from Pannonia to the lower
Danube to attack Slav homelands. 134 This display of Roman weakness
encouraged the A vars to renew their attempts on Sirmium: again there are
repeated allusions to the lack of troops because units were occupied in the
Persian war;135 Tiberius' first reaetion was to send offieers throughout
Illyricum and Thraee to defend the city with the resourees available,136
presumably by assembling detachments from other garrisons in the Balkans,
and he then sent an embassy to the Lombards to recruit allies, an attempt
that faiied when the spatharius Narses who was to coordinate action with the
Lombards died while en route to the Danube.1 37 Theognis, the commander
finally entrusted with the defence of Sirmium, found the Romans avoiding
action since most of the men were new recruits. 138
6 Demographie Questions
One point to emerge from these campaigns is that Justin II appears to have
believed that the regular troops available to the empire could defend its
frontiers. This is certain for the east where no attempt was made to euro}
additional troops before Marcian was sent out to initiate military action in
572. For the Balkans the evidence is inadequate, but Justin's irritation with
his generals' de1ays, and the fact that Tiberius' initial response to Justin's
prompting was a defensive order to Bonus to guard the Danube
crossings,139 are consistent with the belief that the regular garrison bore the
brunt of the fighting. Large-scale recruitment, of foreigners as wen as
suitable inhabitants of the empire, only beg an in 574 when Tiberius assumed
control after 1ustin's madnes8. Justin was perhaps deluding himself about the
empire's population resources, and it 18 possible that he had an aversion to
employing foreign troops since he was very conscious about Roman dignity
and refused to buy favour with foreign leaders by the payment of
134 Menander 21.

135 Menander 24; 25.1.55-58; 25.2.11-17.
136 Menander 25.2.89-93.
137 John of Ephesus, HE VI.30-31; Narses supposedly died of despair after the ship
earrying his money sank.
138 Menander 27.1, an obseuTe fragment whieh breaks off in mid-sentenee but elearly
belongs in the context of the defence of Sirmium. Blockley's translation, "living at ease"
for "remaining inacti.ve" conveys the wrong impression.
139 Menander 15.1.12-23; cf. 5.4.23-26 for similar aetion by Bonus under Justin.
subsidies. 140 On the other hand it i8 worth eonsidering to what extent the
empire' s demographie vitality had been affected by the onset of plague in
541: it was observed by Teall that the composition and size of the anny are
the only available long-term population index, even if unsatisfactory, fot
the sixth century.1 41 Teall identified the plague as one of four factors that
contributed to a military-cum-economic crisis in the 540s,142 a situation
resolved in part by greater recruitment of non-Romans into the armies;
recurrence of plague at intervals of ab out 15 years meant that its impact
persisted, so that lustinian' s successors supposedly suffered from an acute
shortage of soldiers that was then exacerbated by restrictions on access to
traditional sources of foreign recruits.1 43
Scholarly orthodoxy, influenced by graphie and emotive eye-witness
accounts by the contemporaries Procopius and lohn of Ephesus, accepts that
the plague effected a catastrophic and irreversible 108s of life within the
Roman empire, perhaps as rouch as one third of the population overall and
even more in Constantinople and other very large, and unhea1thy, cities;144
at best it must be seen as one cause among many of a population decline that
increasingly destabilized the nice balance between producers and
consumers. 145 An element of scepticism, salutary even if exaggerated, has
been introduced by Durliat, who points to the dearth of evidence for the
plague's impact apart from in the narrative sources, whieh may have been
distotted by the influence of literary models as weH as by contemporary
hysteria;146 an affliction which killed rieh and poor indiscriminate1y was
140 Mcnander 8; 9.1; 12.56; 16.1.28-31; Corippus, lust .. llI.311-98, ed. and trans. Averil
Camcron, Flavius Cresconius Corippus, In laudem lustini Augusti minoris librj IV
(London, 1976).
141 Teall, "Barbarians" , 295.
142 lNd. 303-305; the other factors wem simultaneous campaigning on two fronts,
lustinian's suspicions about Belisarius, and the disgrace of the efficient praetorian prefect
John the Cappadocian.
143 lbid., 320-22. Problems with foreign recruitment wem su"Cssed by Stein, Studien, 119-
20.
144 Stein, Bas-Empire, 758-61; P. Charanis, "Observations on the Demography of the
Byzanline Empire", fepr. in id., Studies on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire
(Londoll, 1972), I; P. Allen, "The "lustillianic" Plague", Byzantion 49 (1979), 5-20; I-N.
Biraben, "Rapport: la peste du Vle siecle dans l'empire byzantin", in Hommes et richesses
dans i'Empire byzantin, tome 1, Ive-VIIe siecle (Paris, 1989), 121-25; Lawrence I.
Conrad, "The Plague in Biläd al-Shäm in Pre-Islamic Times", in Muhammad Adnan Bakhit
and Muhammad Asfour, eds., Proceedings ofthe Symposium on Biliid al-Sham during the
Byzantine Period, 11, 143-63; Evelyne Patlagean, Pauvreuf tfconomique et pauvrete sodale
a Byzance, 4 e-7e siecle:> (Paris, 1977), 88-92.
145 Jones, LRE, 1043-45.
146 J. Durliat, "La peste du Vlc siede, POUf un nouvel examen des SOUfces byzantins", in
Hommes et richesses, 107-19. There is an analogous attack on the accuracy of Thucydides'
94 Michael Whitby
likely to provoke an extreme reaction from the educated elite who, as

members of the wealthy families, tended to es cape relatively lightly from
most natural disasters.147 More impressed by the dearth of epigraphic

evidence, including epitaphs, and the lack of allusions in hagiographies to
saints providing protection from the plague,148 Durliat, though accepting a
high level of mortality in large towns, important ports and along main
highways, suggested that a major impact of the plague was a dislocation of
population as people tried to avoid the onset of the incomprehensible
disease; this allowed hirn to explain the onset of famine in Constantinople in
545, one year after the end of the first bout of plague. Durliat's arguments
are far from watertight: migration would not be undertaken lightly, and
could not guarantee survival at a time of agricultural disruption;149 famine
could have struck a seriously depopulated Constantinople if there was a bad
harvest in Egypt, the main grain exporting province, especially if coupled
with a slow return to normality in other areas that might have made up the
defieit of grain; mortality was suffieient to cause problems for money-
lenders and to lead to a rise in prices and wages in trade, productive
activities, and agriculture, changes which lustinian attempted to remedy
through legislation,150 Above a11 there i8 nothing implausible in the
detailed accounts of the disease and üs impact on society in the main
description of the "Great Plague" at Athens in 430 (the description of mOl'tality in Athens,
11.47-54 is the literal)' model for Procopius' account of the plague at Constantinople at Wars
11.22): AI. Woodman, Rhetoric in Classical Historiography (London, 1988),32-40, but
note the judicious discussion by Simon Hornblower, A Commentary on Thucydides I,
(Oxfol'd, 1991), 316-27. The Black Death attracted comparable descl'iptions from
contemporaries, and paralleis between Thucydides and the ac counts of contempol'aries'
reactions to the London Plague of 1665-66 are noted by Anton Powell, Athens and Sparta:
Constructing Greek Political and SodaZ History from 478 B.C. (London, 1988), 158-59.
Against Durliat, see now Lawrence 1. Conrad, "Epidemie Disease in Central Syria in the
Late Sixth Century: Some New Insights from the Verse of r)assan ibn Thabit", Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies 18 (1994), 12-58. .
147 This point is made wiCh regard to the Black Death by Iacques Le Goff, Medieval
Civilization (Oxford, 1988),236.
148 One must emphasise the relatively small sampIe of inscriptions available, and concede
that few vietims of plague would have been accorded an inscribed tomb; the hagiographie
silence might indicate that no saint was able to provide a cnre for the disease, though one
might expect to find stories of people protected from being infected at all.
149 Conrad, "Plague", 155. By way of camparison, the Black Death did have a direct and
severe impact on farming because of high peasant mortality, and in particular caused the
abandonment of newly-cultivated marginal lands : see Le Goff, Civilisation, 244.
150 Justinian Edie! VII (March, 542); Novel 122 (March, 544), ed. R. SchoeH and W.
Kroll (6th ed. Berlin, 1954). Procopius, Seeret History 23.20, alleged that most farmers
were wiped out, though in a context intended to maximize the problems caused to
agliculture by I ustinian.
eontemporary nalTative sourees, Procopius and John of Ephesus: 151 their

evidenee makes eIern: that the Justinianie Plague manifested the three main
clinical forms of infection, the bubonic, pneumonie, and septicaemic. 152

Durliat's scepticism is certainly excessive, hut his thesis still poses an
important challenge to those who adduce the plague as the turning point in
the empire's development in the sixth century, since it is quite possible to
disagree with Durliat' s revisionist approach to levels of mortality but to
aecept that the Plague by itself would be unlikely to cause a permanent
reversal in prosperity.153 This indeed appears to be the ease with the Blaek
Death in 1348, when a mortality rate calculated as within the range 30-45%
"caused disruption and setbacks in production, but in greater part these
appear to have been short lived", so that the second half of the fourteenth
century in England can be described as aperiod of economic groWth' or of
buoyancy in agriculture, commercial activity and towns.1 54 Thus, although
it is evident that the demographie and economic growth of the earlier
Middle Ages had terminated by about 1300, and probably begun to go into
reverse, the dramatic 10ss of life in the Plague did not have an immediate
catastrophic effect. 155 It is, however, noticeable that the fifteenth century
exhibits more c1early a range of problems associated with population
decline, such as deserted fannland, shrinkage of towns and eities, falling
land values and rising wage rates.156 A plausible explanation far this
apparent delayed reaction to the Plague is the frequency of reCUlTence of
plague andlor other serious epidemics, so that between 1380 and 1480 in
England there was an attaek of national or extra-regional signifieance in
more than one year in four.157 On the European continent where the
151 Procopius, Wars 11.22·23; John of Ephesus HE part II (this part of John's wark i8
extant only in fragments: for a summary of the information on the plague, see Conrad,
"Plaglle", 144-47).
152 Sec Keith Manchester, "The Palaeopathology of Urban Infeetions", in Steven Bassett,
ed., Death in Towns. Urban Responses to the Dying and the Dead, 100~I600 (Leicester,
1992), 10-14, at 12-13. The most eommon form, bubonie, had thc lowcst mortality rate at
50-90% of vietims, septieaemie was almost always fatal with death within hOllIS of the
attaek, while pneumonie was only marginally less lethal. See also Conrad, "Plague", 145,
149.
153 Thc point i8 also made hy Whittow, "City", 13-20.
154 John Hateher, Plague, Population and the English Economy 1348-1530 (Londan,
1977),31; Alan Dyer, Daline and Growth in English Towns 1400-1640 (London, 1991),
13-14, who states that "there appeared in 1.377 to be few symptoms of real damage from
population shortage."
155 For discussion, see the essays in Bruce M.S. Campbell, ed., Beiore the Black Death.
Studies in the "Crisis" ofthe Early Fourteenth Century (Manchester, 1991), especially the
introductory chapter by Barbara Harvey, pp. 1- 24.
156 Hatcher, Plague, 35-47; Dyer, Decline, 14-19.
157 Hateher, Plague, eh. 4; the figures are derived from the infOTp:tation on p. 57.
96 Michael Whitby
impact of the Black Death seems to have heen more immediate, at least in
the relatively few plaees where evidence of comparable detail to that from
England is available, it is also eIear that a significant decline in population

had begun a generation or so before the plague's arrival, while military
insecurity in the Iate fourteenth century enhanced and perhaps accelerated
the repercussions of the initial high mortality,158
Consideration of the Black Death suggests a range of questions that
need to be asked about the lustinianic Plague, even though conc1usive
answers cannot be given. The demographie vitality and general level of
prosperity in the generation before the Plague are relevant factors. If the
fifth century had been relatively prosperous for the eities in Asia Minor and
the Near East, the incidence of urban violence ca. 500 is perhaps indicative.
of growing insecurity and uncertainty, and it is likely that the population of
Constantinople had already reached its peak in the period 450-500.159 This
might suggest that conditions before the lustinianic Plague were not too
dissimilar to those before the BIack Death. Another important factor is the
spread of the Plague: its impact on major centres of population should not
be questioned, but the extent to wh ich it spread from eities and highways
into more remote rural locations, and in particular into the highland areas
most significant for military recruitment, is less certain. Its distribution
and loeal severity will have depended in part on the diffusion of the black
rat and it8 attendant flea, the carrier für the main bubonie version of the
disease, on climate, and on population density:160 for a plague epidemie to
take hold in the countryside there must be a relatively high density of
inhabitation of the human prey to enable the predatory plague to establish
itself. Thus the literary evidence for the suceessful establishment of the
Plague beyond the eities i8 testimony to the density of previous settlement:
in some provinees, for example Palestine, arehaeological surveys do
indicate a relatively high level of population in the sixth century,161 and it
is perhaps not a coincidence that the evidence of John of Ephesus Jor the
impact of the plague on the countryside ean be eonneeted with Syria and
158 Edouard Baratier, La demographie provenrale du XIIle au XVle siede (Pari~, 1961),
80-87, 120-21; Arlette Higounet-Nadal, Pirigueux aux XIVe et XVe sUdes. Etude de
demographie historique (Bordeaux, 1978), 143-53. I am grateful to my colleague Richat'd
de Lavigne for discussion of this material.
159 Mango, Byzantil1m, 66-67; id., Le developpement urhain de Constantinople (ivLvii e
sihles) (Paris, 1985), 51.
160 See Robert SaUares, The Ecology of the Ancient Greek World (London, 1991),263-71;
also H. Kennedy, "The Last Century of Byzantine Syria: aReinterpretation", Byzantinische
Forschungen 10 (1985),141-83, at 183.
161 See Benjamin Isaac, below; Parker, Jordan. 803; and mol'e generally cf. Whittow,
"City", 14-16.
Palestine. On the other hand the mortality in upland areas may not have
been so extensive, since the carrier flea of bubonic plague i8 most active in
hot and humid conditions, a factor which explains the greater virulence of
this version of plague in summer. 162 A final consideration i8 the duration
and, in particular, the frequency of the plague's recurrence. In its initial
impact, the plague spread around the east Mediterranean in two seasons
(541 and 542) and perhaps extended into a third, though by March 544
lustinian could issue a law whieh declared that the disease was over.1 63 If
this had been the limit of the fatality, a substantial and quick recovery might
have been predieted: "populations which have suffered a sudden catastrophe
do tend to recover rapidly, within a coup1e of generations".1 64 The
eontemporary ecclesiastical historian Evagrius, however, who lost family
members in the various outbreaks, records that there were three
reeurrences of the plague in the vicinity of Antioeh over the next fifty
years; the plague did not cease to recur simply because Evagrius died in
594, and in fact there had probably been at least four further attaeb by
630.165 Thus over aperiod of roughly ninety years the plague recurred at
least seven times, at a frequency of onee every fourteen years - about one
third the frequency of the recurrence of the Black Death in England.1 66
This will certainly have impeded a quick rebound of population, but the
depressive effect may not have been so severe as after the Black Death. At
least in the rural and upland areas most relevant to military recruitment the
overall effect of the Plague may have been to terminate aperiod of
population prosperity, but without necessarily irnmediately introducing a
dearth of manpower; the resultant less buoyant level of population would
obviously have been more vulnerable to future serious shocks.
For what it is worth it is p08sible to eite evidenee that suggests the
continuation of relatively "healthy" population levels in some areas. In 542
lohn of Ephesus began a mission to convert pagans in mountainous areas of
western Asia Minor which over the next 35 years was claimed to have
162 Sallares, Ecology, 270.

163 Novel122; see also Conrad, "Plaguc", 147-48.
164 Sallares, Ecology, 260.
165 Evagrius, HE IV.29. Interesting evidence in pre-Islamic Arabie poetry for p1ague in
Syria in the late sixth eentury i8 presented and diseussed by Conrad, art. cit., n. 146 above.
The vital chronologicallimitation of Evagrius's testirnony i8 noted by Conrad, "Plague",
149-51, who also cites the evidence for subsequent alLacks ofp1ague.
166 Lawrence 1. Conrad, The Plague in the Early Medieval Near East (unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation, Princeton, 1981),330 (citation in id., "Epidemie Diseases", n. 149), calculates
a more rapid rate ofreeurrenee of about onee every seven years over the two eenturies 541-
749, but even this is only abnut halfthe rate nf reeurrenee of the BlaekDeath.
98 Michael Whitby
brought about 70,000 conversions: 167 the number may be incredible, but
the impression of dense inhabitation in an upland area is at least consistent
with the likely diversity in the virulence of the plague. In 548 opponents of
Justinian in Constantinople believed that Belisarius could collect a
significant army from Thrace, which would imply that one traditional
recruiting ground was still productive.1 68 Accounts of sieges especially on
the eastern frontier, but also in the Balkans, in the late sixth and early
seventh century convey an impression of well-populated eities where
successful enemies could eapture thousands of eivilian inhabitants,169 and
the continuing vitality of some eities in the Near East and Asia Minor, for
example PelIa, Gerasa, and Anemudum, is suggested by re cent
arehaeological work. 170 There were still reservoirs of population to be
tapped by Tiberius, Maurice and Philippicus far recruitment purposes in the
5708 and 580s; and the Life of Theodore of Sykeon which contains stories
of rural life in Anatolia implies the existence of prosperous, even
expanding, villages. Such indications can be explained away by those
determined to maintain the plague as an extreme 8eourge: military
insecurity forced population i11to a few surviving eities where they were
trapped by besieging enemies,171 a eountryside that was generally
167 F. Nau, "Analyse de la seconde partie inedite de l'Histoire Ecclesiastique de lean

d' Asie", Revue de ['Orient chritien 2 (1897),455-93, at 482; also John of Ephesus, Lives
ofthe Eastern Saints, Patrologia Orientalis 18 (1924), 681.
168 Proeopius, Wars VII.32.38, with Kaegi, Unrest, 98-99. Note, too, that in 544-45
Belisarius was able to raise 4,000 troops in the Balkans for serviee in ltaly (Procopius,
Wars VILlO.I-2).
169 E.g. Dara in 573, Thessalonica in 586 and again in the 61Os. For Jerusalem in 614 we
have a detailed casuaIty figure of 66,509 (Antloehus Strategius, La prise de lirusalem par
les Perses en 614, trans. G. Garitte, CSCO 203, Sec. Iberiei 12 [Louvain, 1960]); Sebeos
Histoire de Heraclius (trans. F. Mader, Palis, 1904), eh. 24, less precisely, records 35,000
captives and 57,000 dead, while Theophanes (300,30-301,5) gives the inexact "nine
myriads" (Le. 90,000) fO!' the casualties, with unnumbered captives in addition. I would
not want to suggest that any of these figures i8 correet, even that in Antiochus where the
precision may be spurious (and the magnitude of the catastrophe of the loss of Jerusalem
could be enhanced by alle ging a very high casualty total), but merely to indicate that
contemporaries dld not think it implausible timt a fortified city might provide shelter to tens
of thousands of people.
170 For a convenient collection of re[erences, see Whittow, "City", 14 n.25. A much less
optimistic view of the condition of late Roman Syria is advanced in Kennedy,
"Reinterpretation", though the results of investigations at Dehes in Syria, whieh entail a
substantial modification 10 the gloom, are noted in Hugh Kennedy, "Recent French
Arehaeological Work in Syria and Jordan", Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 11
(1987), 245-53.
171 Kg. at Thessalonica in the 610s there were re[ugees from Naissus and Justiniana Prima
who had fled earlier Avar attacks on their eitles (Miracula S.Demetrii, 200; ed. P. Lemerle,
Les plus anciens recueils des Miracles de saint Demitrius, l. Le texte [Paris, 1979]). An
alternative type of increase occurred in 359 at Amida where Ammianus (XVIII.8.13)
depopulated could still support a few den se pockets of inhabitation

particularly in remote upland areas, 172 while the limited scope of
Theodore's Life can be offset by indications of the existence of empty

agricultural land on Cyprus and in the Balkans,173 The analogy of the
Black Death encourages a cautious assessment of the immediate impact of
plague, 174 but would also suggest that the full effects of mortality might
take two generations to manifest themselves;175 their severity would be
reinforced by other factors with adetrimental impact on population levels,
such as warfare, invasions, and the removal of inhabitants into foreign
captivity - occurrences that were not uncommon in the early seventh
century.
One element in the pessimistic pieture drawn by Teall for the late
sixth century that must be challenged is his assertion that lustinian's
successors displaya greater desire to acquire or preserve manpower when
making war and negotiating for peace.1 76 This assertion 1S based solelyon
amisinterpretation of Tiberius' attempts to make peace with the Persians in
577 and 579, when one of the important points under discussion was the
allegiance of Persarmenia and Iberia. Tiberius was prepared to return these
tenitories to the Persians, but rejected demands that their inhabitants should
be surrendered as wen. l77 His concern for the population, however, was
not motivated by demographic considerations but by adesire to abide by the
oath, sworn by his predecessor lustin to Persarmenians and Iberians who
rebelled from Persia, that he would never surrender them or anyone else
mentions countrymen present in the city for a market who were trapped by the Persian
altack.
172 A comparison might be drawn with Greece in thc early nineteenth cenlury, where
overall population stagnation or decline was accompanicd by prosperous increase in a few
fortunate areas such as Mount Pelion: see Helen Angelomatis-Tsougarakis, The Eve ojthe
Greek Revival. British Travellers' Perceptions oj Early Nineteenth-Century Greece
(London, 1990), 58-71.
173 See above n.124 fm Cyprus, and below for Maurice's proposal to transfer Armenian
families to TIrracc.
174 Cf. Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (London, 1970), ch. 15, "The Social and
Economic Consequcnces", e.g. at p. 259, 'The Black Death did notinitialc any major sodal
or economic trend, but it accelerated and modified - sometimes drastically - those which
already existed." Note, too, that the Athenians believed that they had recovercd [rom the
mortality of their plagne 15 ycars after its onset (Ihucydides n.26.2): although the affliction
was certainly not bubonic plague (see Sallares, Ecology, 244-58, for discussion of the
possibilities), the mortality rale was probably in the range 25-35 per cent.
175 The need to distinguish short-tenn impact from langer-leim, and perhaps more serious,
consequences i8 made by Conrad, "Plague", 154-57.
176 Teall, "Barbarians", 301, 320.
m Menander 20.2,13-15, 37-56; 23.8,17-19.
100 Michael Whitby
who preferred to belang to the Roman state.178 Khusro in fact was

prepared to accept this stipulation since he was aware that most of the
population would prefer to stay in theil' native land even under restol'ed
Persian control, and that only a few leading l'ebels would choose to migrate
to the Roman empire.1 79 This is no basis on which to build agrand theory
abaut depopulation and a change in the objectives of warfare.180
It is also difficult to detect any significant decline in the overall size
of armies in the Iate sixth century,181 and indeed any decline is likely to
have been caused as much by financial as manpower problems; the Roman
empire had repeatedly experienced shortages of troops from Augustus in
A.D. 9 onwards, and these had entailed switching legions between frontiers
and giving priority to certain conflicts, so that the occurrence of similar
pressures in the late sixth century does not prove that there had been a
drastic loss of population. The best evidence for army sizes is provided by
MaUllce's Strategikon: an army of 5/6,000-15,000 men is well-proportioned
(or, later in the treatise, 2-5/6,000), and different tactical arrangements are
specified for a force of 15-20,000.1 82 These totals are corroborated by the
limited informatIon in narrative sourees. An interesting calculation can be
made from the quanitity of gold sent to one eastem army by Tiberius for
his accession donative in 578-79, 800 pounds, which at the rate of 9 salidi
per man indicates a force of 6,400.1 83 Theophylact refers on various
occasions to units of between 1,000 and 5,000 acting as detachments from
larger forces of unspecified size,184 but only twice gives figures for a
complete army, for Comentiolus in the Balkans in 587 and Romanus in
Lazica in 590 - on each occasion the number is 10,000, but both these
armies were somewhat serateh forces and are likely to have been smaller
than the main armies at the time, which were positioned on the
Mesopotamian and Armenian frontiers.185 The recruits collected by
Tiberius for Maurice are said to have numbered 15,000.1 86 We do not have
figures for the Roman troops at pitched battles such as Constantina in 582
178 Menander 20.2,49-56.

179 Menander 20.2,57-64.
180 For comparable instances of Roman concern 10 protect foreign deserters, in both fifth
and sixth centuries, see Whitby, Maurice, 146.
181 Cf. the discussion of numbers above, n.50; also James Howard-Johnston, below.
182 Strategikon m.8, 10; the earlier chapter has a twofold, the latter a threefold division.
183 John of Ephesus, HE m.ll, with Hendy, Studies, 481 n.165.
184 Theophylact III.3.9; VI.4.7; VI!.2.l, 4.1 (1.000); V.4.2; VII.l2.2 (2,000); III.lO.2
(3,000); IIl3.6 (5,000).
185 Theophylact 1I.1O.9; 1l1.7.1O.
186 Theophanes, 251. 26.
or Solachon in 586, or in the expedition to restore Khusro II to his throne

in 591 but on this last occasion it would not be surprising if the combined
Roman contingents operating from Armenia and Beth Arabaye numbered

over 30,000, perhaps as many as 40,000.1 87 The enormous figures for
eastern annies in the 570s offered by lohn of Ephesus, 120,000 all told with
a contingent of 60,000 Lombard mercenaries, and by Evagrius, must be
dismissed as wild exaggerations. 188
The army sizes suggested by the Strategikon are in line with figures
for lustinian' s reign, when armies rarely exceeded 20,000: in the east
Belisarius commanded 25,000 at Dara in 530 and 20,000 at Callinicum in
531; 189 the expedition to Africa numbered 16,000, and to Sicily 7,500,
though on each occasion Belisarius was accompanied by personal
bodyguards whose numbers, unrecorded by Procopius, might have been a
few thousand; forces for major expeditions and battles in Italy totalled
12,000 in 542 and 18,000 in 554.1 90 The total of 52,000 assembled for the
Persian war by Anastasius in 503 is described as beyond comparison with
earlier and later armies,191 while the 30,000 deployed in 543 (the year after
the Plague) did not in fact represent a single army but the total of
contingents guarding the Armenian frontier from Theodosiopolis to
Martyropolis. 192 The figure of 50,000 recorded by Agathias for Roman
forces in Lazica in 554 is clearly an exaggeration designed to emphasize the
moral of divine punishment for misdeeds, since they were overcome by
only 3,000 Persians.1 93 The impression given by the Strategikon of late-
sixth century strengths is also compatible with the evidence of Vegetius
from almost two centuries earlier. In his treatment of ''The Proper Size of
an Army" Vegetius advocated areturn to early Roman practice, which he
interpreted as a "praetorian" army of 10,000 infantry plus 2,000 cavalry
for smaller wars, a "consular" army of 20,000 infantry plus 4,000 cavalry
187Theophylact V.9.4 records that in total Khusro had 60,000 men for the battlc of Canzak,
against Vahram's anny of 40,000.
188 John of Ephesus, HE VI.8, 10, 13; Evagrius, HE V.14 (209,28-210,2). It is
conceivable that the total Roman military strength in the eastern provinces was in excess of
100,000, excluding limitanei, but this cannot be used to excuse these swollen figures for
recruits.
189 Procopius,Wars 1.13.23; 18.5. One might infer that 20-25,000 was about the
maximum ideal army size from thc logistical point of view, even in the vicinity of a regular
base like Dara.
190 Procopius, Wars m.ll.2, 11-12, 19; V.S.2-4; VII.3.4; Agathias Il.4.IO.
191 Procopius, Wars 1.8.4; special arrangements had to be made for its provisioning.
192 Procopius, Wars II.24.12-17; Tea11, "Barbarians", 308, misleadingly refers to this as
"one of the three great armies collected during the sixth century".
193 Agathias 111.8.2-3; cf. Averil Cameron,Agathias (Oxford, 1970),45-46.
102 Michael Whitby
for large enemy forces, and a double "consular" army if countless hordes
had to be opposed; when providing instructions for marshalling infantry,
Vegetius deals with a unit of 10,000 but notes that his advice i8 capable of
extension to forces of 20,000 or 30,000 without difficulty,194 Granted that
most sixth-century armies probably contained a much higher proportion of
cavalry, Vegetius' ideal army i8 of similar order of magnitude.
Complaints ab out shortages of resources, human or material, are
characteristic of military organizations, and it Is therefore difficult to use
references to manpower problems in the late sixth century to prove that the
plague of the 540s had a decisive long-term impact on the empire's ability
to defend itself. Cities are likely to have been hardest hit by the mortality,
but in antiquity armies tended to be drawn from the healthier populations of
the countryside. 195 It would be surprising if there were not some short-
term recruiting problems, since mortaIity in armies and military camps
would be high,196 and this Is supported by evidence for the effects on
soldiers of bubonie plague in the 160s,197 when the disease entered the
Mediterranean world for the first time. In 543 the Persian army under
Khusro's command in Azerbaijan was afflicted by plagne;198 one might
expect Roman armies and garrisons to have been similarly weakened,
although it is worth noting that Procopius does not allnde to mortality
among Roman troops, and the operations of the very large forces deployed
along the frontier in 543 do not seem to have been affected by the plague.
Whatever temporary difficulties there may have been for the Romans, after
the 5408 it 18 less credible to speak of a chrome deficiency of soldiers,199 or
to identify recruitment problems as a factor that both conditioned imperial
responses to mutinies and occasioned further military unrest. 200 The
194 Vegetius, Epitome HI.1; 15.

195 Though note Proeopius, Seeret History 23.20, for mortality among farmers.
196 Cf. Thucydides n.58, far a illOliality rate of 26% among Athenian hoplites besieging
Potidaea in 430 RC., as a eonsequenee of the fifth-centmy B.C. "Great P1ague".
197 SHA, Marcus Antoninus, 21.6-8 (trans. David Magie, Loeb ed., val. I [Landon,
1922]): slaves, gladiators, and brigands brought into military service, as weIl as more
orthodox legionary enrolment; seefurther, Dunean-Jones, Structure, 71-76.
198 Proeopius, Wars II.24.8.
199 Thus Patlagean, Pauvrete, 315. The evidence for reeruittnent in the 160s eited by
Dunean-Iones, Strueture, 71 n.40, indieates short-term problems in same provinces (non-
citizen, "camp-born" reeruits in Egypt in 168), but equally no signs of problems e1sewhere
(lraditiona1 recruits in the Balkans in 169).
200 Contra Kaegi, Unrest, n. Indiscipline and mutinies, for which financia1 shortages
were the prime eause (Iones, LRE, 677), were problems in Justinianic armies lang before
the Plague (e.g. the reeonquest army in Africa), and were a danger in any large body of
troops not actively engaged in fighting (Mauriee, Strategikon I.9.3-5; cf. Malchus 18.3.49-
56 for an instance under Zeno). Punishment of mutineers had a1ways focused on al1eged
fundamental Roman military problem throughout the Iater sixth century

was the traditional difficulty of financing and sustaining major campaigns
on more than one frontier at a time: in tbe 5808 tbe eastern front took
priority and the Romans struggled in the Balkans, but after peace with
Persia in 591 and the consequent transfer of eastern troops to Europe tbe
Romans gradually dominated the Avars and Slavs until Maurice's death in
602. Even in the 620s after two decades of military failure and severe
disruption to the heartlands of the empire, money and the magnet of the
imperial presence could produce recruits for Heraclius at the start of his
counter-offensive against the Persians. 201
7 "Barbarians" in Roman Armies

The plague of the 5408 is believed, however, to have had an important
effect on Roman armies and military recruitment in a secondary manner by
reducing the numbers of potential Roman volunteers and hence forcing
emperors to rely more heavily on foreigners, to the ultimate detriment of
the discipline and "Romanity" of the army.202 The contention is that the loss
of life produced an improvement in the standard of Iiving, especially in
those rural areas most important for recruiting purposes, so that fewer
volunteers were forthcoming; as a result emperors had to employ more
non-Roman soldiers as expensive and often unreliable mercenaries, and the
crisis came full circle when the Avars gained control of the north bank of
the Danube and denied 'the Romans access to the tribes living there.203 This
argument is not substantially affected by acceptance of continued
conscription, as suggested above, since compulsion would be less efficient
when local elites and potential conscripts had a mutual interest in ensuring
that the draft was evaded, a possible result of a shol'tage of agricultural
labour. Furthermore at such times emperors rnight be reluctant to incur
unpopularity by tightening the squeeze of conscription: 204 non-Romans
ringleaders (Tacitus, Annals 1.29-30, 44, 48-49, and far the principle 1.38; Maurice.
Strategikon I.6.19-22). For the early imperial situation, see Campbell,Army, 370-74.
20 1 Though destruction of means of economic livelihood would have encouraged the
destitute to enter the anny.
202 This is the overall thrust of Teall's argument ("Barbarians", esp. conclusions at 321-
22); followed by Fotiou, "Shortagcs", 67.
203 Stein, Studien, 59-60,119-21; Stein saw the elimination by the Avars ofthis source of
foreign recruits as cause ofthe reapplication of conscription among native Romans.
204 Cf. Brunt, "Conscription", 133-35, for tbe avoidance by earlier emperors of
conscription in Italy.
104 Michael Whitby
offered an easy solution that would, additionally, not impair the empire's
taxation base and the balance between producers and consumers. 205
First, a c1arification of "barbarization" and indiscipline. Roman

armies had for centuries been composed primarily of men from the less
Romanized parts of the empire, from mountainous regions such as the
central Balkans OI Isauria, supplemented to varying degrees by drafts of
tribesmen who had been allowed to settle within the empire in return for
promises of military service: thus the character of the "civilized" Roman
elements of the army might not have been significantly different from that
of the non-Roman elements. A key moment in terms of imperial control of
armies came in the late fourth century when non-Romans, primarily Goths,
were granted the concession of service under their own leaders, but this
development does not, by itself, seem to have made armies more
"batbarüi.n" and disorderly, or to have reduced their military
effectiveness. 206 Discipline depended on the quality and authority of
individual leaders, and newly-constituted armies tended to need reminders
about behaviour as weH as military training,207 but the army was still an
institution that could reshape the people who served in it, whether as
individuals OI groups.208 Under strong leadership the RemIs, perhaps the
most "barbaric" of non-Roman soldiers during Justinian's reign, were
disciplined and effective fighters, but to a civi1ian any military unit would
205 AmmirulUs XIX.ll.7 (more population, robust reeruitment), XXXIA.4 (recmits, plus
commutation of internallevy of recmits into gold) . See Reather, Goths, 158-60, for links
between military service and tax burdens: whereas in 376 the alleged financial contribution
of Gothie settlers was indirect, through the greater use of aurum tironicum in place of
physical reeruits, in 382 imperial propaganda asserted that Goths would both fight and
contribute to taxation (Themistius, Orations, ed. R. Schenk! and G. Downey [Leipzig,
1965-71], XVI, vol. I, 302.23-27; XXXIV.22, vol. H, 227.5-21), though Reather
sensibly notes (Goths, 159-60) that the taxation may have been a symbolic token ofGothic
subservience rather than a signifieant economic eonu'ibution to the empire. See also
Liebeschuetz, Barharianl', chs. 2-3, for fourth-century barbarian recmiunent.
206 Synesius reacted to this influx of Goths and argued that the empire could only be
protected properly by a Roman army (De Regno 19: ed. N. Terzaghi, Synesii Cyrene1lSis
hymni et opuscula 11 [Rome, 1944]), hut as observed by Peter Heather ("The Anti-Seythian
Tirade of Synesius' De Regno", Phoenix 42 [1988], 152-72, at 155) Synesius had to gloss
over the ineonvenient dis aster of Adrianople. which would otherwise have punctured his
thesis of the superiOlity of a (fairly) "Roman" army over barbruians.
207 E.g. impalemellt of two 'Runs at Abydus by Belisarius at the start of the voyage to
Africa as exemplary punishment: Proeopius, Wars II1.12.7-22. Exhortations not to ravage
counU'yside, ibid. m.16.1-8; Theophylact 11.2.5. Training of new forces, cf. n.l20.
208 Under the Republic military service had been a key faetor in romanising the Oscan-
speaking allies (who fought in their own national units under 10ca1leaders); in the late
empire the same effect could be achieved with Gothie tribaI gl'OUps.
appear a threatening and alien horde. 209 The most regular cause of
military umest throughout the sixth century was absence of pay, or any
other analogous threat to the terms and conditions of service;210 barbarians

in the army or an alleged decline in standards of behaviour are not relevant
to these. 21l
Rather than talk in emotive terms about barbarians increasingly
dominating and degrading the army, it is more useful to consider the extent
to which the Romans could control the sources of foreign recmits: this
entails exarnination of numbers and origins, and is intended to establish
whether Avars hegemony on the Danube created a crisis after the 5708. For
Iustinian's reign we are weIl informed about the composition of Roman
armies: this is partly because Procopius was personally interested in
identifying different units such as Isaurians, Phrygians or Thracians among
"Roman" units, or Saracens, Tzani, or Hemls among non-Romans, but
Malalas tao provides details about contingents, for example the Lycocrinitae
infantry from Phrygia sent to pursue Saracen raiders, the unit of "Roman
or Italian troops known as Spaniards" in the Crimea, or the components of
the Roman army at CaIlinicum in 531. 212 Iustinian was always interested in
aHaching to the empire as much potential manpower as possibIe, for
example the HemIs whose king Grepes was baptized at Constantinople and
then sent horne to await imperial summons,213 and in exploiting new
manpower resources that successful warfare brought under bis control, such
as the Tzani defeated by Sittas and then enrolled into regular Roman units,
or Vandals from Africa who are formed into five squadrons of Iustinianic
Vandal cavalry.214
It would be helpful to distinguish, if possible, between non-Roman
troops who fought in Roman arrnies because they were under Iustinian's
authority, such as these Tzani and Vandals, and "genuine foreigners" from
outside the empire who fought by agreement (Le. as allies or symmachoi)
209 Heruls: general reputation, Procopius,Wars VI.14.32A2; influencc of their leader

Pharas, ibid. IV.4.29-30. Reaetions to presence of Gothic troops in Edessa during
Anastasius' Persian war, Joshua the Stylite 86, 93-96. Jones, LRE, 1263 n.53, claims that
Goth was the standard eolloquialism in Syriac for a Roman soldicr.
210 Kaegi, Unl'est, eh. 3, c.g. 42-43.
211 I have Iittle sympathy with the thesis oI Arther FerriU, The Fall ofthe Roman Empire,
the Military Explanation (London, 1986), who atLributes thc collapsc of the western empire
to slippage in thc Roman identity oI the western aooy and consequent indiscipline: for
example, it i8 futile to base theories about the nature of the fifth-century western aooy on a
speech composed for Attila by Jordanes (FerriU, Fall, 152-53).
212 Malalas, 445,10-13; 432,1-3; 441-42.
213 Malalas, 427,17-428,4.
214 Procopius, Wars 1.15.25; IV.14.17.
106 Michael Whitby
such as the Lombards whom Nm·ses paid off after indisciplined behaviour in
Italy in 552. 215 The problem, however, is that many groups are impossible
to categorize. The mutinous Huns in Africa in 534, who protested that they
had been enlisted contrary to sworn agreements and feared that they might
be prevented from returning horne with their booty, were a foreign
contingent. 216 The HeruIs, however, one of the most prominent non-Roman
units in Procopius' narrative, were theoretically under imperial authority
since they had been given lands to settle within the Danube frontier near
Singidunum, and some of them were enrolled in the corps of Federates;2l7
Christian baptism and land grants inside the empire were intended to bind
this useful but unruly tribai rernnant to Justinian 's service, but interestingly
in the long tUn it was a personal link with Narses, virtually a client-patron
relationship, that governed their military service. 218 The Armenians,
another national group frequently mentioned by P'rocopius, have been
regarded as non-Romans, but the vast majority of these wi11 have been
recruited from the areas of Armenia under Roman authority: when the new
command of the magister militum per Armenian was set up in 528, Sittas
insisted on being allowed to employ Ioeals as his scriniarii beeause they
knew the region, and so could presumably help with his military
administration, including rectUiting. 219 In 536 the provincial structure of
Armenia was reorganized and the quasi-independent satrapies of southern
Armenia eonstituted as a province, moves which would have increased the
efficiency of Romml eontrol. 220 As a result it is not necessarily correct to
place Armenians in a different category from internal groups such as
Isaurians, and indeed Oll one occasion they are described as stratiotai, i.e.
regular soldiers, in conjunction with Thracian troops; Armenians were not
foreigners .221
215 Procopius, Wars VIII.33 .1-2.

216 Procopius, Wars IV.1.5-7 (symmachoi at ill.l 1.1 1)
217 Procopius, Wars VII.33.13 (at III.ll.ll they are distinguished from Hunnic
symmachoi).
218 Procopius, Wars VI.l3.18, 22.5; VII.13.21 -22 for the special connection.
219 Malalas, 429.16-430.8.
220 Justinian, Nov. 31; Jones, LRE, 280-81.
22 1 Procopius, Wars VII. 6. 10; a srnall Hunnie group is distinguished from the stratiotai.
The classic treatment of Al'menians is Peter Charanis, "The Armenians in the Byzantine
Empire" , Byzantinoslavica 22 (1961), 196-240, reprinted in idem, Studies on the
Demography ofthe Byzantine Empire (Variorum, Londoll, 1972), V.
Thus it might appear that some of the ethnic diversity of the

Iustinianic armies reflected the heterogeneous nature of the empire: 222
"non· Romans " fought in Roman armies because they lived in the Roman
empire. The principal exceptions to this were the Ghassänid federates
entrusted with defenee of mueh of the eastern frontier between the
Euphrates and Red Sea, whose area of transhumanee straddled the
frontier,223 and various eontingents that originated in the vicinity of the
Caucasus, Laz, Sabir Huns, and other Huns, who in general did not serve
outside their region. 224 With regard to reemits from beyond the Danube
frontier, the most prominent were Runs, a regrettably impreeise term that
could embrace tribesmen recruited in the Caucasus as well.the region to the
north·east of the Black Sea;225 to complicate the picture, some Bulgar Huns,
captured by Mundus in the Balkans in 530, were transferred by lustinian to
Armenia and Lazica where they were enrolled in the regular almy units
(numeroi arithmoi).226 Hunnie contingents dispatched to the west,
however, were probably a11 drawn directly from the Danubian Runs; these
were now dominated by Bulgar groups of whom the most prominent were
the Cutrigurs and Utigurs. 227 Two main recruiting campaigns are
recorded, by Valerian who in 537 brought to Italy 1,600 Huns, Slavs and
Antes, all recruited on the Danube, while Narses in 552 raised a new army
for Italy which included "numerous" Huns, 3,000 Hemls under Philemuth
as wel1 as many more under Aruth, 2,500 Lombards accompanied by 3,000
esquires capable of fighting, and 400 Gepids.2 28 These levies, especially
Narses' force, played an important part in fighting in Italy, but in the
context of the overall Roman military effort, and even with regard to the
222 This is also reflected in the multinational origin of officers (cf. Teall, "Barbarians" , 310)
siuce loeal chiefs, like their Seottish suceessors, used their men as a means of personal
advaneement
223 In advance of the publication of Irfan Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth
Century, see the various articles collected in idem, Byzantium and the Semitic Orient bejore
the Rise oj Islam (London, 1988).
224 Laz: Procopius, Wars II.29.27-32 (with Alans and Sabirs as allies); Sabir Huns:
VIII.11.22·26; Huns: 1.12.6,9. In due course !he Romans increased !heir hold on Lazica,
and this was recognized as a Roman possession in the 50 Yeafs' Treaty of 561-62
(Menander 2; 6.1.144), so that Laz troops would not thereafter strictly count as non-
Roman.
225 Thus the Huns among thc dcfcnders of Edessa in 544 (Wars 11.26.25) were probably
from the Caucasus, espeeially as one of their commanders was Peranius the Gem·gian.
226 Theophanes, 219,14-16.
227 The possible exceptions are the 200 Huus who accompanied Belisatius to Sicily in 534,
and the few Huns taken to Italy in 543 by Phazas the Georgiau, nephew of Perauius
(Proeopius, Wars V.5.4; VII.6.1O).
228 Proeopius, Wars V.27.1-2; VlII.26.1O-13.
108 Michael Whitby
size of expeditionary armies alone, the contribution of Danubian groups was

limited. The significance of external recruits is even more restricted, since
the Reruls in Dada and the Lombards in Noricum and Pannonia had been
permitted by Justinian to dweIl south of the Danube;229 in neither case did
settlement guarantee loyalty,230 but these units were more likely to be
amenable to pressure from the empire than from anyone else, and the
granting of lands to family groups of tribesmen remained imperial poliey,
with 2,000 Cutrigurs being settled in Thrace in 551. 231
It is not clear that the proportion of non-Romans in Roman armies
substantially increased during the course of lustinian's reign, and if the
overall balance of the armed forces did change faetors like more efficient
organization in Armenia, increasing Roman domination of Lazica, and
personal eonsiderations such as the rapport that Narses established with the
Reruls and possibly the Lombards, must be taken into account alongside the
10ss of manpower caused by plague. Under Justinian's successors the one
occasion when large numbers of foreigners were recruited was in 574-75
when Tiberius had to rebuild the eastern arrnies as rapidly as possible,
though he continued to soUcit recruits thereafter: Danubian peoples were
involved, but the. most prominent group now were the Lombards who had
migrated to ltaly.232 The total number recruited was perhaps 15,000, but
the proportion of intern al to extern al cannot be reeovered: the elite unit of
Optimates was probably created from the best of foreign recruits, but this
numbered no more than 2,000; the Federates, who may not have been
entirely foreign, totalled a further 6-7,000. 233 Some of these foreigners
were to be settled in the empire, sinee they arrived with wives and children
whose Arian religion provoked uproar in Constantinople. John of Ephesus
says these were Goths, though whether he could distinguish a Goth from a
Lombard, the other main Arian group at the time, is uncertain.
Recruitment of Visigoths from Spain is possible, however, and towards the
229 Procopius, Wars Vll.33.1O-13.

230 Cf. the flight of the Lombard Ildigisal, who had been settled with 300 followers near
Apri in Thrace (Procopius, Wars VIII.27.1-18).
231 Procopius, Wars VIlI.19.6-8.
232 For narrative and sourees, see seetion 5.
233 F. Aussaresses, L'armee byzantine a lafin du VIf siecle d'apres le Strategicon de
l'empereur Maurice, Bibliotheque des Universites du Midi 14 (Bordeaux, 1909), 16;
Haldon, Praetorians, 103.
end of Maurice's reign the activities there of Comentiolus, which aroused

Pope Gregory's hostility, might have included a search for recruits. 234
Once this particular crisis had passed, Roman armies were largely
kept up to strength from traditional interna! sources of supply in the
Balkans, Anatolia and Armenia;235 the Strategikon contains a provision
eoncerning leave that suggests that armies were stationed, at least for their
winter quarters, in the provinces where many of their members had been
recruited. 236 For campaigns in the Caucasus Ioeal allies were enlisted, while
in the Balkans land was made available by Maurice to more Bulgar settlers,
hoth continuations of Justinianic praetices. 237 Expansion of Roman frontiers
in the north-east, to ineorporate Iberia and mueh of Persarmenia,238 gave
Maurice control of important additional recruiting areas which should have
eased pressures elsewhere. The army remained heterogeneous, although,
sinee Procopius' successors do not provide spedfic evidence about
recruitment, the only indication of ethnic origin is the non-Roman names of
officers and it is impossible to determine if these were residents or genuine
foreigners: 239 the best attested is Droctulft, Sueve by birth but brought up a
Lombard, who fought for the Romans in the Balkans and Italy and was
buried in San Vitale at Ravenna. 240
Recruitment within the empire was pursued vigorously by Maurice,
both through scribones supervising conscription and by inducements to local
chiefs to serve with their followers: from Annenia Sahak Mamikonian and
5mbat Bagratuni led units of 1,000 horsemen westwards, while Musel
Mamikonian commanded an unkown number of Armenians until bis capture
and death on the Danube frontier. 241 5mbat in fact deserted before reaching
Thrace, but was recaptured and exiled to Africa, to be enrolled with his
234 John of Ephesus, HE 111.26; Gregory, Reg. XIII.47 (August 603). Haldon,
Praeiorians, 99, suggests these were Ostl'ogoths, eager to eseape the Lombard expansion in
Italy; this is also possible.
235 Haldon, Praetorians, 377-78 n. 55.
236 Strategikon 1.7.
237 Caueasus: Theophanes Byzantinus 4, FHG IV.270-71; C. Toumanoff, Studies in
Christian Caucasian History (Georgetown, 1963),382-84. Bulgar settlement: Michael the
Syrian X.2I (Il, 363-64).
238 SeMos, eh. 3, tl'. Mac1er; Whitby, Maur/ee, 304.
239 Some names from Theophylael: Ansimuth, Apsieh the Hun, Ariulph, Curs, Droeton,
Eilifreda, Gentzon, Godwin, Ogyrus the Saraeen, Tatimcr, and Zogomos the Saraeen. The
example of the fourth-eentury general Silvanus the Frank (Ammianus XV.5.11) warns that
offieers with Roman names may not all be Roman by origin.
24() Thcophylact 11.17.9-11; Paul thc Deaeon, History 0/ the Lombards, ed. L. Bethmann
and G. Waitz, MGH Scripfores Rerum Longobardicarum et Italicarum, saec. VI-IX
(Hanover, 1878), III.18-19.
241 Seb6os, eh. 10, 8.
110 Michael Whitby
followers in the regiments there, He ended up in Sasanid service where bis

subsequent glittering career illustrates the rewards on both sides of the
eastern frontier that might await a successful military entrepreneur,242 In

602 Maurice was attempting to organize a massive transfer of manpower
from Armenia to Thrace,243 perhaps to compensate for a bulge in
retirement as the troops recruited in the 570s reached the limit of their
service, One possible indication of more distant recruitment is in the name
Godwin, an officer in the Balkan army in the 590s, who could be a Saxon:
Justinian had contacts with the Anglo-Saxons, via the Franks, and Procopius
commented on both the population and valour of the inhabitants of Britain;
Maurice received an embassy of "Sclavenes from the boundary of the
western ocean", which might represent another link, so that recruitment
from the British Isles may have been initiated,244
The origins of recruits in the post-Justinianic armies are scarcely
recorded, but there is no sign of the supposed crisis occasioned by the
assertion of Avars hegemony on the Danube in the 570s. Lombards who
had been unruly mercenaries during lustinian's reign appeal' to have
become more disciplined and available after their move to Italy, while
emperors could look even further west for soldiers if necessary. For
campaigns in the Balkans the Romans probably preferred to recruit
foreigners from outside the immediate area of fighting, whieh would reduee
the appeal of Danubian tribesmen whether or not they were under Avar
dominion. Shortage of money, however, was the- major restraint on aU
aspects of military activity, inc1uding reeruitment, during Maurice's reign.
The A vars did contribute to financial difficulties by extensive ravaging and
extortion of peace money, but their main impact was through their enviable
fighting power and ability to thwart Roman diplomatie strategy,245
8 Money or Land?
An important aspeet of recruitment is the nature of the incentive which the
Romans offered to potential soldiers. Money played a vital role both for
attracting foreigners and for persuading internal reeruits to come forward,
242 Ibid" eh, 14, 17-19. Another rebel is Atat Xorxoruni who fled with 70 horsemen rather
than fight in Thrace in ca.6oo; Atat fled to Persia where he was first honoured, but then
kiUed on suspicion of planning to return to the Romans after Mautice' s death (Seb80s, eh,
20 Macler),
243 Ibid.
244 Procopius, Wars VIll.20, esp, 8-9 for export of surplus population to Francia, and 28-
29 for fighting abilities; Theophylaet VI, 2.1 0-16.
245 See Whitby, Maurice, 169-74.
as shown by the achievements of Belisarius in 544, Narses in 551-52, and

Tiberius in 574-75.246 This continued to be the case through into the reign
of Heraclius, as indicated indirectly by the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai,

a compilation from the eighth 01' ninth centuries of information, of variable
pI ausibility, about statues and other monuments in Constantinople: the
bronze statue of an ox in the capital was me1ted down, with the proceeds
being allocated to the skulkatamion for recmitment in Pontus. 247 The
detailed information in this chapter has provoked argument,248 but the most
plausible conclusion is that in this crisis bronze was actually being used for
military payments. 249 Furthermore, once Heraclius was allowed to
appropriate church resources by the Patriarch Sergius he was able to
assemble and maintain an anny for six years of campaigns against the
Persians, though his success reflected in part the natural enthusiasm of
soldiers to present themselves for service under an emperor's personal
cornrnand. 250
The military importance of money, however, must not be allowed to
obscure the complementary significance of land, either as formal "military
lands" that were granted subject to an obligation to serve in the army 01' as
informal holdings that soldiers inevitably began to acquire as soon as they
246 Procopius, Wars VII. 10.1 (Belisarius' own money); VIII.26.5; TheQphylact 1I1.12.8.
247 Parastaseis, 42. For assessment of thc nature of the 1ext, see Averil Cameron and Judith
Herrin, eds., Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century: The Parastaseis Syntomoi
Chronikai (Leiden, 1984), introduction; arguments for an early ninth-century date are made
by A. Berger, Untersuchungen zu den Patria Konstantinopoleos (Poikila Byzantina 8;
Bonn, 1988). I am not convineed by the hypothesis of Paul Speck, "War Bronze ein
Knappes Mctall? Die Legende von dem Stier auf dem Bus in den "Parastaseis" 42",
Hellenika 39 (1988), 3-17, that the story i8 a legend which reveals more about the
imagination of ninth-century Constantinople than the historical realitics of the seventh
century.
248 Walter E. Kaegi, Jr., "Two Studies in the Continuity of Late Roman and Byzantine
Military Institutions", Byzantinische Forschungen 8 (1982), 87-113, at 90, cL Byzantium,
34, asserts that the skulkatameion was the treasury of the excubitores, whereas Haldon,
Praetorians, 627-28, points out that the term skulka (watch, scout) i8 nevor attested as
applied to excubitores and so adopts the easier solution that the skulkatameion was the
treasury for thc unit of scouts. Contra Kaegi, Byzantium, loc.cit., the seouts are not given
responsibility for the actual melting of the statue but mCl'ely receive its proceeds.
249 Peter Heather has suggested to me that the extensive removal of bronze deeorations
from Rome by Constans II in 663 (Life of Pope Vitalian, in L. Duchesne, cd., Le Liber
Pontificalis, Texte, introduction et commentaire [paris, 1886-92]) may have been prompted
by similar military considerations. This event is areminder that it was quite possible rar an
empcror to organize the movement of large quantitles of bronze (contra the doubts raised by
Speck, "Bronze", 4): Constans will have removed this bronzc'from Rome by sea, and
Heraclius could also have transfcrred bronze from Constantinople to Pontus by ship (for
considerations of seeurity as much as weight).
250 Scbeos, eh. 26 Macler; George of Pisidia, Expeditio Persica 111.89-128 (ed. and trans.
A. Pertusi [Ettal, 1960]); cf. Malchus 18.3,32-48 for enthusiasm to SCl've under Zeno.
112 Michael Whitby
were stationed in a place for any length of time. 251 Pos session of land that
was free from the burdens of imperial taxes was an essential part of the
economie rewards for limitanei, as is shown both by Theodosius II's Novel

of 443, which fulminated against improper expropriation of their lands, and
by lustinian's legislation about post-reconquest Afriea which included a
provision to re-establish limitanei who would have lands to cultivate. 252
Down to lustinian limitanei did also receive a salary, which emperors were
concerned to protect from improper exactions and an individual garrison
might be keen to collect, as revealed by the demise of the limitanei stationed
at Batava in Noricum - they sent a detachment to Italy to collect their long-
awaited pay, but the men were ambushed en route and killed. 253 At some
point in his reign, however, lustinian may have abolished, or at least
tampered with, the salaries of limitanei: Procopius asserted that tbe emperor
first allowed pay to fall into arrears for 4 or 5 years, and then insisted that
limitanei agree to forego this whenever peace was made between Romans
and Persians; finally the limitanei were deprived of the name of soldiers
completely.254 Such criticisms of lustinian have to be treated cautiously,
but an incidellt from Procopius' narrative supports the assumption that
limitanei might expect to be able to maintain themselves from their
landholdings even when salaries were not being paid: a contingent from
Illyria that had served in Italy for some time without pay retumed to their
hornes partly because an invasion of Huns was threatening these, and partly
because there was shartage of provisions in Italy. The implication is that
they could support themselves when at horne, regardless of the arrival of
pay and supplies. 255 It is possible that limitanei were beginning to funetion,
whether by gradual evolution or conscious planning by Justinian, on a basis
comparable to that suggested by Oikonomides for the later Byzantine theme
soldiers,256 namely that they received salaries for service outside their own
province and perhaps also far active campaigning in their own frontier
251 It is a fundamental weakness in Kaegi's analysis of late-Roman recruitment that he

adopts tao exclusive an approach; the fact that money is still used by Heraclius need not
prove that "military lands" did not exist in same places.
252 Nov. Theod. 24.4 (cf. also C.Th. Vll.15.1-2); C.l. 1.27.2.8.
253 Cod.Iust. XI.60.3; Jones, LRE, 661-63. Eugippius, Life 01 Severinus, ed. P. Knoell
(eSEL 9/2, 1886),20,1.
254 Procopius, Secret History 24.13; cf. 24.21 for comparab1e treatment of the scholae-
surrender of pay as alternative to active service.
255 Procopius, Wars VII.11.13-16.
256 N. Oikonomides, "Middle-Byzantinc Provincial Recruits: Salary and Annament", in
John Duffy and John Peradotto, eds., Gonimos: Neoplatonic and Byzantine Studies
Presented 10 Leendert G. We.rterink (Buffalo, NY, 1988), 121-36.
region, but that normal duties such as maintenance of provincial law and
order and supervision of communications were unpaid.257 Such
developments might have been influenced by beliefs about the Persian

system of military finance, under which it was thought that pay was not
provided but soldiers had to support themselves until they reached enemy
territory from a royal grant (presumably a combination of land and an
annual donation);258 possible Iranian influenee is contentious and
unprovable, hut Roman emperors could at least contemplate the merits of
such arrangements, and regular military competition between the empires
was very likely to prompt imitation in both directions.2 59
Lands were important for limitanei, hut this does not mean that they
should be dismissed as mere "soldier-farmers" of dubious military worth:
they need not have physically farmed their lands in person, or at least not
been the main labour force for their property,260 so that they could have
been a8 competent in military tenns as the citizen hoplites of ancient Greek
eities or the conscripts of Republican Rome. In appropriate circumstances
Procopius could refer favourably to the defensive efforts of "farmers" at
257 This might explain Procopius' critique of Justinian's treatment of eastem limitanei:
during a pedod of truce, e.g. 545-50, they reccived no salary, and when the truce was
extended they had to aecept its irrevocable loss. An analogous case from the early Islamic
pedod might be reflected by the report, referrcd to by Hugh Kennedy; below, that in the
. 720s or 7308 the Marwänid family onIy received state pay whcn on campaign.
258 Theophylaet III.15.4. In his eontribution to the Workshop, Khalil Athamina eited an
example of a Persian klng giving lands and tax exemption in return for military service. In
the Sfrat.Anüshirwiin, a text diseussed by Zeev Rubin below, Khusro refers to annual
donations 10 his men, and to an alloeation of land and water rights 10 some Turks who are
being received into Persian service (episode 8): Mario Grignaschi, "Quelques specimens de
la litterature sassanide conserves dans les biblioth~qucs d'lstanbul", Journal Asiatique 254
(1966), 1-142, at 24.
259 For discussions, with differing emphases, see R.N. Frye and Nina GarsoYan in Ehsan
Yarshater, ed., The Cambridge History 0/ Iran 111.1 (Cambridge, 1983), 154, 587-89.
Patricia Crone, "Kavadh's Heresy and Mazdak's Revolt", Iran 29 (1990), 21-40, at 30,
dtes specific examples of Sasanid imitation of Roman pracliees. In the sixth-eentury
politieal dialogue diseussed by Fotiou ("Shortages", 68-69) an action of King Peröz is
presented as an example for imitatiol1 .
260 Parker, when discussing potential agricultural aetivity by limitanei (Frontier, 814-16),
makes the assumption, which I would not accept, that soldicrs would l10rmally be expceted
to farm their own lands. For general discussion, see Isaac, Limits, 208-11. I do not wish to
become embroiled in arguments about Ihe nature of hospitalitas arrangements in the western
empire, under which much Roman land was transferred to the eonu·ol of tribai Of successor
kingdoms during the fifth century, but it should be clear from my foeus on the allocation of
land that I am disinclined to accept the thesis of Walter Goffart, Barbarians and Romans
A.D. 418-584.The Techniques ofA ccommodation (Prineeton, 1984), that, at least initially,
there was no real transfer of property from Romans to u·ibesmen but rather an alloeation of
tax revenues. For discussion of this, see SJ.B. Barnish, "Taxation, Land and Barbarian
Settlement in the Western Empire", PBSR 54 (1986),170-95.
114 Michael Whitby
Thermopylae,261 the garrison at Asemus coveted by the general Peter in

