Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

584 21a. asia minor and cyprus
retreat from the coastal cities to settlements in the immediate interior, while
Clive Foss sees the prosperity of these settlements as created by movement
towards the coast as the interior became less secure. One enigmatic site is
that of Arycanda, an ancient settlement in one of the Lycian valleys; there
the city remained in good repair into the sixth century, but during the fifth
century a fortified town was established on the adjoining hill (at Arif),
which coexisted for some time with the earlier city before the latter was
abandoned at the end of the sixth century. 25
Moreover, the countryside was being fundamentally altered by the
spread of monasticism; monastic communities were spreading into rural
and perhaps into undercultivated land. Many of the impressive monasteries
which developed all over Asia Minor at this period will have been built
on the property of rich landowners, as in the case of the communities
founded by the family of Basil of Caesarea. The monastery of Holy Sion
in Lycia seems to have been set up by a rich local benefactor, apparently on
family land, in the first half of the sixth century, and the Life of Nicholas of
Sion records the saintly life of its first hegumen, the nephew of the founder.
But monastic foundations were also established by humbler patrons, and
yet other communities evolved around the activities of a holy man, such as
that which developed around Theodore of Sykeon.
The development of a monastic centre would seem to have provided a
new focus for the local rural communities; during the plague and famine of
the 540s Nicholas went round the villages in the area, providing food. In
the account of his life, the nearest city, Myra, which was also the provincial
capital, appears as relatively unimportant; the mission of the saint takes
place in a well-populated countryside, confirming in the descriptions the
archaeological evidence, mentioned above, for rural buildings in fifth- and
sixth-century Lycia. Similarly, in the world of Theodore of Sykeon cities
play no important role, but, like Nicholas, he has extensive dealings with
village communities. In both Lives it is made clear that there is tension
between the city-dwellers and the country communities: in the Life of
Nicholas the inhabitants of Myra accused Nicholas of encouraging country
farmers to cut off supplies during the Justinianic plague. Later in the sixth
century, Theodore of Sykeon was forced to resign the position of bishop
of Anastasiopolis, apparently because he was accused of encouraging peasants
on church property to resist unfair demands for rent.
All this evidence waits to be explained; it may be that the country settlements
grew to the detriment of the cities, but this may be too simple an
explanation, since there was not necessarily a clear divide between town
25 Arycanda/Arif: Harrison and Lawson (1979). For a very lucid summary of work on Lycia, with a
useful bibliography, see Foss (1994).
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