SOCIETY OF MESSENIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDIES

HELEN G. SARADI

THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

Literary Images and Historical Reality

'

-‫ד‬.,•.-.
.

ATHENS2006
 To Angela and Marius

Editor: P. G. Themelis

Distributed by the Society of Messenian

Archaeological Studies (S.M.A.S.)
Psaromeligou 33,
10563, Athens, Greece
tel/fax: +30 210 3251481
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@ 2006 S.M.A.S. and Helen Saradi

.,

Printed by Perpinia Publications, Leontiou 9, Athens, Greece

ISBN 960-87555-1-4
 7

FOREWORD

The impetus for this work arose from discussions with Alexander Kazhdan during the time I
spent at Dumbarton Oaks as a Fellow and as an external reader. Of importance, too, was the fact that
my work in Departments of Classics in Canada brought my teaching and research interests closer to the
ancient world. The subject of the present book also represents a return to a topic that I had studied at
the beginning of my career, the Byzantine city, at the National Research Foundation in Athens. It was
there that Professor Dionysios Zakythinos kindly included me in a research group, placing me under
the supervision of Professors Chryssa Maltezou and Anna Avramea who gave me guidance during my
first works on Byzantine cities.
Research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in 1991,
1992-1993, 1994-1997, and a Summer Fellowship from Dumbarton Oaks in 1992 allowed me to carry ,
out the early stages of my research at the Library of Dumbarton Oaks in Washington. I benefited great-
ly from the superb library resources at Dumbarton Oaks and from discussions with many scholars
whom I met there. However, I would never have been able to complete my work without the help and
encouragement of Professor Alexander Kazhdan. His depth of scholarship and intellectual generosity
shaped many of my thoughts and widened my historical perspective. Above all, this great teacher en-
couraged me to continue working, when, at times, it seemed impossible to master a constantly increas-
ing bibliography. I am indebted to him for his guidance and encouragement.
Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to Dr. A. Farrington for improving the English of the
text, to Mr. J. Stavrinos for help in scanning the plans and for drawing the maps and to Mrs Maria
Athanasopoulou, who worked on the illustrations.
 9

CONTENTS

Foreword 7

Part I. Early Byzantine urbanism: an introduction 11

Chapter 1: Methodological approaches and current state of scholarship 13

Part II. The image of the city in literature and art 47

Chapter 2: The aestheticization of the city and the historical context 49 ,

Chapter 3: The literary tradition and historical reality 71
Chapter 4: The Christian perspective: ascetic solitude and urban life 102
Chapter 5: The city as a visual motif in early Byzantine art 119

Part III. The dissolution of antique public space and the triumph of privatization 147

Chapter 6: The transformation of urban public space, administration and urban elites 148
Chapter 7: The process of privatization of the public space and the historical sources 186

Part IV. Changes in urban architecture: Ideological themes and socio-economic realities 209

Chapter 8: Administrative centres 211

Chapter 9: Streets and porticoes 259
Chapter 10: The spectacle buildings 295
Chapter 11: Baths and aqueducts 325

Part V. Between the city of the past and the city of the future 353

Chapter 12: At the edge of antiquity: Pagan monuments in the Christian city 355
Chapter 13: Churches in urban space and life 385
Chapter 14: The two models of the early Byzantine city 441

Conclusions 471

Abbreviations 473

Appendix I: Topographical plans of early Byzantine cities 497

Appendix II: Maps 521
Appendix III: List of figures, plans and maps 526

Index 531
 PART!

EARLY BYZANTINE URBANISM: AN INTRODUCTION

 CHAPTERl

METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES
AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP

The fear of a priorism is misplaced: any hypothesis can be

modified, adjusted or discarded when necessary. Without
one, however, there can be no explanation; there can be
only description and classification. 1

It is only recently that the Byzantine city was established as a central theme in Byzantine history.
Over recent decades, in the context of an increasing interest in Late Antiquity, the study of late antique
city has become a central concern, the volume and quality of works on the subjects multiplying rapid-
ly.2 In the words of W. Brandes "a flood of literature which one can scarcely read, let alone master" has
been produced on early Byzantine cities. 3 A variety of subjects and numerous archaeological sites have
been investigated in constantly increasing publications. Old questions have been answered, while others
still await an answer. We now have studies on specific historical issues and archaeological sites, and
some major synthetic works, besides. The following pages are not intended to offer a survey of bibliog-
raphy on the Byzantine cities, however, but to examine the major approaches to the subject and current
scholarly debate. Emphasis will be placed on works that are relevant to the present study. It should
also be stressed that the study of the early Byzantine city, in particular, the city in the sixth century,
cannot be detached from the urban changes of the seventh and eighth centuries, because many of these
changes were anticipated before the Byzantine Dark Ages.
Until the fifties of the last century, it was firmly believed that, in contrast to the mediaeval West,
urban life in Byzantium continued uninterrupted from the early period, with little transformation over
the centuries. Administrative changes and Christianity had, of course, modified many ancient urban in-
stitutions and architectural features, but the overall picture then obtaining was that of continuity in the
social and economic structure of the cities of the early Byzantine centuries. This view was so firmly rooted
in scholarly tradition, that, although scholarly debate during the second half of the twentieth century
on profound transformation of urban life in the Byzantine Dark Ages produced several remarkable

1 M.I. Finley, The Ancient Historian and his Sources, in E. Gabba (ed.), Tria Corda. Scritti in onore di Arnaldo Momigliano
(Como 1983), 214.
2 There are various bibliographical surveys on early Byzantine cities: Brandes, Byz. Stadt, 179 ff.; idem, Stiidte, 18-22; Ch.

Bouras, City and Village: Urban Design and Architecture,JOB 31/2 (1981), 611-653; L. Lavan, The late-antique city: a bibli-
ographical essay, LAA 2 (2004), 9-26.
3 Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 57.
FIG. 1. Scythopolis. View of Palladius Street with the acropolis in the background.
14 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 15

studies, it is only relatively lately that the phenomenon of urban change has been included in broad Zakythinos, 10 who pointed particularly to the various forms in which the transition from the early
studies of Byzantine culture and history. 4 On the other hand, Roman historians approached the ques- Byzantine to the mediaeval cities is manifested: some cities survived with modifications to their city-
tion of the late antique city from their own perspective. The major standard work on the Hellenistic, planning. Others were relocated to a new site, but maintained their ancient name, while others received
Roman and early Byzantine city by A H. M. Jones, The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian, dealt a new name. Several cities, however, disappeared forever. Both Kirsten and Zakythinos placed the end
mainly with administrative and financial changes in early Byzantine cities, and did so only in a brief of the early Byzantine period in the middle of the seventh century, and considered it to be a consequence
chapter, while ignoring other aspects of the transformation of the urban fabric. 5 The historical view that of the Arab invasions. They traced, however, the first signs of urban transformation to the late fifth cen-
the decline of the Late Roman empire was caused by vulgarization of culture, the consequences of the 1ury. Immediately afterwards F. Dolger studied the structure of early Byzantine cities in a comprehen-
third-century crisis and of the destruction of the traditional urban elite, as formulated by Rostovtzeff, 6 sive paper read at the IIIrd International Congress of Studies on the Early Middle Ages in 1956. 11
has long dominated scholarship. With the passage of time, however, it was felt that the late Roman his- Alt hough he acknowledged that profound transformations occurred in various aspects of the urban
torian, detached from such mental attitudes, had to approach the sources from new different angles. structure, administrative and social, he stressed the continuity of urban centres from the early to the
The impetus for a new direction in approaches to Byzantine urban history was given by A Kazh- middle Byzantine period.
dan in the 1950s, who formulated the theory of a dramatic urban decline in the seventh and eighth cen- These initial approaches to the question of urban transformation led to further discussion of the
turies. Kazhdan first discerned a change in urban life in the decline of series of coins of the seventh and value of the evidence. While Byzantinists seemed to agree that the new term kastron, and administra-
eighth centuries in museum collections. He also pointed to the lack of archaeological evidence from 1ive and social transformations clearly indicate profound changes in the cities, and the relocation and
these centuries at most excavated sites, which certainly indicates a poverty of material life and decline abandonment of cities suggest the decline of many urban centres, it was particularly the value of the
in urban structures. He also drew attention to the Arabic sources that offer a direct testimony to the rar- numismatic evidence that was now disputed. G. Ostrogorsky, in his paper Byzantine Cities in the Early
ity of Byzantine cities in this period. 7 On the basis of this evidence, he concluded that the decline of the Middle Ages, 12 questioned the validity of Kazhdan's theory, arguing that, although series of bronze ,
urban system in the early Middle Ages was related to a ruralization of the empire. 8 This theory sug- coins declined over the seventh and eighth centuries, the issue of gold coins continued uninterrupted.
gested that Byzantium and its cities had undergone a radically new structural change: the earlier heav- Arguing that gold coins were more important for the vitality of the urban economy, Ostrogorsky inevitably
ily urbanized provinces of the Eastern part of the Roman empire now suffered a decline and assumed reached the opposite conclusion. Ostrogorsky also studied the evidence of lists of bishoprics, which
a new rural character. According to this picture, when Byzantine cities re-appeared in the historical show that, with a few exceptions, bishoprics continued to exist during the Byzantine Dark Ages, espe-
record in the tenth century, they had acquired a new socio-economic and administrative structure. This cially in Asia Minor, which, he maintained, indicated that cities survived. An objection to this argument
theory, revolutionary as it was for Byzantine scholarship, shifted the focus from urban administrative was presented by E. Frances, who pointed to political considerations that made it expedient either to
and religious change to change in economic and social structures. It also pointed to the value of new ev- maintain bishoprics in urban centres that had declined or to elevate small settlements to the status
(if bishoprics.
13 In the West bishoprics also survived, while most of the cities disappeared. It was evident
idence derived from coins, thus opening the way to an exploration of archaeological material, which
had been traditionally excluded from historical investigation. that a bishopric was not necessarily an urban feature. Evidence from terminology marshalled by
Kazhdan's theory was not challenged immediately. Instead, it provoked an analysis of the histori- Ostrogorsky to indicate that urban life continued in this period has also been disputed, since terminology
ographical sources. Four years later, at the Xlth International Byzantine Congress, E. Kirsten present- drawn from these sources may be misleading, because the sources copied earlier texts. 14
ed aspects of the changing character of the cities from the early Byzantine period and stressed their At the same time as Ostrogorsky's response, Irina Sokolova interpreted the numismatic material
mediaeval structure. 9 He discussed methodological approaches to the study of Byzantine urbanism, from a different perspective and reached a similar conclusion. She suggested that the reduction of
and referred to the various sources that still needed exploration. This analysis was complemented by D. hoards in the eighth and early ninth centuries indicates economic and political stability. Sokolova explains
the decline in coins as a consequence of the policy of the ninth-century emperors, who removed the
coins of the iconoclast emperors from circulation. 15 The range of interpretations of the coin evidence

4 Mango, Byzantium, 60-87. The book of A P. Rudakov, Ocerki vizantijskoj kul'tu,y po dannym greceskoj agiografii (Moscow
1917) includes a chapter on Byzantine cities. However, the book written in Russian has been largely ignored by scholars. J.
Karagiannopoulos, To Bvtavuvo XQawc; (Thessalonica, 4th ed. 1994), 416-427; Aik. Christophilopoulou, Bvtavuv~ law-
Qia. A' 324-610 (Athens 1992), 362-367. Byzantinists from the East European countries showed awareness of the importance
10 Korreferat zu E. Kirsten: Die byzantinische Stadt, ibid., 48-51; idem, La ville byzantine, ibid., 75-90 (Diskussionsbeitrage ).
of the subject much earlier: M. Ja. Sjuzjumov, lstorija Vizantii II, 23-32; D. Angelov, lstorija na Vizantija I (395-867) (Sofia, 5th
ed. 1973), 236-243. For a new discussion on the reduction of cities to towns with a limited role, military and administrative or ecclesiastical see
5 Oxford 1940, repr. 1971, 251-258. The lack of emphasis on the physical aspect of cities is general in early historiographi- Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 25-31.
11 Die friihbyzantinische und byzantinisch beeinflusste Stadt (V.-VIII. Jahrhundert), inAtti del 3° congresso intemazionale
cal studies. Toynbee hardly mentions cities in his twelve-volume work. See the remarks of L. Mumford in C. H. Kraeling and
R. M. Adams (eds.), City invincible. A Symposium on Urbanization and Cultural Development in the Ancient Near East held at di studi sull'Alto Medioevo, Benevento-Montevergine-Salemo-Amalfi, 14-18 Ottobre 1956 (Spoleto 1959), 65-100.
12 DOP 13 (1959), 47-66, repr. in Zur byzantinischen Geschichte (Darmstadt 1973), 99-118.
the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Dec. 4-7, 1958 (Chicago 1960), 241.
6 M. Rostovtzeff, The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire, 2nd ed. revised by P. M. Fraser (Oxford 1957), 13 E. Frances, La ville byzantine et la monnaie aux vne-VIIIe siecles, Bbulg 2 (1966), 4. See also P. Culerrier, Les eveches

523 ff. suffragants d'Ephese aux 5e_13e siecles, REE 45 (1987), 139-164, esp. 161-162; Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 41-44; Haldon,
7 See also later Haldon, Some Considerations, 92-94. Byzantium, 121-123.
8 Vizantijskie goroda v VII-XI vv., Sovetskaja Archeologija 21 (1954), 164-188. 14 Brandes, Byz. Stadt, 192-193; idem, Stiidte, 35-36; Kazhdan, Palis.

9 Die byzantinische Stadt, in Berichte zum XI. intemationalen Byzantinistenkongress (Munich 1958), 5, 3, pp. 1-48. 15 I. B. Sokol ova, Klady vizantijskich monet kak istorinik dlja istorii Vizantii VIII-IX vv., W 15 (1959), 50-63.
16 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 17

is indeed remarkable and it certainly shows how insecure the nature of this material is. 16 In 1955, D. production and circulation of coins was to be increasingly recognized as a major factor, and it is currently
Pallas, working independently and drawing on his experience in archaeological field work, reached a accepted in most works on the economy of the period.
conclusion similar to that of Kazhdan. The decline of coins observed in all excavated sites in Greece at The XIIth International Byzantine Congress focused on Byzantine cities. For N. V. Pigulevskaja,
the end of the early Byzantine period was a general phenomenon, also found in cities in other regions the transition from slavery to feudalism caused the ruralization of Byzantine cities, with a barter econ-
of the empire. This phenomenon could not have been caused by the Slavic invasions alone. Rather, it omy replacing a monetary one. 23 At the same congress, P. Lemerle, rejecting the view that Byzantine
was caused by profound structural changes, and above all by a shift of the economy from monetary to s< iciety was feudal, focused on the power and control of the state over the administrative and socio-eco-
barter.17 nomic structure of the empire ("etatisation"). For Lemerle, the greater emphasis on the countryside
Clearly there was a lack of communication among numismatists, historians and archaeologists re- and the rural economy in the Byzantine Dark Ages, a consequence of the invasions, did not bring about
garding the study of the Byzantine economy in the early Middle Ages. 18 Difficulties were caused be- l he ruralization of the cities, and the economy did not turn to barter. 24 D. Zakythinos, in his authorita-
cause the conceptual framework for each of these disciplines is different and employs different tools tive article La grande breche dans la tradition historique de l'Hellenisme du septieme au neuvieme siecle ,25
and methods of research. The sources and therefore the data which are the subject of study of each dis- l:stablished the notion of a break during two centuries from the middle of the seventh to the middle of
cipline are so vast, that it is practically impossible for a specialist in one field to possess knowledge of I he ninth. The decline of coin finds in the excavated sites constituted the main argument in support of
another field to a satisfactory degree. The inevitable result is that scholars depend on the conclusions the view that there was a dramatic decline in the economy during these centuries. Of course, the Avaro-
of others, instead of on the evidence itself, thus giving rise to a negative cross-fertilization. 19 Over the Slavic invasions played a major role in this decline and the natural catastrophes of the sixth century
course of the following years, however, while the debate continued, most scholars came to accept that were also a major factor. But above all, for Zakythinos, it was the thalassocracy of the Arabs that dis-
the decline of series of coins at the major excavated sites indicated reduced economic activity in the rn pted trade and brought about the collapse of the economic and urban system of the earlier period. The
seventh and eighth centuries. 20 Especially significant was the conclusion that, although new discoveries major manifestation of this crisis, he concluded, was the desurbanisation of the empire. Thus Zakythinos,
substantially increased the number of coins found, they do not affect the proportion of coins per em- following the Pirenne thesis, placed the decline of the ancient city in a much broader context, by
peror established on the basis of earlier excavations. 21 D. M. Metcalf expresses scepticism regarding recognizing the impact that the Arab supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean had on the socio-eco-
the value of coin finds from ancient civic centres. Since marketplaces were relocated to other parts of nomic structure of the Byzantine cities. He also approached the problem of the decline of coins from
the city, this, in Metcalf's view, accounts for the absence of coins in the traditional civic centre of forum another angle. He accepted that the army was a major factor in coin circulation and thus the establish-
or agora. Metcalf also suggested that the decline in quantities of folleis could have been caused by a re- ment of the system of the themes, in which the payment of the soldiers was no longer made in cash,
duction in the number issued by central government. 22 The importance of the role of the state in the played a role in the reduction of the coins' circulation. 26 This view was ignored for many years, to be re-
vitalized by M. Hendy. 27 Zakythinos' historical analysis firmly established the existence of the urban
crisis and separated it from the dispute on the value of numismatic evidence.
16 P. Grierson argued that the composition of museum collections are based on collectors' preference for acquiring new The view that ancient cities underwent a profound transformation and subsequent decline came to
and rare coins and do not reflect the amount of coins produced by excavations: Coinage and Money in the Byzantine Empire he generally accepted and new scholarly works concentrated on various aspects of the nature, pace and
498-c. 1090, Settimane VIII, Moneta e scambi nell'Alto Medioevo (Spoleto 1961), 445-446. S. Vryonis stressed that the numismatic causes of the change. Individual cities became the subject of case studies. For example, the literary
evidence is fragmentary, since thousands of coins discovered in excavations remain uncatalogued in museums, while numerous sources on Antioch offered valuable material for the study of administrative and social structure in the
other finds are never recovered for scholarship, being instead sold to private collectors: An Attic Hoard of Byzantine Gold early period. 28 The decline of the curial class is fully documented in Libanius' orations and other liter-
Coins (668-741) from the Thomas Whittemore Collection and the Numismatic Evidence for the Urban History of Byzantium,
ary and legislative texts. Cities were gradually deprived of this group, which for centuries had sustained
ZRVI 8, 1 (1963), 291-300.
17
D. J. Pallas, Ta &QxmoAoytxa wxµiJQLa i:i'ji:; xa866ou i:&v [3aQ[3<iQWV di:;i:~v 'EAAU◊a, Hellenika 14 (1955), 87-105, esp.
building activities and urban institutions, while the cities' economic resources passed more and more
94-97. under the control of state administration and the Church. The first major comprehensive study on
18 See the remarks of R. S. Lopez, Une histoire a trois niveaux: la circulation monetaire, in Methodologie de l'histoire et des Byzantine cities by D. Claude focused on the sixth century, Die byzantinische Stadt im 6. Jahrhundert
sciences humaines, Melanges en l'honneur de Femand Braudel II (Toulouse 1973), 335-341. ( Munich 1969). The author collected much valuable material from both literary sources and archaeo-
19 See M. I. Finley, Archaeology and History,Daedalus 100 (1971 ), 168-186; D. P. Dymond,Archaeology and History. A plea
logical reports and presented it in a major synthesis, which examined urban planning and the cities'
for reconciliation (London 1974); C. T. Arnold, Archaeology and History: The Shades of Confrontation and Cooperation, in administrative, social and economic structure. The focus of Claude's study, however, is on continuity,
J. L. Bintliff and C. F. Gaffney (eds.),Archaeology at the Inte,face: Studies in Archaeology's Relationships with History, Geography,
rather than on the transformation of urban life and the work is of value in that it offers wide range of
Biology and Physical Science (BAR Int. Series 300), 32-39; Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 57.
20
P. Charanis, The Significance of Coins as Evidence for the History of Athens and Corinth in the Seventh and Eighth
Centuries, Historia 4 (1955), 163-172; idem, A Note on the Byzantine Coin Finds in Sardis and their Historical Significance,
EEBS 39-40 (1972-3), 175-180; D. M. Metcalf, The Currency of Byzantine Coins in Syrmia and Slavonia, Hamburger Beitr. zur 23
N. V. Pigulevskaja, Gorod i derevnja v Vizantii v IV-VI vv., Byz. Congress XII (1961), I, 1-8. For a similar approach by
Numismatik 14 (1960), 429-444; Grierson, however, expresses scepticism regarding the value of archaeological evidence: other scholars of the Marxist historical school, see, for example, E. M. Staerman, Evoljucija anticnoj formy sobstvennosti i
Byzantine Coinage. For a bibliographical survey on the value of numismatic evidence for the study of urban life in Byzantium anticnogo goroda, W34 (1973), 3-14.
see Brandes, Byz. Stadt, 193 ff.; C. Morrisson, Byzance au VIie siecle: le temoignage de la numismatique, in Bv!:;avuov. 24
P. Lemerle, 277-280; P. Charanis, 285-291, esp. 290-291.
"Acpd:Qwµa arov °AVO(.!.sa N. LT(.!aw I (Athens 1986), 149-163. 25 in Xa(.!WTrJ(.!lOV elc; "Avaaraatov K. 'OQ,Mvoov 3 (Athens 1966), 300-327.
21 26 Ibid, 321-322.
A Avramea, Noµwµai:txol «8TJOUUQol» xal µeµovwµeva voµloµai:a am':, i:~v IIeAon6vvTJOO (IT'-Z' aL), Symmeikta 5
(1983), 71-73. 27
See infra, pp. 21-22.
22 D. M. Metcalf, How Extensive was the Issue of Foiles during the Years 775-820?,Byzantion 37 (1967), 270-310, esp. p. 277. 28
Festugiere,Antioche; Petit, Libanius; Liebeschuetz,Antioch.
18 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 19

information drawn from the sources, although it does not always evaluate their real historical signifi- refuse to recognize it) that all round the Mediterranean the cities, as they had exist-
cance. 29 The works of G. L. Kurbatov have advanced our knowledge of the evolution of early Byzantine ed in antiquity, contracted and then practically disappeared. This happened at dif-
urbanism from a different perspective. 30 In his Osnovnye problemy vnutrennego razvitiya vizantijskogo ferent times in different provinces, and the immediate cause was usually foreign in-
goroda v W-VII vv. (Leningrad 1971 ), Kurbatov presented the transformation of the administrative and vasion. The ease with which walled cities fell to an enemy who was often neither very
socio-economic structure of the cities and of the urban space as a slow process that had already started numerous nor skilled in siege warfare, and the absence of any urban resurgence af-
in the fourth century. In Kurbatov's view, the real crisis of the cities started not in the middle of the ter the enemy had withdrawn show, however, that military hostilities were merely
seventh century, but in the middle of the sixth, appearing first in small towns and later in the large cities. the last shock that brought down a tottering edifice. 36
Today recent archaeological studies prove his conclusion correct. Unfortunately, the book, written in
Russian, was accessible only to a limited number of scholars. Mango's next major work on Byzantine urbanism, Le developpement urbain de Constantinople
In the 1970s, scholarly interest shifted to archaeological investigation. On the basis of archaeolog- ( Paris 1985), broadened the discussion by demonstrating that even the capital was affected by the crisis
ical evidence alone, C. Foss gave new direction to the study of the causes of the cities' decline. After the nf the seventh and eighth centuries. The inhabited area and the size of population were reduced,
destruction of Sardis by fire in the early seventh century, the city never recovered. Its series of coins was while the suburbs and aqueducts were devastated by invasion. Thus the problem was more complex and
interrupted, the site was abandoned to a large degree, and there is other evidence of economic decline widespread than was generally recognized, the only variation being the degree of the crisis in each one
and depopulation. The destruction of Sardis is attributed by Foss to a Persian invasion of 616, which is uf the cities. In the same year J. Baldon stressed the decline of cities in the Byzantine Dark Ages: "The
not recorded in the written sources. 31 Foss, however, recognizes that the causes of the phenomenon Nl'Venth century, and much of the eighth, saw, I believe, an almost total eclipse of urban life". 37
were complex, "for the reduction in the area of cities implies a great decline of the population which is Gradually more attention was paid to ideological change. In 1980 J.-M. Spieser remarked that be-
not a necessary consequence of war, but there is no doubt that a major transformation took place". 32 sides the political and administrative factors the historian who studies the development of early Byzantine
Foss looked at the city's demise in the archaeological evidence, although his attempt to explain the de- urbanism should also examine the ideological aspects: "il faudrait etudier quelles ont ete les modalites
cline as being due to outside factors alone did not convince. 33 The importance of the archaeological ev- ideologiques et pratiques qui ont rendu possible le developpement d'un urbanisme monumental avant
idence and of the literary sources was once again stressed by Kazhdan, who showed that the systemati- d,: pouvoir rendre compte de ce qui a cause son declin". 38 However, he pointed out that the decline of
cally gathered material in the Tabula Imperii Byzantini (Bellas and Thessaly), primarily from literary the monumental appearance of the cities led scholars to believe that the cities had been reduced to
sources, testifies to the decline of urban life in these areas after the seventh century. 34 communities which could not be called cities. Spieser focused on administrative and ideological change
C. Mango in his Byzantium: The Empire ofNew Rome offered a more refined synthesis of the complex and the redistribution of wealth which now flowed towards the Church:
causes of urban decline. 35 Mango depicts the gradual abandonment of the theatres, hippodromes, and
temples as a result of cultural change, as Christianity firmly manifested itself in the cityscape through C'est ce changement qui rend irreversible un declin de la ville, sous la forme qu'elle
the proliferation of churches and monasteries. In Mango's view, the disintegration of the cities started avait dans le monde greco-romain, declin qui n'est done pas necessairement le reflet
in the sixth century and was caused by droughts, plagues and earthquakes. Urban violence also played d'un appauvrissement de ses habitants et pas seulement celui d'un affaiblissement
a role. Mango concludes: de l'Empire. La tentative de restauration urbaine de Justinien et la crise due aux
invasions du vne siecle ont masque la nature profonde du changement. 39
There can be little doubt that the plagues of the sixth century, combined with an
unprecedented sequence of natural disasters, were a factor, perhaps the determin- Baldon defined the transition from ancient to mediaeval society and economy in the context of
ing factor, in the collapse of urban life. For it is a fact (though some historians still cultural change:

What sort of transition was this? How is it best described? - as a shift in the whole
29
Spieser, Thessalonique, 88 n. 47 ("en juxtaposant des fiches"). structure of a social formation, involving economic, political and cultural relations?
30 Rannevizantijskij gorodskije kurii
i soslovie kurialov v rannej Vizantii (W-Vl vv.) (Diss., Moscow 1956); idem, Rannevizantijskij - or as a transition within an ideological framework, in which emphases shift, and
gorod (Antiochija vuWveke) (Leningrad 1962). where values and attitudes which had previously been contextually impossible now
31
Foss, The Persians, 721-747, esp. 736-738; idem, The Fall of Sardis in 616 and the Value of Evidence,JOB 24 (1975), 11-22;
come to dominate and to determine the appearance of the culture? I think there
idem, Byzantine and Turkish Sardis (Cambridge, Mass. and London 1976), 53-56; idem, Ephesus, 99; idem, Archaeology and
the "Twenty Cities" of Byzantine Asia,AJA 81 (1977), 469-486, esp. 476-477; idem, Late Antique and Byzantine Ankara, DOP
can be little doubt that these two are in fact inseparable. 40
31 (1977), 29-87; idem, Coins, Archaeology and the Decline of Classical Cities in Asia Minor, in P. Lal Gupta and A Kumar Jha
(eds.), 2nd Int. Colloquium. Numismatics and Archaeology. January 8th-10th, 1987 (Indian Institute of Research in Numismatic
Studies) (Nashik 1987), 32-44.
32
Foss, The Persians, 747.
33 36
P. Charanis, A Note on the Byzantine Coin Finds in Sardis and their Historical Significance, EEBS 39-40 (1972-73), 175-180; pp. 68-69.
37 Haldon, Some Considerations, 77-78.
A Kazdan, inByzantina 9 (1977), 478-484; Kazhdan and Cutler, Continuity, 440-441; W. Brandes, Ephesos in byzantinischer
38
Zeit, KUo 64 (1982), 611-622; Rautman, The Decline. Spieser, Thessalonique, 88.
34 A Kazhdan, Byzantina 11 (1982), 432 ff. 39 Idem, L'evolution de la ville byzantine de l'epoque paleochretienne a l'iconoclasme, inHommes et richesses I, 106.

35 pp. 60-87. 40 Haldon, Some Considerations, 76.