594 were probably limitanei, while at Appiaria in 587 one resident soldier,
Busas, was an expert at siege machinery, knowledge that he supposedly

transmitted to the A vars after being captured;262 at Nessana the locally
recruited camel unit was an effective professional military force fight down
to the latest evidence for its existence in December 590. 263
Land was also relevant to other categories of soldier apart from
limitanei. For centuries land grants had been used as a means to
accommodate, or reward, the more privileged groups of foreign migrants
into the empire, people who were admitted in part because of their military
potential and who would be expected to perform some military service in
return for the benefits of security and property.264 For the sixth century,
the link between land and military activity is made explicit in lustinian's
agreement with the Cutrigurs in 551: 265 lustinian would grant lands in
Thrace for them to inhabit, in permanent alliance with the Romans and as a
strict guard against a11 barbarians. Other groups were probably settIed on
comparable terms, for example the Hemls in the vicinity of Singidunum and
the Lombard followers of Ildigisal near Apri,266 Occupation of territory
was not intended to "demilitarize" any of these tribaI groups, and the actual
cultivation of the land must have been carried out by the families or
dependents of the warrior elite, along with any rernnants of the previous
population. 267 Such arrangements obviously benefited the tribesmen
involved, and might provoke jealous comment from other groups,268 but
there were also definite advantages for the empire: apart from the
repopulation of deserted areas, additional reserves of manpower were
theoretically placed under imperial control, and these men could be
exploited in a cost effective way by being enrolled for specific campaigns
261 Procopius, Secret History 26.31-33; contrast Aed.IV.2.15 for the opposite view.
262 Theophylact VII.3.1-1O, III.16.1-1O.
263 Isaac eorreetly points out that thel'e is no evidenee for the date of the unh's demise,
which is often assumed to be earlier than 590.
264 For discussion of fourth-century instanees, see Heather, Goths, 123-27, 158-65, and
Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 28-29; also Whitby, Maurice, 66-69, for the fifth centuty.
265 Procopius, Wars VIII.l9.5.
266 Procopius, Wars VI. 14.33-34; VII.33.13; VIII.27.8.
267 For the situation in the fifth century, when the Amal-led Goths were desperate for land,
see Malchus 18.3.5-11; 20.198-204, and discussion in Heather, Goths, 244-45.
268 Procopius, Wars VIII.l9.8 for the reaction of Sandi! the Utigur to Justinian's
settlement of Cutrigurs. From the fourth century, compare the prejudice of Synesius, De
Regno , though as stressed by Liebeschuetz, Barbarians , 105-107, this was a personal
reaetion, not the poliey of any particular group at court.
and then returned to their lands when not required for active service. 269
There was otherwise a danger that demobilized soldiers, lacking obvious
means of support, might turn to brigandage or seek private employment: 270

potential brigands and other disruptive elements had to be brought into the
imperial army, and dissuaded from returning to their former habits after
the end of active service. 271 The ability of the imperial centre to control
the military exploitation of remote, usually highland, areas and of marginal
groups was a vital factor in the overall security of the state.
From the late sixth century the best example of this policy i8
Maurice's unfulfilled project to transfer thousands of Armenians and their
families from their eastern homelands to Thrace where they would have had
a strong incentive to protect their new properties; it i8 also clear that
Tiberius had also offered land to some of the non-Romans enrolled in bis
recruiting drive in the 570s. 272 Such recruits were esteemed more highly
than limitanei as warriors, but there is a similarity in successive emperors'
use of land as an important part of the support for these soldiers when not
actively fighting. This imperial exploitation of land resources for military
ends i8 distinct from the natural tendency of soldiers as private individuals
to acquire property in their own right,273 and reflects the c1assical belief
269 I suspect that a comparable arrangement may underlie some of the ll1utinies that plagued
the units stationed in Africa after the reconquest. Roman troops there rapidly acquil'Cd lands
by marrying Vandal heiresses, property that Justinian regarded as .public by right of
conquest (Procopius, War.s IV. 14.7-11); if Justinian was forced to concede ownership of
the land, he may have offset this advantage by withholding regular pay.
27G Cf. Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 46. Teall, "Bal'barians", 321, suggested that the problem
of demobiliziug an arrny, or oi tuming a mobile force into a provincial garrison, was greatly
complicated by the increased proportion of non-Romans in the ranks, but the granting of
lands would have counteracted this. Jean-Michel Carrie has suggested that bucellarii may
have been stationed on private estates in Egypt as a military reserve capable of being
maintained slightly more cheaply than would othelwise have been the case. Although I am
not totally convinced by this explanation of the Egyptian evidence; the principle involved is
the same. Oue could draw paralieIs with the "shell" or "skeleton" regiments in the 19th-20th
centuries British army, units where a small eore of regulars eould rapidly be filied out by
territorials or yeomanry. Cf. also n.113 abovc.
271 Charietto provides a fOUlth-century parallel: a supporter ofthe usurper Magnentius in
350-53 (Libauius, Or. XVllI.104), he was incorporated along with his band into the Caesar
lulian's army after 355 (Zosimus, New Hi.story, ed. L. Mendelssohn [Leipzig, 1887],
UI.7), and held the rank of comes wheu killed in action against the Alamanni in 365. The
problem oi' landless veterans had been the most potent fonn of instability in the late Roman
republic: see P.A. Brunt, "The Army and the Land in the Roman Revolution", JRS 52
(1962), 69-86, reprinted in idem, The Fall oi the Roman Republic and Related Essays
(Oxford, 1988).
212 Seb8os, eh. 20, allegedly 30,000 Armeniau families; John of Ephesus, HE UI.26 for
Ihe presence oi' families of Tiberian recmits.
273 For private property, see Kraemer, Nessana, introduction, for thc property interests of
thc Theodosian carnel unit in Palestine; Kracmer' s dlseussion is somewhat unclear, sinee as
stratiotai these soldiers might be regarded as regulars, though he subsequently classes them
116 Michael Whitby
that territory was best defended by those who had a stake in üs survival and
prosperity. Grants of land were one instrument for raising and finaneing
armies, and were used by emperors in addition to cash incentives long

before the consolidation of the Byzantine theme system. 274
9 Private Soldiers
A final aspect of recruitment to be considered i8 the impact on sixth-century
armies of significant groups of soldiers in private employment, the
guardsmen, retainers or buce llarii of senior military officers and same
civilians,275 since these have been identified by Fotiou as partly responsible
for recruitment problems. 276 Potential conflicts of loyalties had been a
problem from the start of the Roman empire so that, for example, soldiers
had been prohibited from attending morning salutations of asenatorial
patron, but the danger had been exacerbated by the tendency of generals
from the beginning of the fifth century to retain a personal bodyguard,
often of German or other non-Roman troops.277 Leo attempted in 468 to
prevent such bodyguards from being maintained "in eities and on estates", a
sign that civiliaps were copying military habits 01' that officers were tending
to keep their personal followings after leaving the anuy; the law was
incorporated in the Justinianic Code. 278 In April 542, i.e. before the
arrival of the Plague, Justinian again legislated on this issue, proclairning
the importance of a disciplined army for the general good of the state but
significantly reducing the financial penalties on governors who did not
as limitanei (cf. also Isaac, Limits, 209), albeit with land grants that were both alienable and
taxable so that he has to postulate a breakdown in the hereditary system of service by
limitanei. For the situation in the Byzantine exarchate in northem ltaly, where regnlar
soldiers rapidly acquired property interests, see T.S. Brown, Gentlemen and Officers.
Imperial Administration and Aristocratic Power in Byzantine Italy A.D. 554-800 (Rome,
1984), 101-108, 192-202.
274 Thus I disagree with the conclusions of Kaegi, Byzantium, 35.
275 For their ongins, see Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 43-47.
276 Fotiou, "Shortages"; one main factor examined by Fotiou i8 the participation of young
men in the circus faclions, but I would not eonsider that particularly significant. Armies
were not regularly enrolled from the large cities which provided the focus far faction
activities, and attested numbers of factionaries are small - they could provide a useful
supplement to urban defence farces , not achalIenge to the recruitment of field armies. See
Alan Cameron, Circus Factions, Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium (Oxford, 1976)
eh.5.
277 Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 46-47.
278 C.l. IX.12.10. There is nothing directly comparable in the Theodosian Code, but I
suspect that some of the laws relating to temporary absence without leave and desertion
(VII.l2; 18) may reflect the same tendency.
enforce t1:l.i8 Iaw. 279 Landowners, however, continued to find uses for units
of armed retainers: probably towards the end of Iustinian's reign an
instruction was addressed to the Iarge and small proprietors in the city of
Hadrianopolis in Honorias concerning the repression of brigandage, and
8tipulating that no landowner was to have more than five men in bis retinue,
whereas ten had been allowed at the time of an earlier investigation. 280
Such retinues were clearly both finaneed by the individual "employer" and
exploited in bis personal interests. These private gangs of thugs had to be
suppressed by the emperor, although it was also accepted that prominent
individuals needed bodyguards for their personal proteetion and such
groups might be exploited for public pUl-poses: in 528 Iustinian dispatehed
senators to defend various eastem cities "with their forees", a vague term
that might indieate personal retinues, and in 532 there is a clearer
exploitation of senatorial bodyguards on the final day of the Nika Riot when
Iustinian instrueted senators in the palace to depart to guard their own
houses.281 In Egypt it seems that the state gave permission to eertain
landowners to recruit bucellarii who received a public salary and were used
for various official administrative aets ;282 these Egyptian bucellarii are,
therefore, to be distinguished from the unofficial retinues of private citzens,
and they tend to blur the division between bucellarii in civilian service and
those in the armies.
The bucellarii mentioned in military contexts weFe not purely, or
even primarily, private in nature. The numbers involved could be very
considerable, 1,000 in the ease of Valerian and presumably more for a
more important commander like Belisarius, even though the figure of 7,000
suggested by Procopius is to be discounted;283 such numbers seem too large
to have been employed permanently by an individual. These troops
contributed to the personal authority of their commander, but they were not
entirely under his control since Belisarius had to leave his bodyguards
279 Nove1116; Fotiou, "Shortages" does not set this law in its legislative context, and so
may exaggerate Ihe novelty of military problems in the 540s.
280 Denis Fcissel and lsmail Kaygusuz, "Un mandcment imperial du VIe siecle dans un
inscription d'Hadrianoupo!is d'Honoriade", Travaux et Mbnoires 9 (1985), 397-419, at
399-401 for the law; 410-15 for the contemporary problem of brigandagc.
281 Malalas, 442,8-16: the senatorial status of these commanders is stresscd, while only
the patrician Pompeius, in command of the main reinforcements for the eastern front, has a
eontingent that is eleady a regular military force; Chronicon Paschale, cd. L. Dindorf
(CSHB, Bann, 1832), 624,2-4.
282 J. Gascou, "L'institution des bucellaircs", Bulletin de ['/nstitut!ranfais d'archtfologie
orientale 72 (1976), 143-56, at 146-47; also Carrie, eh. 1 above.
283 Proeopius, Wars vrr.1.l8-20; Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 45 n.124.
118 Michael Whitby
behind on the eastern hontier on being transferred to Italy in 544, and he

soon begged lustinian that they be sent to him;284 in the Secret History,
Procopius claimed that Theodora's jealousy brought about this confiscation

of his retainers, who were distributed to other officers and palace
eunuchs. 285 Guardsmen might be recruited from among the regular
soldiers as areward for personal bravery, a promotion that was
accompanied by the swearing of Ioyalty both to their commander and the
emperor. 286 The individual commander was the immediate employer, with
day-to-day control over the various rewards that military service might
provide,287 but the emperor was the ultimate paymaster: if Beli8arius had
been responsible for paying the salaries of his bucellarii he would have
retained greater control over them. 288 Imperial loyalty might take
precedence over the personal link, since it would be unprofitable to
continue in the service of a disgraced commander, such as Belisarius in 543,
whereas a favoured general, for example GermanU8 the heil' presumptive in
550, could seduce guards from lesser patrons.2 89
The military importance of these guards i8 not in doubt: they
constituted a significant, though unquantified, element in Belisarius'
expeditions to Africa and Italy in the 530s, and in action they would be
entrusted wirh difficult 01' important tasks, while when the discipline of an
army was disintegrating they might be expected to act as arestraining
influence.290 Their particular importance may have been to guarantee the
presence of a well-trained backbone that would prompt emulation and
improvement in the rest of the army. In Maurice, Strategikon, bucellarii
are mentioned in conjunction wirh Federates as deserving distinctive
equipment, while in an army on the march they occupy an important
position towards the rear: 291 these late sixth-century bucellarii were still
organised as the personal guardsmen of an individual general rather than a
284 Procopius, Wars VII. 10. 1, 12.10; cf. IV.lOA for some of his retainers in Africa after
his departure.
28S Procopius, Secret Hii/tory 4.13-14.
286 Procopius, Wars IV.18.6; VIII.29.26"28.
287 This could extend to responsibility for disbursing the imperial salary: the row between
Mauriee and Pope Gregory referred to in Gregory, Reg. V.30, 36, indicates the importanee
of being the man who physieally handed over money to lrOOps.
288 Also, if bucellarii attached to civilians in Egypt received payments from the state, it
seems inconceivable that those on military service did not.
289 Procopius, Wars Vll.39.17.
290 Procopius, Wars llI.17.1; 19.23"24; IVA.7-8, though at 4.16-19 the drunken
bodyguard Uliaris kills an officer with a badly aimed arrow.
291 Strategikon 1.2.10; 1.9.29-35. The author was probably concerned abGut their state"
funded equipment because of their importance as an example to ordinary lroops.
regular unit of sohliers, but the Strategikon also reeognizes that they will
inevitably be present in an army. During the fighting for Constantinople
between Phokas and Heraclius in 610, Priseus assembled his bucellarii,

ostensibly as part of the defenee forees but in reality to protect himself
while he awaited the outeome of the confliet,292 but in 612 Heraclius lured
him away from the protection of his retainers, tonsured hirn, and
reallocated the guards to normal regiments (stratiotika tagmata).293 This i8
analagous to the treatment of Belisarius by lustinian half a century earlier,
and suggests that there had been no significant change in their status, which
still straddled private and public 10yalties;294 it is misleading to talk of a
system of semi-private armies in the sixth century.295 At some point in the
seventh century, however, before the establishment of the theme of
Opsikion in Bithynia circa 640,296 the public nature of military bucellarii
was recognized by their assimilation to the imperial guards whose various
elements were included in tbis new administrative district. The most likely
context for this fusion between bucellarii as the bodyguards of individual
generals and the imperial bodyguard was during the series of campaigns
which the emperor Herac1ius led in person during the 620s.
10 Conclusion
"And the military, which had already slipped through lack of necessities so
that the state was being damaged by the incursions and extensive invasions
of barbarians, we have accorded the necessary rectification, so far as it was
in our power to do so." This preamble to an edict issued by Justin II in 566
gives a pessimistic view of the 8tate of Roman armies at the end of
lustinian's reign,297 but it would be wrong to accept this gloomy assessment
a8 entirely accurate. 298 Emphasis on the need for new beginnings and the
292 John of Antioch, fragment 218f.5, FHG V.

293 Nicephorus 6.24-30, cd. C. de Boor (Leipzig, 1880); Chronicon Paschale 703,9-12.
294 I here disagree with Haldon, Praetorians, 101-102 with 375-76 n.49. The fact that John
of Antioch (fr. 218f.5) refers to Priscus' bucellarii in 610 as stratiotai does not convince me
that they were now divided into two categol'ies, the old private guards and a new public
corps: we do not know enough about John's Iinguistic usage, or of thc precision of citations
from hirn in Constantine PorphYl'Ogenitus's Excerpta de insidiis, to base a hypothesis on
one word.
295 Thus Dennis, Strategikon, introduction, XÜ, who cl'edits Maurice with their elimination.
Theoderic'g Goths were the last such large army whose contro1 by empcrors was strictly
limited.
296 For the date, Haldon, Praetorians, 180, and for the process in general, ibid. 164-82.
291 Nove1148, preface; cf. also Novel149, preface, and Carippus, lust. 1.256-63, II.259-
74 with Cameron's comments at Corippus, 140, 170, and Agathias V.13.7-14.5 for the
army.
298 E.g. Grosse, Militärgeschichte, 320 far literal acceptance ofthis criticism.
120 Michael Whitby
correction of his predecessor' s mistakes was an important part of the

accession propaganda of lustin, and in the longer.· term it was possible for a
histoIian such as Menander to take a more balanced view of lustinian's

policies, particularly in the light of the failure of lustin's alternatives. 299
There were military problems in the half century after lustinian's death, but
these need to be kept in perspective since, at least until the death of Mauriee,
the overall conduct of warfare by Roman armies was not less suceessful
than it had been under lustinian: simultaneous fighting on two frontiers
created difficulties; wars tended to begin badly, but Romans were eventually
victorious both on the Danube and in the east untiI the distractions of civil
war undermined frontier stability - another traditional Roman weakness.
During the sixth century there was considerable continuity within the
Roman army. There were recruitment problems on occasions, but these
were mainly due to the inelasticity of the system: hereditary service, Ioeal
enrolment, some volunteering, and conscription could sustain army
numbers in the long term, but sudden change such as a new campaign
theatre, or the need to replace a whole army, would cause problems. On
such oceasions, when new units lacked the expected veteran element, quality
and discipline w.ere bound to suffer at least in the short term. Non-Roman
troops were available whenever necessary, and they were esteemed as elite
units within the mobile armies, but their overall proportion should not be
exaggerated; emperors attempted whenever possible to annex such recruits
by providing lands for settlement by their families inside the empire, a
proeess that would contribute to eeonomic vitality and help to maintain
military resourees at limited cost during periods of inactivity. The Roman
army remained both a vehicle for the spread of Roman habits to its non-
Roman elements,300 and a publie institution that was assisted, but not
dominated, by the limited personal units within it. There was no need for
grand military refOlIDs either by Maurice or Heraclius, though each was
interested in the training, discipline and organization of their armies,
especially for new recruits, while in the 620s Herac1ius attended also to the
motivation of his troops, an essential aspect of warfare in which Maurice
had been less sueeessful.
In the earIy seventh century Roman arrnies suffered numerous defeats
at the hands of both Persians and Arabs, but these are not direct proof of
299 Menander 5.1; cf. Whitby, Maurice, 79-80.

300 Liebeschuetz, Barbarians, 25, is in my view too pessimistic about the efficacy of the
fourth-century anny in Ihis respect.
military weakness, lack of troops, or pOOl' discipline. 301 Civil wars

seriously disrupted Roman resistanee to Khusro II' s attacks in the early
seventh century, with the disloyalty of Narses being an imp0l'tant faetol' in

602-603 and of Comentiolus, brother of Phokas, in 610-11. A succession of
defeats gradually wore down Roman amues, but in 611-12 there were still
major armies in the east which merited imperialleadership. Loss of
territories to Persian control made the process of reeruitment much harder,
since the pool of manpower had signifieantly sbrunk, and the casualties
ineurred in this fighting will bave reinforced tbe long-term effects of
repeated visitations of bubonie plague. Nevertheless, wben the emperor in
person appeared on the Anatolian plateau, witb resources provided by the
loan of cburch treasures, Roman armies could be reconstituted and these,
after appropriate training, proved sufficient to defeat the Persians . fu the
case of the Arab invasions, shortage of troops was, again, not tbe overriding
problem. In initial conflicts with the invading Arabs, Roman forces were
outnumbered, arefleetion of traditional military thinking which tended to
belitde the threat of raiding nomads and to dictate the Iocation of large
troop concentrations against "proper" enemies, but by the battle of the
Yarmuk Heraclius had assembled an army that, in spite of wild
exaggerations in Islamic sourees, was more numerous than its Arab
opponents: 302 the Romans lost the battle not because of the weakness of this
army but because of lack of unity among their commanders, perhaps even
an attempted rebellion by the large Armenian contingent in favour of their
leader Vahan, inferior tactics, logistical difficulties and, possibly, adverse
weather conditions.3 03 Roman recruitment mechanisms were still capable
of generating large numbers of men, and in 636 a major army operated
outside tbe normal areas of Roman military activity, though after defeat by
the Arabs this effort could not be repeated so that the Yarmük represents
the end of a military era. 304 Experience of the transition from Roman to
301 This is a tradition al explanation for Arab successes; see, for example, Marius Canard,
"L'expansion ambe: le probl~me militaire" , Settinume de Studio del Centra ltaliano di Studi
sull' Alto Medioevo 12 (1965), 37-63, especially 53-54. Contrast Kennedy,
"Reinterpretation", 145, who rightly urges that Roman armies were still impressive in the
630s.
302 Moshe Gil, A History 01 Palestine 634-1099 (Cambridge, 1992), 45-48, is uneritical:
Fred M. Donner, The Early 1s1amic Conquests (Princeton, 1981),221, plausibly suggests a
Roman army of between 20,000 and 40,000. Even Kaegi, whose approach to seventh-
century military maUers is based on the tradition al model of a decline in numbers and overall
military capability of the Romans (Byzantium, 39-43), aceepts that the Roman army was
larger (op.eit., 131).
303 Gil, loc.eit.; Kaegi, op.cit. 129-35.
304 Ralph Lilie, eh. 10 below.
122 Michael Whitby
Persian rule in the previous generation probably made local inhabitants less
resolute in defending their city walls against Arab attacks, particularly when
it appeared that the Roman imperial army was, again, unlikely to come to
their rescue. There had been too little time since the withdrawal from
Palestine, Arabia and Egypt of Shahvaraz and his Persian forces in 629-30
for the Romans to have reorganized their contral of these provinces,
inc1uding quite possibly the reconstitution of garrison units in individual
cities, and to have re-established effective re1ationships with the Arab
groups whieh straddled the frontier. 305 In a comparable situation in the
third century when Shapiir I overran much of the Near East between 251
and 261, after which the Palmyrene rulers Odaenathus and Zenobia
maintained independent eontrol for a further decade, the reassertion of
Roman authority was greatly assisted by dynastie problems at the Sasanian
court, as weIl as by the ability of emperors to transfer European troops and
resourees to the east. 306 In the seventh eentury Herac1ius could exploit
Sasanian weakness, but troops from Europe had already been transferred
east by both Phokas and Herac1ius,307 and the emergenee now of adynamie
new enemy was the decisive difference. Roman arms definitively lost
control of the Near East, but this military failure need not prove that the
Roman army of the early seventh century was significantIy weaker, or less
well-organized, than its third-century predecessors.
The Arabs took over territory by energetic conquest, not by default
on the part of their opponents. This picture of the Roman army as an
effective and feared, even if not always successful, military machine may be
at odds with traditional views about the fall of the Roman empire, but it is
consistent with recent reassessments of the state of the overall prosperity of
the late Roman world, which point to evidence for continuity of activity and
density of inhabitation, in particular in those areas of the Near East that
succumbed to the Arab attacks.3 08 It is also consistent with indications of
the continuing power of the Roman emperor, power that ultimately
depended upon effective military force. The military system functioned in
response to imperial commands, so that Maurice could organize the transfer
of a mobile army from the eastern fron tier to the Balkans in 591-92, and
305 The withdrawal of roga from same Arab tribes (Theophanes 335, 23-336, 3) may have
.been part of an overall reassessment of relationships along the frontier in which there would
have been beneficiaries, perhaps including the Ghassanids who fought loyally for
Heraclius, as weil as losers. Für general discussion, see Kaegi, Byzantium, 52-55.
306 For discussion of these events, see Potter, Prophecy, eh. 1.
307 Theophanes, 292, 11-14; 302, 27-30.
308 Whittow, "City".
envisage the movement of large numbers of Armenians to the Balkans in

602, while troops could be transferred in the opposite direction by Phokas
and Herac1ius. On each occasion there was notjust a physical switch ofmen,
but the logistical underpinning that also had to be arranged - resourees and
supplies could be redirected from one area to another, a demonstration that
the imperial administration still retained considerable mobility.3 09
Individual emperors were undoubtedly unpopular on oeeasions, as they
always had been, but the authority of the imperial offiee remained supreme
until undermined in the first half of the seventh eentury by a sequence of
eivil wars and dynastie strife, the bane of any monarchy. Mauriee, though
violently abused by soldiers in 588 and 593-94 for attempts to tamper with
military pay, soon received demonstrations of continued loyalty;310 even in
602 when personal hostility to Maurice was not to be assuaged, the mutinous
army at first dithered about whether to accept the emperor's instruction to
winter north of the Danube and then, even after its march on
Constantinople, was still prepared to contemplate a successor from within
his family.3 11 It is not apparent that soldiers' respect for emperors or their
generals was now much less than in previous centuries,312 and the ac count
in Nicephorus of the confrontation between Herac1ius and Priseus in 612
neatly encapsulates the attitudes of members of the elite.: the senate stated
that an insult to the emperor was comparable with an !nsult to God.3 13
Emperors owed tbis success in part to the flexibility of theil' imperial
ideology as strong miers adopted or emphasised a new mixture of
images: 314 icons, the cult of the Virgin, tbe image and reHc of the True
Cross, OI the reputation of the first Christian emperor Constantine, or of
Alexander the Great could a11 be pressed ioto service to promote devotion
309 Contra MacMullen, "Anny" ,459. A comparable example of administrative f1exibility

from Justinian's reign is tOO cl'cation of the quaestura exercitus (Justinian, Novel 41), a
mechanism for transferring resourees frorn surplus provinces in the Aegean to the
impoverished Balkan frontier; see Hendy. Studies, 404-406.
310 Theophylact III.4.4, VII.1.8-9.
311 Theophylact VIII.6.8, 8.5.
312 Contra Kaegi, Unrest, 116.
313 Nieephorus 6.5-30, esp. 11-13.
314 On this see Avel'il Cameron, "Images of Authority: Elites and leons in Late Sixth-
Century Byzantium" , Pas! and Present 84 (1979), 3-35, at 15-24. Also Haldon, Byzantium,
37-39,355-64; id. "Idcology", 161-73; id. "Ideology and the Byzantine State in the Seventh
Century. The 'Trial' of Maximus Confessor". in Vladimfr Vavffnek, ed., From Late
Antiquity to Early Byzantium (Prague, 1985), 87-91. Haldon's interpretation oi these
"ideological" developrnents is more negative than mine, in that he sees the changes as
indicating imperial wcakness, whereas I would stress that the image of any ruling family or
imperial court has it8 own dynamics, so that it8 methods oi pl'esentation are bound to adapt
from one generation to thc next.
124 Michael Whitby
to the emperor throughout all sections of the population, from the elite at
court to the ordinary soldier, from the men of power who would organize
military recruitment to the peasants who would respond with varying

degrees of enthusiasm to the call to arms. In this process an effective army
played its part in upholding the image of the Roman emperor as victorious
ruler.3 15
315 On this, see Michael McCormick, Eternal Victory. Triumphal Rulership in Late
Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval West (Cambridge, 1986).
9
HERACLIUS' PERSIAN CAMPAIGNS AND THE REVIVAL
OF THE EAST ROMAN EMPIRE 622-630
James Howard-Johnston
The East Roman empire seemed doomed to destruction in the winter

of 621/2.' From the outbreak of war in 603, the armies of the Sasanian
Shah Khusro II had advanced slowly but remorselessly into the heavily
defended fron tier provinces south and north of the Taurus. ~ By the
winter of 609/ 10 they had broken down the Romans' elaborate system
of defence-in-depth and stood on the banks of the Euphrates. They
breached this innermost line of defence and penetrated into Syria in
610.'; In the north they did likewise a year later, thrusting deep into
Anatolia, where they seized Caesarea in Cappadocia. 4 The new
emperor Heraclius flung all his forces into a final, desperate bid to
halt the Persian advance. He expelled them from Anatolia in 612 but
was then decisively defeated outside Antioch in 613." Thereafter the
Sourc:es are citcd in translation whcrcvcr possible. Page 01' chapter referenccs given
by the translator will guide the reader to the relevant passage in the original text.
Thc scries Translated Texts fur Historians (ötcd heneelorth as TTH) may be singled
out tor the range 01' texts made availabk to a wide readership and the qnality of thc
accolllpanying commentaries.
Fullest coverage of thc early phases of the war is to be found in a seventh century
Armcnian history f<mnerly allributed to Scbeos (trans F. Mader, Histuire d'Hiraclius
par l"elleql1e Sebeos (Paris, 1904), pp. 56-63; a new English translation by R.W.
ThoIIlson is in preparation for TTH); there is supplenlcntary lllaterial in the Syriac
rhrnnü:le tn the Year 724 ami rhrnnide to the Year 1234 (trans. A. Palmn, in The Seventh
Cent111)' in the WeshSyrian Chmnicles, TTH 15 (Liverpool, 199'1), pp. 17-18, 119-4'1).
The unly recent works on this last great war of antiquity are A.N. Stratos, ByuJ,ntiu'm
in the Sevenlh Centmy 1: 602-634 (Amsterdam, 1Y68) , a compendium 01' surviving
SOllrce material and secondary authoritics, which docs nut sul~jcct th c primar)'
sources to the rigorous critical scrutiny which they denland, and B. Flusin, Saint
Anastase Ie Perse et l'histo;re de la Palestine au (lebut du VII" siede II: Commentaire (Paris,
1992) , an aeeount focused on the life of a seventh..:entury Don Quixote (ed. and
trans. in vnl. I , Les textes (Paris, 1992), pp. 40-91).
Chrnnicle 10 724, p. 17; Chrnnicle 10 1234, p. 127 (and related texts cited in n. ZR7).
Sebens, pp. 63-4; Vie de Thiiud07~ de Sykeön, trans. A.:f. Festugiere (Brussels, 1970) 11 ,
p.129.
Anatolia: Sebeos, p. 65; Vie de Tlu!odore, pp. 123-4; Ni cephorus, Breviarium, cd. and
trans. C. Mango, NikephoTOs Patriarch oI Constantinople Slwrt Histmy, Corpus FontiuIIl
Hisloriae Byzantinae 13 (Washington, De, 1990) , pp. 37-11. Antioch: Sebeos, p. 67.
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Map 1. The zone of war in the Near East, 622-630

Heraclius' Persian Campaigns 3
Persians encountered only limited 10cal resistallCe as they set about

occupying the rich Roman provinces of the Near East which were now
cut off from the organizing centre of the empire exccpt by sea. Syria
and Palestine were rapidly ovelTun in the course of the following foul'
years, which also saw two devastaLing Persian invasions of Asia Minor. 6
Then it was the turn of Egypt to face the massed armies 01' Khusro. The
provincial capital, Alexandria, fell in 619 ancl subsequent mopping-up
operations consolidated the Persian hold on the province by the end
of 621.'
Khusro had taken the decision to liquidate the Roman empire somc
time befOl~e - probably as early as the winter of 615/16, when hc
decided to ignore a grovelling letter, pleading for peace, from the Sen-
ate and interned the ambassadors who brought it.~ He now prepared
for the final phase 01' this last war between the great powers of the
ancient world - the invasion and conquest of Anatolia. The attack
began in the spring 01' 622. It is hard to discern the exact sequence of
operations ü'om the wordy and opaque poem of George of Pisidia
which is our main source of information." George seems to have been
an eyewitness of the opening operations (and the exercises which pre-
ceded them), but, as a churchman only temporarily seconded to the
emperor's statt', he did not understand everything he saw. His determi-
nation to make the most of whatever successes were achieved hangs
an extra veil of obscurity over his description of events. IO But the fol-
lowing seems to be a plausible reconstruction. 11
Syria and Palestinc: Sebeos. 1'1'.68-70; Chronicle /0 72~1, p. 17: Stralegius, CajJtUTP ul
Jerusalem, trans. G. Garittc, La !J17Se dr.Jr'rusalem jHtr lL', Perses en 614, Corpus
ScriptonnTI Christianorum OrientaliuIll ~ü:, (Lollvain, 19(0), pp. ,1-22; Klruzislan
Clnonide, trans. T. Nüldeke, 'Die von Guidi herausgegebene svrische Chronik',
Sitzungs/w/irhte der fihi!.-hist. Classe der /w;snlichen Ai<.' ~Viss. CXXVIII (9) (Vienna,
JWJ3). pp. ~4-7; Chmnide to 1234, p. 128 (and related texts citcd in nn. 2/l7 and 21l9):
Isidorc of Scville, Chronide, ed. T ..Mollllllsen, MOllUITlCnla GCfmaniac Historica,
Auctorcs Antiquissimi 1 1.2 (Rcrlin, 1894), pp. 47/l-9. Asia Minor: Chmnü:on Pa.,r:!zalp
281-628 ;lf), Irans . .vI. and M. Whilby. TTI! 7 (Liverpool, 1989), pp. 159-60: Sebeos,
pp. Ij:,-7, 77-9: Vip d passion de Saint Anas/ase, pp. 46-8.
Chrrmirle 10 724, pp. 17-18: Khuzistan Chronicle, 1'1'.25-6; R. Evetts, ed. and trans.,
HistOlY ol the Pall;md/.s o[lhp (,'o/il;e Chureh 01 Alexandria 11: Peter I 10 BPnjamin J (661),
Palrologia Orienlalis. 1(1) (Paris, 191):;), pp. -181-6; H. Delehaye. cd., 'Lne vie
inedite de Saint Jean I'Aumönier', Annleeta Bol!anrlirwa XLV (1927), 1'.25. Thc
advance or the Persians threatencd Constantinoplc's chief sourcc of grain,
prompting the authorities to sllspenrl the traditional free distribution of brcad in
August 1)18 (Cll1ouicofi Paschalp, p. 16 /1).
Letter: Chrnnimn Paschalp, pp. 160-62. Ambassadors' ÜlIe: l\icephorus, 1'1'.47,49, 63.
EXjJtdil;O P(>nlra, ed. and trans., A. Pertusi, in Gim;L,rio di Pisidia, Poemi I: Paru~f!:hici pjJiri,
Studia Patristica ct Byzantilla 7 (Eual, 1959), 1'1'.84-136. An Enfilish translation 01'
this and Ceorge's other sentlar pOelllS, by 1vlary vVhitby, is in preparation för 'l~rH.
10 N. 01kolloHllrles, '.1\. Chronological Note on fhe First Persian Call1paign of Heraclius
(622)'. B)'zantine rmd i\!lodem Greek Studies 1 (1975), pp. 1-9, wams US, quite righlly,
against being misled by the pompous and firandiloqucnt style 01' the poet into
sllpposing that the Sllccesses achievecl were of great military significance.
II ~ly rcconstruction diffcrs in ccrtain partieulars from that of OikolloInides,
'Chronological ='Jote': (i) the 111ilitary exercises, which \vere (as Oikonomidcs arg-ues)
(he main aelivity on the ROIIlan side in 622, are placed in Bithynia, not ncar
Caesarca of Cappadocia; (ii) a phrase about the moon's eclipse is taken Eguratively
4 James Howard-Johnston
The Persians attaeked in the nurth, probably using the Romans'

long-established support road whieh led west [rom Theodosiopolis and
skirted the northem edge uf the Anatolian plateau. 12 They advaneed
to the north-west eorner of the plateau, and there sealed off the routes
leading from Bithynia, where the Romans were holding military exer-
eises. Although Heraclius and his troops managed to break through
the enemy eordon and won a vietory of eonsiderable psyehologieal
impurtanee, the position of the Roman empire was even more parlous
at the end of the eampaigning season than it had been at the start
beeause of events in the west. For a erisis there now required the
emperor's personal attention. Evidently it involved the Avars, who had
established an empire in eastern Europe, eentred on the Hungarian
plain. Heraclius left his forees in Anatolia in mid-eampaign, probably
in August, and hastened baek to Constantinople. n
The end was evidently very neaL Khusro was on the point of elimin-
ating Persia's old rival in the sedentary world at the western end of
Eurasia. Six-and-a-half eenturies of Roman rule in the eastern Mediter-
ranean and its hinterlands were drawing rapidly tu a dose. The future
would be Persian , with Egypt and Anatolia fürming two great western
bastions from whieh the Sasanian empire would able to duminate the
whole Mediterranean.
There was an extraordinary reversal of fortun es over the following
rather l.han literallv (tülluwing C. Zu ckerman, 'The Reign of Cunstantine V in the

'v!iracles of SI. Th~odore the Recruit (BHe: 1764)', Revue des Eludes Byzantines XLvl
(19RR), pp. 209-10), with the conseque ntialloss of the single speeific date extracted
by Oikonomides from the poem. The latte< difference of interpretation introduces a
grcatcr measurc of chronological uncertainty, but no substantive disagreement -
there is no doubt but that Heraelius leh the field army in mid-campaigu, and
Oikouurnides' dating of this LO early August seems reasonable. The first
disagreement, over the Ioeation of the Roman exerciscs, is Illore importan t, since it
a[feets the strategie appreeiation of the campaign. It arises trom a different
evaluation of a lung notice, hased on Gcurge uf Pisidia's poem, in T heophanes,
Chmnographia, trans C. Mango and R. Seott, The Chronicle of Theophan_s Confesmr
(Oxtord, 1997), pp. 436-8: whereas OikouoIllides is plepared tu accept a number uf
passages which do not correlate with lhe poem as long as they are not eon tradicted
by other evidenee, I take a slern er line and will no t aeeept such items without
positive corrobo ration . Not onIy is there 110 corroboration to hand in this case, there
is also indirect evidence against accepting thc view that Cappadocia was the scene oE
the exercises. George of Pisidia's silenee about a march from Pyl"e, the Bithyniau
port where Heraclius landed, deep into th e interior 01' Asia Minor provides, it seems
to nIe, irrefutable evidence in support of the corn mOll-sense view that Heraclius
wOllld have mobili zed and excnjscd his force s in Bithynia, wh ich \\'as relativel)'
secure and conveniently dose to Con stantinopl e.
12 Expeditio Persica 11.256-7 puts lhe Persia n winter quarters in the region of the Pontus.
The army which advam"ed towards Bithynia surely rook the most direet and easiest
route availablc, which was the nurthern support road (on whieh see D.H. Freneh,
'The Roman Road-System of Asia Minor' and T.B. Mitford, 'Cappadoeia and
Armenia Minor: Historieal Setting ur the Limes' , in H. Temporini and W. Haase, eds,
A.ufstiCf{ und Niedergang der römischen Welt ll, vii, 2 (Berlin and New Yurk, 1980),
pp. 707-11, 1183-5).
ExtJeditio P""im IIl , 305-40 for Heraclius ' sudden dcparture. M. Whitby, 171e Ernperor
Maunee and His Hislorian (Oxto rd, 1988), pp. 84-9, 169-74, 184-91 for the
establishment and expansion 01" the Avar empire.
six years. Let us jump to 12 December 62i. Heraclius has marched

south across the Zagros mountains. On that day hc dcfeats a Persian
army near Nineveh, then advances, virtually unopposed, down the left
bank of the Tigris, towards Ctesiphon, the Sasanian capital, gathering

vast quantities of booty from Khusro 's abandoned palaces on the way.
By 1oJanuary he is weil within the mctropolitan area. He halts 12 miles
from the Nahrawan canal, which ares out from the thc Tigris and shi-
eIds Ctesiphon and the paired city of Veh Ardashir on the opposite
bank of the Tigris. All available Persian forces havc been mobilized
and deployed to hold the canal. Thc bridges over it have been cut. 14
Heraclius now decides to pursue an indirect strategy. He turns away
and marches north towards Shahrizur at the head of the Diyala vallcy.
He ravages the close-packed towns and prosperous countryside of the
Diyala plains, causing immense damage to an important component
of the irrigated and intensively cultivated hinterland on which Ctesi-
phon-Vch Ardashir dcpends for its food supplies. Ir,
Thc mcnacing prescnce of the Roman army, within easy striking
distance of the capital, and the extension week by week of the swathe
of destruction, deals a death-blow to Khusro's regime. Disaffected
elements in court and army are approached by his eidest son, Kavad-
Shiroe, who fears being supplanted as heir apparent. They agree to
cooperate. A six-man delegation, led by a certain Gousdanaspa Razei ,
11 Theophanes, pp. 44R-53; Sebeos, pp. R:l-4; Thomas Artsruni, Histmy oJ Ihe Hause of Ihe
Arlsmni". trans. R.W. Thomson (Detroit, 19i15), pp. 160-61; Moses Daskhurantsi,
trans. eJF. Dowsett, 7fw Histmy oJ Ihe Caucasian Albanians by tv[Otls", Dasxumnci,
London Oriental Series 8 (London, 19(1), pp. il8-9; Khuzistan Chronicle, p. 28; Seert
Chronicle, trans. A. Scher, Hislaire Nestorienne (Chmnique de Stert) H, Patrolog ia
Orientalis 13(4) (Paris, 19J9) , pp. 541-2; T. Nölde ke, Geschichte der Perser und Amber
zur Zeit der Sasaniden aus der arabischen Chronik des Tabari (Leiden, 1879), pp. 294-6
(cited heneeforth as Tabari); and Chronide to 1234, pp. 137-H (and related eastern
texts eitcd in n. 316). The Nahrawan eanal, the largest single infrastrueture project
undcrtakcn by the Sasanian state an d traditionally assoeiated "oth Khusro I ,
eomplcted a programme of agrieultural devclopm e nt in the Diyala basin which bad
been begun in the Seleueid-Parthian period (R. MeC. Adams, I.and Behind flaghdad:
11 His/my oJ Selilement on the Diyala Plains (Chieago , 1965), pp. 61-83).
,,-, Theophanes, p. 453. At this point T heophancs allows his account of events to slip
one month fonvard: he has Heraclius ravage the Diyala countl}/side and lowns for
the whole month of Fdmwry (where his souree prohably read January). T his has the
dIect of pushing subsequent events into March (the arrival 01 a delegation trom
opposition elements in Ctesiphon and fhe fall of Khusro), where they are
dcmonstrably LOo lale (a doeume nt reproduced at Chronicon Paschale. p. 183 provides
a secure date , 24 Februar)" for th e deposition of Khusro). Flusin. Saint r1naslase H ,
pp. 265-81 aeeepts the chronology of the saint's life and inserts a month betwecn
the start of H e raclills ' march south (thc crossing of thc Lesser Zab, seeurely dated by
Theophanes LO 23 December) and its penultimate slage (his arrival at Dastagerd,
Khusro's favourite palaee,to the south of the Diyala, dated in thc Life of St Anastasius
to 1 Februar)'). This scenario should be rejeetcd, since it makes military nonsense of
Heraclills' actions: instead of m arching with speed on CtesiphoIl, Icaving the
Persians minitnal time to regroup, thc victoriolls Roman army dawdles tor a month ,
weil tn the north 01' the metropolitan region ; then, after lhis period of sloth,
Heraclius springs into action, speeds south, ravages the Viyala valley, negotiates with
the opposition in Ctcsiphon, and preparcs for his winter Iuarch nonh over the
mountains (all in the space of a month).
346 LATE ANTIQUITY ON THE EVE OF ISLAM - - - - -
is sent to inform Heraclius of wbat is aföot. Tbe message, which he

brings at an unspecified date in February, is el1couraging: the conspira-
tors have substantial backing at the lüghest level (including two scms
of the senior genel'al serving in the west, Sbahrvaraz) and in the army
(22 senior counts are actively involved); if successful, they will forthwith
make peace with the Romans; if things go wrong, they will change
sides. The delegation then demonstrates the conspirators' commit-
ment to peace by putting themselves at Heraclius' mercy. They tell him
that the coup is scheduled for 23 February.](;
Heraclius prepares to withdraw north, back over the Zagros, to the
town of Ganzak (a short distance to the south-west of Lake Urmia) .17
He times his departure to coirlCide with the putsch and perhaps to
distract attention from it. As soon as he knows that it has been
launched (from the leader of the original delegation, who returns and
stays with the Roman army) , he starts the long, dangerous march over
the mountains. Snow is already falling and will continue to do so until
30 March. Heradius is left in suspense about the outcome. It is only
a month later, on 2,1 March, that an oflicial letter reaches him,
announcing that Khusro has tallen and that a peace delegation from
the new shah is trying to make its way across the Zagros. IH
The conspiracy had gone according to plan. The two panies, court
and military, linked up on the night of 23/24 February. Political
opponents of Khusro and Roman prisoners of war were released.
Khusro, alerted at the last moment, slipped into the garden of his pal-
ace and hid, but he was so on caught ami imprisoned. Kavad-Shiroe
was crowned on 25 February, Khusro executed on the 28th. 19 So it was
that Khusro H, a shah whose achievernents outshone those of any of
his Sasanian predecessors, was deposed in a virtually bloodlcss coup.
All the prestige which he had accurnulated in the previolls 20 years of
victorious advance was dissipated in the last, clirnactic phase of the last
great war of antiquity.
I', Thcophancs, pp_ IlfJ3-/1 gives a detailed but sotncvvhat ahbreviated account ur this
cfllcial episode. A certain amount of harn-handcd cditing can be detected: 0) lhe
head of the delegation, TlalllCd as Gousdanaspa Razei at Chmniwn Paschale, p. 186
(on the occasion oi" his rc:joining Heraclius later), is confused vvith thc court
lnagnatc who \\'as the chief architect of the conspiracy, Gourdanaspa, retired
commander-in-chief of thc Pcrsian ann)' (Chronicon Pa.sr!wlt, p_ IH3); these are
conflated into Theophanes' Goundabousan, who is both ernissary to Herachus <1nd
leading conspirator: (ii) a suclclcll surprising shirt fr01l1 the third tu thc first person
as Gounclabollsan is half-\vay through clelivering·his message ahotl!. Kavarl-Shiroe's
contacts \vith the chief eonspirator Illarks the }Joillt a1 \vhich thc conflation occu1's;
(iii) the date of the deleg-ation's arrival has heen pushed a ITIonth fonvarel into
March, as a COIlSCqUCIlCC of the ntisclating of the devastation of the Diyala plains_
17 K. Schippnl,-uHl, nie irani.. du>n Ff'LIPyjwiligtiirnrr (Berlill anel l'\ew York, 1971), pp_ ;)4{)-7
sUllunarizcs scholarly opinioll on the tOWII 's dis}Juted Ioeation.
1,'-; Chronicou Pasrhalt, pp. IH4-7.
l~) Thc most authoritative account is that of (1). ril., p_ IH;), the ruHest that or T;::tbari,
pp. 356-82; see also Sehens, p. 1\5, Thomas Artsruni, pp. 161-2, Moses Daskhuranlsi,
pp. 90-92, Kltuzislan Chronidr:, pp_ 29-30, ,)'errt Chmnicle, p. 551, ancl Chronide 10 12]4,
p. 1:1H (and related eastern texts ci ted 111 n. ?d H).
This brief account of the events of the winter or 627/ 8 is based

mainly upon the detailed re cord which Heraclius sent back to his sllb-
jects in his victory dispatches. The sllbstance of the ninth-centUlY
chronicler Theophanes' narrative about the military operations is

derived from one such dispatch, which was sent off on 15 March 628
and covered the period from 17 October 627. 20 The full text of
another, a chaser sent on 8 April, in which Heraclius reported the
successful outcome of the coup anel croweel over the eleposition anel
death of his old aelversary, is preserveel in the Chronicon Paschale. 21
There can therefore be little doubt about th e extraordinary, near-mir-
aculous sequence of events which was to lead to the restOl'ation of
Roman rule in the Near Eastern provinces.
How eliel Heraclius halt the apparently ineluctable aelvance of the
Persian armies? How elid he succeed in resuscitating the moribund
Roman Empire? How elid he manage to leach Khusro II of almost all
his prestige and reduce him to a eliscrediteel, unpopular and \'lIlner-
able figure by Fcbruary 628? These striking, melodramatic events ,
which look like the f~ll1tasies of a \\Titer of pseudo-historical fiction, cry
out für investigation anel for some sort of sober explanation.
This article is areport on work in progress. The analysis and evalu-
ation of the extant sources has been completed. The more reliable
material has been winnoweel from the tenelentious anel semi-Iegendary,
anel a narrative for the years 622-30 has been constructed on what
ought to be fairly solid foundations. The key results of the historio-
graphical investigation are summarized in section I, an outline narra-
tive of events following in section 11. Doubtless moelifications will be
required when Heraclius' Persian campaigns receive exhaustive cover-
age in a full-blown history. This is true above all of the set of expla-
nations offered in section III, which is but a first interpretative cssay.
But 1 am confident that the main storyline is sounel, since il COITC-
sponds in essentials to that presented a century ago by Gerlanel, the
first anel finest of the scholars who have studied Heraclius ' counter-
strokes in detail. 22
~" Thcophanes , pp. 449-0,4. Heraclius dchncd the chronologieal scope of this dispatch
and summarized S01l1e of its contents in his ncxl., sent on H April ur a linie later
(Chroni(()n Paschalp. pp. 184-.0). Theophanes skips over the account which the
dispatch Illust have ,given uf H eracl ius ' march south ac ross the Zagros nlountains
anrl only picks up the story from 1 Dcccmbcr. He probably drcw this dOCLllnentary
material 1'rol11 a revised version of Heraclius' war dispatchcs wh ich was prodnced for
drculation in the Near East in the 630s (as is argued in thc next seClion ).
" Chroniron PaschalI?, pp. I 112-S.
E. Gerlanrl, 'Die persischen Feldzüge des Kaisers Herakleios. Byzantinische Zeitscllliji
UI (1891). pp. 330- 73. Failure to lollow (;crland"s chronolog')' vitiatcs much in a
series of articles \vritten by ='J.H. Baynt's: 'The First Campaign of H e raclius againsL
Persia '. /.,HR. XIX (1904). pp. 694-702. 'The Date oi" the Avar Surprise ' , Byzanli1lisrlw
Zrilschrijl. XXI (1912) . pp. 110-28, 'The Restoration 01" lhe Cross at Jerusalem ·. EHR
XXVII (1912). pp. 287-99. The Military Operations or the Fmperor Heraclills ·.
l!nited SPllJire Magazine XLVI (1912-1~). pp. ')26... 33. 659-66. XLVll (1913). pp. 30-
311, 195-201 . 318-24. 401-12. 532-41,665-79.
I. Sources
The three main Creek sources for tbe history of HeracJius' counter-
offensive have already been cited. Ceorge of Pisidia stood cJose to tbe
beart of affairs in tbe 620s. He was a protege of the Patriarcb Sergius.
His secular poems were evidently intended for a bighly educated audi-
ence. At least one, the Expeditio Persica, was commissioned by the
emperor who is the subject of most of its fulsome flattery."~ He does
not seem to have ventured much outside Constantinople. His only
known foray into the field took place in 622. He watcbed the military
manoeuvres held across the Sea of Marmara in Bithynia in 622 and
then accompanied Heraclius on the truncated campaign wbich fol-
lowed (from end May/beginningJune to the middle of August).24 He
describes the manoeuvres and operations in tbe ~xj)editi() Per,ica. There
is nothing to indicate that he witnessed any of HeracJius' subsequent
campaigns at first hand. Since it is surely inconceivable that he would
have restrained himself from alluding to his own experience of the
hardships and dangers of HeracJius' two great counteroffensive
expeditions had he shared them personally, his silence must be taken
as incontrovertible evidence that he stayed put in ConstanLinople. This
conclusion is confirmed by two later poems of his, In Bonum Patricium
and Bellum Avaricum, which rder to his presence in the capital when
it was besieged by Avars, Slavs and Persians in summer 626. 20
Thc most uscful of his poems for the reconstrucLion of Lhe his tory
of Heraclius' campaigns is the HI:raclias. lL is, however, rclatively shOrL
of hard, detailed information about military operations, Ceorge's aim
being to cncompass all the emperor's achievements to date within a
single flattering poem. The first two cantos cover his career from his
seizure of power in 610 to the opening campaign of the main counter-
offensive in 624. The third and final canto is, alas, lost, but probably
carried the story on to the achievement of final victory in 628. 26 The
most valuable section oE the extant cantos gives abrief account of Her-
aclius' 624 campaignY This enables us to establish the direction of
his march and hence the key features oE his strategy that year. Doubt-
less the lost third book would have provided similarly valuable indi-
Pertusi, Giorgio di Pisüüa, pp. 11-16 sllIIllnaril.cs thc lilLie that is kno\·vn of George's
:1:\
life and lists his knm.vn \vorks.

" Thc vivid and cpisodic character of the poem is best explained if the poel's thrce
clairns to eyewitness status (Expeditio Prrsita, 11.1 ~2-(j, IH.l ?'l-fl, 25.~~-(jl) are (lccepted
at face value. Mary vVhitbv takes a difTerent view, in the cUInmenLarv on her
forthcorning trans"ation, ~rguing thaI the poet sought to heighten his audience's
cIIlotional involvcmcn t by cCHüuring up scenes as a relrospedir.Jt, imagined e')~ewitjltss.
"" Girrr,l.,rio di Pisida, ed. ami trans. Pertusi. pp. 163-70, I 76-Z00.
"i ap. eit., 1'1'.240-61. Pertusi (1'1'.23-7) is surely light lo accepl lhe lcstimollY or a
scholium Oll tc,. EJ4' 01' eod. Val. Ottoh. 'l42 Ihat Ihe H"mdias had Ihree call10s.
However, I see no reason to suppose that there '''las a gap between the uJInposition
of the first t\vo cantos (written in the first t1ush of victory, in 62H) anel the rhird,
which Perlusi dates to 630 (I'. 29).
"7 Ilemdi"s, 11.1 (jO-230.
cations about his movements and the major engagements over the fol-
lowing years. lts loss greatly hampers research.
The anonymous author of the Chraniwn Paschalewas a contemporary
of Ceorge of Pisidia's and, like hirn, probably served in the offices of

the patriarchate in Constantinoplc. There is no evidence, however,
that his work was sponsored by the Patriarch Sergius. The Chroniwn is
a universal history, from Creation to the author's own time. The only
manuscript has a folio missing at the end (it breaks off in May 628),
but originally probably halted at Easter 630. 28 The coverage of seventh-
century events in the last section is rclative ly full, although no atternpt
is made to provide a continuous narrative. The author is preoceupicd
with ConstantinopoliLan amürs, but he widens his net to indude a few
notiees about evcnts elsewhere. The Chronicon is of inestimable value
for two reasons. First, it provides a number of preeisely fixed chrono-
logical points. From them a framework can be constructed for the
political and military history of the period. This can then be used to
judge the chronological aeeuraey of the other extant sourees. Second,
it reproduces whole documents. Among them are three of great impor-
tanee which date from the 620s - areport on the Avar siege of Con-
stantinople from 29 July to 8 August 626 (the text of whieh is unfortu-
nately marred by the presenee of a lacuna, covering three whole days
and parts of two others), Heradius' seeond victory dispatch sent off
on 8 April and read out in St Sophia's on Sunday 15 May, and the
new Shah Kavadh-Siroe's first letter to Heradius (the text of which
is incomplete). 29
The Chronographia of Theophanes, the third important Creek source
to have survived, was put together nearly two eenturies later, between
810 and 814. Theophanes was inevitably dependent on such written
materials as had survived to his day and were aceessible to hinl.~o He
knew and used the poems of Ceorge of Pisidia, but had great ditficulty
in making sense of them. He made valiant efforts to extraet a deal'
narrative ti'om the ornate and eonvoluted language of the Expeditio
Persica but failed cornprehensively. His version is full of confusion and
unwarranted in1'erenees, whieh lead hirn into serious errors. He had
access to two chronides. Üne may welll13ve been the prineipal source
used by his contemporary Nieephorus in the first part of his Shan His-
tory, recently identified as a continuation after 610 of the chronicle of
Jolm 01' Antioch. 31 Thc seeond, of whieh h e made much more exten-
sive use, was a Creek translation of a Syriac chronide of dubious value.
This was composed probably in the middle of the eighth century by
Theophilus, a high-flying intellectual from Edessa. It was also the prin-
eipal souree for the early seventh century used by the irnportant west
:2H Chroniron Paschate, pp. ix-xiv.

