Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

administration and politics in the west 229
revolt against Phocas. 159 One factor which helped to bring about this
development is probably the fact mentioned earlier, that provincial
governors were now appointed by the emperor on the advice of bishops
and outstanding landowners and inhabitants of the province. This meant
that the province rather than the city had become the important political
unit, and that political groupings, and consequently also political conflicts,
tended to be on a provincial or regional scale.
iii. administration and politics in the west
In the fifth century and after, many western cities continued to exist as
centres of civil and/or ecclesiastical administration, refuges for the country
population and bases for defending troops in time of war. The degree of
contraction varied. It had gone furthest in Britain, where cities, together
with Christianity, seem practically to have disappeared, 160 and had gone
very far in the invasion-harassed Balkans161 – though even in exposed
Noricum, resistance to invaders seems to have been organized on a city
basis, as it is not known to have been in Britain. 162 On the lower Danube,
cities received a severe blow from the raids of the Huns. If Nicopolis ad
Istrum is typical, rebuilding took the form of a powerful circuit of walls
enclosing military buildings and churches. 163 The cities of Aquitaine164 and
of central Gaul, roughly south of a line from Avranches to Geneva, 165 were
much reduced in area and population, but retained more of their urban
character than the cities of northern France and the Rhineland. 166 The
latter suffered heavily during the invasions of the fifth century; Franks
settled in much of their territories and their bishops’ lists have wide gaps,
but habitation seems to have continued on most urban sites. 167 A few
became the residence of a Germanic king. Among the latter the most outstanding
were Trier, 168 Metz, 169 Soissons and Paris. In southern Spain, 170
city life seems to have continued much as in the fourth century. In the
north, Tarraco lost its monumental centre but kept a large population. 171
In northern Italy and Tuscany, of some hundred Roman municipia threequarters
still survived in a.d. 1000. Of those abandoned, the majority had
never had a bishop. By contrast, less than half of the cities of southern
Italy, with their small and infertile hill territories, survived the troubles of
the sixth and seventh centuries. 172 The decline of classical monumental
159 J. Niciu 107–9.17, tr. Charles 167–75.
160 Frere (1977); Hobley (1986); Brooks (1986); Dixon (1992); Reece (1992); Millett (1990).
161 Poulter (1992a); Dagron (1984a). 162 Noll (1963); Lotter (1971).
163 Poulter (1992a), (1992b). 164 Rouche (1979), Sivan (1992), Loseby (1992).
165 Ewig (1976) 231–4, 430–4.
166 Wightman (1978); Wightman (1985) 219–42, 305–8; Horn (1987) 105–9; Pirling (1986); Frézouls
(1988). 167 Brühl (1975); Duchesne (1907) on individual cities. 168 Cüppers (1977).
169 Weidemann (1970). 170 Taradell (1977). 171 Keay (1991). 172 Wickham (1981) 80.
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