20 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 21

Thus the question of cities' decline came to be formulated in a broad context of socio-economic In the 1980's more attention was paid to the archaeological evidence. This attention was driven by
and cultural changes and in the framework of cultural continuity and discontinuity. 41 At the same time a conviction that, since the literary sources do not clearly describe the various aspects of urban trans-
questions were asked about the nature of the urban change: should the phenomenon be labelled as "urban formation, particularly changes in city planning, population decline and economic crisis, the answer
decline" or as "transformation"? W. Treadgold pointed to the tendency on the part of Byzantinists to was to be found in the archaeological record. This was the focus of the symposium organized by the
define urban transformation as decline by comparing the mediaeval Byzantine cities with their Roman f•:wlc Fran~aise de Rome in 1982, entitled Villes et peuplement dans l'Illyricum protobyzantin. Several
predecessors, which were adorned with magnificent public buildings. In the seventh and eighth centuries, papers presented archaeological evidence from the cities of Illyricum and demonstrated that decline of
Byzantine cities actually shrank to the size of classical Greek cities and the number of public officers these cities is clearly documented in archaeological excavations, with their final collapse caused by the
of the administration to that of the early Roman empire. In Treadgold's view, the reduced physical Avaro-Slavic invasions. In a summary of the results of the symposium, P. Lemerle substantially revised
environment of early Byzantine cities should not, therefore, be taken as implying decline in other forms his earlier views of the 1960s. While the Slavic invasions played a predominant role in the decline or de-
of culture. 42 Discussion particular to various schools of historical thought tends to debate whether the sl ruction of the cities of the Illyricum, it was obvious that the reasons for the phenomenon were to be
phenomenon should be defined as decline or transformation, break or continuity. 43 Thus, for example, found elsewhere:
Averil Cameron favours transformation instead of decline, while J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz insists on
decline, which he defines as degradation and shrinkage. 44 A similar controversy is noticeable in Italian Pourquoi? Faut-il dire que la ville avait perdu, avec l'ancienne classe dirigeante,
scholarly works regarding the fate of the Italian cities at the end of Late Antiquity and in the early Middle son assise ideologique, sociale, politique, economique, et se trouva incapable de re-
Ages. 45 Even the relocation of cities, which is traditionally taken as evidence of an urban crisis, may be sister a un choc comme celui des Avaro-Sklavenes? Faut-il dire que le nouvel ordre,
interpreted as "la persistenza del fenomeno urbano". Thus, having accepted the urban crisis at the level of construit autour de l'Eglise, n'avait pas eu le temps de s'affirmer suffisamment
economic life and material environment, urban continuity is defined predominantly as an "ideological lorsque le choc decisif survint? Faut-il, au contraire, chercher !'explication plutot du
continuity", although the physical landscape and socio-economic structure of cities was transformed. 46 cote du pouvoir central? ou le tout a la fois? C'est sans doute l'archeologie, si les
Yet another approach has been proposed: one should identify specific aspects of urban life that show fouilles sont bien faites et bien publiees, qui dictera la reponse. Pour l'instant, a !'ex-
continuity and those that reveal change from the earlier ones. 47 ception de cas extremes et par consequent peu significatifs, comme ceux, opposes,
J. Koder examined patterns of settlement distribution around cities in the early Byzantine period de Thessalonique et d' Athenes, trop rares sont les sites, comme Corinthe ou Stobi
in the light of theories that established principles of correlation between cities and agrarian settle- ou Philippes et le site a tous egards particulier de Caricin Grad, ou les fouilles per-
ments. Geographical factors, rich countryside, old density of settlements and proximity to the sea are mettent deja de poser des jalons. Du moins voit-on bien quelles questions il faut
predominant factors in the density of settlements in the early Byzantine period. However, in some cases soumettre aux archeologues. 49
the written sources are misleading. For example, the Synekdemos' list contains settlements ranked
as cities on the basis of historical tradition, rather than on the basis of their economic prosperity and Thus the crucial role of the central government in the process of urban transformation was once
demographic development. 48 again recognized. Furthermore, M. Angold argued that a major factor in the crisis of the cities in Late
Antiquity was their progressive dependency upon Constantinople. After the loss of Syria and Egypt,
the capital could not afford financial assistance to the cities to aid their recovery. 50 W. Muller-Wiener
drew an overall picture of the cities' transformation from the point of view of topographical changes,
41
namely, the closing up of porticoes, the reduced line of fortifications, and the implantation of church-
M. Ja. Sjuzjumov, Nekotorye problemy istoril']eskogo razvitija Vizantii i Zapada, W35 (1973), 3-18; G. Weiss, Antike
und Byzanz. Die Kontinuitat der Gesellschaftsstruktur, Historische Zeitschrift 224 (1977), 529-560; V. Vavrinek, The Eastern
es in the urban fabric. The diminishing space which early Byzantine fortifications defended was taken
Roman Empire or Early Byzantium? A Society in Transition, in idem (ed.), From Late Antiquity to Early Byzantium. Proceed- at face value by Muller-Wiener, who considered it clear evidence of the cities' decline and their trans-
ings of the Byzantinological Symposium in the 16th International Eirene Conference (Prague 1985), 9-20; Kazhdan and Cutler, formation from ancient into mediaeval. 51
Continuity. M. Hendy's studies on the Byzantine economy also focused on the role of the central government.
42 W. Treadgold, The Break in Byzantium and the Gap in Byzantine Studies, ByzF 15 (1990), 289-316.
The traditional view that the Byzantine economy was monetary was modified by Hendy, who suggest-
43 Ward-Perkins, Urban Continuity?, 11-13.
44 Cameron, The Mediterranean World, 81 ff., 128-129, 157-158, 198; idem, The perception of crisis, Settimane 45 (1998), 9-
ed that the Byzantine economic system served not private transactions, but rather the state's fiscal and
34; idem, Ideologies; R. Cormack, Byzantine Aphrodisias. Changing the Symbolic Map of a City, Proceedings of the Cambridge
military needs. Thus, in his view, the state officers and the army constituted the basic dynamic in the cir-
Philological Society, n.s. 34 (1988), 28-32; A Giardina, Esplosione di tardoantico, Studi Storici 40 (1999), 157-180; J. H. W. G. culation of coins. The decline of coins in the seventh and eighth centuries was interpreted by Hendy, as
Liebeschuetz, Late Antiquity and the Concept of Decline, Nottingham Medieval Studies 45 (2001), 1-11; idem, The uses, and it was earlier by Zakythinos, as a consequence of the change of the system of military payments from
the response of A Cameron (pp. 238-239), B. Ward-Perkins (pp. 239-241), M. Whittow (pp. 241-243), L. Lavan (pp. 243-245).
45 Ward-Perkins, Urban Continuity?, 12-13; idem, Continuitists, catastrophists, and the towns of post-Roman Northern

Italy, PBSR 65 (1997), 157-176.

46 A Carile, La citta bizantina: aspetti e problemi, Rivista di Bizantinistica 2 (1992), 104-106.

47 A Augenti, Continuity and Discontinuity of a Seat of Power: the Palatine Hill from the Fifth to the Tenth Century, in 49 Villes et peuplement, 519. Also Mango, La vita, 236 stresses the importance of archaeology for illuminating the cities' decline
Smith, Early Medieval Rome, 43. after the sixth century.
48 J. Koder, The Urban Character of the Early Byzantine Empire: Some Reflections on a Settlement Geographical Approach 50 M. Angold, The Shaping of the Medieval Byzantine 'City',ByzF 10 (1985), 1-37, esp. 2-7.

to the Topic, Byz. Congress XVII (1986), 155-187, esp. 169-170. 51 MUiler-Wiener, Von der Polis.
22 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 23

cash to land, upon the introduction of the themes. 52 While this view holds up to a point, there is no In the discussion of the cities' decline and the ruralization of the empire, archaeological evidence
doubt that enemy invasions disrupted coin circulation. In the greater part of the Balkans, for example, became the foundation stone of the argument. Attention was paid to changes in city planning and in the
at the end of the sixth century coins cease suddenly. 53 Until recently the decline of the coin circulation cities' architectural structure in the early Byzantine period, namely the abandonment of public space
in the Byzantine Dark Ages has been considered only from the point of view of circulation of contem- and the subsequent occupation of public buildings and porticoes of the colonnaded streets by poor
porary coins. However, it is common knowledge to archaeologists that archaeological strata dated by structures, houses, workshops and agricultural installations. The difficulty in attempting to utilize such
pottery with certainty to the seventh and eighth centuries are rich in coins from earlier centuries. Re- evidence from earlier excavations became immediately apparent. Since all major early Byzantine urban
cent studies have dwelt upon this, thus demonstrating that the economy in the Byzantine Dark Ages centres stood on the sites of ancient cities, the archaeologists who conducted the excavations, being pri-
continued to be monetary and leading to a new explanation for the decline in series of coins of the seventh marily interested in the classical monuments, had destroyed and disposed of the early Byzantine remains
and eighth centuries. 54 It becomes clear that the decline in circulation of contemporary coins was and had neglected to record and date early Byzantine finds with accuracy. 58 Another difficulty is
caused by a decline in the state supply and not necessarily in demand. It is now obvious that the econo- presented by the superimposition of modern cities on ancient and Byzantine urban centres, which
my was not based on barter, as A. Kazhdan had suggested earlier, since, when the contemporary issues makes extensive excavations impossible, whilst rescue excavations limit archaeological investigation to
of coins were not available, older coins were used for transactions. The phenomenon is not new. We small sections of ancient urban centres. At other sites, ignorance and neglect by the authorities has led
know of many examples of folleis of earlier centuries which remained in circulation for over a hundred to the loss of extremely valuable remains. For example, early Byzantine Thebes (Nea Anchialos) was
years. 55 The same phenomenon is attested in the West in the early Middle Ages. Coins from earlier cen- established on the site of Pyrassos, the ancient port of Hellenistic and Roman Thebes (Phthiotic
turies are found in strata from later centuries, where the absence of contemporary coins is noticeable. 56 Thebes), when the inhabitants of the latter abandoned their inland city from the third century AD.
The state was apparently responsible for the reduction of the coins in the seventh and eighth centuries. and moved gradually to the port of Pyrassos. The remains of the early Byzantine city of Thebes (Nea
When the mints of the provincial cities closed, the state was unable to produce coins and provide the Anchialos) were of great archaeological value, since the city was abandoned toward the end of the sixth
provinces with the currency they required. Thus the population responded to this situation by using century because of invasions and was never inhabited afterwards. Its monuments lay in ruins and were
ancient coins for transactions, wherever possible. 57 still visible at the beginning of the twentieth century, standing in some places 5-6 m above ground. In
1907 the Greek state expropriated the land, to settle Greek refugees from Anchialos in Bulgaria. The
ruins of the early Byzantine city were then dismantled and the blocks were used as building material for
52 See supra, p. 17. M. F. Hendy, On the Administrative Basis of the Byzantine Coinage c.400-c.900 and the Reforms of the houses of Nea Anchialos. 59
Heraclius, Univ. of Birmingham Historical Journal 12/2 (1970), 129-154; idem, Studies in the Byzantine Monetary Economy. c. Today a number of classical archaeologists recognize the importance of late antique constructions
300-1450 ( Cambridge 1985), 289, 602 ff. Hal don, Some Considerations, 80-86 who also disputes the importance of the decline and have brought them to the specialists' attention. 60 In Olympia, a classical site par excellence, there is
of copper coins in the seventh century for the exchange of goods. For an overall view of the monetary economy of the seventh now a project on "Olympia in the imperial period and in Late Antiquity". But, of course, such aware-
and eighth centuries and related problems see C. Morrisson, Survivance de l'economie monetaire aByzance (VIIe-IXe siecle ),
ness of the importance of late antique constructions is far from being the rule. 61 Another limitation to
in Dark Centuries, 377-397.
53 Idem, La circulation monetaire dans Jes Balkans a l'epoque justinienne et post-justinienne,ACAC XIII (1994), II, 919- archaeological investigation is caused by the archaeologists' interest in monuments of Christian
930, esp. 925-926. archaeology. Consequently, much evidence of the cities' secular space has been lost forever, and the
54 Humphrey, Vandal and Byzantine Carthage, 89-90: of the 120 identifiable coins found in the levels of the phase III (last
evolution of the urban topography of the excavated sites in their historical context was ignored.
quarter of the seventh century) of the ecclesiastical complex in Carthage, 5% dated to the third and fourth centuries, 76% to
the fifth or sixth centuries, and only 19% to the seventh century. Coins of the second halfof the seventh century were the smallest
group, only the 6.66% of the total, and only 4 coins dated later than 659 AD.; R. Reece, Coins with an Appendix on Hoards
by H. Hurst, in Hurst et al., Excavations at Carthage II, 1, 249-260; Potter, fol Caesarea, 36-39; Poulter, Nicopolis, 42; K. Butcher,
58 The loss of early Byzantine archaeological evidence has been often noted with regret. L. E. Lord,A History of the American
The Coins, ibid., 304-305, 306-307; V. Penna, 'H SWTJ CTTL£ ~vsavTLVE£ rc6AEL£ Tfj£ IlEAorcovv~oov: 'H voµwµmtXT] µaQTVQla
(80£-120£ aL µ.X.), in Mvryµ17 Martin J. Price (Athens 1996), 199-200; K. Sideropoulos, 'H voµwµaTLXTJ xvxAocpoQla CTTTJV School of Classical Studies at Athens 1882-1942 (Cambridge, Mass. 1947), 73-74 wrote that in the excavations at Plataea in
1JCTTEQOQWµa"tXT] xal JCQWTO~vsavTLVTJ Mrno~VTJ. Tvmxo JtaQaOEtyµa f\ LCTTOQLXTJ i\~alQECTTJ;, in Themelis and Konti, Messene, April 2-4, 1889 seven Byzantine churches were destroyed with the expectation of finding ancient inscriptions, architectural
99-124; E. Marki and M. Cheimonopoulou, Ceramique de l'epoque paleochretienne tardive de la fouille de Louloudies en pieces and sculpture reused as building material: "There were nine Byzantine churches among the extensive walls of ancient
Pierie, in Ceramique Medievale, 704, and idem, XWQ00ETT]CTT] JCUQUYWYLXWV xal i\yaCTTT]QLUXWV ClQUCTTT]QLOT~T(!)V OTO EJCLCTXO- Plataea, and since these often contain ancient inscriptions, architectural fragments and pieces of sculpture, Waldstein began
mxo ovyxQOTT]µa Twv AovAovotwv I1LEQLU£, SBMAT 22 (2002),Abstracts of Papers, 65: in the workshops in the levels dated his attack with these, dividing his forces into three divisions. Plataea had seen no such energetic action since the Pelopon-
by pottery from the end of the sixth century to the eighth, about 13,000 earlier coins have been found cut in half or clipped, to nesian War. By noon two of the churches had been forced to return negative answers to the interrogations of Waldstein and
be used for transactions based on the weight of their metal. Tarbell; two others were attacked. On the second day at noon rain stopped the work, but when it cleared all forces were con-
55 Morrisson, Monnaie, 241, points to the re-use of old bronze coins already in the fifth century, and idem, The re-use of centrated on a small church for a half-hour's blitz before sunset. The next day Tarbell cleared a seventh church and departed
obsolete coins: the case of Roman imperial bronzes revived in the late fifth centuries, in C. N. L. Brooke et al., Studies in for Athens". For the West see Ward-Perkins, Urban Continuity?, 7-8.
59 Soteriou, Thebes, 1; P. Lazaridis, <1>0uimOE£ 0fj~m. 'IoTOQla, avaoxacpE£, µv'Y]µE'i:a,AE 126 (1987), 314.
Numismatic Method Presented to Philip Grierson ( Cambridge 1983 ), 95-111.
56 Lewit,Agricultural Production, 38-39. 60 P. Amandry, Chronique delphique (1970-1981),BCH 105 (1981), 724.

57 From the middle of the fifth to the middle of the seventh century, fractions of the nummi in Caesarea were issued 61 See, for example, P. Themelis, 'AvaoxacpTJ Mrno~VTJ£, PAE 1988 (1991 ), 48; F. Berti, Mission archeologique italienne

not by the imperial government, but by the civic authorities. This initiative supplemented a lack of coinage of the central de Iasos: compte rendu des travaux de 1991, KST 14/2 (1992), 91-109 where a description of a Byzantine structure in the west
government: P. Lampinen, Imitations of Byzantine Coins at Caesarea Maritima: The Continuation of Civic Tradition, Twenty- stoa of the Roman agora of Iasos is given only because of the antique (pagan) finds in the fill between its floor and the level of
First Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. Abstracts of Papers 9-12 November 1995 (New York University and the Metropolitan the stoa, while in other sections the Byzantine remains are not recorded. The excavator notes (p. 98): "apres avoir enleve toute
Museum ofArt), 20. superstructure d'epoque tardive, nous avons decouvert que le plan de la stoa ... ".
24 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 25

From the 1980's, various studies have utilized archaeological material and drawn attention to years of the city's life (Plan I). During the reign of Justin II, when inhabitants from the suburbs and the
profound urban changes in the early Byzantine period. First and foremost, archaeology shows the infiltra- countryside fled behind its walls for protection, crude new structures, workshops and dwellings, appeared
tion by barbarians of the provinces of the northern Balkans from an early period, 62 and the correspon- everywhere in the city's empty space. After the city was destroyed, a Slavic settlement appeared on the
ding disintegration of Greco-Roman urbanism. Sirmium, on the river Sava, capital of Pannonia Secun- site, consisting of huts built on the ruins with deposits of handmade pottery. 68 Archaeological observations
da from the reign of Diocletian, is an example. In the third and fourth centuries it was an imperial res- also led scholars to question earlier views to the effect that the collapse of some cities was caused by the
idence, endowed with a hippodrome, a feature that normally only major cities could enjoy. Its disinte- enemies. Stobi, capital of Macedonia Secunda, today in F.Y.R.O.M., located between the rivers Vardar
gration began in the fifth century, when it was occupied by the Huns ( 441-453), the Ostrogoths from 455 (Axius) and Crna (Erigon), was abandoned before its final destruction. After 569-570 the inhabitants
who settled in Pannonia, and the Gepids in 474. Theodoric occupied the city in 504, Justinian took it probably sought refuge in the mountains. There is also evidence of destruction by earthquake, which
over in 535, but it was reoccupied by the Gepids a year later. It fell to the Byzantines in the reign of probably occurred when most of the inhabitants had left. A small Slavic settlement was afterwards
Justin II in 567 and it was lost to the Avars in 582. In general, the cities of northern Illyricum suffered established on the ruins. The city's inhabitants did not return because of insecure conditions, the diffi-
population decline and a slowdown in construction from the fifth century because of the invasions of culty of rebuilding the destroyed city and the changing climatic conditions, which now required exten-
the Huns and the Goths, and the situation deteriorated further in the sixth century. 63 The invasions in sive irrigation. 69 Lemerle attributed the destruction of Philippi to the Slavic invasion, while Bakirtzis
the middle of the fifth century by the Huns and in 479 by the Ostrogoths are considered to be the reason suggested that a catastrophic earthquake may have been responsible. The inhabitants returned and
for the decline of Stobi in Macedonia Secunda, the abandonment of large houses, signs of ruralization started to rebuild their city, but it was now very much reduced and the inhabitants' means were very
and the demise of old buildings. Urban life deteriorated. Only churches were restored and mag- limited. The destruction of Thasos has also been attributed to the Slavs, but Bakirtzis suggested that
nificently refurbished. 64 Thrace also suffered from the invasions of the Goths and the installation of here, too, an earthquake damaged the city and forced its inhabitants to move to nearby sites. 70 To the
Goth foederati after the battle of Adrianople in 378, and the later installation of the Ostrogoths of south, Thebes (Nea Anchialos) was also destroyed and abandoned at the end of the early Byzantine
Theodoric. By the sixth century, the limes of the Danube had become a zone of defence and also of contact period. G. Soteriou concluded that the city was destroyed by the Slavs, since the pool of the baptistery
and incorporation of foreign peoples within the empire. 65 The cities of the interior collapsed earlier, of the Basilica A was used for a Slavic burial and the church was subdivided into small dwellings. 71 In
while those on the coast maintained their vitality longer thanks to contacts w~ the capital, before they most cases, there are signs of limited habitation on the ruins of the destroyed cities and followed by a
were lost in the reign of Heraclius. 66 total abandonment. To the south, Athens and Argos survived after their destruction by the invading
Archaeology also illustrates the fate of the cities in the provinces of the Balkans during the inva- Slavs, but in very much reduced and impoverished form. 72
sions of the Avars and Slavs. It reveals the situation prevailing in urban space just before the cities were Archaeological investigation has also modified the old picture of the profound decline of the cities
destroyed by enemies, the disintegration of public space and the crowded conditions behind the walls, in North Africa and most scholars now agree that the fourth century was a period of prosperity in the
the nature and degree of the destruction caused by the invaders and, in some cases, the inhabitants' area. However, opinion is divided in regard to the later centuries. The period of Vandal occupation has
attempts to reconstruct their ruined cities, which was halted by a new wave of invasions. The work of V. been viewed either as a period of continuity in urban institutions or as a period of crisis for the munic-
Popovic remains fundamental. Popovic demonstrated the disintegration of ancient cities in the Balkans. ipal life. The question of how far various aspects of ancient urbanism continued into the early Middle
He identified elements of ruralization in urban space on the eve of the invasions, caused by the influx Ages has also been raised. 73 The overall picture that emerges from archaeological sites in North Africa
from the countryside of refugees into the cities, who subsequently infiltrated urban space. In many sites is that of a gradual transformation of urban centres from the fourth to the sixth centuries. In this
the coexistence of Slavic and Byzantine pottery and artefacts shows either an early stage of integration process of gradual transformation, scholars have particularly stressed the role of the Church. In their
by the invaders or of adoption of Byzantine material and cultural forms. 67 Excavations also reveal that view, the archaeological evidence indicates that not even the Vandal invasion was enough to disrupt
afterwards the cities shrunk in size, were impoverished and took on a new mediaeval form. Some cities city life in North Africa and that it was the Arab conquest in the seventh century that caused the deci-
were destroyed and abandoned forever. Justiniana Prima, modern Caricin Grad, was founded by Jus- sive rupture in North African urbanism. 74 Egypt and its cities remained little investigated, except by pa-
tinian near his birthplace Tauresium, in the province of Dardania in the Illyricum. Excavations re-
vealed the layout of the sixth-century city and the changes produced in the inhabited area in the last

68 See infra, pp. 455-456. Kondic and Popovic, Caricin Grad, 372 ff.
62 69 Wiseman, The City, 306-313.
Popovic, Les temoins archeologiques; idem, La descente des Koutrigours, des Slaves et des Avars vers la mer Egee: le
70 Lemerle, Philippes, 113-118; Ch. Bakirtzis, 'H 11µega µna ,TJV xmaa,gocpTJ awvc; <l'>LALJtJtouc;, Kathemerine zoe, 695-710;
temoignage de l'archeologie, CRAI 1978, 596-648, and the studies in Villes et peuplement: D. G. Teodor, Origines et voies de
penetration des Slaves au sud du Bas-Danube (Vle-vne siecles), 63-84; F. Baratte, Les temoignages archeologiques de la O. Picard, Tresors et circulation monetaire a Thasos du 1ve au vne siecle apres J.-C., Thasiaca, BCH Suppl. V (Athens and
presence slave au sud du Danube, ibid., 163-180; V. Popovic, Byzantins, Slaves et autochtones dans Jes provinces de Prevalitaine Paris 1979), 452; Fr. Blonde, A Muller and D. Mulliez, Une nouvelle place publique a Thasos. Les abords nord du passage
et Nouvelle Epire, ibid., 181-243; Avramea, Le Peloponnese, 53-58, 72-104. des Theores de l'epoque archa1que a l'epoque paleochretienne, Revue archeologique 1987/1, 38-39; Ch. Bakirtzis, TL auvt\~17
63 Bavant, La ville, 250-263, 286. Oc'Y] E>aao a,Lc; agxtc; wii 7ou aL µ.X., in <POtta linry elc; I'EWQYWV E. Mv;l,wvav 3 (Athens 1989), 339-341; idem, The End of
64 Antiquity in Eastern Macedonia,Ancient Macedonia 6 (1999), 123-128.
Mikulcik, Stobi, 217-223.
65 E. Zanini, Confine e frontiera: ii limes danubiano nel VI secolo, Milion. Studi e ricerche d'arte bizantina (Rome 1988), 71 Soteriou, Thebes, 8-9.

72 Frantz, The AthenianAgora, 117-122; Abadie-Reyna!, Argos, 397-404, esp. 399 ff.; Spieser, La ville, 335-336.
257-273.
66 Poulter, Urbanism, 118, 127-128; idem, The End of Scythia Minor: the Archaeological Evidence, in Mullett and Scott, 73Fevrier, Permanence et heritages, 267-284.
74Y. Thebert, L'evolution urbaine dans Jes provinces orientales de l'Afrique romaine tardive, Opus 2 (1983), 99-131; for
Byzantium, 198-204.
67 See infra, pp. 242, 448, 455. a reconsideration of the impact of the Vandal invasion see Kolendo and Kotula, Quelques problemes, 182-184. However, the
26 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 27

pyrologists who enjoy a wealth of documentary material from nome metropoleis, such as Oxyrhynchus, archaeologists. 78 Such collective studies utilizing the results of archaeological excavations from various
Arsinoe, Aphrodito and Hermoupolis. Alexandria is the subject of C. Haas' study in the context of social areas of the Roman world have broadened the picture of urban transformation and established regional
conflict against the background of the city's topography, 75 and R. Alston has recently produced a major differences in the degree and pace of the change. 79 The importance of archaeology for the study of Late
synthesis in his book The City in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (London and New York 2002), combining Antiquity and the amount of work done in the field are recognized in the new Journal entitled Late Antique
papyrological and archaeological evidence. Archaeology: vol. 1, L. Lavan and W. Bowden (eds.), Theory and Practice in Late Antique Archaeology
Archaeological excavations in Syria, Jordan, Israel and Asia Minor have revealed a more detailed (2003); vol. 2, W. Bowden, L. Lavan and C. Machado (eds.), Recent Research on the Late Antique
picture, albeit still fragmentary, of urban and rural settlements and document aspects of their transfor- Countryside (2004). The Journal provides a much-needed forum for specialized studies on Late Antiquity
mation in the early Byzantine period in great detail. Most valuable are the publications on Scythopolis, by making use of archaeological reports.
Caesarea Maritima, Apamea, Pella, Petra, the Negev towns, Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Sardis, Sagalassos, However, the archaeological record, valuable as it is for the historian, labours under significant
Anemurium. In such publications the excavators are interested in offering an overall picture of urban limitations. J. Russell in his paper on the "Transformations in Early Byzantine Urban Life: The Con-
development in the early Byzantine period. They are also aware of the historians' various opinions on tribution and Limitations of Archaeological Evidence", given at the XVIIth International Byzantine
this issue and are therefore now in a better position to ask appropriate questions and even find answers. Congress, emphasized the fragmentary nature of the archaeological finds and the difficulty of dating
The publications reveal a variety of details from early Byzantine urbanism, the transformation of specific them with precision. Most important of all, he presented archaeological evidence from the city of Ane-
monuments for Christian or private use, the widespread workshops and artisan installations in the murium in Isauria, suggesting that Anemurium begins to decline as early as the last quarter of the sixth
cities' public space and the dilapidation of ancient monuments. The evidence is still fragmentary, but °
century, that is, before the Persian invasion of the early seventh century. 8 For the cities of Syria and
the same overall picture of urban transformation emerges at all sites, differing only in local variations. Palestine, the Persian campaigns in the sixth century and in the early seventh and natural calamities
Although the excavations concentrate on limited areas of the ancient cities, several of these studies offer have long been considered the causes of the stagnation noted in the archaeological record in the second .
a comprehensive synthesis of the changes at various sites in the urban topography of the early Byzantine half of the sixth century, while the final blow was delivered by the Arab invasions. This view has now un-
period, often drawing significant conclusions beyond the level of a single site. Also archaeological dergone modification. H. Kennedy notes that in Syria and Palestine, the ancient features of urbanism
investigation, especially surface surveys, has changed our perception of rural settlements in the Roman were gradually abandoned because of social and cultural changes, while the economic and demo-
and early Byzantine periods. It has now been established that in Late Antiquity urban and village life graphic crisis, caused by plagues, surely affected the Syrian cities from the middle of the sixth century.
was flourishing and an increase in population is evident everywhere. 76 The number and size of settle- Some cities like Antioch, Damascus, Berroia (modern Alep ), Emesa and Jerusalem continued to thrive
ments, rural and urban, increased dramatically, with the exception of the areas that suffered from bar- into the Islamic era for political, economic or religious reasons. Other cities in the mainland, such as
barian invasions, such as the northern Balkans. The old image of the Roman empire devastated by Gerasa, Philadelphia, Chalcis and Apamea, survived until the ninth century. The coastal cities of Tyre,
invasions, of fleeing peasants and deserted estates, as given in the works of Rostovtzeff and A. H. M. Sidon, Berytus and Laodicea declined because of the decline in Mediterranean trade. 81 A. Dunn, on
Jones, certainly does not apply to the provinces of the East before the Avaro-Slavic invasions (with the the basis of archaeological evidence, confirms this picture of ancient cities disintegrating as such and
exception of the northern Balkans), and the rise of Islam. Furthermore, the excavations by G. Tate and turning into new fortified towns in Thrace and Macedonia, but unlike earlier writers, he dates this grad-
J.-P. Sodini in Dehes, in the limestone hills of northern Syria, have now modified the earlier conclu- ual development in the Balkans into the third century. The functions of the ancient cities in this area
sions of Tchalenko's surface surveys which suggested a sudden abandonment of the Syrian villages in were now assumed by more, smaller fortified settlements. 82 Of course, not all cities disintegrated. For
the seventh century. 77 Archaeological investigation has revealed that urban life continued to thrive until example, in Anatolia, Amorium included also the lower city surrounded by walls, in addition to the for-
the mid-sixth century and that the signs of stagnation and decline are to be noticed in the second half tified upper city. 83
of the century only. The diversity of the material, its enormous mass, the flood of information of inter-
est only to archaeologists, and the publication of archaeological reports, often in inaccessible journals,
make archaeological studies difficult for historians to make use of. Thus the collection of publications
78 For example, Avramea, Le Peloponnese; Foss, Syria; Sodini, La contribution, offers an account of the contribution of
on specific geographical areas or specific topics, and their presentation in comprehensive studies have
brought the significant contributions made by the archaeological investigation to the attention of non- archaeology to the study of early Byzantine urbanism, rural settlements, and material culture; idem, L'artisanat; idem, L'habitat
urbain; idem, Habitat.
79 J. Rich (ed.), The City in Late Antiquity (London and New York 1992); N. Christie and S. T. Loseby (eds.), Towns in

Transition: Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Aldershot, Brookfield 1996); N. Christie, N. Gauthier
and G.-P. Brogiolo (eds.), Towns and their Hinterlands between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Leiden 2000).
analysis of C. Lepelley, Les cites has shown that the crisis in municipal life started at the time of the Vandals. The Vandal 80 Russell, Urban Life, 137-154; idem, The Persian Invasions of Syria/Palestine and Asia Minor in the Reign of Heraclius:

occupation had an impact on the upper class, which had traditionally maintained urban institutions. See also idem, The survival Archaeological, Numismatic and Epigraphic Evidence, in Dark Centuries, 41-71. On the difficulties of interpreting archaeo-
and fall of the classical city in Late Roman Africa, in Rich, The City, 50-76. By the sixth century the cities had only two poles: logical evidence see recently, Sanders, Problems. On the differences of interest and approach to the study of Late Antiquity
the church and the fortress. J. Reynolds, The Cities of Cyrenaica in Decline, in P.-M. Duval and E. Frezouls (eds.), Themes de between historians and archaeologists see recently Cameron, Ideologies, 12 ff.
recherches sur les villes antiques d'Occident. Strasbourg ler-4 octobre 1971 (Paris 1977), 53-58 describes the slow process of 81 Kennedy, From Polis; idem, Antioch; idem, The Last Century.

decline that started in the third century; Wilson, Urban Economies. 82 Dunn, The transition; idem, Stages in the transition from the late antique to the Middle Byzantine urban centre in S.
75
Haas,Alexandria. Macedonia and S. Thrace, in Acpdewµa awv N. G. L. Hammond (Thessalonica 1997), 137-150. See also Bavant, La ville, esp.
76 Sodini, La contribution, 182. See infra,s pp. 33-34.
286-287.
77 See infra, pp. 35-36. 83 C. S. Lightfoot and E. A Ivison, The Amorium Project: The 1995 Excavation Season, DOP 51 (1997), 291-300.
28 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 29

