Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

introduction 703
It also illustrates a problem in the evidence available for understanding developments.
For the fifth century there is no complete historical narrative,
although the fragments of Priscus and Malchus, primarily devoted to diplomacy,
contain important information about relations with Huns and Goths
and some incidental, but revealing, comments about the situation within the
Balkans. For the sixth century, the literary evidence is rather better: although
Procopius did not consider Balkan warfare worthy of separate treatment, he
did record significant events and there are signs in Wars viii that he had realized
the importance of the Balkans; his narrative was continued by Agathias,
who narrated the Kotrigur invasion of 558/9, Menander, whose fragments
record Roman diplomacy with the expanding Avar federation, and
Theophylact, whose account, often obscure, covers the last major Roman
campaigns on the Danube frontier. Their information can be supplemented
by Procopius, Buildings iv, a panegyrical description of works in the Balkans
attributed to Justinian; a few laws that proclaim changes in administration;
and the Strategikon attributed to Maurice, which describes tactics for use
against the two main Balkan enemies in the late sixth century, the Slavs and
the Avars. These sources share a Constantinopolitan perspective, but some
breadth is provided by the Miracula of St Demetrius and the Chronicle of
Monemvasia, which describe actions from the viewpoint respectively of
Thessalonica and the Peloponnese, and the letters of pope Gregory, which
shed some light on ecclesiastical administration in Illyricum.
Archaeology is a vital, but often frustrating, addition. Decline in urban
fabric can be illustrated by destruction of and repairs to buildings; changes
to the organization of urban space reflect living conditions; and the discovery
of hill-top settlements reveals new patterns of habitation; but few sites
have been thoroughly excavated, publication of results lags far behind, and
the fragmentary remains of late antiquity have not always attracted the
attention of investigators. A particular problem lies in the classification of
material as Roman or non-Roman: poor-quality ‘squatter’ dwellings may
represent a movement either of non-Roman tribesmen on to a site or of
rural refugees whose living standards might not resemble those traditionally
associated with Romanized urban dwellers; they may also have housed
the impoverished remnants of the urban population. Similarly, pottery
identified as ‘Slavic’ may not be such an accurate diagnostic tool, and
brooches and buckles could belong just as well to German recruits in
Roman service as to tribal war-bands. Archaeological discoveries will continue
to improve our understanding of the development of the Balkans in
this period, but it would be unrealistic to expect dramatic or rapid progress:
there is a long-term need to build up a series of local pictures from which
eventually a new synthesis can be attempted. 8
8 Baratte (1984); Popovič (1975), (1978); also other contributions to Villes.
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