'!<, Op.
eil., pp. 169-81. 182-8.
:\0 Mango and Seot!, Chronicle oI Theophanes, pp. Iii-Ixiii, lxxiv-xcv.
:\ , Mango, Nikepltoros, pp. 12-14, noting that the visible points 01' eonlaet with
Theophanes are very slight.
Syrian historian Dionysius of Tell-Mahre in the ninth century, and by

Agapius, an Egyptian author writing in Arabic in lhe tenth centU1-y.~'2
Theophilus' waywardness, especially as regards chronology, wreaks
havoc on large parts of Theophanes' Chronographia. The damage is

made worse by too much editorial boldness on Theophan es' part.
Bul Theophanes interleaved the garbled passages based on the
poems of George of Pisidia and those drawn from the two lost chron-
icles with material evidently derived Ii'om a far higher-grade source.
This material is well-ordered and detailed; it is thercfore relativcly easy
to detect and isolate. It is clear and precise: military movements and
actions are described lucidly; times and places are specified; important
protagonists a re carefully identified; captured equipment and other
booty are itemized. Material of this sort almost certainly derives ulti-
mately from the dispatches which Heraclius sent back to Constantino-
pie from the various theatres where the expeditionary force was
operating.
The imm ediate source, though, seems to have bee n an official
account of the campaigns which was published after the conclusion of
the war für circulation inside and outside the empire. George of Pisidia
was, I believe, responsible for this re-edition of the emperor's dis-
patches.ol'\ For the editor did not simply abridge the original docu-
ments and add linking passages but set out to embellish them with
short poems in place of the digressions and speeches in prose which
were essential elements of elegant, classicizing history. These poems
are written in the style of George of Pisidia and in the iambic trimeters
which he used. The inference that he wrote them has been universally
accepted, and the fragments preserved in Theophanes' text are
reprinted in the authoritative edition of his works. Since they are
grafted with great ski1l into the body of material taken from Heraclius'
war dispatches, it is highly unlikely that Theophanes, who was even at
his best a clumsy compiler and allowed the SUlUres between his sources
to show in his text, was responsible for combining the poetry and the
dispatches. The most economical hypo thesis is to suppose that the
revision and the embellishment were the work of a single hand, that
of George of Pisidia. It rece ives some support from the absence of any
trace clsewhere of a lost full-blown poem by George from wh ich the
fragments could be derived.
Most of Theophanes' notices about Heraclius ' actions in 621 , 6211,
March-April 626 and December 627-March 628 were based on this
official, published account. These notices provide the solid foun-
dations für reconstructing a narrative of events in these crucial years.
" L.1. Conrad, 'Thc Conqucsl of Arwad: ;\ Slmrcc-CriLical Stuely in the Historiography
of the Early Medieval Near East', in A. Cameron and L.1. Conrad, eds., The Byzanline
([nd l:'arl)' Islamic Narr Eus' I: Problems i n tlw L iLrrmy Sourrf AJaterial, Studies in Late
AnLiquity anel Early Islam I (Princeton. 1992) , pp. ~22-4R
"" J. Howardjohnstull, 'Thc Official Histury of Hcraclius' Pcrsian Campaigns ' , in E.
l),!browa, ed., '/he !iol1lon "nd Byzanli/lP Arm.> in fhe t.'ost (Cracow, 1994), pp. 57-87.
The last of them, it is worth noting, dovetails neatly with the seeond
of the doeuments from the 6205 reprodueed in the Chronicon Paschllle.?·4
This is a second vietory dispateh whieh eontinues the story from exaetly
the point at whieh Theophanes' abridged version of the hypothetieal

revision of the first dispatch leaves off. The second victory dispateh
also refers explicitly to its immediate predeeessor.
One must, however, always be wary o[ ham-handed editorial inter-
vention by Theophanes himself. He was undoubtedly working [ast and
was often eareless. His preeis even of relatively intelligible texts may
be rar from perfeet. On oeeasion he may leap over ineidents. He may
make simple errors of transcription. His worst mistakes are, however,
chronologieal. Leaving aside a general and systematic discrepancy
between his two methods of dating (by financial years and years from
Creation) in this seetion of his text, he displaees all his notiees about
Heradius' Persian campaigns 624--8, loeating them one year too early.
Thus Heradius' departure from Constantinople in 622 marks the
beginning of six years' uninterrupted command of operations in Asia
Minor, Transeaueasia and the Near East. As a result, the negotiations
between Romans and Avars which were intended to defuse the tensions
evident in 622, and whieh preoeeupied Heradius through most of the
623 campaigning season and nearly resulted in his eapture at a
planned summit meeting with the Avar khagan, are squeezed out from
their proper plaee in 623 and are shifled, apparently arbitrarily, to the
year 617/18. There ean be no doubt that 623 is the eorreet date, sinee
it is that provided by the Chronicon Paschale and eorroborated by a dear
reference in George of Pisidia's Expeditio Persica.~' Frightflll muddlcs
ensue when Theophanes reaehes the year 626, which will be discussed
below. Gerland was dear-sighteel and identified these serious errors.
Althollgh his arguments have not had much influence on his suc-
eessors,36 they seem to me irrefutable. His chronology is therefore
adopted, with but minor modifieations, in the summary narrative of
military operations anel diplomatie activity given helow.
The Greek sourees can be supplemented from a number of works
"'Titten in those regions of the Near East where Christianity had taken
strong root in late antiquity - Transeaueasia in the north and Syria in
the south. Three among these non-Roman sources stand out and
deserve abrief discusion. The History of Heraclius, which is in reality
focused on his Persian adversary Khusro II, was written in the middle
of the seventh century. h covers the whole reign of Khusro, and carries
on to describe the initial, explosive phase of the Arab conquests. Khus-
\ I Theophan es, pp. 438-45. 448-54.
\, Mango and Seoll, Cltmnide ui Theophanes, pp. lxiv-lxvii. Theophanes, pp. 433-4;
Chrunicon Paschale, p. 165; Expeditio Pe",im m.'lO,)-21.
:lr, Notably Baynes, 'The Avar Surprise'.
ro's war against the Romans is the centrepiece.~7 The traditional attri-
bution to Bishop Sebeos, eighth signatory of the canons of the Council
of Dvin in 645, has been questioned,3H but, whoever h e was, the author
appears to have had access to the archives of the catholicate at Dvin

(to judge by the texts o[ two important letters concerning the Persian
occupation ofJerusalem which he reproduces in [ull).~9 When the His-
tory o[ Heraclius is tested against the evidence o[ the reliable material
extracted [rom Greek sources, both the substance o[ its narrative and
its dating can be shown to b e generally accurate. 40 The author has,
howevcr, made one serious mistake which reduces the value of his his-
tory for a decade. He has conflated Shahen's expedition to Chalcedon
in 615 with Shahrvaraz 's invasion of 626 when he attempted in vain
to link up with the Avar forces besieging Constantinople across the
Bosporus. 41 There are damaging consequences für his coverage of the
intervening period. He leaps over the last phase of Persian expansion
(the conquest of southern Syria, Palestine and Egypt) , and supplies
disconnected information about Heraclius' first counteroffensive
(624-5). After 626 he re covers his bearings and gives an exccllent,
succinct account of militalY action and diplomacy from 627 to 629.
A second important Armenian SOUITe is Moses Daskhurantsi's History
01 the Caucasian Albanians. This compilation was put together in its final
form in the tenth century or a little later. 42 It includes a group of
valuable notices about Albania (now ex-Soviet Azerbaijan), Persian
politics, and relations between the three great powers (Roman, Persian
and nomadic) of western Eurasia in the period of Heraclius' counterof-
fensive. This connected set of substantial notices can be used with
reasonable confidence, since it can in general be corroborated where
its coverage overlaps with that of other extant sources of proven value
'l7 Several short passages appear to have dropped out of the unly extant IIlS, dating
fro m the la te seve nleenth century. on wh ich the critical edition is baserl. They form
an integra l paft of material abou t the e nd 01' the Sasanian e mpire excerpted from
Sebeos by Thomas Artsruni (1'1'.152-65, I 67-tl, 169-70) in the earl y temh century.
Thomas Artsruni evidently had access to an earl)', fuller manuscript.
:l" J-P. Mahe, 'Critical Remarks on the Newly Edite d Excerpts [rom Sebeos' , in TJ
Samuelian a nd M.E. Stone , eds, Medieval Annenian Cullure (Chico, CA, 1984) ,
1'1'.218-39.
OIe> Sebeos , pp. 70-76.
Events are datcd mainly by Persian regnal years, recknned trom the slart, in June, of
the calendar year in which a shah was crowned. Thus Khusro IJ's first regnal yea r
ran hOlll 27.lune 589 to 26.1une 590, his actual accession occurring on 15 Februar)'
590. See MJ Higgins, The Persian War oI the Emperor ManTice (582-602) 1: 'Flie
Chronolog)I, witlt a Hrielllüt01Y ollhe Penian t.alendar (Washinglon , oe, 1939), pp. 1-
31, with the irnportan t correcLions or F. de Blais, 'The Persian Calendar' , Iran
XXXIV (1996), pp. 39-54.
41 Scbeos. pp. 77-9.
I:! Dowsett, I-fislo1)' o[ the Caucasian Albanians, p. xx presents l'wo alternatives (tenth
celltury ur the end 0 1' the eleventh/ beginnillg 01' the twe lft h century) and reserves
.jlldgem ent; A.A. Akopjan, Alban ija-/\lnank 11 grdw·lalimkikh i drevnearmjamkikh
islodtnikakh (Erevan, 1987) , pp. 169-77 rejects a widely canvassed seve nth-ce ntury
date for bouks l and 11 and places the cornpilation ur the whule work in the tenth
ccntury.
and, where the information is unique to Moses, it eomplements what is

already known. 4 '> There are two distinet strands in this seventh-eentury
material, one relatively dispassionate in tone and full of preeise infor-
mation for wh ich an ultimate doeumentary origin may be eonjeetured,

the other mueh more emotional, sometimes verging on the melodram-
atie, whieh appears to be taken from a lost Life of the Catholicus Viroy
(596-629), who is ereclitecl with saving Albania from clestruction at the
hands o[ the northern nomads." The two strands were apparently
woven together long after the events reeounted, and a certain amount
of ehronologieal eonfusion is diseernible. 4 !i The editorial hand was pre-
sumably that of Moses, who mayaIso have been responsible for mis-
takenly ealling the northern nomads Khazars. 4 (i
Finally, the relatively voluminous hut on the whole unreliable
material transmitted in the east (Mesopotomian) and west (north
Syrian) Syriae historical traditions includes one short text whieh
deserves special attention. It is an anonymous universal ehronicle, put
together in the 720s, apparently rather ill-organized (it looks at first
sight like the notes of an enterprising reader). Embedded in it is a
distinetive body of material taken from a souree of high quality written
in the 630s. 47 It supplies a number of valuable notiecs, short but
paeked with preeise information and earefully dated.
These are the six prineipal sourees from whieh an ouLline narrative
of events may be reconstrueted. There is, of course, mueh supplcmen-
tary material to be gleaned from a multitudc of othcr eontcmporary
and later sourees, written in Greek, Armenian, Syriae, Gcorgian, Arabie
Muses Daskhurantsi. pp. 75-106 (bk. ll, ce. 9-16). There are only two glaring errors:
thc foundation of a Hew city of AnLioch ncar the Pcrsian capital in I\desopotarnia is
ascribed Lo Khusro II instead of Khusro I (pp. 77-8); a false report, \vhieh recurs in
othe1' sourees, that Herac1ius jouI"neyed by sea to Arrncnia in 624 is tacked onlo the
generally reliable account 01' the year's operations (1'.78).
Strand (i): pp. 76-92, 104-6 (bk. 1I, ce. 10-1'1, 16). Strand (ii): pp. 92-103 (bk. 1I ,
ce. 14, 15). Akopjan, Albanija-AluaJl.li, pp. 189-96 takes a different view. He
emphasizes thc coherence of this seetion of "loses' work; he bclieves that it ,\'as
composerl originally betwcen ö30 and 632 aod ,vas then incorporated \vhole into
Moses' compilation. He characterizcs it as a well-\vriuen history oC Albania whieh
pnH,ides material of exceptional quality. Since the CatholicllS Virny is the main
protagonist, he calls it 'The History of Virny' and ascribes a1l the chapters except
une (15) tu the sanlC author, who was, in his opinion, a duse associatc of Viroy's.
Virov was, he suggcsts, the author of c. lS, whieh he rightlv takes to be a short
hOIn"ily interpol~t~d into the text by ~;[oses. <
I
F, Dowsctt, J-liSt01)' of the Caucasian Albauians, pp. xiv-xv. I\1oscs' chronolog}' of Khusro
]I's reign lags a ycar bchind Sebcos' LrllC rcckoning, his deposition and cxecution in
February 628 being placed in his '18th rather his 39th regnal year (bk. 1I, e. 11,
p.8'1).
'" A. Ilombaci, 'Qui etait .lebn Xak'an?', TU/Tiea, IT (1970), pp. 7-24 establishes that tbe
nonhern nomads in qucstion werc Turks, not Kha/,us as they are callcd, in my view
anachronistically, by Moses Daskhurantsi. Tbc Khazars only replaced the Turks as the
donünant power in the steppes to the north 01" the CaUGL"IUS to\vards the end 01" the
seven t11 (eIl tnrv.
17 Palmer, Setlet/.LI~ Cr>nlury, pp. :j-l~, hut dating the composition of the whole chronicle
to 6'19-40 and vicwing the list 01' early caliphs with whieh it ends as the addition 01
an early eighth-centul)' copyist.
and Latin. On the whole, the more localized the information they sup-
ply, the more trust may be placed in them. The main gap which the
historian must lament is a dearth of Persian documentary material to
match and offset the Roman . Two Nestorian chronicles, one contem-
porary, one probably compiled in the tenth century, togethe r with lhe
work of the universal Arab historian, Tabari, are unsatisfactory substi-
tutes. The material which they supply on Sasanian political amI military
history has been transmuted to a greater or lesser degree in trans-
mission and is thus hard to use on its own.4~
Il. Events
His empire truncated, the wealth of the Near East in Persian hands by
621 (above all Egypt, the bread-basket of the ancient Mediterranean) ,
Heraclius had to take the war tn the enemy. An initial counterthrust,
still largely defensive in character, which was designed to halt the Per-
sian advance over Anatolia, petered out in the second half of 622
because of a serious crisis in the Balkans. But over the following years,
once an expensive new agreement had been negotiated with the Avars,
Heraclius launched two sustained counterotIensives, the first lasting
from spring 624 to the end of 625, the second from spring/summer
627 through the following winter to March 628. He took personal com-
mand of operations, thus breaking with the established practice of
tighting wars by proxy and thereby shouldering personal responsibility
for the future of the empire. 49 The success he achieved was, as has
already been seen, quite remarkable. Before trying to explain it, we
must look at what happened on the ground.
Crisis in the West, 622-623

We last saw Heraclius hurrying back 10 Constantinople, probably in
August 622. George of Pisidia does not say what form the crisis took
in the west, but evidently it was very serious, probably involving military
action, since it demanded the emperor's personal attention. A crisis
on this scale is deseribed in another source, a history of the miracles
of St Demetrius, patron saint of Thessalonica. A long chapter gives a
graphie and detailed account, perhaps based on an official report, 01'
an attaek in massive force on the city by the Avars and their Slav clients
and the ensuing siege of :B days. No date is given and historians have
generally placed it rather earlier (618 is favoured currently) . ~O It is
Khl1zisian Chronicie, pp. 2fl-'B; Seerl C!!maide, pp. 540-42, ".')1-61; Tabari , pp. 293-96,
3!\1-92.
·Hl M. \-Vhitby. ''['he Pe rsian Kin g al \Var', in D~hrnwa , Roman and RJzflntinf Anrq.
pp. 256-9.
,,0 P. LeInerle, L"s jJlus anäens reC1leils des mir(J('lr:s de Saint DhruJlrius (2 voIs, Paris, 1979-
81), I, pp. 180-84 (extended sUlTImary in Freneh), " , pp. 94-HJ'l (commentary).
surely more plausible to equate it with the erisis whieh fareed so dra-
matie a change of plan on Heraclius in 622.
Heraclius' response had to be diplomatie, sinee the field army was
eommittee! in the east. Substantial indueements woule! have to be

o[[ered ifpeaee were to be restoree! in Europe. Prolonged negotiations
were set in train ane! seemee! to be going weil in summer 623 when
we next eateh sight of Heraclius. A summit meeting was arrangee! to
take plaee amie! much pomp at which Roman emperor ane! Avar
khagan woule! finalize details of a new treaty. The place of their meet-
ing was to be Heraclea, just outside the Long \'\fall which guarded the
European approach es to Constantinople. Heraclius ane! his entourage
set off from Selymbria, inside the Long Wall, on Ei .Tune 623, and real-
ized at the last moment that the Avar khagan was using the summit as
a bait to capture them. Heraclius managee! to eseape in e!isguise, but
the Avars captured the ceremonial apparatus which he was bringing,
broke through the Long Wall ane! causee! mayhem in the suburban
eountry beyond. The reliquary casket containing the Virgin's Robe was
hackee! out from its place in the church of the Virgin at Blachemae
ane! rushee! into the city tör satekeeping. But a large haul of prisoners
and booty, including the rich treasures of two other churches, was
gathered by the Avars. Negotiations were eventually resumee! and !cd
to an agreement on humiliating terms for the Romans. sl
This western entanglement proved most eonvenient för the Persians
(and was, we may suspect, no coineie!enee). lt distracted Heraclius
from the Asia Minor theatre of war throughout the 623 campaigning
season. During his absence the Persians launched a naval offensive to
seize Rhodes alle! many other islands, and renewed their attack on
Anatolia. Ancyra fell, but no aUempt was made to establish a forward
base there by installing a garrison (the following year's campaign prep-
arations reveal the Romans to be still in control of the Anatolian
plateau). There is no information about Roman e!efensive measures
by sea or by land this year, nor indeed abotlt the identity of the general
who stooe! in for lIeraclius in Asia Minor. Things seem to have gone
badly by sea, ane! there is nothing to ine!icate that the e!efene!ers of
Anatolia coule! e!o more than try to contain the invading army.S2
.-0[ Auack: Chrunicun ['({sdwle. p. 165; Nicephorus, pp. 51, 53; Theophanes. pp. 133-34.
13lachernae reliquary: the sermon delivered by Theodore Syncellus, a senior
Constantinopolitan churchrnan, on the occasion 01' its reinstallation at Blachernae is
translated anel discusserl h)' A. Cameron, 'The Virgin's Robe: An Episode in the
History of Early Sevcnth-Century Constantinople', Bywnlion, XLIX (1979), pp. 42-56,
reprinted in her Continuit, and Chang~ in Sixth-Cmtwy B~zantium (London, 1981),
110.17. The tenns iinally agrccd involved a huge paYlnent and the handover as
hostages of 1wo dose relatives of Heradius (illegitimate son and nephe,v) and a SOll
(also illegitiInate) of Bonus, 'who was to be lay regent einfing Heraclius' absence on
cdmpaign (Niccphortls, p. 59; cf. Thcophancs, p. 434).
Rhodes: Chronid(! to 724, p. lH. Ancyra and 'Inany islands in the sea': Chmniclf' to
J23'1, p. 133 (alld three other derivatives of Theophilus of Edessa, including
Theophancs, p. 434, citecl by Palmer, n. 3(0).
Operations of 624 and 625

It was in 624 that Heraclius reappeared in Asia Minor and initiated
the northern counteroffensive which he had been forced to postpone
in August 622. He Ieh Constantinople on 25 March accompanied by

his new second wife (and niece) Martina and the two children of his
first marriage. They celebrated Easter, which feil that year on 15 April,
near Nicomedia. He then travelled south-east with Martina while the
children were sent back to Constantinople. The expeditionary force
had been mobilized and was encamped at Caesarea in Cappadocia.
After Heraclius' arrival, the text of a letter pUrpOl"ting to come from
Khusro was read out to the assembled troops. In it Heraclius was con-
temptuously dismissed as a brigand leader who had robbed Khusro of
some of his treasure and some of his subjects, ami the Christian God
was mocked as a powerless divinity. This letter was almost certainly a
piece of deli berate disinformation, fabricated by the Romans lO
impress on the troops, as on governing circles in Constantinople to
whom it had been read out earlier, the gravity of the situation and to
stoke up anti-Persian feeling.""
Then operations began. Heraclius struck north-east and in so doing
seems to have caugh t the Persians off guard. For although Khusro him-
self was at Ganzak with a substantial military force (40000, according
to Theophanes), he had evidently been misled by the news of the
Roman mobilization at Caesarea into expecting a Roman thrust south-
east against northern Syria or south against Cilicia. He had not blocked
the northern route chosen by Heraclius, who advanced ullopposed up
the Euphrates valley past Theodosiopolis and then down that of the
Araxes. During its march through what had traditionally been the Per-
si an sector of Armenia (east of the Euphrates-Araxes watersheel) the
Roman army caused as rnuch damage as it coulel to the cities in its
path, including Dvin anel Naxcawan. Then, after a rousing speech by
Heraclius, it turned south anel invaded Atropatene (now Iranian
Azerbaijan), laying waste cities and villages. Gaining intelligence of
KhuSfO'S position, Heraclius made for Ganzak - at which Khusro aban-
doned the city and his army and fled south into the Zagros mountains.
The shah's army also lost its nerve and scattered. Atropatene was now
an inviting prey." Ganzak (by which is probably meant its undefended
Chroninlfl Paschale, pp. 166-7, Sebeos. pp. 79-81 (conllatin~ this departure with that
in 62~ anel rniselatin~ it to 623), Theophanes, p. ~06/ 19-27 (misdating Heraclius'
departure to 15 March and thc invasion of Persia to 20 April (probably the day he
and Martina left Nicomcdia) ). The official charactcr 01' the noticc about Hcradius'
departure für the east in the Chronicon Pasdwlt cstablishes 6~4 incontrovertibly as the
correct date. It f"llows that there is a rare slip in thc Chmnicle 10 724, p. IR. its single
sentenee summary of thc elnperor's activities in 624 being misplaced undcr 6~2/3.
Hrrru:lilLS I1.I60-6fi, Sehens, p. RI. Thornas ArtSIllIli, p. 159, Thcophancs, pp. 438-9,
1vloses Daskhurant"ii, pp. 7H-9. Heradius' routes on Ihis and subsequent carTIpaigns
are discussed by J.A.YlaIlaIldian, 'f\i1arshruty persidskikh pokhodov in1peratora
lraklia', Vizanlislii Vmml'rlll.ik, 111 (1950), pp. 1~3-53. Manandian's recnnstruction is
generally sound, although he nlisdates Heradills' first countcroffensive to 623-24-
anel leaves out thc lnaül- operations of the second year uf that campaign (spring-
outskirts) was devastated, but the great prize was the premier fire-tem-
pie of Persia, the formidable ruins 01' which are still visible at Takht-i-
Sulaiman. s" The fire was extinguished and the waters of the lake in
the temple complex poilu ted by corpses. Khusro himself was pursued
and forced to keep moving in the mountains, while the swathe of
clestruction grew steadily larger in Au-opatene. Then, as winter drew
near and a Persian scratch force harried the Romans, Herac1ius
clecided to withdraw, not west but north. He marched to Albania (ex-
Soviet Azerbaijan). There he established his winter quarters, in the
Kura valley west 01' Partaw, the regional capital which was evacuated
by the Persian authorities.',(i
The winter was uneventful, although a small Persian army (under
Shahraplakan) was detailed to keep an eye on the Romans ti'om nearby
highlands (modern Nagorno Karabagh). Üne change of camp by the
Romans is reported. Considerable numbers of Christians horn Trans-
caucasia were probably answering a call to arms which Heraclius had
issued before he arrived in Albania. He had invited the princes and
governors 01' Albania, Iberia (modern Georgia) ami Armenia to join
his service. The gooel response is evident from the exter1l of the influ-
ence exercised by the northern contingents on decision making during
the following year's campaign. Üne other initiative 01' Heraclius' is
reported. He se nt off an ambassador to enlist the support of the Turk-
ish empire which dominated the steppe worlcl to the north of the Cauc-
asus. 57
The strategie balance s,llung back in the Persians' favour by spring
625. Three armies were mobilized against Heraclius, whose position
was now known anel whose options were therefore limited. Shahra-
plakan with his shadowing force was to prevent a renewed attack on
Atropatene. Shahrvaraz, who had been recalled from the west with his
expeditionary force in 624 anel had spent the winter at Nisibis, was
ordered to cross Armenia and to bar Heraclius' direct line of retreat
west through Iberia. The third general, Shahen (with 30000 men
according to Sebeos), took up a position by the Bitlis pass, trom where
he could intercept Heraclius if he were to withdraw by a more cir-
cuitous southern route through Armenia. Heraclius' plan of cam-
paign - to invade Persia again, circumventing Nagorno Karabakh - was
SUlluner 62:;). Corrections 111ay be made on certain poin.ts or detail: Ganzak should
be distinguisherl trom the lire-temple al Takht-i-Slliaiman, anrl Heraclius probably
kcpt the .Axurean river on his east flank as he lnarched south frorn Titlis in autumn
627. A [uller account 01' Heradius' subsequcnt IIlovelllcnts in Mcsop0lanüa is givcn
by F. Sarre and E. Herzteid, Archiieologische lIeise im Io'u/Jitral- und llgris-Gebiet 11
(Berlin. 1920), pp. 87-9.
R. and E. Naumann. Takhl-i-Suleiman (Munieh, 1976); G. Herrmann, "f'Iw Irania"
Rroival (Oxfürd, 1977), pp. 113-18.
,,(; Sebeos, pp. 81-2, Thomas Ansruni, p. 1.~9, Theophanes. 1'1'.439-40, lIeradias T1.167-
230, Moses Daskhuranlsi, pp. 79-80.
,,7 Theophanes, p. 441, :V[oses Dasklmrantsi, pp. 79-81, 86-7. The latter alone reports
lhe negotialions wilh lhe sleppe power. The dale given (afterlune (25) is probably
(hat of the return enlbassy's arrival in Const3Tltinople.
thwarted by opposition [rom some of his new northcrn auxiliaries. He

was left stranded between the armies of Shahraplakan (elose at hand)
and Shahrvaraz (some distance away but mcnacingly placed to the
north of Lake Sevan). Only when the dangcrs of the position became
apparent did the whole army become his pliant instrument."N
Operations now began in earnest. Heradills' essential task was to
avoid encirelement and to keep his förce intact. Ey a complicated ser-
ies of rnanoeuvres he succeeded in outmarching and outwitting the
three opposing Persian arrnies, and was able to defeat thern in detail.
He concentrated at first on the weakest and dosest of thern, that of
Shahraplakan to his rear. Harassed 11l1ceasingly, night and day, its mor-
ale had sunk by the time it joined Shahravaraz's arrny. At this point
Heraclius set off south at high speed. False intelligence ~ that he was
fleeing - was rendered convincing when the two pursuing armies drew
near amI he appeared to accelerate into headlong tlight (the
impression given by an all-night march, which enabled him to elude
a planned dawn attack). Advancing confidently, with a certain laxness
in theil" formation, the Persians suddenly came across the Roman army
which had haltcd, was occupying a strong position on a wooded hill
and was ready für baule. Thc engagement which Jöllowed ended in
Roman victory, and was fölloweel up by an unremitting pursuit. The
situation was still confuseel when Shahen arriveel and was defeated in
turn.""
There is a dearth of place-names in the sole detaileel version of
events (Theophanes'), so that it is impossible to localize these oper-
ations with any precision. Only the general lines of Heraclius' move-
ments can be seen. After worsting each of the three pursuing forces,
he gained some freedom of manoeuvre, while they were regrouping.
He then turned north, crosseel so me rugged country to come within
striking distance of the Black Sea coastlands, and then stooel his
grounel in a day-long confrontation with the united forces of Shahrva-
raz anel Shahen, thereby covering the retreat of his Laz anel Abasgian
allies. Then came another change of elirection: he marcheel south
across Siunia to the middle Araxes valley (past Naxcawan on ce again) ,
turned south-west and campeel för the winter on or elose to Lake Van.
A final engagement took place in the elepths ofwinter, whcn Shahrvar-
az's heaelquarters came uneler atlack, Shahrvaraz only cscaping capture
by the skin of his teeth. GO
These successes uneloubteelly hael considerable psychological cffcct
on thc morale of thc opposing forces. Nonetheless the Persians could
still field rar superior numbers, anel Heraelius had su[fereel a damaging
blow when two of his northern contingents had departed. The Persians
remained on the offensive as the start of the 626 campaign season
C,< Seheos, p. 82, Theophanes, pp. 441-2.

C,,, Theophanes. p. 442, Sehens, p. 82, Mnses Daskhurantsi, p. 81.
Theophanes, pp. 442-'\, Seheus, pp. 82-3, Moses Daskhurantsi, p. RI.
drew near. They massed their troops for an invasion or Anatolia and
an assault on Constantinople itself (for which they had sought and
obtained a promise of Avar aid in Europe). In spite of his defeat in
midwinter, Shahrvaraz was appointed to command one of the two Per-

sian invasion armies. Shahen was general of the other, which was tu
invade Anatolia by a nOl-thern route.
The Siege of Constantinople and Other Operations in 626

Heraclius left his winter quarters north of Lake Van on 1 March 626
and hastened back to Anatolia, to take charge of it~ defence. The
route, which he chose after sounding out opinion in the army, was
not the direct one running down the Arsanias valley and then up past
Tarantum to the Anatolian plateau, but one with more plentiful sup-
plics which ran south across the Taurus, then west through northern
Syria and Cilicia. Shahrvaraz took longer to mobilize his men and set
off in pursuit, but he caught up wich Heraclius betore he crossed the
Euphrates. He then drove the Roman army before hirn as he advanced
westward - past Germanicia and Adana. A rearguard action directed
by Heraclius succeeded in holding the strategie bridge over the Sarus
river long enough to allow the Roman army to pass Lhrough the Cili-
cian Gates safely. Onee on the plateau Heraclius veered north-east to
Sebasteia. Here he was weIl placed to intercept Shahcn's army which
was attacking from Armenia, and to communicate with the capital
along the northern support road. It was another disconcerting move
which probably took the Persians by surprise. Für it was surely incon-
ceivable to them that the emperor would not hurry to the defence of
his capital when it was c1early under threat. 61
lnstead Heraclius trusted in the defensive measures which he had
taken so me time before - the construction of a fleet of light craft to
provide forward defences for the relatively weak sea-waIls, and the
stockpiling of substantial grain reserves. He now rushed reinforce-
ments to the city, which arrived safely before Shahrvaraz reached Chal-
cedon in the middle of June. They were followed by written instruc-
tions for strengthening the city's defences and constructing artiIlery.62
The main body of the field army, presumably still tmder Heraclius'
command, then intercepted the perhaps unwary invasion force advanc-
ing from Armenia and won a victory so complete as to lead to the
,;, Theophanes, pp. 444-5; Sebeos, p. 83; Moses Daskhurantsi. p. 8l.

n" Fleet: fiellllm Avaricurn. H. 276- 7; Clmmicon Pasch ale, pp. 174-5, 176-H. Grain: JD.
Howard:lohnston. 'Thc Siege of Constantinople in 626'. in C. Mango and G.
Dagron, cds., Cunstanlinople and Its Hinterland (Aldershot, 1995), pp. 135-6.
Reinforcem ents : Theophanes, p.446; Chmnicnn Paschalc, p. 172 (putting the strength
of thc cavalry CUIllpollenl of the city' s garrison at 12000 or more men, a figure
which was clearl y inflated since it \vas intendcd for th e Avar khagan's ears) .
Instructions: Bellum Allarirum, 11 266--75. 288--301 ; Theodore Syncellus, ed. L.
Stern bach, Analecta Avarica, Ro zprawy Akaderrtii Ullliej~lnosci, vVydziat FilologicnlY,
scr. 2.15 (Cracow, 1900), pp. 302-4.
immediate disgrace of its commander, Shahen.'i" Heradius' sub-

sequent movemenL~ are a matter for guesswork. Roman deception
aimed at confusing and demoralizing the enemy succeeded a1l too we1l
in bewildering thc chroniclers who attcmpted to describe the cam-

paign. Thcre is no reason to suppose that he left Asia Minor for Trans-
caucasia, as is alleged by Theophanes and was implied by a Roman
ambassador at an audience with the Avar khagan during the siege of
ConstanLinople. Since there are good reasons, outlined below, for dis-
trusLing Theophanes at this point and there is no reliable record of
Hcraclius ' presence in Transcaucasia until the next campaigning sea-
son, thc Roman ambassador's assertion that Heradius was in the Persi-
ans' country 'uuerly destroying it' should be dismissed as a piece of
disinformation intended for the three Persians emissaries who had
managed to cross the Bosporus and were in attendance. 64 \'\'e may
safely assume that Heradius ' prime objective was to apply pressure, by
ac tion or threat of action as weil as words, on Shahrvaraz's anny, so
as to hasten its withdrawal from Chalcedon, and to minimize the dam-
age which it might do on its return march. It may therdore be inferred
that he moved west, after defeating Shahen, to within striking distance
of Chalcedon.
Shahrvaraz pillaged Chalcedon, built a camp and waited for the
arrival of the Avars on the European shore. They mobilized their dient
peoples and approached with a huge army. The main forc e under the
khagan haI ted at Adrianople, where final preparations were made for
the siege. Supplies were procured, a large wagon-train was assembled,
and key components for trebuchets and other siege-engines were
manufactured. A vanguard, 30 000 strong, appeared outside the Long
Wall on 29 June, crossed it without encountering opposition and
advanced on Constantinople. Communications with the Persians, by
fire-signals, were established by the middle of July. Although the Persi-
ans had not come with a fleet, hence could not be expected to playa
large part in siege operations, their menacing presence increased the
psychological pressure on the defenders, and there was always the
possibility that Avar naval transport might convey some contingents
across the Bosporus. The khagan arrived on ~9 July and put on an
awesome display of military might, a parade of his full force (estimated
to number 80000 men) before the walls, stretching from the Sea of
Marmara to the Golden Horn.
vVe are fortunate to have three eyewitness accounLS of the siege,
induding an official report probably intended for Heradius. They
"., Theophan es, 1'1'.446-7. Anoth er aCCOlJllI, much lransmuted, IIlay he prescnt in a
later text recounting the miracles of St Theodore of Euchaita, trans. Zuckerman,
'The Reign 01" Constantine V', 1'.206. See Howard;)ohnslon, 'Siege 01'
Conslantinople', n. J 1. 1'.134, arguing against the ea rlier contexl in 622 proposed by
Zuckerman (1'1'.206-8).
'" Theophanes, p. 446; Chroniron Paschalp, pp. 175-6.
enable lIS to follow operations in considerable detail."'> After a day of

preparations, a first general assault was launched on 31 July and the
main offensive siege-engines began to be deployed, trebuchets and
siege-towers. The fighting continued over the following days, and the
number of machines arrayed against the city steadily grew (by the end
twclve siege-towers were concentl'ated against the central sector of the
land walls). The pressure was intensified when, on 1 August, a fleet of
Slav boats was launched in the Golden Horn to threaten the sea walls.
An attempt was made (on 3 August) to ferry across a contingent of
3000 or 4000 Persian troops to join in siege operations, but this was
thwarted by Roman naval units. Then the Avars prepared for a second
general assault, in which their full strength would be pitched against
the city. Attacks were launched along the full length of the land walls
on 6 August. They were sustained through that day and the following
night. Then, on the morning of the 7th, the front was broadened as
an infantry assault force was carried by Slav boat~ towards the sea walls.
This last attack had, however, been anticipated and was foiled. There
was terrible slaughter at sea and, as the land assault continued without
success, there were increasing signs of dissension in the the Avar anny.
The following night it withdrew, after bllrning the siege-engines. The
khagan's prestige was gravely damaged . The task o[ maintaining Avar
authority over multifarious and rebellious subject peoples would pre-
occupy him for many years to come. 66
Shahrvaraz was now in clan ger of being trapped between the sea and
the mountains. His troops must luve been demoralized by the events
in Europe, of which they had been powerless spectators, as weil as by
news of Shahen's dekat and of the lurking presence of a Roman army
in their rear. Rumours (which were true) of a Turkish invasion of Cau-
casian Albania mayaIso have reachecl them by now, further lowering
their spirits.h7 In these circumstances no purpose would be served by
linge ring, and Shahrvaraz left Chalcedon several days after the end
of the siege. His tmops were pmbably shadowed but not engaged by
,", The most detailed ac count, in Chroniwn P(L,clwle, pp. 169- 81, was probably an offici,ü
report \\Titten by the Ja)' regent, Bonus, for Heraclius immediatdy after the evcnt.
Theodorc Syncdlus, who \vas at the cenlrc or affairs (he servcd on a 5-man
de1egaLion received by the khagan during the siege - Chmnicon Pe",:hal" p. 175),
delivered his scrrnOll when even ls were still frcsh in his and his congregation's
lllinds. It may be postulated that the occ.asion was the sClvicc of thanksgiving al
Blachcrnae, probab1y held "\vithin a Fe\v weeks of the city's deliverance (Nicephorus,
p. 61). George of Pisidia probably took !Ilouths father thau weeks tu write thc Beiluin
A1.mricurn, but, like Theodore's sermon, it \vas finish e d before Heraclius' return to
Constafltinopl e. Tl1t~ fJlloterl figures for Avar troop strengdis are given at Bellum
Avaricum, 11. 217-19 (whoIe ann y) a nd Chroniwn Paschale, p. 171 (vanguard).
"" A fuller accounl is givcn by Howard:/ohnstull, 'Siege of Constallliuuple ' . pp. 131-42.
Sire of Persian contingelll sent ac ross: 3000 tmops offered (Chronü:on Paschalf,
p. 175); 4000 caught ami slaughtere d at sea (Sebeos, p. 79).
li 7 t\t'loscs Daskhurantsi, pp. H7- 8.
Heraelius. 6H It was probably late in the year, long after the initial victory
celebrations in Constantinople, that Heraclius returned home, took
charge of the government and began to plan the next phase of his
northern counterotlcnsivc. It was to involve eloser cooperation with

his Turkish allies.(jy
The Second Counteroffensive, 627-628

Theophancs' account of events in 626 is confused, hecause he attempts
to connect a section of his systematically misdated narrative of military
operations (which pI ac es th e event~ of 626 in 625) with a correctly
dated ac count of the siege of Constantinople (the date probably heing
weil known and documen ted in several sources ). His efforts to produce
a coherent narrative lead him into several errors: he invents a winter
beginning after Heraclius returns to eastern Anatolia in April 626 (625
for Theophanes), in order to shift the main events of that campaigning
season forward a year and associate them, as they had to be associated,
with the siege of Constantinople; on the other hand, he does not ques-
tion the dating (one year early) 01' the following ycar's cvcnts, and thus
telescopes the main operations of 626 and 627 into a single year; as a
result 01' this conflation he is 1'orced to remove Heraelius from thc
main scene of action in 626 and to spirit him away to Transcaucasia
(a year too early), silKe that is where he has to be in order to meet the
Turks outside Tiflis in 627 (626 for Theophanes); finally, h e extends
Shahrvaraz's stay on the Bosporus into the autumn of 626 so that it
overlaps with Heraelius' final invasion of Persian Mesopotamia (dated
by Theophanes to 626), thereby adding extra drama to this last phase
of the war. 70
It is possible to unravel Theophanes' narrative and to discern the
main lincs of events in 626 (as has heen done in the reconstruction
prescntcd above). It is, however, quite impossible to fill the gap in
Theophanes' narrative which extends from the middle of August 626
to spring/summer 627 (another consequence of the conflation of two
"" Thendore Syncellus. pp. 313-14. There is no reason 10 believe a story. which later
gained con sirle rahle currency, that Hcraclius allel Shahrvaraz struck a political deal at
lhis time (Seert Chmnide. pp ..';40-41 , Chrnnicle 101234. pp. 136-7 (and the Ihrec othcr
derivatives of Theophilus of Edessa cited by Palmet. nn. 311-12, including
Theophanes , pp. 452-3), Tabari , pp. 30()-3 and \licephorus, pp. 57, :)9). This seems
to bc anolher instancc of Roman deception, d,lling from late 627, when th ere \vas
much 10 be gained by promoting discord between th e government of Khusro and
the senior Persian general in the west (but see C. Mango, ' Deux etudes sur Byzance
el la Perse sassanide', Trallau.x el Mem.oires IX ( 19R.'i) , pp. 107-9).
W As al ready indicated, Heraclius was still away whe n Theodore Synccllus delivered his
sermon alld George of Pisidia \vrote the Bellum Avru7cum. His return (\vhieh is not
dOCUInented in an)' extant text) may be postulated not onl)' on the g-rounds lhat
there were man y maUers rlemanding his attention a t thc centre but also because he
\\lould be better placed in Constantinople tu monitor d evelopnlCl1lS abroad
(espccially in lhe Balkans, after the shocks uf 623 and 626) am! lO cunduct
diplomacy. Not to mention a natural inclination to see his new wife and baby san, or
the neen to give his ITlen somc tim e to recupcrate.
'" Theuphanes, pp. 1'15, 446-7, 450.
distinct campaigning seasons). We can only speculate about Roman

diplomatie and militaryactions in this period.
Heraclius probably spent the winter in ConstanLinople, while his
troops were allowed to rest after three years' arduous campaigning. 71

In 627 he took command oi" the almy once again ancl directed oper-
ations in Lazica (what is now the western, more troubled part 01'
Georgia). There were good reasons for concentrating on Lazica: it was
a region of Transcaucasia which had hitherto been untouched by the
war; and Persian defences in the north fell into disarray in 627 when
a large Turkish army overwhelmed the fron tier defences between the
Caucasus and the Caspian and overran Albania (provoking a last-
minute panic-stricken evacuation of the regional capital, Partaw).72
There are indications, somewhat garbled in the telling, that Heraclius
made his way to Lazica by sea. He was accompanied, we may aSSllme,
by his personal starr, baggage and a cerL-"lin amount of ceremonial
equipment for which a need was likely to arise in the course of the
campaign. Given the dangers of sea travel a nd the limited capacity of
ancient shipping, there was no question of dispatching the whole field
army by sea. We should therefore envisage the troops reassembling
and preparing for action in the emperor's absence, at a convenient
location in northern Asia Minor, possibly in the coastal plain east of
Trebizond which provides rela tively easy access to western Georgia. 7:\
The Turks did not bother to hunt down the fugitive population oE
Partaw in the mountainous cantons of Arcax (modern Nagorno
Karabakh), but turnecl west, invacled Iberia and began to besiege the
regional capital , Tiflis. 74 Heraclius now marched east, over the formi-
dable Likhi range dividing the Black Sea coastlands from the valley of
the Kura river, to join them before Tiflis. A careEully staged cerernony
greeted him on his arrival. Before an audience 01" troops, with his
senior officers placed at a higher level (on a rocky hillside), the yabghu
khagan, deputy to the supreme khagan oE the Turks, rode forward,
embraced Heraclius and - so the Roman sources assert - dis1110unted
71 The army was lvithdrawn well away fro1ll the forr es of Shahrvaraz (presumably back
south of the TaurLLS) aml dispersed , according to Sebeos, p. R'l.
7~ The invaclers are correctly identifi ed as Turks by Theop hanes, pp. 447. 448 am.!
J"\iceplHllUs. pp ..~5, :;7. Moscs Daskhurantsi. pp. 83-5 follows his asual praeliee and
calls thern Khazars (as Thenphan es dnes onee, at p. 447).
, :1 The voyage to Lazica is 1l1entioned by Nice phorus, p. 55, anrl ivloses Daskhurantsi,
p. 7R. It is followed in Moses bv an a(count of Heraclius ' fi1:l'1 colllllerolTellsivc (624-
5), in Nicephorus by Ilotiees about the birth of H eraclonas (Heraclius' e lclest son by
Martina) and the serond eounleroffensivc (ilSclf placed lirj"re thc siege of
ConsLanlinople in (26). However, a date before 627 ean be ruled out sin ce there is
good authority for supposing that Heraclius took short sca crossing's in 622 (lO the
sOLlth shore of the gll!J' 01' :"icorn ed ia) and 624 (across the Bosporus). T\Vo lall'. !ess
rcliahle sources refcr to Black Sea voyagcs, but havc Hcraclius discmbark at
Trebizond (M . ' a"n Esbroeck, 'Une chronique de Mauricc ~l Heraclills dans un n~c.it
des sieges dl' Constantinoplc', Bedi Karl/i.m XXXIV (197()), p. 9'1 and M. Breydy,
trans., Das An nalrtlwrrk des l,>'utJrhios von Alexandrien, Corpus ScriptonllTI
Christianorurn Oricntaliurn, Scriptores Arabici 45 (Lo uvain. ]\)iF,). p. 104.
71 Moses Daskhurantsi, p. R,"); Theophanes, p. 447.
to do hirn obeisance. The yabghu khagan was showing one of the two
senior rulers of the sedentary world at the western end of Eurasia all
due deference, whatever the exact form of his obeisance. Heraclius
reciprocated with aseries of counter-civilities. He invited the yabghu

khagan to mount again, d esignated hirn his son, crowned hirn with his
own crown and laid on a full ceremonial banquet. When this was over,
he bestowed on hirn all the plate which had been used, along with an
imperial robe and earrings adorned with pearls. He also distributed
court earrings to his entourage of senior officers. These honours con-
ferred high, near-equal status on the yabghu khagan (even in Roman
eyes), but that status was elevated yet further by a final, quite unpre-
cedented ace Heraclius offered hirn the hand of his daughter Eudocia,
cementing their political and military alliance with a family tie. 7s
The Romans now joined in the siege of Tiflis. They deployed their
machines, including great stone-throwers, and diverted the river so as
to undermine the walls. They did not, however, break tbe defenders'
will. The siege evidently continued for some time, many casualties
being suffered by the besieging infantry. It was only after Stephen,
Persian client ruler of Iberia and commander of the garrison, had been
killed on a sortie that Romans and Turks managed to capture the lower
city. What remained of the garrison held out in the ci tadel to whicb
it had withdrawn. 76 The allied forces now divided. Tbe yabgbu khagan
stayed put with part of his army to press the siege to a final conclusion,
while the whole Roman army and a Turkish escort, said by Theophanes
to have numbered 40000, marched south. The only Persian anny
operating in Transcaucasia at this stage, under the command of Shah-
raplakan, which included 1000 mounted guardsmen [rom Ctesiphon,
could do nothing but watch this massive invasion army move off, just
as earlier it had been unable to relieve the pressure on Tiflis. 77
The allied army seems to have marched unhurriedly at first, reim-
posing Roman authority on what had traditionally been the Roman
Muses Daskhurantsi, p. 85 merely notes thc meeting. The ceremonial d e tails are
7,',
reported by Theophanes, p. 447 a nd Nicephorus, pp. 55,57, whose accounts, largely
complemenlary, I have c.ombined, ironing out some tninor discrepancies.
Nicephorus, p. 57 and Chronicle to 1234, p. 137 (and related eastern texts cited in
n. 312) rcport the olTer uf Eudocia's hand. See also C. Zuckennan, ' La pe tite
Augusta et le Ture: Epiphania-Eudocie sur les monnaies rl'HeraclillS' , REvue
N11.m.ismatiq11.e CL (1995), pp. 11 3-26.
7" Moses Daskhurantsi, pp. 85-6, 94-5 gives some details about siege ope rations but has
the Turks (his Khazars) withdraw early. tu avoid the heat of summer, and return the
next year to take the city in a general assault after a seconrl , rwo-month siege. He
secms to have divided material about a single siege between two chapters and two
campajgns. Ceorgian Chronicles, trans. R.vV. Thomson , Rewriti-ng Caurasian His[or}
(Oxlord, 1996) , pp. 233-4, fucus on the actions of Heraclius and the defenders 01"
Tiflis, alm ost but not entirely eliminating the Turks (the yabgll.11 khngan can bc
recognized in jibga, described as a prince, who was left in charge 01' the siege of the
citadeJ). Theophanes, p.447 refe rs in passing to the siege.
77 Ceml,";an Chronicles, pp. 234-5 (the cit<ldel falls within a lew days) ; Th eop hanes,
p . 447; Moses Daskhurantsi, pp. R5, 94-:>. Theophanes took thc figurc uf 40 000
Turks from his eastern source: it also appears in Chronide 10 1234, p. 137 (and
relatcd eastern te xts ci ted in n. 312).
sector of Transcaucasia. lts route, to the west o[ the Axurean river,

took it ac ross the Araxes and into the hill country beyond. A second
Persian army now comes into view. lt had been mobilized hurriedly in
Mesopotamia to deal with the crisis in the north and placed under the
command of Rahzadh/Roc Vchan. lt was shadowing the invading army
from a safe distancc. Rahzadh, seeing that Heraclius was making for
the district of Kogovit, secms to havc expected him to turn west into
the basin at the head of the Arsanias river and to take the easy route
down the rivcr vallcy towards Anatolia. At any rate he was taken by
surprise when Hcraclius turncd cast, round the head of Lake Urmia,
and invaded Atropatcnc, in Scptember. A campaign which may hith-
erlo have secmed rather fluid for lack of dating indicators can now at
last be given somc chronological definition. 78
Heraclius and his Turkish al1ies were already in Atropatene, devastat-
ing the cities and villages in their path, when news of their change of
direction reached Rahzadh. Immediately he set off in pursuit, but was
careful to keep his distance while the Turks remained with Heraclius.
It was at the approach ofwinter, when Heraclius was probably nearing
or had reached the Zagros foothills, that his Turkish allies departed.
Rahzadh was several days' march away, at Ganzak, when Heraclius
halted for a week from 9 October, to rest his men before the next
phase of the campaign. He was now surprised for the second time by
Heraclius, who struck south across the Zagros. As soon as he realised
what had happened, he set off on adesperate and exhausting pursuit. 79
There follows a blank period, because Theophanes, our chief
source, jumps from 16 October to 1 December, when Heraclius can
be seen crossing the Greater Zab and entering the plain of Nineveh.
He seems to have tried and failed to hold the line of the river. Once
Rahzadh reached its right bank, Heraclius resumed his march until he
found suitable ground on which to stand and fight, not far from Nine-
veh. He was anxious to engage the Persian army before it was
reinforced by 3000 lroops whom he knew were on their way [rom Ctesi-
phon. The balde took place on 12 December, with early morning mist
concealing the Roman position. Heraclius won a decisive victory. Rah-
zadh was killed together with his three senior commandcrs and many
othcr officcrs. Many prisoners were taken (4000 according to one
sourcc). Thc way was now open for an advance south on Ctesiphon. 80
7H Hcraclius' movcmcnts: Georgian Chronicles, pp. 234-5; Sebeus, p. 83; Theophanes,

p. 448; Seert Chronicie, p. 541; Chronirle to 1234, p. 137 (and related castern texts cited
in n. 316). Mobilizatiol1 and deployrnenl u1' Rahzadh's anny: Theophanes, pp. '118-9;
Moses Daskhurantsi, pp. 88-9; Seerf Chronicie, p. ,')41; Tabari, pp, 294-5; Sebeos, p. 83;
Chronicle to 1234, p. 137 (and rclaled eastern texls cited in n. 316).
7!) Theophanes, pp, 448-9; Sebeos, pp. 83-4. Moses Daskhurantsi, p. 88, Seert Chronicle,
p. 541 and Tabari, p. 294 include brief notices about thc invasion of MeSOpOlaJnia.
HO Theophanes, pp. 449-50 tÖCllses on Ihe emperor's feals in the battle, but gives a
sober alld detailed account of previous and subsequent operations. Sebeos, p. 84
(with additional material in Thomas Artsruni, p. 160) gives a better account of the
ballle, but disagrees on two points: the reinforcements arrive before the ballie ancl
the Persian army is destroyed as a fighting törce (Thomas Artsruni adding that 4000
or this and its political repercussions Theophanes gives a detailed

accoullt, ultimately derived from Heraclius' war dispatches. Finally,
nervous perhaps 01" the possibility that Shahrvaraz might intervene,
Heraclius set off für the comparative safety of Atropatene on 24 Febru-

ary, at the start 01" a pcr'iod of heavy snowfalls which were to last over
a lllonth. H e rcached his destination, Ganzak, by 15 March and estab-
lished a camp there, authorizing his men to stable the animals
(including spare mounts) in the 3000 houses of the city. Tt was at Gan-
zak that he received news 01' the success 01' the planned putsch , on 24
March. Peace negotiations began on 3 April when the ambassador sent
by the new shah , Kavad Shiroe, arrived at the camp.'"
Pe ace Negotiations and Their Outcome

The ambassador brought a letter from Kavad Shiroe, in which he
announced his accession , expressed adesire for peaceful relations with
all his neighbours, and förmally recognized the Roman empire's right
to exist and its parity of status, by addressing Heraclius as his brother
ruler. Jt was his intention , he said, to release all Roman prisoners 01'
war held in Persia, clearly a gesture 01' goodwill to get negotiations off
to a good start. But the key proposal delivered orally by the ambassador
was an offer to return all occupied Roman territory. While welcoming
the emhassy and responding with a gesture of his own (the release
of the prisone rs and hooty in his hands), Heraclius adopted a tough
negotiating stance, designating the new shah his scm (and therefüre
his political inferior) and instructing his own ambassador to ask point-
edly about the fate 01' the last Roman deputation sent to the Persian
court in 615 (two of the ambassadors had been executed by Khusro,
the third dying of natural causes).H~
An armistice seems to have been observed from the time Kavadh
Shiroe's letter was received. There is no re cord 01' military action
throughout the ITmainder 01' 628 on the part o[ Persians, Romans 01'
Turks. At the close 01' his victory dispatch 01' 8 April, Heraclius
announced that he was striking camp that day and taking the route to
Armenia. The expeditionary anny marched west back to Roman terri-
tory. Heraclius hirnsclf returned in triumph to Constantinople, where
priSOllers we re t.aken); Theophalles' versiOll, dearly based on a dispatch, should be

prcfcrreel. See also Seerl Chronide, 1'.541. "'Ioses Daskhurantsi, p. 89, Tabari, pp. ~9!i
li anel Lhmnide In 1234, pp. 137-8 (anel rclated caste rn texts cited in n, 316).
" Chmnicon Paschale, pp. 184-7, See also Sebeos, 1'1'.84-5 and Chronirle 10 1234, p. l'OR
(anel reiated easte rn texts eitel! in n. 3IR).
Chroniron Paschale, pp. 1~7-H , toge ther wirh an inge nious rcstoration of the damagcd
tcxt 01' thc scwnd balf of Kavad Shiroc's leiter and the bcginning 01' H e racJills' repl y
in N. Oikollomides, 'Correspondence between lleraclius anrl Kavarlh-Siroe in thf'
Pasrhnl Chron irle (62H)', ß)'Zfmliof/ XLI (EI71), pp. 269- 81; Seheos. p, 86; :-Jicephorus,
p. 6~~.
he was best placed to direct Roman negotiations with the Persians and
the Turks, as weH as to manage his own empirc. H3
Heraclius ' ambassador accompanied his Persian opposite number
back to Ctesiphon, and there set about ncgotiating a fuH peace agree-
mentY" The crucial issue must have been the definition of what was
and what was not Roman territory. lt may be inferred, with reasonable
confidence, that the Persians e ither had in mind from th e first or werc
persuaded in the course of negotiations into accepting the fron tier
agreed in 387 and not subsequently in dispute save at its northern
extrernity (Lazica). This lcft them with the Jion 's share of Transcauca-
sia (four-fifths of Armenia and the whole of lberia alld Albania) and
aH Mesopotamia except for its northern segment. Although it was an
extraordinary concession fot-ced on Kavad Shiroe to otTer to return to
the traditiona l status quo, he was not relinquishing all the territorial
gains of the war. For Khusro 1I had been forced to cede extensive and
strategically importan t traets of territory in Transcaucasia as the price
for' thc Roman political ancl military backing which seeured him his
throne in 591. This territory had been recovered in the first campaigns
of the waLS"
It was unrealistic to expect Kavad Shiroe to reinstate the frontier of
591-602 (and th ere is nothing to suggest that Heraclius made a serious
demand for this). Had he done so, Kavad Shiroe would not only have
written off th e immense investme nt of Jives, money and materieLmade
by Khusro Tl, but would also have left Persia 's security gravely impaired.
For he would h ave ceded, for the seccll1d time, control oE the whole
Armenian Taurus to the Romans, thereby giving them a decisive advan-
tage of inner lines for shiEting troops between the norlhern and somh-
ern theatres of war. He would also have allowed Roman power to
advance weil beY(ll1d the Euphrates-Araxes watershed, menacingly
elose to the regional capitals of Armenia and lbeda. Con cessions on
this scale would have been certain to provo ke determined and wide-
spread opposition in Persia, on such a scale as to imperil the new
shah's regime. In the event, however contentious the issues con-
fronted, an agreement was reached in the first round of negotiations
at Ctesiphon. The sources are silent about the detailed provisions save
fü r two - the evacuation of traditionally Roman territory, th e order for
which Kavad Shiroe clrafted in the Roman am bassador's presence, and
an undertaking by the shah to seek out ancl hand over the fragments
oE the True Cross, which had been removed fwm Jerusale m in 614. R"
It proved impossible to implement the central element in the agree-
('''mnimn Pasrhalp, pp. IH7-S ; Vip pll"lSs;on de Saml Al1aslase, traDS. Flusin , pp. HH-YO;
Thcophancs, p . 457 .
•, I Chmniran Pasrhalp, p. 1H7; Sebeos , p. S6.
w, Whitby. The 1" IIl!Jerur Mll'Iuice ({nd His fl istmian, p p. 197- 202, 3(l'! f(,r the pre- ami post-
EJ9 1 fron tiers.
KI , Scheos, pp. 86-7; cf Chronide 101234, pp. 138-9 (and related castern texts cited in
n. '\1S) ancl Theophanes, p. 455.
ment. For Shahrvaraz, commander-in-chief in the west, based in distanl