Time and again the vital contribution of archaeological material into the study of early Byzantine n·11tury. Apart from the works of Cameron on literary and cultural themes of the sixth century, the col-
cities has been recognized. Ironically, this may be the only area in which Byzantine studies appear to ll·rlive volume The Sixth Century: End or Beginning?, edited by P. Allen and E. Jeffreys (1996) includes
have advanced faster than classical studies. 84 A major contribution made by archaeological investiga- studies most of which deal with the written sources. Two contributions, however, investigate evidence
tion is the change in scholarly perceptions of the demographic development in Late Antiquity. Today, of climatic change in the sixth century. The scientific indications of cooling and aridity in the first half
the empire-wide picture that emerges from the totality of the archaeological reports is that of an in- uf I he sixth century, which would have had consequences for harvest and caused famine, are confirmed
crease in population until the plague of the middle of the sixth century and of a subsequent economic hy information given by the literary sources. These climate changes will have affected the empire's pop-
stagnation, which is evident everywhere, but the degree of which varies from one region to another. The ulation and may have forced migrations from the East to the Mediterranean area. 90 No doubt climatic
final collapse of urban centres coincided in the Balkans with the invasion by the Slavs in the second half change, devastating earthquakes, the recurring plague and invasions, when combined, had a cumula-
of the sixth century and in the eastern provinces with the Arab inroads of the seventh century. 1ive effect on the cities, weakened the empire, and hastened the transformation of the city from its ancient
Haldon in his Byzantium in the Seventh Century. The transformation of a culture ( Cambridge and form to a new, mediaeval manifestation, a process, albeit slow, that was already in motion in the fourth
New York 1990) considered the fate of Byzantine cities in the seventh century in the context of admin- century.
istrative and socio-economic changes and military events. By the seventh century Byzantine cities had Over recent years, there has been notable interest in ideological trends underlying urban change.
lost their administrative, financial and fiscal independence and their role in the state had radically /\. Wharton, in Refiguring the Post Classical City: Dura Europos, Jerash, Jerusalem and Ravenna (Cambridge
changed: "the structural and functional position of the 'city' in the totality of social and economic rela- 1995), examines some monuments from an art historian's perspective and also considers the reaction
tionships of the late Roman state was changing and that it was these changes in function which lie at the of today's observer towards Byzantine art and architecture. The collective volume edited by G. P.
heart of any development - whether of decline or continuity - in the history of the seventh- and early Brogiolo and B. Ward-Perkins, The Idea and Ideal of the Town between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle
eighth-century city". 85 Without doubt such changes affected the public sector in areas such as con- Ages (Leiden 1999), focuses on ideological trends and concepts of the city in a broad context embracing
struction and maintenance of public monuments in the cities. Of course the crisis was deeper and it is history and archaeology. Two monographs, both major synthetic works, have recently been added
evident also in the poor material remains left by the private sector. The new position of the cities vis-a- to the rapidly increasing bibliography on the late antique cities, namely the books of J. H. W. G.
vis the state may not have affected the economy and prosperity of the private sector to the same degree Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford 2001) and R. Alston, The City in Roman
or even in the same way. Thus Haldon remarks that "of course, this gradual reduction in the relevance and Byzantine Egypt (London and New York 2002). Both make great contributions to the knowledge of
of the cities to the fiscal and political administration of the state did not always have negative effects on early Byzantine urbanism and combine archaeological and literary evidence to offer reconsiderations
local economic activity, whether small-scale artisan production, services or market exchange". 86 In any of specific issues in urban history. Their perspective is broad and the treatment of the subject detailed.
discussion regarding cities in the sixth and seventh centuries population decline is a crucial issue. Haldon Liebeschuetz's book utilizes various sources, archaeological material, papyri, legislation and inscrip-
acknowledges that it is difficult to assess the degree of the population decline in Byzantine cities in the tions. The book's principal theme is political change: he stresses that the end of the curial government
seventh century, and he stresses that in any case "demographic decline is not the cause of urban decline, weakened the cities and marked the end of the cities' self-determination. The administration by the
even if it does have an effect when it takes place". 87 He also appears to agree with the generally held bishop and the wealthier members of the urban communities, and the increasing control of the provin-
view that earthquakes and plagues played a role in the decline of the cities. 88 However, in Haldon's cial governors brought about the decline of the ancient city. It also led to the emancipation of the coun-
view, it was above all the constant enemy invasions in the seventh century which precipitated the end of tryside. Liebeschuetz stresses that urban decline took various forms - the dissolution of classical mon-
the ancient cities of Asia Minor and the Balkans. 89 umentality, the shrinking of cities, their dissolution into smaller units around churches and ultimately
M. Whittow, in his paper "Ruling the Late Roman and Early Byzantine City: A Continuous History" their retreat to naturally defended sites. It is significant that in a book on the city Liebeschuetz includes
(1990), takes a different position. Although Whittow rightly acknowledges cultural transformation as a a chapter on the countryside. He recognizes the "greater prominence of villages" in Late Antiquity and
factor in the physical appearance of cities, he argues for a flourishing urban life well into the seventh he concludes that the villages followed the prosperity and decline of the cities. 91 The book includes
century; the administrative changes were merely institutional and did not affect the continuous pros- chapters on the administrative role of the bishop, civic finance, shows and factions, and the transfor-
perity of the cities. Whittow points to the fact that urban elites continued to rule the cities, although mation of Greek literature and culture under the influence of Christianity. The perspective of the book
they no longer held the same administrative functions. is extremely broad, for it includes urban developments in both the East and the West. The author
The flood of evidence from archaeological excavations placing the beginning of the urban crisis in reaches the conclusion that "the most important factor of the decline of the classical city was the running
the middle of the sixth century, before the enemy invasions, produced a renewed interest in the sixth

84
As A M. Snodgrass remarks, "For well over a hundred years, people studied the Greek city as an entity without making
90 P. Farquharson, Byzantium, Planet Earth and the Solar System, 263-269; J. Koder, Climatic Change in the Fifth and
more than negligible use of archaeological evidence": Archaeology and the study of the Greek city, in Rich and Wallace-
Hadrill, City, 1. Sixth Centuries?, 270-285; Wiseman, The City, 312-313. For the Near East the opinions are divided. Some suggest that there
85
Haldon,Byzantium, 95; idem, Some Considerations, 86-90; Brandes and Haldon, Towns, esp. 143-151. was no climatic change in the region: R. Rubin, The Debate over Climatic Changes in the Negev, Fourth-Seventh Centuries
86 Haldon, Byzantium, 98. C.E., PEQ 121 (1989), 71-78. For a sudden climatic change in the year 536 see J. D. Gunn, AD. 536 and its 300-year aftermath,
87 Ibid., 95. in idem (ed.), The Years without Summer. Tracing A.D. 536 and its aftermath (BAR Int. Series 872, Oxford 2000), 5-20; idem,
88 Ibid., 111-112. Changes in power: dry fog in Europe, ibid., 21-24; B. K. Young, Climate and Crisis in Sixth-Century Italy and Gaul, ibid., 35-42.
89 Ibid., 103-110. 91 Liebeschuetz, Decline, 63 ff., 409.
30 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 31

down of the Empire". 92 One of the most interesting chapters is that on the economy. Liebeschuetz M. Whittow recently slightly modified his earlier view that cities flourished continuously after the
agrees with what the results of archaeological investigation imply, namely that, overall, early Byzantine middle of the sixth century. It involved "not a general decline but an urban recession brought on by the
cities continued to prosper economically in the sixth century. He draws attention, however, to some plague, by a growing focus on Constantinople, by a tendency for traditional civic elites to give way to ec-
evidence indicating a decline in coin circulation as early as the sixth century in a few restricted urban dcsiastical and imperial office-holders, and possibly, too, by the continued high expenditure on warfare.
districts. 93 Coin evidence also underlines the trend towards regional economy. 94 Liebeschuetz advances 'l'his was not a prelude to a collapse brought on by Persians and Arabs, but a process of adjustment
a broad range of potential causes of urban stagnation and ultimate decline from the second half of the within a fundamentally prosperous economy ... there is nothing in the evidence ... to suggest that without
sixth century - administrative changes, economic and population decline, 95 natural disasters, such the wars and invasions in the 7th c., W. Asia Minor would not otherwise have recovered to match the
as the plague, earthquakes and climatic changes, and, most important of all, the disintegration of the prosperity of contemporary Egypt or Iraq". 99
empire. The impact of the Christianization of the empire on the dissolution of the urban space is not
developed separately, however, except for the administrative role of the bishop. Liebeschuetz argues We now turn to look at recent advances in scholarship in two major issues directly related to urban
that the crisis struck the cities in Anatolia, which collapsed in the seventh century, more severely than prosperity and decline, namely, population increase and decline in urban and rural settlements, and the
those in the Middle East, which continued to flourish because of the high level of economic development (kvelopment of the economy. It is in this context that we examine the transformation of the urban land-
of the area. 96 scape in this study. Economic prosperity brought about the growth of many cities, observed Libanius. 100
R. Alston, in his book The City in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (2002), focuses on urban space, houses, Recent scholarly works now accept as an established fact that the period of Late Antiquity was a peri-
streets and neighbourhoods, the administration and civic finances, temples and their economic functions, od of prosperity. Recently C. Foss made a clear statement, which would have been unthinkable for
the Romanization of urban architecture, the third-century crisis, the Christian city and the urban economy. scholars a few decades earlier, that, "late antiquity was plainly a thriving period, whose prosperity cul-
Alston shows that the papyri indicate an increase in the number and economic growth of villages in minated in the late fifth and early sixth centuries" .101 The picture that the literary sources draw, of vil-
the early Byzantine period. 97 Thus papyrological evidence confirms the archaeological picture of in- lagers oppressed by famine, epidemic diseases and heavy taxation, abused by powerful patrons and
creasingly prosperous village communities over the fourth to the sixth centuries. The author concludes abandoning their fields does not correspond to the archaeological evidence from all the areas of the
that in Egypt cities declined at some point between the sixth and the ninth centuries and that some empire, with the exception of Thrace. 102 Recent studies have repeatedly shown that in the early Byzantine
cities were abandoned. The causes of the decline were various. Plagues, earthquakes, famine and wars empire peasant communities prospered, free peasants became economically independent vis-a-vis
would not have produced a long-lasting urban decline, for cities usually recover afterwards. However, their powerful landlords and the system of land exploitation known as emphyteusis strengthened the
he suggests that recurring bubonic plague caused a substantial decline in the population. The author peasants' position. 103 The change in terminology regarding rural settlements also suggests the increas-
concludes that "the decline of the ancient city is, therefore, intimately related to a change in culture, ing socio-economic importance of village communities. While in the past, the term chorion was used to
one which undermined the carefully constructed sense of difference that had been integral to the indicate a holding or an estate, and kome a rural settlement, even before the sixth century, the term
Roman and early Byzantine city" .98 a
chorion was increasingly used for village. 104 Also, with the disintegration of the Roman institutions,
W. Bowden, in his book Epirns Vetus: The Archaeology of a Late Antique Province (London 2003), the decline of the Roman type of land exploitation through the villa resulted in the increase of inde-
which covers western Greece and southern Albania, gives the point of view of an archaeologist who also pendent rural communities. 105 The rate of decline of villae varied from one region to another, depend-
draws historical conclusions. Employing the archaeological evidence he explores various rural set-
tlements and economy with emphasis on villae, church construction and the economic forces behind it,
the Christian city and its architectural environment, Christian ideology and the militarization of cities. 99
Whittow, Recent research, 151; idem, Decline and Fall?, 407-408.
Socio-economic and cultural and ideological trends explain urban change. Emphasis is placed on con- lOO Or. LXIV.8 (IV, 426.1-3): at o!:: m:gwuotm :n:oAAac; T]U~T]OUV lt0AELc; ML :n:oAAij o:n:ouoi] ltEQL "tO :n:AOU"tELV "EAAT]OLV
struction materials and the use of spolia. In a separate chapter, entitled Low-status Residential Building, c\µoii xat f3agf3cigmc;.
Bowden is the first to give proper consideration to the poor early Byzantine structures designated in the 101
Foss, Syria, 201.
102
past as "squatters' occupation". Bowden also examines the preferred building techniques of the period Patlagean, Pauvrete, 303-306; Dagron, Entre village, 37-38; Tate, Campagnes; Foss, Syria; idem, The Near Eastern
and offers explanations as to why they are used. The relocation of cities to new sites, the new urban ide- countryside in late antiquity: a review article, JRA suppl. 14 (1995), 213-234; Safrai, Economy, 438-442; Lewit, Agricultural
Production, 48-49, 65-88; B. Ward-Perkins, Specialisation, Trade, and Prosperity: an Overview of the Economy of the Late
ology and the cities' weakening position on account of environmental factors and their collapse during
Antique Eastern Mediterranean, in Kingsley and Decker, Economy, 167-178; Kingsley, Late Antique Trade; Whittow, Decline
the barbaric invasions are the subjects of the final chapters of the book.
and Fall?, 405-406; W. Bowden and L. Lavan, The Late Antique Countryside: an Introduction, in LAA 2 (2004 ), XXV-XXVI;
A. Chavarria and T. Lewit, Archaeological Research on the Late Antique Countryside: a Bibliographic Essay, LAA 2 (2004),
16-21.
103 Patlagean, Pauvrete, 236 ff., 246; Haldon, Byzantium, 132 ff.; Kaplan, Les hommes, 135 ff., 181-183.
92 104 Patlagean, Pauvrete, 241-242; M. Kaplan, Les villageois aux premiers siecles byzantins (Vieme_xeme siecles): une societe
Ibid., 410-411. See also the similar thoughts of Ratte, New research, 147.
93
Liebeschuetz, Decline, 43-46. homogene?, ByzSl 43 (1982), 202-217, esp. 202-204; Brandes and Haldon, Towns, 149-150.
94 105
Ibid., 45-46. Ph. Leveau, Caesarea de Mauretanie. Une ville romaine et ses campagnes (Palais Farnese 1984), 485,503; G. Ripoll and
95
Ibid., 43-54. J. Arce, The Transformation and End of Roman Villae in the West (Fourth-Seventh Centuries): Problems and Perspectives,
96
Ibid., 43-63, 414. in G. P. Brogiolo, N. Gauthier and N. Christie (eds.), Towns and their Territories between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle
97 Alston, The City, 354-360; Liebeschuetz, Late Late Antiquity, 53.
Ages (Leiden, Boston, Koln 2000), 63-114; P. Arthur, From Vicus to Village: Italian Landscapes AD 400-1000, in Christie,
98 Alston, The City, 367.
Landscapes, 103-133. Free landless peasants (georgoi) also worked in the large estates: they resided there, they were paid a
32 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 33

ing on local conditions. In Epirus Vetus, there is evidence that some villae were abandoned early, while Ihat cities did not decline until the latter part of the sixth century, this presence of artisans in the coun-
a few survived and continued to function in Late Antiquity. 106 In Thrace, the medium size villae were tryside would seem to be an indication of rural prosperity, rather than indicating any flight by artisans
destroyed in the last quarter of the fourth century in the Gothic invasions (376-382), while the few that from the city to countryside for economic reasons, as was the case in the West. 115 In the Balkans, the in-
survived increased in size. There the villages also suffered depopulation, but they were revitalized by habitants of small, fortified settlements were engaged in industrial and agricultural activities. Gamzigrad,
the Gothic foederati who settled in the region. 107 Further south, in Greece, in Boeotia and around Patras in the province of Dacia Ripensis, a luxurious fortified mansion built to serve as imperial residence, lost
in Achaea, villae declined in the early Byzantine period and were replaced by rural settlements. 108 its original function in the end of the fourth century and became a settlement with artisanal and
However, archaeological evidence from other regions of Greece gives a totally different picture. For agricultural activities. In Bulgaria, the small, fortified settlement at Golemanovo Kale near Sadowetz
example, in Crete in the plain of Messara, villae are found dated, albeit not with absolute certainty, to is another example of such a change of function (Plan II). 116
the late fifth and sixth centuries and have been interpreted as evidence of prosperous landowners. At With the exception of the northern Balkans, the vestiges of rural communities reveal a flourishing
the same time, or perhaps later, villages appeared in the coastal plains. 109 In the Corinthia, also, a few countryside in the early Byzantine period, unprecedented in the ancient world. Of course, the intensi-
villae have been identified which developed significantly in the sixth century. Located in areas accessi- ty of the development varied from one province to another. The evidence from Palestine and Syria is
ble from the city, they give the impression that their wealthy owners did not actually want to break contacts abundant and offers a clear picture of the diverse and distinct factors, which were the dynamics of this
with the urban centre. 110 Opinions are divided regarding the prosperity of the countryside in Italy during prosperity. The traditional view that from the third century onwards the empire suffered constant decline
Late Antiquity. Archaeological excavations suggest an economic expansion in the countryside and and depopulation is no longer accepted. As early as the 1960's, P. Charanis showed that after a decline
prosperity of agriculture, although some scholars question the evidence. 111 in population until the end of the fourth century there followed a period of demographic increase
The vitality of the rural economy depended on nearby cities, for the latter offered the markets for until the middle of the sixth century. The plague was the major factor in halting this trend in the middle
peasants' produce. For their part, the cities depended on the countryside, which provided the goods of the sixth century and invasions that followed immediately afterwards accelerated a new process of
necessary for their prosperity. In Libanius's words, the countryside was the foundation (6 8eµeAw£) of decline. 117 The role of invasion in drastically reducing the urban population should also not be under-
the cities. 112 The economy of the rural communities was based mainly on agriculture, but industrial ac- estimated. A dramatic demographic decline is attested for the Italian cities after the fourth century be-
tivities - stone cutting, pottery production, metalworking and textile industry- are also attested in large cause of the invasions. Calculations based on figures of distribution of the annona in Rome and on
villages (komai) in some districts and they appear to increase in the early Byzantine period. Their large- other evidence show that the population of Rome declined from 800,000 inhabitants in the fourth cen-
scale production suggests that they were manufactured in the service of a great landlord. In Greece in- tury, a number stable for a few centuries, to 60,000 in 530. 118
dustrial activities in the countryside multiply from the fourth to the sixth century. 113 In Palestinian vil- Numerous studies have shown a great increase in population in various types of settlements in
lages, archaeological remains have been found of large-scale production of glass and pottery. 114 Given different districts of the Byzantine empire from the fourth to the sixth century, with the exception of the
areas of the northern Balkans, which were devastated by invasions. Archaeological survey is the
method used to identify settlement patterns and demographic trends in broad historical periods. 119 The
salary in kind and owned livestock: J. Banaji, Agrarian History and the Labour Organisation of Byzantine Large Estates, in A greatest development of settlements in terms of increase in size and number in the early Byzantine period
K. Bowman and E. Rogan ( eds.),Agriculture in Egypt from Pharaonic to Modem Times (Oxford 1999), 193-216. appears in the Middle East, where in some areas the number of settlements doubled in the early Byzantine
106 Bowden, Epirus Vetus, 60-67.

107 V. Velkov, Les campagnes et la population rurale en Thrace au 1ve-vrc siecle, Bbulg 1 (1962), 50-55; Poulter, Urbanism,
°
period. 12 Construction of churches and monasteries, and mosaic pavements have also been used as an

121-122; idem, Cataclysm on the Lower Danube: The Destruction of a Complex Roman Landscape, in Christie, Landscapes,
223-253; Curta, Peasants, 205; K. Randsborg, Between Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages: new evidence of economic
Kingsley, Wine Trade, 45; Bagnall, Egypt, 127-130; Alston, The City, 336-337; Kurbatov, Osnovnje problemy, 38-40; M. L. Rautman
change,Antiquity 64 (1990), 122-127.
108 J. Bintliff and A Snodgrass, The End of the Roman Countryside: A View from the East, in R. F. Jones et al. ( eds.), First and M. C. McClellan, Excavations at late Roman Kopetra (Cyprus),JRA 5 (1992), 265-271, esp. 271.
115 A movement of craftsmen and manufacturers from the city to the countryside has been assumed for the area of Antioch
Millennium Papers: Western Europe in the First Millennium AD (BAR Int. Series 401, Oxford 1988), 175-217, esp. 212; M.
in the sixth and seventh centuries, but the evidence is lacking: Liebeschuetz and Kennedy, Antioch, 87.
Petropoulos, AygotxLEt; Jtm:ga"Cx~t;, in P. N. Doukellis and L. G. Mendoni (eds.), Structures rurales et societes antiques. Actes 116 Bavant, La ville, 264-272; Bersu, Settlement, 41.
du colloque de Co,fou (14-16 mai 1992) (Paris 1994), 405-424. 117
109 I. F. Sanders, Roman Crete. An Archaeological Survey and Gazetteer of Late Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine Crete
P. Charanis, Observations on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire, Proceedings of the XIIIth Int. Congress of
Byzantine Studies, Oxford, 5-10 September 1966 (London 1967), 445-463, esp. 453-455, 457.
(Warminster 1982), 20-24, 30. 118 J. Durliat, De la ville antique ii la ville byzantine. Le probleme des subsistances (Rome 1990), 90-123.
110 T. E. Gregory, An Early Byzantine Complex at Akra Sophia near Corinth, Hesperia 54 (1985), 411-428; Rothaus,
119 See, for example, J. Bintliff and A Snodgrass, Mediterranean survey and the city,Antiquity 62 (1988), 57-71; Whittow,
Corinth, 26-30. Decline and Fall?, 406 and n. 9.
111 F. De Robertis, La produzione agricola in Italia dalla crisi del III secolo all'eta dei Carolingi,Anna/i Fae. Economia e 120
Patlagean, Pauvrete, 310-311; Fr. Villeneuve, Economie et societe des villages de la montagne Hauranaise a l'epoque
comm. Univ. Bari, n.s. 8 (1948); K. Hannestad, L'evolution des ressources agricoles de l'Italie du !Ve au Vle siecle de notre ere romaine: l'apport des donnees archeologiques,AAAS 41 (1997), 31-37; P.-L. Gatier, Villages du Proche-Orient protobyzan-
(Copenhague 1962); Noye, Villes, 697. For a different view, namely a decline of agriculture in Italy see L. Cracco-Ruggini, tin ( 4eme-7eme s.). Etude regionale, in King and Cameron, Land Use, 17-48; Safrai, Economy, 436-458; Hirschfeld, Farms; D.
Economia e societii nell' "Italia annonaria". Rapportifra agricoltura e commercio dal IV al VI secolo d.C. (Milan 1961). F. Graf, Town and Countryside in Roman Arabia during Late Antiquity, in Burns and Eadie, Urban Centers, 219-240; C.
112 Libanius, Or. L.33 (III, 486.1-3).
Dauphin, Les "Komai" de Palestine, Proche Orient Chretien 37 (1987), 251-267, esp. 252-253; idem, La Palestine I, 77-121; M.
113 S. E. Alcock, Graecia Capta. The Landscapes of Roman Greece (Cambridge 1993), 102-105. Broshi, The Population of Western Palestine in the Roman Byzantine Period, BASOR 236 (1979), 1-10; Y. Tsafrir, Some
114 Libanius, Or. XI.230 (p. 517) states that the komai in the area of Antioch had developed economy similar to that of the Notes on the Settlement and Demography of Palestine in the Byzantine Period: The Archaeological Evidence, in J. D. Seger
cities with artisans and trade; Sodini, L'artisanat, 113; Safrai, Economy, 188-214, esp. 212, 352-354, 371-376; Tate, Campagnes, (ed.), Retrieving the Past: Essays on ArchaeologicalResearch and Methodology in Honor of Gus W Van Beek (1996), 269-283; H.
249-251, 256; idem, Les metiers dans les villages de la Syrie du Nord, Ktema 16 (1991) [1995], 73-78; Hirschfeld, Farms, 61; Lapin, Economy, Geography, and Provincial History in Later Roman Palestine (Tiibingen 2001), 39 ff.
34 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 35

index of demographic increase and prosperity. 121 In Palestine and Syria, the increase in farmland created villages gradually expanded and became more complex, acquiring new residential units, storerooms
the foundations for the economic development of new regions in the Roman and early Byzantine periods. and barns. 129 This development in peasant housing suggests an increase in family members and conse-
There the introduction of extensive irrigation systems, water storage systems employing cisterns, and quently an improvement in their economic situation.
terracing helped turn large uncultivated areas with harsh climatic conditions into fertile land. New The factors behind this economic growth in the provinces of the Middle East were several. Theim-
methods of land exploitation achieved in the Roman imperial period also played a dominant role in the portance of the area for Christians attracted the investment of funds in the construction of churches
development of the area. In Syria and Palestine, the large-scale production of oil and wine created an and monasteries. Roman aristocrats who settled there because of the collapse of the Roman state in the
unparalleled prosperity in the countryside, 122 whose products were exported to international markets. fifth century and the pilgrims visiting the Holy Land gave a boost to the economy of the area, thus cre-
The increase in agricultural production in turn must have created an increase in population in settle- ating more favourable conditions for population increase. It is generally accepted that for the area of
ments of all sizes. The cities in the Negev in the province of Palaestina Tertia (Salutaris) in southern Roman Palestine Christianity was a major factor in economic prosperity, since funds were attracted for
Israel constitute notable examples of this growth in agricultural production. The earlier Nabatean set- pious foundations in the Holy Land and the numerous pilgrims who visited them generated related in-
tlements in the desert between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of 'Aqabah were turned into towns in the dustry and trade. 130 The sedentarization of Arabs may also have played a role in the expansion of vil-
Roman period upon the development of agriculture by means of sophisticated water management and lage communities in the Trans-Jordanian area. 131 Northern Syria enjoyed unprecedented development
the civic organization imposed by the Roman state. 123 With Petra as capital, the most important cities from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Most striking are the villages on the limestone hills east of Antioch,
in the Negev were Mampsis, Nessana, Birosaba, Elusa, Sobata (Shivta) and Oboda. the economy of which depended on the city's vitality. The remains of the Syrian villages, whose excep-
In the Roman period, the establishment of the limitanei on the limes in the East was decisive for tional state of preservation is due to the fact that they have never been dismantled to supply building
the urbanization of the Trans-Jordanian area. 124 The transition from a Roman military station into a material for new buildings, are spectacular. The development of the Syrian countryside began in the
civilian town is exemplified in the kome of Umm el-Jimal in Jordan, Roman station on the Via Nova first century AD., with the establishment in the area of Roman veterans. The Roman occupation cre-
Traiana, south of Bostra (today Bosra in Syria). The early Byzantine community replaced the earlier ated favourable conditions for the economic development of the area. Uncultivated land was exploited
Roman settlement that had military and commercial functions. Umm el-Jimal had 150 houses, fifteen and an irrigation system was established. The villages exported the surplus of their agricultural produce
churches and an indigenous population. The economic activities of the inhabitants had a predomi- to the large urban centres of the area. 132 The spectacular demographic and economic expansion of the
nantly agricultural character. 125 The development of the rectangular fortified camp at Umm al-Rasas region began in the fourth century and reached its peak in the late fifth century. The number and size
(kastron Mefaa), 40 km southeast of Mount Nebo in the steppe, was similar. In the early Byzantine
of houses increased, and the quality of the construction material and decoration gradually improved.
period, it developed into a town with four churches inside the walls and ten outside. The garrison there
From the middle of the sixth century, however, the houses cease to expand, which suggests the onset of
may have consisted of Arab foederati who may have given an impetus to the town to develop. 126 There
economic stagnation. In the seventh century, the economy apparently deteriorated yet further. There
is no doubt that the presence of the army generated favourable conditions for the development of
was no new construction activity. Instead, old houses were maintained, although living conditions de-
towns and cities in the area, and for the prosperity of agriculture and trade. 127
teriorated. Rubble and dirt accumulated, forming new floors, whilst rooms were subdivided to house
The prosperity of the rural settlements in the eastern provinces of the empire is evident both in the
more people. The old view, however, which rests solely on archaeological surveys, that the villages were
increase in the size and number of settlements and in the large-scale agricultural production and in-
abandoned in the seventh century because of the Persian and Arab invasions is no longer accepted. 133
dustrial activities, the imported fine ware found in villages 128 and the size of rural houses. Houses in
Excavations in the village of Debes showed, contrary to expectation, that it was not evacuated in the
seventh century. Furthermore, unlike the cities, which suffered depopulation, population of the vil-
lages remained the same or perhaps increased. Substantial economic activity continued and small
121 Patlagean, Pauvrete, 311-313; C. Dauphin, Mosaic Pavements as an Index of Prosperity and Fashion, Levant 12 (1980),
112-134. Opposite view by Bowden, Church builders.
122 Kingsley, Wine Trade; M. Decker, Food for an Empire: Wine and Oil Production in North Syria, in Kingsley and Decker,
129 Y. Hirschfeld, The Palestinian Dwelling in the Roman-Byzantine Period (Jerusalem 1995), 50 ff.; Sodini, Habitat (1997),
Economy, 69-86.
123 R. Rubin, Urbanization, Settlement and Agriculture in the Negev Desert -The Impact of the Roman-Byzantine Em- 481 ff.
130 Dauphin, La Palestine I, 120-121; M. Avi-Yonah, The Economics of Byzantine Palestine, IEJ 8 (1958), 39-51.
pire on the Frontier, ZDPV112 (1996), 49-60; J.P. Oleson, The Origins and Design ofNabataean Water-Supply Systems, in
131 I. Finkelstein and A. Perevolotsky, Process of Sedentarization and Nomadization in the History of Sinai and the Negev,
Jordan V, 707-719; W. H. Mare, The Technology of the Hydrological System at Abila of the Decapolis, ibid., 727-736.
124 M. Piccirillo, Rural Settlements in Byzantine Jordan, in Jordan II, 257-261. For indications of population increase in BASOR 279 (1990), 67-88; M. Haiman, Agriculture and Nomad-State Relations in the Negev Desert in the Byzantine and
Jordan see, for example, G. King, Preliminary Report on a Survey of Byzantine and Islamic Sites in Jordan, 1980, ADAJ 26 Early Islamic Periods, BASOR 297 (1995), 29-53.
132 I. Pefia, P. Castellana and R. Fernandez, Inventaire du Jebel El-A' la. Recherches archeologiques dans la region des Villes
(1982), 85-95; idem, et al., Survey of Byzantine and Islamic Sites in Jordan. Second Season Report, 1891, 27 (1983), 385-434;
idem, Survey of Byzantine and Islamic Sites in Jordan. Third Preliminary Report (1982). The Wadi 'Arabah (Part 2), 33 Mortes de la Syrie du Nord (Jerusalem 1990), 15 ff.; G. Tate, Mutabilite des economies antiques: l'exemple de la Syrie du Nord
(1989), 199-215. (IVe-vie siecles), in P.-L. Gatier et al. (eds.), Geographie historique au Proche-Orient (Syrie, Phenicie, Arabie, grecques, ro-
125 B. de Vries, Umm el-Jimal. A Frontier Town and its Landscape in Northern Jordan 1. Fieldwork 1972-1981 (JRA Suppl. maines, byzantines). Actes de la Table Ronde de Valbonne, 16-18 septembre 1985 (Paris 1988), 249-256.
26, Portsmouth, Rhode Island 1998), 230-231, 239. 133
G. Tchalenko, Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord. Le massif du Belus a l'epoque romaine, 3 vols. (Paris 1953-58); M.
126 M. Piccirillo, L'identificazione storica di Umm al-Rasas con Mefaa, in Piccirillo and Alliata, Umm al-Rasas, 37-46; J. Robinson, De l'archeologie ala sociologie historique. Notes methodologiques sur le dernier ouvrage de G. Tchalenko, Syria 38
Bujard and M. Joguin, La fortification de Kastron Mayfa'a/Umm ar-Ra~a~, in Jordan V, 241-249. (1961), 170-200, esp. 192 ff. J. Mattern,A travers les villes mortes de haute Syrie (Beirut 1933), 139 suggested that the reasons of
127 Kingsley and Decker, Exchange, 8-9; Safrai, Economy, 456-457. the villages' decline was deforestation and erosion, a view rejected by Tchalenko (p. 63). Liebeschuetz and Kennedy, Antioch,
128 Kingsley, Wine Trade, 58; idem, Late Antique Trade, 116-120. 65-90, esp. pp. 68, 87 interpreted the phenomenon as a result of the plague of 542. See also Kennedy, The Last Century, 161.
36 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 37

denominations of coins circulated even after the Arab conquest in the seventh and eighth centuries. was an increase in numbers of villages in the early Byzantine period140 and archaeological reports
The excavators concluded that the economy of Debes was more active than that of Antioch in the same corroborate this picture. For example, in the early Byzantine period in the area of Lake Mareotis near
period. 134 However, deteriorating living conditions in the villages reflect the economic crisis that struck Alexandria there was great prosperity, followed by a dramatic decline in the population and economic
the urban centres of the area. Debes was finally abandoned in the ninth century. activities in the seventh century. 141 The economy in the villages was partly monetarized and rural workers
The spectacular development of the villages in northern Syria has parallels in other provinces, were paid in coin. 142
although there are local variations in settlement patterns. In Cyprus, there was an expansion of villages By contrast, in the Balkans the situation was very different. There the countryside never reached
and increase in agricultural land in marginal areas in the sixth century and in the first half of the seventh the degree of prosperity of the Eastern provinces. In the fourth century Libanius stated that many cities
century until the Arab invasions. 135 In the area of Arnanthous, rural settlements were continuously in Thrace contained only a few huts. 143 Literary sources insist on the decline of the peasant society in
and intensely occupied. Although in the fifth and sixth centuries, the city of Arnanthous was gradually the northern provinces of the Balkans. Archaeological investigations confirm the rarity of rural settle-
abandoned, it appears that the countryside maintained a substantial level of prosperity. By contrast, ments there. In these provinces there was a proliferation of forts with garrisons and their families. 144 In
urban life probably continued at Limassol (Lemessos). 136 the area of Nicopolis, in the province of Moesia Secunda, large-scale grain production declined sharply
In Asia Minor, archaeological surveys present a similar picture. The area around Seleucia in from the mid-sixth century, to be replaced by a market-garden economy. 145 There are several examples
Isauria (modern Silifke) shows spectacular development in the early Byzantine period. The remains of of sixth-century settlements of an agricultural and military character. Golemanovo Kale, near Sadowetz
villages resemble those in northern Syria. Some rural houses had two floors and were constructed in in Bulgaria, destroyed at the end of the fourth century, was reoccupied and rebuilt during the reign
stone masonry. Basilicas and cemeteries are found even in the smallest communities. The economy of of Justinian, to be burnt finally around 600 AD. by the invading Avars (Plan II). Three lines of walls
these villages was based on oil and wine production. The area was densely populated with villages in defended the north side, while the other sides were protected by the precipitous formation of the land.
districts that one would not expect to be inhabited. 137 The territory of the city of Kyaneai in Lycia shows The 30-40 houses of the settlement were modestly constructed, employing limestone bonded by mud to
significant development and intensive agricultural production. Many types of economic activities and form the socles which supported the upper part of the buildings, which was constructed in chaff and clay
settlements are found in the area- quarries, small settlements, agricultural installations, fortresses, and supported by wooden beams. There were 40-50 storerooms and a modest church on the top of the hill.
a larger industrial community near the city. In the early Byzantine period the city and the surrounding Its floor was of clay perhaps partly covered with wood, the roof was made of straw or shingle, and the
area show a great increase in population. This prosperity continued even after the end of the early walls were framed with wood. The poverty of construction contrasts with the glazed windows and the
Byzantine period, probably because of the insecurity of the coastal area caused by the Arab raids. 138 Lycian abundant silver ornaments of German provenance and gold coins found on the site, the finds suggest-
ing that this was a settlement offoederati. 146 The northern provinces of the Balkans began to collapse
villages had houses with two stories built in large masonry, and large basilicas. The land was exploited,
in the fifth century because of the invasions they suffered. In Greece, however, surveys indicate a great
as the construction of terraces and numerous cisterns for the water supply indicate, as was the case in
increase in the number and size of rural settlements in the early Byzantine period. In the later part of
villages of the Middle East. The archaeological evidence complements the image of flourishing villages
the sixth century, however, there are clear signs of population decline and poverty. There are indica-
in the Life of St. Nicholas of Sion. As in northern Syria, here too, after the sixth century construction
tions that villages too became smaller and poorer from the middle of the sixth century, even before the
activities ended and there are signs of economic stagnation. 139 In Egypt papyri indicate that there
Slavic invasions. 147 When the massive invasions began and Mediterranean markets closed, the crisis be-
came more profound. 148 The area of cultivated land then began to diminish, with vast erosion in some

