Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

CHAPTER 8
ADMINISTRATION AND POLITICS IN THE
CITIES OF THE FIFTH TO THE MID SEVENTH
CENTURY: 425–640
j. h. w. g. liebeschuetz
i. east and west: common trends
This chapter is concerned with the political evolution of the ancient city –
that is, of a political unit comprising an urban core serving as administrative
centre of a rural territory – in a period of great change. As the western
empire broke up, the relatively uniform environment that had been provided
by the imperial administration was replaced by a great variety of conditions.
In view of this, it is perhaps surprising that the evolution of cities
in different regions continued to a large extent to follow parallel lines and
that comparable developments can be observed in the new barbarian kingdoms
and in areas which remained under imperial control, regional
differences often being a matter of timing rather than substance. 1
Taking the city of the second century as a standard of comparison, the
type survived better in the east 2 than in the west, 3 but not uniformly well
even there. The classical city with an urban population, monumental buildings,
games and a highly literate upper class continued in at least the provincial
capitals 4 of western and southern Asia Minor, 5 in Syria, Arabia,
Palestine 6 and Egypt 7 right up to the Arab invasions, 8 and in the areas under
Arab rule even beyond that. In the west the Roman version of the classical
ideal survived best in North Africa – but only up to the Vandal conquest
9 – in southern Spain, 10 in Provence 11 and in much of Italy, especially
the north. 12 In much of Spain, Gaul and the Balkans, cities had contracted
within a reduced circuit of walls. The late fifth century saw signs of revival,
first in the east, 13 then in the west, mainly in church building. It is first
1 General surveys: Rich (1992), Dölger (1959). 2 Claude (1969); Brandes (1989); Kirsten (1958).
3 There is no general survey to compare with Claude’s, but see Février (1980) on Gaul.
4 For the qualification see Roueché (1989) 218–20 and Roueché, Aphrodisias 34.
5 Brandes (1989); writings of Foss cited in Bibliography.
6 Kennedy (1985b); Whittow (1990) 13–20. 7 Bagnall, Egypt – much, but mainly fourth century.
8 So Foss, see Bibliography; but much evidence suggests some ‘decline’ from c. 550: see Cameron,
Mediterranean World 158–66; Kennedy (1985b); Kennedy (1992). 9 Lepelley, Cités.
10 Cordoba, Mérida, Italica and Hispala seem to have been independent and active in the sixth
century; see Keay (1988). 11 Vittinghoff (1958).
12 Ward-Perkins (1978); Wickham (1981); Eck and Galsterer (1991); also p. 234 below.
13 E.g. at Aphrodisias, Gerasa, Bostra, Caesarea; see p. 215 below.
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