The Mediterranean world in late antiquity, 395-700 AD

315 Pages·2012·2.64 MB·English

by  Cameron

THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD
IN LATE ANTIQUITY AD 395–700
This thoroughly revised and expanded edition of The Mediterranean World in
Late Antiquity, now covering the period AD 395–700, provides both a detailed
introduction to late antiquity and a direct challenge to conventional views of
the end of the Roman empire. Leading scholar Averil Cameron focuses on
the changes and continuities in Mediterranean society as a whole before the
Arab conquests. Two new chapters survey the situation in the east after the
death of Justinian and cover the Byzantine wars with Persia, religious devel-
opments in the eastern Mediterranean during the life of Muhammad, the
reign of Heraclius, the Arab conquests and the establishment of the Umayyad
caliphate.
Using the latest in-depth archaeological evidence, this all-round historical
and thematic study of the west and the eastern empire has become the stan-
dard work on the period. The new edition takes account of recent research
on topics such as the barbarian ‘invasions’, periodization, and questions of
decline or continuity, as well as the current interest in church councils, ortho-
doxy and heresy and the separation of the miaphysite church in the sixth-
century east. It contains a new introductory survey of recent scholarship on
the fourth century AD, and has a full bibliography and extensive notes with
suggestions for further reading.
The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity AD 395–700 continues to be the
benchmark for publications on the history of late antiquity and is indispens-
able to anyone studying the period.
Averil Cameron was until recently Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine
History at the University of Oxford and Warden of Keble College Oxford.
ROUTLEDGE HISTORY OF
THE ANCIENT WORLD
Series Editor: Fergus Millar
THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST C.3000–330 BC
Amélie Kuhrt
GREECE IN THE MAKING 1200–479 BC
Second Edition
Robin Osborne
THE GREEK WORLD 479–323 BC
Fourth Edition
Simon Hornblower
THE GREEK WORLD AFTER ALEXANDER 323–30 BC
Graham Shipley
THE BEGINNINGS OF ROME ITALY AND ROME
FROM THE BRONZE AGE TO THE PUNIC WARS
(C.1000–264 BC)
Tim Cornell
THE ROMAN WORLD 44 BC–AD 180
Martin Goodman
THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT BAY, AD 180–395
David S. Potter
THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE
ANTIQUITY AD 395–600
Averil Cameron
Forthcoming
THE ROMAN REPUBLIC 264–44 BC
Edward Bispham
THE MEDITERRANEAN
WORLD IN LATE
ANTIQUITY 395–700
AD
Second Edition
Averil Cameron
First published 1993.
This second edition published 2012
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1993, 2012 Averil Cameron
The right of Averil Cameron to be identifi ed as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978–0–415–57962–9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978–0–415–57961–2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978–0–203–80908–2 (ebk)
Typeset in Garamond by
Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon
CONTENTS
List of figures vi
List of maps vii
Acknowledgements viii
Preface to the first edition ix
Preface to the second edition xi
Abbreviations xiiii
Introduction 1
1 Constantinople and the eastern empire 20
2 The empire and the barbarians 39
3 Christianization and its challenges 58
4 Late Roman society and economy 84
5 Justinian and reconquest 104
6 Late antique culture and private life 128
7 Urban change and the late antique countryside 146
8 The eastern Mediterranean – a region in ferment 168
9 A changed world 191
Conclusion 208
Notes 215
Bibliography 263
Index 293
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 The base of the obelisk in the Hippodrome 21
1.2 Istanbul: Justinian’s church of St Sophia 22
1.3 A Byzantine empress, late fi fth or sixth century 27
2.1 The Proiecta casket from the Esquiline treasure, Rome, late
forth century 40
2.2 Ostrogoth-style buckle, late fifth–early sixth century 44
2.3 Coin of Theodoric the Ostrogoth (d. 526) 47
3.1 S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, built in the fifth century 61
3.2 The complex at Qalaat Semaan, Syria, with part of the pillar
of Symeon the Elder 63
3.3 The huge site of Palmyra, built in an oasis of the Syrian desert 64
3.4 Pottery pilgrim token depicting St Symeon Stylites the
Younger on his pillar near Antioch, late sixth–seventh century 78
5.1 The Barberini ivory 110
5.2 St Catherine’s monastery, Mt Sinai 121
5.3 The fortress at Zenobia (Halabiye) on the Euphrates 125