Alexandria, refused to obey the shah's order to evacuate the occupied
territories, most of which had been eonquered by his troops. The
impasse was not resolved by Getober when Kavad Shiroe died and was
succeeded by his young son Ardashir. H7 Shahrvaraz was now indubitably
the most powerful figure in the Persian empire. Heraclius had no
choiee but to turn to him and to try to hammer out a new agreement,
if he were to expel Persian forces from the Roman Near East. He now
proposed adcal: he would offer Roman political backing (and a token
military force) for a bid by Shahrvaraz to seize power at Ctesiphon, on
eondition that Shahrvaraz fulfilled the terms of the agreement rc ach cd
with Kavad Shiroe. In the negotiations, whieh were carried out by cor-
respondence, Shahrvaraz proved a tougher bargainer than the shah
(as he had to be if he was not to forfeit military and eivilian support)
and insisted on retaining signifieantly more of the territory which he
and Shahen had eonquered. The fron tier in future would follow the
line of the Euphrates, leaving south-west Armenia (the Arsanias valley
and its mountain hinterlands), the whole length of the Armenian
Taurus, and the Roman forward defensive zone in northern Mesopota-
mia in Persian hands. The strategie consequenees of this territorial
division were as damaging for the Romans as that agreed in 591 had
been for the Persians.
There is no evidence about the course of negotiations, save that a
general understanding was reached by early summer 629. By tben Her-
aclius bad been forced to make the territorial coneessions (Shahrvaraz
presumably arguing that, without them, his bid tür power was likely to
fai!). Persian troops began to move out ofEgypt inJune, and tbe cvacu-
ation was weil advanced when Heraclius and Shahrvaraz met, at Arab-
issus in the Anti-Taurus, to finalize their agreement. As with the yabghu
khagan, Heraclius sought to bind his new ally to hirn with family ties
(in this case betrothing Theodosius, his seccJIld son by Martina, to
Shahrvaraz's daughter Nike). In return for his coneessions, he seems
to have obtained a promise of somc war reparations (in the form of
generous presents) and to have !cft Shahrvaraz a free hand to deal
with the Turks. RH
The Pcrsian withdrawal continued. Shabrvaraz marched on Ctesi-
phon, encountered some resistallCe but soon entered the city and took
power. At some stage before February 630, he was foreed to send an
army to eonfront the Turks in Armenia and suffered areverse. Before
long, though, the Turkish problem resolved itself, when news ofa polit-
ical erisis in eentral Asia sent the Turkish forees hurrying baek to the
H7 Shahrvaraz's relusal: Seheos, pp. 86-i. Kavad Shiroe's death: Khuzislan Chronide, p. 31
and Tabari, pp. 3R3-'i (after a reign correctly put at 8 months); Chronicle 10 724,
p. 18 and :vIoses Daskhurantsi, p. 92 (after 7 111011lhs); Seerl Chronicle, pp. 553-4 (atier
6 or 8 months); Sebeos, p. 88 (after fi !11011ths).
Sebeos, pp. 88-9; Tho!11as Ansruni, pp. 162-3; Chronicle 10724, pp. 13,17-18:
Khuzislan Chmnide, p. 32; Nicephorus, p. 65. Sec also Tabari, pp. 302-3.
steppes from Transcaucasia. Peace was taking hold in the south. Per-
sian torces had withdrawn, as agreed, beyond the Euphrates. A first
payment of reparations was made. The fragments of the True Cross
were found and returnedY9 Heraclius, who had celebrated his military
victOlY on his return to Constantinople in 628, could now celebrate
the recovery of the Near Eastern provinces and his own role as saviour
of Christendorn. He went to Palestine and, on 21 March 630, made a
ceremonial entry into Jerusalem carrying the precious relic of the True
Cross, as the trophy of viCtOlY, and reinstalled it in the church of the
Holy Sepulchre."o From Jerusalem he moved north into S}Tia, where
he was to em bark on an ambitious (but doomed) project of reuniting
the fractious confessions of Christendorn while memories of the war
against Zoroastrian Persia were still fresh. 91
Before long, political events in Ctesiphon strengthened Heraclius'
position. Shahrvaraz, who had the young shah Ardashir executed in
April and took formal power hirnseIE, paid for his presumption with
his life, 40 days later (on 9 June). Boran, a daughter oE Khusro II whom
he had married, now headed a weak government and hastened to
secure Heraclius' goodwill. In these changed circumstances, Heraclius
had no difficulty in modiEying the territorial agreement he had made
with Shahrvaraz. The Roman-Persian frontier was pushed far to the
east, back to the line of 591. All oE Khusro's gains had now been
wiped OUt. 92
Thus the ancient world order was restored after 30 years of turbu-
lence. It looked as if the two great powers would on ce again be running
the atlairs of sedentary western Eurasia, with the Romans now the
senior partners. Both were bloodied, humblcd - and aware that trou-
ble was brewing ti'OIIl a new quarter, the south. But für the moment
at least there was an appearance of normality, and the chief external
danger, that of the Turks, had vanished in an almost miraculous way.
IIl. Explanations
This condensed, but still lengthy narrative may, simply by virtue of the
details and sequences which it presents, help the distant observer gain
WI Sebeos. p. 89 (with Thamas Artsruni. p. 163); Khuzistan Chronicle. pp. 31-2; Seerl
Chronicle, p. 556; Tabari, pp. 3R6-R; "loses Daskhurantsi, pp. 104-6. See also
Nicephorus, p. 6" ami Chmnicle 10 1234, p. H2 (ami related eastern texts cited in
n.330).
"" Sebeos, pp. 90-9i; StrategillS, pp. 54-5; Thcophanes, p. 459; Georgc of Pisidia, In
Restitutionem Santli Cmcls; Retour des rrdiquf?s du saint Tnrntyr Anastasp, trans. Flusin,
p.98. See also Nicephorus, p. 67. Chronology: Mango, 'Deux <'tudes', pp. 112-13;
Flusin, Saint Anasla.IP, pp. 293-319.
'" OjJ. ril., pp. 312-13, 319-27.
"" Shahrvaraz's dealh: Sebeos, p. 89; Khuzistan Chronirle, p. 32; Seert Chronirle, p. 556;
Tabari, pp. 38R-90 (giving apreeise date); Chronicle 10 1234, p. 143 (and related texts
citerl in n.33S). Boran's ernbassy (led by the :'oIeslorian patriarch in sumIller 630):
Khllzistan Chmnicle, pp. 32-3; Sen·t Cltronirle, pp. 5'i7-()() (with disCllssion in Flusin,
Sainl Ana.ltase, pp. 320-22). Reinstatement o[ 591 frontier: Sebeos, p.91.
a beuer undersLanding of Lhis last phase of the last great war of

antiqllity. lt shollid be dear already that the war was not losl by the
Persians. There was no f'ailure of political will on their part, no funda-
mental strategic error, 110 unusual incompetence in the conduct of

operations. A strateg)' of militaq and political expansion was pursued
with consistency and adapted intelligently to changing circumstances.
The balance of resources and milital)' power shifted remorselessly in
the Persians' favour and it was quite reasonable for them to redefine
their objectives accordingly. It was not unrealistic to aim for the liqui-
dation of the Roman empire once Persian armies had reached the
.\1editerranean anel had elivieled the empire in two. The success of Per-
sian arms over the following years, which resulted in the conquest of
Syria, Palestine and Egypt and the transfer of their economic resources
to the Persian siele, made it virtually inevitable that the Romans' last
redoubt in Asia Minor woulel fall before long, while Roman authority
was likely to fade away in their principal European possessions under
Avar, Slav and Lombard pressure.
The question to be asked then is - how did the Romans, uneler Hera-
dius' leadership, manage to halt and reverse the Persian advance in
the 620s? Fortunately answers are obtainable since the great majority
of extant sources look at events from the Roman side and thus can
throw light on the resources still available to the Roman state in this
prolonged crisis, on the policies of Heradius' governmenL, and on the
militaq capability of the army which condllcted the Lwo bold counter-
offensive carnpaigns of 624-5 and 627-8. First, however, we must ask
some basic questions about the ultimate instrument of victoq, the field
army comrnanded by Heradius, hithcrto a shadowy force 01' indefinite
character and unquantified size.
Tbe Roman anny of thc early seventh centUly bore little resem-
blance to the army which had conquered the Meeliterranean worlcl.
The size of the basic fighting unit had shrunk from the 5500 men of
a legion to 1000 or 500, and there had been a steady rise in the relative
importance of cavah)'. The growth in cavalq strength can be dOCll-
mented through the fourth centuq, ancl was sustained subsequently."·l
By the age of Justinian, in the middle of the sixth centuq, it was the
premier fighting arm, so much so that, a generation or so later, experi-
encecl militaq commanclers were ready to take to the field without any
infantq at all (against the Avars in the Balkans in the 590s)."1 There
was, however, 110 question of Heraclius following suit in campaigns
against the Persians. He needecl infantq for several reasons: for all the
hea\y work involved in digging entrenehments for camps; for con-
structing, manhanclling and operating siege-engines (the only roles in
W. Treadgold . Hyzantium and lls Anfl] 284-108/ (Stanford. CA .. 199:;). pp. 44-64,87-
93.
Advlcc on drill, formations anel operations for a purcly cavalry <-1rIIlY predominate in
a tnihtary Inanual \vritten, in thc first instancc, for ßalkan generals in the ?")90s, trans.
G.T. Dennis. iV/flU/ir'":- Stmlegilwn (Philadelphia. 19114).
which they are clearly visible, before Tiflis in 627);% tor supervising
the army's supply train; for maintaining security in camp and on the
march, especially when there were defiles or wooded country to be
traversed; for taking and holding enemy strongholds and cities; and
finally for impaning greater solidity to the batde array through the
infantry's more tenacious grip on terrain. The ratio of infantry to cav-
alry may tentatively be put at 2: 1, a ratio which is documented for
the Byzantine army in its late tenth-century heyday and which corre-
sponds to that recommended in abrief section on joint cavalry-infan-
try operations tacked onto to the end of a military manual written for
Balkan commanders at the end of the sixth century.'l6
That military manual is not as helpful as it might be on the size of
Roman armies on campaign. So anxious is the author to conceal the
actual strength of Roman units and whole field armies, so careful is
he to avoid numerical consistency in the examples he uses and the
diagrams which accompany his text, that the reader may approach the
three orders of magnitude which he gives for purely cavalry armies
with a certain scepticism: (i) from 2000 to 5000 or 6000 men, classified
as 'of moderate strength'; (ii) from 5000 or 6000 up to 10000, 12000
or 15 000, also classified but at another point as 'of moderate strength';
and (iii) 15000 or 20000 or more. 97 In any case, no figure at all is
given for the mixed armies normaJly deployed on campaign. So we are
forced to glean figures from the sources dealing with Heraclius' Per-
sian campaigns, above all those which derive ultimately [rom dis-
patches. All but the obviously wild figures (such as the 120000 men
said to have invaded Persia in 624)98 have been cited in the narrative
section above. Figures such as 30000 tor Shahen's army in 625 or
40 000 for the Turks operating with Heraclius in 627 are not impossibly
high (despite the questionable provenance of the latter), in view of
the Avars' ability to mobilise some 80000 men against Constantinople
in summer 626 (a figure corroborated by the 30000 estimate for the
vanguard included in the official report on the siege).
But two figures for Persian forces which originated in dispatches
received or sent by Heraclius point to a rather lower order of magni-
tude: 3000 troops were offered by Shahrvaraz to the khagan of the
Avars in 626, a figure which was clearly intended to impress the Roman
delegation to whom it was announced and for which Sebeos provides
general corroboration (he has 4000 subsequently killed in transit);
Heraclius certainly viewed the same number of reinforcements, which
he learned were approaching early in December 627, as a very substan-
tial addition to Rahzadh's strength, and strove to force an engagement
before they arrived. Tabari's figure 01' 12000 für Rahzadh's army is
\f,-, Moses Daskhurantsi, p. 85.

"" G.T. Dennis, ed. and trans. , Three Byzantine Military Treatises (Washington, oe, 19R.,),
pp. 247, 275 ; i\I!aurire', Stralegikon, p. 133.
", op. eil. pp. 43-45.
Sebeo" p.81.
probably nearer the mark than 30 000 or 40 000. It is impossible to

match these Persian figures with similarly document-based figures for
Heraclius' expeditionary force since numbers were not normally
included in Heraclius' dispatches, for obvious reasons of security. We

can only make the roughest of estimates, on the assumption that it~
strength was commensurate with that of the individual Persian armies
which il cncountered. I would plump for a range between ]5000 and
25 000 mcn, which ac cords with the strength of expeditionary forces
fielded in the reign of ]ustinianY"
But how were the Romans able to sustain their appare ntly forlom
military effort for so long? What material and immaterial re SOUlTes
could they draw on? How efficiently and effectively did they deploy
them? Wbat role was played by other forms of action beside war? Was
the army itself subject to radical reform? 15 there evidence of tactical
or strategic innovation? These and other questions must now be asked.
East Roman Resources in 622

We must begin by emphasizing that the Persians had made little head-
way in Asia Minor. In the north. Sebasteia was probably still in Roman
hands in 622 as it certainly was in 626. This suggests that the limit 01'
territory effectively controlled by the Persians lay east 01' the Anatolian
plateau, and that Satala or possibly Nicopolis was their forward base
on the northern invasion route. Further soulh, Melitene had fallen,
probably in 617, and could thenceforth act as a secure bridgehead
west of the Euphrates. The need to guard against attack from Melitene
probably explains the rise to military prominencc 01' Tarantum
(modern Darende) which guarded thc main route onto the Anatolian
plateau from Melitene. lL was important enough by 626 to be men-
tioned in the debate about which route of withdrawal Heraclius should
take. Finally in thc south, there is no evidence that the Persians had
gaincd control of the Taurus mountains, since Heraclius had no
qualms about using the Cilician Gates in 626.
There were therefore formidable natural obstacles harring the way
deeper into Asia Minor. The large armies which the Persians could
put into the field would face considerable dangers if they attempted
to cross one of the small number of passes which cut through the Anti-
Taurus and Taurus ranges. For defending forces, heavily outnumbered
though they might be, could exploit the advantages of terrain to
ambush and harass invading armies with a good chance ofvictory, and
could be sure of disorganizing and demoralizing the jostling, com-
pacted masses of the enemy during their passage. The natural ramparts
of A~ia Minor are hreached by somewhat easier routes of invasion only
in the east - by western extensions of the two routes which run down
or parallel to the valleys of the upper Euphrates and its main tributary,
"" Treadgold. Byzanlium "nd lts Arlll), pp. 47, 60-61.

the Arsanias. But these routes too had pinch-points where assaults
could be launched, and were rendered virtually impassible for several
months a year by prolonged and severe winters. The bitter cold of
winter, the heavy snowfalls and the drifts formed by high winds were
indeed all-important allies of the Romans on the eastern plateau of
Anatolia as they prepared to defend their last redoubt. For they would
interrupt the operations of Persian invasion forces and halt the move-
ment of reinforcements and supplies to any forces already established
in Anatolia. Thus the troops of any general bold enough to go into
winter quarters on Roman soi! would be isolated, and would become
a tempting target for counterattack by a concentration of Roman
de1'ending forc es. 100
Winter also interrupted sea communications and thus helped pro-
tect the richest, most urbanized provinces of A~ia Minor which lay on
the coast. Its help was, however, less needed by sea, since the Persians
seem to have been rettlCtant to resort to naval action, perhaps because
too much Roman shipping had succeeded in escaping from the ports
01' Syria and from Alexandria. IOl Apart from successful attacks on
Cyprus (around 619) and Rhodes and other unspecified islands in
623 ,102 the islands of the Aegean, the rieh western coastlands of Asia
Minor, and Constantinople itself were never subjected to direct attack
by Persian seaborne forces. IO~ Persian weakness at sea is evident as late
as 626, when they were forced to rely on Slav monoxyla to transport
the 3000 troops they had promised the khagan 01' the Avars across
the Bosporus.
Thus in the 620s the Roman empire still retained a substantial and
defensible land mass in Asia Minor. Roughly the same extent 01' terri-
tory formed the heartland 01' Dark Age Byzantium and was able to
provide the resources, human and material, necessary to sustain the
war e1'1'ort against the greatly superior 1'orces 01' Islam for the two cen-
turies when the Caliphate exercised e1'fective authority over its empire
and could muster large 1'orces for the jihad against Byzantium. The
resources upon which Heraclius could draw in Asia Minor were there-
fore far from negligible. They probably exceeded by a considerable
margin those of the empire's Dark Age successor state , since the pro-
cess of urban decline which contributed to an evident economic
100 Naval Inte lligence Division , Geographiatl Hanrihook. Seri", '11lrkry (Londoll, 1943) I ,
pp. 142-227. A guelTilla strategy tailored to Anatolian conditions was lIsed in later
centlIlies by the Byzantines against Atab invaders, a nd is recorded in an impcrially
sponsored ten th-century military manual (trans. Dennis, Tin"" Ilyzanline Military
Trealises, pp. 145-239), with commentary in G. Dagron and H. MihaesclI, Le lmlle "ur
la guerilla (De velitatione) rie lE'rnpereur Nid!J/wre Phows (963- 969) (Paris, 1986),
pp. 137-287.
"" Khuzislan Chronic/e, pp. 25-6 für the only recorded case 01' a large number uf vessels
falling into Persian hands (at Alexandria).
'''" Rhodes and other islands: Chronic/e to 724, p. IR, Chronide to /234, p. J 33 (and
related texts cited in n. 300) .
tO:~ Their seaborne enernies were Slavs, whose depredations are reported under 022 /3
hy Chronicle 10 724, p. 18.
depression only gathered pace in the middle of the seventh century.

It is unlikely that the three Persian invasions of Asia Minor in 611, 615,
and 617 caused extensive and irreparable damage to city life. Econ-
omic destruction was not a prime aim, except for Shahen's army for
part of summer 611, bcfore it was blockaded in Caesarea, and cities
were resilient in the short term in the face of enemy action. The real
enemy of city life was, paradoxically, the imperial government, which
had the bureaucratic means to extract the punitively high taxes needed
to sustain the war effort against Islam decade after decade. It was this
squeezing dry of the urban economy which brought ab out so marked
a lowering in material conditions and culture in the early Byzantine
period. I04
Finally, we should not be misled by the gloomy picture presented
by the detractors of Herac1ius' predecessor, Phocas,l05 into believing
that in his reign the Slavs had inundated lowlands as weil as highlands
in the northern Balkans, had reached Greece and Thrace as weil as
Dalmatia and Illyricum. In reality Phocas made peace (at a price) with
the Avars, the chief force in Balkan history at this time, a peace which
seems to have held until619 or 50. 106 Until this date the Avars probably
acted as arestraining influence on the Slavs, and thus conserved for
the Romans rather more Balkan resources for use in the war in the
east than is commonly supposed.
Financial Management
The most urgent task confronting Herac1ius as the Persians overran
the richest provinces of the Roman Near East was to obtain enough
material resources from his remaining subjects, above all enough
money and bullion, to sustain the Roman war effort. George of Pisidia
alludes to the problem (Herac1ius' reason held fIrm when he saw that
the sinews of baltle, wealth, had flowed away to the barbarians), but
does not tell us how it was overcome save by Herac1ius' determi-
nation. 107 Other sources provide but exiguous information.
An austerity programme was introduced after Herac1ius' efforts to
stem the tide of Persian advance had clearly failed. Two measures are
mentioned by the sources: official salaries and military pay were halved
in 615; and the free distribution of grain was suspended from August
101 Cf. M. Whillow, 11Ie Making uJ Orthodox B,zanlium 6()()-1025 (London. 1996) . pp. 89-
9;', 104-0, as against C. Foss, The Persians in Asia Minor and the End 01' Antiquity',
EHR XC (1975), pp. 721-17.
10,', Theophanes, p. 429.
lot; ap. eit., p. 420. Apart from an altempt to surprise the city by night (dated by
Lemerle In 004 or (10), Thessalonica first faced a serious threat from a number 01'
Slav Iribes 'Kting in concer! some three years before the long siege 01' Thessalonica,
which, it has been argued abovc, forccd Heraclius to leave Asia Minor in mid-
campaign in 022. Lemerle, Miracles de Saint Dirnetnus. I, pp. 120-24, 169-74, 180-84
(fuH sUIIunaries) and 11, pp. 71-73, 91-4, 99-100 (cuIInllcntary, arguing tor daLes in
615 and 618),
107 Gcorgc uf Pisidia, Herarlias 1.161-4.
618 after acharge had been imposed earlier in the year. 108 The govern-
ment also tapped the very considerable reserves of gold and silver bul-
lion held by the church in the form of plate ancl revetment. Every
eflort was probably made to remove what was portable from Syria, Pale-
stine and Egypt at the approach of the Persians, as also to rescue pre-
cious relics, such as tbe Sponge which arrived in Constan tinople in
September 614 and the Lance which arrived in October 614, both spir-
ited out of]erusalem. 109 This, together with the resources of churches
and religious institulions in Asia Minor, the Balkans and Constantino-
pie, formed a massive stock which could, in extremis, be turned into
coin. It is impossible to say exactly when and by what means (a call
für contributions to the war effort or forc ed loans) Heraclius began
to draw on this stock, save that a particularly large amount was raised
as a loan from St. Sophia and religious establishments (probably also
in Constantinople) on the eve of his Persian campaigns. 1lO
The war also forced Heraclills (and his maligned pre decessor,
Phocas) to begin reorganizing the financial structure of the empire.
The huge, ramshackle Praetorian Prefecture of the East which was
responsible mainly for expenditure and local government throughout
Asia Minor (together with the Roman sector ofTranscaucasia) and the
Near Eastern provinces was not an effective intrument of war, least of
a11 when it had lost so much of its te rri tory, nor was it sensible for
revenue collection to be shared by it with two other ministries. The
crucial function of financi al control at the centre was probably hived
off at an early stage in the war and a110cated to the Sace11arius, or
Keeper of the Purse in the imperial Bedchamber (hence the promin-
ence of an appointee of Phocas to that post). Military expenditure,
which had to be targeted effectively, fo11owed sllit before long, the
head of th e military departme nt, a logothete, being made inde pendent
of his old boss, the Praetorian Prefect (the logothete Theodosius who
was on the five-man delegation to the Avar khagan in 626 was surely
the military logothete). These were two first crucial steps in adapting
institutions developed in a large empire in a relatively peaceful age
to the very different circumstances of prolonged and difficult warfare
conducted from a much-reduced core territory. In the long run the
Praetorian Prefecture would be entirely disrnembered (other logo-
thetes becoming autonomous) , local government wOllld be reor-
ganized, and a new system of financial management introdllced at the
centre (revenue collection consolidated into a single departmcnt,
expenditure distributed among a Bumber of specialized bllreaux). 111
lOK Chronimn Paschale, pp. lEJH, 164.

10\1Precious vessels, which v.,·'cre restored after the end oE the war, wen~ rcmovcd from
Jerusalem as weil as relics associated with the Passion: Sebeos, pp. gO-gI; Chmnicon
Paschale, p. 157.
"10 Theophanes, p. 435 and the less reliable notice 01' Nicephorus. p..,c,.
' " (;hmniw!I Pasrhale. pp. 152 (Sacellarius), 175 (logothetc). General discussion: .J.F.
Haklm1 . fJyzrmtium in tlu' S(~'(mth Centwy (Carnbridge. 1990). pp. 173-94.
Military Training
Reorganization of the army, whether of commands or provisioning or
relations with the civil authorities in the localities, was likewise an

extended process, which reached a lerm only in the middle of the
eighth century. II~ Heraclius had no time and no incentive to alter
structures, since there would be no immediate military benefit. His
efforts were directed ralher at improving the morale, training and tacti-
cal flexibility of his tmops. Hence the intensive, closely supervised mili-
tary exercises in Bithynia 622, and the emperor's confidence-boost-
ing harangues.
The effects of this training showed in all subsequent campaigns:
Roman lroops had confidence in their ability to defeat Persian armies
equal or numerically superior to them in open, orthodox combat; the
tactical flexibility of their batde array (modelIed on that of nomad
armies and made possible by a carefully drilled elasticity of individual
formations) 11:< gave them a decisive edge in conventional engage-
ments; their greater stamina gave them superior strategie mobility -
again and again they demonstrated their ability to outmarch and out-
manoeuvre Persian armies; and they had been trained in winter com-
bat, thus giving Heraclius the option of operating outside the conven-
tional limits of the campaigning season, which could have a dramalic
psychological effect on Persian armies and political circles.
Finally, Heraclius hirnself broke with traditional Roman strategie
thinking: he cut loose from Roman territory, disregarding the con5e-
quent loss of direct contact; he made no use of fortifications save the
perimeter defences of camps; and he prepared to move between
enemyarmies (something which was anathe ma to sixth-century Roman
generals),"4 confident that he could move faster and would be able
to use a temporarily superior concentralion of his forces to dispose of
Persian armies in detail.
Propaganda and Its Effects

Almost the only type of aggressive action which Heraclius could take
from 614 to 621 was the dissemination of propaganda. The object was
to enhance the loyalty of his remaining subjects, to retain that of his
former subjects in the occupied provinces of the Near East, and to
arouse opposition among the numerous Christian peoples living in the
Transcaucasian component of the Persian empire (Laz, Abasgians,
lberians, Albanians and Armenians) . The sack ofJerusalem by Shahrva-
raz's tmops in 614 pmvided a rich seam of material, with plenty of
gory details and shocking deeds. It was exploited to the full, so as to
'" Op. eil., pp. 201-32.

" " Mauria's Strategikon, pp. 35-51 , 127-36.
I,.,e.g. Belisarius, unwilling to advance deeper into Persian territory in 541 wiLh Lwo
Slrong Persian garrisons Lhreatening his rear: Procopius, History of the Wars, ed. and
trans. H.B. Dev.;ng, 1 (Cambridge, MA, 1914), pp. 419-21.
induce horror in all Christians and to emphasize their common inter-

ests in the face of a ruthless and expansionist dualist power. The Persi-
ans were accused of atrocities and gross acts of sacrilege. Much stress
too was laid on the ill-treatment of the deported prisoners of war and
on the removal of the fragm ents of the True Cross from their proper
place in Jerusalem. Propaganda material of this sort forms the central
part of the monk Strategius ' account of the fall of the city. It is also
registered in several other sources. 11ö Its effect was such that the Persi-
ans were compelled to issue counter-propaganda about their concili-
atory policies in occupiedJerusalem - material which is picked up and
preserved for us by Sebeos. 11 6
Roman verbal propaganda was backed up with cash. After a long
gap in which silver had only been used for ceremonial issues, large
quantities of heavy silver coins (hexagrams, with a theoretical weight
of 6.82 g) were minted in 615 and the following years. Initially they
were used to pay soldiers and civilians at half the old rate, but it is
highly likcly that they were also intended for use beyond the Roman
fron tier, in or near the Persian zone of silver currency. This is con-
firmed by the known provenances of a few major hoards of hexagrams:
these were probably vestiges of consignments of subsidy in specie
intended for princes and local auxiliaries in Transcaucasia, as weil as
for leaders of the western component of the Turkish empire. The coins
were not simply objects ofvalue, but conveyed a message e ncapsulating
contemporary Roman propaganda: on the reverse a cross stood above
a globe on three steps, a symbolic fusion of the greatjewelled cross at
Calvary (steps) and the cross dominating the world (globe). Thus two
messages were packed into the design: there was a dear reference to
the True Cross, which the Persians had tom from its proper place in
Jerusalem (a central theme ofRoman polemic), but the core ideology
of the Christian empire was also signalIed - that the Romans alone
were authorized by God to rule the earth. A brief legend, also on the
reverse, appealed to God for help (Deus adiuta Rumanis) , an appeal
also surely addressed to Christians everywhere. 11 7
This barrage of propaganda was probably maintained until the vic-
torious condusion of the war in 630. Undoubtedly it had an effcct
on opinion among the traditionally ambivalent Christian peoples of
Transcaucasia. The plan adopted by Heradius for his first sustained
counteroffensive, involving a northern attack, and his decision to win-
ter in Albania provide the dearest indications that he expected to find
a favourable reception in Transcaucasia. Opinion was evidently swing-
" " Strategius, pp. 14-24, 32-41; Chroniwn Pasdtale. p. 156; Sebeos, pp. 68- 9;
Theophanes, p. 43l.
11,; Seheos. pp. 69-76.
1 17 Chmnicon Pasclwle, p. 158; A.R. ßellinger and 1'. Grierson, Calalogue oj Ihe Byzanline
Coins in Ihe Dumbarlun Oaks Colleciion and in {he Whillemore Cullection 11 (1 )

(Washington, De, 1968), pp. 17-1 8, 95-9; P. Yannopou1os, L'hexagmmme, 11n
monnayage byzantin en argen! du V/Je siecle, Numismatica Lovaniensia 3 (Louvain,
1978), pp. 102-8.
ing in the Romans' tavour and masking traditional rivalries between

peoples and local principalities.
One of the prime purposes of the winter spent in Albania was to
rally the northern peoples to the Roman cause. A general call was
issued befürehand tür princes and governors to serve Heraclius, to
which the response was evidently good, given the influence exercised
by certain of the Transcaucasian contingents (Laz, Abasgian and
Iberian) over the next year's campaign. The Anncnians, who were
probably the most numerous, arc strangely elusive in the extant tcxts,
mainly perhaps bccause they werc lcss hcsitating in their support - but
some, who must have been rushcd to Constantinople in 626, can be
glimpsed butchering Slav sailors who managed to swim ashorc aftcr
their rout at sea. The direct involvement of the northern peoples also
hclps explain the high level of interest shown by chroniclers from the
region in Heraclius' exploits. II H
The Transcaucasian contingents mayaIso have left a permanent
mark on the organization of the Roman army. A new command, that
of the Obsequium, almost certainly dates from Heraclius' reign, and
its institution can most plausibly he associated with the recruitment
of northern Christian troops into the Roman field army.119 The word
obsequium was familiar enough to Romans, but in non-military contexts.
With a basic meaning of compliance in attitude or action, it was widely
used as a legal term for the relationship which ought to obtain between
an ex-slave and the master who had manumitted him - the freedman
was expected to show obsr:quium, respect or deference, towards his ex-
master, now his patron. 120 In this sense obsequium was a loose türm of
service, thus a weak, informal version of the duty of absolute obedience
owed by slaves to their masters (or by soldiers to their officers). The
second main usage of obsequium was in the apparatus of government,
denoting the services rendered by subordinates (including palace statT)
to their superiors, i.e. the performance of assigned tasks, activities and
duties. 121 Finally it was also used of public service, the performance of
civic duties. 122 It is hard to see then how it made thc lcap to the military
sphere and became the name of a senior command with a long future
in the Byzantine army, how it ousted the old designation of Praesental
for the metropolitan forces which it absorbed in duc course. Its exact
equivalent in Armenian may providc thc most satisfactory answer. Tsa-
rayt 'iwn, corresponding to the Latin servitium and obsequium, could be
"' Moses Daskhurantsi, pp. 79-RO; Theophancs, p. 441 ; Cll10niwn Pa,,.}'ale, p. 178.
"" Haldon, Byzrmtium in tlw Seoenth Centllry, pp. 213-17 su mmarizes what is known of the
early histclIY of the new command (transliterated as Opsikion in Creek), but
postulates a different origin.
120 e.g. Codex hL,tinianlls, 0.0, ed. P. Krucgcr, Corpus [urü Civili, 11 (Berlin, 1954), p. 2,10
and Novellae, 78.2, ed. R. Schoell and G. Kroll , Cmplls Jwis Civilis 111 (Rerlin, 1%4) ,
pp. 384-5. Th e wh oie .Justinianic corpus is translated by S.P. Seon, 'JI" Civil Law
(Cineinnati, 1932).
12 1 e.g. Codex lustinianlls. 12.17.3,12.49.1, pp. 458,479 .
'"2 e.g. op. eit .. 10.32.18, 12.57.5, pp, 411, 483.

Heraclius' Persian Campaüms 39
used of relations near the apex 01' the social order in Armenia, denot-
ing the service owed by princes and nobles to a king. 123 It may there-
fore be postlIlated that the princes and governors, together with their
followings, who answered Heraclills' call to arms, were designated col-

lectively his tsarayt'iwn, a term (auei its Latin equivalent) which had
the added advantage of overlaying the ethnic identities of individual
contingents. The importance or these Transcaucasian forces serving
Heraclius (and his immediate successors) might then be gauged [rom
the success of their collective name in elbowing out alternative desig-
nations with better Roman pedigrees.
Religious fervour
''\Te have already seen that Heraclius understooel the value of propa-
ganda and made effective use of it after 614 to maintain the notional
existence of the Chdstian Roman empire, in the minels of the provin-
cials living under Persian occupation anel of the Christi an peoples of
Transcaucasia. He also deployed every rhetorical trick anel propaganda
device to raise the spirits of his regular troops, hoth on exercise and
in the field, in order to give them the mental resilience which was a
precondition for hold campaigns deep into enemy territory.
One particular theme came to play a more and more important part
in his addresses to his troops. We can observe its development thanks
to George of Pisidia's ~xpeditio Persica and to verse summaries of the
most notable campaign speeches which he included in his revised edi-
tion of Heraclius' dispatches and which are quoted almost verbatim by
Theophanes. In spring 622, during the exercises in Bithynia, Heraclius
portrayed the war as a religious one against a loathsome, pagan enemy
and urged his troops to act as God's plasmata, as the obedient agents
of His ·will. In summer 624, as they set foot on Persian soil for the first
time, he ordered them to fight in the fear of God, to avenge the insult
done to God and the many terrible things inflicted on the Christians,
and to defend the independence of the Roman empire. In the course
of this speech, he emphasized that confrontation of danger 'is not
without recompense but leads to eternallijr/. He conclllded by express-
ing his confidence that God would aid them and would destroy their
enemies. He then led them against the great fire-temple at Takht-i-
Sulaiman, the premier cult centre of Persia, and destroyed it - to dem-
Ollstrate by deed as weil as word that it was a holy war of Christian
against Zoroastrian. A year later, in a dark hour, when two of the north-
ern contingents (the Laz and the Abasgians) had just lcft the army,
Heraclius set about reviving his men's spirits. The gist of his speech is
preserved once again in a verse summary, probably written by George
of Pisidia. It is worth quoting Theophanes' version of it in full. 'Be not
disturbed, 0 brethren, by the multitude [of the enemy]. For when
m :\I. Adontz, Annenin in Ihp Period 0IJ"slin;r11/ (Lisbon, 1970), p. 349.

God wills it, one man will rout a thousand. So lel us sacrifice ourselves
to God for the salvation of our brothers. May we win the crown oI martyr-
dom that we may be pmised in future (lnd receive our recompense ]rom God.'
In this speech, which he delivered in autumn 625, Heraclius made

explicit a doctrine of holy war which had been implieit in his earlier
speeches of 624 and 622. He classified death in battle against the Persi-
ans as martyrdom and declared that all martyrs were entitled to heav-
enly rewards. 124
Heraclius' message was weil atluned to the times and to one parti-
eular section of his audience, the Armenian auxiliaries. For such ideas
had been current in Armenia since the middle of the fifth century.12S
It was Heraclius, though, who first impressed the notion forcibly on
the consciousness of a large army (and of Christendom at large). By
harnessing religion to war he heightened his troops' eommitment and
increased the chance of ultimate success.
Alliance with the Turks

In spite of all his efforts to husband Roman resources, to hone the
manoeuvring and fighting ski1ls of his troops, to recruit non-Roman
Christian forces from the north and to boost the confidence of his
men (as weil as sustain hope in a1l Christians) , Heraclius could not
expect to reverse alm ost 20 years of Persian victories in a few cam-
paigning seasons. He must have contemplated a long war of attrition
and he must have feared its effects. For the Persians had far superior
reSOllrees on which to draw for reinforcements and tor replacement
equipment. He therefore had to magnify the military press ure which
he could bring to bear, so as to force Khusro's government to agree
a political settlement in a relatively short time. His only hope of doing
so lay in an alliance with the third great power in western Eurasia, the
revived Turkish empire. 1~6
This provided an additional motive for Heraclius' surprising
decision to invade Persia from the nor·th-west, when we might have
expected hirn to move inlo the occupied territories in Syria and Meso-
potamia in the hope of sparking off a general uprising of the provin-
cials. His northern route would take hirn near the outlying western
regions of the Turkish empire and would thus enable hirn to make
diplomatie eontaet with lhe regional Turkish authorities. As soon as
he was in a position lo do so (onee he had gone into winter quarters
in Albania at the end of 624) that is exactly what Heraclius did.
Our main sourec for these negotiations, and the Turkish military
and diplomatie aetions whieh resulted fi'om them, is Moses Daskhur-
I" FX/Jeditio Persica 11.88-115; Theophanes, pp. 439-40,442- 3.

12 ;, R.W. Thomson, trans., 'fiLe Histmy oj Lawr /"nrtlPc'; (Atlanta, 1991) , pp. 111-17, 190-
93, 201.
12" TJ. Barfield, The PerilOliS fi"011tier (Oxford , 1989) , pp. 131-45 for a concise history of
thc Turkish empire focllsed on its relations '\vith China. Barfield 111a)' we il
underestimate its dynastie and territorial cohesion.
antsi's Ilistory 01 the Caucasian Albanians. Although he had so me dit~

ficulty in arranging his material in the correct chronological order, the
course of negotiations and subsequent Turkish interventions can be
reconstructed with a fair degree of probability from his text.

It was late in 624 or early in 625, after he had secured his army's
position in Albania, that Heraclius sent an ambassador called Andrew
north to the yabghu khagan, viceroy of the king of the north, 'with
promises ofimmense and countless treasure ' ifhe would agree to enter
the war on the Roman side. Areturn embassy escorted by an elite force
of 1000 Turkish troops travelled at speed through the Caspian Gates,
up the Kura valley and across Iberia to the Black Sea coast. They were
then conveyed by ship to Constantinople. The enthusiastic agreement
of the yabghu khagan to Heraclius' proposals (whatever they were) was
reported. Oaths were exchanged and the Turks received instructions
'concerning their expedition which no-one suspected'. Negotiations
were clearly at an advanced stage, since a specific plan of military
action was under discussion. 127
The plan was put into effect in 626. 128 A Turkish army attacked,
under the command of the supreme khagan's nephew who held the
title of shad. 129 It caused widespread damage in Albania and part of
Atropatene. From a camp on the banks of the Araxes, an ultimatum
was sent to Khusro from 'the king of the north, the lord of the whole
world, your king and the king of kings'. Khusro, who was addressed
as governor of Mesopotamia, was curtly ordered to evacuate occupied
Roman territory and return all prisoners as weil as the fragments of
the True Cross, or he would face the might of the king or the north.l:'o
After he had refused, the threatened invasion materialized in 627. Per-
sian defences collapsed in Albania, and the Turks marched west into
Iberia. There, before the besieged capital, Titlis, they were joined by
Heraclius and his army. 13 1 The story of what followed has already
been told.
These devastating Turkish campaigns caused grave damage to Khus-
ro's prestige and held out the depressing prospect or a long war on
ever-worsening terms. They broke Persia's military hold on Transcauca-
sia, where the loyalty 01" the provincials had already been undermined
by Heraclius ' propaganda and actions. They opened the way for an
attack on Atropatene and the western sector of the Iranian plateau.
m Moses Daskhur.mtsi , pp. Rfi...7. The date which he gives, Khusro's 36th regnal year
(625/ 6 on his chronology) , is probably that 01' the arrival of the return embassy in
Constantinople (sec n. 57 above). He is mistaken to suppose that Heraclius was there
to recehre it.
I"' Moses Daskhurantsi, pp. R7-8 (at the beginning oE Khusro's 37th regnal year, i.e.
summer 626 on his reckoning).
'2" Sh"d was the title held by princes appointed to govern the major component parts of
the Turkish empire (ßarfield, Pe>i lov.s Fmntia, p. 132). Ir he was the same shad as the
commander lefl in charge 01' Turkish lmops in Albania from 628 (as seems likely),
he was also son of the yabghll khagan.
'"'' Moses Daskhllranlsi, pp. 81-2, 87-8.
,,, Op. cit., pp. 82-6.
They thus brought into question the security of highland Iran which
was ultimately of greater concern to the governing classes 01' the Sasan-
ian empire than that of the non-lranian metropolitan provinces in
Mesopotamia. It was above all this growing danger in the nonh, com-
bined with the extraorclinary resilience and boldness of Heraclius'
anny, which discredited Khusro's government and prepared the polit-
ical ground for the putsch which deposed him.
Heraclius' Generalship
Finally, we should not forget Heraclius himself. His coumeroffensive
strategy was brilliantly conceived. He was realistic about the prospect
01' breaking Persian control over the occupied terrilories in northern
.\1esopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt. A southern atlack would have
involved a head-on conflict with the main body 01' the Persian armed
fürces under their most experienced general, Shahrvaraz. And the out-
come was likely on ce again to be a crushing defeat, because Persian
numerical superiority woulcl be easier to bring to bear in relatively
open country where major watercourses would severely restriet Roman
movements. The northern line of attack which was chosen had several
advantages. Ir caught the Persians off guard. Ir struck at the potentially
weakest region of rheir empire, where their political authority was most
open to challenge. Ir also enabled Heraclius to approach the Turkish
empire, the only outside power which could shift the strategie balance
back in rhe Romans' favour in a short time.
The plan was executed with consummate skilI. The psychological
and political pressure on Khusro's government was never relaxed after
IIeraclius' first bold invasion in 624, which induced panic in the Per-
sian court and brought about the destruction of the famous fire-temple
at Takht-i-Sulaiman. The initial military aims were probably modest -
to preserve the last effective fighting force which the Roman empire
could put into the field and to hope for the unexpected. The objective
of survival was just achieved, thanks to the superior mobility and beUer
training of Heraclius' troops and to the active support which they
enjoyed from the local populations of the Persian north-west. The
modern observer is astounded at those long marches through enemy
territory when cliscipline was maintained and the army remained alert
and ready tür battle, at the marching and countermarching which out-
witted three great Persian generals in 625, and at the long retreat back
to A~ia Minor in 626 which was transformed in Heraclius' hands (by
his choice of a southern route) into a dramatic demonstration to the
peoples of the occupied territories that the Roman empire lived on
and was still apower to be reckoned with.
Once the expeditionary army had proved its mettle and its survival
seemed fairly assured (by autumn 626), Heraclius raised his military
sights. Weak points were appearing in an overextended adversary, and
a powerful ally was being courted in the north. It was now, at the cli-
max of the war, in the campaign of autumn-winter 627-8, that he
displayed his generalship to best advantage and his troops the stamina,
experience and elan gained over the previous years. It was a campaign
which should rank very high in the annals of war. It produced a victory
so spectacular that contemporaries explained it, not unreasonably, as

the result of God's direct intervention in human affairs.
IV. Conclusion
Mounting military pressure induced increasing stress in the Persian
empire. The various forms it took were revealed in the roster of
charges laid against Khusro as disaffection took hold in court and
army. The cost of a war, now without end in sight, was too high, both
in lives lost and in long years spent in service far from home. The
economy was damaged because long-distance trade routes were cut. It
was above all the arrogance of Khusro which was resented, an arro-
gance born of the extraordinary series of successes he had gained in
the first two phases of the war. His rule was harsh and inflexible, and
the fiscal pressure, needed initially to sustain a war etfort probably
unprecedented in scale, was not subsequently relaxed when additional
sources of revenue were acquired in the eonquered lands and a large
surplus began aecumulating in the treasury.1'\2
In thc end the war was not deeided by the balance of material
rcsources which favoured the Persians so strongly, but by the relative
strength of the commitment 01' eaeh side. On this immaterial plane
Hcraclius won a comprehensive victory, steeling army and population
at large to war, however badly things were going, retaining provincials'
loyalty in the occupied lands, gaining support in Christian Transcauca-
sia and sowing doubt in the Persian heartlands beyond. The sudden
collapse of Persian resistance, miraculous though it might have
seemed, can be explained in human terms. The ambition of creating
a single great power in western Eurasia failed because the Persians
lacked the necessary driving conviction, hecause they could not
entirely throw aside a traditional world-view according to which two
great powers ran the affairs 01' the known world.
That traditional world order was recreated in the course of the
extended peace negotiations which 1'ollowed the deposition and
execution 01' Khusro. Within four years, though, it was once again
under threat, this time from the south, and events moved with 1'right-
ening speed. Within two decades the Persian empire had been
destroyed and swaUowed whole by Islam, and the Romans had lost, für
the second time, aU their rieh Near Eastern provinees. The process of
Arab expansion and the fürces at work lie bey(md the scope of this
paper. It should only be noted that the political after-shoeks of Khus-
ro's war disabled Persia at a critieaJ time, and that the Romans had
"" op. eit.• pp. 89-90; Tabari . pp. 351-6. 362-5.

had litde time tu re-establish theil' administration in the provinces

vacated by Shahrvaraz's troops and to mganize the vital Beduin shield
needed to guard a lung, indefensible desert fron tier, befme the storm
broke. By 652 western Eurasia had changed out 01' all recognition, and
the Arabs we re preparing for the last phase of their war against the
great powers, the conquest of Asia Minor and capture of Constantino-
ple.l:'~
In this endeavour the Arabs failed just as the Persians had . But they
sustained the pressure against Anatolia for much more than a few
years. The supreme achievement of the dismembered Roman empire
which we call Byzantium was to resist this pressure decade after decade
for over two centuries. Radical dunges were required to inherited
structures, military, fiscal, administrative, but the process of adaptation
had al ready been initiated in the war against Khusro. The army too
had been transformed into a taut, highly mobile, resilient fighting unit,
which could, without too much difficulty, resort to a new type of war-
fare, guerrilla in character, exploiting every advantage offel'ed by a
familiar terrain and the active support of a militarized society, to con-
tain the greatly superior military forces uf Islam. But the principal con-
tribution of Heradius tu the struggle waged by his successors was the
ideological commitment which he had implanted in his Christian,
Roman subjects. This gave army and people the vital self-belief which
enabled them to sustain their resistance for so many dark years ahead.
University of Oxfard
IT\ The lllost authoritative source is the contempofat"y acco unt 01" Scbeos, pp. 96--102,
104, 108-11,131-2. Modern summary: H. Kennedy, The Propile! and Ihe Agf ur fhe
C"lijJ!wtes (London and New York, 1986). pp. 57-72.
10
JOHN MOSCHUS AND HIS FRIEND
SOPHRONIUS THE SOPHIST
Henry Chadwick
F OR the religious spirit of the Byzantine world in the period b. etween

Justinian and the Arab conquest of Syria and Egypt few docu-
ments are so instructive and illuminating as the 'Spiritual Meadow'
(Leimonarion) or 'New Paradise' of John Moschus. Written in the second
or third decade of the seventh century, it records anecdotes from the
monasteries of Palestine and Egypt related to John Moschus as he
travelled about with his friend Sophronius in search of edification and
the unusuaI. In 1947 Norman Baynes wrote a delightful account of the
work, conc1udingwith the observation that the Meadow has been 'unduly
neglected' by historians.! Since 1947 so me further work has appeared of
high value. Moschus' remarkable syntax has been studied by Erika
Mihevc-Gabrovec. 2 Good preliminary work on the manuscript tradition
has come from Elpidio Mioni. 3 A critical edition by Philip Pattenden is
now in active preparation. It is a pity that the French translation in
Sources chretiennes by M. J. Rouet de Journel (1946)4 is inadequate to
the task of interpreting so complicated and important a work. I know of
no English version. Until 1624, the printed editions of Moschus (1558,
1575, 1583, 1589, 1593, 1601, 1615, 1617) offered not the Greek text
but a Latin translation made in 1423 by the great humanist Ambrogio
Traversari, general of the Camaldulese, prominent at the councils of
Basel and Florence. Traversari used a twelfth-century codex sent to hirn
by the Archbishop of Crete in 1421.5 This codex is in Florence, codex
Laurentianus Plut.X.3 (= F). The autograph of Traversari's Latin
version is also at Florence, BibI. nazionale, Conventi G+ 844; and
there are copies of this in the Vatican Library (Vatic. lat. 1212, 1213,
and 1214).
I 'The Pratum Spirituale', Orientalia Christiana Periodica (= O.C.P.) , xiii
(1947), pp. 404-14, reprinted in his Byzantine Studies (1955), pp. 261--70.
2 Etudes sur la syntaxe de Ioannes Moschos (Ljubljana, 1960).
3 E. Mioni, '11 Pratum Spirituale di Giovanni Mosco' , O.C.P. xvii (1951),
pp. 61-94; thereon E. Kriaras, 'EAAlJV'Ka 12 (1953), pp. 188-94.
4 This translation is based on the Migne text only, and in places misunder-
stands the Greek. It does not attempt a scholarly commentary. Mention should
also be made here of D. C. Hesseling's Morceaux choisis du Pri Spirituel (Paris,
1931), selected chapters in Greek with translation and some introduction. His
notes on the language of Moschus are often better than his introduction.
5 See E. Mioni, 'Le Vitae Patrum nella traduzione di A. Traversari', Aevum,
xxiv (1950), pp. 319-31. Traversari's work was put into Italian in 1443 by Feo
Belcari, whose manuscript is also at Florence (cod. Riccardianus 1342).
386 H. CHADWICK
In the Florence manuscript, 301 sections of the Meadow are numbered

from 1 to 300, and this numbering is carefully preserved by Traversari.
But when in 1558 Lippomano printed the Latin version, he altered the
numbering, grouping some pieces together, so that the total was reduced
to 219. This has remained the standard form of reference since then. I
In the ninth century Photius knew of two forms of text, one having 304
stories, another, partly by subdivisions and partly by some extra matter,
as many as 342.2 We cannot assurne that either form of text known to
hirn was radically different from that now familiar. His longer text may
have been expanded by later additions. The Florence text (translated
by Traversari) certainly has pie ces not in Moschus' original Meadow.
107 out of 219 pieces of the original Greek text, accompanying a re-
print of Traversari's Latin version, were first printed by Fronton du
Duc (Ducaeus) in the second volume of his Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum
(Paris, 1624), based on manuscripts of the Vatican Library and at Paris
('ex mss. Summi Pontificis Vaticanis et Regis Christianissimi'). Precisely
which he used cannot at present be determined, but since the Florence
codex of Traversari was not one of them, from time to time the Greek
and the Latin do not exactly correspond, and in any event there is
a large excess of Latin over Greek. The great majority of the missing
chapters of the Greek text were first printed in the second volume of his
Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta (1681) by J. B. Cotelier, who used
manuscripts now in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. 3 In Migne's
Patrologia Graeca lxxxvii (1863) these two seventeenth-century editions
are combined to give a nearly complete Greek text in parallel with the
Latin of Traversari. Even here there remain some chapters where the
Greek text has not yet been printed (120-2, 132). Sincethe Latin version
attests a Greek text derived from a different manuscript, it often does not
correspond to the Greek; and the reader of Migne has to keep a watchful
eye on both columns. Migne accidentally omitted the important preface
containing an anonymous contemporary biography of Moschus. This
preface, in Greek, appeared in Fronton du Duc's edition,4 and was
1 Mioni in O.C.P. xvii (1951), pp. 62-3; Dict. Spir. viii (1973), 632-40.
2 Photius, Bibliotheca, cod. 199.
3 See Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta, i, p. 748; the text, ii, pp. 341-456.
Cotelier used one manuscript from the King's library, three from Colbert's.
These may be identified with fair probability as Paris. gr. 1605 (Reg. 2921, 2),
s. XII; gr. 916 (Colbert 2500), s. XI; gr. 914 (Colbert 694), s. XII; gr. 917 (Colbert
5096), s. XII. The last two include only excerpts from Moschus; the first is
incomplete at the end.
4 Fronton du Duc's Latin version was reprinted in the second edition of
Rosweyde's Vitae Pa trum (1628). For P.G. lxxxvii Migne perhaps took his Latin
text from Rosweyde's first edition (1615) which does not contain this preface.
But the preface, in Latin only, is given by the reprint in P.L. lxxiv. 121-240.
MOSCHUS AND SOPHRONIUS 4-3

re-edited with the help of two additional witnesses by Hermann Usener,
Der heilige Tychon (1907), pp. 91-3.
Two supplements have been printed with additional stories not given
by Migne (i.e. absent from F). The first supplement with 14 pieces was
published in Byzantinische Zeitschrift in 1938 by Th. Nissen, who used
the two manuscripts used by Usener, viz. the Berlin codex, gr. 221
(=Phillips 1624-) and the Vienna codex hist. gr. 4-2. The mention of an
Arab 'emir' in one story (no. 8, about the converted Jewish boy, thrown
into a furnace by his father but emerging unscathed) shows that, at least
in that form, the story has been retold by a writer later than Moschus'
time. Of one or two other stories printed by Nissen there is also room for
doubt whether they stood in the original Meadow. But that severalof
Nissen's new texts come from Moschus hirnself is probable enough.
The second supplement with 12 pieces from the Venice codex Mar-
cianus gr. 11.21 (= Nanianus 4-2) was attached by Mioni to his artide of
1951 discussing the manuscripts of Moschus.! Mioni affirmed that the
Berlin and Vienna manuscripts used by Nissen are both dependent on
the Venice manuscript, Marcianus gr. Ir.21, ss. X-XI; if he is right
(which is undear), in a future critical edition they can be disregarded.
For all Niss~n's pieces the Venice manuscript provides a superior text.
Mioni was also able to show that the quantity of manuscripts is less
massive than one might expect. Many contain only abrief selection of
chapters, and a substantial number are late copies. The principal
authorities for the text (I follow Mioni) are:
F = Laurentianus Plut.X.3, s. XII (used by Traversari)
T = Taurinensis gr. C, s. XII. The last 2 folios, in a tenth-century
hand, contain Pratum 1-3 and 10-13 (this latter group being
numbered 12-17)
M = Venetus Marcianus gr. 11.21, s. X
P = Parisinus gr. 1596, s. XI
The contents of the Paris codex 1596 are calendared, with some extracts
printed in fuB, by F. Nau in Revue de l'Orient chretien, vii and viii (1902,
1903). Accordingly, certain items of authentically Moschan matter are to
be found printed there.
The tradition of Moschus became partly fused with that of the
Apophthegmata Patrum. Some pieces of the Apophthegmata are found
in the traditional text of the Meadow, i.e. in the Florence manuscript
(52,115,217). Some pieces of Moschus penetrated the Apophthegmata:
I Mioni has printed the Greek text of five stories from Marcianus gr. 1I.zI,
none of Moschan origin, in his artic1e 'Paterika deI Pseudo-Mosco', Studi bizan-
tini e neoellenici, viii (1953), pp. 7-36.
44 H. CHADWICK
Pratum 205 = N(au) 52 (Revue de ['Orient ehret. xii (19°7), p. 179, prints
the text). In a paterikon contained in two Vatican manuscripts (Vat.
gr. 663 and 73 I) Cardinal Pitra found a piece, important for the history
of the night office, in which it is reported that 'Abba John and Abba
Sophronius explained to us, "When we went to Abba Neilos ... "'.1 But
since in the Meadow John and Sophronius report on what others said
to them, not (as a rule) what they said to others, this piece is unlikely
to have been part of the original Moschus, and its character is utterly
different from the rest of the collection. Above all, stories from Moschus
were used in one of the greatest of Greek spiritual anthologies, the 'Ever-
getinon', a huge ascetic anthology constructed by Paul, a widely read
citizen of Byzantium who in 1048-9 retired from the world and founded
the monastery of Evergetis, dedicated to the Theotokos, in the country-
side about two miles outside the city walls. 2 Paul's collection survives in
more than fifty manuscripts. First printed at Venice in 1783, it has been
four times reprinted since (Constantinople 1861; Athens 1900, 1901,
1957-66 in 4 volumes). It consists of four tomes of 50 chapters each,
and includes excerpts from a gerontikon in which quotations from the
Apophthegmata are mingled with stories from Moschus. Sixteen of these
stories are included in the Evergetinon,3 which may (as in 217) give
a good text. Lastly, Georgius Monachus cites four or five pieces.
The earlyversions include a selection of nearly 90 chapters in Georgian,
preserved in two manuscripts of the tenth century at Iviron on Athos
and at Sinai, and in one Sinai manuscript of the thirteenth century.
(Almost all the pieces preserved in Georgian survive in Greek.)4 The
first Latin version seems to be slightly earlier. In his Life of Gregory the
I Pitra printed only the beginning of this piece: Iuris Eccles. Graec. Historia et
Monumenta, i (1864), pp. 220-1. The fuIl text has now been printed by A. Longo
in Studi bizantini e neoellenici, xii/xiii (1965-6), pp. 223-67.
2 See J. Pargoire in Echos d'Orient, ix (1906), pp. 366-76; x (1907), pp. 155-
67, 249-63. R. Janin, La Geographie ecclesiastique . .. III. Les Eglises et les mona-
steres (Paris, 1953), pp. 186-91.
For manuscripts of the Evergetinon see M. Richard's list in Dict. de Spiri-
tualite, v. 503. The older printed editions are rarities in libraries.
3 A list in W. Bousset, Apophthegmata, pp. 172-82, shows that the Evergetinon
includes Pratum 13, 17, 20, 34, 91a, 100, 152 (parts 4,6, and 8), 204, 210, 21I,
217, 219, as weIl as one piece (on Joseph of Ennaton) probably once part of
the Meadow (Evergetin. iv. 2, p. 850, ed. 1783); below, p. 73.
4 The Georgian version was edited by Ilia Abuladze (Tifiis, 1960), and is
discussed by G. Garitte in Melanges E. Tisserant, ii=Studi e Testi, ccxxxii
(Rome, 1964), pp. 171-85. Garitte has no difficulty in refuting the theory of
Salva Nucubidze (1956) that John Moschus was a Georgian who wrote both the
Greek original and the Georgian version. Garitte also gives a good catalogue of
the chapters represented by this version. But his claim that two items in the
Sinai cod. Georg. 109 (in Abuladze's edition, nos. 111-12) are not represented in
the Greek text is a mistake-they are chapters 89-90.
MOSCHUS AND SOPHRONIUS 45