134
J.-P. Sodini and G. Tate et al., Dehes (Syrie du nord). Campagnes I-III (1976-1978). Recherches sur !'habitat rural, Syria
57 (1980), 1-304, esp. 270-272, 301: "L'abondance du monnayage au vne siecle ( au mains jusqu'en 674) semble indiquer que
Dehes ( comme sans doute de nombreux villages du massif) connait une activite economique plus dense que les villes a la 140
See supra, p. 30 and note 97.
141
meme epoque"; Foss, Syria, 197-204, 226-229, 232-237, 245-268; Kennedy, The Last Century, 157-162; Liebeschuetz and Chr. Haas, Alexandria and the Mareotis Region, in Burns and Eadie, Urban Centers, 47-62.
142
Kennedy, Antioch. J. Banaji, Rural Communities in the Late Empire AD 300-700: Monetary and Economic Aspects (D.Phil. Thesis, Univ. of
135
A. Papageorghiou, Cities and Countryside at the End of Antiquity and the Beginning of the Middle Ages in Cyprus, in Oxford 1992), 89, 97; for Palestine see Kingsley, Wine Trade, 59.
143
A. A. M. Bryer and G. S. Georghallides ( eds.), 'The Sweet Land of Cyprus'. Papers Given at the Twenty-Fifth Jubilee Spring Sym- Libanius, Or. XI.207 (I, 508.18-20): EV Jt0AEL (fJUUAW<; r::xouou ... , Ola£ JtOAAct<; EJtL E>Q<;xX1']£ 0QOJµev, Ev8a 01.1 JtOAAal xa-
posium ofByzantine Studies, Birmingham, March 1991 (Nicosia 1993), 27-51, esp. 34-35; M. Rautman, Rural Society and Economy Au~m nmoum ,:ai; n6Aa<;. Julian, Misopogon 349D (Loeb II, 454).
144
in Late Roman Cyprus, in Burns and Eadie, Urban Centers, 241-262, esp. 246; T. Papacostas, The Economy of Late Antique Curta, Peasants, esp. 205-207.
145
Cyprus, in Kingsley and Decker, Economy, 107-128, esp. 115 ff.; S. Swiny and Chr. Mavromatis, Land Behind Kourion: Poulter, Nicopolis, 47.
146
Results of the 1997 Sotira Archaeological Project Survey, RDAC 2000, 433-451; M. Rautman, The busy countryside of Late Bersu, Settlement, 31-43. Another similar settlement is Sadovsko Kale: I. Welkow, Eine Gotenfestung bei Sadowetz
Roman Cyprus,RDAC 2000, 317-331. (Nordbulgarien), Germania 19 (1935), 149-158.
136 C. Petit et al., BCH 113 (1989), 889-899, esp. 895. 147
Th. Volling (+),The Last Christian Greeks and the First Pagan Slavs in Olympia, in Dark Centuries, 305-306: after the
137 S. Eyice, Ricerche e scoperte nella regione di Silifke nella Turchia meridionale, in Milian. Studi e ricerche d'arte bizantina
destruction of the early Byzantine village on the site of Olympia in 551, the new village was smaller and poorer; it was aban-
(Rome 1988), 15-57. doned when the Slavs settled on the site. Another example: G. Aleura et al., Avaoxa(f.lrj ITTT]V KaQ0<iµmva (A0za(a AAaoaQ-
138
F. Kolb et al., Habitats et occupation du sol sur le territoire de la cite de Kyaneai en Lycie centrale, inXe Rencontres va) TT]<; Kw, PAE 1987, 355.
intemationales d'archeologie et d'histoire d'Antibes. Archeologie et espaces. Actes des rencontres 19-20-21 octobre 1989 148
For example, J.C. Wright et al., The Nemea Valley Archaeological Project. A Preliminary Report, Hesperia 59 (1990),
(Juan-les-Pins 1990), 47-69. 579-659; C. N. Runnels and T. H. Van Andel, The Evolution of Settlement in the Southern Argolid, Greece: An Economic
139
R. M. Harrison, Lycia in Late Antiquity, Yayla 1 (1977), 10-15; idem, Lycie, 222-239; C. Foss, The Lycian Coast in the Explanation, Hesperia 56 (1987), 303-334, esp. 319-320; T. H. van Andel et al., Five Thousands Years of Land Use and Abuse in
ByzantineAge,DOP48 (1994), 1-52. the SouthernArgolid, Greece,Hesperia 55 (1986), 103-128, esp.120-122; M. H. Jameson, C. N. Runnels and T. H. Van Andel,
38 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 39

areas for many centuries. Climatic changes may have played a role, but above all demographic decline Islamic period, while the smaller towns and large villages of the area survived. 156 This, of course, does
because of invasions and political instability were the reasons for the decline. 149 In Cyprus, surveys from not mean that the Arab invasion did not affect the population of many districts and their prosperity. In
the areas of Palaipaphos, the Akamas peninsula and Chrysochou Bay area, all in western Cyprus, show the area of Israel and today's occupied territories (which constitute what were the three provinces of
a decline in the later sixth century, while in northern and southern Cyprus prosperity continues well in- Byzantine Palestine) archaeology indicates that there was significant decline of all settlements from the
to the seventh century and ends in the middle of the century. 150 The settlement of Kopetra in the Vasi- period of the Arab conquest of 636 to the occupation of Syria by the Fatimids in 978. In the Arab period
likos valley in south-central Cyprus, located between mines and the sea, is a good example. The econo- the number of sites declines. Some districts show a decline of 50% of the number of sites between the
my of the area was based on agriculture and industry. It was founded in the middle of the sixth century Byzantine and the early Arab period, caused by the Arab invasions. 157
and enjoyed prosperity until the middle of the next century, when it suffered damage from Arab raids. Archaeological evidence reveals similar pattern in areas of Asia Minor. In Lycia, which had a long
The site was not abandoned, but it diminished in size and material life deteriorated. On the ruins of the tradition of stonecutting, there is a notable decline in construction materials in urban centres. However,
three early Byzantine basilicas small chapels were constructed, and houses were subdivided. This last the ancient technique was preserved in upland villages, after the decline of the cities. It is clear that in the
phase ended in the eighth century when the sit~ was abandoned. 151 Byzantine Dark Ages masons and sculptors moved to the countryside. 158 When early Byzantine cities were
Legislative and literary sources show that from the middle of the seventh century the economy abandoned by their populations in favour of a new location, the new site was frequently better situated for
rested on villages, instead of cities. 152 Archaeology confirms the view that in several areas of the empire defensive purposes. In Lycia, lowland cities were transferred to smaller higher sites naturally defended. 159
the countryside continued to enjoy relative prosperity during the Byzantine Dark Ages, while cities In Pisidia, however, the population of some cities moved to villages in lower plains. Sagalassos, after it was
shrank, their population was dramatically reduced and the economy was in decline. We have already abandoned by its inhabitants in the middle of the seventh century after a devastating earthquake, proba-
mentioned that in the seventh and eighth centuries the villages in northern Syria engaged in substantial bly moved to the lower site of the modern village of Aglasun. At the same time the number of settlements
economic activities and the population increased a fair amount. In the provinces of Palaestina and Arabia, on hill or mountain tops around Sagalassos increases. There villages prospered after the middle of the
inscriptions at rural sites recording building projects from the late sixth until the middle of the eighth sixth century, while the city of Sagalassos declined. The town of Ariassos appears to have moved to the
century (573-749) are double than those found in the cities. 153 Urban life deteriorated in Gerasa, while plain below, probably to the site of Bademagaci. 160 Numismatic evidence also points in the same direc-
the villages Rihab and es-Samra, at a distance of 25 km, flourished and new churches were built after tion. In the sixth century, finds of coins decline dramatically in cities in Thrace that suffered invasion, as
the reign of Justinian. The unprecedented prosperity of the area around Jordan river from the second was the case with Nicopolis and Iatrus, although coins continued to circulate in hill top forts in the area,
half of the sixth century has been interpreted variously. I. Shahid pointed to the diversion of trade such as Golemanovo Kale and Sardovsko Kale. 161 Frontier cities like Nicopolis became military settle-
routes from the Mesopotamian to the west Arabian route passing west of Jordan river. L. di Segni con- ments, with very little civilian population and with the army units stationed there paying in kind (annona).
siders it an indication that inhabitants were leaving the declining cities for the villages, whilst others The shift to fortified settlements pursuing some monetary activities occurred earlier in the northern
suggest the building activity in the villages and towns west of the river Jordan was sponsored by the Balkans. The militarization of some districts through the settlement of peasants-soldiers helped the pros-
Arab foederati, the Ghassanids, who founded churches, monasteries and public buildings in these perity of the countryside, since funds from the cities were directed to support the landed militia. 162 In the
provinces. 154 It is now certain that villages there enjoyed a relatively flourishing economy, while most East, as we have already stated, coins continued to circulate in Dehes in Syria, although economic activi-
cities suffered depopulation and economic decline. 155 Further to the east, Petra declined in the early ties dramatically declined in the cities of the region. In Asia Minor, in the town Alishar Hiiyiik in Cap-
padocia, after the reign of Heraclius no coins dated to the next 600 years have been found, although nu-
merous coins were circulating in the surrounding area. Life continued in the villages, however, after the
A Greek Countryside. The SouthernArgolid from Prehistory to the Present Day (Stanford 1994), 400-404; Avramea, Le Peloponnese, town was destroyed during the Persian invasion. In rural sites around Sagalassos in Pisidia, production ac-
50, 116-117, 141; J. Bintliff, The two transitions: Current research on the origins of the traditional village in central Greece, in
tivities increase from the second half of the sixth century, when the city was in a profound crisis. 163 Further
J. Bintliff and H. Hamerow (eds.), Europe Between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Recent archaeological and historical
research in Western and Southern Europe (BAR Int. Series 617, Oxford 1995), 111-130, esp. 113.
to the northeast, in southwestern Crimea, villages flourished in the seventh century. 164
149 J. Koder, Historical aspects of a recession of cultivated land at the end of the late antiquity in the east Mediterranean,

Paliioklimaforschung/Palaeoclimate Research 10 (1994), 157-167; Bowden, Epirus Vetus, 214-226. For the area of Antioch it has
been suggested that the widely spread small settlements in the highlands, away from the old tell sites, caused environmental
156 Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 209-213, 227, 241; idem, Byzantine Petra -A Reassessment, in Burns and Eadie, Urban
changes, erosion, flooding and sedimentation of the Orontes and expansion of the lake of Antioch: J. Casana, The Archaeo-
Centers, 121-122.
logical Landscape of Late Roman Antioch, in Sandwell and Huskinson, Antioch, 102-125, esp. 120-121.
157 Dauphin, La Palestine II, 351 ff., 351-372.
150 M. Rautman, Valley and Village in Late Roman Cyprus, LAA 2 (2004), 189-218.
158 Harrison, Lycie, 223-228.
151 M. c. McClellan and M. L. Rautman, The 1991-1993 Field Seasons at Kalavasos-Kopetra,RDAC 1994, 306-307.
159 Ibid.
15 2 Haldon, Some Considerations, 85; idem, Byzantium, 132 ff.
160 Vanhaverbeke et al., Sagalassos, 259 and graphs 1, 2, pp. 267, 272; T. H. Robinson, The Decline of Urban Settlement
153 Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation, 163, 164-165. For a survey of settlements and their increase in this area see H. I.

MacAdam, Settlements and Settlement Patterns in Northern and Central Transjordania, ea. 550-ca. 750, in King and in Pisidia-From City to Village?, in Demoen, The Greek City, 87-100.
161
Poulter, Nicopolis, 48.
Cameron, Land Use, 49-93. 162 A. Dunn, Continuity and Change in the Macedonian Countryside from Gallienus to Justinian, LAA 2 (2004 ), 535-586.
154 I. Shahid, The Arabs in the Peace Treaty of A.D. 561,Arabica 3 (1956), 181-213; Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation,
163 Vanhaverbeke et al., Sagalassos, 262,267. Also Whittow, Recent research, 151-152 points to the continuous prosperi-
165; I. Shahid, Byzantium and the Arabs in the Sixth Century 1.1 and 2 (Washington, D.C. 1995), 258-259, 381, 697-698, 824 ff.
ty of villages in Asia Minor, in contrast to the urban decline in the sixth century.
and passim. 164 Grierson, Byzantine Coinage, 8-9; Whittow, Decline and Fall?, 411-412; A. Jakobson, Rannesrednevekovye sel'skie
155 Barnish, The transformation, 390; H. Kennedy, The Impact of Muslim Rule on the Pattern of Rural Settlement in Syria,

in P. Canivet and J.-P. Rey-Coquais ( eds.), La Syrie de Byzance ii /'Islam Vlle-Vllle siecles (Damas 1992), 291-297. poselenija Jugo-Zapadnoj Tavriki (Leningrad 1970), 181.
40 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 41

Of relevance to the question of the causes of urban decline are the unprecedented natural calami- many cities were ruined. When reconstruction work was undertaken afterwards, it was on a smaller scale
ties that occurred over the sixth century. Scholars have seriously considered droughts, famine, earth- than before and employed a poorer quality of materials and work, a phenomenon attested in individual
quakes and epidemic disease to have been possible major factors that contributed to economic stagna- buildings from all the provinces of the empire. In many cases, however, ancient buildings were left ru-
tion from the middle of the sixth century, when urban decline begins. The process was accelerated im- ined and the communities' resources were directed only to the restoration of Christian churches and for-
mediately after the middle of the sixth century by the invasions of the Avaro-Slavs in the Balkans, and tifications. Several such cases will be mentioned in parts III and IV of this book. Finally, some cities did
the Persians and later the Arabs in the Middle East and Anatolia. C. Mango has emphasized the not have time to see not even this limited recovery, since they were struck by the invasions. 172
plague, combined with other natural disasters, as "a factor, perhaps the determining factor, in the col- The view that economic decline was a major cause in the structural demise of the early Byzantine
lapse of urban life" .165 There is no doubt that natural calamities acquired dramatic dimensions in the cities has recently returned with greater emphasis. Numerous archaeological reports have shown that
sixth century and they are described dramatically in historical and other sources. The fact that the the cities' ancient public space, with its monumental buildings and large colonnaded avenues, were
plague recurred several times, after its initial outbreak in 541/2, undoubtedly greatly exacerbated its effect. gradually disintegrating as early as the fourth century and that the process culminated in the sixth cen-
The actual degree of impact, however, has been a matter of scholarly debate. Its importance has been tury. The various aspects to, and reasons for, this decline we explore in detail in parts II and III below.
disputed by some scholars, because there is insufficient archaeological, epigraphic and papyrological Here we note that there is no doubt that declining financial resources played a major role in the failure
evidence to corroborate the literary accounts of the effects of the plague. 166 However, a careful study to maintain ancient public buildings and to construct new ones. Administrative changes and shifts in
of the inscriptions from the provinces of Palaestina and Arabia, the areas of today's Israel, Jordan and cultural attitudes were also significant factors. Although the decline of the cities' ancient public space
Syria, shows a sudden decline between the years 540-550. This may be merely coincidence, but it is pos- is no longer taken as indication of a general decline of the economy, 173 a major crisis is manifest every-
sible that the decline was caused by the Justinianic plague. 167 For others, the information given by where in the area of construction, in the deterioration in the quality of building materials used and the
Byzantine sources is supported by Arabic texts and the plague clearly caused substantial population de- shrinking of public amenities. However, the overall impression created by the data from archaeologi-
cline and poverty. 168 In some areas a decline in Roman Red Ware, imported from Phocaea, is to be ob- cal excavation is that in the sixth century the economy was still highly monetarized and the economic
served from 550, while imports of pottery from Cyprus remained stable, whilst imports of African Red activities intense, 174 although there are signs that things were changing and that a period of economic
Slip doubled. It is possible that areas of western Asia Minor, where Phocaean ware was produced, suf- recession was beginning. Liebeschuetz pointed to some signs of recession of the economy. A reduction
fered an economic crisis on account of the plague. 169 Today most scholars agree that the consequences in the circulation of coins is to be observed in some urban areas as early as the sixth century, as is an in-
of the plague on the urban population were severe, and that a greater loss of lives occurred due to the creasing use of local coins, suggesting a decline in long-distance trade. 175 Low levels of monetary circu-
plague in urban communities than in the countryside. But the plague alone did not cause drastic urban lation are also indicated by the very slight loss of weight of some coins dating from the late sixth-centu-
decline, since populations usually recover. Other factors, socio-economic and cultural and ultimately ry to the reign of Constans II.17 6 This is a promising area of research, but more studies are needed on
the enemy invasions caused the demise of cities. 170 The written sources have been studied, and various more areas of the empire, in order to draw any firm conclusions. In southern Palestine a decline of
models of population increase and decline and of economic development and regression have been coins in the sixth century seems to have occurred, but there it has been interpreted as consequence of
proposed to explain the population and economic decline of the end of the early Byzantine period.1 71 the cessation of military payments to the limitanei, since they had been replaced by Arab foederati. 177
Earthquakes also devastated many areas of the empire in the sixth and in the seventh centuries and Furthermore, growing inflation, caused by the lack of specialized professionals and of resources on ac-
count of the plague, may have created a preference for payments in kind instead of cash. 178 In the West,
invasions and the collapse of the Roman state destabilized society, caused population and economic
165
Mango, Byzantium, 68-69; Brandes, Stiidte, 177 ff.
decline and the destruction and relocation of many cities. Written sources describe aspects of this
166
J. Durliat, La peste du vre siecle. Pour un nouvel examen des sources byzantines, in Hammes et richesses I, 107-119; Foss, process. Archaeology throws light on the decline of urban life and economic conditions. In the fifth and
Syria, 260 recognizes that Syria was struck by the plague and sees its effects in the end of major construction works at that time. sixth centuries, the cities show signs of ruralization with agricultural installations and burials prolifer-
However, he claims that the evidence is ambiguous and refuses to consider it the major factor behind population decline. ating in earlier public and residential districts. There was a dramatic decline of the population and of
167 Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation, 164. The lack of inscriptions from Aphrodisias after the middle of the sixth century
the urban upper class with large residential areas and aristocratic houses being abandoned. The rural
has been interpreted by Ch. Roueche as consequence of population decline on account of the plague. This, however, cannot
type of house emerged in cities, while long distance trade declined. Many pottery industries which in
be proved in the archaeological record (Ratte, New research, 145).
168 P. Allen, The 'Justinianic' Plague, Byzantion 49 (1979), 5-20; J.-N. Biraben, La peste du vre siecle dans !'empire byzan- the past mass produced Roman wares disappeared. Mass production of pottery ends in the first half of
tin, in Hammes et richesses I, 121-125; L. I. Conrad, The Plague in Bilad al-Sham in Pre-Islamic Times, in M. 'Adnan al-Bakhit the sixth century and this coincides with urban decline, as there were no urban markets to sustain mass
and M. 'A~four ( eds.), Proceedings of the Symposium on Biliid al-Sham during the Byzantine Period II (Amman 1986), 143-163;
idem, Epidemic disease in central Syria in the late sixth century: Some new insights from the verse of 'I;Iassan ibn Thabit,
BMGS 18 (1994), 12-58; idem, Die Pest und ihr soziales Umfeld im Nahen Osten des friihen Mittelalters, Der Islam. Zeitschrift
172 See supra, p. 25 the cases of Stobi in Macedonia Secunda and Philippi and Thasos in Greece.
fur Geschichte und Kulturdes islamischen Orients 73 (1996), 81-112; K.-H. Leven, Die justinianische Pest,Jahrbuch des lnstituts
173 See recently Bowden, Epirus Vetus, 58.
fur Geschichte der Medizin der Robert-Bosch-Stiftung 6 (1987), 137-161; Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 32-36 for an important
174 For an overview of economic activities and trade see Kingsley and Decker, Exchange; Kingsley, Late Antique Trade.
discussion of the sources; idem, Stiidte, 184-188 with a list of recurrences of the plague; Patlagean, Pauvrete, 84-92; Haldon,
175 Liebeschuetz, Decline, 43-45.
Byzantium, 111-112; Kennedy, The Last Century, 182-183; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 52-54.
169 Dauphin, La Palestine, 518. 176 F. Delamare, Le frai et ses lois ou De !'evolution des especes (Paris 1994), 194-199.

170 Haldon, Byzantium, 95; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 54; Abadie-Reyna!, Argos, 397-404. 177 P. J. Casey, Justinian, the limitanei, and Arab-Byzantine relations in the 6th c.,JRA 9 (1996), 219-221.

171 See recently Dauphin, La Palestine, 519-525. 178 Morrisson, Monnaie, 249 ff.
42 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 43

pottery production. Instead, the economy acquired rural characteristics, an indication of which is the have begun to alter our view of the role played by the Arabs in the collapse of the international trade
use of wooden bowls and cups in the seventh century, and barrels instead of amphorae. 179 network, following Pirenne's fundamental theory. Arab control of the Mediterranean broke down in-
Most scholars recognize the importance of trade for economic prosperity. In the Hellenistic and ternational trade already in decline. Thus the words of R. Hodges come to mind: "Pirenne forgot the
especially Roman periods, economic growth was achieved through commercial expansion to external sixth century". 184 Recently L. Lavan in the collective volume Recent Research in Late-Antique Urbanism
markets. However, the impact of trade on the urban and rural development is not yet appreciated and (2001) emphasized the economic factor:
it is hardly mentioned in discussions of early Byzantine urbanism. 180 The breakdown of long-distance
trade first occurred in the western part of the Roman empire, which collapsed in the face of the invad- Decisive change cannot be correlated in all regions with either foreign invasion,
ing barbarians. The reasons for the collapse of trade were the disintegration of the Roman state, the im- major cultural re-alignments, or plague. I tend to prefer incremental economic
poverishment of urban elites, who had created demand for commercial goods and were involved in degradation in concert with all of these pressures. But a more convincing explana-
such economic activities, and the decline of cities. 181 Archaeological evidence of a slowdown in inter- tion will require detailed scrutiny of the subject's burgeoning archaeological projects
national overseas trade is increasingly evident in studies on pottery from various sites. Difficult to track which have overturned our perceptions of the late-antique city in the past, and will
down for the non-specialist historian, the information now available allows more substantial conclu- continue to present challenges to generalization in the future. 185
sions concerning the decline of the international trade to be drawn. From the middle of the sixth cen-
tury in the West, Byzantine exports reached only the cities under Byzantine control. From the seventh From evidence drawn from various areas of the empire it has now become increasingly clear that
century, exports of good quality pottery do not reach the West, with only locally produced pottery avail- long distance trade was in gradual decline before the Arab invasions. The mass-production of high
able. Pottery evidence from the Aegean points to a regionalization of trade in the late sixth to quality goods and the specialization of major industrial facilities (i.e. pottery, glass, etc.) were progres-
early/middle seventh century. From the early sixth century, imported pottery gradually diminishes in sively breaking down. The network of trade routes and markets was slowly falling apart. This had an
Argos, and from the early seventh century the decline is sharp. In the Athenian agora, imports almost impact on all the regions of the empire, since they were interdependent and their interdependency rested
ceased after 550. A similar scenario is evident in Asia Minor, where the decline of late African pottery on trade. Consequently goods were increasingly produced locally and circulated to markets near the
is attested in the early seventh century. In Sagalassos, the Sagalassos Red Slip Ware - tableware pro- centres of production. From studies on pottery a more coherent picture of the changing financial cir-
duced in the city since the late Hellenistic period - ceased to be produced in the sixth century. In Syria cumstances in the sixth and seventh centuries is now emerging. At coastal sites in Greece amphorae
and Palestine the same phenomenon can be seen from the late sixth century. In Egypt imported am- continue to be imported until 600. In contrast, in the interior, the presence of imported amphorae begins
phorae from Syria decline at the end of the first half of the seventh century and in Cyprus from around to decline sharply after 550 together with the presence of fine tableware. The production levels of
650 imports ceased, to be replaced by local products. 182 The impact of the interruption of the interna- tableware in Greece are also significant. Volumes oflocal tableware in Greece decline from the middle
tional trade on urban prosperity can be clearly observed in the city of Petra: when, in the late third cen- of the sixth century, while in northern Greece they decrease from the first part of the fifth century.
tury, international trade routes no longer passed through Petra, the city begun to decline. 183 These findings From the fifth to the seventh century tableware was imported, Phocaea being a major production site
over the period 390/400-550. Then for some time African tableware was imported, perhaps to serve
military and naval centres. Subsequently the presence of ceramic table wares declines very much in
179 P. Arthur, Local pottery in Naples and northern Campania in the sixth and seventh centuries, in L. Sagui ( ed.), Ceramica comparison to the earlier period, and J. W. Hayes wonders whether they were replaced by large bowls
in Italia: VI-VII secolo. Atti del Convegno in onore di John W. Hayes, Roma, 11-13 maggio 1995 (Florence 1998), 491-510. for serving communal meals. 186 It may be, however, that the ceramic tableware was replaced in Greece,
180 T. E. Gregory, Archaeology and Theoretical Considerations on the Transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages in as in the West, with wooden tableware, attested in later Byzantine sources as being used by the lower
the Aegean Area, in P. N. Kardulias (ed.), Beyond the Site: Regional Studies in the Aegean Area (Lanham, MD 1994), 144-148; classes. 187 Also indicative of the altered historical conditions brought about by regional insecurity and
Kingsley and Decker, Exchange; Kingsley, Wine Trade; idem, Late Antique Trade; Morrisson and Sodini, Economy, 212. changing trade patterns is the fact that after the end of the early Byzantine period large pithoi for stor-
181
Chr. Wickham, Overview: Production, Distribution and Demand, in Hodges and Bowden, The Sixth Century, 279-292,
age of agricultural produce are found in houses from where trade with the neighbouring areas was carried
esp. 290-292.
182 Poulou-Papadimitriou, Keramike, 246-247; Y angaki, Eleuthema, 307; J. W. Hayes, in Ceramique Medievale (round table), out. 188 Finally, the appearance of hand-made pottery, traditionally associated with the invaders has
529-533; Avramea, Le Peloponnese, 142-143; Rautman, The Decline, 285 (in Sardis the decline of imported pottery and fresh been taken as a sign of urban and cultural collapse. However, the phenomenon is now seen as a return
coinage dates to the sixth century); idem, Two Late Roman Wells at Sardis,MSOR 53 (1995), 81-82; idem, A Late Roman to traditional rural techniques, when high-quality pottery from specialized industrial centres ceased to
Townhouse at Sardis, in Forschungen in Lydien, 49-66, esp. 62-64; Vanhaverbeke et al., Sagalassos, 266-267, 270; H. Kennedy, be produced. Poor quality hand-made pottery for cooking appears in Cyprus in the early seventh cen-
Change and Continuity in Syria and Palestine at the Time of the Moslem Conquest,Aram 1.2 (1989), 258-267; A Uscatescu, in
Ceramique Medievale, 546-558, esp. 551; J. W. Hayes, Pottery of the 6th and 7th centuries,ACACXIIJ (1994), II, 541-548; idem,
Problemes de la ceramique des vneme_Ixeme siecles a Salamine et a Chypre, in Salamine de Chypre. Histoire et archeologie. Etat
des recherches. Lyon 13-17 mars 1978 (Paris 1980), 375-380; P. Arthur, Aspects of Byzantine Economy: An Evaluation of 184 R. Hodges, Henri Pirenne and the Question of Demand in the Sixth Century, in Hodges and Bowden, The Sixth Century,
Amphora Evidence from Italy, in Deroche and Spieser, Ceramique, 79-91; G. Majcherek, The late Roman ceramics from sector 3-14 (quotation in p. 6). See also Barnish, The transformation, 385-400.
"G" (Alexandria 1986-1987), ET 16 (1992), 114-115; Kingsley, Wine-Trade, esp. 56-58. J. Durliat, Les conditions du commerce 185 p. 24.

