Cambridge Ancient Hi.. - Index of

718 23. the balkans and greece 420,602
The defences of Balkan cities and towns were strengthened both by
Anastasius and Justinian. The latter’s contribution is more prominent,
thanks to the panegyrical account in Procopius, Buildings iv. This offers the
names of about 600 places in the Balkans at which Justinian is said to have
organized building work; two long lists of constructions in Illyricum and
Thrace can plausibly be traced to official lists, 59 so that Procopius may have
had reasonable information about imperial intentions, though the extent
to which these were realized remains in dispute. It is impossible to corroborate
Procopius’ evidence, and probably always will be, both because many
of the places mentioned have not been identified and because in the
absence of inscriptions it is difficult to date construction work precisely or
show that an emperor financed work executed during his reign. Critics of
Procopius tend to seize on rhetorical pronouncements about the extent
and efficacy of Justinian’s achievements, the type of propaganda that is
also evident in Novel 11, or assume that there was a strategic programme
underlying the information that Procopius organizes into administrative
areas. 60 A more balanced approach is possible. Justinian was interested in
the Balkans: it was his birthplace, the central area where many of the
fortifications were located possessed substantial mineral wealth, and the
whole region’s security affected the safety of Constantinople and its
suburbs. As a result, Justinian instructed his new praetor to attend to construction
works and report any that required substantial expenditure.
Frontier defence was accepted as an imperial duty, but did not entail the
existence of a grand strategic plan: 61 rather, existing sites would be
fortified, strengthened or repaired, depending upon what appeared best at
a local level or was requested by local inhabitants. As a result, various types
of site are probably recorded in Procopius: frontier fortresses in the vicinity
of the Danube which constituted the empire’s front line; settlements
along the main roads that ensured the maintenance of imperial communications
but also offered invaders avenues for penetrating the interior;
major cities; and upland refuge sites to which the harassed population of
the Balkans had been moving since the Gothic incursions of the fourth
century. Few new settlements were created by Justinian, but his actions
were perhaps important for reintegrating within the empire the scattered
communities that had been created as populations shifted from the lowlevel
cities and roadside sites to safer upland locations. The new city and
ecclesiastical capital at Justiniana Prima, plausibly identified with the
remains at Tsaricin Grad (see Fig. 23), represents an exception in the
broader context of Justinian’s activity in the Balkans. These fortifications,
with a few exceptions such as the walls at Thermopylae, Corinth or the
59 Besˇevliev (1970) 74–7.
60 For a hostile assessment see, for example, Wozniak (1982); for discussion, Whitby, Maurice 71–8.
61 Nov. 26.4; for criticism of modernizing notions, see Isaac, Limits of Empire ch. 9.
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