Great (iv. 63) written for Pope John VIII (872-82), John the Deacon
quotes Pratum 151 as 'from stories of the Greeks recently translated' .1
Perhaps the translation had been the work of Anastasius Bibliothecarius,
who also translated Leontius' Life of 8t. John the Almsgiver (Eleemon)
and Sophronius' Miracles of 8aints Cyrus and John. 2
A se1ection of so me twenty or more stories from Moschus was trans-
lated into Latin in the e1eventh century by John the Monk, an Amalfitan
who worked at the monastery of the Panagioton at Constantinople to
produce his 'Book of Miracles', a collection of 42 edifying and strange
tales, which M. Huber edited in 1913 from manuscripts at Munich. 3
An Arabic version under the tide 'Book of the Garden', ascribed to
Sophronius, is preserved in several manuscripts. 4 The old 8lavonic ver-
sion (ed. Golysenko and Dubrovina, Sinajskij Paterik (Moscow, 1967»,
corresponds to F.
The Ethiopic paterikon, recently published by Victor Arras (C.S.C.O.
277-8, Louvain, 1967), follows excerpts from the Apophthegmata with
chapters from the Meadow-ascribed to 'Sophronius patriarch of Jeru-
salem'. The chapters included are 1,2,3, Sab, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, IS, 18, 24,
27,28,47,48,49,76,79,83,84, 8S, 86, 89,90,9I,92~,93,9S,99,IOO,
lOSab, 108, 112, 113, 114, 119, 128b, 133, 141, IS2b- h , 200, Nissen S, 127,
122,60, 179, 107. Chapters showing Chalcedonian zeal are excluded.
I do not know of manuscripts containing Moschus in Coptic. Some
pieces from Moschus passed into the Armenian Apophthegmata Collec-
tions (Bousset, pp. Iso-69), viz. 1-7, 10, lIa, 14-16, 18, 19, 21, 26, 29,
36,43,47, SIb, 90, 98, 99,101, IOsa, 112, 114, 119, 123, 13S, 141, 142,
143, 14S, 149, IS2d, IS9a, 160, 163, 172, 191, 193, 19S. The Georgian
version was probably made directly not from the Armenian but from the
Greek, no doubt at I viron on Athos.
No Syriac version of Moschus seems to have been made. His heat for
Chalcedon would have made hirn as uncongenial to the J acobites as to
I 'ex Graecorum relationibus ad me nuper interpretatis', P.L. lxxv. 213=
Bened. ed. iv. 161. The Latin of Traversari and the Greek of this chapter (first
printed by Cotelier) do not exactly correspond. John the Deacon's text stands
eloser to Traversari (i.e. to the Florence manuscript) than to Cotelier's Greek.
2 John Eleemon: ed. Rosweyde, Vitae Patrum, p. 178. Of his Sophronius
(P.L. cxxix. 703-14) only a fragment has survived.
3 On the monastery of the Panagiou see R. Janin, Les Eglises etlesmonasteres ...
(1953), pp. 399 f. Huber dated John the Monk perhaps 950-1050, but he seems
certainly to have belonged to the end of the eleventh century: see A. Hofmeister,
'Der übersetzer Johannes und das Geschlecht Comitis Mauronis in Amalfi',
Historische Vierteljahrschrift, xxvii (1932), pp. 225-84, 493-508, 831-3.
4 For a list of Arabic manuscripts see G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen
arabischen Literatur, i (Studi e Testi, cxviii (1944», p. 383. It is transmitted in
a partly shortened, partly expanded form with the order of chapters changed,
with the 'Paradise' of Palladius (ed. R. Gvaramia, Tiflis, 1965).
386 H. CHADWICK
the Copts. Three pie ces (189, 195, and 217) turn up mingled with the
Syriac Apophthegmata.
Because Moschus' work consists of so miscellaneous a collection of
anecdotes, it is hardly surprising that each manuscript virtually has to be

treated as an independent selection in which the scribe is making his own
personal anthology. In consequence the number of the pieces included
varies greatly. The Florence codex has an order which for the most part
is found in the other manuscripts, and it is also the most complete
collection of all. The majority of manuscripts containing matter from
Moschus give only a relatively short selection, intercalated (as in P) with
apophthegmata and other monastic narratives. The Florence manuscript
represents a collection that has undergone expansion and enlargement,
especially at the end with the addition of six excerpts taken from the
discourses of Abba Zosimas (203, 211, 212, 216, 218, 219).1 195, 217,
and perhaps 205, which are transmitted among the non-alphabetical
apophthegmata, mayaiso be later additions, as also 52 = (G Elias 8),
and 115, parts 1-4 (= G Joh. Eun. 3-6) which occur in the alphabetical
collection. 192, though strongly attested in manuscripts of Pratum (F P
M etc.), is also transmitted with pieces of Anastasius Sinaita, and Nau
thought it an intrusion in Moschus (see Oriens Christianus, iii (1903),
p. 59). Certainly it has an independent life in the manuscript tradition.
196, reporting a story told by George prefect of Africa, may come from
the hand of Sophronius rather than Moschus. 2
I See D. J. Chitty, The Desert a City (1966), p. 164 n. 6. The debt to Zosirnas
was first pointed out by S. Vailhe in Echos d'Orient, v (1902), p. 42, who had only
the Migne edition of Zosimas before him. With Augustinos's edition (Nea E.cf:,v,
1912-13) the debt can be seen to include 203, for which P.G.lxxviii has no equi-
valent. In the Arabic paterikon contained in the Paris ms. 276 (s. XI), examined
by J. M. Sauget in Le Museon, lxxxii (1969), pp. 363-4°4, Pratum 207 is also
ascribed to Zosimas: 'Blessed Zosimas told us this story, I heard from Abba
Theonas and Theodore the physician ... how in the days of bishop John, who
came from Nikiu, there was a girl .. .' The difference in form is worth noting:
none of the Zosiman chapters in the traditional text of Moschus mentions
Zosimas as the narrator. Probably 207 was never part of the tradition of Zosimas.
No doubt it is no accident that the chapters drawn from Zosimas fall in a group
at the end of the Pratum. For the tendency of scribes to append matter see an
instance in eod. Coisl. 257 (s. Xl), printed by J. C. Guy, Recherches sur la tradition
grecque des Apophthegmata Patrum (1962), p. 63, where the scribe, after tran-
seribing much from Moschus, says that he now adds similar stories that he has
found elsewhere.
2 George, surnamed Glykas (P.G. xci. 392B), prefeet in Afriea in 632 (Max.
Conf. ed. Devreesse, Rev. sc. rel. xvii (1937), p. 34) and in (perhaps till) 641,
was a zealous Chalcedonian, the friend of monks, and intimate of Maximus
Confessor. He pressed monophysite refugees from the Arab invasion of Syria and
Egypt to be united to the Church until a letter eame from the empress Martina
instructing hirn to tolerate them. The imperial letter caused such uproar that

It follows from the nature of the manuscript tradition that while some
chapters are contained in many witnesses, there are others for which the
attestation is not rich at all. It also follows that it is far from easy to be
confident in every single case that a particular story formed part of the
original collection as it left the hand of John Moschus hirnself. But this
uncertainty is a relatively unimportant matter in editing the text, so long
as the editor is allowed to err on the generous side.
Moschus was certainly not the only collector of stories ab out monks.
200 years earlier the Lausiac History of Palladius and the Historia Mona-
chorum had already set a style. Collections of apophthegmata were
already well formed; but side by side with these perhaps rather intimate
maxims for the inner life there was a demand for a continual supply of
anecdotes. In the time of J ustinian Cyril of Scythopolis, a writer with
a deep instinct for genuine historical narrative, painted vivid pictures
of the ascetic heroes of the J udaean desert: Euthymius, Sabas, J ohn the
Hesychast, Cyriacus, Theodosius, Theognius, and Abramius. In the
case of Theognius, bishop of Betelia near Gaza, Cyril could refer to an
al ready existing Life of the saint (p. 243, 8 Schwartz), a work which has
been happily preserved in the hagiographical tradition in cod. Coislin.
3031 and which provided Moschus with one of his stories (83). In the
case of Theodosius Cyril could supplement the (extant) panegyric by
Theodore of Petra (edited by Usener, 1890).
The church historian Evagrius, secretary and adviser to Gregory
patriarch of Antioch 570-93 (to whose monastic cirele Moschus seems to
have stood fairly elose-see Pratum 40, 42, 139-4°), had a small collec-
tion of anecdotes analogous and partly parallel to the kind of anecdotes
which Moschus liked: iv. 35 Thomas of Coele Syria, interred in a tomb
where two strangers were later buried on top of hirn, caused a minor
earthquake to get their corpses underneath his (Pratum 88 has a slightly
elaborated version of this); iv. 33 Barsanuphius, a wholly enelosed hesy-
chast near Gaza, whose existence, doubted by Eustochius patriarch of
J erusalem, was vindicated by an outbreak of fire when he tried to dig
his way through to the cell;2 iv. 34 Symeon the Fool's indifference to
George could avert a riot (and perhaps save his face and convictions) only by
declaring it a forgery. He was sharply summoned to Constantinople to explain
hirnself, and Maximus wrote to encourage hirn as he went off in grave anxiety
for his future (P.G. xci. 371-4; 460-4; 646-8). See C. Diehl, L' Afrique byzantine
(1896), pp. 543 ff. For new evidence of George dominated by Maximus and
Sophronius see the Maronite Life of Maximus, ed. S. P. Brock, Anal. Boll.
xci (1973), pp. 299-346. In this hostile, confused, but important text Maximus
was a bastard Palestinian named Moschus (Mwsky), monk of the Old Lavra.
Are Sophronius' two friends merged here?
I The text is edited in Analeeta Bollandiana, x (1891), pp. 73-II3.
2 The non-miraculous account of this incident in the Erotapokriseis of

386 H. CHADWICK
conventional opinion in feeding a poor harlot (cf. Pratum 136 on Sisi-
nius), predicting the earthquake that ravaged Berytus and other cities on
the Phoenician coast (cf. Pratum 50). Evagrius (iv. 36) has the story ofthe
J ewish boy who with his schoolmates ate the eucharistie bread left over
after the liturgy at Hagia Sophia, was thrown into a furnace by his irate
father, and emerged unharmed-a story which may weH have stood in
Moschus (Mioni's supplement, no. xii, cf. Greg. Tur. glor. mart. 9;
Georg. Mon. ii. 654). Moschus 25 has Evagrius' story of John of
Khoziba bishop of Caesarea (Evagr. iv. 7; see the Life in Anal. Boll.
vii (1888), pp. 366-7) and the Iayman who presented the monastery with
bread already fuHy consecrated because he had been reciting the words
of the liturgical anaphora while on his way from the bakery. Moschus'
story of Gerasimos' domesticated li on is very similar to Evagrius' story
of Zosimas (iv. 7).
It seems unlikely that Moschus used Evagrius directly.I So me of his
informants had probably read the books, but whether he hirnself had
done so is doubtful. Chapter 197 repeats Rufinus' story of the boy
Athanasius playing at being abishop. 38, on the death of the emperor
Anastasius (whom Moschus, like Cyril of Scythopolis, cordiaHy de-
tested), comes from Malalas (xvi, p. 4°8; cf. Zonaras, xiv. 4). 145 on
Gennadius of Constantinople comes from Theodorus Lector (below,
p. 65). Parallels with Cyril of Scythopolis are fairly numerous; e.g.
Pratum 35 is like V. Sab. 60, p. 161, 19 Schw. With 37 cf. V. Joh.
Hesych. 15, p. 213; 53 part I is from V. Sab. 26; 99 from V. Sab. 14.
The story in 83 of a ship stuck on the beach by sorcery but moved by
the saint's power is paralleled in the Acta S. Theognii 12 (Anal. Boll. x
(1891), p. 92); and the tale about the grain which should have been dis-
tributed to the poor and went bad in the arsenal (85) is near a story
in Theodore of Petra's Panegyric on St. Theodosius (pp. 36-8 Usener).
Nevertheless, it is likely that Moschus recorded stories told to hirn orally,
and that his use of the written documents is indirect.
Evagrius' stories reflect especiaHy the Syrian tradition of Antioch.
Moschus' travels brought hirn irrto contact with other centres where
such stories gathered, so that the Meadow assembles traditions not only
from both Palestine and Egypt, but also from other parts. But Moschus'
interest is not historical. He wants to move his readers to a new inner
Barsanuphius and John (61 in the Volos edition of 1960) is incomparably more
impressive. Seditious monks at Seridus' monastery believed that abbot Seridus
had invented the hesychast Barsanuphius to give authority to his own rules;
whereupon the old man emerged from his cell for the one and only time in his
life and in silence washed the feet of the brethren before retuming to his cello
I Cf. P. van den Ven, La vie ancienne de S. Symeon Stylite le Jeune, i (1962),
p.81 1t •

compunction, which he sees as a deep need of the troubled times
through which he is living.
It is time to turn to a consideration of the facts about his career.
11
The earliest biography of J ohn Moschus is the prologue prefixed to the
Meadow in some manuscripts (though not in F, it is present in M).'
This prologue seems to be work of a contemporary editor, and is the
source of all the biographical information about Moschus in Photius'
Bibliotheca (cod. 199)' According to this account, Moschus the presbyter
first became a monk at the coenobium of St. Theodosius in Judaea. He
then went to the New Lavra of St. Sabas. But when, in 604, the Persians
invaded the Roman empire, he moved to live near Antioch on the Oron-
tes in Syria. There again, on seeing the heathen race in power, he went
to Alexandria and passed through the desert-and at the beginning of
the reigü of Tiberius (578-82) he had been sent on service to Egypt as
far as Oasis. 2 When he heard of the capture of the holy places and the
cowardice of the Romans (at the Persian capture of Jerusalern in May
614), he left Alexandria for Rome, sailing with his intimate pupil
Sophronius, visiting several islands on the voyage. At Rome he wrote
this book. On the approach of death he gave the book to Sophronius and
commanded hirn to bury his corpse not in Rome but in a coffin on Sinai
or (if barbarian invasion should prevent this) at the coenobium of St.
Theodosius where he had started. Sophronius respected his wish and
with twelve fellow disciples sailed to Ascalon. Because of the Arabs Sinai
was inaccessible; so Sophronius came to Jerusalem at the beginning
of the 8th indiction, where he found George, higumen of St. Theo-
dosius, with whom it was agreed that John Moschus might be buried at
the monastery cemetery in the very cave where the Magi had hid from
Herod. 3
The author of this prologue seems to speak of Sophronius as other
than hirnself, or one would be quickly tempted to think of Sophronius as
the editor and 'publisher' of the Meadow. His association not only with
John Moschus but with the work itself must have been elose, and from
John of Damascus onwards (less than a century later) the Meadow is
often ascribed not to the obscure Moschus but to 'Sophronius patriarch
of J erusalem'. 4 The prologue does not speak of Sophronius as patriarch.
I Usener, Der hl. Tychon, pp. 91-3. Z Cf. Pratum II2; Nissen I.
3 This identification of the cave as that of the Magi is affirmed by Theodore

bishop of Petra in his Panegyric on St. Theodosius (p. 15 Usener).
4 loh. Dam., Or. pro Imaginibus I fS Il (P.G. xciv. 1279; I3I6n). The quota-
tions of Pratum (45, 81, 180) at the Seventh Council of 787 all follow lohn in
5° H. CHADWICK
If Moschus' friend is identical with the patriarch, could this prologue
then have been composed before Sophronius' elevation by the fall of
634, since one might have expected the anonymous biographer to take
some notice of that event, so important for the ultra-Chalcedonian cause

in the fight against Heraelius' monothelitism? It seems unlikely.
The prologue dates Sophronius' arrival in Jerusalem with Moschus'
coffin at the beginning of the eighth indiction, i.e. September of either
619 or 634. Opinion has been divided which year to choose, and the
uncertainties were multiplied as long. as it remained unclear whether
Sophronius the sophist is really to be identified with Sophronius the
patriarch of Jerusalem, 634-8. The issue was carefully set out by Simeon
Vailhe in 1902-3, who coneluded that the arguments were nearly evenly
divided but on balance favoured the identification. I Doubts about this
conelusion have been expressed from time to time,2 though untillately
no new argument has been added to those surveyed by Vailhe. However,
the recent study by Schön born has been able to point to so elose a verbal
parallel between the patriarch Sophronius' Sermon on the Annunciation
and the sophist Sophronius' panegyric on Saints Cyrus and John that
I do not think the identification can now be seriously questioned. 3
There remain difficulties requiring explanation, of which one is grave.
Leontius of Neapolis in Cyprus, writing in the second half of the seventh
century, wrote a biography of John the Almsgiver, patriarch of Alexan-
dria for ten years from 610, which Leontius set out as a supplement to an
earlier biography (also preserved)4 by John and Sophronius, trusted
ascribing the work wholly to Sophronius: actio 4, Labbe (Venice, 1729) VIII.
901; actio 5, L. VIII. 1032-3. The VIIth Council (actio 4, L. VIII. 900) cites
Sophronius' Mirac. Gyr. et Joh. 36 as the work of Sophronius patriarch of Jeru-
salem. In John of Damascus this text is cited only as 'of the holy Sophronius'
(P.G. xciv. 1414B).
I Revue de l'Orient chrtJtien, vii (1902), pp. 360-85, viii (1903), pp. 32-69,
356-87. Vailhe discusses Moschus in Echos d'Orient, v (1902), p. 107.

2 e.g. E. Amann, art. Moschus, in Dict. Thiol. Gath. x, 2 (1929), 25II; H.-G.
Beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (1959), p. 434

n. I; H. Delehaye, Anal. Bollandiana, xliii (1925), p. 19 n. 4 ('la distinction a pour
elle de grandes probabilites'); xlv (1927), p. 6.
3 Sophronius Patriarcha, In Hypapanten Homilia (ed. Usener, Bonn, 1889),
p. 9B, 14-15 uses rare words and neologisms exacdy paralleled in Sophronius
Sophista, Laus ss. Gyri et Joh., P.G. lxxxvii. 3397B, 12-13. C. von Schönborn,
Sophrone de Jerusalem (Paris, 1972), pp. 239-42.
4 Edited by H. Delehaye, Analeeta Bollandiana, xlv (1927), pp. 5 ff. The first
fifteen chapters of the Life there printed are by J ohn and Sophronius, and are
translated into English by E. Dawes and N. H. Baynes, Three Byzantine Saints
(Oxford, 1948), pp. 199-206. Leontius' Life of John is edited by H. Gelzer
(1893). E. Lappa-Zizicas (Anal. Boll. lxxxviii, p. 267) edits an epitome of John
and Sophronius. Cf. W. H. C. Frend, The Rise oi the Monophysite Movement
(1972), pp. 339 f.

confidants of the patriarch John. John and Sophronius wrote a Life
of the patriarch of Alexandria after John had fled before the Persian
attack on Alexandria in 619 and had gone to his horne in Cyprus
where he died. John the Almsgiver's death fell on 11 November,

but much more probably in 620 than in 619. Leontius of Neapolis
says not a word of Sophronius the biographer becoming patriarch
of Jerusalem; and this silen ce is so extraordinary that it was always
a formidable objection to the identification of sophist and patriarch.
As that identity is now to be taken as established, Leontius' silen ce
(which Schönborn does not try to explain) must, I think, be regarded
as evidence that he simply did not realize the identity of biographer
and patriarch because his copy of the biography gave no hint of it
(which is in no degree improbable). From the eighth century onwards
the identity is frequently taken for granted, as by John of Damascus
and the Seventh Council, who found in the Meadow and in the
'Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John' invaluable testimonies for the
veneration of ieons and may therefore have had some interest in em-
phasizing the unquestioned orthodox status of their patriarchal author. I
Now that this view has turned out to be not mere1y convenient for the
iconophiles but correct, there still remain matters requiring examination.
If the prologue to the Meadow means to date Sophronius' advent at
Jerusalem with John Moschus' coffin in 619, how can John have co-
operated with Sophronius in writing a Life of John the Almsgiver which
included John the Almsgiver's death-at the earliest, I I November 619?
On this hypothesis, the biography of John the Almsgiver has to be
ascribed wholly to Sophronius, so that John's name 'on the tide page',
so to speak, stands as a friend's courteous tribute rather than as areal
faet.2 The alternative date for the 'eighth indiction' is 634. The difficulty
here is to reconcile the prologue's statements about Sophronius' voyage
to Ascalon, encumbered by the coffin, with what is known of Sophronius
the patriarch's activities in the year before he was e1evated to that office
(in 634?). In 633 the future patriarch Sophronius was a monk in or
near Alexandria. He was there when the patriarch Cyrus of Alexandria
succeeded on 3 June 633 in obtaining the union with monophysite
I The authority of Sophronius of Jerusalem depended on his zeal for Chalce-
don, not on his position among the patriarchs of Jerusalem, many of whom were
not surrounded by a nimbus. Moschus himself has anxieties to report ab out some
in the line. The patriarch Amos, whose consecration about 594 Moschus himself
attended (149), was singularly unloved by the monks of Sinai: see the bitter
attack printed by F. Nau among the stories of Anastasius in Oriens Christianus,
iii (1903), p. 87, no. lix. Greg. M. Reg. vii. 29 confirms.
2 This is Delehaye's explanation (Anal. Boll. xlv (1927), pp. 6-7), followed by
Schönborn, op. cit., p. 242.
52 H. CHADWICK
Theodosians (moderate Monophysites but vehement anti-Chalcedonians)

on the basis of the monoenergist formula (Labbe, VII. 987).1
Sophronius, appalled by the compromise, went to Constantinople 2 to
ask help in combating the new heresy from (of all people) Sergius patri-
arch of Constantinople, the master mind behind the entire reunion
scheme which the emperor Heraclius so desperately needed for the
unity of his tottering empire. After Constantinople Sophronius is
next attested in Palestine (late in 634 ?). The patriarchal see of Jerusalem
was vacant, and the zealous monk was put forward to fill it, probably
by a Chalcedonian faction deeply opposed to the monothelite bishops
in Palestine3 whose adherence had been won by Heraclius in 629 when
he came to Jerusalem to return the True Cross, recovered from the
Persians. How Heraclius consented is a subtle mystery the Arabs solve.
It is assumed by most writers on this subject that the years 633-4 were
too busy for the already embattled Sophronius to have leisure for J ohn
Moschus' funeral arrangements. It must be granted that Sophronius is
unlikely to have journeyed from the West (Rome or Africa) to Alexandria
and on to Constantinople and J erusalem, continually accompanied by
a box containing John Moschus' mortal remains awaiting burial.
N evertheless the year 634 is surely the more probable date for Moschus'
death and funeral. Gur evidence for Sophronius' movements in 633-4 is
gravely incomplete. If his visit to Sergius in 633 failed to satisfy hirn, he
is likely to have travelled west-to Rome to remonstrate with Honorius
or to Africa to plan the campaign with Maximus Confessor. 4 The
hypothesis supposes that he found John Moschus a-dying, and that the
occasion which took hirn to Palestine was a funeral, not an ambition to
occupy a vacant patriarchate. Contact with the monks of St. Theodosius
I For monothelitism see now J . L. van Dieten, Geschichte der Patriarchen von
Sergius I bis Johannes VI (1972). Sergius of Constantinople's letter to Pope

Honorius of 634 (Labbe VII. 953E) says Sophronius the monk, 'whom I now
hear to have become patriarch of Jerusalem (though I have not yet received his
synodical)', was at Alexandria with Cyrus of Alexandria at the time of the Union
of June 633. Maximus Confessor attests that the future patriarch Sophronius
with other refugee monks was with hirn in North Africa in the 620S, and in
Alexandria with Cyrus in 633 (P.G. xci. 142-3).
Z Sergius' letter to Honorius: L. VII. 956B (cf. Max. Conf., P.G. xci. 333).
3 Stephen of Dora's testimony at the Lateran Council (649) shows that

'Sergius formerly bishop of Joppa, after the withdrawal of the Persians (Le. 629),
usurped the see of J erusalem not by church authority but with the secular arm,
contrary to the canons' and there consecrated a number of bishops, evidently to
secure the monothelite cause in Palestine (Labbe VII. 113).
.. There is good evidence of Sophronius' association with Maximus in Africa
about 626 : see Max. Conf. (P.G. xci. 533A) to Peter the Illustrious ('You have
with you my blessed master and teacher Sophronius .•. with a large library of
books'); also 141-3.

would have alerted him to the anxieties of the strictly Chalcedonian
monasteries of Judaea and so assured him of support.
One difficulty on this hypothesis is to retain a phrase in the biographi-
cal prologue in the Meadow, that after burying Moschus in Palestine

Sophronius 'spent the remaining time (chronos) at the monastery' of St.
Theodosius. Does 'the remaining time' mean the rest of his life? If so,
the author of the prologue did not know (or wish to speak?) of his
elevation to be patriarch. Perhaps, like Leontius of Neapolis, he lived a
generation or more later and did not realize the truth. More probably the
Greek only means 'the rest of the year'; chronos in this sense, though
unrecorded in Liddell-Scott-J ones and in Lampe, is very common at
this period. (See Sophocles' Lexicon or the older editions of Liddell and
Scott.)
Sophronius the sophist is a man whom we know better than Sophronius
the patriarch: that is, his character and biography in the first part of
his life are better known than his work at Jerusalem after 634. That is
because we have from the pen of Sophronius the sophist a panegyric on
the saints Cyrus and John followed by seventy stories of the healing
rniracles at their shrine at Menuthis (to which place St. Cyrus has
perrnanently given his name, Aboukir: Sophronius already has 'Abba-
kyros', P.G.lxxxvii. 3597). The last of the set recounts his personal ex-
perience in recovering from ophthalmia under the saints' intensive care.
In addition, Sophronius wrote anacreontic odes, partly for major feasts
(Annunciation, Christmas, Epiphany, Presentation, Palm Sunday, etc.),
partly for saints' days (Paul, John, Stephen, Thecla, the Egyptian
martyrs); or on the holy pi aces ravaged by the Persians; or on particular
relations or intimate friends, these last including Narses bishop of
Ascalon, a firm teacher of Chalcedon orthodoxy;1 Menas 2 the oeconomos
of Ennaton (the monastic houses at the ninth milestone from Alexan-
dria), falsely accused under Phocas of harbouring a son of the emperor
Maurice who had escaped Phocas' massacre;3 Paul the Candidate (i.e.
a military aide to the emperor) on the death of his mother Mary. Paul
and Mary were visited by J ohn and Sophronius on the island of Samos,
where Mary told them a charming story (Pratum 185).
The 'folk-lore' element in Moschus is not great, except in this one
I Perhaps Narses gave Sophronius badly needed support in his purge of the
Palestinian episcopate after 634? (Sophronius' Anacreontica have been critically

edited by M. Gigante, 1957.)
2 Menas turns up in Pratum 146-7 as higumen of one of the monasteries at
Ennaton with two stories about patriarch Eulogius.
3 Theodosius, Maurice's eldest son, was long believed to be hiding some-
where: see Theophylact Simocatta viii. 12-15; Anastasius Sinaita, 29 ed. Nau
(Oriens Christianus, ii, p. 77).
S4 H. CHADWICK
story (resembling N 450) told on the island of Samos. Mary's story is

located not on Samos but at Nisibis (185). A pagan husband was per-
suaded by his Christian wife that if he wanted a good return on his
savings (fifty miliaresia), he should lend it to the God of the Christians,

who would pay not only interest but twice the capital. Led by his wife
he gave the silver to the beggars by the five doors of the church of
Nisibis. Three months later they were in financial difliculties, and the
wife sent her husband back to the church where he picked up off the
marble floor one of his silver pieces. With this piece he bought a fish,
inside which his wife found a precious stone, for which (after some
haggling) he was offered 300 pieces.
The location of the storyteller at Samos makes one wonder if Mary
had heard echo es of Herodotus' story of Polycrates of Samos throwing his
ring into the sea, only to find it in the fish on his dinner-table some days
later. On the other hand, the location of the story in Nisibis points to
a Persian tale; and a very elose parallel in the Thousand and One Nights
(no. 946) was acutely noted by 110na Opelt in 1964 (Mullus, Festschrift
für Theodor Klauser, p. 268).
Sophronius was a native of Damascus, in which he took great pride
(P.G. lxxxvii. 3621, 3672), though this did not prevent hirn speaking of
'us Alexandrians' (Mirac. 51, 36I2D) at the time when he and John
Moschus were in the service of John the Almsgiver. His deep sense of
debt to the Egyptian saints Cyrus and John who cured his ophthalmia
gave hirn a strong attachment to Alexandria, and both he and John
Moschus were dedicated defenders of the Chalcedonian cause in a region
where it had few supporters. 'The Egyptians are not a race to change
their mind', Sophronius on ce complains (P.G. lxxxvii. 3573B). The anti-
Chalcedonians were divided among themselves between the moderate
Theodosians (or Severans) and the more extreme Gaianites (who fol-
lowed Julian of Halicarnassus in aflirming Christ's flesh to be divinely
incorruptible before the resurrection). Yet both parties were agreed in
rejecting the Chalcedonian faith of Constantinople and the emperor.
When John the Almsgiver came from Cyprus to become patriarch, he
found only seven churches in his jurisdiction where the elergy accepted
Chalcedon. Sophronius vividly portrays how at the Christmas festival in
the church of Theonas the Gaianites waited outside till the Chalcedonian
liturgy was over, and then came in with a hundred clergy to venerate
the icon of the Virgin (Mirac. 12, 3461). The Monophysites were also
willing to take holy oil from the lights burning before the icon (Mirac.
36, 3553BC).' The Chalcedonian elergy in charge of the shrine of SS.
'SS. Cyrus and John often instrueted their patients to apply holy oil from
lights in the shrine to gain a eure: see Mirac. 22, 348sc; 70, 3669A. Alternative

Cyrus and J ohn were sure that the miraculous cures were available only
to those who were not schismatics (Mirae. 12,36-38, and see especially
39, where Sophronius disingenuously disclaims a propagandist purpose
in writing the Miracula). As patriarch, John the Almsgiver found that

huge disbursements of the wealth of the Alexandrian church were more
effective than jangling arguments about natures and hypostases. Never-
theless Sophronius reveals that such consent was usuallyonlytemporary.
A man converted to Chalcedon by a cure at Menuthis confessed that he
could not hope to resist the social pressure when he got horne to his
village and was expected to succeed his father as deacon (Mirae. 37).
III
The career of J ohn Moschus is less controversial than that of Sophronius.
The biographical prologue says that he began the ascetic life at the
Palestinian coenobium of Theodosius. This is very likely to be correct,
since in the Meadow he speaks of the archimandrite of this monastery
as cour father George' (92-4) and likewise of the founder as cour father
Theodosius' (95). Moreover several holy fathers mentioned came from
this house which Moschus certainly knows wen: Leontius (4-formerly
of the New Lavra and well able to remember the expulsion of the
Origenists in February 555);1 Conon of Cilicia (22); the ex-soldier
Theodulos (23); Patricius from Armenian Sebastopolis (95); John
the Red (97); and Theodosius who later became bishop of Capitolias,
between Gadara and Damascus (1°4,1°9).
This large number is only surpassed by the number of fathers in the
Meadow whose association was with the Judaean monastery of Fara,
where Moschus lived for ten years (40), and of whose residents he men-
tions nine: Cosmas the eunuch (40); Paul of Anazarbos (41); Auxanon,
syncellus to patriarchs Eustochius of Jerusalem and Gregory of Antioch
(42); Theodore (45) and Stephen the Ailiots (62-4); John Molybas (65);
the higumen and founder Antony (66); Cyriacus (67); the higumen
Gregory, who forthe years 570-93 became patriarch of Antioch (139-40).2
Since Moschus met at Fara (a) Cosmas the eunuch (40), who left Fara
to go to Antioch, presumably accompanying Gregory, and died there
medicaments would include the ashes of a cremated crocodile (24, 3492C) or some
eamel-dung (23, 3488D). The preseription to eat an asp (27, 3500A) is paralleled
in Porphyry, de Abstinentia, i. 17. For magie and medicine in Sophronius see an
excellent discussion by Th. Nissen in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, xxxix (1939),
pp. 349-8r. For holy oil of the Cross cf. Cyr. Seyth. V. Sabae, 27 & 63.
I Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita Sabae, 90.
2 A few of his discourses have been preserved: P.G. lxxxviii. r847-86 (includ-
ing his speech to the army preserved by Evagrius, h.e. vi. 3). M. Aubineau in
Byzantion, xlii (1972), p. 595, reports his discovery of a new recension of
Gregory's sermon on the women who brought ointment to the tomb.
386 H. CHADWICK
during Gregory's time as patriarch, and (b) Auxanon (42), who had been
Gregory's syncellus and resigned to die as a monk in the desert; and
since Moschus states expressly that he travelled to Egypt 'at the begin-
ning ofthe reign of emperor Tiberius' (578-82) (112 and Nissen I), there
is great plausibility in the hypothesis that his decade at Fara began
shortly before Gregory left for Antioch and so fell round about 568-78.
His tour of Egypt was in company with his friend Sophronius, who
was at that time considering renouncing the world to become a monk
(69, cf. 110). How long this tour took it is hard to say. They spent some
time in Alexandria itself (60, 105-6, 171-2), where they made friends
with Theodore the philosopher and Zoilus the reader and calligrapher,
attracted to the one by common interests, to the other by sharing
'both native country and education'. Presumably both Moschus and
Sophronius came from the region round ab out Damascus, but in
Moschus' case one cannot be certain.
1t may be a clue to Moschus' origins or early background that he
seems peculiarly interested in Cilician monasteries and in monks of
Cilician origin. The Pratum often teIls us where particular Palestinian
monks came from: e.g. Peter came from Pontus (100); Stephen from
Cappadocia (122, 127); Nicolas from Tyre (155); Nicolas from Lycia
(135); Auxanon from Ancyra (42); Paul (101), Christopher (105), and
Dulcitius (127) from Rome. But no provenance is mentioned so often as
Cilicia: from here came both Conon of Penthucla (3) and Conon of St.
Theodosius' coenobium (22); Paul of Anazarbus (41); Thaleleus (59);
Alexander (182); Theodore (183); Leontius (61); Zosimus (123, 166);
John higumen of Raithu on the Sinai peninsula (Il5).I Likewise he has
a special interest in the monasteries actually in Cilicia-at or near Aigai
in particular (27-9, 31,57-8, 86), but also Tarsos (32), Anazarbos (SI),
Rhosos (80-5,87,9°, 100). 1t is hardly possible to suppress the question
whether this Cilician interest is the reflection of a regional patriotism.
For Syrians he betrays less interest unless they come from Apamea (88,
196, 152, 195), the most interesting being Leontius, an Apamean who,
after living long in Cyrene (so largely rebuilt by Justinian after its cata-
strophic decline in the fifth century), cameto Alexandria to be consecrated
bishop of Cyrene by patriarch Eulogius of Alexandria (580-6°7), and
while in the city had spiritual conversation with Moschus and Sophro-
nius (195). Moschus' interest in a Syrian ascetic at Alexandria chanting
his psalter in Syriac and living a li fe of rare self-denial consists in the
I Of John's six apophthegmata cited by Moschus, the first four appear in the
Greek alphabetical collection of Apophthegmata Patrum. Probably Moschus

snd the compiler of the A.P. drew independently on a common source (S. Vailhe,
Echos d'Orient, v (1902), p. 42). For other Cilicians cf. 107 and 112.

special revelation required to give an impressed Chalcedonian ob server
the reassurance that the monophysite faith of this apparentlyideal ascetic
was in truth malodorous and corrupt (I06). Moschus feIt no less passion-
ately than Sophronius about the truth of the Christological definition of

Chalcedon. To be in error on so cardinal a matter was to fail in all.
After his stay in Egypt Moschus went eventually to Sinai, there to
stay a further ten years at the lavra of the Ailiots (67). This decade seems
to fall about 580-1/59°-1, for on Sinai he encountered Zosimus, former
bishop of BabyIon (Cairo) (123), who resigned his see later than 569 (the
death of patriarch Apollinarius of Alexandria, Pratum 124). Moschus
was at the Ailiots' lavra when the ex-Acoimete patriarch John of Jeru-
salem (575-93) was constructing a cistern on Mount Sinai (134).
We next hear of hirn going to J erusalem with his higumen about 594
to attend the consecration of the new patriarch Amos (149). But we
cannot be sure that the community or lavra of which he was then a mem-
ber was still that of the Ailiots. The biographical prologue omits any
stay at the lavra of the Ailiots, but says that, after his initial period at
St. Theodosius', he went to the New Lavra. This could well have been
Moschus' place of residence in the 590S after his tour of Egypt with
Sophronius. Sophronius evidently accompanied hirn in Palestine since
he is mentioned as present on a visit to the lavra of Calamon in the
Jordan valley (157) and also at Petra (I 13). Probablyin Palestine Sophro-
nius was solemnly professed as a monk; a moving short chapter of the
Meadow reads (102): 'When father Sophronius the sophist my brother
was about to be perfected,I we were beside hirn-I, John the scholastic,
father Cyriacus, and some other fathers. And he said to us: I was going
along a road and before me a chorus of young girls danced saying
"Welcome, Sophronius: Sophronius has been crowned".'
The surrounding chapters of the Meadow are associated with the
lavra of St. Theodosius, and perhaps this was where Sophronius had his
vision of a welcome by the celestial choir.
I Mellontos teleiousthai is wrongly taken by Rouet de Journel in the sense
'to die', so that the chapter describes a deathbed vision. But teleiosis is also used
of fuH monastic profession. Cf. Cyril of Scythopolis, V. Euthymii, 8 (p. 16, 16
Schwartz): Marinus and Luke, pupils of Euthymius and Theoctistus, later
'brought forward Theodosius to monastic perfection' (teleotes). (The Patristic
Lexicon cites Dionys. Areop., E.H. vi. 2). This sense is given to the word here by
S. Vailhe in Rev. de ['Orient chritien, vii (1902), pp. 371-2, though he cites only
much later examples for this usage. It is unlikely to refer to the complete cure of
his ophthalmia (St. Cyrus cured one eye first, and the second had to wait: Mirae.
70). But Sophronius' account of his cure shows that it was a highly visionary and
emotional experience, and John Moschus, 'my spiritual father and teacher'
(3668B), was thcrc; so this possibility cannot be cxcluded. For teleiousthai
Traversari's Latin has 'eum interrogatus esset'.
H. CHADWICK
The biographical prologue says that after 604 Moschus moved to the
monasteries of Northern Syria near Antioch, then to Alexandria until
614, after which he and Sophronius travelled by the islands towards
Rome. These visits to the islands are vindicated by the explicit men-
tions of Cyprus (30) and Samos (108, 165) as places which he and
Sophronius visited.
Nothing in the Meadow supports the visit to Rome reported by the
prologue, but the statement is not in the least improbable. The Persian
attack on Palestine had the side-effect of stimulating the Arabs to fierce
attacks on Palestinian monasteries (including St. Sabas, where forty-four
monks were murdered in 614 at the time of the Persian capture of
Jerusalem). The number of refugees to the West was considerable, and
Greek monks established a number of monasteriesin Italy, including one
dedicated to St. Sabas. I Moreover, a zealous Chalcedonian like Moschus
was bound to feel an attachment to the see of Rome, for so long the
bulwark of Chalcedon's defence. He is very interested in and reverential
towards both Leo (147-9) and Gregory (151, 192). At Monidia in Scete
he and Sophronius had met John the Persian who had been to Rome to
venerate the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul (151). That sixth-century
monks saw special virtue in lengthy journeys on pilgrimage is evident
from Moschus' own accounts of long pilgrimage tours, one by J erusalem,
Sinai, Ephesus (for St. John), Euchaita (St. Theodore), Seleucia in
Isauria (St. Thecla), finally Rosapha in Syria (St. Sergius) (180). One of
the Apophthegmata Patrum, extant in Greek, Latin, and Syriac, not
only attests the regard feh by the desert fathers towards the Roman
see, but also envisages the possibility of a journey to Rome (Nau 334;
Pe1agius and John xv. 88 p. 629 Rosweyde; Syr. i. 518 Bedjan, 524
Budge). Gregory the Great hirnself had correspondence with the monks
of Sinai in 600 (Reg. xi. 1-2). A journey to Rome would have fitted
natura1ly into Moschus' pattern of spiritual life, and accordingly the
prologue may weIl be entirely right on this point.
I The Lateran Council of 649 was attended by 37 Greek monks; cf. actio 2,
L. VII. 116-24, a libellus headed by four Greek monks 'who have long lived in
Rome'-John of the lavra of St. Sabas in Judaea, Theodore of a lavra of St. Sabas
in Africa, Thalassius of an Armenian monastery of St. Mary and St. Andrew in
Rome called 'of Renatus', and George higumen of the Cilicians' cloister 'ad
Aquas Salvias' (Tre Fontane; possibly the horne of Theodore of Tarsus ?).
In the time of Pope Donus (676-8) a monastery of Syrian Nestorians was
discovered in Rome: Liber Pontificalis, i. 348, now confirmed by the Maronite
Life of Maximus (Anal. Boll. xci, p. 318). On Syrian and Egyptian refugees
at Carthage in 641 see Max. Conf. P.G. xci. 46SA. Maximus Confessor hirnself
went to the West because of the barbarian threat (44SA). Cf. R. Devreesse, Met.
d'arch. et d'hist. lvii (1940), pp. 156-7; S. Bersari, 'Le migrazioni dall'Oriente
in Italia nel VII secolo', in Parola deZ Passato, vi (1951), pp. 133-8.

In some manuscripts John Moschus receives the name of John
Eukratas. When one recalls Maximus Confessor's evidence for the
presence of Sophronius in Africa (cf. Photius, cod. I92B) and for the
strong Chalcedonianism of the African monastery which Maximus calls

'Eukratades' (P.G. xci. 46IA), it is natural to ask whether this surname
was derived from the community. Schänborn has pointed out that in
a long recension of Leontius' Life of John the Almsgiver John and
Sophronius are called 'the Eukratades'.! There remain deeper obscuri-
ties and unanswered questions about Moschus' li fe ; e.g. are his con-
versations with Leontius of Apamea (195) to be dated on his first visit to
Alexandria (in which case that visit had not concluded before Eulogius
become patriarch in 580)? or on his second visit, after the stay in Syria
mentioned in the prologue (in which case the second visit fell shortly
before Eulogius' death in 607)? In the nature of the case the evidence is
insufficient to answer all the questions we want to put.
Moschus' relationship with Sophronius is of some special interest.
There is a disparity between them in education, social standing, and age.
While Sophronius speaks of John Moschus as 'my spiritual father and
teacher', Moschus speaks ofthe sophist as 'the lord' (Kyrios or kyris; 69,
77), 'my lord' (IlO), 'the brother' (92,102,135), 'my companion' (IIl,
II3), 'Abba' (102, III), 'my holy and faithful son' (dedicatory preface).
Moschus carried Sophronius' purse (11 I). He was evidently responsible
for Sophronius' spiritual formation.
Pratum 206 teIls of a patrician lady who came on pilgrimage to the
Holy Land. At Caesarea she asked the bishop to provide her with a nun
as companion to instruct her in the fear of God, but finding the nun too
gentle to her she asked for a more severe guide to the path up to heaven.
John Cassian (GoU. 18. 14) has a very similar story. Everythingwould fit
into place if Sophronius, the highly educated sophist, chose the monk
J ohn to be his guide in this kind of role. The choice of the Jordan valley
for a monastic vocation was natural for a zealous Chalcedonian. Saints
Cyrus and John directed one blind man, whom they exorcized, to go to
the Jordan to live as a monk (Sophronius, Mirae. 65, 3649A). It is prob-
able that Sophronius' decision to ren ounce the world was taken in con-
sequence of his cure at Menuthis.
1 Cod. Vatic. gr. 1669, fol. 286 v , cited by Schönborn, Sophrone, p. 57 n. There
was a monastery of the Eukratades at Constantinople near the church of St.
Maura in Justinianae (modern Galata), whose higumen attended the council of
Constantinople of 536: Schwartz, A.C.O. iii. 144.34. Eukras or eukraton was
a must containing pepper, cummin, and aniseed, a drink unattractive enough to
be prescribed in the Studite Rule for Holy Week, the old and siek being aIIowed
wine (P.G. xcix. 1716B). It was common in Moschus' time: see Pratum 184,
3057B; Cyril Scythop., pp. 135,2 and 216, 1 (161, 25), ed. Schwartz.
60 H. CHADWICK
IV
The great majority of the chapters in the Meadow consist of short
biographical anecdotes ab out holy men. Intermingled with these are

tales of miraculous events illustrating how the monks lived in this world
as men already half in the next, so that the order of angels and demons is
constantly impinging upon them. Some collections of desert apoph-
thegms also occur (52, 55, 69, IIO, II3, IIS, 130, 144, 152, 159, etc.).
While (as we have seen) it is very possible that one or two of these
chapters of sayings may be accretions in the manuscript tradition, this is
unlikely to be the case with the majority. Moschus wanted to record
pieces to edify his readers and to supplement the existing tradition of the
Apophthegmata Patrum which was soon to be widely diffused in at least
two forms-that in which the sayings are grouped under their subject-
matter (a form of text best preserved in the ancient Latin version of
Pelagius and John, printed from Rosweyde in P.L. lxxiii-lxxiv), and the
alphabetical collection in which they are grouped under the names of the
desert fathers in ABC order (the form of text familiar to all readers of
Migne, P. G.lxv). Pratum 55 mentions a gerontikon being read near Gaza.
Moschus' title 'New Paradise' shows that he consciously thinks of his
work as having a definite relation to the oral tradition of the first genera-
tion of desert fathers. He wishes to recall his contemporaries to the
original freshness and dedication of the first generation of the ascetic
movement. I
What that relation was may be partly disclosed by a succession of
chapters in which holy men sadly deplore the moral and spiritual decline
of the monasteries since the days of Saint Antony. While Moschus was
in Egypt, he went to Terenuthis to call on the ascetic Theodore of
Alexandria. Theodore deplored to hirn the sad decline of mortification at
Scete: in his youth he could remember monks who ate nothing at all
unless they they had a visitor, and Theodore had made ahabit of calling
every Saturday on one of them, named Ammonius, to ensure that he ate
at least something (54). Within living memory Scete had suffered badly
from a barbarian attack which had carried off the able-bodied monks to
be sold in the slave-markets of the Libyan Pentapolis (152-cf. 112 for
a similar raid on monasteries at the Oasis by the Mazici). Since the
ransom price could be as high as 8S solidi, we must assurne that only
exceptionally important or lucky personages were redeemed from slavery
(34; but cf. 112, a ransom of 24 solidi). This price may be compared,
I The feeling that the first three generations in the desert had attained a spiri-
tuality never later surpassed is expressed in an apophthegm of Poimen (no. 166;

P.G. lxv. 36IC).

for relative value, with 3 solidi whether for a good donkey (107) or for
a manuscript of the New Testament on fine parchment (134).1 Abba
Daniel of Scete, once ransomed by a wealthy shipowner, was soon
captured again (R.O.C. v (1900), p. 71). Accordingly the population of

Scete had suffered a sharp drop, though old houses like Monidia still
survived as active monasteries.
Moschus met in Palestine a numher of old monks who had on ce been
in Scete and could remember ehe time when it had as many as 3,500
fathers living in extreme abstinence (II3 on John of Petra; 183 on
Theodore of Cilicia; cf. 55 on Irenaeus who, after the barbarian sack,
moved to a cell near Gaza). Not only numbers had declined hut a sense
of quality and dedication to self-denial. Moschus likes cautionary tales of
monasteries which suffered because they kept money which could have
been given to the poor (Mioni, no. I, O.C.P. xvii (1951), p. 83). At the
monastery of Skopelos in Cilicia Pedias Moschus was told how it was
their custom on Maundy Thursday to distribute to poor and to orphans
of the countryside a half-measure of grain, five eulogiai, wine, and honey.
But because of three successive bad harvests the price of corn had risen
to a fuH solidus for twelve measures of grain. Accordingly the monks
persuaded their abbot, against his better judgement, not to make the
normal distribution. After the Holy Week fast, however, when the
storekeeper opened the granary, he found all his store had gone bad and
had to be thrown out. The community saw in this a judgement of pro-
vidence for their failure to feed the poor (85). (Cf. above, p. 48.)
The old monks feIt that there had never been such a time of negligence
and disrespect for authority (109). Natural disasters-earthquakes (50)
and plagues (131 Caesarea, 132 JerusaIem)-confirmed them in their
conviction that heaven was no longer propitious.
It would be easy to see this pessimism as arefleetion of the miseries
of the age. There was sharp eivil disorder in Palestine in the latter part
of the sixth eentury (176). At the beginning of the reign of the emperor
Mauriee ab out 592 the Arab ehieftain, Naaman, carried out aseries of
disruptive raids (155); Evagrius (h.e. vi. 2 and 22) records that Naaman
eventually became a Christian and thereby accepted Byzantine sove-
reignty. On a smaller scale we hear of a brigand named Cyriacus near
Nicopolis (Emmaus) whom the people nicknamed the 'Wolf' because of
the inhuman eruelty of his gang, which consisted 'not onIy of Christians
but also of J ews and Samaritans'. Moschus was told, however, a dramatie
story how Cyriacus was enraged when some of his gang attacked a group
of. families returning from J erusalem after taking their infants to be
I Cf. Crum, Cat. Capt. MSS. B.M., 1068 (3 donkeys for 10 solidi). Complete
Bibles cost 18 solidi (P.G. lxv. 14SC); skilled slaves 30 (C. Just. vi. 43.3).
62 H. CHADWICK
baptized in Holy Week, and intervened to rescue the babies. Cyriacus
was eventually caught and spent ten years in prison, but attributed his
escape from execution to the infants he saved (cf. N 39). Moschus
records having met Cyriacus himself (165). Between the Palestinian

Christian Greeks and the Jews there was hostile feeling (15).1 We he ar
occasionally of Christi an Arabs (96-7, 179; cf. Naaman, above), but the
majority of passages in Moschus where Arabs are mentioned allude to
them with some fear and enmity, though not yet with the resentment of
Maximus Confessor, who at the time of the Arab Conquest speaks of
them as 'wild beasts in human form' (P.G.xci. 540). Hermits both in the
Judaean desert and in Egypt suffered at their hands (21, murder beyond
the Dead 5ea; 133, a pagan Arab near 5uez whose attack on a monk was
stopped by sudden paralysis). The picture in Moschus bears out the
story in Antiochus, monk of 5t. 5abas and author of the Pandectes, who
wrote about 620 describing to his friend Eustathios of Ancyra how 44
monks of 5t. 5abas were killed by Bedouin on 15 May 614. 2 Deliverance
from barbarians is one of the saints' gifts (cf. 20 on 5t. Thecla; 70 on
Addas the dendrite of Thessalonica).
Antiochus says the Bedouin attack on 5t. 5abas fell just a week before
the Persian capture of J erusalem. A story preserved in one line of the
manuscript tradition of Moschus (and probably part of the authentie
text) teIls how 'because of our sins' the holy pi aces fell under the hands
of the Persians, 'by the righteous judgement of God', and the refugees
who fled for asylum to the church of the Resurrection (Anastasis) were
mereilessly massaered, except for good-Iooking young boys and virgin
girls. Moschus reeords that many of the virgins yielded to their captors,
but one 'lamb of Christ', truly espoused to hirn, refused even when
summoned by the Persian military governor. He took her to a tower on
the wall and on her persistent rejection of his advances drew his sword
and finally ordered her to be pushed off the wall to her death (Mioni, no.
VII, O.C.P. xvii (1951), pp. 89-90).3
I Further evidence of such ill feeling occurs in the life of George of Khoziba
(Anal. Ball. vii, p. 134,5). At Bostra in Transjordan the bishop Julian (of whose
troubles Theodore of Petra has something to say-Paneg. S. Theodosii, p. 81)
was so unpopular that the pagan notables of the city tried to poison hirn (Pratum
94). For comparable troubles of a Palestinian bishop (of Maiuma?) ab out 530-40
see Barsanuphius and John, Erotapokriseis, 786-7, 791 fI. In 609 Jews killed the
patriarch of Antioch (Mich. Syr. x. 25). 2 P.G. lxxxix. 1424.
3 In one version this story has become modified: she tells her captor she has
a magie ointment conferring immunity, rubs it on her neck, invites hirn to test it
out by striking her with his sword, and so escapes a fate worse than death. See
G. Levi della Vida in Byzantion, xv (1940-1), pp. 144-57; in Annuaire de I' Inst.
de philol. et d'hist. orient. et slav. vii (1939-44), pp. 83-126; Campbell Bonner in
Byzantion, xvi (1942-3), pp. 142-61. This is the ancestor of canto XXIX of the

Yet civil disorder, war, plague, and earthquake are hardly more than
the backcloth for the monk's primary task. His daily life would seem un-
eventful and dull; his meals, if any, a gastronomie endurance test; the
temptation to accidie strong. One monk came to the lavra of Gerasimos

in the Jordan valley to tell Alexander the abbot: 'Father, 1 want to leave
the place where 1 live, because 1 am very bored.' Alexander replied, 'My
son, this is an evident sign that you think neither of eternal punishment
nor of the kingdom of heaven; for then you would not feel bore dom'
(142). When the thought ente red the mind of Stephen, priest of the
lavra of the Ailiots on Sinai, 'You are doing no good here', he knew that
the Devil was responsible for the insinuation and said: 'I know who you
are. You do not wish to see anyone saved' (62).1 So the monk must give
himself to continual prayer, fasting, and labour (13), doing mindless
manual work such as basket-making which is compatible with simul-
taneous recitation of the psalter (160)2 and giving any money gained to
the poor. Moschus admired the heroes of the desert-the anchorite
Barnabas, who on going to drink in the Jordan pierced his foot on a thorn:
he refused medical attention, 3 and the foot became so gangrenous that
he had to move from his hermit's cell to the lavra of the Towers near
Jericho. As the gangrene spread, he used to tell visitors that the more the
outward man suffered, the more the in ward man flourished (10). Or the
two Alexandrians, Theodore the philosopher and Zoilus the reader, with
whom Moschus felt a special bond (above, p. 56), and through whom he
made the acquaintance of Cosmas the 'scholastic' (here evidently mean-
ing 'scholar'), an ascetic Alexandrian layman with a large lending library
of books for confuting and converting J ews (172). Theodore, a lay teacher
of philosophy, had only one coat and a few books, slept in various
churches, knew the Old and New Testaments by heart, and finaHy
Orlando Furioso. The Greek text is printed by E. Cerulli from Vatic. gr. 1571,
s. XI, fol. 78 in Orientalia, xv (1946), pp. 456-7; from Coislin. 257, s. XI, fol. 82
in Orientalia, xvi (1947), pp. 377-9.
1 Contrast Anastasius Sinaita, Quaest. 132 (P.G. lxxxix. 784D): the belief that
salvation is possible only to the monk is an invention of the devil which has made
many lay folk fall into grave sin, thinking that they mayas weil be hung for
a sheep as for alarnb.
2 Abba Irenaeus, on the other hand, regards basket-making as a diabolical
distraction (55); and Synesius, Dion , 7 (p. 251, 20 Terzaghi = P .G. lxvi. 1 132C), is
outraged that 'contemplatives' do wicker-work. Basket-making was feit to be at
least more appropriate for monks than making clothes or calligraphy; see the
apophthegm, N 375 (calligraphy leads to pride).
3 On the other hand, an ascetic who on medical advice ate meat-to the
scandal of the rigorists-is defended for acting rightly (85). Continuous good
health for three years at a stretch was regarded as alarming for the state of
the soul (Nissen 5, Byz. Zeits. xxxviii, p. 358). Cf. N 504.
386 H. CHADWICK
retired to be a monk in Salama at Ennaton (171, cf. 145, 177). Zoilus the
reader practised great solitude, earned money by calligraphy, renounced
all family ties, did his own cooking and laundry, never read a book for
pleasure, lived in a vermin-ridden cell indifferent to heat or cold or sick-

ness, and kept himself from both laughter and sadness (171). Such men
represented to Moschus the realization of an ideal.
Moschus is no Benedict setting out to provide an elementary rule for
beginners, but one who hopes to inspire his readers by portraying the
Himalayan climbers of the ascetic life, those capable of spending thirty-
five years in silence (67, cf. 73), nudists (91, 159),1 or boskoi who fed on
nothing but dry herbs and berries like the be asts of the field (19, 129,
etc.); ascetics whose minds lived so heavenly a life that they had become
sexless even in the presence of a naked woman (3, 136,194) or,per contra,
when fortuitously buried in the same grave as a woman, were held to be
the cause of a minor earthquake (88). A nun tore out her eyes when a man
confessed to her that they set hirn on fire with desire (60). The monk is
to live like the Christian martyr under torture (69). 2
The method of prayer is continual repetition, especially of verses from
the Psalms (73); for nothing is so effective as the psalter in exorcizing the
devil (152). At Ennaton J ohn the Eunuch told Moschus of the monastery
of father Apollo in the Thebaid (near Hermopolis) where he had seen
a monk's 7TAag with deep ruts caused by his constant prostrations on
hands and knees (184). At the coenobium of St. Theodosius in the
Judaean desert a monk from Rome named Christopher spent each day
keeping the community rule, and at night went to the grotto where St.
Theodosius and the other holy fathers were buried (the cave, according
to the prologue, where the Magi hid from Herod). As he descended the
eighteen steps, he performed a hundred genußexions at each step, wait-
ing at the bottom until the wooden clapper (cf. Pratum I land 50 and
104) sounded to call hirn to the dawn office. This he did every night for
ten years until finally he experienced an ecstatic vision of angels in white
and saw the ßoor covered with oi1lamps (105).
I In chapter 122 a Cappadocian monk named Stephen (for whom cf. Anasta-
sius Sin. vi, Nau, Oriens Christianus, ii, p. 64) tells Moschus how once at Raithu
in the Sinai peninsula he was at the conventual mass on Maundy Thursday when
he saw two hermits enter to receive communion, whom Stephen, alone of those
present, saw to be naked. He asked leave to go with them, but they walked away
on the waters of the Red Sea. The story belongs to the visionary realm and is not
meant to record an unusual anchorite practice in Holy Week, as is supposed by
Rouet de Journel (p. 24). For St. Maurus on water cf. Greg. M. Dial. ii. 7.
z There is a striking passage on the monk's self-torture as martyrdom in
Barsanuphius and John, 256. Cf. also the apophthegm, N 37. For the back-
ground see E. E. Malone, 'The Monk and the Martyr', in Antonius Magnus
Eremita, ed. B. Steidle (Rome, 1956), pp. 201-28.