au VIe siecle, in Hodges and Bowden, The Sixth Century, 89-117 for a minor role of the trade. A Carandini, II mondo della tarda 186 J. W. Hayes, in Ceramique Medievale (round table), 533.
antichita visto attraverso le merci, in Giardina, Societa romana III, 3-19. On the role of the state in generating trade, which in fact 187 H. Saradi: communication in a round table at the SBMAT 24 (2004); Morrisson and Sodini, Economy, 206-207 state
was of fiscal nature ( annona) see C. Wickham, Marx, Sherlock Holmes, and Late Roman Commerce, IRS 78 ( 1988), 189-193. that the use of barrels for transportation of wine might have began already in the sixth century.
183 188 D. Bakirtzi: communication in a round table at the SBMAT24 (2004).
Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 238.
44 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES AND CURRENT STATE OF SCHOLARSHIP 45

tury, when the cities of the island still prospered. It is certainly a sign of change in material culture and discerned. Of course not all topographical information is useful for a comprehensive synthesis and so
living conditions. The invasions precipitated the breakdown of the industrial and commercial activities. 189 our presentation of the archaeological material will be selective with particular emphasis on modern
This, then, is the background against which we approach the study of the sixth-century urban publications in which the early Byzantine remains are not ignored and questions on early Byzantine
space, namely, urban and village prosperity and population increase until about the middle of the cen- urbanism are addressed. Equally valuable are the studies analysing the later development of the urban
tury, after which there is the beginning of a slow process of decline. This book studies two phenomena, centres. Unfortunately these are few, consisting of publications on Scythopolis, Apamea, Petra, Ephesus,
the dissolution of the cities' ancient public space as revealed by the archaeological excavations, and the Aphrodisias, Sardis, Anemurium and Sagalassos. We will also note regional diversities.
literary image of the city. The need to exploit archaeological evidence and at the same time the literary The volume of publications on Byzantine cities currently available is enormous. They present a di-
sources is even today not taken for granted in scholarly works. 190 In our view, however, such an ap- vergence of ideas, perspectives and methodologies. The nature of the subject has been defined in various
proach is fundamental. We explore our subject in terms of the process and degree of urban change during ways. Approaches have been devised and solutions proposed. A major difficulty has been created
the course of the early Byzantine period 191 and as it culminates in the sixth century. Our main aim is to by the conviction of historians that the literary sources conceal historical truth. In other cases the
define the nature and the causes of the urban decline before the invasions, which means that urban interpretation of some sources creates controversy. 194 Thus answers are often sought in archaeological
transformation during the period of the invasions and afterwards does not concern us here. We also investigation. Our approach to the study of the transformation of the early Byzantine city is interdisci-
examine the contradiction between the historical reality and the image of the city in sixth-century li- plinary.195 The image of the city between antiquity and the Middle Ages will emerge as complex and di-
terature, in the hope of answering the question of whether the image of the city in the texts of the period verse.196 Since our emphasis is on the dissolution of urban space, administrative and social changes in-
conforms to the image of the city, in its transformation and decline, as it emerges from the archaeological terest us only in terms of their impact on urban architecture and planning. We examine the disappear-
record. Scholars have recognized the need to re-examine the literary sources, now that the subject ance of the cities' ancient monumental structure as the phenomenon of the decay of public space in
of urban decline has been firmly established in archaeological literature. 192 As research for this book favour of private interest. In this process of decay, the role of the elites and of the state was a deter-
progressed, the field of inquiry expanded to include several aspects of early Byzantine urbanism. New mining factor. The cultural transformation of urban elites and their economic decline played a major
publications have constantly enriched the picture and complemented our knowledge of the subject. In role in the dissolution of urban public space. Particular importance will also be placed on ideological
order to understand the process of, and reasons for, change, it was naturally necessary to consider in- and social changes brought about by Christianity, the empire's new religion. Again, we analyse the ide-
formation from sources dating to before the sixth century. Likewise, in the presentation of the material, ological factor, only in so far as it was responsible for destroying ancient urban features.
the characteristics of the dramatic urban crisis of the seventh century offer a contrast and at the same There is no doubt that more information is needed in order to define with greater precision various
time the conclusion to a process of urban change. aspects of the transformation of urban life, and place them accurately in the timeframe. However,
The literary image of the city is diverse, moulded by various literary traditions: classicizing rheto- the available evidence, gathered from urban centres of all areas of the empire and examined in a broad
ric, historiographical tradition and Christian ideology. In the texts of the sixth century the urban image context, is sufficient to allow the historian to sketch the outlines of urban development, and understand
pervades all literary genres. The imagery and vocabulary remain classicizing, thus frequently creating its dynamics. The new evidence which future excavations will provide will certainly complement our
the illusion of an urban prototype which no longer existed. 193 The same sources, however, reveal the knowledge of specific sites and will refine the earlier evidence, but it is very unlikely that it will radically
emergingmediaeval character of the city. Significantly, this mediaeval character becomes more intense change earlier historical conclusions. The overall picture, thus complemented by the evidence of the
in the texts of the second half of the sixth century, thus coinciding with the changing physical character archaeological excavations scrutinized from the historian's perspective, will certainly appear very com-
of the cities as it is revealed in the excavations. plex and often contradictory. However, it is our hope that it will reveal significant facts of early Byzantine
We will consider in detail the physical appearance of the cities as it emerges from current archae- urbanism.
ological excavations from all the areas of the empire. The investigation of the relevant archaeological
publications was a lengthy and time-consuming task. There the nature of the evidence, dispersed, as it
is, in various geographical regions, enormous in quantity, fragmentary and diverse, constitutes materi-
al which is difficult for the historian to comprehend. Moreover, in most cases we still do not have final
reports of the excavations. The often-changing conclusions regarding dating of monuments or their exact
function add to the uncertainty. Of course, the historian engaged in a broad synthesis has the challenge
and the obligation to reach conclusions above the horizon of a local reality. This is possible only when
the archaeological material is studied en masse. Only then will common trends and developments be

194 For example, F. R. Trombley, The Decline of the Seventh-Century Town: The Exception of Euchaita, Byzantina kai
189M. Rautman, Handmade Pottery and Social Change: The View from Late Roman Cyprus, Journal of Medite1Tanean Metabyzantina 4, Sp. Vryonis (ed.), Byzantine Studies in Honor of Milton V. Anastos (Malibu 1985), 65-90; A Kazhdan, The
Archaeology 11 (1998), 81-104; Gregory, lsthmia, 155, 159; N. Poulou-Papadimitriou, La ceramique montee ala main est-elle Flourishing City of Euchaita?, Erytheia 9 (1988), 197-200; Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 47-49.
forcement barbare?, Dossiers d'archeologie 256 (2000), 35; idem, Keramike, 240-241. 195 On the disagreement between the written sources and the archaeological evidence and for the need for the historians
190 L. Lavan, Late Antique Urban Topography: From Architecture to Human Space, LAA 1 (2003), 171-195. to take into consideration the results of the archaeological investigation see Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 36-41; Zanini, The
191 For the need to examine change over longer periods of time see Cameron, Ideologies, 3 ff., esp. 18.
Urban Ideal.
192 Mango, La vita, 237 ff. 196 See the remarks of Marazzi, Rome, 22: "In a word, the key to understanding the city of Rome between antiquity and
193
A first approach to this in Saradi, Kallos. the middle ages is complexity".
46 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

PART II

THE IMAGE OF THE CITY IN LITERATURE AND ART

FIG. 2. The Yakto mosaic from the village ofYakto, near Daphne in Antioch, displaying hunting scenes,
a medallion with the personification of Megalopsychia in the centre and a topographical border.
48 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTER2

THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY

AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The construction of identity is, at its hearl, a

matter of an imaginaire rather than a fixed
reality. 197

The praise of the marvelous city

The image of the city as projected through its physical environment, its architecture and cultural
traditions, dominates virtually all the literary genres of the early Byzantine period. It is an integral part
of rhetorical works, historical narrative, poems, epigrams and hagiographical texts and this omnipres-
ence is paralleled in artistic representations. Taken as a whole, the literary texts of this period present a
panorama of the empire through its cities, their cultural traditions partly maintained and partly reshaped
by Christianity and by the autocratic imperial rule. The image of the early Byzantine city is celebrated in
many texts, especially as the theme of Procopius' Buildings, in Malalas' Chronicle and in the Patria. It
emerges powerfully in Christian literature, especially in hagiography, even if it is often then rejected.
The city is presented as magnificent and adorned with splendid buildings. It is prosperous and attracts
people with its beauty. The literary expression of the city in the texts of the sixth century was shaped by
the earlier literary tradition, in particular rhetoric. 198 It is inevitable that the attachment of Byzantine lit-
erature to Asianic rhetoric and to classicizing literary motifs obscures the historical image of the sixth-
century city. 199 A literary-critical approach to the texts is needed to deconstruct such conventions and
FIG. 3. Representation of the city ofNahor, depicted as a Hellenistic city walled with six allow the real image of the sixth-century city to emerge. The articulation of the concept of the city through
towers, houses and a circular colonnade/exedra. conventional rhetorical cliches and images also expressed the classicizing culture of the educated elite.
Vienna Genesis (6th c.), Nationalbibliothek, cod. theol. gr. 31, pict. 13. Simultaneously, the Christian concept of the city was shaped in accord with theological tradition and
Christian ideology, as opposed to the ancient ideal of the city held by the classically educated elite.
The literary image of the city was primarily developed in rhetorical texts, since the subject offered
a splendid vehicle for rhetorical display. From there it was borrowed to be used in various literary genres.

197 R. Miles, in idem, Constructing Identities, 4.

198 Pernot, La rhetorique, 79-82, 178-216 and passim; J. Bouffartigue, La tradition de l'eloge de la cite dans le monde grec,
in Lepelley, La fin de la cite, 43-58; Robert, Lettres; Whitby, Procopius' Buildings, 50-54. For the West: P. Riche, La represen-
tation de la ville dans les textes litteraires du ye au 1xe siecle, in Lepelley, La fin de la cite, 183-190.
199 Saradi, Kallas.
50 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 51

Motifs, themes and ideas employed in the ekphrasis of a city were integrated into various texts, adapt- t·xtcnding up the hillside. 206 To those coming from Nicaea and emerging from the mountains, at a dis-
ed to the characteristics of each genre and the authors' personal style. 200 tance of 150 stades, the city gleams (btAaµ'4)ELE). 207 The spectator is led to ignore the beauty of the sur-
t< n1 nding nature, the fruits of the trees, the spectacle of those sailing and fishing in the sea, so powerful
The early Byzantine literary tradition: Libanius, Nonnus and the Patria and attractive is the sight of the city (&.n' ~v OELVO'tEQa yol']'tE'liom 'tfj£ JtOAEW£ lJ µoQcpYJ). 208 The city
al tracts the spectator with its beauty and fills all with passion, whether they are seeing the city for the first
Descriptions and praises of cities (ekphrasis, enkomion, enkomiastike ekphrasis) are modelled on lime or whether they have grown old there. 209 One can see the palace by the gulf gleaming (~aotAELOV
the rules established by Asianic orators. 201 Menander wrote treatises defining the structure and ele- i'·JtnO'tQaJtwv 't(9 xoAJtq:> ), the theatre bright over the entire city, and other structures shining with beau-
ments of city enkomia. Amplification was an essential element of the enkomion. The city is described ty (c"t.AAa£ O.AAax68£v exnEµnoµeva; auya;). The spectator approaches the city as if worshipping a statue
and praised for its location, the origin of its inhabitants, the beauty of its monuments and temples, the ( <t>O'tE &onEQ ayaAµa o£~6µ£vm JtQOOl]AauvoµEv ). 210 Several urban features are mentioned: the colon-
great size of the stoas and baths. 202 Another approach to the city's praise was to exalt the citizens' cul- naded central avenues, public buildings, water fountains, gardens around the city, the council house,
tural and intellectual achievements, to which the physical beauty was subordinate. 203 In such texts the buildings for literary preoccupations (XWQta Mywv, µouoc'i:a), numerous temples, large baths, the
Roman empire is perceived as an empire of cities, which adorn it. Aelius Aristides in his Oratio XXVI harbour, the palace, the theatre, small streets (O'tEVWJtot) and larger ones (OQ6µm), stoas, markets,
(To Rome) praises the urbanization of the world by Rome in these words: IL:mples, baths and one, the largest of all, an imperial foundation, and the hippodrome. 211 The oration,
although presenting a condensed praise of the city in comparison to the Antiochikos, contains all the
... but you have filled your whole empire with cities and adornments. When were dements of the praise of the city required by the rules of ancient rhetoric. The orator gives a realistic
there so many cities on land or throughout the sea, or when have they been so image of the city and its architectural features that served urban life and culture, intermingled with
thoroughly adorned? Who then ever made such a journey, numbering the cities by poetic images and lyrical language. The city is valued for the unsurpassed aesthetic experience it offers
the days of his trip, or sometimes passing through two or three cities on the same the visitor and for its splendid monuments where civic and cultural life took place.
day, as it were through avenues? ... Now all of the Greek cities flourish under you, Recommendations of teachers of rhetoric laid down that in formulating the praise of the city, each
and the offerings in them, the arts, and all their adornments bring honor to you, as 1 irator was free to develop various themes and arguments, depending on occasion and personal prefer-

an adornment in a suburb. The seacoasts and the interiors have been filled with ence. For example, Himerius in his Oratio XLI praises Constantinople, employing various common-
cities, some founded, others increased under you and by you .... 204 places also known from other rhetorical texts, and chooses mainly the theme of the praise of the em-
peror and of the accomplishments of the inhabitants. 212 First, the orator praises the location of the new
Libanius' Antiochikos (Oratio XI) is a long and elaborate praise of Antioch, which follows the rules capital on the site, which joins Europe to Asia and connects two seas. He emphasizes the city's size and
of rhetorical art. It contains a glorification of the city's origin and tradition, a description of the attrac- heauty, 213 and compares Constantinople with other great cities, Athens, Sparta, Rome, Heracleopolis,
tive natural setting, praise of the city's planning and its architectural features, a profound appreciation Argos and Amphipolis. Unlike Libanius, he does not describe architectural structures, except for
of the inhabitants' cultural achievements and of the ancient civic institutions. From this lengthy praise referring briefly to baths and theatres in a passage in praise of the Senate. 214 The main focus of the
emerges the image of a cosmopolitan city, 205 prosperous, proud of its glorious past and strong civic tra- oration is the praise of the emperor and of the inhabitants for their performance in intellectual achieve-
dition. This is the image of the city as it was shaped in the literary tradition of the Hellenistic and Ro- ments.
man periods. In spite of rhetorical amplifications, Libanius draws a realistic picture of the city and its Later it is in the epic poem of Nonnus of Panopolis, the Dionysiaca, probably written in the middle
culture in the fourth century, a culture characterized by a public civic life. The text is often cited in of the fifth century, that we find substantial ekphraseis of cities. The poem's theme is the life of the god
works on rhetoric and it is a source of the first order for the history of early Byzantine urbanism (sev- Dionysus, his campaigns and victories in India, and his triumphal progress through the cities of the
eral references to it in part III of this book will illuminate various aspects of urban planning). Libanius' Eastern Mediterranean. The epic has been interpreted as a manifestation of the vitality of Hellenic culture
Lament for Nico media (Oratio LXI) is a shorter praise of Nicomedia, destroyed by an earthquake. Written
in lyric tones, it is characterized by poetic images, and an emphasis on the attraction that the city ex-
ercised on the beholder. After an account of the city's mythical foundation, the location is eloquently
206 Libanius, Or. LXI.7 (IV, 333.4-6).
described. The city, extending into the sea at both ends, embraces the sea in her arms, whilst also 207 Ibid., p. 333.20. On the theme of the viewer beholding the city from a distance see Saradi, Beholding, 31-33.
208 c. 9 (p. 334.6-7). For examples of descriptions in earlier literature of the surrounding area in city praises see Robert,

Lettres, 155-160. On this topos in the praise of the city see Pernot, La rhetorique, 202-208.
200 Ibid. 209 c. 9 (p. 334.6-10): xal t1JQUVVE1J01JCTU ti'f) X<XAAEL t(J)V oµµatwv µlav autotc; dgyateto t<XCTLV t'Y]V JtQOS aut~V. "Iaov ()E

201
Menander Rhetor, 32-74 (Spengel, 346-367). See C. J. Classen, Die Stadt im Spiegel der Descriptiones und Laudes to Jta0oc; ti'f) tE JtQWtoV OQWVtL xal oanc; EVEY~Qa tfi JtOAEL.
urbium in der antiken und mittelalterlichen Literatur bis zum Ende des zwolften Jahrhunderts (Zurich, New York 1986). 210 c. 10 (p. 334.11-14).
202
Menander Rhetor, 192 (Spengel, 429.16-17): wgattEtm µ/;v yag ~ 1t61-.tc; xat-.AECTLV LEQWV xal atowv xal 1-.ovtgwv 211 c. 7-8 (p. 333.6-13), 10 (334.11-12), 17 (p. 338.1-8).
212 On this see Menander Rhetor, 58-75 (Spengel, 359-367); Pernot, La rhetorique, 210-214.
µqE0ECTLv. On the praise of architectural urban features as part of the praise of a city see Pernot, La rhetorique, 215-216.
203 213 Himerius, Or. 41.6.57-58 (p. 171): to ()E CTOV µEye0oc; f\ ½<XAAOS tlc; av f\ µEyE0EL Mywv f\ ½<XAAEL xma t'Y]V al;lav
Menander Rhetor, 58-74 (Spengel, 359-367); Hermogenes, 18. See Pernot, La rhetorique, 198-200.
204 Or. XXVI.92-94, transl. Ch. A. Behr (Leiden 1981), 94. uµv1']aaev;
205 A. D. Nock, The Praises of Antioch,JEA 40 (1954), 76-82. On the idea of the city in Libanius' works see now M. Francesio, 214 Ibid., c. 7.75-77 (p. 172): EVtE'U0EV to tfjc; [30111-.fjc; E½AaµJtEL CTVVE◊QLOV, 0EAYEL ta A01JtQ<X, JtQOCT◊Y)µaywyEt ta 0fotga,

L 'idea di Citta in Libanio (Stuttgart 2004). XECTtoc; atezvwc; tfjc; 'Aq:igoc>ltY)c; ta avµnavta.
52 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 53

and of a much-revised paganism under the influence of Christianity. 215 It contained a description of the ·l'yre is praised in poetic tones for the beauty of its location:
ancient Greek world through local myths and accounts of geography. The epic expresses the trend of
the age towards celebrating aspects of antique literary culture of the educated elites by offering a com- How's this? - how do I see an island on the mainland? If I may say so, never have I
pilation of mythological accounts. Nonnus has an antiquarian interest in old urban traditions and foun- beheld such beauty ... 0 world-famous city, image of the earth, picture of the sky!
dation myths, as they were recorded in the Patria. 216 Such accounts contained local legends expressing You have a belt of sea grown into one with your three sides! 220
citizens' pride in their cultural achievements and identity, the genre developing in the fifth and sixth
centuries. In the Dionysiaca most of the cities are mentioned because they were the sites of local Tyre's urban landscape is vividly described as seen through the eyes of Dionysus, who is depicted
legends and myths, chosen because of their relevance to the story of Dionysus. Two cities, Tyre and wandering through the city and admiring its architectural features - the streets paved with mosaics and
Berytus, are described in detail with reference to their later development as great urban centres. The marble slabs, and the fountains referred to by name, Abarbaree, Callirhoe, Drosera, together with their
description of the first is justified by myth, since Cadmus, Dionysus' grandfather, was king of Tyre. The lcgends. 221 The description of paved streets and sidewalks, and elaborate water fountains, which were
choice of Berytus may possibly be explained by a personal connection of Nonnus with the city, where very fashionable urban adornments in early Byzantine cities, is of course anachronistic. Tyre's inhabi-
the author may have studied. tants are praised as indigenous, in accord with rhetorical convention, but contrary to historical fact. 222
The descriptions of these two cities are characterized by lyric tones and baroque taste, which are Apparently the poet followed a local tradition developed sometime after the first century, thus enhancing
justified by the central theme of the epic, the passion of Dionysus. Several rhetorical elements of the the local patriotism and identity.
enkomion are found in the praises of Tyre and Berytus. The cities' origin is placed in revered antiqui- In the epic, the cities are elevated to divine heights and cherished for raising strong emotions in the
ty217 through an artful elaboration of the traditions. Tyre is presented as having been established by gods: the gods felt attraction for the cities and desire to found new ones. Heracles declared that "now I
Alexander the Great, who connected the island to the mainland. A historical image of early Byzantine cherished a passion of love for that city" (xgao(u 0£ (j)LAOJt'toALV olatgov aeswv), and "indulging my
Tyre emerges through the economic activities of its inhabitants: the harvesting of purple and the cloth mood of founding cities, myself destined to be City-holder" ((j)LAO½'tL'tOV ~00£ aeswv foooµEVO£ JtO-
dye industry. 218 Then follows a poetic description of the sea and of the idyllic settings of the surround- AtO'UX0£).223 The praise of the city employing the motif of the gods' love (0rncptMtri£) is also recom-
ings, which also touches on the vitality of economic activities and the successful combination of the mended by Menander. 224 The theme of passion that the cities inspire is often found in earlier rhetorical
maritime and mainland economy: tcxts, 225 but in the epic it is reinforced in the context of the passion dominating the myth of Dionysus.
The city of Berytus is praised in a lengthier account. Human activities and the grace of the location
Unshakable, it is like a swimming girl, who gives to the sea head and breast and
dominate the picture, followed by a lengthy description of the nature that surrounds it. 226 The inhabi-
neck, stretching her arms between under the two waters, and her body whitened
tants are indigenous, generated from Nature, not born of father or mother. 227 The city's claim to origi-
with foam from the sea beside her, while she rests both feet on mother earth. And
nality lies in the fact that legal studies developed there. Its reputation in law raises it to celestial glory:
Earthshaker holding the city in a firm bond floats all about like a watery bride-
"O Beroe, root of life, nurse of cities, the boast of princes, the first city seen, twin sister of Time, coeval
groom, as if embracing the neck of his bride in a splashing arm. Still more Bacchos
with the universe, seat of Hermes, land of justice, city of laws .. _,ms
admired the city of Tyre; where alone the herdsman's way was near the fisherman,
and he kept company with his piping along the shore, and goatherd with fisher again
when he drew his net, and the glebe was cleft by the plow while opposite the oars
were cutting the waters. Shepherds near the seaside woods gossiped in company 220
XL.338-339, 351-352.
[with boatmen, fisher with] woodmen, and in one place was the loud noise of the 221
XL.353-365; XL.538-573. On this rhetorical device see Saradi, Beholding, 32-33. See also the elaboration of the theme
sea, the lowing of cattle, the whispering of leaves, rigging and trees, navigation and in Themistius, Or. 1.2b-3a (I, 5). On the increasing importance of the function of seeing in late antiquity see I. Gualandri,
forest, water, ships, and lugger, plowtail, sheep, reeds, and sickle, boats, lines, sails, Aspetti dell'ekphrasis in eta tardoantica, in Testo e imagine nell'Alto Medioevo, Settimane XLI (1994), 301-341; Pernot, La
and corselet. 219 rhetorique, 199-200.
222
XL.430-433.
223
XL.439, 505-506, 579.
224
Menander Rhetor, 62 (Spengel, 361.20-362.22).
225
Libanius, Or. LXI (Movqi6la i\nl Ntxoµrt6Elg ), 5, 6, 9 (IV, 331.13, 332.10-11, 334. 7-10): ... JtOAEW£ 6/o 1:0aav1:rtt:;1:E xal
tmavi:rtt; µ11 onwt:; EQW1:a Aa~Eiv ... «xAA' ~v c>ELV01:EQa YOTJ1:Eiiam 1:fjt:; JtOAEW£ ~ µoQcptj. Kal 1:1JQaVVE1J01JCJa ,:qi xaAAEL tfuv
215 Bowersock, Hellenism, 43-44. For a different view see Liebeschuetz, Dionysiaca, 81-83; idem, Decline, 231 ff. ()VOµai:wv µlav aui:o1:t:; ELQyatEi:o tamv 1:T]V JtQ0£ avi:tjv. "Ioov OE 1:0 Jta0ot:; ,:qi 1:E JtQW1:0V OQWV1:L xal OCT1:L£ EVEytjQa tft JtOAEL.
216 Bowersock, Hellenism, 68; Liebeschuetz, Dionysiaca, 84-85. Or. XI.49 (I, 452.12), 65 (p. 457.15-16), 75 (p. 461.8-10, 15-16), 117 (p. 474.8-11: UA.Aa ,:qi ½UAAEL µiov EQW1:at:; i\cp' Ea1J1:0'l.1£
217 Menander Rhetor, 50 (Spengel, 355.3): cptjaeu:; 1:6 JtQECJ~i'.mnov uµuinai:ov dvm; 56 (Spengel, 358.32-359.1): d6evm <xva'ljlavi:Et:;, aui:ol 6/o oi:ovt:; UAA01l£ i\nolovv, JtQO£ ~µat; nmov06tE£ xal vno µiov 1:wv EQaai:wv i\xA.6µevm 1:fjt:; 6' EQwµevrtt;
ae XQtj, cm i\v60~61:mm µiov at 0E1:m, c>EV1:EQm 6/o at ~Qwfaml, 1:Qli:m OE at av0Qwmxal. On the antiquity of the cities as a major Y~£ av0am6µEVOLJtUALV), 180 (p. 498.4), 186 (p. 500.5); Himerius, Or. 41.16.169-171 (p. 176): UAA.a yaQ 1:0l£ 1:fjt:; Jt0AEW£ EQW-
element of the city praise see Robert, Etudes anatoliennes, 303-304; idem, Villes d'Asie Mineure. Etudes de geographie ancienne Ol JtaQaXWQtjoat:;, i:ovt:; A.6yovt:; aµnQa CJXLQ1:Wvi:at:; JtEQL 1:11v EQWµEVTJV alo0avoµm. Themistius, Or. 3.48b (I, 67) ( i\m0vµla,

(2nd ed., Paris 1962), 315-316. On the descriptions of Tyre and Berytus in Nonnus see R. Dostalova-Jenistova, Tyros a Bejrut i'gwu xal n60qi ); 13.167c-d (I, 240-241 ); Pernot, La rhetorique, 193 and n. 359.
226
v Dionysiakach Nonna z Panopole, Listy Filologicke (Prague) V (1957), 36-57. XLI.14-49.
218 227 XLI.51-66.
Nonnus, Dionysiaca, XL.304-310.
228
219
XL.319-336 (transl. W. H. D. Rouse). XLI.143-145 (transl. W. H. D. Rouse).
54 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 55

The legends ofBerytus' foundation are given in lengthy accounts, intermingling mythology, prophe- sorts of graces please the eye of the spectator. 237 The third point to be made is that foundation myths
cy and poetic images, 229 Nonnus' aim being to praise Berytus as the major centre for legal studies. It was I,crsist in the literature of the early Byzantine period.
Aphrodite who designed the city, since she could foresee the future and the foundation of great cities, The foundation myth occupied a central position in civic tradition. The development of foundation
each one with its particular characteristics: "and she decided to design a city named after Beroe, being myths in a rhetorical piece was intended to demonstrate the cities' Hellenic roots, to highlight a glorious
possessed with a passion ( <pLAOJt'toALV ofo-tQOV 'EQWTWV) to make her city as good as theirs. She observed past, to connect the cities' history with venerated heroes of literary tradition and appeal to antiquarian
there the long column of Solon's Laws, that safeguard against wrong, and turned aside her eye to the Iastc of the literati. 238 The Patria included foundation legends and accounts of the customs, institutions,
broad streets of Athens, and envied her sister the just Judge" .230 The reference to Athens as £UQVayvw. mysteries and festivals of the cities. 239 The elaboration of these myths was more than an antiquarian
(v. 274), a Homeric adjective, corresponds to the city's planning in the Roman and early Byzantine period. preoccupation with cities' origins. The aim was to give the cities an identity and some legitimacy by an-
It is remarkable that it is Athens that is presented as the model for Berytus, rather than Rome. Thus the choring them in the prestigious past of the Greco-Roman world. The scene of the hunt in the famous
link with the Greek past is once again affirmed, while in accord with the precepts of Menander, the con- Yakto mosaic at Daphne in Antioch may refer to Antioch's foundation myth. 240 In the fifth and sixth
nection with Ionic culture points to the citizens' intellectual preoccupations (,:o M 'Iwvwv EAAoytµw- centuries the Patria became very popular. Christodorus of Coptos wrote Patria of the cities of Nacle,
w.wv).231 Aphrodite's envy for Athens may also reflect the competitive spirit among cities created Thessalonica, Miletus, Tralleis, Aphrodisias and Constantinople. The poet Claudianus in the late fifth
by strong feelings of local identity. This theme returns further in the account of Aphrodite's visit to century wrote Patria on Nicaea, Tarsus, Anazarbus and Berytus. Ulpian ofEmesa (4 th -5 th c.) wrote Patria
Harmony's residence in Heaven. The goddess Harmony is appropriately consulted, for she is the out- for Emesa, Heliopolis and the area of Bosporus. Metrophanes wrote Patria for Phrygia, Hermeias, of
come of Justice. 232 Harmony examines the oracles of history on seven tablets where each city's destiny unknown date, for Hermoupolis and Diogenes or Diogeneianos for Cyzicus; Flavius Horapollon in the
was registered. The passage stresses the competition among cities regarding the first place of honour: second half of the fifth century for Alexandria. Hesychius' Chronicle also contained an account of Con-
"Whether then Arcadia is first or Hera's city, whether Sardis be the oldest, or even Tarsos celebrated in stantinople's history from the legendary foundation of Byzantion by Byzas and included the city's de-
song be the first city, or some other, I have not been told. The tablet of Cronos will teach you all this ... " 233 velopment under Septimius Severns and Constantine. These legends showed the continuity of the an-
The prophecy about the future of Berytus on Cronos' tablet highlights the main parts of the city's glori- cient culture into the Christian empire. The preservation of the cities' glorious past, though legendary,
ous legend: "Beroe came the first, coeval with the universe her agemate", 234 "bearing the name of the provided a firm civic identity. It was reassuring, and strengthened civic patriotism and local interests.
nymph later born, which the colonizing sons of the Ausonians, the consular lights of Rome, shall call Through these legends each city acquired distinct cultural and religious traditions. From the fourth
Berytos". 235 Although the inspiration for excelling in legal science was first presented as a competition century on, the decline of civic administrative institutions and their replacement by provincial and im-
with Athens, the Roman origins are further defined in a prophecy: perial rule, and the progress of Christianity affected the spirit of ancient civic legends. The latter lost
their earlier pagan religious relevance, while the spirit of cultural autonomy became gradually mean-
When Augustus shall hold the sceptre of the world, Ausonian Zeus will give to divine ingless in the increasingly unifying Christian culture of the empire. Thus the legends came to express a
Rome the lordship, and to Beroe he will grant the reins of law, when armed in her nostalgic attitude towards a cultural past that was slipping away. Rhetorical descriptions of cities pro-
fleet of shielded ships she shall pacify the strife of battlestirring Cleopatra. For jected the image of the city filtered through the values and the education of the upper class. They pro-
before that, citysacking violence will never cease to shake citysaving peace, until claimed the upper class culture based on classical education, its taste, its ambitions and its self-defini-
Berytos the nurse of quiet life does justice on land and sea, fortifying the cities with tion.241 In the sixth century, such legends are found in the Chronicle of Malalas. The foundation myths
the unshakable wall of law, one city for all cities of the world. 236 of the cities Seleucia, Antioch, Laodicea and Apamea are all expressions of civic pride. 242 The Patria of
Hesychius focus on the urban topographical traditions and contain numerous descriptions of monu-
Three points here are of interest to our study. First, the influence of rhetoric on descriptions of ments. In the Patria of the eighth century such accounts developed into legends around monuments
cities in poetry is obvious. Second, such descriptions are marked by lyric tones and idyllic treatment in woven into superstitious beliefs.
the presentation of the cities' surroundings. In one of his Epistles, Procopius of Gaza draws a poetic image
of Alexandria, emphasizing the city's reputation for letters and its attractive location: Alexandria is the
common mother of letters, desired by the seasons, washed quietly by the sea, embraced by the Nile
237
Procopius of Gaza, Ep. 119.9-12 (p. 61): xctl :rt6A.LV oixEic:; i:~v xmv~v i:wv A6ywv µ111:ega, tjv ~Qgm :rco0ouam xma
flowing around her as if it were a lover, surrounded from all sides by forests, trees and crops, while all
W1J1:'l]V aAA~Amc:; ECT:rtElaavi:o, tjv :rtQOCTXAVsEL :rcgawc:; ~ 0aAaaaa, xaL NEIAoc:; EvayxaAlsEi:m xa0a:rtEQ EQWµEV'[] :rtEQLX1J8Elc:;,
xaL :rtavmx60Ev aACT'I] xaL Mvoga xaL A~ta, xaL i:oic:; ocp0aAµoic:; :rtmxlAm :rtgoaBaAA01JCTL XUQL1:Ec:;.
238
See J. H. M. Strubbe, Grunder kleinasiatischer Stiidte. Fiktion und Realitiit, Ancient Society 15-17 (1984-1986), 253-
229 XLI.51-427. On the topos of the origin in the praise of the city see Pernot, La rhetorique, 209-210. 304; Chuvin, Chronique, 268-270; Sartre, La construction.
239
230 XLI.271-275. Souda: i:a £011 xaL i:a v6µtµa xaL i:a µvai:~gta xaL i:ac:; fogi:ac:;.
231 240 Mundell Mango, Artemis, 274 ff.
Menander Rhetor, 48 (Spengel, 354.12-13).
241
232 XLI.332-333. R. A. Kaser, Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
233 XLI.355-358. 1986); P. Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity. Towards a Christian Empire (Madison, Wisconsin 1992), 35 ff.;
234 Myths connecting the cities' origin with the beginnings of the world are recommended by Menander Rhetor, 48 (Spengel, Bowersock, Hellenism, 68; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 223 ff.
242
354.22-355.12). P. Chuvin, Les fondations syriennes de Seleucos Nicator dans la Chronique de Jean Malalas, in P.-L. Gatier et al. ( eds.),
235
XLI.364-367. Geographie historique au Proche-Orient (Syrie, Phenicie, Arabie, grecques, romaines, byzantines). Actes de la Table Ronde de
236 XLI.389-398. Valbonne, 16-18 septembre 1985 (Paris 1990), 99-110.
56 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 57

