Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the cities of the east 213
statues, statues of governors and inscribed imperial decrees continued to
be displayed in provincial capitals, at least – certainly at Ephesus. After
some resistance, the imperial government sanctioned the transfer of civic
funds, statues and even building materials from ordinary cities to the provincial
capital. 40
Great centres like Ephesus or Antioch, and provincial capitals like
Corinth or Aphrodisias, retained their classical monumentality into the mid
sixth century and beyond. 41 But it seems that in places which were not
centres of government the decay of buildings characteristic of classical city
life often began much earlier. Gymnasia went out of use, and were built
over or fell into ruin. Public spaces such as theatres or colonnaded streets
were invaded by shoddy structures. The agora might be built over, and
sometimes even aqueducts were allowed to decay, although it appears that,
of the classical amenities, baths were maintained, and even new ones built,
when other monumental public buildings had been abandoned. 42 In central
and northern Asia Minor especially, where the emergence of classical cities
had been closely linked with Roman rule under the early empire, 43 there is
very little evidence, whether inscriptions or remains of buildings or indeed
objects of any kind, that suggests conspicuously urban activity after, say,
the early fourth century. If such places continued to have bishops, as is suggested
by their continuing to figure on bishops’ lists, it is likely that the
bishops presided over what were little more than large fortified villages. 44
The imperial government was aware of the development and tried to
maintain the monumental appearance of cities, 45 not, in the long run, successfully.
Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to tell the story of the decline
of classical urbanism in detail or even, except in a few cases, to provide a
chronology. Of the excavations that have taken place, too few have been
concerned to answer this kind of question. The decline of classical urbanism
did not, in any case, necessarily mean that cities ceased to be centres of
population. Indeed, the building on previously open spaces implies that
there was a need for more houses and shops. In some towns there may well
have been a shift in the location of population. Early churches were sited
on the periphery of cities, and it is quite conceivable that the population
sometimes tended to group round churches on the edge of the cities,
leaving the centres empty – a development which was common in the
western provinces.
40 C.Th. xv.1.18 of 374, 26 of 390, 37 of 398.
41 The evidence for undiminished secular monumentality and continued secular building in the writings
of Foss (see Bibliography) is derived mainly from cities like these, which are the cities which in the
sixth century had a financial official entitled ‘father of the city’; see Roueché (1979).
42 Scott (1987), Crawford (1990) 6 – Sardis; Brandes (1989) 88 – Priene, 95 – Hierapolis, 108 –
Caesarea in Cappadocia, 110 – Pergamum – 115 Cycicus, 120 – Anemurion (for Anemurion see also
Russell in Hohlfelder (1982) 133–4). 43 Mitchell, Anatolia i.81–98.
44 Mitchell, Anatolia ii.120–1. 45 C.Th. xv.1.1 (357), 14 (365), 37 (398); xv.5.1 (372), 3 (409).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008