The value of many repeated prostrations or genuflexions was not in
doubt. The Gaza hesychast, Barsanuphius, about 520-45, told a monk,
who asked his advice on a way to avoid erotic dreams, that if he could
crush such temptations by day he would have no trouble at night, and

that at its onset by day he should make forty-nine genuflexions saying at
each, 'Lord, forgive me for your holy name's sake', on Sundays (when
penitential prostrations were not appropriate) using only the words, but
repeating them seventy times. I
The struggle was bearable to the ascetic because he knew that the
mighty intercession of the saints and the Mother of God was supporting
hirn. The saints retain a quasi-physical presence on this earth. St. Theo-
dore the General, whose tomb was venerated in Asia Minor at Euchaita
(Avkhat) near Amaseia,2 was held in special regard by Sophronius. 3 The
Virgin, whose intercessions might be expected to move her divine Son
when other saints failed (50), was very near to the monks. Yet it would be
quite wrong to suppose that the Virgin and saints are always cast in
a benevolent role. Just as often they are the vehic1e of divine wrath.
The apostate bishop of Thessalonica, Thaleleus, came to a terrible end,
judged by his city's patron saint Demetrius (43 M, om. F). At Constan-
tinople St. Eleutherius struck dead a delinquent c1ergyman given to
magical practices (145).4 The Virgin herself cut off the hands and feet
of an actor who mocked her (47). She would protect those specially
entrusted to her: an Alexandrian committed his wife and child to her care
while he travelled to Constantinople, and she struck blind a servant who
attempted to kill them (75). John the hermit, of Socho 20 miles S.W. of
Jerusalem, kept in his cave an icon of the Virgin 'carrying our God in her
arms'. Often he went on long pilgrimages, and used to light a lamp
before the icon which the Virgin watched over so that it never went out
(180). The veneration of her icon, in which she is portrayed in a purple
robe,5 is an act unwelcome to Satan: iconoc1asm is a worse fault than
I Barsanuphius and John 93, p. 76. On the other hand a monk who asked why
he was troubled with fantasies after he prayed at night and made the sign of the
cross, but not when he gave no thought to the matter, was told that it was
a diabolical trick to discourage these devotions (692 [691], p. 318).
2 Pratum 180. Theodorus Lector, epit. 415, ed. Hansen.
3 Miracula 70 (P.G. lxxxvii. 3669B, 3672A). St. Thomas, who had an impor-
tant shrine at his native Damascus, was also a helper.
4 Moschus' story was taken from the church history of Theodorus Lector, the
epitome of which contains its essence (see Hansen's edition, p. 108), and is
repeated in Cedrenus, i. 6II Bonn; Georgius Monachus, ii. 616-17 de Boor.
S The Virgin regularlyappears in visions as 'a woman in purple' (Pratum 46
and 50); cf. Evagrius, h.e. iv. 36; Vita S. Dosithei 3, in the edition of Dorotheus
of Gaza by L. Regnault and J. de Preville (1963), p. 127. The most striking story is
Pratum 50 concerning the vision of George a recluse near Scythopolis (probably,
66 H. CHADWICK
gross fornication (45). An icon of Abba Theodosius of Skopelos in

Cilicia enabled a woman of Apamea to find water in a dry weIl (81). The
iconophiles would gratefully cite the Meadow as evidence for the holy
tradition. It is noteworthy that, by contrast, Moschus betrays almost no

interest in relics. The interest in John Chrysostom's house at Cucusus
(128) or in Synesius (195) is not contact with the supernatural. But
by this date relics were hardly remarkable; from Cyril of Scythopolis
(pp. 66 and 104) we know that they lay beneath every altar.
Pillar saints are still sufficiently remarkable in Moschus' time to be the
subject of special comment. The bishop of Petra, Athenogenes, found it
a source of satisfaction that he had one in his territory (129). Atheno-
genes was the son of an aristocratic lady Damiana who became an abbess,
and grandson of a lady Joanna whose pride it was that, when John
Chrysostom had been exiled to Cucusus, he had lived in her house (128).
His Petra stylite was unusual in that he had no ladder, so that the most
private consultations had to take place with the postulant calling up to
hirn from the base of the column; evidently, however, there was an
enclosure wall round the column with a door, and only one person at
a time was admitted (129).
Moschus' other stylites lived further north-St. Symeon the Younger
on the Wonderful Mountain nine miles from Antioch (96, and two
stories from Raithu ofmen the stylite saint had sent back there, 117-18);
Julian near Aigai in Cilicia (27-8, 57). Such men possessed powers of
second sight and of healing, and combined the functions of a citizens'
advice bureau with those of a medical service and of a clairvoyant. When
another stylite, Symeon, on a column four miles from Aigai was killed by
lightning (a manner of dying to which stylites must have been specially
vulnerable),' Julian, whose column stood in a valley twenty-four miles
away, was granted extra-sensory perception of the event (57).
I think, identical with the hesychast of Beella to whom Cyril of Scythopolis

dedicated his Life of Euthymius and in whose monastery Cyril first became a
monk). George, found weeping, explained that in avision he had seen thousands
pleading in vain with an inexorable figure on a throne, untouched even when
a woman in purpie threw herself at his feet saying, 'Be touched at least for my
sake.' This was on Maundy Thursday. At the ninth hour on Good Friday the
cities of the Phoenician coast were destroyed. Moschus' story of George is
rerniniscent of the sixth chapter of the Arabic narrative of the sack of lerusalem
in 614 (edited by G. Garitte, C.S.C.O., 202-3, Louvain, 1960). a Greek form of
which is preserved in Evergetinos iii. 19, where John, monk of St. Sabas, has
avision of the Virgin interceding with Christ for Jerusalem, but the Lord refuses
to hear her because of the sins of the people.
I Georgius Monachus (ii. 697 de Boor) records under the reign of Constans II
(641-68) a tornado which uprooted many trees and overthrew numerous columns
occupied by holy men. Cf. Life of Daniel the Stylite, 47.

The holy men were venerated by people of all classes. I Dedication to
celibacy did not preclude an anchorite from being asked for special inter-
cessions for the fertility of a barren wife. 2 When such intercessions by
Daniel the Egyptian at Terenuthis proved successful, malicious folk

insinuated that he had done more to bring about the pregnancy than
say his prayers; but his chastity was vindicated by the new-born infant
which on being asked 'Who is your father?' pointed a providential finger
at the right man (114).
As in the Apophthegmata, angels and devils are always near at hand,
a presence to be discerned by advanced saints. The altar of the eucharis-
tie offering is und er a guardian angel (4, 11), whom holy men in special
circumstances can see. Likewise to such men the devils are visible (62-3).
The soul of man is like a poor fellow in an amphitheatre between riyal
forces of white and black, each claiming hirn (66). How real the an gels
are is shown by 207, the story of a converted prostitute of Alexandria in
the time of patriarch Paul (A.n. 537-40), for whose baptism angels came
as godparents, wearing the insignia of augustal prefects. It is a safe
deduction that by then it had become common in icons so to represent
archangels; the practice of portraying them in royal purpie is mentioned
in a sermon by 8everus of Antioch, who deeply disapproved of such
secularity. 3
The supernatural world is so elose as to be natural in the minds of
the monks. They expect springs, for example, to be supernatural gifts
(cf. Pratum 214-15, on two miraculously supplied baptisteries in Lycia,
with Basil of 8eleucia's account of one given by 8t. Theela-Miracula
S. Theclae, 21). Aspring at a little distance from a Cilician monastery was
found inconvenient by the monks, who desired better washing facilities
within the monastery itself; but their attempts to improve the plumbing
merely dried up the spring until the monks abandoned the comfort of
their unnecessary bath (Pratum 80). Holiness is marked by divine signs :
I See Peter Brown, 'The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Anti-
quity', Journal of Roman Studies, lxi (1971), pp. 80-101.

2 For the saints as givers of fertility see Sophronius, Miracula, 34 (3537).
St. Euthymius was born after his parents' persistent prayers to St. Polyeuctus
(Cyril, Vita Euth. 2), and hirnself exorcized a barren woman with the sign of the
cross upon her belly (ib. 23). Similarly of Theodosius, Theodore of Petra's
Panegyric, p. 79 Usener.
3 Severus, Hom. Cathedr. 72, P.O. xii, p. 83. I do not think that it has been
observed by historians of the iconoclastic controversy that this sermon by
Severus of Antioch provided the ground for the attack upon hirn by John of
Gabala, which was to be so gratefully cited at the fifth session of the Second
Council of Nicaea (Labbe VIII. 1024A) to underpin the Council's tendentious
and (despite the impressive support of the emperor Constantine Copronymus
and Ostrogorsky) still problematic thesis that at its foundation iconoclasm is
linked to monophysite Christology.
68 H. CHADWICK
the cells of hermits appear at night aglow with fi.re (51,69,87, N 425).
For Moschus, however, perhaps the most important sign that his heroes
have recreated paradise is their easy friendliness with lions. Before Adam
fell the beasts were in subjection to hirn; if only we men can restore
our humanity to its original righteous state, the lions wi11lie down like
lambs. I So father Gerasimos extracted a rose thorn from a lion's paw
and found the creature lovingly following hirn wherever he went; when
Gerasimos died, the lion was so crushed with grief that he too died of
a broken heart (107).2 Another hermit, Paul of Hellas (author of an
extant letter warning the Palestinian monks against the insidious danger
of sexual desire, edited by Lundström in 1902), fed a lion twice dailyat
his grotto in the Jordan valley (163, cf. 2). To pass a lion on the path and
be unscathed was a sure sign of sanctity (181). When one hermit was
freezing, a lion slept beside hirn to keep hirn warm (167). In Moschus'
pages the animal kingdom is generally co-operative: a deer led the way
to the discovery of one anchorite's relics (84).
For both Moschus and his heroes theology is a remote subject, and the
exegesis of Scripture attracts only occasional interest (40 'two swords',
208 'lead us not into temptation'). Intellectual pretensions easily lead to
Origenism (26); a monk who came to Ennaton to live in Evagrius' cell
committed suicide, and Moschus was not surprised (177). But Moschus
and Sophronius are zealots for the doctrine of Chalcedon. It is essential
to confess the four holy councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus I,
and Chalcedon (178). Nestorianism is a bogy rather in the background
by A.D. 620. A century before it had retained some following among the
Palestinian monks, as Cyril of Scythopolis shows (Vita Sabae, 38);
and Moschus (46) tells of a manuscript containing works of the very
un-Nestorian Hesychius of Jerusalem which was found to have two ser-
mons of Nestorius attached at the end, perhaps by accident on the part
of an innocent scribe. Moschus' principal objection to N estorianism is its
failure to honour the Virgin. But in his time most Nestorians were living
far away in Persia and Mesopotamia;3 cf. Pratum 26 on an inquirer
named Theophanes from Dara who confessed to Cyriacus of Calamon
that when he went horne he would be in communion with Nestorians.
I Likewise Paul of Thebes in Apophth. Patrum, Syriac i. 610 Bedjan, 617
Budge; cf. 621 (629) where a monk 'prayed that wild animals might be at peace
with hirn'. Likewise Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita Euthymii, 13. In fact it seems clear
that not a few anchorites were consumed by wild animals; cf. the apophthegm in
the anonymous collection, N 17. Anastasius Sinaita knew of one who had been
eaten by a hyena (Quaest. 18, P.G. lxxxix. 504A).
2 This is a variant of 'Androclus and the Lion', astDry transcribed by Aulus
Gellius (Noctes Atticae, v. 14) from Apion of Alexandria's book on 'The Wonders
of Egypt'. Cyril of Scythopolis teils a similar story of Sabas (V. Sabae, 49).
3 Yet Hippo Diarrhytos had Nestorian monks: Brock, Anal. Boll. xci, p. 317.

To Moschus greater danger comes from the opposite camp among the
monophysite enemies of Chalcedon. He is confident that the Tome of
Pope Leo, to wh ich they took such exception, had received final correc-
tions from the hand of St. Peter hirnself (147). Nothing causes Moschus
more pain than casual or unthinking acceptance of communion at the
hands of priests who reject, or have hesitations about, the two-nature
Christology of Chalcedon. Strict Chalcedonians and anti-Chalcedonians
on journeys at Easter in regions possessed by the other faction, would
take their own consecrated host with them. I But it is evident that
not all monks in the lavras of Palestine or Egypt shared this zeal and
rigorism. At Monidia in Scete a monk of simple faith accepted com-
munion without question wherever he might be, until an angel appeared
in avision to ask hirn how he wished to be buried-'like the monks of
Egypt or those of Jerusalem?' The monk was given three weeks to reflect,
and so asked a friend to interpret this oracular question. His adviser
perceived that the angel meant that he must choose between the faith
of Chalcedonian Jerusalem and that of monophysite Egypt, and recom-
mended that he should tell the angel that he preferred his funeral to
be in the Jerusalem style. The monk did so, and thus escaped the hell
destined for heretics (178).
The Chalcedonian/Monophysite split inevitably stimulated deep inter-
est in questions of sacramental validity. On the anti-Chalcedonian side,
the letters of Severus of Antioch (Select Letters, tr. Brooks, pp. 180 ff.,
277 ff.) richly illustrate the problems that arose from treating Chal-
cedonian orders as valid. In Moschus this is not an issue; his question
concerns rather the validity of sacraments conferred by laymen, or
irregular in using sand for water in the desert (25, 176, 196, 198).
Nothing suggests that Moschus had any deep interest in the technical
points at issue between the defenders and the opponents of Chalcedon.
The truth of Chalcedonian Christology is vindicated not by argument
but by miracle and private revelation. Thirty miles from Aigai in Cilicia
there were two stylites some six miles apart, one a Chalcedonian, the
other, who had been longer on his column (and presumably carried more
prestige accordingly), aSeveran. The anti-Chalcedonian sent over a
number of accusations against Chalcedonian theology and tried to con-
vert his neighbour by many arguments. He thought he had won when
the Chalcedonian stylite asked hirn to send a fragment of consecrated
bread, which he did with immediate delight, thinking it a sign of sur-
render. But the Chalcedonian merely subjected it to a test, plunging it
into boiling water in which it dissolved, whereas a piece of eucharistie
I Sophronius, Miracula ss. Cyri et Joh. 36 (P.G. lxxxvii. 3553B); Anastasius
Sinaita, Quaest. 113 (P.G. lxxxix. 765). Cf. Pratum 79; Joh. Ruf. Pleroph. 38.
386 H. CHADWICK
bread consecrated by ChaIcedonian hands remained intact-and was still

preserved for Moschus to see (29). Similarly when Ephrem patriarch of
Antioch (A.D. 527-45) invited a Severan stylite near Hierapolis (Aleppo)
to join the communion of the 'apostolic see' (evidently Antioch is meant

here) and of the catholic church, the stylite proposed ordeal by fire: each
of them should stand in flames to see who was unscathed. 1 Ephrem
accepted the challenge but found the stylite reluctant to descend from
his column. Accordingly he threw his omophorion on the flames, with
a prayer, and it emerged undamaged. The stylite was convinced and
received communion at Ephrem's hands on top of his pillar (36).
Stories of ordeal by fire, with the opposite result, were also told by the
Monophysites, as in John of Beth Rufina's Plerophories, 47. 2
The anti-ChaIcedonian pressure often seemed intolerable to the
Palestinian monks. At one time the military dux of Palestine Gebemer
was aSeveran, but Moschus and Sophronius were told by Anastasius,
presbyter at the Holy Sepulchre (the ancient name for the church was
'the Resurrection', Anastasis), that when Gebemer had arrived in the
entrance courtyard, he had avision of a ram attacking hirn with its horns
(49). An aristocratic lady Cosmiana, wife of the patrician Germanus,
who was likewise a Monophysite, was repelled by the Virgin herself
forbidding her to enter until she had accepted the ChaIcedonian com-
munion (48). 1t was always one of the strongest cards in the ChaIce-
donians' hand that they possessed all the holy places, including Sinai,
and were left in possession by the Moslems after 638.3
The Monophysites regarded the great apostasy of the emperor and his
time-serving, place-seeking bishops as the cause of every disaster. The
reign of terror under the emperor Phocas (604-10) was followed by
the thirty years of Heraclius' wars against the Persians, and the Arabs
arrived with the new zeal of Mahomet's militant religion to exploit a
catastrophic situation. Both ChaIcedonians and Monophysites fiercely
accused the other party of responsibility for the evident disfavour of
heaven. (The saying 'we have the government we deserve' was first
formulated in the seventh century by the monks : see Anastasius Sinaita,
Quaest. 16, P.G.lxxxix. 476-7.) Heraclius' tragedy was that he could not
resist the invaders with a church passionately divided; yet his most
I Fm the belief that truly holy men could survive fire Iike the Three Holy
Children cf. A.P. Syriac i. 62I (= Budge 629, ii, p. I45). A possibly Moschan
story in cod. Paris. gr. I596 (Nau, Rev. de ['Orient chretien, vii (I902), p. 6I5)
teIls of a Chalcedonian stylite of Asia who visited Constantinople to get imperial
help for his monastery and, while staying at the orphan hostel, vindicated his
faith against heretics by emerging unscathed from fire (Patr. Or. viii, p. 176).
2 Cf. Greg. Tur. glor. conf. 14; glor. mart. 80.
3 Anastasius Sinaita, Quaest. 1I7 (P.G. lxxxix. 769).


devout ecc1esiastical advisers were sure that the Arab victories were
heaven's punishment for the toleration of the monophysite schism. The
Copts looked back on Cyrus, possessed of double powers as prefect of
Egypt and patriarch of Alexandria, who surrendered the cityto theArabs

in 641, as having brought the judgement on the empire by his merciless
persecution of those who refused communion with hirn and his church.
The policy of coercion was a total failure in Egypt (as may be seen in the
Coptic Life of Samuel of Qalamun), and hardly more successful in Syria.
After all they had endured, it is not really so surprising that in Egypt and
Syria the number of immediate apostates to Islam was large. I
The empire's crisis explains some of the frenzy of the religious rivalry.
This rivalry goes far to explain the character of the miraculous ele-
ment in Moschus (see esp. 213). About 512-18 John of Beth Rufina,
the monophysite biographer of Peter the Iberian and his successor as
bishop of Maiuma by Gaza, wrote his Plerophories ('Assurances') to
report from oral tradition visions and prodigies proving the utter heresy
of the Christology of Chalcedon. 2 The tension between the parties led
to a heightening of the miraculous, often to an extravagant degree.
Moschus' purpose in writing the Meadow is not merely to edify but
to vindicate the bitterly controverted ecumenical council. The ultimate
objective of his work is the same as that of Sophronius' Miracles 0/ Saint
Cyrus and Saint John.
Yet the quest for visions and revelations was not strange. The
1 John of Nikiu, writing about 690, wrote his Chronicle to show that the Arab
conquest was God's judgement on the heresy of the empire in accepting Chal-
cedon (II6. 6; 120. 56 and 60). Cyrus alienated the Copts by his cruelty (II6. 14;
esp. 115. 9) and then sold Egypt to the Arabs under the illusion that the Arabs
would continue to keep Egypt Chalcedonian. In fact the Arabs brought the
Monophysites to power, and Cyrus poisoned hirnself (Severus, History 0/ the
Patriarchs 0/ Alexandria, ed. Evetts, Patr. Or. i. 495, whose account is to be
taken with Michael the Syrian (xi. 8, p. 433 Chabot) who says the Monophysite
patriarch Benjamin made a pact with the Arabs, selling them Alexandria on
condition that he got pos session of the churches). For arecent discussion see
J. Jarry, Annales Islamologiques, vi (1966), pp. I-30. For the apostates in Syria
see Anast. Sin., Hodegos, 22 (P.G.lxxxix. 284D); for Egypt see John ofNikiu II4.
I, and esp. 121. 10-lI on a Chalcedonian monk of Sinai who became a Moslem
soldier persecuting Christians. One man committed suicide rather than follow
the general apostasy, and his self-destruction was thoughtjustified: Nau, Oriens
Christ. ii (1902), p. 88. In Anast. Sin. (P.G. lxxxix. II53), followed by Theo-
phanes (p. 332 de Boor), the cause ofthe Arab conquest was Monothelitism.
2 Nau printed and translated the Syriac version in Patr. Or. viii. 1. It also
passed from Greek into Coptic since it occurs in a 6th- or 7th-century list of
books (W. E. Crum, Coptic Ostraca, 459), and is mentioned in the Coptic Anti-
phonary (Catalogue 0/ Coptic manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, p. 212)
as required reading for converts from Chalcedonianism. A Coptic fragment
was also published by Crum in his Theological Texts 1rom Coptic Papyri (1913).
no. 13. p. 62. Much of the work was used by Michael the Syrian (viii. I I).
72 H. CHADWICK
theological issues, expressed in a technical language borrowed from late

N eoplatonism, were too abstract to be easily comprehensible to ordinary
folk. How could one tell who was right? Who was to be judge in contro-
versies of faith? The appeal to the authority of the emperor seemed

wholly without force, since devotion to orthodoxy was the foundation
and condition of that authority.I The appeal to the miraculous was not
helped by the occasional pious fraud. About the year 589 the general
Philippicus, brother-in-Iaw of the emperor Maurice, built a new church
of the Virgin at Zeugma in Syria. On the feast day the door of the church
suddenly sprang open automatically, it was claimed, by the touch of the
Mother of God herself. But the Monophysites found the Chalcedonian
clergy had done it by some artifice. 2
The theological argument had ended in stalemate. Miracles could be
produced by both sides, so that a generation after Moschus' time Ana-
stasius of Sinai even issues a warning to his Chalcedonian readers that,
since wonders could be produced by Jannes and Jambres as well as by
Moses, by Simon Magus as well as by St. Pet er, no re1iance can be
placed upon them. Predictions can be produced by devils, or even by
physicians (among whom Arabs are particularly expert). A heretical
bishop of Cyzicus has even moved an olive-tree by his prayers. 3 So both
reason and reve1ation were ending in an identical deadlock. The only
remaining alternative seemed to be sanctity: 'Our failure to love God
and our neighbour is the sole cause of the schism' (Pratum 74).
One obvious external sign of sanctity was charitable almsgiving. Of
the merits of alms, in an age when political upheaval was multiplying the
miseries of the poor, there could be no argument. At every church porch
there would be a group of beggars, attendant upon the benevolence of
the faithful. 4 Generous alms might atone for much that was otherwise
amiss. A woman whose daughter had been wronged by the emperor
Zeno invoked the vengeance of the Virgin upon him. But the Virgin
appeared to her saying that, although she had often wished to avenge,
I Maximus Confessor (P.G. xci. 460) vividly describes the catastrophic effect
on the standing of the empress Martina in the eyes of the Chalcedonian Africans
when in 641 she instructed the prefect George to be nice to a nunnery of refugee
Monophysites from Egypt. See above, p. 46 n. 2 .
2 Michael the Syrian, x. 21 (p. 360 Chabot). For Philippicus in Syria see
Evagrius, h.e. vi. 3.

J Quaestiones, 20 (P.G. lxxxix. 519-25). The passage is one of the earliest
testimonies to Arab science, astonishing at this eady date.
4 John Chrysostom, Horn. in I Thess. xi. 3-5 (P.G.lxii. 464-8), impressively
describes the poor thronging porches of churches and martyria, and the pauper-
ism of itinerant street musicians. Cf. Evagrius, h.e. iv. 15. The Arab hadot who
solicited Sisinius in Aramaic while he was saying the office confessed that hunger
was her sole motive (Pratum 136).

yet Zeno's great generosity in alms stayed her hand (Pratum 175). For
Moschus almsgiving brings great reward. A man impoverished by his
wealthy father's beneficence to the poor had his fortune restored by
marriage to the daughter of devout and wealthy parents who, not wish-
ing her to marry a worldly man of their own class, left her in a church
praying, with the assurance that the first man to enter would be the
Lord's intended: by a singular providence he turned out to come from
an appropriate family of the right pedigree (201). Synesius, 'bishop in
Cyrene' (Moschus, like many since, forgets that he was a native of
Cyrene but became bishop of Ptolemais), persuaded a philosophernamed
Evagrius to give away his goods to the poor, with the proviso that he
would have a paper listing Evagrius' benefactions buried in his tomb.
After death Evagrius appeared to Synesius in a dream, and told hirn to
recover the paper, now signed to the effect that his outgoings had been
repaid in full (195).1 (On John the Almsgiver, see above, p. 55).
The best monks did not prize almsgiving from seIf-interest. A dedi-
cated ascetic would not accept alms at all (134). At Alexandria Moschus
and Sophronius visited the church of Theodosius and met a bald man
wearing coarse sackcloth to his knees, acting as if mad. For when they
gave the man five small coins he took them without a word, and after a
prostration left them on the ground (Pratum 111). 2 A story probably from
the Meadow, preserved in the Evergetinon (IV. ii. I), tells how Moschus
and Sophronius were talking with Abba Joseph in Ennaton near Alexan-
dria when a merchant from Aila (Eilat) offered hirn 3 nomismata saying,
'Take that, father, to pray for my ship, for I have sent it to Ethiopia.'
Sophronius advised Joseph to accept and then pass the money to some
needy brother. But Joseph feit it a double shame 'both to take what I do
not need and with my own hands to reap another's thorns'. To Sophro-
nius' question whether alms do good to the giver, Joseph replied that
in so me cases they may provoke God's wrath, since it depends on the
motive and the circumstances.
The old abba Isaiah of Gaza, friend of Peter the Iberian and a pillar in
the eyes of monophysite orthodoxy during the days of Zeno's Henoticon,
came to believe that true sanctity could be found even among the Chal-
cedonians, though never hirnself accepting Chalcedonian communion.
When consulted by two Chalcedonian monks he replied that they could
I The story appears without names in the Syriac Apophthegmata (ii. 44.
Bedjan=ii. 424 p. 242 Budge). It is hard to decide which positionis original, but
Moschus gives names and has a less dramatic version of the ending; probably
therefore the piece was first found in the Meadow and wandered thence into the
Apophthegmata.
2 For a monk pretending madness to preserve his independence cf. anon.
apophth. N 61 (=Pelagius and John, iv. 35 = Syr. i. 268 Bedjan, 274 Budge).
74 H. CHADWICK
be saved in their communion: 'There is no harm in the Council of the