At the end of the early Byzantine period and before the final collapse of ancient urban culture, we excellent my beauty who now am dust! But as ye pass by bewail my fate, and let fall
find efforts to Christianize urban legends. In the Miracles of the Saints Cyrus and Johannes, Sophronius, a tear for destroyed Berytus. 245
Patriarch of Jerusalem between 634 and 638, begins the narrative of the Miracle 54 with a rhetorical
topos: benefactions of distinguished citizens honour and glorify their city of descent. In the Christian In another epigram the same poet laments the destruction of Berytus, with references to mytho-
narrative these are replaced with the blessings of the saints and the Christian history of the cities. Thus h1gy:
Damascus was honoured by the offerings of the martyrs ( 01oµvuvfo8w x.at D.aµaox.0£ trd 1:01£ i:wv µag-
,:ugwv &wg11µamv ), namely their miracles, and by Paul's conversion. In the following passage Sophronius Where is Cypris, the keeper of the city, that she may see her who was once the seat
gives an account of the city's history starting with the kings Ninus and Semiramis who fortified the city of the Graces become the dwelling-place of spectres? The city is the tomb of dead
and made colonies in Asia and Arabia. Then Alexander occupied Damascus, plundered her of the men who had no funeral; under her ashes we, Beroe's many thousands, rest.
treasures of Darius and destroyed the palace, information that Sophronius took from if~w0tv sources. Engrave on one stone above her, ye dear survivors: "Berytus the lamented lies low
He also refers to the memorials of many kings still visible in the city. The second source of information on the ground". 246
was the Bible, whence we learn the names of the kings who ruled the city. Damascus' Christian tradition,
however, was more important. The gifts of the saints were a source of enjoyment and blessing, as was In literary texts of the Roman and early Byzantine periods, various adjectives in the superlative are
the city's connection with St. Paul. The introduction ends with a certain Dionysius, a member of the used to praise the greatness of a city. Libanius praises Athens as the most ancient city, the greatest centre
city's upper class, born in Damascus, whose son was cured by the saints. His ancestor was the philoso- of wisdom, the most dear to gods, the lover of men and gods (i:lJV &gxmmai:riv x.at oocpwi:ai:riv x.at
pher Nicolaus, teacher of Herod and child of Antonius and Cleopatra. His descendants, twelve in number, OrncptArni:ai:riv x.at X.OLVlJV EQwµevriv &v8gw:rtwv 1:E x.at 81owv). 247 Adjectives exalt the cities' status
all named Nicolaus, were renowned philosophers. 243 Thus the city's glorious past is artfully incorporated (:n:0w1:ri, :rtgwi:6:rtoAL£, µrii:g6:rtoAt£), their size (µ1oyaAYJ, µ1oyto1:ri), their antiquity (&gxata, &gxmoi:a-
into the Christian account of legends and miracles. rq),248 their splendour (Aaµ:rtga, Aaµ:rtgmai:ri, OEµVYJ, OEµvo,:ai:ri), their beauty ( x.antoi:ri, :rtQW1:Y) x.aA-
In the sixth century some laudatory epigrams composed by poets of the Cycle of Agathias draw on An), the indigenous population (aui:6z8wv, :rtgwi:6z8wv) and their connection with the gods (foi:ta
the same literary tradition in their praise of cities. Macedonius the consul, in an epigram on Sardis, (h'<1)V ). 249 In the Roman imperial period, these adjectives were attached to the official name of the cities
praises the city for its idyllic natural setting, its mythical traditions, and its production of wine. The pres- on formal documents, such as inscriptions and coins. They derived directly from earlier rhetorical
entation of the image of the city employs classicizing literary motifs: texts. 250 Inscriptions reveal the competition among cities in their efforts to raise their profile by pro-
jecting their rank and status. 251 In some cases we can trace the occasion when these adjectives were
I am Sardis, the chief city of Lydia, who stands under flowery Tmolus, by the stream used for the first time. In Hermoupolis in Egypt, the first reference of the epithet µEyaA'I'] dates to 128
of Maeonian Hermus. I witnessed first the birth of Jove, for I refused to betray the !\.D. when the adjective was employed probably in order to distinguish it from the other homonymous
secretly born son of my own Rhea. It was I, too, who nursed Bacchus, and I saw him city on the Delta called µtx.ga. The adjectives µ1oyaAY), &gxata x.at Aaµ:rtga are mentioned from the
shining with broader flame in the lightning-flash. First in my fields did Autumn, the reign of Septimius Severns who visited the city in 199-200 and granted her a boule. The adjectives glo-
giver of wine, milk from the udder of the grape-cluster the golden juice. Everything rified the city's elevated status. In the third century, between 217 and 246 the adjective 01oµv01:a1:l'] was
combined to adorn me, and old Time often saw me envied by the most flourishing added, while the Aaµ:rtgoi:ai:Y) was added in 267 at the beginning of the Egyptian year, suggesting that
cities. 244 Ihis was an official decision, the reasons for which remain unknown. From 268 the adjective Aaµ:rtgoi:a-
tl'] appears alone, and from 319 the adjectives µ1oyaA'I'] x.at Aaµ:rtgoi:ai:Y). 252 The epithet x.aAA.t:rtoAL£, pre-
The closing two lines refer to Sardis' past glory, envied by other cities (:rtoAV£ M µE :rtoAA.aX.L£ aiwv
aoi:rntv 6A~toi:m£ EilQE µ1oymgoµevriv). The city of the sixth century was praised for its past glory,
rather than for its contemporary situation and it is the city's antiquity that is idealized and valued. 245
Anthologia Graeca IX.425 (Loeb III, 237, transl. Paton). On the topos of the city's beauty (kallos) see Saradi,Kallos, esp.
Indirectly this past glory is contrasted with a present unworthy of praise. p. 42; Pemot,La rhetorique, 192-193. On the theme of ruined cities and related literary topoi see K. Demoen, "Ou est la beaute
In dramatic tones John Barbucallus laments the destruction of Berytus by earthquake in 554 A.D. qu'admiraient tous Jes yeux?", La ville detruite dans Jes traditions poetique et rhetorique, in idem, The Greek City, 103-125.
and the loss of the city's beauty (x.aAAEO£): On the theme of the city as the beloved see Y. Yatromanolakis, Poleos erastes: the Greek city as the beloved, in Stafford and
Herrin, Personification, 267-283.
246
Anthologia Graeca IX.426 (Loeb III, 237, transl. Paton).
Here I lie, the luckless city, no longer a city, with my dead inhabitants, most ill-fated 247
Libanius, Or. XIII.18 (11, 69).
of all towns. After the Earth-shaker's shock Hephaestus consumed me. Alas, how 248
The cities' antiquity is an element worthy of praise: Menander Rhetor, 190-192 (Spengel, 429.3-4, 23-24). See also
supra, n. 217.
249
Saradi, Kallas.
250
L. Robert,A travers l'Asie Mineure (Paris 1980), 203-219, 423-424.
251
243 Miracula SS. Cyri et Johannis, 54.1-3 (p. 368), 54.2 (p. 368: <liv JtAEOV amxvi:wv Kugou xaL 'lwavvou OOJQEWV UJt0/1.UU- Idem, La titulature de Nicee et de Nicomedie: la gloire et la haine,HSCP 81 (1977), 1-39.
252
CJaoa, xaL i:a1:i:; i:nL IlaUA(f) µEyaAauxELmi:; i:aui:ai:; ouva'lj!aoa i:o1:i:; oxtgi:riµamv i:va~guvEi:aL). N. Litinas, Hermou polis of the Thebais. Some Corrections and Notes Concerning its Name and Epithets, APG 41
244 Anthologia Graeca IX.645 (Loeb III, 357, transl. Paton). See P. Weiss, Gotter, Stadte und Gelehrte. Lydiaka und "Patria" ( l995), 82-84. See also the still useful study of 0. Homickel, Ehren-und Rangpriidikate in den Papyrusurkunden. Ein Beitrag
um Sardes und den Tmolos,Forschungen inLydien, 85-109. zum romischen und byzantinischen Titelwesen (Giessen 1930), 34-36.
58 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 59

dominant in rhetorical texts, 253 is also found in papyri and it was also used as a noun to replace the city's Praise of the city is central to these works. It is shaped in accordance with the classicizing scholar-
name. 254 In the papyri these adjectives are found in all kinds of documents, in acts in the Apion archives ship and sophistication of the authors who maintained a nostalgic, often anachronistic view of the city.
(e.g. AaµrtQ<X -cwv 'O~UQUYXL'twv rroAL£), and in documents of legal proceedings (e.g. -criv AaµrtQO'tCt'tlJV
µEyaMrroALv 'AAE~av0QELav),255 and in the Petra papyri (-cfj£ rataiwv AaµrtQO.£ rroAEw£). 256 Papyri also
reveal that these adjectives that glorified the cities were more often used in phrases referring to members The praise of the city through the praise of its benefactor
of the upper class. 257 In other papyrus documents, however, when reference is made to cities in
connection with common people, such adjectives are not frequent. It is obvious that it was the upper In his Epistle 114, Libanius refers to Datianus, a wealthy citizen of Antioch, who was a benefactor
class which associated itself with the ancient concept of a city's glory and its rhetorical phraseology. The of his city of origin, but, like many members of the upper class, preferred to live in Constantinople. The
personal style of the scribe also played a role. Thus, for example, in P.Lond. 1713.11 ( a. 569), written by 11rator presents Datianus as neglecting Antioch, for he was attracted by the physical beauty of the cap-
the learned notary Dioscorus, a salaried baker stated that he was from -cav'tl]£ 'tfj£ xaAALrt0AEW£ 'Av-cL- ital. He was like a happy lover of two beautiful women. Antioch is personified and makes a case for
vorroAEW£. herself, in order to attract his generosity. She reminds him that he had adorned her with many houses,
City pride is manifested in various texts and, apart from stressing the specific qualities of each city, many baths inside and outside the line of the walls, gardens and andrones. She also is surrounded by
there was a particular effort to present the city in question as superior to others and as having exercised fields which adorn her. 262 Libanius, too, applies the rhetorical tradition according to which cities could
great influence on other cities. In an inscription, dating to the late fifth to the early-mid sixth century, he praised on account of benefits, which they received from emperors or other benefactors. 263 Renew-
Aphrodisias is praised as AaµrtQa xal rtEQLC:paviJ£. 258 Choricius praises Caesarea in these words: al and restoration of cities earned provincial governors and emperors public acknowledgement and
glory and was therefore a subject of praise by orators. Themistius wrote a panegyric to the emperor en-
Look at the city of Caesar, which nature has adorned on all sides. For it is beautiful, titled Philopolis. 264 From the sixth century come the Panegyric by Procopius of Gaza for the emperor
large and flourishing in letters, in wealth and in all sorts of honours, and is leader i\nastasius, the two enkomia by Choricius of Gaza for bishop Marcian (Orations I and II), and one for
Ihe dux Aratius and archon Stephanus ( Oration III), and the Buildings of Procopius of Caesarea. The
and mother of many beautiful cities. 259
image of the city emerges through the praise of its benefactors. This image, however, no longer depicts
In one of the Petra papyri, dating to 537, the city is defined by adjectives deriving from the glorious an independent civic spirit. Rather, it underlines the cities' dependence on their benefactors. These
rhetorical texts, in spite of their adherence to traditional rhetorical formulas, are marked by an attitude
Roman past, combined with others of local origin (such as, "Mother of colonies"): "the Antonine im-
to urban life very different from that found in the praises of Aelius Aris tides and Libanius and reveal a
perial colony, distinguished and mother of colonies, Hadrianic Petra, Metropolis of the Third Palestine
different perception of the city and historical reality.
Salutaris". 260 As Severns, bishop of Antioch, wrote, Alexandria's inhabitants were notorious for their
pride in their city's supremacy, its wealth and elevated status among the empire's other cities:
Procopius of Gaza: The Panegyric for Anastasius
For it is the habit of the Alexandrians to think that the sun rises for them only, and
towards them only the lamp burns, so that they even jestingly term outside cities
Procopius' speech, delivered in the theatre of Gaza, expressed the feelings of gratitude of the en-
'lampless'. If for the purpose of right judgment it is possible to weigh the numbers
tire city, which had honoured the emperor by setting up his statue in a public place. 265 In accord with
of a people, like weights that are distinguished by the inclinations of the scale of a
the instructions of the teachers of rhetoric, the panegyric begins with a praise of the emperor's native
balance, the inhabitants of all these countries will produce no less than the whole
city of Dyrrachium. 266 Procopius employs a rich variety of rhetorical themes, poetically handled. The
city of the Alexandrians. 261 city is referred to by its ancient name Epidamnus, thus evoking its antiquity. The orator praises the lo-
cation of the city on the grounds that the city projects into the sea and because it receives benefits from
land and sea. 267 The city is personified as a woman, a technique recommended by Menander to give the
253 Fenster, Laudes, 28-30; G. Guldentops, Themistius' xaAAlitoALc;. Between Myth and Reality, in Demoen, The Greek text dramatic colour. 268 The advantages deriving from Epidamnus' location benefit even those sailing
City, 127-140. into the Ionian Sea, to whom the personified city offers a sympathetic hand receiving them with humanity
254
N. Litinas, KaAALJtOALc;,APG 41 (1995), 85; T. Gagos and P. van Minnen, Settling a Dispute. Toward a Legal Anthropol-
ogy of Late Antique Egypt (Ann Arbor 1994), 77 for the earlier use of the word kallipolis for Antinoopolis.
255
H. Zilliacus et al., Griechische Texte IV (Vienna 1979), no. 24.7; see also C. J. Classen, Das Encomium Alexandriae und
die Tradition der descriptiones und laudes urbium, ZPE 45 (1982), 85-87. 262 Libanius, Ep. 114.1, 3, 5 (X, 114-115).
256 263
P.Petra I, 2.15, 22-23, 37-38, etc. (a. 538) (ed. J. Frosen et al., Amman, Jordan 2002). Menander Rhetor, 70 (Spengel, 365.10-24).
257 264 Themistius, vol. III, 1. See also P.R. L. Brown, Art and Society in Late Antiquity, in Weitzmann,Age of Spirituality, 17-
For example, P.Lond. 1710.12: i:fjc; 1,,aµitQdc; 'Avnvot\wv JtOAEWc; (ea. 565-573).
258
Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 65 (p. 106). 27, esp. 19-21.
259
Choricius, Or. VIII.95 (p. 365.17-21 ): 'Aito~M1jmi:E oE JtQoc; t'Y]V KalaaQoc; it6Aw, ~v exaAAWJtWE navi:ax60Ev ~ qivmc;. 265 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 1 (p. 4).

'QQala 1:E YO.Q XCXL µEyUAT] 1{.(XL Aoymc; &v0oilaa 1{.(XL JtAOlll:([) 1{.(XL Jtavi:ooaJtoi:c; al;LwµaaL JtOAAWV 1:E %(XL XCXAWV JtOAEWV ~yEµwv 266 Ibid., c. 2 (pp. 5-6). See Menander Rhetor, 78-80 (Spengel, 369.18-370.11); L. Pernot, Les topoi de l'eloge chez Menandros

aµa XCXL µT]tT]Q, le Rheteur, REG 99 (1986), 35.

260 267 This topos had a long literary tradition: Menander Rhetor, 36 (Spengel, 348.15-349.2); Libanius, Or. XI.19-41 (I, 442-450).
P.Petra 1.4-5 (Avyovai:oxoA.wvla 'AvtWVLCXVTJ, EJtlOT]µoc; XCXL E'U [.... ] µiJtTJQ XOAWVLWV, 'AoQL<XVT] IlEtQCX, µT]tQOJtOALc; i:fjc;
TQltT]c; IIa1,,mai:lvT]c; LaAovmQlac;), and pp. 1-4, 23. 268 In the epilogue of a panegyric of welcome, Menander Rhetor, 100 (Spengel, 381.13-15): El oE ouvmov ~v xaL i:ai:c;
261
Severns, Ep. 46, PO 12/2 (1919), 318. JtOAEmv aqiEi:vm (JlWVTJV xaL axiJµma Aa~Ei:v yvvmxwv &aitEQ ev OQciµam ... See also Pernot, La rhetorique, 193-195.
60 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 61

( (J)(JJtEQ XELQa JtQO~anoµev17 TOL£ E'X JtEAayou£ xat q:JlAaV8QWJtWV a1n:OL£ aJtavt&aa). 269 Although tluct in Hierapolis, the restoration of Caesarea's harbour and Alexandria's Pharos. 278 Procopius also
Epidamnus was a colony of Corcyra, the population is praised as being indigenous. The origins of the rdcrs to the restoration of urban fortifications, harbours and splendid buildings ( olxoooµ17µatwv tE
city evoke ancient myths in the tradition of the Patria. Epidamnus inspired love in Pythian Apollo ( JtQO£ ,u'{AA.1']), and to the wall in Thrace, the most important public work of all. 279
EQWW xLvEi:), as a prophet who knew the future well and who adorned her with Greek colonists. 270 The The empire's prosperity, secured by Anastasius' rule, is described in a figure of speech that employs
divine love and the god's prophetic power that reveals the city's glorious future and prosperity are I he image of prosperous cities, personified and celebrating with dances and festivals ( o8Ev ~µi:v at n6-
themes that appear in earlier literature and in particular in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. Epidamnus Ans; d,oai,µovE£, XOQOL£ µcµE11.17µevm xat nav17yuQEmv), echoing a passage of Menander. The theme
shares the kindness and philanthropy (q:iL11.av8Qwn(a) of the Phaeaceans who built the city, an allusion 1if personified provinces and cities dancing for joy, because they have just and caring governors, is
to the hospitality offered to Odysseus. 271 The city's glorious origin is further enhanced by the connec- 11 iund in several texts of this period, rhetorical and poetic. 280 The cities rejoice ( q:imOQaL µi:'.v al JtOAEL£),
tion with Heracles, through her founder, the Corinthian Phalios, a descendant of the Heraclides. t·ach one proud for a particular reason, and all are adorned with the emperor's statues set up in grati-
Epidamnus is also connected with Sparta in that she shares its desire to excel (q:JlAOtLµ(a ), and, as the tmlc for the benefits he has bestowed. 281 The city of Gaza no longer honours the emperor with specta-
speech comes to a crescendo, through Heracles the city is elevated to the level of the father of the gods, cles in the theatre, which have been wisely banned by Anastasius and which provide only vulgar enter-
Zeus. The references to the mythical origins of the city dignify the city. Obviously such references were lainment, but with refined rhetorical competitions. The expression of gratitude to the emperor is now
expected by an audience familiar with classical literature and the conventions of the genre. Epidamnus
of a purely intellectual type and therefore dignifies the emperor. We find the antique mode of express-
is presented in the speech as a civilized city: the philanthropic virtues of its inhabitants, stressed twice,
ing the city's identity and pride in the closing lines of the Panegyric. In the view of the orator, the in-
are appropriate in a eulogy delivered in a Christian setting. 272 In addition, such virtues matched the phi-
scription on the emperor's statue should read: "I, the city to the benefactor, on account of whom I am
lanthropy of the emperor, typically mentioned in imperial panegyrics and for which Anastasius is also
high-spirited and am a city" ('H Jt0Al£ tov E'lJEQYEt'l']V, Ol' O'U vliv auxeva tE yaliQOV EJtaLQW xat Jt0Al£
praised by the orator.
1'1.fti,). 282 The orator expresses the wish that the emperor rule long, and that the cities weave wreaths on
In praising Anastasius' beneficial measures with which the emperor corrected existing problems,
account of their happiness (ta£ OE JtOAEL£ En' Eutuz(m£ <Jtcq:iavou£ JtAE'XELV). 283
the empire is perceived both in terms of citizens and in terms of cities. The enemies of the empire, its
barbarian neighbours, are defined in terms of urban organization. They live a nomadic life, without a
defined place to settle, nor a city to dwell in(µ~ JtOAl£ EL£ olx17t~QLOV WQL<Jtm). Instead, they carry their
Choricius of Gaza
household, an improvised hut, which they set up whenever necessary. Insecurity marked urban life all
over the empire in the reign of Anastasius. Lacking military assistance, cities previously prosperous and
Bishop Marcian is praised by Choricius of Gaza as the city's leader and benefactor in two enkomia
magnificent have been plundered by the barbarians. Some have been occupied. For others, the danger is
delivered during Christian festivals. The praise of the urban authorities and festivals had been estab-
ever-present, while yet others have been relocated. All previously feared the future, 273 but now Anastasius'
1ished by ancient orators as a legitimate element of a panegyric. 284 As in the panegyric of the emperor
restoration program has put an end to this situation. City walls have been restored, some cities have
received new fortifications, and fortresses have been built everywhere, defended by a strong army. As Anastasius by Procopius of Gaza, the city's security is the first priority. The bishop is praised for the
a result, the cities have become prudent and now display their orderly security to the barbarians (xat restoration of the city's walls, which apparently was achieved with imperial funds and contributions by
awq:iQovolimv at JtOAEL£, aaq:ia11.i'j x6aµov EJtu)ELxvuµEvm tOL£ ~aQ~<J.QOL£). 274 Procopius of Gaza de- the citizens under the bishop's initiative and supervision. 285 The bishop also emerges as a civic leader
scribes the priorities of the imperial government in the reign of Anastasi us, and, in spite of the conven- dealing with other urgent situations: he is praised for successfully controlling the soldiers' abusive
tions of the enkomion, the historical reality of the time is clearly evident in the text.
Anastasius is praised for founding a city in the Balkans which is able to resist enemies, probably the
city of Anastasioupolis in Thrace. 275 Its foundation is a civilizing act of philanthropy and wisdom and is 278
Ibid., c. 18-20 (pp. 18-20). See Menander Rhetor, 180 (Spengel, 423.23-25): ... x.aL c1v dw8aaLV oi f3amAei:c; n:govoei:a8m,
contrasted with cases of city destruction drawn from ancient Greek history. 276 Sponsoring public spec- niov cm AO'U't:QU auµrt:Elt't(l)X,EV, UC)(X't(l)V oxei:oL 0Lecp8ag11aav, x.6aµoc; 6 i:fji; ltOAEW<; auyx.i\xui:m.
279
tacles was no longer a reason to praise the emperor. On the contrary, the ban on wild animal fights and Procopius of Gaza, PanegyricusAnastasii, c. 21 (p. 20). See Menander Rhetor, 114 (Spengel, 389.5-6): 6n:oi:6i; fon n:egL
x.maax.euai; 't:WV ltOAEWV x.aL 't(J)V 011µoalwv OLX.000µ11µai:wv.
performances of mimes by Anastasius has restored wisdom and has saved the cities. 277 The emperor's 280
Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 28 (p. 23.30-31 ). See supra, n. 268. Constantinople is also personified in other
euergetism is defined in works of practical benefit for the cities concerned: the construction of an aque- sources: Fenster, Laudes, 45, 99 (x.6g11). F. Ela Consolino, La prosopopea di Roma e i primi due libri delle Laudes Stilichonis,
in "Humana sapit", 7-24. Provinces also are presented personified and dancing from glory: Ammianus Marcelllinus XXVI-
11.3.9; Himerius, Or. 38.9 (pp. 157-158): oux OE ltOAAa µEv ~OE x.maovaa ltUALV &.v11f3~ 't:E x.aL eyelgei:m, Mx.gua 't:E &.cpei:aa x.aL
269 Og~voui;, x.wµatnv i:e x.aL xogevELv agxnm &an:eg agi:L i:fji; yfji; &.vela11i; aui:~v. Dioscorus, 10.1 (p. 390; a. 565-566), 11.9 (p.
PanegyricusAnastasii, c. 2 (p. 5.25-27).
270 394; a. 568), 12.1 (p. 400; a. 565/66-567), 18.15 (p. 412; a. 567 or 568), 19.1 (p. 415; a. 567?): 0~f311, n:aaa xogeuaov. See Menander
Ibid., pp. 5.31-6.4.
271
Humane customs were considered an element of the cities' culture worthy of praise: Menander Rhetor, 64-66 (Spengel, Rhetor, 114 (Spengel, 377.10-12): EV 't01J't:OL<; EQEL<; i:ai; E1JE't1']Qlai;, i:ai; euomµovlai; 't:WV ltOAEWV, O't:L ltA~QEL<; µEV cbvlwv ai
363.6-7: i:6 i:oi:i; E0emv 'laoL<; x.aL cpLAav8gcimmi; x.aL i:6 v6µmi; &.x.gLf3im x.aL cnx.almi; xgfia8m). tiyogal, n:A~QEL<; OE fogi:wv x.aL n:av11yvgewv ai n:6AEL<;.
272 281 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 29 (p. 24.8-11). See Menander Rhetor, 92-94 (Spengel, 377.24-28).
Menander Rhetor, 88 (Spengel, 374.25-375.4), 180 (Spengel, 423.2, 9 ff.).
273 282 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 30 (p. 24.18-19).
Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 7 (p. 10.8-16).
274 283 Ibid., c. 30 (p. 24.22-23).
Ibid., c. 7 (pp. 10.30-11.13).
284
275
Menander Rhetor, 166 (Spengel, 416.10): i:6 n:6AEL<; eyelQELV. Menander Rhetor, 182-184, 206-224, esp. 220-222 (Spengel, 424-425, 437-446, esp. 444-445): praise of the festival and
276 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 10; cpLAav8gwn:(a: p. 12.22, 25; awcpgovei:v µ6vov n:moevaai;: p. 13.14-15. of the architecture of a temple.
285
211 Ibid., c. 15, 16 (pp. 17-18). Choricius, Or. 1.7 (p. 4.17-19); Or. II.16 (p. 32).
62 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 63

behaviour toward Gaza's inhabitants. 286 But the focal point of the two enkomia is the renovation and t•ducation, and, through it, urban culture that creates the greatest affinities between the city and its best
construction of churches. 287 Ancient orators recommended that in the praise of a festival should be in- t'it izens. These affinities nourish the patriotic feelings of the bishop and motivate his construction ini-
cluded the description and praise of the temple of the god honoured in the festival. 288 Choricius trans- tiatives. The image of the city as it emerges from Choricius' enkomia for bishop Marcian with their
fers this traditional pagan motif to a Christian setting. Thus the lengthy enkomiastike ekphrasis of the kngthy description of churches is clearly a Christian one. However, the image of the bishop benefactor
Church of St. Stephanus in Gaza honours the bishop and the city itself. 289 is still formulated through ancient urban values and feelings. When they are eradicated in the second
A theme, repeated several times in the two enkomia for bishop Marcian, is the competition among half of the sixth century with the collapse of the classical higher education, this ancient image of the
cities for excellence on account of their buildings, their prime location, shining marbles, great size, and henefactor also vanishes.
their adornment with frescoes. 290 The antique concept of competition among cities291 is now included In the enkomion for the military governor, dux Aratius, and for the civil governor, archon Stephanus,
in the praise of the Christian churches in various formulations: by displaying various adornments worthy a variety of themes celebrating the city are designed to enhance the panegyric for the governor. The
of admiration the church gave rise to "a most pleasant kind of competition among the celebrants". 292 cities are praised for their open communication with each other. The theme was appropriate for the
The church would be ranked first in a competition with other churches, should a group of judges be praise of provincial governors. Contacts among cities are described as sweet and beneficial. The occa-
invited to decide. In the second enkomion for bishop Marcian, there is a brief praise of Gaza in accord si1 >11 for the development of this theme was the clearing of the roads of brigands by dux Aratius, which
with the rhetorical topoi. The city is praised for its location, which offers a harmony and blending of the made travelling from neighbouring cities to Caesarea easy and safe. The orator analyses the benefits of
airs, for the beauty of its buildings, and the appropriate way of life of its inhabitants. These are further rnntacts among cities: the exploration of a city by travellers from abroad is not only pleasant, but also
enhanced by the gifts received from land and sea. 293 The land is praised as fertile, while the sea was a heneficial. 296 Such contacts offer greater experience and commercial exchanges to entire cities:
short distance away so that it did not disturb the citizens with the noise of the waves, yet close enough
to be accessible on foot. 294 Finally, the city is praised as mother and nurse of Marcian, for having taught For the interrelations of cities with each other graciously gives them a greater
him at all levels of education, at the school of grammar and at the school of rhetoric. Education was still experience in affairs and a more skilful practice and [the ability] to procure easily
regarded as a major asset in urban life, and a valuable benefit enjoyed by the cities' inhabitants. Marcian's whatever they need. For on the one hand, each city has [certain] possessions but at
care for Gaza is presented as an expression of gratitude for these favours. 295 Thus Choricius draws a the same time easily receives [other things] from other cities, as if nature had con-
bond, based on intellectual and emotional reciprocity between the urban leader and the city itself. It is trived it purposely that the exchange of necessary things between each other might
be a cause of friendship between cities. 297

Openness, mobility, and the need for interaction and commercial exchange among cities are ancient
286 Ibid., Or. II.23-24 (p. 34).
287 Ibid., Or. I.17-76 (pp. 7-21): church of St. Sergius; Or. II.17-18 (pp. 32-33): repair of the church of the Holy Apostles; c.
characteristics, still valued.
19-20 (p. 33): repair of another church outside the city walls; c. 21 (p. 33): reference to the church of St. Sergi us; c. 25-58 (pp. The orator presents the cities expressing their gratitude to Stephanus, in a metaphor employing
34-42): lengthy description of the church of St. Stephanus. !lie personification of the cities:
288 Menander Rhetor, 220-222 (Spengel, 445).

