Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

586 21a. asia minor and cyprus
the late sixth century; similarly, a substantial town house at Sardis, which
appears to have been developed and extended until the end of the fifth
century, seems gradually to have fallen out of use during the sixth. At
Anemurium, buildings apparently fell into disuse – even churches, built in
the preceding centuries, and baths, which had been maintained since
Roman times – at a date around 580. While not all such changes can be
closely dated, several can be shown to have occurred before the upheavals
of the early seventh century.
From 603, for twenty years, the Persians dominated the east and made
several raids into Asia Minor; from 610 onwards, Asia Minor was also the
base of operations for Heraclius and his army. Those areas, such as Cyprus,
which were not the centres of military activity were affected by a steady
flow of displaced persons – such as John the Almsgiver, patriarch of
Alexandria, who fled home to his native Cyprus in 619. There can be no
doubt as to the debilitating effect of this long campaign. The advance of
the Arabs in the 630s brought new pressures. We have a particularly dramatic
account of what was to follow in an inscription found in the basilica
at Soloi, recording the Arab invasions of 649 and 650, when it is claimed
that 120,000 and 50,000 prisoners were carried off; but it must also be
pointed out that the inscription was set up, in a newly restored basilica, by
655. Such explicit evidence is, however, exceptional, and much is left for us
to deduce.
For a thousand years in Asia Minor, Graeco-Roman life was concentrated
on cities; even for the many who lived in the country, almost all lived
within the orbit of a city, and probably went there at least once a year, to
participate in the religious festivals which were part of the self-definition
of such communities. During the third century a.d., civic life altered – as
is most drastically illustrated by the diminution in inscriptions – and it
appears that the relative importance of rural communities began to grow;
the spread of the new, universal religion of Christianity offered such communities
an opportunity to establish religious centres equivalent to those
found in the cities. Cities continued to provide an important economic and
social function, not least as the seat of the bishops; but it is clear that, at
some sites, such activity was dwindling even during the sixth century. 27 The
cataclysms, firstly, of the plague in the mid sixth century, and of the wars
of the early seventh, seems to have speeded up this process. But in some
senses, perhaps, it did not matter as much as may appear. Asia Minor was
to continue to be the power-house of the empire based in Constantinople
for another five hundred years. The institutions which withered in the late
sixth century or the early seventh were no longer important. The rural
27 See Brandes (1988). On this process throughout the empire see ch. 8 (Liebeschuetz), pp. 209,10
above.
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