Catholic Church: you are weIl as you are, you be1ieve well.'! Isaiah
had evidently recognized the truth, apparent to every reader of John
Moschus and his friend Sophronius, that the impassioned controversy for
and against the Christology of Chalcedon had become a matter of riyal
group loyalty. Men were not believers in one or two natures because
they had reached a conclusion after careful consideration of the intricate
questions at issue in the Christological debate. They held different
theological positions because of a sense of allegiance to their own
communion, to their own party, so that the least concession or deviation
from the acknowledged polemical position of the group seemed like
ambiguity, or compromise, or a failure in integrity, or 'trampling on
one's conscience'.2 H. CHADWICK
I The Greek text of this remarkable fragment is printed from cod. Paris. gr.
1596, s. XI, fol. 610, by Nau in Patrologia Orientalis, viii, p. 164. It is cited by
D. J. Chitty in J. T.S. N.S. xxii (April, 1971), p. 70.
2 This turn of phrase is characteristic for the period in the context of this
'ecumenical' discussion: cf. Cyril Scythop., Vita Euthymii, 30; Anastasius Sinaita,
Hodegos, 1 (P.G.lxxxix. 40D). It draws attention to one of the less commonly
noticed changes that Christianity brought to the ancient notion of conscience.
I have to thank Professor C. Mango, Dr. K. T. Ware, and Mr. Philip
Pattenden for friendly help with queries.
11
HOLY IMAGES AND LIKENESS
Gi/bert Dagron
Yourartists, then, like Phidiasand Praxiteles, went reeognized as true and, therefore , valid if the artist
up, I suppose, to heaven and took a copy of the and the art disappear, in other words, if subjeetiv-
forms of the gods, and then reproduced these by
ity acting as a screen, and if an illusion whieh
their art, or was there any other influence which
presided over and guided their moulding? would be a lie, disappear.
There was, said Apolloni)ls. ... Imagination To obtain such a representation "naturally" con-
wrought these works, a wiser and subtIer artist by forming to its "prototype," only hagiography is ca-
far than imitation; for imitation can only create as pable of a radical solution, because it is miraculous.
its handiwork what it has seen, but imagination The saint or Christ hirnself hel ps the powerless
equally what it has not seen; for it will conceive of
its ideal with reference to the reality. artist, or takes his plaee in order to achieve an ab-
Philostratus, The Life 01 Apollonius 01 Tyana, VI , 19 solute likeness. 2 In this multiform topos, the image
creates itself; it is a photograph, a relie. In the ab-
I. PAINTING AFTER THE MODEL's LIKENESS
sence of the shorteut of the miracle, there is also
T he Byzantines said that their beautiful icons,
which see m to us to be disembodied, stylized,
the Ion ger route of tradition, which traces the most
sacred iconographie types back to images suppos-
idealized images, were the exaet likeness of their edly taken from life (like the portraits of St. Luke'
models, that they were both the reproduction of or those of the painter of the Life of Pancratius of
(bI'tU1tOl~U) and equivalent to (O~o(Ol~U) the mod- Taormina 4 ). This does not eliminate the artist but
els. Sometimes, however, this resemblance seems depersonalizes hirn by plaeing hirn within a line of
to be eonerete, as are facial features, physical eh ar- copyists. He is not responsible for the likeness. An
acteristics, dress, and posture; sometimes it is con- ambiguous aneedote was related to Russian pil-
eeived of as more abstract, like the relationship be- grims in Constantinople before a mosaic of Christ
tween a word and what it represents. For instance,
both an inseription and a drawing were called 'See, e.g., Vita S. Niconis Metanoeite (BHG, 1666-67), ed. Sp.
Lambros, Nto,'EAA. 3 (1906), 179-80; ed. O. Lampsides, '0 ex
yQu</>ii, and the verb YQ6.</>ELV means the act of IIövtOU Ö01o, Nex",v 6 METUVOElts (Athens, 1983), 90-92 and
painting as weil as describing. 1 One must be able 202-4 ; tr ans . in C. Mango, The Art o[the Bymntine Empire, 312-
to say "It is he" or "It is she," and thereby confer 1453 (Englewood ClifTs, N.]., 1972),212-13. The artist was un-
on an unambiguous, agreed upon , stable pictorial successful in drawing the portrait of the saint from an oral de-
scription. Suddenly a monk a ppeared and told hirn that here-
language of a given culture, a status similar to that sembled Nikon. It was Nikon hirnself, a post mortem apparition.
of the written or spoken word. It has to do with The artist discovered the exact image of the saint miraculously
the truth but also with effectiveness, sinee the be- reproduced on the icon, and all he had to do was add the colors.
'See now H. Belting, Bild und Kult: Eine Geschichte des Bildes
liever hopes for a direct relationship with the holy vor dem Zeitalter der Kunst (Munieh, 1990), 70-72. The legend
one through his or her image. In a religious paint- grew as time went on and made St. Luke inta a painter of the
ing, one can recognize not only a model but also Apostles .nd notjust of the Virgin and Child.
• Pending Cynthia]. Stallman's edition, the text of the Vita o[
an artist ("It is a Virgin by Raphael") ; one can St. Pancratius o[Taormina (BHG, 1410) must be consulted in the
vaunt the skill of this artist and compete with hirn excerpts given by A. N. Veselovskij, lz istorii romana i povesti, in
by trying to create the same illusion with rheto- Sbornik otdelenija russkago jazika i slovesnosti imperatorskoj Akademii
Nauk 40, 2 (SI. Petersburg, 1886),65-128. This work was writ-
ric-in an €x</>QuaL~-instead of with form and ten in the laUer half of the 8th century to prove th e quasi-
color. On the contrary, a cult image ean only be apostolicity of the seat of Taormina, but may contain an older
eore; cf. M. Van Esbroeek and U. Zanetti, "Le dossier hagio-
graphique d e S. Pancrace de Taormina," paper read at the sym-
ICf. H. Maguire. Art and Eloquence in Byzantium (Princeton, posium Storia della Sicilia e tradizione agiografica nella tarda
1981), 9. antichita, Catania, 20-22 May 1986.
24 GILBERT DAGRON
in St. Sophia. 5 Pleased with his nearly finished non sit, aut etiam si verum est-quod rarissime po-
work. the artist eried out. "I have made you just as test aecidere-non hoc tarnen fide ut teneamus
you were!" To whieh an angry Christ replied, be- quidquam prodest, sed ad aliud aliquid utile, quod
fore paralysing the artist, "And when have you per hoc insinuatur"). Augustine excluded apriori
ever seen me?" The likeness was perfeet, but this the possibility of an image resembling its subject.
was not due to the painter. He recognized that "the face of the Lord (or the
Apart from hagiography, there are other re- Virgin or St. Paul) va ried infinitely aceording to
sponses, less definitive but more thought-out, to the different representations which each person
the eonundrum of authentie reproduetion, whieh makes" ("Nam et ipsius Dominicae facies eamis in-
at least demonstrate an awareness of the problem. numerabilium cogitationum diversitate variatur et
Let us look briefly at three well-known texts and, fingitur ..."). He accepted this diversity due to the
through them, at three different approaehes and personal imagination of each believer and artist,
sensibilities. and he understood that this implies an inherent
(1) In possibly authentie fragments read at the contradiction, since Christ, the historical eharacter,
iconoclastie Synod of Hieria in 754 and preserved "was unique, whoever he was" C. .. quae tarnen
in the refutation made by Patriarch Nicephorus, uniea erat, quaecumque erat"). The solution is to
Epiphanius of Salamis denied any historical truth aceept these dubious representations, but so as not
for the false images of the prophets, the Apostles, to render them "false objeets" ("Nimirum autem
and Christ which were produced by painters solely cavendum est, ne eredens animus id quod non vi-
from their own imagination (E~ [öCac:; aln;wv det, fingat sibi aliquid quod non est, et speret dili-
EvvoCac:; ... E~ lmovoCac:; ... uno [öCac:; EvvoCac:; ÖL- gatque quod falsum est"); one must not stop here,
aVOO1Jf,lfVOL). The representations of Christ with but reach beyond them, by thought and through
long hair, a bearded Peter with short hair, and a faith, to the truth that they depict. This text offers
bald-headed Paul were not supported by any his- the basis for religious painting as it will be prac-
torical evidence. 6 Like Christ in the anecdote, Epi- ticed in the West, but does not take cult images into
phanius and the iconoclasts echoed his words in account, as it leaves figurative representation on
asking the painter, "When did you see them?" but the level of individual imagination and aeeepts the
came to the conclusion that there was a total ab- image only as a neeessary but insufficient transi-
sence of likeness and condemned the sacred image tion stage.
as a degrading invention. (3) In an answer in the Amphilochia, Photius, like
(2) In some beautiful passages of the De Trini- Augustine, does not believe in the possibility of
tate,7 Augustine explains that one cannot love with- painting Christ and the saints as they were, but the
out knowing nor know without seeing or imagin- differences which he recognizes and aeknowledges
ing ("Sed quis diligit quod ignorat ... Nemo diligit between various representations of the same holy
Deum antequam sciat. Et quid est Deum scire, nisi person, in particular Christ, are for hirn eultural
eum mente conspicere firmeque perspicere?"). and not individual. 8 The Greeks, the Indians, and
The believer who reads the Gospel or Paul's the Ethiopians think that the Savior came on earth
Epistles cannot but represent Christ and the in their likeness; but this is no reason for doubting
Apostles with bodily forms. "Whether this image the existence of a historie and unique Christ.
corresponds to reality, whieh is rare, or not, what These differenees are of the same nature as lin-
is important is not to believe in it, but to achieve guistic differences; the Gospels are the Gospels
another worthwhile knowledge whieh is suggested whether written in Greek or in another language.
by this representation" (" ... quod autem verum One ean hesitate over the physical appearanee of
Christ without doubting his incamation. The icon
'Anthony of :-.rovgorod (1200). ed. Hr. M. Loparev. "Kniga defines itself not only by the form of the model,
palomnik. Skazanie mest svjatyh vo Caregrade Antonija arhie-
piscopa l';ovgorodskago v 1200 godu," Pravoslavn)'i Palestinskij
but by the subject's disposition, the localization of
Sbornik 17, 3 (St. Petersburg, 1899), 7; trans. B. de Khitrowo, the image in a holy place, the forms of worship
Itineraires russes en Orient (Geneva, 1889),90. surrounding it, the inscription and the symbols ae-
6Ed. G. Ostrogorsky, Studien zur Geschichte des byzantinischen
Bildmtreites (Breslau, 1929), 71-72, § 24-26; on the problem of
eompanying it. In spite of cultural specificities, the
authenticity, see most. recently P. Maraval's clarification, "Epi- ieon's meaning, strueture, and finality are every-
phane, docteur des iconoclastes," in Nide 11. 787-1987, doule
sücles d'images religieuses, cd. Fr. Boespflug and N. Lossky (Paris, 'Amphilochia, 205, PG 101. cols. 948-52; ed. B. Laourdas and
1987),51-62. L. G. Weste rink, Epistulae et Amphilochia, I (Leipzig, 1983), 108-
'VIII, 4-5. 11. ep. 65, to the abba Theodore (864/865?).
HOLY IMAGES AND LIKENESS 25
where the same. An important step has been could be read in the horoscope of the new-born
taken. Photius no longer spoke of the icon as a child,'4 a thief or a fugitive slave could be identi-
simple representation but as a cultural object and fied from his description, fraudulent substitutions
an object ofworship with its own raison d'etre. He could be foiled, or the portrait of the typical am-
no longer evoked the imagination of the painter bitious or jealous person could be drawn. About a
but collective imagination, that of a Christian civi- hund red words, classified under elementary head-
lization which recognizes itself in "its" holy images ings, enabled one to differentiate people positively
and possesses the code for them. A slightly spe- by height, skin color, shape of the nose, hair color
cious analogy with the plurality of languages al- and style, the color and cut of the beard, etc. In
lows us to set aside the problem of the image's like- the first century A.D.(?), Diktys and Dares had used
ness, and to replace it with the problem of its the formula of the eikonismos in their 'journals"
identification. on the Trojan War to paint a portrait of sixteen
Greek and twelve Trojan heroes whom the authors
were supposed to have seen with their own eyes. 15
11. IDENTlFYING BY WORD AND IMAGE Ajax, the son of Oileus, is "talI, robust, with honey-
To identify a person using simple physical char- colored skin, he has a squint, a beautiful nose,
acteristics, the Greeks and Romans had a codified black curly hair, a thick beard, an elongated face,
vocabulary and a formula, the eikonismos, at their is a bold warrior, magnanimous, obsessed with
disposal. This formula was widely used in fiscal women."16
and administrative documents in Egypt,9 in works Thereby a curiosity was satisfied that had not
of physiognomylO and astrology,1I and in the been sated in the Iliad, and Homer's poem was
Chronicles of the Reigns.12 By tradition, an unknown transformed into a kind of Hollywood film. It is
person could be described,13 a former or future hardly surprising to find in Malalas, in the sixth
emperor could be evoked, the future face of a man century, descriptions of several emperors and of
the apostles Peter and Paul in the same style as of
9S ee J. Fürst, "Untersuchungen zur Ephemeris des Diktys those of the Trojan War, for the Gospels, by virtue
von Kreta;' Philologus 61 (1902),377-79 and 597-614;.J. Hase- of their lacunas, call on the imagination as much
bröck, Das Signalement in den Pap)'rusurkunden, Papyrusinstitut as the Iliad. Around the same period as the Troika
Heidelberg 3 (Berlin-Leipzig, 1921); A. Caldara, I cannotati per-
sonali nei documenti d'Egitto dell'etd greca e romana, Studi della Scu- forgers, their counterparts, the makers of Chris-
ola papirologica 4, 2 (Milan. 1924); G. Misener, "Iconistic Pür- tian apocrypha, readily gave the heroes of the New
traits," CPh 19 (1924), 97-123; G. Hübsch, Die Personalangaben Testament a face, a recognizable appearance, a
als Identijizierungsvermerke im Recht der gräko-ägyptischen Papyri,
Berliner juristische Abhandlungen 20 (Berlin, 1968). summary portrait drawn up and transmitted from
lOSee esp. E. Evans, "Descriptions of Personal Appearance in an alleged visual account,17 an icon in words in re-
Roman History and Biography," HSCPh 46 (1935), 43-84; sponse to an immense desire to visualize. From an
eadem, Physiognomies in the Ancient World, TAPS, n.s. 59. 5 (Phil-
adelphia, 1969); G. Dagron, "Image de bete et image de Dieu:
La physiognomonie animale dans la tradition grecque et ses 14See, e.g., D. Pingree, "The Horoscope of Constantine VII
avatars byzantins," in Poikilia: Etudes offertes aJ. -P. Vernant (Paris, Porphyrogenitus," DOP 27 (1973), 224, 229.
1987), 69-80. 15Under the name of Diktys and Dares, two forged "Ac-
l'See esp. Ptolemy, ApotelesmatlCa, II1.l2, ed. F. Boll and A. E. counts" of the Trojan War written by presumed eyewitnesses
Boer (Leipzig, 1957), 142-47. Ptolemy is cited word for word have survived: Diktys of Crete claimed he was ldomeneus' com-
in Hephaestio Thebanus, Apotelesmatica, II.12, ed. D. Pingree, panion, and Dares asserted he had fought in defense of Troy.
I, (Leipzig, 1973), 137-40; see also Abu Ma'shar-Albumasaris, Both texts were apparently "\'fitten in Creek in the first century
De revolutionibus nativitatum, app. 2, ed. D. Pingree (Leipzig, A.D., but they have been transmitted only in much later Latin
1968), 245 f. A standard usage of eikonismoi is to be found in the translations (4th and 5th-6th centuries?): Dictvs Cretensis,
texts edited in the Catalogus eodieum astrologorum graecorum, l- Ephemeris belli Troiani, ed. W. Eisenhut (Leipzig, '1958); Dares
XII (Brussels, 1898-1953). Phrygii, De excidio Troiae historia, ed. F. Meister (Leipzig, 1873).
12 For instance, in Malalas and Cedrenus, Leo Crammaticus, The physical descriptions of twelve Trojan heroes and sixteen
the Ps.-Symeon, the Seriptor ineertus de Leone Armenio, for the Creek heroes disappeared in the Latin Diktys, but were taken
Byzantine emperors; in a horoscope wrongly ascribed to Ste- from the Creek Diktys and were reproduced verbatim by Mal-
phanus of Alexandria and in the Annals of Eutychius of Alex- alas (Chronographia, Bonn ed .. 103-6) and by Isaac Porphyro-
andria for the caliphs. Cf. Fürst, "Untersuchungen," 616-22; genitus, son of Alexis I Comnenus (ed. H. Hinck, in Polemonis
C. Head, "Physical Description of the Emperors in Byzantine Declamationes [Leipzig, 1873],80-88).
Historical Writing," Byzantion 50 (1980), 226-40; eadem, Impe- 16 Malalas, Chronographia, 104; lsaac Porphyrogenitus, op. eiL,
rial Byzantine Portrait: A Verbal and Graphie Gallery (New York, 83. Ajax is said to be "obsessed by women" because the authors
1982); B. Baldwin, "Physical Description of Byzantine Emper- of posthomerica declared he had raped Cassandra in Athena's
ors," Byzantion 51 (1981),8-20. temple.
13 As did the astrologist whom Liutprand met in 968 in Con- 17 For Paul, Aeta Pauli ef Theclae, 3, ed. R. A. Lipsius and M.
stantinople, Liudprendi legatio, 42, ed. J. BeckeT, Die Werke Liud- Bonnet, Acta apostolorum apoerypha, I (Leipzig, 1891),237, and
prands von Cremona, MGH, SeriplRerGerm, 3rd ed., 198. Acta Pelri et Pauli, 9 and 21, ibid., I, 183, 188; for Bartholomeus,
26 GILBERT DAGRON
unknown source, Malalas teils us that St. Peter was zus)," age, hair and beard, and more often, for
"old, of medium height, with a receding hairline, convenience, costume, posture, and material attri-
white skin, pale complexion, eyes dark as wine, a butes. The cult image is put together somewhat
thick beard, big nose, eyebrows that met, an up- like the "identikit" picture of our criminal investi-
right posture, intelligent, quick-tempered, change- gators by approximations based on types.
able, cowardly [or at least timid, because of the (3) Neither the eikonismos nor the icon com-
"denial"], inspired by the Holy Spirit, a worker of pletely breaks away from these types. The person
miracles." 18 described or represented is integrated into classi-
Let us pause a moment to evoke some striking fiable categories (bishops, hermits, monks, sol-
analogies between a verbal eikonismos and the diers). The person is linked to more or less refined
painted icon. moral and physical models. 24 The writer or the
(I) Contrary to the Eltq,QUOLt:;, which plays with painter brings his model to the threshold of indi-
artistic effects and establishes the place of the art- viduality, but it is up to the imagination of the
ist, eikonismos simply aims at characterizing a per- reader or spectator to do the rest: to fill in the
son, never putting hirn or her "in context," but fixed form, give it life, and make it into a perfect
making the subject appear posed, fixed, with a va- image.
cant expression, as in an identity photograph. In (4) The ill-defined, uncompleted quality of the
papyri it is the equivalent of a signature, 19 and in icon and the eikonismos springs from their common
historical accounts the equivalent of an eyewit- function: to identify the runaway slave, the proph-
ness. 20 esied emperor, the saint, that other "wanted" man,
Similarly, the cult image eliminates anything cir- when he appears. Recognition is the important
cumstantial, and aims at pure presence. thing. The physical features of Christ, the Virgin,
(2) The eikonismos focuses on the particular; it or the saints, recorded by presumed eyewitnesses,
painstakingly records every scar on the face, to the are transmitted by description or painting in the
point that in papyri this singularity enables one to expectation of a reappearance. This is what we
condense the description, and the words oUA1'j might call the prospective dimension of the eikon-
("scar") and ELltovtDf.L6t:; are often synonymous. 21 ismos and the icon, the importance of which we
Such is the icon, where individualization is ob- shall see later.
tained, as Ernst Kitzinger observed,22 by accumu- Since the genre existed, we might have expected
lated details which gradually modify a general to find in hagiographic literature-which was not
schema: sometimes a scar (for Gregory of Nazian- reluctant to make forgeries-an eikonismos for al-
most every saint, vouching for his or her historicity
and foreshadowing his icon. If there were at-
Passio Bartholomei, 2, ibid., II, I (Leipzig, 1898), 131; for An· tempts in this direction, they must have been quite
drew, Acta Andreae apostoli cum laudatione contexta, 12, ed. M.
Bonnet, AnaiBolll3 (1894), 320. For a good overview, see Fürst, limited. As mentioned earlier, the apocryphal Acts
"Untersuchungen;' 407-17. give painters some clues; the two main apostles are
'8Chronographia, 256: YEgWV urrfjgXE, 'ft 1\AlxC\l described in Malalas as we see them in paintings;
Öl~OlQla[o<;, ava<j>dAa<;, xovö68gl!;, öAorr6ALO, <~v xdgav xat
YEVflOV, AE""6" urr6XAwgo,, otvorra~<; toll, 6<j>8aA~o11<;, EU, and several authors of saints' lives describe their
ltwywv, ~axg6glvO<;, aUvo<j>gl!<;, avaXa8ij~EVO<;, <j>Q6Vl~O<;, 61;11· heroes with the obvious intention of fixing an ico-
XOAo" Eu~"dßA~m<;, Ö"A6<;, <j>eEyy6~fVo, urril rrvE11~am<; nography by this kind of eye-witness account. 25
ayCOl! xat eal!~mOl!QYÜlv. See ibid., 257 for Pau!.
[gef. Hübsch, Die Personalangaben, 96-108, in comments on But the cases are rare. The Synaxarion of Constan-
formulae such as Elx6vlxa (or eypd<j>~ xai fixov(a8~) <j>aI-'EVOlJ tinople, compiled in the second half of the tenth
~~ dMval ypd~~ma. century from other synaxaria and menologia,26 gives
2\150 much so that the eikonismos has become an essential re-
quisite for historical forgeries, associated wirh expressions like, some interesting indications, which I summarize
"I saw it with my own eyes"; cf. W Speyer, Die literarische Fäl- here. Only thirty-two from more than a thousand
schung im Altertum (Munieh, 1971), 73-74; for Diktys: Malalas,
Chronographia, 107.1-8.
21 For instance, in P Oxy. VII, 1022 (A.D. 103): "sine iconismo" 23 See the eikonismos given for Gregory in the "Descriplions of
("no special sign"; in Creek, OUA:llv OUX EXEL); "iconismus super- the 'God-bearing' Fathers," M. Chatzidakis, 'Ex twV 'EÄJt(ou tüU
cilio sinistro" ("with a scar on his left eyebrow"); "iconismus 'Pw~a(ou, 'Err.'E<.Bl!I;.:Err. 14 (1938), 412; reproduced in the
frontis parte dextra" ("with a scar on the right-hand side of his Synaxarium Cp, cols. 422-23.
forehead"). Since Antiquity the significance of scars in recogni- "Cr. Dagron, "Image de bete," 72-74.
tion is a literary topos: in Euripides' Electra, ürestes is identified nSee, for example, the descriptions of Euthymius and Cyria-
by a scar near his eyebrow; in the Odyssey, Ulysses is recognized cus, Theodore the Studite, and Paul of Latros, cited be1ow,
bv a scar on his knee. notes 34 and 37-38 .
. 22"Some Reflections on Portraiture in Bvzantine Art," ZRVI "Cr. H. Delehaye, "Le Synaxaire de Sirmond;' AnalBoll 14
8.1 (=Me/anges Georges Ostrogorsky) (1963), 185-93. (1895),396-434; idem, Synaxarium Cp, Prolegomena, lI-VI; J.
notiees of prophets and saints give physieal de- jor and minor prophets made for artists and there-
seriptions of the eikonismos type." Twenty-four of fore entirely different in style and aim, twelve of
these thirty-two eikonismoi are to be found in what whieh appear in the Synaxarion;3Ü (3) descriptions
is commonly, but ineorreetly, ealled the "Handbook of the apostles Peter and Paul akin to those of Mal-
of Painting by Elpios-Ulpius the Roman,"" whieh alas, but whieh are enriehed by indieations drawn
is a mixture of disparate elements: (1) physieal de- from the Acta apocrypha Pauli et Theclae.'l
seriptions of eleven "God-bearing Fathers" ex- The eight eikonismoi of the Synaxarion not found
traeted from a eompilation of eeclesiastieal history in either of these sourees have a relatively preeise
by a eertain Elpios-Ulpius, ten of whieh appear in hagiographie origin: in the Historia Lausiaca for
the Synaxarion;29 (2) a deseription of seventeen ma- Maearius of Alexandria,32 in a laudatio derived
from it for Mark the Monk," in the works of Cyril
of Seythopolis for abbas Euthymius and Cyria-
Noret, "Menologes, Synaxaires, Menees, essai de clarification eus,34 in the Apophthegmata Patrum for Arsenius,35
d'une terminologie," AnalBoll86 (1968), 21-24.
27 If one excludes the ekphraseis of martyrs, written in a COffi-
in diverse hagiographie texts for Mark the Evan-
pletely different style, drawing a conventional, unpersonalized gelist,36 Theodore the Studite,37 and Paul of La-
model-portrait: tall in stature, with skin as white as snow, red
cheeks, hair like gold (see the descriptions of Theodore of
Perge, Mercurius, Sahas Stratelates, Philaretus, Synaxarium CF, the Synaxarium under the date of 23 August (ed. H. Delehaye,
cols. 65, 259, 627, 695); and if one excludes the theatrical evo- cols. 917-18, apparatus, lines 56-58); in the Synaxarium "of Sir-
cations ofJudas (ibid., col. 788) andJohn the Baptist (ibid., cols. mond," the notice about Eustathius appears under the date of
931-32), which are also ekphraseis rather than eikonismoi. 21 February (ibid., cols. 480-81) and does not inc1ude an eikon-
28The text was first published by A. F. C. Tischendorf, Anec- lsmos.
dota sacra et profana (Leipzig, 1861), 129 ff, based on Coislin 296 30 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Malachi, Zephaniah, Hag-
(12th century); M. Chatzidakis published a much better edition, gai, Habakkuk, Nahum, Jonas, Amos, and Hosea (Chatzidakis,
based on an examination of Mosquensis synod. 108, of 993, and op. cit., 409-10; Synaxarium Cp, cols. 667, 647, 833, 317 , 368,
not just the Coislin: 'Ex "twv 'EA:lt(OU "to'Ü 'PWl!oCOU , 275, 313, 272-73, 269, 64, 750, 144). These physical descrip-
'E1t.'Et.BlJ~.L1t. 14 (1938), 393-414; fairly recently, F. Winkel- tions gathered by the 12th-century copyist aimed solely at pro-
mann took up the subject afresh and puhlished a text which viding artists with models for distinguishing one prophet from
juxtaposes tht:. "Ulpius Extracts" and their transcription in the another. Some indications, such as "Zephaniah: resemhles John
Synaxarium: "Uber die körperlichen Merkmale der gottbeseel- the Theologian with a slightly rounded beard;' do not imply
ten Väter," in Fest und Alltag in Byzanz, a collection of articles that the "handbook" contained adescription of John the Theo-
dedicated to H.-G. Beck, ed. G. Prinzing and D. Simon (Mu- logian now lost: the artists knew how to represent hirn. The
nich, 1990), 107-27. These authors, especially Winkelmann, Synaxarium CP draws on the same source, but transcribes the
think that the Coislin retains the original form of a handbook notices in a more literary style, misunderstands some words,
for painters written by Elpios-Ulpius after 836 and before 993, and produces some misinterpretations; five eikonismoi were,
which the Synaxarium CP used as a direct source. It is difficult to moreover, omitted for obvious reasons: some words not under-
accept this interpretation, as I shall have the opportunity to stood for Baruch and Joel, indications contrary to tradition for
point out elsewhere at greater length. The title of the Moscow Zeehariah (young instead of old), comparisons for Obadiah and
manuscript CE" tWV 0"'),1t(0" tOV 'PW].lu(OlJ Ul'XIllO),OYOU].lfvWV Micah ("resembles the apostle Jarnes," "resembles Cosmas the
tfi, e",,),~oLUOtL"~' lotol'(u, 1tEQi XUl'U"tfiQwv OW].lUtL"WV 8EO- Anargyrus").
q>6QOYV J'tOtEQWV) seems to indicate that Ulpius was the compiler "Chatzidakis, op. cit., 400-402, 411-12; Synaxarium Cp, cols.
of an ecclesiastical his tory, living in Rome or Roman in origin, 778 (Peter), 779-80 (Paul). On references given in the Acta
and probably writing at a fairly early period (5th-6th century?), Pauli et Theclae, see above note 17.
from whose work a later copyist must have extracted various 32Synaxarium Cp, col. 404; Palladius, Historm Lausiaca, 18, ed.
eikonismoi from the 4th-5th century Fathers, adding portraits of C. Butler, The Lausiac History of Palladius (Cambridge, 1898-
Patriarchs Tarasius (d. 806) and Nicephorus (d. 828/829). Soon 1904; repr. Hildesheim, 1967), 11, 58, where the eikonismos is
other extracts were welded onto this eore, whieh grew like a really equivalent to an eyewitness, since the author asserted he
snowball, and the text of the 12th-century Coislin, with a title had seen Macarius of Alexandria with his own eyes (prooim.,
that artifieially retained the name of Elpios- Ulpius, and refer- ibid., 11, 4).
ences to the "God-hearing" Fathers, is only a jumble of odd, "Synaxarium Cp, col. 511; unpublished laudatio, BHG, 2246.
short extracts on Adam, the prophets, Christ, Peter, and Paul. Mark the Monk is apparently a repliea of Mark of Alexandria.
As a result, it eannot he said that the S')'naxarium CP drew its "Synaxarium Cp, cols. 405 and 89; Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita
deseriptive notes from a handbook of the later 10th century Euthymii, 40, 50, ed. E. Schwartz, Kyrillos von Skythopolis (Leipzig,
which was identical to the Coislin, and, even less, can the Syn- 1939),59,73; Vita Cyriaci, 21, ibid., 235.
axarium be used as Winkelmann did, to reconstitute this hand- "Synaxarium Cp, cols. 663-64, apparatus, lines 53-55;
book in its most comprehensive state: the Synaxarium borrowed Apophthegmata patrum, Arsenius, 42, PG 65, co!. 108.
from the "Ulpius Extracts" for the "God-bearing" Fathers, and 36Synaxarium Cp, col. 630, in a hyper-rhetorical style. A por-
from other sources-the same as the Coislin's eopyist tran- trait of Mark is preserved in the Passio S. Marci evangelistae
scribed-for the prophets and apostIes. (BHG, 1035), 11, ActaSS, April 111, XLVII; see also the brief text
29Dionysius Areopagita, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Cae- De forma corporis ejus (BHG, 1038f) in Perizonianus F 10 C. Van
sarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chry- de Vorst and H. Delehaye, Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum
sostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Patriarchs Tar- graecorum Germaniae, Belgiae, Angliae, SubsHag 13 (Brussels,
asius and Nicephorus (Chatzidakis, op cit. , 412-14; Synaxarium 1913), 250.7, and in Vaticanus gr. 1660, an April menülogion,
Cp, cols. 102,422-23,366,383,399,219,399-400,546,488, dated 916, C. Giannelli, Codices Vaticani Graeci. Codices 1485-
724). The eikonismos of Eustathius of Antioch, a relatively minor 1683 (Vatican, 1950),397.22.
character who is, moreover, chronologically misplaced in the 31 Synaxarium Cp, col. 216; Vita Theodori Studitae a Michaele mon.
Moscow manuscript, appears in only one of the manuscripts of (BHG, 1754),56, PG 99, col. 313, description reproduced in the
28 GILBERT DAGRON
tTOS. 38 We can condude, therefore, that the synax- appearance was unworthy and made all men reject
arist carried out a systematic inquiry, and that he him"),.o to Psalm 22:7 ("But I am a worm and no
carefully reproduced all the descriptions of the man, areproach of men and despised by the
saints which he came across in the texts and to people"), and 2 Cor. 5: 16 ("Though we have
wh ich he gave the status of eye-witness accounts. known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth
But he found only a few and invented none, by know we hirn no more"). This cn;l!w~ and aELö1'j~
proceeding, for example, with a sort of retrover- Christ'! discourages representation, just as the
sion of images into words. And yet, he did occa- polymorphism that various currents (induding the
sionally examine the icons for information not Gnostic) attributed to the Savior. This polymorph-
found in books: ifhe dedared St. Therapon ofCy- ism made hirn appear to the disciples and later
prus to be an ascetic monk before he became a generations in the symbolic forms of a child, an
bishop, it was because he had seem hirn portrayed adult, and an old man (as is the case in the apoc-
as SUCh.'9 ryphal Acta Iohannis),42 and , more generally, in the
If the written eikonismos does not long continue form adapted to the level of perfection and psy-
to accompany the cult image, it is because sacred chology of everyone: with Paul's features for The-
iconography soon had no Ion ger any need for the da, who loves Christ through Pau!.43 Origen wrote:
detour of words. From the sixth century onward, "Even if there was just one Jesus, he was multiple
and especially during the iconoclastic period, leg- in aspect für the spirit, and those who looked at
ends proclamed the main types of icons aXELpo- hirn did not see hirn in the same way."44 The poly-
lto(rj1:oL (not made by human hands) or "apostolic,"
and certainly miraculous. Since then, the image
40 Here I have translated the Greek text of the Septuagint,
simply reproduced itself. It bore its own justifica- which is unambiguous.
tion. It no longer needed historical confirrnation, "Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone Judaeo, 14 and 49, PG 6, cols.
for it was history itself. 505, 584; tii IWQ<I>ii auto'; tii ÖUOflÖfotatn in the ApocryphaJ
Acts of Thomas, ed. R. A. Lipsius and M. Bonnet, Acta aposto-
lorum apocrypha, 11, 2 (Leipzig, 1903), 162. Other referenees,
III. CONSENSUS: AN EXAMPLE OF notably to element of Alexandria and Origen, are to be found
THE IMAGE OF CHRIST in the artide ').osus," DACL, VII, 2 (1927), cols. 2395, 2397-
2400, and in A. Grillmeier, Der Logos am Kreuz: Zur christolo-
It is the consensus of those who look at the cult gischen Symbolik der älteren Kreuzigungsdarstellungen (Munich,
1956),42-47.
image which gives it what could be called its truth. ., Acta Ioannis, 88-89, 93, ed. E. Junod and J.-D. Kaestli, Cor-
When this consensus is created, the image has only pus christianorum, series apocryphorum I (Turnhout, 1983),
to resemble itself: it is its own point of reference. 191-93, 197-99; see also Acta Petn cum Simone, 21, ed. R. A.
Lipsius and M. Bonnet, I (Leipzig, 1891), 69; Acta Andreae et
For iconography escapes not only from the ca- Matthiae. 17-18 and 33, ibid. , 11, 1 (Leipzig, 1898),84-89,115-
prices of the artist, but also from the constraints of 16; Acta Petn et Andreae, 2 and 16, ibid., 11, I, 117-18 , 124; The
historicity. Nothing illustrates this better than the Shepherd of Herrnas, 18-23, ed. and trans. R. Joly, Hermas. Le
Pasteur, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1968), 126-39. Cf. J. E. Weis-
progressive elaboration of the image of Christ, of Liebersdorf. Christus und Apostelbilder: Einfluss der Apokryphen auf
which aseries of texts helps us to retrace the vari- die ältesten Kunsttypen (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1902),30-52. On
ous stages. the polymorphism of Christ, see Grillmeier, Der Logos, 49-55;
It begins with a refusa!. Christ was ugly accord-
J. E. Menard, "Transfiguration et polymorphie chez Origene,"
in Epektasis: Milanges patristiques offerts au Cardinal Jean Daniilou
ing to numerous Christians during the first centu- (Paris, 1972), 367-83; A. Orbe, Christologia gnostica (Madrid,
ries, who refer to Isaiah 53:2-3 ("He had neither 1976), 11, 127-34; E. Junod, "Polymorphie du Dieu Sauveur,"
in Gnosticisme et monde hellinistique, Publication de l'Institut Ori-
good appearance nor glory; we have seen hirn and entaliste de Louvain 27 (Louvain , 1982), 38-46; Junod and
he was without good appearance or beauty, but his Kaestli, eds .. Acta Iohannis, 11, 466-93 and 698-700, whieh in-
cludes a more comprehensive bibliography (470 note I).
43 Acta Pauli ct Theclae, 21, ed. R. A. Lipsius and M. Bannet,
Vita Theodori a Theodoro Daphnopata (?) (BHG, 1755). 113 , ibid .. Acta apostolorum apocrypha, I (Leipzig, 1891),250.
co!. 216. 44Contra Celsum, 11,64 and IV, 16, ed. and trans. M. Bonnet,
3!'.Synaxarium CF, (ols. 312-13, apparatus, Hnes 44-46; Vita S. I, SC 132 (Paris, 1967),434-37,11, SC 136 (Paris, 1968),220-
Pauli junioris, 45, ed. H. Delehaye, in Th. Wiegand, Der Latmos 23; passages cited by M.onard, op. eil., 368. See also the Gospel
(Berlin, 1913), 131; description reproduced in theLaudatio, 53, according to Philip, Sentence 26, ed. and trans. J. E. M.onard,
ibid., 154. L'Evangile selon Philippe (Paris, 1967), 58-61 (text) , 145-47
"Synaxanum CF, co!. 710: "That he had chosen the life of a (commentary): "(Christ) did not reveal hirnself as he was in re-
monk is what his pietures show by portraying hirn like one and ality, but as he was seen: great to the great, humble to the
dressed as such," The Synaxarium notiee reproduces the indica· humble, an angel for the angels" ; the Gospel accordi!}g 10 Thomas,
tions of an abbreviated laudatio 01 Therapon. BHG, 1797-98. log. 13, ed. and trans. A. Guillaumont et al. , L'Evangile selon
ed. L. Deubner, De incubatione capita quattuor (Leipzig, 1900), Thomo.I (Paris, 1959), 8-9, also plays with this subjectivity, which
120-25; it adds only this remark. surprised Photius on reading the Acta apostolorum apocrypha, in
HOLY IMAGES AND LlKENESS 29
morphous Christ had an iconography,45 but very tation. 50 A double image no longer corresponds, in
rare, too intellectual and indirect for use in wor- fact, to Chalcedonian ehristology, and it contra-
ship. In this context, only the individual imagina- dicted the growing demands of devotion.
tion could give Christ a true face, and that ex- An anecdote recorded by Theodore the Lector
cluded the possibility of an icon. in the early sixth eentury proves that this duality
John Chrysostom is probably one of the first to of representation was, per ha ps at the end of the
have proclaimed aloud, on the basis of a new exe- fifth eentury, considered embarrassing and was in-
gesis of Isaiah and Psalm 44, that Christ was hand- terpreted as an alternative. 51 When Gennadius was
some,46 but this beauty was for a long time ac- patriarch (458-471), " ... an artist who had
knowledged as that of the Transfiguration. Christ painted the portrait of Our Lord suffered a with-
has in fact two faces: that of an ordinary human ered hand. It was said that a pagan had commis-
being and that of the Resurrection, of which only sioned the portrait, and that under the name of
the disciples Peter, James, and John were witnesses the Savior he had painted the hair with a part in
by anticipation, when they saw 1:0 döo~ wü the middle so as not to hide the eyes-the way the
ltQOOc01WU auwü EcEQOV, his cloth es becoming children of the Hellenes represented Zeus-so
white as light, Moses and Elijah appearing at his that those looking at the picture might believe that
side (Matt. 17: 12-9; Mark 9: 2-9; Luke 9: 28-36). the proskynesis was addressed to Christ." Here we
One wonders why, when he was arrested, he was have the presumed origin of the type of Christ
not recognized and had to be pointed out (Matt. with long hair: a crypto-portrait of Zeus executed
26: 46-49). Origen thinks that he was already for a crypto-pagan by a painter miraculously pun-
transfigured and unrecognizableY On the con- ished for his sacrilegious impiety. And Theodore
trary, Epiphanius thinks that he looked like the the Lector added that another type of Christ, with
most ordinary of his disciples. 48 For this more or short eurly hair, is "more authentic" (uA1']8EO-
less orthodox speculation on the only two passages 1:EpOV).52 Tradition soon distorted the account, and
in the New Testament concerning the physical ap- retained only the error of the painter, who, be-
pearance of Christ, there is an iconographic tran- tween two types of ieonography-one with long,
scription, which is precise but unstable: the Syriac straight hair and the other with short, curly hair-
Gospel of Rabbula, which was illustrated in 586 at chose, as many others had done, the first, while the
the convent of Beth Zagda, gives Christ, depend- author of the aceount or, more generally, "the most
ing on the illustrated passages, either a triangular exact historians" said that the second is the "more
face with short curly hair and beard, which would appropriate." 53
correspond to the image of Christ among men, or
(;0 J. D. Breckenridge, The l ...'umismatic Iconography o[Justinian II
a long face with long, straight hair, which corre-
(685-695, 705-711 A.D.), Ameriean Numismatic Soeiety (New
sponds to his "glory."49 A eentury later, both faces York, 1959),46-62; cf. C. Morrisson, Bibliotheque Nationale. Cat·
were reproduced on the coins of Justinian 11, but alogue des monnaies byzantines (Paris, 1970), I, 397-98. leono-
in succession and no longer simuitaneously-as graphie commentary in Grabar, L'iconoclasme bvzantin, 16-17,
39-45, 235-38; E. Kitzinger, "Same Refiectians on Portraiture
was the case in the Gospel of Rabbula-as if a in Byzantine Art" (ahove, note 22), 190-93. This was when ,he
choice should be made between the two types, and famous eanon 82 ofthe Couneil in Trullo (691-692) preseribed
as if the deeision was made after aperiod of hesi- the representatian of Christ as a human being and not symbol-
ically as a lamb.
51 The text can be read in G. C. Hansen's edition, Theodoros
whieh he saw signs of docetism, Le., doubts about the reality of Anagnostes Kirchengeschichte (Berlin, 1971), 107-8; but as the an-
,he inearnation (Bibliotheca. eod. 114, ed. R. Henry, 11, 85). ecdote was borrowed by John of Damascus from Theodore's
450n the iconography ofChrist as an infant, young man, and His!. eecl., it is faund in the Contra imaginum calumniatores, BI,
in oirl age to signify he encompassed tim~ itself, cf. H.-eh. 130, ed. B. Kotter, Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, III
Puech, Annuaire de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, V' section, 73 (Berlin-New York, 1975),196, and , furthermore, in Parisinus gr.
(1965-66),122-25; 74 (1966-67),128-37; 75 (1967-68), 157- 111~. a conciliar anthology composed at quite an early period,
61. studted by J. Munitiz, "Le Parisinus graecus 1115: Description et
"Expositio in Ps. XLIV, 3, PG 55, cols. 185-86. arriere-plan historique," Scriptorium 36 (1982), 51-67.
47 In Matth. commentanorum series, 100, PG 13, col. 1750. "Tb öE aA~8EOTEQOV ,,,,dQXElV O~AOV ><at OAly6<QlXa. Like
'"Ostrogorsky, Studien (above, note 6),72, § 26. the miracle of Gennadius, this part of the sentence i5 not found
49Cf. J. Leroy, Les manuscrits syriaques a peintures (Paris, 1964), in the Damascus extract, but in Parisinus gr. 1115, confirmed
117-18, 123, 139 ff, 207-8; pIs. 24-30, 31, 32, 42. On ,he 10' by the Epitome of Theodore's Hist. eed. and by the entire tradi-
eation of the monastery, cf. M. Mundell Mango, "Where Was tion (see below), which also justifies the evident correction of
Seth Zagba?" Okeanos (Essays Presented to L Sevcenko), Har- ltOAU<Qlxa in OAly6<QlXaJÖAly6<QlXOV.
vard Ukrainian Studies 7 (1983),405-30; commentary by A. Gra· 53 Epitome ofTheodare's Hist. eecl., composed around 610, ed.
bar, L'iconoclasme b)'zantin: Dossier archeologique (Paris, 1957),43- G. C. Hansen, op. eit., 107; Theophanes, Chronographia, ed. C.
44. de Boor, 112 (reprodueed by Leo Grammaticus, Bonn ed., 114;
30 GILBERT DAGRON
John of Damascus, Theophanes Confessor, the one hirnself), which was then faithfully repro-
Suda, and Nicephorus Callistus had no qualms duced; (3) a believer who is in the habit of praying
about this anecdote, which ought to lead to the before an icon, in a church or at horne, recognizes
condemnation of the representation of a Jupiter- the saint from the image when he appears to hirn.
like Christ, at a time when this representation was Such should be the course of events in order to
no Ion ger challenged. The debate on the historical ensure the logic of the apparition's identification;
face of Christ is at a loss. The iconography is con- for the saint would not be recognized if the image
firmed in spite of the texts. It relies, from now on, were not like hirn. But most of the lives of saints
on images of reference supposedly executed at the skip a stage and merely note that the saint ap-
time of Christ and conserved in the ipsissima loca, peared not "as he was," but "as he is depicted in
in Jerusalem and in Rome, or on icons "not made the icons." The monk Cosmas recognized the
by human hands;' which cannot be disputed. 54 By aposties Andrewand John öoov (mo tfi~ tWV aYlwv
consensus, an image of Christ triumphed in spite ELx6vwv 8fWQ(U~ avuAoYL1;6!!EVO~;55 Irene of Chry-
of all the objections concerning theology or like- sobalantos saw appearing be fore her the great
ness; it had created its own history and literature; Basil, Cappadocian like her, tOWUtov olov Ul
it had created this imaginary Christ which is still ftx6vf'; ypaq>oum;56 in a letter from Nilus of An-
ours. cyra, a father implored St. Platon to free his im-
prisoned son, and his son has no hesitation in rec-
IV. THE HAGIOGRAPHIC Topos OF RECOGNITION ognizing hirn EX tOU 1tOnaXL~ tov XUQuXtfiQu tou
aYlou €1tL twv ELx6vwv tE8fäo8m. This latter text,
The icon of Christ obviously presents theologi-
read at the Second Council of Nicea in 787, was
cal problems of faith and piety that require certain
commented on as folIows: "This clearly illustrates
precautions. In the case of the saints, the situation
that it is because he had seen the martyr's icon be-
is much simpler and the triumph of the image is
fore, that he was able to recognize the martyr
assured almost without discussion. From hagiog-
when he came to save him."57 Note again a varia-
raphy we earlier extracted a topos, that of miracu-
tion of the recognition topos which not only abbre-
lous likeness, which eliminates, by means of mir-
viates but furthermore inverts the terms so as to
acle, the hazards of painting and the subjectivity of
highlight the role of cult images: (l) a man has a
the painter to enable the icon to reproduce the ex-
vision of a saint he has never seen portrayed and
act features of its model. But another topos seems
therefore does not recognize hirn; (2) he gives a
much more widespread, that of recognition, con-
physical description (a written eikonismos) of the
ferring on the image the same function we recog-
person who appeared to a third person, who shows
nized in the eikonismos: it gives particulars permit-
hirn the saint's icon (or he hirnself sees an icon of
ting identification. "Such he was," one could say
the saint by chance or design), thus permitting rec-
about a lifelike portrait. "Such he is and you are
ognition. For instance, to take one famous ex-
going to see hirn as such," one has to say about an
ample: in a life of Constantine, until Pope Sylves-
icon that presages and foreshadows an apparition,
ter has shown the emperor the icons of St. Peter
and whose authenticity no longer requires histori-
and St. Paul, he is unable to identify the figures as
cal proof, since it will be proved by dream or vi-
he saw them in a dream. ö8 There are many similar
sIOn.
examples.
The hagiographical topos of recognition should
What conclusion can be drawn? Simply that the
normally be broken down into three sequences: (1)
a witness has seen the saint alive; (2) he has trans-
mitted a precise eikonismos to enable someone to "Chr. Angelidi, "La Vision du moine Cosmas," AnalBoli 101
paint an icon very like the original (or he painted (1983), 84.125-28.
"Vita S. Irenae, 13, ed. J. O. Rosenqvist, The Life of St Irene,
Abbess of Chrysobalanton (Uppsala, 1986),56.9-13; see also 21,
ibid" 94-96.
"Ep. 62, PG 79, cols. 580-81; Mansi, XIII, co!. 33: ... M-
Cedrenus, Bonn ed., I, 611), Souda, S.V. ,,><w, ed. A. Adler. Sui- o,,><!m, on Öl" Tfi, "QOEYVWO"'V~, autq'l El><övo, tOU ~dQtuQo,
dae Lexicon, II (Stuttgart, 1967),526: Nicephorus Callistus, Hist. '''EYVW autov ''''O'tdvtu, 6,,~vC><u owom autov "UQEyEVEtO. Cf.
eccl., XV, 23, PG 147, co!. 68. H. G. Thümmel, "Neilos von Ankyra über die Bilder," BZ 71
54The eikonismoi of Christ in a fragment of the Ps.-Andrew of (1978), 10-21.
Crete (E. von Dobschütz, Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur christ- "Vita S. Constantini by Ignatius of Selymbria, 21, ed. Th.
lichen Legenden [Leipzig, 1899J, 185*-86*) and in the anony- Ioannou, M"'l~Ela aYLOAoYl><d (Venice, 1886), 186: see also the
mOllS account on the icon of Maria romana (ibid., 246**-47**) Constitutum Constantini, 8, ed. H. Fuhrmann, Das Constitutum
are in actual fact descriptions of ieans said to be consistent with Constantini, Fontesjuris germanici antiqui 10 (Hannover, 1968),
eye-witness accounts of the apostles Of Flavius Josephus. 73.
relationship between the image and its model has guised as a patriarch, ÖLU tfi~ JtQö~ tilv dx6vu
been reversed, and that they are no Ion ger at- Of!OLWOEW~. 53
tached to the past but to the future. It is no Ion ger The image authenticates the vision more than it
the image that resembles the saint, but the saint is authenticated by it, because consensus is based
who resembles his image, as is nalvely written in on the image, and it is from the image that a col-
the Life of Theodore of Sykeon, where Sts. Cos- lective imagination springs, which is simply con-
mas and Damian appear to Theodore "as they ap- firmed afterwards by the imagination of the vision-
pear in their cult images" (xu8' Of!O(WOLV oilv tfi~ ary or the dreamer. In the miracles of Artemius, a
I.UtQE(U~ EXE(Vlj~ w<j>8ljouV UUt<jJ OL dQljf!EVOL girl of twelve is snatched from the "angels of
äYLOL).59 At the Second Council of Nicea, the read- death" by the saint and returns to earth. Those
ing of a miracle where Cosmas and Damian appear dose to her ask her what the angels she had seen
to a patient "in the form they take in their repre- were like. They resemble, she answers, those
sentations" (EV <)J ExtuJtoUvtm OXtlf!un), causes the painted standing upright in the church of the
priest John, topoteretes of the Eastern patriarchs, to Prodromos. She is then asked what Artemius looks
make this more than equivocal comment: "This like physieally. She says that he looks like the ieon
clearly shows that it was through their icons (ÖLU on the left side of the church. This confirms, at
tWV dx6vwv) that they appeared to the woman one and the same time, the reality of the vision and
and healed her."50 Furthermore, if saints do not the validity of the images. 54 In her rapture, the
always resemble their cult images in their visits to litde parishioner had simply seen the ieons of her
the faithful, it is because they are in disguise. Cos- local church. Her personal imagination was totally
mas and Damian take on the appearance of bath impregnated with the imaginary world around
servants or clerks,51 St. Artemius that of a butcher, her, that of an entire Christian civilization, which
a sailor, a patrician. 62 Thus more than ever it is was eonceived precisely in order to avoid strong
their cult image that serves as a reference; to un- divergenees.
mask them one does not refer to their real face, or The serupulous reproduction of icons was not
real dress, but to the face and dress as shown in only fidelity to a model but the prevention of any
their icons. That is good enough and amounts to divergence, the normalization of the imagination.
the same thing. At the Second Council of Nicea, In eighteenth-eentury Bavaria, a pious nun called
which shows how the Byzantines themselves Crescentia posed a difficult problem for the
reacted to hagiographie inventions, Bishop Theo- Chureh, and missed being canonized, for having
dore of Myra confirmed, by a personal example, had visions of the Holy Spirit under the "unusual"
the miracle described in the letter of Nilus of An- form of a handsome young man, and for having
cyra to which I referred earlier. Something similar distributed images representing these over-
also happened to hirn: he had difficulties with an personal visions." This is exacdy what the ieon of
archon, and his archdeacon saw in a dream the pa- East Christian civilization was see king to avoid.
triarch of Constantinople, who said to hirn: "Let
the metropolitan come to us, and we will make hirn V IMAGES OF DREAMS AND VISIONS
give back his possessions." Theodore did not let
I reeognize the saint from his image, but this im-
hirnself be taken in: he asked his archdeacon to
age prefigures the vision I shall have of hirn. This
describe the man who had appeared to hirn and
is more or less the vicious cirde in which we are
noted that the eikonismos did not correspond phys-
ically to the living patriarch, but to St. Nicholas as
he was portrayed on the altar cloth in the church "Mansi, XIII, cols. 32-33; cf. G. Anrieh, Der heilige Hagios
Nikolaos in der griechischen Kirche (Leipzig-Berlin, 1913), 1,450.
of Myra. The archdeacon hirnself identified the The Libri Carolini poke fun at Theodore of Myra's simplicity in
man he had seen as having been St. Nicholas dis- believing in the dream of his archdeacon and his using it as an
argument for cult images (11, 26, ed. H. Bastgen, MGH, Legum
Sectio III, Cone II supp!. 158-61.
"Vita S. Theodori, 39, ed. A. J. Festugiere, Vie de Thtodore de 64Miracula S. Artemii, 34, ed. A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, op.
Sykeon (Brussels, 1970),1,34; see also 32, ibid., I, 29. eil., 51-55 (esp. 53). On this passage, cf. C. Mango, "On the
60 Miracula SS. Cosma et Damiani, 13, ed. L. Deubner, Kosmas History of the Templon and the Martyrion of St. Artemios at
und Dammnos (Leipzig, 1907),133; Mansi, XIII, cols. 64-65. Constantinople," ZograJ 10 (1979), 43.
6IIbid., 1.20-21, 14.25, 18.43-44; ed. Deubner, up. eil., 99, 650n the notion of "unusual" iconography, cf. Fr. Boespflug,
135, 145. When the saints appear in unusual dress, the hagiog- Dieu dans l'art: Sollieitudini Nostrae de Benoit XIV (1745) et l'affaire
rapher speeifies ev <Jxt1~tl ou T0 €l",66" «UTO[;. Crescente de Kaufteuren (Paris, 1984), esp. 39, 192,277. Despite
"Miracula S. Artemii, 6, 14, 15,25,37, ed. A. Papadopoulos- its very general title, this book deals only with Crescentia of
Kerameus, Varm sacra graeca (St. Petersburg, 1909), 7.15-16, Kaufheuren, the buH Sollieitudini nostrae (1745), and papal re-
14.5,15.12-13,60.15-16,35.21. fusal to have Crescentia canonized.
32 GILBERT DAGRON
caught and which gives the world of the icon its are disembodied and possess no physical charac-
perfect autonomy. Were the Byzantines themselves teristics; it is therefore impossible to identify some-
aware ofthis one-way leap into the imaginary? Sev- one visually. Nor will recognition be any easier
eral texts tend to suggest they were, and this leads after the Resurrection, because the bodies will
us to define the relations hip between painted im- have been destroyed, as weil as the ax'fif!am )tal
ages and the images of dreams or visions. <1l]f!E[a )tal rra8'fif!ata, all dothes, distinctive signs,
In his Quaestiones, Anastasius the Sinaite (second or scars which individualize the appearance of
half of the seventh century) considered at length each and every one of uso Every man will therefore
the modality of the union of the soul and the body be in Adam's likeness. A single form will abolish
and concluded that, after death, ordinary souls de- physical individuality without affecting the moral
prived of physical organs no longer function but personality.67 Hence the question: if such is the
remain withdrawn until the Resurrection, inca- case, how is it that saints often appear in their
pable of communicating with the world or recog- churches or by their tombs? The answer: these ap-
nizing parents and friends. An exception is made, paritions are not through the saint's souls, but
however, for the souls of saints, illuminated by the through holy angels who take on the appearance
Holy Spirit; but in this instance communication re- of saints (l'n' ayyfAwv ay(wv f!E'taaXT]f!an~Of!EVWV
mains limited and indirect. d~ tO döo~ tWV ay(wv). These holy an gels aban-
It must be understood that all visions of saints in don the celestialliturgy, at God's command, in or-
churehes or by tombs oecur via the intermediary of der to appear be fore a believer in the form of Pe-
the an gels and at God's command (ÖL' ay(mv ayyO,mv ter, Paul, Demetrius, and so on. And the same
f1UtEAOUVCaL, ÖL' butQoJtf)'; 8wu). How would it be seemingly unassailable argument is put forward: if
possible, be fore the resurrection of the dead, while one supposes that the vision is really of St. Peter or
the bones and the flesh are still scattered, to see the
saints themselves as fully formed human beings, often St. Paul themselves, then how can their simulta-
on horseback and armed as weil? And if you disagree, neous appearance in the thousands of churches
tell me, how is it that Paul, Peter, or any other apostle, dedicated to them be explained?6R
though unique, has been seen so often at the same Communication with the other world by visions
time in different plaees? It is impossible to be in more and dreams is described bv Anastasius and the Ps.-
than one place at the same time, even for the angels;
only uncircumscribed God is able to do that. 66 Athanasius as a striking ~asquerade regulated by
God (but we assurne that it could also be the work
A livelier, more popular version of Anastasius' of the devil), with angels wearing on their faces-
opinion and argumentation is to be found in the like masks-the images of the saints they repre-
Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem falsely attributed to sent. 69 This is by no means literary fantasy but a
Athanasius, where the question of recognition in theory which, at the end of the sixth century, Eus-
the afterlife is treated at length. To summarize: tratius, a priest of the Great Church, had already
after death, brothers, parents, and friends are un- undertaken to refute, attributing it to "philoso-
able to recognize one another, because their souls phers," in other words, "free-thinkers." 70 The
56Anastasius, Quaestiones, 89, PG 89, cols. 716-20, esp. 717.
Remember that Anastasius' QuaeJtiones, edited by J. Gretser (In- 67Ps.-Athanasius, Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem, 22-25, PG
gobtadt, 1617) and reprinted in Migne (PG 89, cols. 311-827), 28, cols. 609-13. Like Anastasius, the author makes an excep-
combines t\\'O collections usually kept separate in the manu- tion of the saints, who maintained after death same ability to
scripts; cf. M. Richard, "Les veritables Questions et Reponses recognize those they had known, whether dead ur alive.
d'Anastase le Sinalre." Bulletin n° 15 (1967-1968) de l'Institut de 68Quaestio 26, ibid., col. 613. This set of Quaestiones is bor-
Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes (Paris. 1969). 39-56. repr. in rowed from Anastasius the Sinaite.
idem, Opera minora (Turnhout-Louvain, 1977), 111, 43-64. 69The theme of apparitions through the "lieutenancy of an-
Quaestio 89, whieh concerns us here, does belong to the "tTue gels" occurs in ·Western literature from Ambrose and Augustine
Questions," an authentie work of Anastasius the Sinaite; this is down to Pope Benedict XIV; cf. Boespllug, Dieu <!ans l'art, 221
confumed by B. Flusin, "Demüns et Sarrazins: L'auteur et le and notes 36-38.
propos des Diegemata sUnktika d'Anastase le Sina"ite," TM 11 700n Eustratius, author of a life ofthe patriarch Eutychius (cl.
(1991),381-409. The greater part of Anastasius' Quaestiones el 582), cf. the brief article by J. Darrouzes, "Eustrate de Constan-
Responsiones are to be found, rewritten and redistributed, in a tinople," in DSp, IV.2 (1961), cols. 1718 f. His A6yo;
later compilation (probably 8th/9th century in the version aVatQE1Itl>tö; "Qo, 1:oil; AEYOV1:U; !'TJ EvEQYElV 1:(1, 1:WV av-
known to us), the Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem, wronglyattrib- eQUlltWvljlux6, ... has been edited by Allatius (Leo Allacci), in
uted to Athanasius (PG 28, cols. 597-709). The most knowl- his De utriusque ecclesiae occidentalis atque orientalis perpetua de dog-
edgeable student of this literature, M. Richard, remarked that mate de Purgatorio consensione (Rome, 1654),336-580. This lively
the question of the relationship between the true Quaestiones by polemical treatise (whose authenticity is canfirmed by Photius,
Anastasius and the Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem by the Ps.- Bibliotheca, eod. 171. ed. R. Henry. 11.165-67), is a response to
Athanasius will be fully elucidated only by a thorough study of the theory on the "inactivity" of the soul after death, of which a
the manuscript tradition, though he still thought Anastasius was muted echo is ta be found in Anastasius' Quaestiones over a cen-
the earlier: Le MUlion 79 (1966). 61 note 3. tury later.
stakes were high, for if the saints were inactive in ticularly pointiess, because the image-and in the
the beyond, it was no use giving money to their first place the holy image-is always a transfigura-
churches, The souls of the saints, he retorted, tion and does not really belong to the past. An "au-
are in "spiritual places," from whence they can thentie" portrait is an imagined portrait and there-
emerge; at God's command, they come down to fore alive. This is probably why the iconography of
earth and appear to us, just like the angeis, xUt' Christ and the saints followed its own path, rela-
övuQ XUL ünuQ. One might perhaps put forward tiveiy unconcerned with the attacks and scruples of
the objection that souls are bodiless, and that saints Epiphanius or others, breaking with the past and
sometimes appear to us armed, on horseback, or written evidence to turn toward the present of col-
in other apparel. To wh ich we answer as folIows: lective devotion and the future of the individual
just as the angeis, who are by definition asomatoi vision or dream, and tacitiy replacing a vain idea
(bodiless), imprint visions (6QaoEL~ 'tunoiim), "so of likeness with the reality of a social consensus.
too the souls (of the saints) give impressions that For cult images may resemble anything, but they
are not real but are nonetheiess true. Just as the must be seif-resembling and be interpreted by all
painter, who with his diversity of colors, makes ob- unequivocally, like words in a language. Where
jects present without their existing in reality, bodi- faith is concerned, only the community counts;
less spirits have a limited capacity to create impres- therefore one of the main differenees between re-
sions. These should be taken neither for fantasies ligious paintings and ieons is that the first is more
nor for real things, but one would be wrong to con- concerned with individual imagination and the
sider that they are not true." 71 Eustratius salvaged second more severely regulated by social imagery.
what he considered the essential by establishing The eikonismos gradually lost its testimonial fune-
that saints after death have energy and are active, tion and was transformed into a recipe and norm
and so it is worthwhile to pray to them, but the in handbooks on how to paint. And the icon, a pro-
mechanism of their appearing is more or less the duction of this normalization, beeame itself a
same for hirn as for PS.-Athanasius or for Anastas- matrix of images. It teils the faithful under what
ius, except that it is not angels but saints them- form he will see the saint appear, and the saint
selves who are their own image-bearers. The com- what face he must ass urne and what clothes he
parison with painting is enlightening: we are still must wear in order to be recognized. I have men-
in the realm of the imaginary. Waking visions or tioned on this topie two recurrent topoi in the Lives
dreams define themseives as icons. They are visual of the Saints: that of perfeet likeness guaranteed
impressions (tun6JoEL~), which are true because by a miracle, and that of the recognition of an ap-
holy, but without any basis in reality. parition by means of an image. Both aim at eiimi-
nating any doubts concerning the eonformity of an
Via a roundabout, twisting path, Christianity si- image to the modei or a model to an image. This
lentiy returned to an idea that was dear to Neo- question is taboo. Hagiography does not take per-
Platonic and Pythagorean philosophy: that a figu- sonal beiiefs into aecount any more than does ico-
rative representation is never more than an image nography, but rather normalizes them, eontribut-
of an image: to portray the "true image" of a holy ing to a discreet but efIective enforcement of
man is not simply to make an accurate reproduc- forms.
tion of his physical traits, but to imagine hirn in a This limitation of the imagination and exaltation
kind of epiphany.72 The problem of historicallike- of the miracle probably did not count as much as
ness is not mereiy dangerous, insofar as alleged might be thought. ladmit to not knowing what the
eyewitnesses are not immune to criticism, but par- Byzantines really thought about icons and visions,
but the few texts on which I have eommented show
how critical they were and not at all naive. By
71 Eustratius, A6yo~ aVatQErrtlx.6r;, 24, ed. Allatius, ap. eit., means of prudent definitions, they were eapable of
518 f.
72Plotinus, Enneads, V, 8, 1, ed. and trans. E. Brehier, Plotin. defining the vast domain of the imaginary and of
Enneades (Paris, 1931), V, 135-36: "Phidias created his Zeus giving it autonomous (though strictiy controlled)
without taking any tangible model; he imagined hirn as he working rules. If avision of a saint was no more
would be, if he deigned tu appear befare us"; on Socrates: VI,
3, 15, ed. E. Brehier, VI, I, 143; Philostratus, The Life of Apollo- than an animated image, the miracle of appari-
niU5 of Tyana, VI, 19, ed. and trans. F. C. Conybeare, 1I (Cam- tions could easily find a place in daily life, ünaQ il
bridge, Mass., 1969),76-79, text cited above in the introductory övaQ.
quotation. See A. Grabar, "Plotin et les origines de 1'esthetique
medievale," CahArch I (1945), 15-34; Junod and Kaestli, Acta
Iohannis, II, 446-56, includes a useful bibliography. College de France
INDEX
Page references in italics refer to illustrations and maps.
abandonment of land 125-6 Allen, P. 98-9

Abbasid empire 202 almsgiving 416-17
Abd al-Malik (Umayyad caliph, 685-705) Althusserianism 29
261 Amida 314-15 n.l71
Abu Habbe (Syria) 241 Amin, Samir 57-8
Abu'l Fida 237 n.141, n.143 Ammianus 136, 314-15 n.l71
accounts Amos (patriarch) 395 n.1
of Apion family 113-17 Amphilochia (Photius) 420-1
Arsinoite 118 Anastasioupolis (Asia Minor) 165-7, 168
Acts (Book of) 422 Anastasius (Byzantine emperor, 491-518)
Adaarman (Persian general) 211-12 armies of 317
administration and circus factions 62, 65, 67
of Byzantium, local 245, 286, 375 constitution of 131
of Roman Empire 150 reign of 59 n.3, 61, 151, 256
adscripticii 129-31,137,138-9,141 n.159 riots 59, 63, 65, 69, 73-4, 75
Aezani 147 n.9 Anastasius Bibliothecarius 389
Africa Anastasius Sinaita 390,407 n.1, 416, 428
Byzantine pos sessions in xviii-xix Anastasius Sinaita (ps.) 428
military unrest in 302 Anatolia
Vandals in control of 41 Arab attacks on 384
afterlife, saints in 428, 429 Byzantine control of 372-3, 373
Agapius 350 cities in 154-5, 161-3, 165-8
Agathias 289, 290, 317 Persian attacks on 343-4, 355-6, 359-60,
agrarian production 374
in Byzantium 115-20,131-3 rural areas in 314
and land ownership 120-2, 128-9 ancient mode of production 28, 29, 31-2,
Merovingian and Carolingian 109-10, 36,58
139-41 coexistence with feudal mode of
in Roman Empire 30-1, 34-5, 109, 134-5 production 44-5, 47-8
bipartite estates 133-4, 136-8, 139 collapse of 37
historical studies of 11 0-12 Anderson, Perry 25, 30 n.9, 51
and landownership 135-6 Anecdota (Procopius) 77, 131, 334
and patronage 138 Anemourion (Asia Minor) 155
and slavery 28 angels 411, 428
in Syria 205, 251-2 Anglo-Saxons 326
agricultural estates, bipartite Anglophone perspectives, on late antiquity
Byzantine 110, 115-20, 128-9, 131-2 11 n.35
early Medieval53, 54-5, 110, 139-41 Annales school of history 17
Roman 133-4, 136-8, 139 annona 31-2
AIDS, and plague 100 Antaeopolis (Egypt), tax register from 33
Ailiots (Sinai) 401 Antioch 171, 172, 175, 298
Ajax 421 Arab rule of 173-4,201,203,269-70,
Akopjan, A.A. 353 n.44 273
al-'Ala plateau (Syria) 238-9, 275 archaeological excavations at 157, 199,
Albania (ex-Soviet Azerbaijan) 357, 377-8, 200-3
381 churches in 174, 200
432 INDEX
disasters/devastation of 92, 172-3, 200, of Syrian transitions 172, 175-98, 266-74,

210,241,264-5 314 n.170
plague epidemics 96, 266-7 in Antioch 174, 199, 200-3
Persian control of 173 in Apamea 157, 182-9, 211, 215-16,
reconstructions/restorations of 173, 219-20,223,227-32,267
199-203 in Bostra 177,190-5,243-51

riot in (507) 64 n.27, 67 in Hama/Hama region 236-43, 265
Roman 174, 199 in Hauran plain 177, 190-8, 252-64,
Antiochus 406 266
antiquity see late antiquity in Orontes Valley 171,175,178-81,
Apamea (Syria) 171, 176, 212-13, 265, 266 203-10,232-5
Arab conquest of 212,269 Ardashir (Persian/Sasanian emperor) 368,
archaeological excavations at 157, 182-9, 369
211,215-16,219-20,223,227-32,267 Areobindus 73, 74
churches of 185-6,213,217-23,231-2, Arethas (al-Harith, Ghassanid leader) 256
265 aristocracy/elites
destruction/decline of 212, 220, 229, 230, Byzantine 55-6, 119-24, 339
265, 271, 273 Apion family as part of 113,122
houses in 187-9, 223-32, 265, 271 and patronage relations 124-8
Muslim presence in 223 urban 133, 150-2, 161-2, 163-4, 165,
Persian conquest of157, 211, 212, 230 166,168-9
public buildings in 214-15 German/Frankish 33, 37-8, 46, 47, 49,
street plan of 213-14, 216 50-1,141
Apion, Flavius 113 in late antiquity 135, 136
Apion, Strategius 113 Roman 36-8,52,122-3,134,282
Apion family 106, 135 loss of state control over 45-7
imperial offices held by 122 pos sessions of 135-6, 137
papyri on 112-18 urban 143, 145-6, 168, 169
pos sessions and wealth of 120, 121, 132, see also curiales
136,137 Scottish, military recruitment by 282-4
Apophthegmata Patrum 387-8, 389-90, 400, Syrian 229, 230, 268, 271
402,404,412 n.1 Armenia/Armenians 306, 322, 325-6, 331,
Apostles 420, 421-2 378,380
apparitions of saints 428-9 armies
Arabia xvii, xxiv, 245 Byzantine 277, 279, 335-6, 337, 338,
Arabic texts xxi 370-1,373-6,379-80
on plague 89-90, 97 capabilities of 287-9
Arabs xx foreigners in 319-26, 330-1, 336
Byzantine warfare against xiii, xxvi- paymentslbenefits for soldiers in 295,
xxvii, 337-8, 383-4 300n.96, 301-3, 324, 326-32,336,
conquests of xiii 374-5
continuity after xvi, xvii-xviii private employment in 332-5
Egypt 56, 415 recruitment xxv, 278-9, 286-7, 291-
Syria 173-4, 212, 230, 243, 244, 260, 303,305,306,308-9,314,336
261,269-74 size of 289-91,299,316-18,337 n.302,
descriptions of 406 371,372
Palestinian monasteries attacked by 402, financing of 42,300 n.94, 329, 374-5
406 loyalty of 79 n.102
see also Ghassanids Persian, size of 329, 371-2
archaeological evidence xxii-xxiii Roman 279, 284-5
from Arabia xxiv recruitment 279-82, 285-6, 299
of Byzantine decline/collapse xiv n.6 Scottish Highland regiments 282-4
of Byzantine urban wealth 153-61 see also military bases
INDEX - - - - - - - - 433
Arras, Victor 389 barracks, in Syria 254

Arsinoite account 118 Barsanuphius 392 n.2, 409
art, in late antiquity 1, 8 Basilides 72
art historians, dating of archaeological basket-making 407 n.2
findings by 157 Batanea plain (Syria) 251, 252, 255-6, 257
artisans, in Syria 244 baths, in Syria 249, 262

artists, imagination of, and likeness of Baynes, Norman 385
icons 419-21 Belcari, Feo 385 n.5
Artsruni, Thomas 352 n.37 Belisarius (Byzantine general) 72-3, 78,
ascetics 404-5, 407-12, 417 287,289 n.41, 290, 300, 317, 320 n.207,
Arab attacks on 406 323 n.227
Asemus, military garrison of 288, 295 bodyguards of 333-4
Asia, empires in 58 Bellum Avaricum (George of Pisidia) 348,
Asia Minor see Anatolia 361 n.65
Atat Xorxoruni 326 n.242 Bianchi Bandinelli, R 8
Athamina, Khalil 329 n.258 Bibliotheca (Photius) 393
Athenogenes (bishop of Petra) 410 Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum (Fronton du
Athens, plague epidemics in 310 n.146, 315 Duc) 386
n.174 Bilobe Columns House (Apamea) 228-9
Atrium Church (Apamea) 185, 217-18, 219, bipartite estates
220-1,231,265 in Byzantium 110,115-19,128-9,131-2
Atropatene (Persia) 356-7, 365 early Medieval53, 54-5, 110, 139-41
Aubineau, M. 399 n.2 Roman 133-4, 136-8, 139
Augustine of Hippo 3, 420 Biraben, J.-N. 95-6, 99, 101-2
Augustus (Roman emperor) 279 bishops, duties of 166
Aulus Gellius 412 n.2 Black Death 311-12,315 n.174
authority of emperors 279, 339-40 Black Watch regiment 283 n.17
autonomy Bloch, Marc 26-7, 51, 111-12
financial, of Roman cities 145, 148-9 Blues (circus faction, Constantinople) 61,
of late antiquity 6, 14 62
autopragia (self-collection of taxes) 129, attacked by Greens 63
130 imperial support for 64
autourgia ('self-working' lands) 115-17, 118 uniting with Greens 66, 68, 70-1
Auxanon 400 violence/rioting by 65
Avars307,308,319,326,344,354-5,374 bodyguards 289, 317, 331 n.270, 332-5
sea transport provided to Persians by Bombaci, A. 353 n.46
373 book cultures xxviii n.64
siege of Constantinople by 360-1 Book ofthe Garden (Sophronius) 389
Book of Miracles (J ohn the Monk) 389
Bacaudae (revolting Roman peasants) 38 Boran (Persian/Sasanian empress) 369
Bagnall, R 121 Bostra (Syria) 171, 243-4, 263, 265, 267, 269,
Bahira (Syrian monk) 247 270, 272, 273, 406 n.l
Bakker, E.J. 99 archaeological excavations at 177, 190-5,
al-Baladhuri 242 243-51
Balkans, Byzantine warfare in xix, 307-8, caravan trade with Mecca 247-8, 268
319,326,338-9,354-5,360-1,374 churches in 191-2, 244, 246-7, 249, 250,
Balty, J.C. 215 n.65 253
Bamukka (Orontes Valley) 181 mosques in 193, 248-9, 250, 272, 273
Banaji, J. 122 plague epidemics in 266
Baqirha (Antioch) 178-9 region see Hauran plain
barbarians see foreigners Bratton, T.L. 99-100
Bardill, J. 69 n.52 BraudeI, Fernand xvii, 17
Barfield, T.J. 380 n.126 Bray, RS. 104
434 INDEX
Britain 326 impact of93-5, 96, 97, 102-3, 104, 105,

see also England 106-7,309-10,311,312,313-14,
Brown, Peter xv, 2 n.3, 9, 10, 11, 13, 18 315-16,317
bubonic plague 311 n.152, 312 see also Justinianic plague
bucellarii (bodyguards) 289, 331 n.270, riots in 59 n.2, 61-2
333-5 see also Constantinople, riots in

building industry, Syrian 205-6 state power in 55-7
buildings, public taxation in 55,57,116,129,130,292 n.55,
in Byzantine cities 154-5, 158-9 295 n.68, 374
funded by curiales 146-7 territories under control of xviii-xix,
funded by Ghassanids 257 372-3
Roman, destruction of 201 warfare by 277-8,305-6,336
in Syria 214-15,246,249-50 against Arabs xiii, xxvi-xxvii, 337-8,
bureaucracies, Byzantine 122, 123 383-4
Bury, J.B. 59, 67 n.41, 73, 74, 75, 77, 80 on Balkans/against Avars and Slavs
n.103, 83, 84, 91 xix, 307-8, 319, 326,338-9,354-5,
Butler, H.C. 238 n.150, 258 n.240 360-1,374
Buzes (Byzantine general) 290 against Persians xiii, xviii, xxv-xxvi,
Byzantinische Zeitschrift 387 290,303-5,315-16,337,338,
Byzantium xv n.7, 13 341-7,354,355-60,362-6,370,
agricultural production in 115-20, 131-3 372-4,382-3
aristocracy/elites in 55-6, 119-24, 339 alliance with Turks 363-5, 380-2
Apion family as part of 113,122 anti-Persian propaganda 376-9,
urban 133, 150-2, 161-2, 165, 166, 384
168-9 peace negotiations and treaty xix,
armies of 277,279,335-6,337,338,370-1, 366-9
373-6,379-80 written sources on 347, 348-54,
capabilities of 287-9 362-3
foreigners in 319-26, 330-1, 336
paymentslbenefits for soldiers in 295, Caesarea (Palestine) 154
300n.96,301-3,324,326-32,336, Caesaropapism 95
374-5 Calasso, F. 18 n.56
private employment in 332-5 Cameron, Alan 59 n.3, 61, 62 n.17, 63, 64,
recruitment xxv, 278-9, 286-7, 291- 67 n.41, n.43, 69 n.53, 70 n.54, 76 n.91,
303,305,306,308-9,314,336 80 n.103, 283 n.18
size of 289-91, 299, 316-18, 337 n.302, Cameron, Averil13, 290 n.47
371,372 capitalization of agriculture 134-5
cities in 57,162-3,164,165-8,314 Capitolium (Beit Räs, Jordan),
declining status of 149-50, 152 archaeological excavations at 156
elites of133, 150-2, 161-2, 163-4, 165, Cappadocia 301
166,168-9 caravan trade 247-8,268
taxation of 374 Carolingian period
wealth of153-61, 164 agrarian production in 109-10
decline/collapse ofxiv, 19-20, 109, 341 aristocracy in 50-1
demography of 128,309 taxation in 43-4
economic development of 92,132-3 Carrie, Jean-Michel292 n.55, n.58, 293
feudalism in 56, 57 n.36 n.62, 294 n. 66, 295 n.68, 299-300 n.91,
landownership in 120-2, 125, 127, 128-9, 331 n.270
132 cathedral of Apamea 186,221-3,231,265
legislation 131, 245, 286, 310, 328, 332-3 cathedral of Bostra 246, 249, 250
modernity of 4 cavalry, Roman/Byzantine 287, 370
patronage in 124-8, 323 n.222 cemeteries, in Syria 219, 220, 222, 260
plague in 59,153 Chalcedon 359, 360
INDEX - - - - - - - - 435
Chalcedonians/Chalcedonian orthodoxy tax exemptions for 43

xi~398-9,400-1,413-14, 415-16, Cilicia, monks from 400
417-18 circus factions 332 n.276
Chalcis region (Syria) 241 imperial attitudes towards 63, 64-6, 68
Charietto 331 n.271 unity among 66,68,70-1,79
Chatal Hüyük mound (Syria) 203 violence/rioting by 61, 63, 64, 65, 66-8,
Chekalova, A.A. 70 n.54 79
Chilperic I (Frankish king) 43 cities
choria (estate-owned settlements) 114-15, in ancient production mode 58
131 Byzantine 57,162-3,164,165-8,314
Chosroes I (Sasanian/Persian king) 316, elites of 133,150-2,161-2,163-4,165,
329 n.258 166,168-9
conquest of Syria by 157, 173, 207, 211 taxation in 55,57,116,129,130,292
warfare against Byzantium 290, 303-5 n.55, 295 n.68, 374
Chosroes 11 (Sasanian/Persian king) xxviii and patronage 124-8
n.64, 367, 383 wealth of 153-61,164
fall of 346 Germanic 49-50
warfare against Byzantium xxv, xxvi, riots in 60-1
337,341,343,344,356-7,381-2 Roman 36-7, 49, 146
written sources on 351-2 declining status of 149-50, 152
Christ, representations of 420, 424-6 elites in 143, 145-6, 168, 169
Christianity/Christians Near Eastern 144-9, 168
and Byzantine anti-Persian propaganda wheeled traffic in 215 n.65
376-7,379,384 Syrian 164-5, 268-9, 270
divisions in xiii-xiv, xix, xxvi, 395-6, Islamic 171, 200-1, 273
398-9,412-16,418 see also urban areas
in Persian Empire xxviii clergy, elite status of 162,167,169
in Syria 210, 249, 250, 259, 264, 268, climatic changes, and plague epidemics
270-1,272 107
Syriac as language of xxi Clover, F.M. 15 n.45
Christopher (monk) 408 Codex Justinianus 80, 81, 149, 297 n.77, 332
Chronicon Paschale 71-2, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, on conscription 293-5, 296-7
84,346 n.16, 347, 349, 351, 356 n.53, on patronage 127
361 n.65 Codex Theodosianus 149, 332 n.278
Chronographia (Theophanes) 349, 350 on conscription 292, 293, 294 n.63, 295,
chronologies 296
of Heraclius' Persian campaigns 344 on patronage 39, 126-7
n.14, 345 n.15, 351 codices (codex), invention of 3
of late antiquity 7-13 COlns
of plague epidemics 95, 96, 98-9 Byzantine 377, 425
churches copper, disappearance of 159-60
Byzantine 169 from Syria 174, 201-2, 210, 215, 220 n.91,
treasuries of 157,375 227,233,237-8,247,267,271
Syrian Coislin 423 n.28
in Antioch 174, 200 collective payments, by Byzantine
in Apamea 185-6, 213, 217-23, 231-2, peasants 116
265 coloni adscripticii 129-31, 137, 138-9, 141
in Bostra 191-2,244,246-7,249,250, n.159
253 Comentiolus (Byzantine general) 325, 337
in Hama/Hama region 237, 240, 241, comitatenses (RomanlByzantine mobile
242,265 armed forces) 284-8, 290, 291 n.50
rural 207-8, 255, 259, 260-1, 264, 268, 'Comment et pourquoi finit l'esclavage
269,272 antique' (article, Bloch) 26-7
436 INDEX
concentration of landownership Crum, w.E. 415 n.2

in Byzantium 120-2,125,127,132 Crump, Gary A. 278 n.2
in late Roman Empire 135-6 Ctesiphon 368
Congourdeau, M.-H. 103 cult images 419, 426, 429
Conrad, Lawrence I. 101 n.31, 103-4, 266 of saints 427
n.269, 313 n.165, n.166, 315 n.175 cult-sites 147 n.9, 161
conscription 280-1, 292-300, 319 cultural phenomena emphasis in studies of
conservatism of rioting mobs 60 late antiquity 10, 19, 22
Console Capitals House (Apamea) 227, 229 curiales 36, 145-6
Console House (Apamea) 188-9, 225-7, 229, buildings funded by 146-7
230,265,267,271 decline of 143, 148, 149-52, 160, 169
Constans 11 (Byzantine emperor, 641-68) Cutrigurs (Huns) 330
327 n.249 Cyriacus ('the Wolf', brigand) 405-6
Constantine I (Roman emperor, 306-37) 8, Cyril of Scythopolis 391, 392, 410, 412
80 Cyrus of Alexandria 395-6,398,403,415
Constantinople 57, 83, 149
migration to 59-60 Damascus 261
monasteries in 403 n.1 Daniel the Egyptian 411
plague epidemics in 93,99,100,104 Daphne (suburb of Antioch) 199-200
riots in 59, 60, 61, 63, 64 Dar Qita (Antioch) 179-80
see also Nika riot Dares 421
senate of 123 dating
siege of xxvi, 360-1 of buildings 206
statues in 327 of mosaics 157
Constantiolus 72 Dauphin, C. 101 n.31, 105
Constantius 11 (Roman emperor, 337-61) David plates xxii
126 De Gubernatione Dei (Salvian) 138
continuity De Magistratibus (John the Lydian/Lydus)
after Arab conquests xvi, xvii-xviii 150
historical19-20 De Scientia Politica Dialogus 62 n.16
Contis, G. 102 De Trinitate (Augustine) 420
contracts of surety 129, 130 deaths
converSlOns of Nika riot 78
by John of Ephesus 313-14 ofplague epidemics 98, 100-1, 104, 311,
to Islam 415 313,315 n.174, 318
copper coins, disappearance of 159-60 decorations, architectural 253, 256
Copts 415 Deer House (Apamea) 228, 229
Corbett, G. 255 n.227 Dehes (Syria) 181-2, 204, 208-10, 265, 266,
The Corrupting Sea. A Study of 270,314 n.170
Mediterranean History (Horden and Deir al-Adas (Syria) 198, 260-1
Purcell) xvii demesnes 53-4, 11 0
Cosmas the eunuch/the monk 399-400, 426 demography see population decline;
Cosmiana 414 population increases
Cotelier, J.B. 386, 389 n.1 demonetization of agriculture 141
Coventry 169 Dennis, G. T. 335 n.295
Cracco Ruggini, Lellia 13 descriptions
Crawford, Michael 295 n.68, 304 n.113 of Christ 424-6
Crescentia of Kaufbeuren (nun) 427 of persons 421-4
Creswell, K.C. 237 n.143 desert fathers/monks 404-5, 407-8
crises 14 Arab attacks on 406
economic 147-9, 160, 311 see also ascetics
Crone, Patricia xxvii n.60 desertion 292
Crow, J ames 288 n.36 deurbanization 271
INDEX - - - - - - - - 437
devils 411 historical studies of xix-xx