289 Menander Rhetor, 70 (Spengel, 365.18-22): XQ~ OE OE µ110' EXE1:vo ayvodv, cm xaL btL µegn toutwv oAm uJto0foEu;
Therefore, I imagine I see cities standing round in a circle, each asking me to speak
ylvovtm. KaL yag EJtL AO'UtQOU µ6vov xataOXE'Uft xaL EJtL ALµEVO£ xaL EJtL µEQEL tLVL tij£ JtOAEW£ avmxoc\0µ110evn EOtL JtQO-
O<jJWVELV.
on its behalf, because it owes you more gratitude than the others: one city indicating
°
29
Choricius, Or. I.43 (p. 13). to me the children and women who were free from predatory abuse, another [indi-
291 The theme is found in earlier texts: Aelius Aristides, R. Klein, Die Romrede desAelius Aristides (Darmstadt 1983), c. 97: cating that] its own citizens have been taught to honour divinity, another [indicating
KaL a1 µEv aAAm Jtiiom <JJLAOVLxlm ta£ JtOAEL£ emAEAOlJtamv, µla OE aiitl] xatEXEL JtaOa£ EQL£, oJtW£ on xaAALOtl] xaL ~c\lotl] that its] citizens were liberated from the abuse of enemies, another that various
aut~ l:xaotl] qJavE1:tm. Libanius, Or. XVIII.187-188 (II, 318-319): long speeches were delivered in competitions for the pri-
rebellious factions had been suppressed. 298
macy of cities in Syria, where the orator speaking for each city claimed its supremacy on the basis of claims to beauty, wisdom
and renowned citizens. See also Petit, Libanius, 175-177. According to Ammianus Marcellinus XIV.8.11, cities in Palestine ri-
valled one another (Caesarea, Eleutheropolis, Neapolis, Ascalon and Gaza); Themistius, Or. 3.42c-d (I, 60-61). Gaza appears to be the winner, mainly for having educated Stephanus, a theme which has been
292 Choricius, Or. I.83 (p. 23.17-18): xaL to1:£ Euwxovµevm£ ~olotl]V <JJLAOVELxlav 6 va6£ JtW£ ◊LEYELQEL Jtagexwv UAAOL£

UA.Aa 0avµatELV.
293 Ibid., c. 5 (p. 29): 'AQEt~ tolvvv JtOAEW£ agµovla xaL XQiiOL£ UEQWV µEQLtoµevwv E~ LOO'U to Et0£, otxoc\0µ11µatwv

E'lJJtQEJtELa, tQOJt0£ OlXY)tOQWV EJtLELX~£. Tauta c\~ oou tij£ JtOAEW£ ta yvwgloµata, l]V at xmvaL tOU f3lov 0EQaJtmvm, yij tE k1mwn from earlier centuries: Lucian, 'EyxwµLOv JtatQlOo£, c. 7 (xagwt~QLa tQO<JJWV aJto◊LMvm); Themistius, Or. 4.59a-c (I,
xaL 0aAaooa, tOL£ /;avto1:£ /;xmega OWQOL£ af3guvEL Praise of nature surrounding cities is found in various other texts. For IH ): Julian, Ep. 48 (443B): ~ JtOAL£ ctJtmtEL Jtag' eµou to ava011µa, JtatQL£ oiioa µov xaL JtQOO~XO'UOa JtAEOV 'f]JtEQ EXELVqJ. 'O
example, Procopius of Gaza, Ep. 119.9-12, supra, p. 51 and n. 208; Choricius, Or. VIII.95 (p. 365): 'AJtof3M'ljlatE OE JtQO£ t~v 111 V yc'!.Q aut~V W£ <l◊EA<j)~V, eycb OE W£ µl]tEQa <j)LA(J)' xaL yag eyEv6µ11v Jtag' autft xaL EtQ<iqJY)V EXELOE, xaL 01) Mvaµm JtEQL
Kaloago£ JtoAtv, t\v exaAAWJtWE Jtavtax60Ev ~ <JJUOL£. 111qi1v ayvwµovijom; Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 66 (p. 108, late fifth century) (EuxagLotwv tft otxl<;,1. JtatQl◊L), 73 (p. 114; late
294 Choricius, Or. II.6 (p. 29). See supra, p. 59 and n. 267. 111th to sixth century) (JtatQL£ 'Iwavv11v JtQWt60govov avega f3ovAij£ otijoEv ◊E~aµev11 0gmt~QLa JtOAA.aXL JtoAM).
295 Ibid., c. 14 (p. 31): toLaut v µEv JtOALV oµou µ11tega xaL tgoqJov Eutvx~oa£; c. 7 (pp. 29-30): TExouoa mlvvv ~ JtOAL£ !% Choricius, Or. III. 36 (p. 58).
11
01) JtEQLEL◊EV <lAAOtQLUL£ ayxaAUL£ 'IJJtOtQEqJOµEvov, <lAAa [3QE<j)O£ UVEAOµEVY) xaL JtQO£ ~ALXlav 'f]◊l] Jtm◊E1JE00m c\vvaµEVY)V I" 7 Ibid., c. 37 (pp. 58-59, transl. Litsas, Choricius, 164-165).
2''H [bid., c. 52 (p. 62): 'Evwu0EV c\oxw ta£ JtOAEL£ ogiiv X'UXAqJ JtEQLEOtWOa£ EXCXOtl]V eµou ◊EOµEVY)V JtAELOOLV 'IJJtEQ autij£
<lVEVEyxouoa Jtaga 0uga£ ~YE JtOLY)tLXa£ xaL tij£ EXE1:0EV eµqJOQ1]0EVta OE Mo1JOY)£ t(p XOQ'UqJalqi JtaQEolc\ov t(J)V 'Egµou xo-
QE'Ut(J)V JtA~0EL tE Aoywv xaL tQOJtqJ xa0EOtl]XOtL ta JtQWta <jJEQOVtL t(J)V oµotexvwv; c. 15 (p. 32). This is a literary theme /lltJmw0m A6yoL£ ola c\~ JtAELO'll£ twv UAAWV O<JJELAO'U01]£ om XUQLta£ (transl. Litsas, Choricius,168).
64 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 65

developed already in the panegyric to bishop Marcian. 299 Finally in enumerating the construction construction works. In the De scientia politica we find familiar imagery: personified cities in distress,
works of Stephanus for the city of Gaza, first priority is again given to the restoration of the walls. Then sland as in a painting around the mother and queen city Constantinople. 308
follows the enumeration of anticipated works - the construction of the roof of a public building, the
completion of the theatre, and the construction of a winter bath. But the orator insists again that the
first priority was the restoration of the wall (tYJV ,:wv EQywv a:rtoMxoµm 1:<isLv, O1:L 1:q'> :rtEQl~OA<p T'YJV The praise of the city and the church
:rtQW't'llV a:rtovdµac:; cpQOVTLOa ... ). 300
In Choricius' second Oration for bishop Marcian, we have seen stressed the bond between bene- Construction of urban monuments had been a traditional imperial policy and a demonstration of
factor and city of origin and the favour he was expected to return to the city. The attachment to the fa- the emperors' interest in and care for their subjects. During the Christian centuries, church construe-
therland is a theme recurrent in many texts of the Roman and early Byzantine period. It is found in ! i< ,n was projected as a major imperial virtue, an expression of imperial piety, and a great benefit for
Roman epigrams often formulated with expressions such as "to the sweet fatherland" (1:fi yAuxu1:a1:n subjects. Eusebius of Caesarea praised Constantine for the construction of major churches in the Holy
:rtaTQLOL). 301 It is stressed by orators, and, as we will see further, it is also repeated in hagiographical I ,and. 309 Priscian in his Panegyric for Anastasius praised the emperor for his piety in building and
texts. 302 Patriarch Sophronius identified himself with his name and a reference to the city, his father- restoring churches, knowing that the real profit lay in the distribution of money in a legitimate man-
land and his monastery. 303 Choricius is attracted to the natural graces of three cities which, as if in a ncr.310 From the sixth century several ekphraseis of churches are known. Choricius incorporates two
competition, are trying to win him, Antioch has Daphne with waters and trees, melodies of birds and ,•11/wmia of the churches of St. Sergius and St. Stephanus at Gaza in the Orations for bishop Marcian. The
breezes refreshing the bodies, Tyre has the Graces of the water fountains ( also praised by Nonnus in his second Oration has a double subject and is thus divided in two parts: the praise of the virtues of bishop
Dionysiaca), and Caesarea is adorned with a bath, pleasant to look at and more pleasant to bathe in. 304 Marcian and of the magnificence of the Church of St. Stephanus. 311 Better known are the description
The theme of the competition of the three cities may provide an implicit parallel with the story of Paris. 1if St. Sophia by Procopius of Caesarea in his Buildings, the praise of the same church by Paul Silentiarius
The orator, however, chose Gaza, his fatherland, to which he was emotionally attached. In the past, and a monody by Procopius of Gaza. These texts describe in details the architecture of the churches,
membership of a municipality and obligations to it depended on the city of descent (origo) and not on t lteir function in terms of theological considerations, reveal the aesthetic values of the beholders and
the city of residence or of birth. 305 But in the early Byzantine period, the decline of the municipal ad- place the churches in an urban setting. The style of these texts and literary expressions show how the
ministration increasingly made hereditary membership of municipalities obsolete. The attachment to c'hristian perception of churches was shaped by literary tradition and, of course, by Christian religion.
and identification with the city of descent disappeared as the civic administration and civic self-defini- !'raises of churches had entered the repertory of rhetorical exercises and were read at festivals. Menan-
tion based upon reference to one's city of descent declined steadily. New personal names include dcr laid down guidelines for the enkomiastike ekphrasis of a temple on the occasion of a festival. After
patronymic, the profession or civic status, or the fatherland. Thus references to the city of birth and of the praise of the festival, the temple should be described on account of its height, size, its harmonious
residency increase in inscriptions. 306 A new ideological dimension was added. Christian ideology was parts, the beauty and harmony of its stones, and its brightness. 312 These elements and vocabulary are
gradually replacing the emotional and legal attachment to the city of origin. The trend was general. Even n,:peated by Christian authors in their praises of churches. Choricius declared that it was appropriate to
the cult of saints now transcended the limits of specific cities, becoming empire-wide. Thus Romanus build churches, appropriate to behold them and appropriate for one who beheld them to describe them
Melodus speaks of the cult of saints who were introduced to Constantinople from all cities and shared to an audience. 313 In the sixth century the description and praise of churches incorporated in praises of
the same patris as the Constantinopolitans (a:rto :rtaa11c:; auv11x811aav :rt6Acwc:; xal, ~µwv :rtaTQLWTm y1oy6- benefactors are intimately linked with the urban landscape. The churches are presented as part of the
vamv ).307 Ultimately Constantinople dominated the cities of the empire. At the level of provinces the city, they adorn it, and they ultimately dominate it. Thus urban space is profoundly Christianized.
interest shifts from the smaller cities to the provincial capitals, where governors preferred to sponsor For Choricius, church construction involved recalling the memory of good deeds accomplished by
saints. The preservation of this memory is most beneficial for Christians, since it encourages them to
live a pious life,314 a commonplace in hagiographical sources. 315 The glorification of the benefactor and
299 Jbid., c. 53-54 (pp. 62-63).
300 Ibid., c. 54, 55, 56 (p. 63).
301 For example, Jnschr. Ephesos II, nos. 502 (1. 1), 521 (1. 2-3), 522 (1. 2-3), 524 (1. 3-4), 525 (1. 1), 525A (1).

302 Menander Rhetor, 196 (Spengel, 431.20-21) (tl£ yag O'UX av Jto8r'joELE tl]V olxelav;), p. 431.32 (fotw µev CTOL 6µolW£ 308 De scientia politica, c. 109 (p. 34): OL' oxal, otgacpd£ alcpvlowv WOJtEQ E~AE'tjm EL£ to.£ JtOAEL£ W£ ev nlvaxL xuxAq.i JtEQL

ta mitgLa egwnxa); Aeneas of Gaza, Ep. IX.3-4 (p. 43: EL µaxagW£ ~V, µLCX£ UJtOAUUELV JtOAEW£ ti'j£ JtatQL00£); Procopius of ri1v µl]tEQU xal, ~amAloa fotwoa£, uno t&v tgocplµwv xa8u~gwµeva£ xal aAAr'jAm£ otovd OLT]youµeva£ ta.£ tE evoo8Ev
Gaza, Ep. 59.2, 80.9-11, 81.4-5, 91.38, 113.10-11, 114, 115, 120.2; Choricius, Or. VIl.12 (p. 114.3, n68q.i ti'j£ evEyxouori£). For ((lltUL£ eyyLyvoµEVU£ ~la£ tE xal, JtQOJtl]AUXLOEL£ xal, tO.£ el;w8Ev enayoµEVU£ ouµcpoga.£ tE xal, UAWOEL£, xal, EAEr'jOU£ µ'I] EJtOL-
references in hagiographical texts see infra, chapter 4, passim, and pp. 115, 117. flltl(;m t(() na8EL oux eouvr'J8riv. On the term ~amAt£ and its use in rhetoric see Fenster, Laudes, pp. 33 ff.
309 On description of churches and religious art in the early Byzantine period see C. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire
303 Miracula SS. Cyri et Iohannis, 70.3 (p. 394): Ml;wµEv OE xal, ovoµa, xal JtOALv, xal nmgloa, xal, cpgovtwtr']gLov, o8Ev tE

ecpuµEv, xal, OJtt] E>rnu ~OUAl]8EVto£ etax8riµEv. I 12-1453 (Toronto 1986), 24 ff.
3
304 Choricius, Or. VIl.13 (p. 114). to Priscian, Panegyricus Anastasii, vv. 268-269 (p. 66).
311
305 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 712. Choricius, Or. 11.28.4-5.
312 Menander Rhetor, 220-222 (Spengel, 445). On some elements of the praise of the church deriving from the ekphrasis
306 See S. Mitchell, Ethnicity, Acculturation and Empire in Roman and Late Roman Asia Minor, in S. Mitchell and G.

Greatrex (eds.), Ethnicity and Culture in Late Antiquity (Surrey 2000), 117-150; A Avramea, Mort loin de la patrie. L'apport 11f palaces in Greek literature (columns, their height, the brightness of the marble) see G. Agosti, Nonno, Parafrasi E 1-2 e la

des inscriptions paleochretiennes, in G. Cavallo and C. Mango (eds.), Epigrafia M edievale Greca e Latina. Ideologia e funzione. dcscrizione di edifici nella poesia tardoantica, Prometheus 24 (1998), 193-214.
313 Choricius, Or. II, proem 1 (p. 26): noAutEAi'j oi: aga xal yeµovta cpLAOtLµla£ tEµevri xaMv µi:v oIµm Ol]µLouyEiv, xaMv oi:
Atti de! seminario di Erice (12-18 settembre 1991) (Spoleto ), 1-65, esp. pp. 12-15.
307 Romanus Melodus, On all Martyrs, c. 59.2.1-2 (p. 507). See infra, pp. 113-114. \l(l<XV, ~()U ()E OQWVta tot£ axououmv unoygacpav.
66 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 67

the salvation of his soul were of course strong motives for church construction. 316 The orator connects understood as alluding to the spiritual guidance offered by the church. The city is seen from a distance
the glory of godliness, which the benefactor receives, with the beauty added to the city upon the con- hy those who visit the church for their soul's salvation. Artfully, the image of the city, still attractive, is
struction of a church. 317 Thus the church is placed in direct relation to the city. subordinated to the dominant message of the church.
In the Orations of Choricius to bishop Marcian, the churches of St. Sergius and St. Stephanus are Churches are praised first and foremost for their beauty, a theme, as we have seen, most appropri-
described. In these texts, the vocabulary of the imagery of the churches makes noticeable use of refer- ate to the praise of the city. Procopius in his Buildings begins the description of the Church of St. Sophia
ences to ancient literature, literary classicizing motifs and themes, among which is the recurrent theme hy stressing its beauty: "So the church has become a spectacle of marvellous beauty, overwhelming to
of nature. This theme is an element that makes up the image of the churches in Choricius' enkomia, those who see it, but to those who know it by hearsay altogether incredible". 326 In the following section,
since it formed an important part of the city's ekphrasis in earlier literature. The Church of St. the church and the urban landscape are interconnected by the interplay of words and images, parallels
Stephanus was located on the city's periphery, thus providing the visitor with the enjoyment of splendid and antitheseis. The church belongs to the city by being part of it. At the same time the church emerges
scenery on the way there. 318 References to nature either in descriptions of the paintings of the church as powerful, dominating the city with its massive construction and height, while still adorning it. As
or in metaphors are recurrent. 319 How classicizing and antique the perception of the church in Choricius' Procopius focuses on the description of the church, he concludes his sentence by returning to the image
1 if the city, the panoramic view of which could be enjoyed from such a lofty building:
Orations is can be seen from a passage in the oration referring to the breeze refreshing the bodies of
those inside the church. The theme and the vocabulary of aesthetics are surprising in the context of a
church description: For it [the church] soars to a height to match the sky, and as if surging up from
amongst the other buildings it stands on high and looks down upon the remainder
The long colonnade of the church, which begins from the north side and faces west, of the city, adorning it, because it is a part of it, but glorying in its own beauty, because,
is full of grace and allows a fair breeze [Zephyrus], which blows from the west side; though a part of the city and dominating it, it at the same time towers above it to
for it [Zephyrus] blows sweetly and gently, and gliding softly beneath clothing, cools such a height that the whole city is viewed from there as from a watch-tower. 327
the bodies, while the garments are billowing in the wind. 320
Next Procopius describes the architectural design of the church at great length, focusing again on
its beauty, and also on the harmony and magnificence of the parts, the abundance of light and the
In both ekphraseis Choricius stresses the aesthetic importance of the colonnaded forecourts. The
spiritual elevation that it creates to the Christians.
theme is presented in variations underlining the beauty of the propylon and its practical function in of-
The description of the churches by Choricius is characterized by the classical style of the rhetorical
fering protection from the rain. 321 The latter theme, used by Libanius for the colonnaded avenues of
school of Gaza. They fully incorporate the Christian architecture and imagery into the urban setting
Antioch, is here transplanted to the description of the colonnades of the church's propylon. 322 Choricius
with an elaborate classicizing vocabulary. There is very little about Christian spirituality and no word of
also shows the shift from the earlier aesthetic appreciation of urban public buildings to that of the
the Christian mystery of incarnation and man's salvation. In other ekphraseis of churches, however, a
churches. In the first Oration to bishop Marcian the four columns from Carystos in the propylon of the
new style, not so much in terms of form as in content, emerges. In the description of St. Sophia by
Church of St. Sergius are praised as being superior to those in the portico of the agora in terms of size Procopius of Caesarea, there is reference to the spiritual elevation achieved by the worshippers inside
and location. 323 In the third Oration in praise of dux Aratius and archon Stephanus, Choricius elo- the Great Church. The monody for St. Sophia by Procopius of Gaza, written with passion in lyric tones
quently connects the church with the urban landscape: the Church of St. Stephanus at Gaza is praised following the literary tradition, contains references to Christian theology and spirituality. In Corippus'
for being situated in a good part of the city ( ev xaA.cp wi:i ao-rwi;), and for making "the city visible from praise of Justin II, the ekphrasis of the Church of St. Sophia is replaced by its Trinitarian symbolism as
afar, while it attracts those passing by" (-roui; 0ei3Qo JtoQEuoµevoui; 'ljJuzaywyeT Jt0QQW8£v i'oµcpai,vwv defined in the Creed of Constantinople (a. 553), which Corippus paraphrases in a lengthy passage. 328
-r~v Jt0A.LV). 324 The verb 'l/Jvxaywyw appears frequently in hagiographical texts. 325 It may have been By the sixth century, churches had become the cities' new landmarks, to which the financial re-
sources of the communities and their emotional and intellectual strengths were mainly directed. They
were lavishly decorated and occupied prominent positions in the urban space. They promoted new aes-
thetic values in their display of a variety of ornaments. Variety (nmxLA.La) was also a stylistic principle
314 Ibid., 1.11 (p. 5).
315 For example, Vita S. Matronae, c. 1 (p. 813B); Vita S. Symeonis Sali, 55; Vita S. lohannis Eleemosyn., proem II. 7, 24-26,
69 and passim.
316 See, for example, the epigram on the construction of the church of St. Polyeuctus by Juliana Anicia: Anthologia Grae- 324 Or. 111.61 (p. 64, transl. Litsas, Choricius, 170).
ea 1.10 w.1-41. See also infra, p. 417. 325 For example, Vita S. lohannis Eleemosyn., proem II. 121-122 (p. 345): ygaq:iLxwv xaL 'ljluxaywyLx&v OLlJYl]µ<ii:wv.
317 Choricius, Or. 1.30 (p. 10): fioEL yag we; at µEv UA.A.m (f)LA.01:Lµlm µ6v11v f'UJtQEJtfLUV ,:ft Jt0/1.fL JtfQLJtOLO'UCTLV, ~ OE ,:wv 326 Procopius, De aedificiis 1.1.27: 0foµa ,:o[vuv ~ exx11.11ola xrna11.11.wi:cuµi\vov ycyEVl]WL, i:o'i:c:; µEv og&mv 'lJJtfQ(fJ'llEc:;, i:o'i:c:;

avmn6gwv xai:aoxrn~ µci:a i:oii x<i11.11.ouc:; xaL Ml;av 6m6i:11i:oc; ouvELo<iycL. l">E UXOUO'UCTL JtUVl:fA.Wc:; amoi:ov.
318 Or. 11.28-29 (p. 35). 327 Ibid.: EJtrjg,:m µEv yag ec:; u'ljloc:; O'UQUVLOV OCTOV, xaL (l)(JJtfQ ,:wv U/1./1.(J)V oixoooµ11µ<ii:wv (lJtOCTU/1.fUO'UCTa EJtLVEVf'UXfV
319 Or.1.32 (pp. 10-11), 35-37 (pp. 11-12); Or. 11.34 (pp. 36-37), 50 (p. 40). llJtfQXcLµEVl] ,:ft UAAU Jt0/1.fL, xooµoiioa µEv U'Ul:'f]V, 01:L aui:rjc:; £01:LV, WQa"L~oµEVl] OE, 01:L aui:rjc:; o?iaa xaL EJtcµ~alvouoa
320 Or.1.22 (p. 8, transl. Litsas, Choricius,116-117). wooiii:ov aVEXEL &oi:c o~ ev0i\voc ~ n611.Lc:; ex JtfQLWJtrjc:; anooxonc'i:i:m (transl. Dewing). On this image of the church and the
321 For example, Or. 11.30 (p. 36): xrnooµ11µi\vov [,:o ,:i\µcvoc:;] OE ngoi:cµcvloµai:oc:; x<i11.11.EL ,:i\,:gaol i:c o,:oa'i:c:; &~guv6µcvov. city see Saradi, Beholding, esp. 34-35.
322 Libanius, Or. Xl.215-216 (I, pp. 511-512). 328 Corippus,ln laudemlust., IV.293-311 (pp. 81-82). L. James and R. Webb, "To Understand Ultimate Things and Enter
323 Choricius, Or. 1.18 (p. 7). Secret Places": Ekphrasis and Art in Byzantium,Art History 14.1 (1991 ), 1-17.
68 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE AESTHETICIZATION OF THE CITY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT 69

of late antique literature, 329 and it is also attested in Christian literature as a characteristic of the divinity
and of the eternal time. 330 In the texts churches are praised as beautifying the cities, a theme which
became predominant in literary descriptions of cities from the end of the early Byzantine period. 331

FIG. 4. Mosaic pavement of a house in Cos with the personification of Cos dating to the fifth century.

329 M. Roberts, The Jeweled Style: Poetry and Poetics in Late Antiquity (Ithaca, N.Y. 1989), 44 ff.; Saradi-Mendelovici,

Christian Attitudes, 53. On the preference for polychromy and variety of materials in this period see Mango,Architecture, 114-
118; M. Cagiano de Azevedo, Policromia e polimateria nelle opere d'arte della tarda antichita e dell'alto medioevo, FelRav l
(1970), 223-259 ( = idem, Cultura e tecnica artistica nella tarda antichitii e nell'alto medioevo (Milan 1986), 19-55); G. Agosti,
The rtotxttsfo of Paul the Bishop, ZPE 116 (1997), 31-38.
330 Eusebius, Vita Constantini, 206.31-32, 207.6-7.

331 Saradi, Kallas, 44. The theme of the beauty of the churches is also found in inscriptions: for example, IGSyr XXl/2, no.

138 (EcptAoxaAiJ8ri xaL xm:c01:a8ri, a. 536-562); no. 140 (i:~v JtEQtxanfj i:E8t]XEV d,xoaµtav, a. 603).
70 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTER3

THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY

. . . ut et antiqua in nitorem pristinum

contineas et nova simili antiquitate
producas. 332

Procopius of Caesarea: Buildings

In Roman historiography and biography, the praise of the emperors' building activities was an
established part of imperial panegyric. Suetonius best illustrates its use. Later it was introduced into
( 'hristian imperial biography. 333 Buildings were perceived as adorning the cities, giving them magnifi-
n:nce and distinction. This became a theme recommended by Asianic orators. 334 Cassiodorus states
that "the fortune of the city, which is founded on its citizens, is also shown in the beauty of its construc-
t ions". 335 Evagrius in his Ecclesiastical History explains that the "urban adornments are devised for
magnificence and distinction or summoning to public or private functions". 336 Walls, beautiful build-
ings, churches, charitable institutions, stoas and public baths are the elements, which adorn the cities of
distinction (at~ at EJttoriµm i:wv JtOAEWV l,yxaAAWJtL~ovi:m). 337
Procopius' Buildings is a panegyric of the emperor in his capacity as benefactor for the benefits,
with which Justinian as a builder provided his subjects (ooa OE aui:cp aya0a olxoboµouµtvcp ◊E◊l']-

332
Cassiodorus, Variae VII.5.3.
333
See, for example, Eusebius, Vita Constantini III.25-59 (pp. 89-105) with a lengthy account of construction of Christian
churches by Constantine and Helen and destruction of pagan temples and an ekphrasis of the church of the Holy Sepulchre (c.
J4-50: pp. 93-95); Paul Silentiarius' praise of St. Sophia. See Fenster, Laudes, 28 and n. 3, and ff.; Whitby, Procopius' Buildings,
FIG. 5. Mosaic pavement with the personification of Ktisis from a house in 'i4-56.
Daphne near Antioch dating to the second half of the fifth century 334
Menander Rhetor, 192 (Spengel, 429.15-17): ... eha to XUAAO£ tij£ JtOAEW£' wgatl:;etm µev yag T) Jt0AL£ XUAAWLV
(Worcester Art Museum). irv<DV xaL otowv xaL Aoutgwv µeyESemv.
335 Cassiodorus, Variae III.44: fiet, ut fortuna urbis, quae in civibus erigitur, fabricarum quoque decore monstretur. Cas-

siodorus expresses the policy of the Ostrogothic king of preserving the ancient ideal of the city through the restoration of ancient
buildings that gave glory and beauty to the city: C. Lepelley, Un eloge nostalgique de la cite classique dans Jes Variae ·de
( 'assiodore, in M. Sot (ed.), Haut Mayen Age: culture, education et societe. Etudes offertes a Pierre Riche (Paris 1989), 33-47;
idem, La survie de l'idee de cite republicaine dans un edit d'Athalaric redige par Cassiodore (Variae, IX, 2), in Lepelley, La
.f111 de la cite, 72-83; V. Fauvinet-Ranson, Les valeurs ideologiques de la parure monumentale des cites, in Inglebert, Ideologies,
231-240.
336
Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica Il.13 (p. 65.12-14): tfi rt6Aa xaAAT], ~ JtQO£ to µeyaAOJtQErtf£ xaL anaga~Al']tov
t'-~11ox11µeva, ~ JtQO£ XOLVO.£ ~ l◊L(l)tLXO.£ xaAoiivta XQELU£.
337
Ibid., III.37 (p. 136.12-16).
72 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 73

µtoUQYl']-Wt). 338 Given the laudatory character of the work, liberally sprinkled with commonplaces and The chief priority of the Justinianic restoration program as it emerges from Procopius' Buildings
exaggerations, the reader should not be surprised at the inaccuracies in the list of works of construction was city security. This was achieved by restoring neglected walls, reducing their length to make their de-
and restoration. Other sections with lists of forts may not have been finished, while archaeological in- 1,·nce easier, building forts in the cities' territory, defending larger territories with long walls, and some-
vestigation has shown that in several passages Procopius' record is inaccurate, and, in other sections, Iimes by relocating cities to a safer site naturally defended. Diocletianoupolis in northern Greece by the
vague. 339 Finally, in his conclusion Procopius admits that his account of Justinianic buildings is not lake of Castoria was relocated to the island in the middle of the lake, whilst Mocessus in Cappadocia
complete. He has failed to mention some, given the great number of the sites, while he is ignorant of was relocated to a new site surrounded by a strong wall above a very steep slope. The new city was
the existence of othe!s. 340 In other sections, as for example, in the description of the restoration of impregnable when attacked. 347
Antioch after the city's destruction by the Persians, the panegyrical tone compromises the accuracy of In Buildings, next in the emperor's priorities were churches. Book I begins with the restoration of
the description. 341 SI. Sophia and other churches in the capital and its suburbs, and of charitable institutions. The con-
Here we are not concerned with the accuracy of the topographical descriptions in Procopius' struction of fortifications and churches dominates Procopius' account. The two themes are connected
Buildings. Our purpose is to identify the image of the J ustinianic city and how it was perceived. The first and receive special literary treatment in the closing of Buildings. The work concludes with a reference
point of note is that Procopius was not interested in analysing the transformation of the cities' ancient lo the old Roman fortress Septum at Gadira, on the Libyan shore of the Pillars of Hercules, neglected
architectural monumentality and the slow creation of a new mediaeval city. 342 The context of his per- hy the Vandals and destroyed by time. It was refortified by Justinian and secured with a garrison. There
spective was a profoundly urbanized empire with flourishing cities. Some cities of the empire suffered l he emperor "consecrated to the Mother of God a noteworthy church, thus dedicating to her the
from destruction by earthquakes and enemy invasion. In most of them, however, monuments were de- threshold of the empire, and making this fortress impregnable for the whole race of mankind". 348
caying thanks to the passage of time and neglect. This is confirmed by other sources and archaeologi- <'hurch construction with which Buildings begins, returns at the end of the text, where it is raised to a
cal excavation. 343 Procopius' purpose was not to search for the causes of the decline of urban monu- level where it symbolizes the security of the Christian ecumenical empire. 349 The same idea is formu-
mentality, but to highlight the emperor's program to restore the cities' earlier magnificence. A confi- lated in the Ekphrasis of St. Sophia by Paul Silentiarius. The emperor would have Christ as assistant in
dence in the ability of the empire to restore its cities pervades his work. Obviously the literary genre his deeds, issuing laws, building cities, erecting churches, waging wars. 350 Divine protection over cities
imposed serious limitations to a scholarly treatment of the subject. It is of the greatest importance, is a theme developed in numerous sources of this period. 351
however, that the work reveals priorities in sixth-century urbanism. In other sections of Buildings, however, where Procopius enumerates buildings constructed or re-
Various rhetorical models and conventions of the genre are found in Buildings. The introduction stored by Justinian, churches are not always cited first in the list. In the description of the reconstruction
of the work stresses the gratitude of the subjects toward the emperor for the benefits they received. of Antioch after its sack by the Persians, the walls are mentioned first, then stoas, market places, streets,
Furthermore, the emperor's memorial will be transmitted to future generations, through the written water-channels, fountains and sewers, theatres and baths. At the end of the account are listed the
record of his works of restoration. 344 The bond of the emperor with the city of birth, a theme recurring churches of the Mother of God and of the Archangel Michael, and philanthropic institutions for the
in other panegyrics, reappears here. The emperor directs his beneficence towards his birthplace, poor and strangers. 352 In Helenopolis in Bithynia the order is similar: construction of an aqueduct and
Justiniana Prima, and Procopius highlights the imperial munificence towards the city: "Thus this city a public bath, restoration of another old bath, and construction of churches, a palace, stoas, and lodgings
has won honour for the Emperor in requital for his favour; for while it prides itself upon its foster-son,
he for his part takes a corresponding pride in that he built the city". 345 Also rhetorical tradition dictated
that references to mythical founders of cities be included. 346
347 Ibid., IV.3.1-4; V.4.15-18.
348
Ibid., VI.7.16 (transl. Dewing).
349 H. G. Saradi, The Oecumenical Character of Byzantium, in Byzantium: An Oecumenical Empire (Athens 2002), 27-28.