6.1 One of the classrooms uncovered at Komm el-Dikka, Alexandria 131
6.2 Mosaic of the first bath of Achilles, from the House of Theseus,
Paphos, Cyprus 134
6.3 The shape of the world as imagined in the Christian Topography
of Cosmas Indicopleustes 137
7.1 Serjilla, one of the ‘dead’ cities 153
7.2 An olive-press astride a former main street, Sbeitla, Tunisia 155
8.1 The ‘praetorium’ at Resafa 174
8.2 The city of Scythopolis (Bet Shean) 179
8.3 The refectory of the monastery of Martyrius in the Judaean desert 180
9.1 The Great Mosque at Damascus (early eighth century), built
on the site of a Christian church and Roman temple 201
9.2 Nessana in the early 1990s 206
LIST OF MAPS
0.1 The Diocletianic provinces of the late Roman empire 2
1.1 Constantinople 24
2.1 The Mediterranean world, early sixth century 45
5.1 The ‘reconquest’ of Justinian 107
8.1 The east in the sixth century 171
9.1 The east in the early seventh century 194
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Unless otherwise stated, the images are the author’s own. The following
images have been reproduced with permission:
Cover image Saint Thecla with Wild Beasts and Angels, Egyptian, 5th century
CE Limestone, 3¾ × 25½ inches (9.5 × 64.8 cm). By kind per-
missions of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,
Missouri. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust, 48–10.
Photo: Jamison Miller
Figure 1.3 Empress Ariadne, c. AD 500. Courtesy of Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna
Figure 2.1 © The Trustees of the British Museum
Figure 2.2 © The Trustees of the British Museum
Figure 2.3 © The Trustees of the British Museum
Figure 3.1 Nave. Rome, Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. © 2011. Photo
Scala, Florence
Figure 3.4 © The Trustees of the British Museum
Figure 5.1 © RMN / Les frères Chuzeville
Figure 6.3 Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Ms. Plut. 9.28, c.
95v. Courtesy of Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali,
Italy. Any further reproduction prohibited.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
The shape and parameters of this book are explained by the fact that it was
conceived as part of a series designed to replace the earlier Methuen History
of the Ancient World, though of course the latter had no volume with the
present scope, and the concept of ‘late antiquity’ still lay fi rmly in the future.
As it happens, while the present volume (the last chronologically in the series)
antedates the writing of that projected on the fourth century, it follows on
from my own book in another series, the Fontana History of the Ancient
World. Though entitled simply The Later Roman Empire, the latter effectively
ends where the present book begins, with Augustine as the bridge. The effect
therefore is that despite minor differences of format and scale between the
two, the reader will fi nd in them an introduction to the whole period of late
antiquity from, roughly, the reign of Diocletian (AD 284–305) to the late sixth
century AD, where A.H.M. Jones also ended his great work, The Later Roman
Empire (Oxford, 1964).
As most people will be well aware, this period has been the focus of a
great upsurge of interest in the generation that has passed since the publica-
tion of Jones’s massive work; in the past twenty years it has found its way
for the fi rst time on to ancient history syllabuses in many universities, with
corresponding effects on courses in medieval history and (where they exist)
Byzantine studies. The addition of two extra volumes to the new edition of
the Cambridge Ancient History (now in progress) is also symptomatic of this
changed perspective; together, they will cover the period from the death of
Constantine (AD 337) to the late sixth century. Peter Brown’s small book, The
World of Late Antiquity (London, 1971), still provides an exhilarating introduc-
tion from the perspective of cultural history. The infl uence of that book has
been enormous, yet despite this tremendous growth of interest in the period,
and despite a mass of more specialized publications, many of them excellent,
it is still diffi cult to fi nd a book or books in English which provide a general
introduction for students to the many and varied aspects of the period about
which they need to know. The present book adopts an approach that is part
chronological and part thematic. No real attempt can be made in such a com-
pass to provide a full narrative of events, and I have tried to do this only in
those parts where it seemed particularly necessary or where the evidence was
iixx