Dhondt, Jan 51 John Moschus' and Sophronius' travels
Digest 299 n.85 in 400
Diktys 421 monasteries of 404-5
dilectus 293 n.62, 294, 295 Persian conquest of 343, 368
Diocletian (Roman emperor, 284-305) 80-1, Roman

120 agrarian production in 111, 112-20
military recruitment by 281-2 patronage relations in 124-7
reforms by 123 tax:rent ratio in 33
Dionysius of Tell-Mahre 350 eikonismos (descriptions ofpersons) 421-3,
disasters 429
in Antioch 92,172-3,200,210,241,264-5 elite military units 288, 324
in Syria 172,208,218,247,249,251,273 elites see aristocracy/elites
see also plague epidemics Elpios-Ulpius 423 n.28
discipline, military 320-1 Emesa (Horns, Syria) 164-5
disguises of saints 427 emperors
Diyala plains 345 authority of 279, 339-40
Dols, M. 90, 93 n.16, 97, 153 n.24 military recruitment by 303
Donceel-Voute, P. 221 n.93 rioting faced by 62,64-6,72,80-1
Donner, Fred M. 337 n.302 enapographoi georgoi (agrarian workforce
Doric Peristyle House (Apamea) 228 bound to an estate) 129-31
Dorotheus of Gaza 409 n.5 end oflate antiquity 9-10,25
dress, in late antiquity 3 Engels, F. 25-6
Droctulft 235 England
Duncan-Jones, R.p. 290 n.46, 291 n.50, 318 economic development of 311
n.199 Saxon, taxation in 52 n.32
Durliat, J. 101, 309-10, 311 see also Britain
Duval, Noel225 n.105 entertainment, leading to riots 63
Dyer, Alan 311 n.154 environmental deterioration, in Apamea
territory 232
earthquakes, in Syria 172-3, 218, 247, 249, Ephesus 146, 221
251,273 Ephraem 78
Ecclesiae Graecae Monumenta (Cotelier) Ephrem (patriarch of Antioch) 414
386 Epiphania see Hama
Ecclesiastical History (Evagrius) 151 Epiphanius of Salamis 420, 425, 429
Ecclesiastical History (John of Ephesus) Epitome of Military Science (Vegetius) 285
98 n.25 epoikia (estate-owned settlements) 114-15,
economic analyses 131
oflate antiquity 26-7, 28, 30-2, 34, 37 Erotapokriseis (Barsanuphius and John)
of Roman Empire 35-6 391-2 n.2
of taxation 34 n.14 Euagrius see Evagrius
economlC cnses Eudaemon (prefect) 66, 70, 72
and disappearance of copper coins 160 Eukratas/Eukratades 403
plague epidemics as cause of 311 Eunapius 80
in Roman Empire 147-9 Europe 3
economic development medieval plague epidemics in 311-12
Byzantine 92, 132-3 Eustasius of Antioch 423 n.29
in England 311 Eustratius 428-9
Roman 134-5 Evagrius Scholasticus
in Syrian rural areas 206-7, 208, 210 on Byzantine armies/warfare 298, 304,
Edesssa (Syria), Persian attacks on 157-8 306,317
Egypt on curiae 151
Arab conquest of 56,415 on plague epidemics 96, 100, 266, 313
438 INDEX
on Roman armies 305 Fraser, Simon (Lord Lovat) 283

stories about monks by 391-2,405 Fronton du Duc 386
on Syrian cities 211, 212 n.51, 236 funerary inscriptions, on plague 101, 309
Evergetinon/Evergetinos (Paul) 388, 410 n.5, n.148
417 Fustel de Coulange, N.D. 110, 133
excerptors 60 n.6
expansionism of late antiquity 7-15 Gadara (Um Qeis, Jordan) 156
Expeditio Persica (George of Pisidia) 348, Gaius (Roman emperor, 37-41) 80
349,379 Galatia, cities in 165-8
exploitative production modes of Roman games, and rioting 63, 69
Empire 28 Ganzak 356-7, 366
Garitte, G. 388 n.4
Fa'lul (Syria) 241 Gascou, J. 143
families, elite 147 Gaul
see also Apion family agricultural production in 138-40
famines 310 peasant revolts in 38, 39
Fara monastery 399-400 Gebemer (dux of Palestine) 414
Febvre, L. 7 Gennadius (patriarch) 425
Federates (Byzantine military unit) 288, George (prefect of Africa) 390-1 n.2
324,334 George of Pisidia 343, 348-9, 350, 354, 361
Ferrill, Arthur 321 n.211 n.65, 374, 379
fertility, saints as givers of 411 n.2 Georgian Chronicles 364 n.76
feudalism 28-9, 47 Georgius Monachus 388, 410 n.1
in ancient production mode 44-5,47-8 Gerasa(Jerash,Jordan) 154,160-1
in Byzantium 56, 57 n.36 Gerasimos, father 412
collapse of state power in 51 Gerland, F. 347, 351
demesnes in 53-4 Germanic invasions 40-1
emergence of 27, 42, 53 Germanic states 41, 42-4, 47
in Germanic states 48 cities in 49-50
in late Roman Empire 31, 37-8, 40 collapse of 51
Fikhman, I.F. 130 n.110 peasantry in 48, 52-3
financial crises, of Roman cities 148-9 Roman aristocracy in 52
financing of armies 42, 300 n.94, 329, Roman legacy of 50
374-5 slavery in 53-4
Finley, Moses 27 Germanus (Byzantine general) 300 n.96,
Finster, Barbara xxiv 305,334
fire, emerging unscathed from 414 n.1 Ghassanids xx, 244, 251, 256-8, 263, 264,
Flavius Strategius (Apion family member) 269, 307, 323, 338 n.305
112-13 Giardina, Andrea xvi
Flavius title 122 Gil, Moshe 337 n.302
Flusin, B. 345 n.15 Gizewski, C. 59 n.3, 67 n.40, 68 n.46, 70
Foraboschi, Daniele 25, 34 n.14 n.54, 74 n.82, 77-8 n.95, 79 n.99
foreigners, in Byzantine armies 319-26, Goffart, Walter 42 n.21, 329 n.260
330-1,336 gold 32 n.13
fortifications Gordon Highlanders regiment 283 n.20
Byzantine xxv, 291 n.50 Gospel of Rabbula 425
in Syria 240-1, 262 Goths 320, 324, 335 n.295
Fotiou, A. 62 n.16, 300 n.96, 329 n.259, 332 see also Ostrogoths; Visigoths
Fowden, Garth xix Gousdanaspa Razei 345-6
Franks Grainger, J.D. 253 n.215
agrarian production of 109-10,139-40 grand temporal paradigm 12
aristocracy of 46 Greece 315 n.l72
taxation policies of 43-4 Greek, translations into Syriac xxi, xxviii
INDEX - - - - - - - - 439
Greens (circus faction, Constantinople) 61, Hermopolis (Egypt) 120-1

62 Herodian 75 n.85
imperial support for 64 Herodotus 398
uniting with Blues 66, 68, 70-1 Heruls 320-1, 322, 324, 330
violence/rioting by 63, 78 Hesseling, D.C. 385 n.4
Gregory (patriarch of Antioch) 298, Hesychius of Jerusalem 412

399-400 highways, Roman 204
Gregory the Great (pope) 138, 297, 334 Himyar, kingdom of xx
n.287,402 Hindess, Barry 28
Gregory of Tours 43, 45 hippodromes
Grepes (king ofthe Heruls) 321 and rioting 62, 63
Guy, J.C. 390 n.1 troops deployed in 73, 76, 77, 78
Hirschfeld, Y. 129
Haeser, H. 89 Hirst, Paul 28
Hägermann, D. 140 historical studies/research
hagiographie literature on lives of saints of late antiquity xvi, xix, 4-5, 11-12
161-6,354,426,427,429 agrarian production in 110-12
Haldon, John 278, 294 n.65, 295, 327 n.248, chronological broadening of 7-13
339 n.314, 378 n.119 cultural phenomena emphasis in 10,
Hama (Epiphania) 92, 236, 266, 269, 270, 19,22
271-2,273 eastern focus in xix-xxii
archaeological excavations at 236-43, morphological research essential to
265 20-3
Hammam al-Sharakh (Syria) 263, 264, 272 politicaI18-19,109
'Handbook of Painting by Elpios-Ulpius neglect of 4-5,17,18
the Roman' 423 on plague/Justinianic plague 91-2
Harrison, D. 102-3 slow processes emphasis in 17
Harun al-Rashid (caliph, 786-809) 174 history
Hauran plain (Syria) 171, 177, 251-2 continuity in 19-20
archaeological excavations at 177, 190-8, of early Islam xv, xvi-xvii, xxiii-xxiv
252-64,266 military 329 n.257
al-Hayat (Syria) 257 plague epidemics 97, 99
Heather, Pet er 124, 288 n.40, 300 n.94, 320 in Syria 171,200-1,223,242,243,
n.205, n.206, 327 n.249 247-8,250,264,269,271-3
Der heilige Tychon (Usener) 387 History of the Caucasian Albanians (Moses
Heraclias (George of Pisidia) 348-9 Daskhurantsi) 352-3, 380-1
Heraclius (Byzantine emperor, 610-41) xxv, The History of Heraclius 351-2
319,327,328 n.251, 335, 336, 339, 396 see also Sebeos
anti-Persian/religious propaganda by History of Medicine (Haeser) 89
376-9,384 Hobsbawm, Eric 60-1, 62 n.17, 82
armies of 370-1, 372, 373-6, 379-80 holiness, signs of 411-12,414 n.1, 416-17
military commander skills of 382-3 holy war doctrines/concept, of Heraclius
peace negotiations with Persians 366-9 xxviii n.65, 380
warfare against the Arabs by xiii Homer 421
warfare against the Persians by xiii, Honore, T. 71 n.60, n.61, 77 n.95
xxvi, xxviii n.65, 337, 341, 344, 345-7, Horden, Peregrine xvii
354,356-60,362-6,383,414-15 horse racing, and rioting 63, 69
alliance with Turks 363-5, 380-2 houses, see also villas
written sources on 347, 348-54 houses, Syrian 205, 209-10, 236, 239, 240,
warfare in the Balkans 354-5 250,252-4,255-6,257,260,270
hereditary military service 295-7 in Apamea 187-9,223-32,265,271
hermits see ascetics Howard-Johnston, James 289 n.41
Hermogenes 71 Huarte excavation site (Syria) 233, 235
440 INDEX
Huber, M. 389 Italy

Humphreys, R.S. 15 n.45 Byzantine interests in xviii-xix
Huns 322, 323, 330 monasteries in 402
Hypatius 75, 76, 78, 79
Jabiya (Syria) 257, 261, 264, 269, 272
Iberians 315-16 Jami al-Mabrak mosque (Bostra) 194-5,

Ibn Tahir, Abdallah 242 248-9
Ibn al-Tayyib, Ahmad 237 J ean, Duchess of Gordon 283 n.20
iconoclasm 409-10, 411 n.3 Jebel Druse region (Syria) 260
icons 419, 424 Jebel Zawiye region (Syria) 234-5
of Christ 425-6 Jerusalem
and descriptions of saints 422-3 Moschus' stay in 401
likeness of 419-21,426-7,429 patriarchs of 396
reproduction of 427 sacked by Persians 376-7, 406
ideals, of asceticism 407-8 John (archbishop of Bostra) 244-5
identification of persons, codified John (father of St Saba) 292
vocabulary of 421-2 John the Almsgiver (patriarch of
identities, studies of xx-xxi Alexandria) 394-5, 398, 399, 403
Ildigisal 324 n.230, 330 John of Antioch 60 n.6, 69-70 n.53, 335
Iliad (Homer) 421 n.294
illustrations, on coins 215-16 n.68 J ohn of Beth Rufina/Rufus 415
Illyriciani (Roman regiment) 287 n.32 John the Cappadocian (prefect) 60, 64, 82
In Bonum Patricium (George of Pisidia) 348 dismissal of 70-1,72
infantry, Roman/Byzantine 287-8, 370-1 J ohn Cassian 403
inflation, in Roman Empire 147-8 John Chrysostom 132,410,416 n.4, 425
Inkhil (Syria) 197, 257-8 J ohn of Damascus 395, 425 n.51
inscriptions J ohn the Deacon 389
on agricultural production 129 John ofEphesus 74, 98, 212 n.51, 297 n.78,
on Byzantine urban wealth 161 309,311,312-13,317,324,325n.234
funerary, on plague 101, 309 n.148 conversions by 313-14
from Syria 239, 241, 244-5, 248, 253, 259, John of Epiphania 212 n.51, 236
260,275 John the Eunuch 408
institution-building, of late antiquity 3 J ohn of Gabala 411 n.3
intercessions by saints xxvi n.57, 409, 427 J ohn the Hermit 409
intermediaries, used by emperors in riots John the Lydian/Lydus 70, 82, 150-1
72 J ohn the Monk 389
investments, agricultural134-5 John ofNikiu 65 n.37, 415 n.l
Iraq J ohn the Persian 402
archaeology in xxiv J ohn of Philadelphia (bishop ) 249
as cent re of Abbasid empire 202 Johnson, A.C. 33-4 n.14, 35, 39
Irenaeus, Abba 407 n.2 Jones, A.H.M. 31, 127, 130 n.110, 149, 152,
Irene of Chrysobalantos 426 160-1,278,290 n.46, 291 n.50, 295, 321
Isaac, Benjamin 279 n.5, 286 n.29, 330 n.263 n.209
Isaiah of Gaza 417-18 Jordan, archaeological evidence of
Islam, conversions to 415 Byzantine urban wealth in 154, 155
Islamic history, early xv, xvi-xvii, xxiii-xxiv Jordan Valley, monks in 403
military 329 n.257 Joseph, Abba 417
plague epidemics 97, 99 'Journals oft he Trojan War' (Diktys and
in Syria 171, 200-1, 269, 271-3 Dares) 421
Apamea 223 Julian (bishop of Bostra) 406 n.l
Bostra 247-8,250 Julian (prefect) 64 n.29, 76 n.91
Bostra region 264 Justin I (Byzantine emperor, 518-27), and
Hama region 242, 243 circus factions 62, 65-6
INDEX - - - - - - - - 441
Justin 11 (Byzantine emperor, 565-78) xxv, Kitzinger, Ernst 422

303,307,308-9,335-6 koinon (collectives) 116
Justinian I (Byzantine emperor, 527-65) Kraemer, C.J. 295 n.69, 331-2 n. 273
armies of277, 289, 291, 301-2, 305, 321-4, ktemata (estate-associated allotments) 132,
328, 331 n.269 137
and circus factions 62, 64, 65-6 Kula, W. 20

construction/reconstruction works of Kunstwollen 1
173,200,214,231,244-5,266
legislation by 310, 328, 332-3 labour services 53, 54
constitutions 131 by Byzantine peasants 116-17, 131
on local administration 245, 286 by Roman peasants 138, 139
see also Codex Justinianus Lakhmid al-Mundhir see al-Mundhir
and Nika riot 61, 68-70, 71-2, 75-6, Lakhmids xx
79-80,81-2,83,333 land
deployment oftroops 72-4, 75, 77, 78, RomanlByzantine peasants tied to 34-5,
84-5 129-30
reign of xviii, 59, 80 n.l06 see also agricultural estates
warfare and military recruitment by land tax
xviii, 256, 287 Frankish 43-4
Justinianic Code see Codex Justinianus Roman 31-2
Justinianic plague 59, 87-93, 153, 311, 313 landlords
chronologies of epidemics of 95, 96, 98-9 Byzantine 119, 120-2, 127, 128, 132
impact of 93-5, 97, 102-3, 106-7, 266-7, armed retainers of 332-3
312,317 military recruitment by 294
mortality rates 98, 100-1, 104, 311, 313, feudal 28
315 n.174, 318 Germanic/Frankish 33,37-8,46,51,141
population decline 93, 96, 100-1, 103, Roman 45-7
104,105,266,309-10,313-16 taxes paid by peasants via 130
written sources on 91 n.8, 99, 309, 310-11 landownership
as benefit for soldiers 322, 324, 327-32,
Kaegi, Walter E. 289 n.43, 302 n.l05, n.l07, 336
303 n.l09, n.11 0, 327 n.248, 328 n.251, in Byzantium 120-2, 125, 127, 128-9, 132
337 n.302 by peasants 52-3
Kafr Shams (Syria) 256 regionalization of 141 n.159
Al-Kafr (Syria) 260 in Roman Empire 135-6
Kaper Koraon (Syria) 207-8, 265, 266, and taxation 58, 125-6, 127, 130
270-1 languages, use of xxi
Kapropera excavation site (Syria) 234-5 Lassus, Jean 238 n.150
Karlin-Hayter, P. 67 n.41 Late Antique and Medieval Population
katalogoi (military units) 298 (RusselI) 93 n.16
Kavad-Shiroe/Kavad 11 (Sasanian king) late antiquity xv, 1-2, 6, 10, 11-12, 14-15, 18
345-6,366,367-8 n.56,25
Keenan, J. 122 aristocracy in 135, 136
Kennedy, Hugh 159,171 n.l, 314 n.170, 329 economic analyses of 26-7,28,30-2,34,
n.257, 337 n.301 37
Kerratin (Tarutia, Syria) 240, 242, 243 and fall of Roman Empire 16-18
Keys, D.I06 historical studies/research of xvi, xix,
Khazars 353 n.46 4-5,11-12
Khirbet al-Samra (Syria) 259-60, 264, 268, agricultural production in 110-12
270,272 chronological broadening of 7-13
Khusro see Chosroes land 11 cultural phenomena emphasis in 10,
King, Geoffrey 255 n.226, 263 n.267 19,22
Kislinger, E. 101 n.31, 105 eastern focus in xix-xxii
442 INDEX
morphological research essential to capabilities of 289

20-3 conscription/recruitment into 295, 299
politicaI18-19,109 n.90
neglect of 4-5,17,18 pay/benefits of 302 n.104, 328-9
Marxist analyses of 25-6 lions, friendliness with 412
Mediterranean wor!d in 109 Lippomano 386

modernity of 2-7 local government, Byzantine 245, 286, 375
periodisations of xv-xvi, 7-13,22-3 logothetes 375
Syria in 171 Lombards/Lombard rule 19, 307, 308, 322,
transitions in 14-15 324,326,330
to Islam xxiii Lovat, Simon Fraser, Lord 283
to middle ages xvii-xviii, 5, 12-13 Lucca (Italy) 169 n.60
Lazica (Georgia) 323 n.224, 363
Le Goff, J. 13 n.38, 95-6, 99 Ma'an (Syria) 241
legislation/law Ma'aret al-Nu'man (Syria) 242, 243, 272
Byzantine 131, 245, 286, 310, 328, 332-3 MacAdam, H. 252-3 n.215
in late antiquity 18-19 McCormick, M. 104-5, 134-5
Roman 126 MacCoull, L.S.B. 143
on adscripticii 130-1 MacMullen, Ramsay 289 n.43, 290 n.46, 291
on curiales 150 n.50
on patronage 39, 126-8 McNeill, W. 93, 97, 99
to tie peasants to land 34 macrostructures 23
Leja district (Syria) 252, 255, 260 Madaba(Jordan) 154
Leo I (Byzantine emperor, 457-74) 64, 332 Malalas 392
Leontius of Apamea (bishop of Cyrene) on Byzantine armies 286 n.29, 321
400,403 on circus factions 60 n.6, 66, 68
Leontius of Neapolis 164-5, 394-5, 403 descriptions of emperors and apostles
Leven, K.-H. 100-1 by 421, 422
levies, for recruitment into Romani on Nika riot 69 n.52, 72 n.64, 75, 84
Byzantine armies 280, 281, 293 Malchus 286 n.28
Libanius 39, 80, 149, 150 Manandian, J.A. 356-7 n.54
Libri Carolini 427 n.63 mancipia (agricultural workers) 139-40
Licinii family 147 Mango, Mar!ia 156-7
Liebeschuetz, J.H.W.G. 149, 150, 152, 160, Mani Codex xxvii n.62
330 n.268, 331 n.270, 336 n.300 Manichaeism xxvii
Lien-Teh, W. 91 manorial systems see agricultural estates
Life of Catholicus Viroy 353 al-Mansur (caliph, 754-775) 237
Life of Constantine 426 Maouricius 78
Life ofGregory the Great (John the Marcian (Byzantine emperor, 450-57) 64,
Deacon) 388-9 303-4,308
Life of John the Almsgiver (Leontiusl maritime transport, and plague epidemics
Moschus and Sophronius) 394-5, 403 104-5
Life of Melania 135 Marius, Gaius (Roman general) 281
Life of Melania the Younger 137 Marjorian 41
Life and Miracles of St. Thekla 161-3 Martina (Byzantine empress) 390-1 n.2,
Life of Symeon the Fool (Leontius of 416 n.1
Neapolis) 164-5 Martindale, J. 70 n.54
Life ofTheodore of Sykeon 165-7, 168, 314, martyrdom/martyrs 380, 423 n.27
315,427 Marwan ibn al-Hakam (Umayyad caliph,
Life ofTheognius 391 684-685) 261
likeness, of icons 419-21, 426-7, 429 Marwänid family 329 n.257
limitanei (Roman/Byzantine garrison Marx, Kar! 48
troops) 284, 285-8, 290, 291 n.50 Marxist analyses 25-6, 28, 29-30, 38
INDEX 443
Matthews, J. 134 Miracles of St. Demetrius 163-4

Maurice (Byzantine emperor, 582-602) Mi'rayeh (Syria) 241
armies/military recruitment 297, 301, Missiou, D. 61 n.12
302-3,305-6,314,324-6,331,334 modernity, of late antiquity 2-7
n.287,336,338,339 modes of production 26 n.3, 27
and circus factions 79 ancient 28, 29, 31-2, 36, 58

Strategicon of 289-90,298-9,301 n.97, collapse of 37
316,317,325,334-5 coexistence of ancient and feudal modes
warfare against Persians by xxv 44-5,47-8
Maximus Confessor 391 n.2, 396, 402 n.1, feudal 28-9, 47, 51
403,406,416 n.1 demesnes in 53-4
Mazdakites xxvii n.62 emergence of 27, 42, 53
Mazzarino, Santo 1-2, 9, 11-12 in Germanic states 48
Mazzucchi, C.M. 62 n.16 in late Roman Empire 31, 37-8, 40
Mecca, caravan trade with Bostra 247-8, in late antiquity 26-7,30-1,34-5
268 and social formations/societies 29-30,
medicalliterature, on plague 91, 100 34,45
medicines 398-9 n.1 tributary 57-8
Mediterranean world 10 Mohammad (Prophet), travelling in Syria
and Arab conquests xvii-xviii 247
eastern monasteries
academic interest in xix-xxii book cultures at xxviii n.64
Roman conquests in 144 Cilician 400
in late antiquity 109 in Constantinople 403 n.1
plague epidemics in 96 Egyptian 404-5
Melitene 372 Greek, in Italy 402
Menander, Arrius 293-4, 336 multilingualism in xxi
Menas 397 Palestinian 396-7, 399-400
Merovingian period Arab attacks on 402, 406
agrarian production in 109-10, 139-41 Syrian 239, 252, 257, 258
taxation policies of 43 monetary commutation of military
Michael the Syrian 212 n.51, 297 n.78, 415 conscription (aurum tironicum) 292,
n.2 294, 295, 320 n.205
Middle Ages monetization of agriculture 133, 141
early monks
bipartite agricultural estates in 53, ascetic 404-5, 407-12, 417
54-5,110,139-41 collections ofstories about 391-2, 404-18
poverty in 52 Greek 402
plague epidemics in 311-12 lives of 407
transition from late antiquity to xvii- Palestinian 400
xviii, 5, 12-13 supernatural world seen by 411
Migne, Jacques Pau1386-7 Monophysites xiii-xiv, 395-6, 398, 413-15,
migration 416
plague epidemics as cause of 310 Morony, Michael G. xxiv, 6 n.22
to Constantinople 59-60 morphological research, of late antiquity
Mihevc-Gabrovec, Erika 385 20-3
military bases, in Syria 254-5, 272 mortality rates, of plague epidemics 98,
military recruitment see recruitment 100-1,104,311,313,315 n.174, 318
Miller, Doris 251 n.211 mosaics
Mioni, Elpidio 385, 387 dating of 157
miracles xxvi n.57, 415-16, 427, 429 in Palestinian synagogues xxiv
Miracles of Saint Cyrus and Saint John Syrian 198, 213, 218, 259, 260, 261, 270
(Sophronius) 415 Mosaics House (Epiphania) 236
444 INDEX
Moschus, John 385, 393, 398 end of75-9

career of 399-404 Justinian's responses to 61, 68-70, 71-2,
death and burial of 396-7 75-6,79-80,81-2,83,333
Life of John the Almsgiver by 394-5, 403 deployment oftroops 72-4, 75, 77, 78,
relationship with Sophronius 403 84-5
Spiritual Meadow by 385, 400 rioters in 61

on divisions within Christianity alternative emperor acclaimed by 62,
412-13 73, 74, 76, 78
manuscripts/editions of 385-91 demands of 70-2
prologue of 393-4,395,397,399,402 violence by 69, 74, 84, 85
on Sophronius 401 start of 66-7
sources of 392-3 Nikertai excavation site (Syria) 233, 235
stories in 388, 397-8, 403, 404-18 Nilus of Ancyra 426, 427
Moses Daskhurantsi 352-3, 357 n.57, 363 Nineveh xxvi, 365
n.72, n.73, 364 n.76, 380-1 Nisibis (Persia), School of xxii, xxviii n.64
mosques Nissen, Th. 387
in Apamea 223 Nizezius, charter of 140
in Bostra 193,248-9,250,272,273 nomadic peoples
in Hama/Hama region 237, 242, 272, 273 climate changes influencing lives of 107
in rural Syria 262, 263 n.267 in Syria 240, 252, 257
in urban areas xxiii-xxiv Novel (Theodosius 11, 443) 328
Mount Sinai 286 n.29 Nucubidze, Salva 388 n.4
Msayke (Syria) 260 nudity, by ascetic monks 408 n.l
Muawiya (Umayyad caliph, 657-80) 174, al-Nu'man (Ghassanid leader) 258, 307
261 Numantia (Spain) 280-1
al-Mundhir (Ghassanid leader) 258, 290
n.48,301, 304, 307 obsequium (military command) 378-9
Mundus 72, 78 Oikonomides, N. 328, 343-4 n.l0, n.ll
Musel Mamikonian (Armenian chief) 325 olive presses, in Syria 205, 234
mutinies 298, 302, 318-19 n.200, 331 n.269, Olympiodorus of Thebes 136-7
339 On Military Matters (Arrius Menander)
293-4
Naaman (Arab chieftain) 405 Opelt, Ilona 398
Nabataeans xxvii open spaces
Nahrawan canal345 n.14 in Syrian villages/towns 255
Narses (bishop of Ascalon) 397 urban 159
Narses (Byzantine general) 78,308, 322, Optimates (military unit) 288, 324
323,337 Orestes 422 n.21
Nau, F. 387, 395 n.l, 415 n.2 Origenes/Origen 74 n.80, 424, 425
Nawa (Syria) 239, 255, 256 Origin ofthe Family (Engels) 25-6
Negev area, plague epidemics in 101 n.31 Orontes Valley (Syria) 269
Nestorianism 412 archaeological excavations at 171, 175,
New Paradise see Spiritual Meadow 178-81,203-10,232-5
New Testament, on physical appearance of Ostrogoths 42, 47 n.25, 325 n.234
Christ 425 Othman (caliph, 644-658) 174
Nicaea, Second Council of (787) 426, 427 Oxyrhynchus (Egypt) 112, 118, 121
Nicephorus 339, 363 n.73, 364 n.75
Nika riot (Constantinople, 532) 62, 79-80, paidaria (serfs) 117
81 painting, religious 419-21, 429
accounts/studies of 59, 60 n.6, 71-2, 73, see also icons
75,76-7,78,82,84 palaces, Syrian 192, 197, 246, 247, 257-8
comparisons with other riots 66, 67-8, Palestine
69, 72, 73-4, 75 agricultural production in 129
INDEX - - - - - - - - 445
civil disorder in 405-6 Roman 138-9

Heraclius' visit to 369 revolts by 38
monasteries in 396-7, 399-400 tax evasion by 39, 40
Arab attacks on 402, 406 tax and rent payments by 32-3, 39
Persian conquest of 343 tied to land 34-5
plague epidemics in 101 n.31, 105, Pella (Jordan), archaeological excavations

312-13 at 156
synagogues in xxiv Peranius the Georgian 323 n.225
urban wealth in 154 periodisations
Palestinian Talmud, modernity of 3 of late antiquity xv-xvi, 7-13, 22-3
Palmyra 286 of middle ages 12-13
papal estates 138 Persarmenians 306, 315-16
papyri xix, 111 Persians/Persian Empire xxii, 344
on Byzantine agricultural production armies of 329,371-2
112-20 Christians in xxviii
on Byzantine landownership 122 Syria conquered and ruled by 157-8,
descriptions of persons in 422 173,211-12,230,244,258-9,267-9,
on Roman bipartite estates 137-8 343
Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai 327 warfare against Byzantium xiii, xviii,
Parker, S. Thomas 329 n.260 xxv-xxvi, 290,303-5,315-16,337,
partisans see circus factions 338,341-7,354,355-60,362-6,370,
Patlagean, E. 98 372-4,382-3
patrocinium (Roman patronage) 39 Byzantine anti-Persian propaganda
Patrologia Graeca (Migne) 386-7 376-9,384
patronage peace negotiations and treaty xix,
Byzantine 124-8, 323 n.222 366-9
Roman 39,138 Turkish-Byzantine alliance 363-5,
Scottish 283 380-2
Pattenden, Philip 385 written sources on 343, 347, 348-54,
Paul (bishop/archbishop/patriarch) 221, 362-3
411 persons, descriptions of 421-4
Paul the Candidate 397 pessimism, among monks 405
Paul of Evergetis 388 Peter (brot her of Emperor Maurice) 288
Paul of Hellas 412 Phazas the Georgian 323 n.227
Paul of Thebes 412 n.1 Philippicus (Byzantine general) 301, 314,
Paulinus of Pella 135, 136 416
payments Philostratus 419
and benefits for Roman/Byzantine Phocas (Byzantine emperor, 602-10) xxv,
soldiers 295, 300 n.96, 301-3, 322, 67-8,374,397,414
324,326-32,336,374-5 Phocas (prefect) 72
of silver by Syrian cities to Persians Photius 386, 393, 420-1, 424-5 n.44
157-8 Piganiol, Andre 11-12
oftax and re nt by peasants 32-3, 39, 116, Pilaster House (Apamea) 224-5, 229
130 pilgrimages 402
peace negotiations/treaty between Persia pillar saints 410, 413-14
and Byzantium xix, 366-9 Pirenne, Henri xvii, 10
peasants Pitra, Cardinal388
Byzantine 56, 128, 132 plague
and patronage relations 124-5 andAIDS 100
tax and rent payments by 116, 117, bacillus 90, 105
130 in Byzantine Empire see Justinianic
tied to land 129-30 plague
Germanic 48, 52-3 in Middle Ages 311-12
446 INDEX
origins and dissemination of 97, 104-5, dismissal of 70-1,72

106 order maintained by 64
in Syria 208 Prentice, w.K. 275
plantation slavery 28 principales (leading office holders,
Plerophories (John of Beth Rufina/Rufus) propoliteuomenoi) 121, 123
415 Priscus (Byzantine general) 335, 339

Pliny the Younger 145 private employment, in Byzantine armies
Plotinus 3 332-5
pneumonie plague 311 n.152 Probus, acclaimed as alternative emperor
political history 73, 74
oflate antiquity 18-19, 109 Procopius
neglect of 4-5, 17, 18 on Britain 326
politics, and religion 5, 63 on Byzantine armies/warfare 286-7 n.34,
Pollitzer, R. 91 287,288,289 n.41, 290, 298, 321, 322,
Polybius 280, 282 328,329-30,333-4
'Polycrates of Samos' story (Herodotus) 398 on Justinianic plague 91 n.8, 99, 309, 310
polymorphism, of Christ 424-5 n.150,311
polyptyques 133 on landowners 131
polytheism xxvii on Nika riot 61 n.12, 65, 70, 71, 72, 75,
Pompey/Pompeius 74, 75, 79,333 n.281 76-7,82,84
population declines on Syrian cities 173, 199, 211 n.50, 244
caused by plague production see modes of production
in Byzantium 93, 96, 100-1, 103, 104, propaganda, used by Heraclius 376-9, 384
105,266,309-10,313-16 prophets, descriptions of 423 n.30
in Middle Ages 311-12 propoliteuomenoi (leading office holders,
in Syrian rural areas 234, 266 principales ) 121, 123
population increases prosperity see wealth
in rural areas 128, 206, 207, 210, 234, 265 provincial governors 145
in urban areas 231 provocations 11
positive framing of late antiquity 1-2 pseudomorphosis 21 n.62
Potter, David S. 304 n.113 public buildings
pottery, from Syria 202, 209-10, 238, 262, Byzantine 154-5, 158-9
263 funded by curiales 146-7
poverty funded by Ghassanids 257
of medieval aristocracy 52 Roman, destruction of 201
of soldiers 300 n.96 in Syria 214-15, 246, 249-50
in Syria 208,210,230,232,270 Purcell, Nicholas xvii
powers
of landowners 28, 46-7 Qasr al-Hallabat (Syria) 263, 264, 272
of Roman state 27, 35-6, 45 Qasr al-Mharram (Syria) 241
collapse of 40, 41, 50 Qirbize (Antioch) 178
Praetorian Prefecture 375 Quaestiones (Anastasius Sinaita) 428
praetorium (Constantinople), attacks on Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem 428
74,84 quasi-egalitarianism 48
Pratum SpiritualelPratum see Spiritual Qur'än xxviii
Meadow
praying, by ascetic monks 408-9 Rahzadh/Roc Vehan (Persian general) 365,
Pre-Capitalist Modes of Production 371
(Hindess and Hirst) 28 Rathbone, D. 119
pre-Islamic period, religious diversity in Ravenna
XXVll papyri 137-8
prefects 375 tax:rent ratio in 33
appointments of 65 recognition of saints 426-8, 429
INDEX - - - - - - - - 447
recruitment wheeled traffic in 215 n.65

into Byzantine armies xxv, 278-9, 286-7, conquests of 144
291-303,305,306,308-9,314,336 Eastern see Byzantium
into Roman armies 279-82, 285-6, 299 fall/crises ofxviii, 1, 109, 147-9
into Scottish Highland regiments 282-4 Germanic invasions 40-1, 47
Red Slip ware (pottery) 202 marginalisation of 16-18

Reds (circus faction, Constantinople) 65 legacy of 49-50
registers, for conscription purposes 298 modes of production in 28-9, 30-2, 34-8
relics 218, 221, 410 patronage in 39,138
religion peasantry in 32-5,38,39,40,138-9
and politics 5, 63 riots in 80
rivalries based on xxvii-xxviii secessions from 40-1
'religion of the book' xxviii slavery in 26-7, 28, 137, 299
religious painting 419-21, 429 state power in 27, 35-6, 45
see also icons collapse of 40, 41, 50
religious propaganda, used by Heraclius Rome 327 n.249
379-80,384 Greek monasteries in 402 n.1
rent-paying, by Roman/Byzantine peasants pilgrimages to 402
32-3, 39, 116, 11 7 Rostovtzeff, Michael 11 n.35
retainers, armed 332-4 Rotunda Church (Apamea) 217
revolts 38, 258 Rouche, Michel 54 n.34
Revue de l'Orient chTl!tien 387 Roueche, C. 61 n.12
Richard, M. 428 n.66 Rouet de Journel, M.J. 385, 401 n.1, 408 n.1
Riegl, Alois 1, 2 nA, 3, 8, 9, 11-12 Rowlandson, J. 121
Rihab (Syria) 259, 264, 268, 269 Rubin, Zeev 329 n.258
Riis, P.J. 237 n.143 Rude, G. 79 n.102, 80 n.103, 82
riots 63-6 ruins 159
in Anastasius' reign 59, 63, 65, 69, 73-4, rulers, loyalty of rioting mobs to 60
75 rural areas 167
in Antioch (507) 64 n.27, 67 plague epidemics in 104, 312-13
in pre-political societies 60-1 population decreases in 234, 266
in Roman Empire 80 population increases in 128, 206, 207,
see also Nika riot 210,234,265
'The Rise of Dependent Cultivation' (essay, Syrian 251-2
Bloch) 111 transitions in 178-81, 203-10, 232-5,
Roman Empire 36 238-43,252-64,265,266,270
agrarian production in 30-1, 34-5, 109, wealth of 314-15
134-5 in Syria 206-8, 233, 234, 239, 243, 252,
bipartite estates 133-4, 136-8, 139 254,256,257,263,265,266,270,
concentration of landownership 135-6 274
historical studies of 11 0-12 see also villages
aristocracy/elites in 36-8, 52, 122-3, 134, RusselI, J.C. 92-4, 101, 102
282
loss of state control over 45-7 Sabians xxvii
pos sessions of 135-6, 137 sacellarius 375
urban 143, 145-6, 168, 169 Sahak Mamikonian (Armenian chief) 325
see also curiales St Artemius 427
armies of 279, 284-5 St Cosmas 427
recruitment 279-82, 285-6, 299 St Damian 427
cities in 36-7, 49, 146 St Demetrius 354, 409
declining status of 149-50,152 St Eleutherius 409
elites in 143, 145-6, 168, 169 St Euthymius 411 n.2
Near Eastern 144-9, 168 St Luke 419 n.3
448 INDEX
St Mary church (Antioch) 174 Seridus (abbot) 392 n.2

St Melania 135 Serjilla excavation site (Syria) 235
St Nicholas 427 Sestan, Ernesto 22
St Pancratius ofTaormina 419 nA Severus, Septimius (Roman emperor, 193-
St Peter 422 211) 279
St Polyeuctus 411 n.2 Severus of Antioch 411,413

St Saba 292 shad title 381 n.129
St Sabas monastery (Palestine) xxi, 406 Shahen (Persian general) 357, 358, 359,
St Thekla 161-3 360,361
St Theodore the General 409 Shahid, Irfan 286 n.26
St Theodore of Sykeon 165-7, 314 Shahraplakan (Persian general) 357, 358,
St Theodosius monastery (Palestine) 364
396-7,399 Shahrvaraz (Persian general) 357, 358, 359,
St Thomas 409 n.3 360,361-2,368,369,376,382
St Yrieix 139-40 Shäpur I (Sasanian/Persian king) 338
saints Sha'rah (Syria) 255
descriptions of 422-4 Shenoud (Coptic abbot) 121-2, 132
as givers of fertility 411 n.2 shipping, Roman 373
hagiographie literature on lives of 161-6, shipwreck archaeology xxiii
354,426,427,429 Short History (Theophanes) 349
icons of, likeness to physical Si' (Syria) 260
appearances 419-21, 426-7, 429 Sicily 297 n.80
intercessions by xxvi n.57, 409, 427 Sidonius Apollinaris 135
on pillars 410, 413-14 silver
souls of 428, 429 payments of Syrian cities to Persians in
Salkhad (Syria) 259, 260, 269 157-8
Salvian (of Marseilles) 39, 41, 138-9 in treasuries of rural Syrian churches
Samma (Syria) 258, 268 207-8,270
Sanchez-Albernoz, C. 54 n.34 Sinai, Moschus' stay in 401
Sarris, Peter xix, xxv n.52, 106 Sirat An'ilshirwiin 329 n.258
Sasanian empire see Persians/Persian Sirks, B. 131
Empire Sittas (Byzantine general) 322
Sauvaget, J. 237 n.143 slavery/slaves
Saxons 326 in Germanie states 53-4
scars, significance of 422 n.21 in Roman Empire 26-7, 28, 137, 299
Scete (Egypt) 404-5 Slavs 308, 374
scholarship see historical studies/research 5mbat Bagratuni (Arme ni an chief) 325-6
Schänborn, C. von 394, 403 social formations/societies 29
schools, Persian xxii, xxviii n.64 feudal 48
Scipio Aemilianus (Roman general) 280-1 and modes of production 29-30, 34, 45
Scotland, Highland regiments 282-4 pre-politicaI60-1
Scott, S. 134 soldiers
scribones (army recruiters) 297, 303 benefits/payment of 295,300 n.96, 301-3,
sea, Persian weakness at 373 322,324,326-32,336,374-5
Sebeos, ps. Sebeos 352, 365 n.80, 371, 377 training of 300-1 n.97, 376
secessions, from Roman Empire 40-1 Sontag, S. 100
Secret History (Procopius) see Anecdota Sopater 80
Seibel, V. 89 Sophia (Byzantine empress) 304-5
Seleukia (Asia Minor) 161-3, 164 Sophronius (patriarch of Jerusalem/the
septicaemic plague 311 n.152 sophist) 385, 389, 393-7, 398, 399, 400,
serfdom 27, 53, 117 401,409
Sergius (patriarch of Constantinople) 327, relationship with Moschus 403
396 writings of 397,415
INDEX - - - - - - - - 449
souls, of saints 428, 429 superstructures (Marxism) 29

Spätrömische Kunstindustrie (Riegl) 1 surety contracts 129, 130
Speck, Paul 327 n.247 as-Suyut[2]i 90
speeches, by Heradius to his troops 379-80 Sylvester (pope) 426
Spiritual Meadow (John Moschus) 385, 400 synagogues, in Palestine xxiv
on divisions in Christianity 412-13 Synaxarion of Constantinople 422-4

manuscripts/editions of 385-91 Synesius 320 n.206, 407 n.2, 417
prologue of 393-4,395,397,399,402 Syria 171
on Sophronius 401 agrarian production in 205,251-2
sources of 392-3 Arab conquest and rule of 173-4,212,
stories in 388, 397-8, 403, 404-18 230,243,244,260,261,269-74
Spurius Ligustinus 280 Islamic rule 171, 200-1, 269, 271-3
start of late antiquity 8-10 Umayyad rule 174, 248-9, 250, 258,
states 260,261-3,264,270,272-3
Byzantine 55-7 aristocracy of 229, 230, 268, 271
feudal 51, 52 Byzantine rule of 369
Germanic 41, 42-4, 47 Ghassanids used for defence of
cities in 49-50 borders 256-7, 258, 269, 307
collapse of 51 Christianity in 210, 249, 250, 259, 264,
peasantry in 48, 52-3 268,270-1,272
Roman aristocracy in 52 monasteries 239, 252, 257, 258
Roman legacy of 50 cities in 164-5, 268-9, 270
slavery in 53-4 Islamic 171, 200-1, 273
late Roman 27, 35-6, 45 earthquakes in 172-3, 218, 247, 249, 251,
collapse of 40, 41, 50 273
loss of control over aristocracy 45-7 military bases in 254-5, 272
peasants tied to land 34-5 Persian conquest and rule of 157-8,173,
and modes of production 30 211-12,230,244,258-9,267-9,343
Stathakopoulos, D. 101 n.31, 105 plague epidemics in 312-13
Stein, E. 67 n.41, 68 n.46, 75 n.86, 91-2, 292 transitions in 171-2, 175-98, 264-74
n.53, 304 n.112, 319 n.203 in rural areas 178-81, 203-10, 232-5,
Stephen (Cappadocian monk) 408 n.1 238-43,252-64,265,266,270
Stephen (Persian dient ruler of Iberia) 364 in urban areas xxiii, 200-3, 211, 215-
Stephen (priest of Ailiots in Sinai) 407 16,219-20,223,227-32,271-2,
Stephen of Dora 396 n.3 273, 314 n.170
Stewart of Garth 283 n.19 Syriac, translations into xxi, xxviii
Sticker, G. 90-1
Stone, L. 10 n.33 al-Tabari 371-2
stories Tacitus 82 n.113
about monks 391-2 Takht-i-Sulaiman (Persian fire-temple)
in Spiritual Meadow 388, 397-8, 403, 357,379
404-18 Talmud, Palestinian, modernity of 3
Strategikon (Maurice) 289-90, 298-9, 301 Tarantum (Darende) 372
n.97, 316, 317,325,334-5 Tarsus (Asia Minor) 162
Strategius 377 Tate, George xxiii n.46, 207 n.38, 267
street plans Taurus mountains 372
Byzantine/Roman 159 tax-collectors/collection
of Apamea 213-14,216 Byzantine 124, 151
of Bostra 245-6 Roman 36, 145, 148
early Islamic 200-1 taxation
structures, studies of late antiquity in Byzantium 55, 57, 116, 129, 130, 292
focussing on 20-3 n.55, 295 n.68, 374
stylit es see pillar saints and patronage relations 124-8
450 INDEX
in Germanic states 41-4 Tits-Dieuaide, M.J. 140

and landownership 58, 125-6, 127, 130 Titus (Roman warlord) 301 n.l0l
in Roman Empire 28, 31-2, 34, 35-6, 41 togas, wearing of 150
evasion of 37-8,39, 40, 46 trade
tax:rent ratios 32-3, 39 caravan 247-8, 268
in Saxon England 52 n.32 Syrian rural 206

Teall, J.L. 95 n.18, 99, 309, 315 training, of soldiers 300-1 n.97, 376
Tell Hazne (Syria) 241 Transcaucasia 363-5, 367, 381
tenant farmers 110, 294 n. 66 forces from, in Byzantine army 377-9
Thaleleus (bishop of Thessalonica) 409 transitions
Theoderic the Amal (the Great, in late antiquity 14-15
Ostrogothic king) 301 to Islam xxiii
Theoderic Strabo (Ostrogothic chieftain) to Middle Ages xvii-xviii, 5, 12-13
47 n.25, 301 in Syria 171-2,178-98,264-74
Theodora (Byzantine empress) 72, 77 n.94, in rural areas 178-81, 203-10, 232-5,
334 238-43,252-64,265,266,270
Theodore of Alexandria 404 in urban areas xxiii, 200-3, 211, 215-
Theodore of Myra (bishop) 427 16,219-20,223,227-32,271-2,
Theodore of Petra 391, 392, 393 n.3 273, 314 n.170
Theodore the philosopher 400, 407-8 Traversari, Ambrogio 385-6, 389 n.l
Theodore of Sykeon 165-7, 314 treasuries of churches
Theodore Syncellus 361 n.65 Byzantine 157, 375
Theodorus Lector;Theodore the Lector Syrian rural 207-8, 270
392, 409 n.4, 425 Tribonian, demands for dismissal of 70,
Theodorus (prefect) 64 n.28 71
Theodosian Code see Codex Theodosianus tributary mode of production 57-8
Theodosius 11 (Byzantine emperor, 408-50) Triclinos House (Apamea) 187, 223-4, 229,
64,328 265
Theodotus (prefect) 65, 70 Trilobe Columns House (Apamea) 228
Theognis (Byzantine general) 308 Trojan war 421
Theophanes Tryphon (prefect) 72
on Byzantine warfare 314 n.169, 345 it-Tuba (Syria) 239
n.15, 346 n.16, 347, 349-51, 360, Turkish empire 357
362-3,364,365,366,379-80 alliance with Byzantium 363-5, 380-2
on circus factions 65 n.37, 78 n.96 warfare against the Persians 368-9
on Nika riot 66 n.39, 67 n.40, 69 n.50, 72, Turner, D. 102
74 n.78, 75, 77
Theophilus 349-50 Ulpian 71
Theophylact Simocatta 277-8, 306 n.124, Ulpius 423 n.28
316,325 n.239 Umar I (caliph, 634-644) 248, 261
Thessalonica 163-4,314 n.I71, 374 n.l06 Umar 11 (caliph, 717-720) 242, 248
Theudebert I (Frankish king) 43 Umar mosque (Bostra) 193, 248
Thomas (archbishop of Apamea) 211 Umayyad rule, in Syria 174, 248-9, 250,
Thomas (imperial doctor) 78 258,260,261-3,264,270,272-3
Thousand and One Nights 398 Umm al-Jimal (Syria) 196, 254-5, 261-2,
Thrace, garrisons from, deployed in Nika 263,264,265,266,272,273
riot 75 Umm al-Quttein (Syria) 263 n.266
Thucydides 91 n.8, 309-10 n.146 urban areas
Tiberius 11 Constantine (Byzantine archaeology of xxiii
emperor, 574-82) 305, 306, 307, 308, aristocracy/elites in 133, 143, 145-6,
314,315-16,324,331 150-2,161-2,163-4,165,166,168,
Tiflis 363-4 168-9,169
Timotheus (general) 300 n.94 mosques in xxiii-xxiv
INDEX - - - - - - - - 451
Syrian, transitions in xxiii, 200-3, 211, warfare, Byzantine 277-8, 305-6, 336
215-16,219-20,223,227-32,243-51, against Arabs xiii, xxvi-xxvii, 337-8,
264-5,271-2,273,314 n.170 383-4
wealth of 153-61,164,171,213,223, in Balkans/against Avars and Slavs xix,
244-5,265,273-4 307-8,319,326,338-9,354-5,360-1,
see also cities 374

Usener, Hermann 387 against Persians xiii, xviii, xxv-xxvi, 290,
303-5,315-16,337,338,341-7,354,
Vahan (Arme ni an commander) 337 355-60,362-6,370,372-4,382-3
Vailhe, Simeon 390 n.l, 394, 401 n.l alliance with Turks 363-5, 380-2
Valens (Roman emperor) 81 anti-Persian propaganda 376-9, 384
Valentinian I (Roman Emperor, 364-75) 81 peace negotiations and treaty xix,
Valentinian III (Roman emperor, 425-55) 41 366-9
Valerian (Byzantine general) 289 n.41, 323, written sources on 343, 347, 348-54,
333 362-3
Van Ginkel, Jan 297 n.78 water mills 135
Vandals wealth
Africa controlled by 41 of Apion family 120, 121, 132, 136, 137
Roman/Byzantine warfare against 287 of rural areas 314-15
n.34 in Syria 206-8, 233, 234, 239, 243, 252,
Vasari, Giorgio 8 254,256,257,263,265,266,270,
Vasiliev, A.A. 62 n.16, 65 n.36, 74 n.79 274
Vegetius 285, 292, 293 n.61, 300 n.97, of urban areas
317-18 Byzantine 153-61, 164
Verhulst, A. 110, 140 in Syria xxiii, 171, 213, 223, 237, 244-5,
veterans of Roman/Byzantine armies 265,273-4
330-1 West, L.C. 33-4 n.14
armed retainers of 332-3 wheeled traffic, in Roman cities 215 n.65
Veyne, P. 64 n.31 Whitby, Mary 71 n.58, 77 n.94, 348 n.24
villages Whitby, Michael xxv, 71 n.58, 77 n.94
Byzantine 167 Whittaker, C.R. 33-4 n.14
Syrian 203-10, 238-9, 252-6, 257, 258-9, Whittow, Mark xxiii, 284 n.21
269 Wickham, Chris xvii
see also rural areas Winkelmann, F. 423 n.28
villas The World of Late Antiquity (Brown) xv, 9
Roman, boom in construction of 134 The World of Late Antiquity Revisited
in Syria 223-4, 236, 252, 270 (Brown) 18 n.56
see also houses Wormald, C.P.134, 141
Villeneuve, Frangois 252 n.215 written sources
Virgin Mary, intercessions by 409,416-17 on Byzantine armies/warfare xxvi n.58,
Viroy 353 277-8,289-90,292,297 n.78, 298-9,
Visigoths, Rome sacked by 40 305,306,316-17,321,325,360-1,
visions, of saints 427-9 371,380-1
Vita of St Melania see Life of Melania in Balkans 354-5
Vitellius (Roman emperor) 82 against Persians 343, 347, 348-54,
volunteers, in Roman/Byzantine armies 362-3
280,281,293,300 descriptions of persons/saints in 421-4,
Von Hagen, B. 91 n.8 426,427
Von Kremer, Alexander 89-90, 97 on Justinianic plague 91 n.8, 99, 309,
Von Schänborn, C. 394 310-11
on likeness of icons 420-1, 428, 429
Walmsley, Alan xxiii on Nika riot 65,70,71,72,75,76-7,82,
Ward-Perkins, Bryan 160 n.37 84
452 INDEX
on religious rivalry xxviii Zeno (Byzantine emperor, 474-5 and 476-

on Roman military recruitment 282, 285, 91) 64, 416-17
286 n.28 Zeus, representations of 425
on Syrian transitions 172, 251 Ziegler, Philip 315 n.174
Zoilus the reader 400,407,408
Yakubi (Arab traveller) 212 Zonaras, John 73 n.76

Yarmük, battle of (636) xiii, xxvi, 337 Zoroastrians xxviii
Yazid (caliph, 680-683) 174 Zosimas, Abba 390
Yersin, A. 90 Zosimus (former bishop) 401
Zuckerman, Constantine 298 n.82
Zachariah of Mytilene 70 Zulueta, F. de 126

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THE FORMATION OF THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC WORLD

General Editor: Lawrence 1. Conrad

General Editor: Lawrence 1. Conrad

1 Late Antiquity on the Eve of Islam Averil Cameron

General Editor: Lawrence I. Conrad

ILONDON AND NEW YORK

Published 2016 by Routledge

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

ISBN 9781409400707 (hbk)

British Library CIP Data

The LibraryofCongress has catalogued the printed editionas folIows: 2012932937

THE FORMATION OF THE CLASSICAL ISLAMIC WORLD-l

Editor's Preface and Acknowledgements IX

General Editor's Preface Xl

1. Explosion of Late Antiquity 1

2. The Other Transition: from the Ancient World to Feudalism 25

3. The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal 59

4. The Justinianic Plague Revisited 87

5. The Origins ofthe Manorial Economy: New Insights from Late

6. Ruling the Late Roman and Early Byzantine City: A Continuous

7. Syria in Transition, AD 550-750: An Archaeological Approach 171

8. Recruitment in Roman Armies from Justinian to Heraclius

9. Heraclius' Persian Campaigns and the Revival of the East Roman

11. Holy Images and Likeness 419

CHAPTER 1: Andrea Giardina, 'Explosion of Late Antiquity' ['Esplosione di

CHAPTER 3: Geoffrey Greatrex, 'The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal', Journal of Hellenie

CHAPTER 4: D.C. Stathakopoulos, 'The Justinianic Plague Revisited', Byzantine

CHAPTER 7: Clive Foss, 'Syria in Transition, AD 550-750: An Archaeological

CHAPTER 8: Michael Whitby, 'Recruitment in Roman Armies from Justinian to

CHAPTER 9: J.D. Howard-Johnston, 'Heraclius' Persian Campaigns and the Revival

45 (Cambridge, Mass., 1991), pp. 23-33. Copyright © 1992 Dumbarton Oaks.

announced, I nevertheless believe that it now represents a major improvement

The pagination of articles originally published in English has been maintained

ofIslamic studies as a field ofmodern scholarship, the formative period in Islamic

useful as research develops. Chapters from single author monographs have

Part 1: Framing the Questions

1 In formulating the contents of this Introduction I owe a debt of gratitude to the

Byzantinische Forschungen 10 (1985), 141-83, a classic article which, however, needs to be

Part 2: Late Antiquity and the Continuity Debate

Constantinople rat her than as a chronological indicator.

Muhammad (London, 1971).

formation of a Culture (Cambridge, 1990).

themselves to one particular disciplinary approach.

Part 3: Mediterranean: Unity or Rupture

21 For regionalization versus integration, see Sebastian Sehmidt-Hoffner, 'Regionalization

Iustinians. Kontingenzerfahrung und Kontingenzbewältigung im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr.

relations between the two powers continued to alternate between rapprochement

Part 4: The Turn to the East

25 See M. Whittow, The Making of Orthodox Byzantium 600-1025 (Basingstoke, 1996);

Michael Whitby, 'The successors of Justinian', in Averil Cameron, Bryan Ward-Perkins

Antiquity (Princeton, 1993), 15-19.

300-1500 (Farnham, 2011- ); S. Efthymiades, ed., The Ashgate Research Companion to

Syriac: Brock, ibid., 266-8; Coptic: Papaconstantinou, ibid, 323.

Another striking development in late antique scholarship is an increased

Part 5: Archaeology and the Economy

The transition to an Islamic world cannot be understood without reference to

'We have no King but Christ' (2010).

under the impetus of archaeologists interested in long-distance Mediterranean

Antiquity, 2nd ed., chap. 7.

towns and countryside of Syria-Palestine (c. AD 565-800)', DOP 61 (2007),319-52; Michael

47 I am indebted to Alan Walmsley, Katia Cytrin-Silverman and other speakers at the

Deciphering an Ancient Message through its Archaeological and Socio-Historical Contexts