Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

the historical framework 575
hierarchy. Thus, the ancient and traditional conflict between Nicaea and
Nicomedia, which had continued throughout the Roman imperial period,
survived at an ecclesiastical level and had to be resolved at the Council of
Chalcedon (451). The Council of Nicaea had formalized an arrangement
by which the metropolis of a secular province was also the metropolitan
archbishopric of a coterminous diocese, and this continued to be the
general rule. By the sixth century, the system seems to have stabilized, so
that when Justinian combined several provinces he specified that this
should not affect the church administration. 8
It is arguable that the coincidence of diocese and province further
enhanced the sense, mentioned above, of ‘belonging’ to a province. The
council of bishops of a province could meet regularly and form an effective
pressure group. The most striking example of this is provided by the
bishops of Cyprus, who petitioned the Council of Ephesus (431) to
confirm their right to select and consecrate their own metropolitan bishop,
giving their island a unique status within the church. When this status was
called in question again, in 488, the metropolitan Anthemius was guided by
a dream to discover the body of St Barnabas, buried with his own copy of
the gospel according to St Matthew; this evidence of apostolic foundation
was sufficient to ensure the continued independence of the archbishopric,
together with particular privileges from the emperor Zeno, including the
right to sign documents, as the emperor did, in red ink. Such developments
may have been far more significant to the inhabitants of a province than
modifications in the imperial administration, and they must have reinforced
the local authority of bishops. 9
iii. the historical framework
Asia Minor differs most strikingly from other parts of the empire at this
period in one crucial respect: it was virtually unaffected by war. During the
anarchic years of the third century, Goths had harried coastal cities, and
the forces of Palmyra had at one stage invaded the peninsula. But by the
end of the third century Roman control was secure, and would continue
to be until the Persian attacks of the early seventh century. During the
fifth century, as huge areas of Roman territory came under foreign
control, Asia Minor was untouched by external threats; not only was it
buffered by Armenia and Syria to the east, and Greece and Thrace to the
west, but the strategic position of Constantinople, powerfully fortified
by land and in control of crucial sea-routes, offered vital protection.
The security of this area must have reduced the contemporary sense of
8 For secular rivalry see Roueché, Aphrodisias; for rivalries within the church hierarchy, Jones, LRE
873–94; for Cyprus, Jones, LRE 873 and Hill (1949) 276–8.
9 ACO i.ii.vii, 118–22, with Jones, LRE 873.
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