338
Procopius, De aedificiis 1.1.12. See Whitby, Procopius' Buildings. For a hidden criticism of Justinian see Ph. Rousseau, °
35
Friedlander, Kunstbeschreibungen, Paul Silentiarius, Ekphrasis of St. Sophia, vv. 6-8 (p. 227).
351
Procopius's Buildings and Justinian's Pride, Byzantion 68 (1998), 121-130; E. Jeffreys, Malalas, Procopius and Justinian's For example, Leontius, Hom. 3.197 (p. 170): noui n6Atc:; TJ µT] l::zovoa i:ov oi:avQOV Cj)QOUQWV; TheAkathistos Hymn of
Buildings,AntTard 8 (2000), 73-79. Romanus Melodus praises the Virgin for having protected Constantinople like an unconquered general (uJtEQµaxoc;
339
G. Downey, Procopius of Antioch: A Study of Method in the "De Aedificiis", Byzantion 14 (1939), 361-378; Cameron, oi:Qatljy6c:;: proem II (p. 29); c. 23.14-15 (p. 39): zai:QE, fa' ~c:; EYELQovi:m tQ6Jtma· I zai:QE, Ot' ~c:; EX0Qol xai:anlmovm); in the
Procopius, 84-112; B. Croke and J. Crow, Procopius and Dara,JRS 73 (1983), 143-159; M. Whitby, Procopius' description of hymn On the Raising of the Holy Cross the holy cross becomes Constantinople's wall, a tower of power (nuQyoc:; ioxuoc:;),
Martyropolis (de Aedificiis IIl.2.10-14), ByzSl 45 (1984), 177-182; idem, Procopius and the Development of Roman Defences unconquered trophy ( arii:i:rirnv tQ6Jtmov) (ibid., c. 9.8-9: p. 155); Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica IV.28 (pp. 176.24-177.2);
in Upper Mesopotamia, in Freeman and Kennedy, The Defence, 717-735; idem, Procopius' Description of Dara (Buildings Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.23.5; Joshua the Stylite, c. 60-61 (pp. 52-53); in the Miracula S. Demetrii in Thessalonica the
11.1-3), ibid., 737-783; D. Roques, Les constructions de Justinien de Procope de Cesaree, AntTard 8 (2000), 31-43, esp. 37-40; Saint is called owoCitatQtc:;: I, 133.16, 188.19, 195.4, 197.9, 216.16, 220.1; owoCitoAtc:;: 168.5, 188.26, 195.14, 227.15; defending
T. E. Gregory, Procopius on Greece, ibid., 105-114; T. Ulbert, Procopius, De Aedificiis. Einige Uberlegungen zu Buch II, the city like an impregnable wall ( we; i:Ei:zoc:; axai:aµaxrirnv: 69.17). Thessalonica was 0rn(jlvAaxrnc:; (134.8-9), and 0EOCjJQOV-
Syrien, ibid., 137-147; Bowden,Epirus Vetus, 173-180. Qlltoc:; (134.16). The saint appeared on the city's walls during the Slavic attack: 177.30-178.5; 195.4-7; 217.4-6. The protection
340
Procopius, De aedificiis VI.7.19-20. of Christian symbols over specific buildings is also stated in inscriptions: Mitford, Inscriptions, no. 202 (pp. 353-354); Ch.
341
Ibid., 11.10.19-25. Mpakirtzis, AµCjltJtOA.lj, EAE 1996 (1997), 72 and fig. 57 (XQW"tE 6 Ekoc:; riµwv (J(J)(JOV xal, avaO"tljOOV xal, "t'f]V JtOA.ElV mui:riv).
342
Cameron, Procopius, 111-112. See also N. H. Baynes, The supernatural defenders of Constantinople,AnBoll 67 (1949), 165-177. Churches were also protected
343
See infra, parts III and IV. with the symbol of cross engraved on the bricks of the walls but remained hidden because they were covered with plaster or
344
Procopius, De aedificiis I.1.4. See also Cassiodorus, Variae 1.28: restoring ancient cities glorifies the king. marble revetment: N. Teteriatnikov, The Hidden Cross-and-Tree Program in the Brickwork of Hagia Sophia, ByzSl 56 (1995),
345
Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.26 (transl. Dewing). 689-699.
346 352
Ibid., IV.11.1 (the city of Aenus founded by Aeneas); V.5.4 (Mopsuestia founded by the seer Mopsus). Procopius, De aedificiis 11.10.2-25.
74 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 75

for the magistrates. 353 At Carthage, however, the churches appear after the walls, and then follow the I here.After the destruction of Antioch by the Persians, the emperor sponsored large-scale reconstruc-
stoas on both sides of the Maritime Forum, a public bath, named after Theodora, and a monastery. 354 tion works. First he built a new circuit wall and then "he laid it out with stoas and market-places, and
In Justiniana Prima, which was a new foundation, the order of priorities better reflects the trends of the dividing all the blocks of houses by means of streets, and making water-channels and fountains and sewers,
age: construction of an aqueduct, churches, lodgings for magistrates, great stoas, fine market places, all those of which the city now boasts, he built theatres and baths for it, ornamenting it with all the other
fountains, streets, baths, shops. 355 In Mocessus in Cappadocia, however, many churches are mentioned public buildings by means of which the prosperity of a city is wont to be shewn" ( aLonEQ Euomµovta
first and then hospices and last a public bath. 356 htwpatvrn0m noAEW£ El'.w0E). 366 Justiniana Prima, Justinian's birthplace, represents the model of a
The order in which Procopius mentions the urban buildings appears to have been dictated by the sixth-century city:
urban development of each settlement. Thus, for Antioch, which maintained its ancient appearance
and culture for longer, it was appropriate to mention the churches and charitable institutions last in the In that place also he constructed an aqueduct and so caused the city to be abun-
imperial priorities. 357 In general, in Buildings military and ecclesiastical constructions are a priority, dantly supplied with ever-running water. And many other enterprises were carried
and the cities' water supply system (cisterns, water conduits, aqueducts )358 and the construction or out by the founder of this city- works of great size and worthy of especial note. For
restoration of baths follow; 359 only a few markets (agorai) are mentioned (the Antiphorus of Edessa, to enumerate the churches is not easy, and it is impossible to tell in words of the
the markets in Antioch, the Maritime Agora in the Harbour of Carthage, and in the imperial founda- lodgings for magistrates, the great stoas, the fine market-places, the fountains, the
tions of Justiniana Prima and Caputvada360), stoas, 361 and a theatre is mentioned in Antioch. 362 But streets, the baths, the shops. In brief, the city is both great and populous and blessed
neither hippodromes nor gymnasia are mentioned in the Buildings, because they were irrelevant to the in every way - a city worthy to be the metropolis of the whole region, for it has
sixth-century culture. attained this rank 367
It is well known that in early Byzantine cities, the ancient civic monuments were gradually aban-
doned, some being taken over by private persons or the Church, others being left to decay and become Arabissus in Cappadocia, birthplace of the emperor Maurice, was endowed with similar urban
dilapidated. The cities' ancient monumentality disintegrated. However, in the texts of the early Byzan- features. First a church was built, then a hospice, a town hall, porticoes, basilicas and a palace, and at last
tine period, monumental constructions are praised as the cities' landmarks, and even define the city. a strong wall. 368 The similarities between the two imperial foundations are obvious. Churches occupy the
An acclamation for the small island of Asteria, between Seleucia and Aphrodisias, dating to the fifth to place of honour in the list; the administrative buildings were in fact lodgings of the magistrates and have
sixth century, expresses civic pride in having received buildings worthy of a city (+ Au!;ri 'Aow12~a nothing to do with ancient civic centres in the form of the agora/forum; spectacle buildings are absent.
uxwowµouµevri W£ nmAf1£). 363 Evagrius praises the Justinianic restorations in Libya, which made cities In surviving accounts of the promotion of small settlements and fortresses to the status of a city, there
more distinguished and beautiful: they included private and public buildings, walls, churches, water is with only one exception no mention of civic self-determination. The exception concerns Caputvada
conduits and fountains. 364 In some sections of his work Procopius explains which buildings were con- in Libya and this is an anachronism. 369 Mocessus in Cappadocia, aphrourion, rose to the status of a city
sidered appropriate to a city, embellishing and enhancing the city's prestige. Sergiopolis (modern with the rank of metropolis with the construction of a new wall in a naturally defended site to the west
Rusafa), in northeastern Syria north of Palmyra, in the province of Euphratesia, was a modest town, of the old fortress; also churches, hospices and public baths were added. 370 Sebastopolis in Lazica was
surrounded with a very humble wall just sufficient to prevent the Saracens from capturing it in a sudden a polisma or phrourion restored by Justinian with walls, streets, and various unspecified buildings and
attack. Justinian built a new wall, cisterns, houses, stoas and other buildings, which usually adorned so it became "a distinguished city in terms of its beauty and size" (i:0 1:E xaAAEL xal, i:c[:> µEye0EL noALv
cities (a oe JtOAEW£ EyxaAAwn(oµm:a y(vrn0m El'.w0Ev). 365 He also established a garrison of soldiers mvuv a!;wAoywi:ai:riv Ev i:o1£ µaAwi:a xm:rni:~om:o). 371 The strongholds (oxu12mµai:a) Pinci, Cupi
and Novae on the Danube received the rank of cities (noAEWV O.U1:0L£ a!;tmµm:a oux ano mu ELX01:0£
i'.-vi:e0ELXE) when Justinian increased the size of the population and enlarged their defences. 372 No civic
353
Ibid., V.2.1-5. buildings are mentioned. These towns had only a military function. The small city (polichnion) Cyrus in
354
Ibid., VI.5.8-11. the province of Euphratesia, northeast of Antioch, became a flourishing city and worthy of mention
355
Ibid., IV.1.21-23. (n:oAtv EUOatµova xal, Myou a!;tav noAAoiJ), when it received a strong wall, a garrison, and large
356
Ibid., V.4.17. unspecified public buildings. A channel was also constructed to bring water from a fountain outside the
357
Ibid., II.10.24-25.
358
See infra, p. 345.
359
See infra, pp. 333-334.
360 366
Procopius, De aedificiis II.7.6, II.10.22, IV.1.23, VI.5.10, VI.6.16. Ibid., II.10.22 (transl. Dewing).
361 367 Ibid., IV.1.21-24 (transl. Dewing). The description is vague and formulated in traditional cliches: Cameron, Procopius,
Ibid., II.8.25 (Zenobia), II.9.7 (Sergiopolis), II.10.22 (Antioch), VI.5.10 (Carthage).
362
Ibid., II.10.22 (Antioch). <J4, 111, 220. Similar vague statements define the restoration of other cities: Procopius, De aedificiis IV.10.21 (xaL ooa f\ aAAct
363 Jt!'(PUXEV Emcpavfj evodxvuo0m JtOALv), V.2.5 (xaL w1:c; UAAOLc; EJtLClE()ELXLm ct'UL~V JtOALV EMaLµova), V.4.17 (xaL ooa UAAct
Dagron and Feissel, Inscriptions, no. 6 (p. 23).
364 i'·vodxvmm JtoALV EMalµova).
Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica IV.18: AeyELm M EV Atf3un JtEVL~XOVLct xaL exmov acnri 'loUOLLVLctvoc; avaowoao0m,
368 John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica V.21 (pp. 361-362).
LU µev LEAEOV LU ()£ xma JtOAU ClLctQQUEVrn, xaL Jtgoc; LO µEyctAOJtQEJtEOLEQOV avaxmvLom XctAAWJtlOEWc; VJtEQf30Act1:c;,
369
xooµ~µaol LE xaL xmaoxEua1:c; tolmc; xaL oriµoolmc;, LELXWV LE JtEQLf36Amc;, hegmc; LE µEyLoLmc; otxoooµLmc; El; <l'.iv a\'. LE See infra, p. 76.
370 Procopius, De aedificiis V.4.15-18.
JtOAELc; xooµoiiVLm LO LE 0E1:ov LAUOXELm, Emggolmc; LE voc'nwv Ee; w XQELctV xaL XUAAoc;, LWV µev EX JtQOOLµLwv foax0evLUJV
371
OU?{ OVLUJV rn1:c; JtOAEOL JtQOLEQOV, LWV ()£ m'i0tc; JtQoc; Tt]V agxalav EJtctvaz0EvLWV LUl;LV. Procopius, De Bello Persico II.29.18 (polisma ); De Bello Gothico VIII.4.4 (phrourion ); De aedificiis III.7.8-9.
365
Procopius, De aedificiis II.9.1-7. 372 Ibid., IV.6.2.
76 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 77

walls. 373 These are towns of a military and rural character. In the Roman times, such towns received Thcodosiopolis (kome or phrourion) and Annoucas (phrourion) on the Persian frontier. 382 According
buildings for civic administration, baths, and eventually buildings to host spectacles. In the sixth centu- In Procopius, Daras was promoted to a city by Anastasius from an insignificant village (kome) by en-
ry such urban features were maintained only in major cities. Leptis Magna, for example, having been dosing it with a wall. 383 Evagrius, however, mentions churches, charitable institutions, stoas, and pub-
deserted through neglect and buried in the sand, was restored by Justinian with the construction of a llr baths and, concludes with the familiar statement, "and all the other buildings with which distin-
new wall, churches, public baths and the restoration of the Severan palace. Thus it received the status p,uished cities are adorned". 384 It would seem that Procopius downplayed the scale of Anastasi us' works
of a city (wt£ TE aAAot£ namv E£ JtOAEW£ atJT'Y]V xai:wTr'ioai:o ox'fiµa). 374 at Daras so that Justinianic restoration could be praised as unrivalled: Justinian strengthened the city
The reason for the restoration of cities and the promotion of small settlements to the status of a hv restoring its walls, by building a dam to protect the city from flood and cisterns and water conduits to
city was first and foremost the emperor's care for the empire. Foundation and restoration of cities was distribute the water to all the urban districts. He also built two churches and barracks for the soldiers. 385
a royal activity since the time of Alexander the Great. 375 To this was added Christian tradition. The city h>r fortresses the increase in their size and population was often sufficient to give them the status of
of Cyrus in Syria was restored because of military concerns and also through respect for the local Saints dties. 386 Such settlements fulfilled only one function, the military, and lacked the civic monuments,
Cosmas and Damian: "But the Emperor Justinian, both out of his forethought for the safety of the 11ccessary in the cities of the Roman period. Fortification walls and churches were their public struc-
State, and at the same time as shewing especial honour to the Saints Cosmas and Damian, whose bodies 1mes. This was the context in which the mediaeval city began to emerge.
lie close by even up to my day, made Cyrus a flourishing city and one of great note ... " 376 Procopius reinforces his praise of the emperor by employing a vocabulary of aesthetics to glorify
The foundation of Caputvada, not far from Carthage, is endowed with special symbolism in Buildings I he Justinianic city. In spite of the emphasis of the Justinianic restoration program on the security of the
and in the History of the Wars. It was there that the Byzantine army disembarked, when it reached the 1·mpire by building and restoring urban fortifications and fortresses, the Byzantine city is presented as
shore of Libya in the war against the Vandals. The soldiers were pressed by lack of water, but when they m:sthetically appealing, beautiful not only in its various buildings, but also in its walls. We have seen
started to dig their stockade, a fountain was miraculously created. 377 This was interpreted as a sign of that the theme is applied first to the Church of St. Sophia: the church is most beautiful, and so adorns
divine favour regarding the outcome of the campaign. Thus Justinian built a city on the site as a permanent 387
l he city. In many passages in Buildings all sorts of public buildings and fortification walls are said to
testimony of God's gift. With the exception of the walls, Procopius does not mention specific buildings have adorned early Byzantine cities( ... ooot£ ~ JtOAL£ xExoµ'ljJEuTm ... xooµrioa£ ... ; Tat£ M aymat£
constructed in Caputvada: "Justinian ... conceived the desire to transform this place forthwith into a imt i:at£ O.AAm£ oixoboµLm£ ◊Laxooµrioa£, TQ) TE xaAAEL xat TQ) µEye0EL JtOALV i:avuv a~wAoywTaTlJV
city which should be made strong by a wall and distinguished by its other appointments as worthy to be t' v Wt£ µaALOTa xai:WT'flOaTo ). 388 The theme of beautiful fortifications also appears in inscriptions. 389
counted an impressive and prosperous city". 378 Since no archaeological remains of the city have been <'assiodorus reproduces it: the city walls were built to protect and adorn the cities. 390 This may not have
found, 379 it is reasonable to conclude that the Justinianic foundation actually lacked monumental I,cen a mere literary convention, since an aesthetic concern is to be observed in the arrangement of spolia
appearance, which may account for the vagueness of Procopius' narrative. In order, then, to compensate incorporated in some fortification walls or in the carving of stones deliberately to produce an aesthetic
the absence of civic monuments, Procopius resorts to drawing an utopian civic life of the peasants who l'!Tcct. 391 It is obvious that urban fortifications were considered to adorn the urban landscape. In ad-
settled in the city. They have suddenly started leading an urban life according to the prototype of the dition, up to the sixth century the walls in some cities were of limited use, since they were apparently
ancients, spending their time in the agora and deliberating in the assembly. 380 Indeed it appears that not sufficient to withstand enemy attacks. They offered protection from bandits and local tribal
Procopius adheres to the ancient urban tradition according to which the promotion of a settlement to
a city was marked by a new juridical status and a political life. For this it was necessary to have an
assembly, civic magistrates and an adequate number of decurions. 381 Procopius' attachment to the
model of ancient civic life was meant to highlight the historical importance of Caputvada's foundation 382
Procopius, De aedificiis II.9.18-20; De Bello Persico I.10.18-19; De aedificiis III.5.2, 4; II.6.12.
383
during the Vandal wars. Ibid., II.1.4.
384
In other cases, the restoration of the fortifications played a determining role in the promotion of Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica III.37 (p. 136.8-16).
385 Procopius, De aedificiis II.1.14-II.3.26.
settlements to the status of a city: such examples are Zeugma and Neocaesarea in Euphratesia (polichnai), 386
For example, Pinci, Cupi and Novae, fortresses (ochyromata) on the Danube, received the rank of cities when Justinian
rnlarged their defences and increased their houses: Procopius, De aedificiis IV.6.1-2; Circesium, a fort on the Euphrates,
dilapidated in the course of the years, was restored by Justinian who "transformed it into a very strong fortress and brought it
373 Ibid., II.11.4-7. about that it became a city conspicuous for its size and beauty:" ibid., II.6.3.
374 Ibid., VI.4.1-11. 387 Ibid., I.1.27 and supra, p. 67; the church of the Theotokos in Antioch: II.10.24.

375 W. Leschhorn, "Grunder der Stadt". Studien zu einem politisch-religiosen Phiinomen der griechischen Geschichte 388
Ibid., II.10.22 (Antioch); III.7.9 (Sebastopolis); II.4.14 (avv T{[l &acpaAc1: lfc:; Tc TO vuv cpmv6µcvov xaAAoc:; Tc xai oxu-
(Stuttgart 1984). owµa µEi:a0i\µEvoc:;: forts between Daras and Amida ); II.7.18 ( Ee:; TOV vuv cpmvoµEvov µei:~vEyxc x6oµov: fort at Batnae on the
376 Procopius, De aedificiis II.11.4.
Persian frontier); III.4.20 (f3cf3m6Tai:a xarnTELXLOUµEvoc:; µi\ya 1:01:c:; 'Agµcvlmc:; 6xugwµa TE xai eyxaAAwmoµa MEALTT]V~V
377 De Bello Vandalico III.15.34-35; De aedificiis VI.6.8-12; Cameron, Procopius, 173-174, 182.
ctn:ELgyaomo ); III.7.10 (ec:; µi\ya u xaAAouc:; TE xai &ocpaAelac:; xmeoT~omo XQfiµa: cities of Bosporus and Cherson).
378 Procopius, De aedificiis VI.6.13: Ee:; JtOAtv auTlxa µcTaf3Lf3aam TO xwglov i:oiho f3cf3ouAcUTm, TELXEL µev EQUµv~v, Tfi ()E 389
JG II/2 5201 (a. 253-260): Tov n:giv c'ixooµov MvTa n:ugyov o0i\voc:; EV n:oMµmmv, vuv ovTwc:; n:ugywocv. Inscription
aAATJ xmaaxcufi Ee:; JtOAcwc; oyxov un:oycygaµµEVT]V c'U◊alµovoc:;. from Byllis: infra, pp. 82-83; Durliat, Les dedicaces, nos. 3 (pp. 12-13), 15 (pp. 38-39), 28 (pp. 68-69), and p. 109. On the theme
379 See Av. Cameron, Gelimer's Laughter: The Case of Byzantine Africa, in F. M. Clover and R. S. Humphreys (eds.),
<,f the beauty of the walls see H. Maguire, The Beauty of Castles: A Tenth Century Description of a Tower at Constantinople,

Tradition and Innovation in Late Antiquity (Madison 1989), 187 n. 16. !>CME 17 (1993-94), 21-24.
380 Procopius, De aedificiis VI.6.15-16.
°
39
Cassiodorus, Variae I.28.3: publicum decus ... omnium utilitas; II.7: decor civitatis, decor publicus; III.43: cautio ad
381 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 720. For the abolition of the jus civitatis as a necessary element for the definition of a
munimen ... ornatus ad decorem.
city see Claude, Stadt, 195 ff. 391
Gregory, Fortification, 56-57. See also infra, pp. 369-370.
78 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 79

raids. 392 The emphasis that Procopius places on the beauty of the city and its buildings contrasts with where the urban crisis had started earlier, many inscriptions record the decline of urban buildings because
1 ,f 1heir age.
403 The destructive passage of time is stressed in other sixth-century sources. Theophylact
the declining urban monumentality. Procopius is clearly projecting an idealized image of the city at
exactly the moment that the early Byzantine city was losing its antique monumentality. 393 Simocatta reflects on the change which time brings: "Since time renews, restamps, and transforms all
I hings, moulding them now this way now that, and bringing change with the revolution of its perpetually
moving circuit, tyrannizing the solidity of affairs through the axis of its rotation, constantly dissatisfied
The passage of time and the neglect of the cities: aml sickened with security, having nowhere to stay its wandering, possessing no fixed abode through the
an ambiguous realism 11 regular movement of its ebbs and flows ... "404 John Lydus also perceives the action of time as destructive,
und time itself as the creator and concealer of human works. 405 Although the changes caused by the
A predominant theme in Procopius' Buildings and in other literary works of the sixth century is the passage of time are noticed with sadness, these authors were not ready to accept the fact that a new
awareness of the passage of time. The opening section of Buildings referring to the benefactor's mu- world was emerging, which was to become a mediaeval culture and a mediaeval type of a city. The past
nificence elaborates on the concept of time, which buries events in oblivion, and the need to preserve was not too far behind them, and the cultural and emotional attachments to it were strong. The same
the memory of events. 394 The topic of the passage of time is brought up in numerous passages to explain ,1 t Ii t ude is manifested in J ustinianic legislation, where the emperor's reforms aimed at restoring ancient

the demise of urban buildings, walls and forts: it was the long passage of time (µrjxo£ XQOvou), 395 and 111slitutions and practices, which were collapsing through the passage of time. 406
great age (o JtOAU£ alcov, JtOAU£ XQOVO£, XQOVQ) woou-rq_), -rq:i XQOVQ), JtQo'C6v-ro£ -rou XQ6vou, XQOVQ) Thus John Lydus expresses the optimistic attitude that this period of decay and change, caused by
µaxQq:i )396 that has brought about their collapse. In some cases, time alone is responsible for the demise I ime, was only temporary, since it is a law of nature to generate new things from the decay of old: "The
of urban features; 397 in other it is neglect ( aµEAELa). 398 Yet sometimes both the passage of time and lhings that exist exist, as they exist, while the things that come into being do not exist perpetually, nor
human neglect are presented as causes of urban destruction. For example, in a passage referring to the d1, they exist in the same manner, but they resolve through generation to corruption, then from the latter
demise of the aqueduct of Heraclea, on the coast of the Propontis southwest of Constantinople, we 111 generation ... " 407 Lydus uses Aristotelian terms and concepts of Neoplatonic cosmology to explain
read: "but because Time, following its custom, had destroyed the city's aqueduct, since it either failed I he cyclic process of genesis and phthora. 408 Such attitudes are clearly efforts by intellectuals to defeat

to notice that its masonry had become enfeebled by age, or else was leading the people of Heraclea to I he changing world around them with the optimistic view that, in spite all obvious change, the empire,

their own destruction through their neglect of it". 399 Procopius ends Buildings on the same note: the Its ancient institutions, the urban landscapes, classical education and culture may one day return in
fortress Septum at Gadira on the Libyan shore of the Pillars of Hercules neglected by the Vandals has I heir ancient forms. In spite of repeated references to the crisis of urban space caused by the passage of
been destroyed by time. 400 lime and human neglect, change itself is not seen in terms of decay. There are no signs of despair in
The theme of decline through the passage of time and neglect is found in earlier sources. For I hese works, for both confidence in the empire's strength and the restoration effort of Justinian creat-

Libanius, the beauty of ancient cities had been maintained and had defeated time, until imperial agents t·d an optimistic view of the world. Although the reference to change brought about by the passage of
began the despoliation of civic monuments. Treasures from still flourishing cities were transferred to I imc and human neglect expresses a historical realism, our writers, in thrall to a glorious image of the

Constantinople to build houses of officers of low social origin. Up till then their beauty had defeated ancient city, failed to see the lasting consequences of the phenomenon they described.
time. 401 In the historiography of the fifth century, neglect explains the empire's decline. 402 In the West
Secret History

392
It is in this work, considered by Souda as inventive (tp6yo£) and satirical (xwµwb(a), that we find
Lewin, Studi, 36.
393 Saradi, Kallas, 48-49. n.:fcrences to the urban crisis. The section on the consequences which Justinian's administration had on
394 Procopius, De aedificiis 1.1.2. See also Roueche,Aphrodisias, nos. 53 (pp. 87-88, late fifth century), 85 (pp. 136-137, sixth the cities opens with a statement evoking the old magnificence and beauty of the empire's cities: "We
century). shall now tell how he succeeded in destroying the marks of distinction and all the things which confer
395 Procopius, De aedificiis II.1.1 ( xaL ooa xm:mte1tov11x6,;a c>La zg6vou µfjxoi; &vcvEwom:o ); 11.5.3 (xgovou µljxEL 1trno-
honour and beauty both in Byzantium and in every other city". 409 These adornments are not only
v11xwi;); II.7.11 (OLa XQOVOU µfjxoi; EV "COL<; EQELitLmi; ,;m:,;6µcvov); II.8.19 (Tetll"C1']£ OE Tfj<; 1tOAEW<; "COV 1tEQL0oAOV ... 1tE1tOV1']-
?{Q"CCt nav,;anam xg6vou µ~xEL Eugwv); II.11.12 (,;av,;11v [Palmyra] 0aoLAEv<; 'Iouo,;mavoi; c>La zg6vou µfjxoi; eg11µov lonL
1tAELO"COV YEYEV1']µEV1']V); III.4.11 (,;a ,;dx11 ... "CE"CCtACtL1t(J)Q1'jµEVCt "C(p µ~?{EL "COV xg6vou); III.6.22 (eg11µov OE ()LU XQOVOU
403
µfjxoi;); IV.2.24 (XQOVOU µEv µ~xEL 1tE1tOV1']XOTE<;); IV.6.23 (xm:et1tE1tOV1']XO£ "C(p µ~xEL "COV XQOVOU ). Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 35-36; G. Alfoldy, Difficillima Tempora: Urban Life, Inscriptions, and
396 Ibid., II.7.17; 8.9; III.4.7; IV.1.31; 3.1; 3.5; 11.9. Mentality in Late Antique Rome, in Burns and Eadie, Urban Centers, 11-12; for other causes of the crisis, for efforts ofrestora-
397 Ibid., IV.3.22: "CO.£ EVTCtii0a oixoooµLai; 6 XQOVO<; 0LEcp0ELQE naoai;. lion and for the new model of the city see G. P. Brogiolo, Ideas of the Town in Italy during the Transition from Antiquity to
398 See also Saradi-Mendelovici, Demise, 401. In Choricius' orations the term used to designate negligence of urban !he Middle Ages, in Brogiolo and Ward-Perkins, The Idea, 99-126.
404
buildings is gq.0uµLa: Or. III.45 (p. 61.4), 48 (p. 61.22). Theophylact Simocatta IIl.8.9 (p. 127; transl. Whitby).
405 John Lydus, De mensibus l.l; De magistratibus IIl.39 (p. 192.19-22).
399 Procopius, De aedificiis IV.9.14 (transl. Dewing).
406
4oo Ibid., VI.7.14. M. Maas, Roman History and Christian Ideology in Justinianic Reform Legislation, DOP 40 (1986), 17-31, esp. 29 ff.
407 John Lydus, De magistratibus Il.23 (p. 118.15-17).
401 Libanius, Or. XVIII.132 (II, 293): &1-.1-.' T]Qita~ov,;o 1ta1-.maL 1t6AEL£ xaL xa.AA1'J VEVLX1'JTOTCt xg6vov c>La 6a1-.an11i; ~yew
408 Maas,John Lydus, 88-89.
nm~oov,;a xvacpewv utfow oixLai; ,;wv 0am1-.dwv cpmogo,;egai;.
409 Procopius, Historia arcana XXVl.1: "Ov,;Lva OE ,;g6nov ,;wv itOAEwv ,;oi,i; x6oµoui; xaL ,;a eyxa1-.1-.w1tLoµm:a navm ev
402 W. Goffart, Zosimus, The First Historian of Rome's Fall, The American Historical Review 76 (1971), 432 and n. 88;
tl' Butav,;Lcp xaL 1tOAEL EXO.O"C'r] xa0EAELV IoxuoEV Ct'lJTLxa egoiiµEv.
idem, Rome, Constantinople, and the Barbarians, ibid. 86 (1981), 294-295.
80 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 81

urban buildings, as in Buildings, but primarily the urban institutions and the upper class that in the past of Justinian. This was, of course, a long process, since evidence from papyri indicates that the decline
sustained ancient urban culture. Procopius first mentions the decline of the rhetores, physicians and of non-Christian books started in the fourth century. There was a new interest in subjects offering prac-
teachers who were deprived of their allowances from public funds. 410 A major blow to the cities was the 1ical benefits, such as medicine, grammar and glossaries, law, mathematics, geography, astrology. John
transfer to the state treasury of the funds which were used for public spectacles and other civic needs: l ,ydus regrets that men of letters were no longer in demand in the administration and that Latin had
n:ased to be subject of study. 415 The decline of education and secular writing becomes evident in the
Furthermore, all the revenues which the inhabitants of all the cities had been provinces. In Egypt production of books of pagan authors began to slow down after the reign of
raising locally for their own civic needs and for their public spectacles he transferred <'onstantine, the decline becoming dramatic after the reign of Justinian. In North Africa after the
and dared to mingle them with the national income. And thereafter neither physi- Byzantine reconquest only Greek theological works are produced, whilst production of Latin secular
cians nor teachers were held in any esteem, nor was anyone able any longer to make works ceases. 416 The decline of traditional education was a slow process that had begun under pressure
provision for public buildings, nor were the public lamps kept burning in the cities, from Christianity. The cultural transformation of the urban upper class that for centuries had main-
nor was there any other consolation for their inhabitants. For the theatres and hip- tained the Greek tradition in the cities was decisive. The diminishing emphasis on classical education
podromes and circuses were all closed for the most part - the places in which, as it is also connected with changing attitudes towards the purpose of education. Training in the schools of
happened, his wife had been born and reared and educated. And later he ordered short-hand writers and jurists offered a guarantee of success and social advancement in the adminis-
these spectacles to close down altogether, even in Byzantium, so that the Treasury tration, while education in the schools of rhetoric had become obsolete. This was a response to the new
might not have to supply the usual sums to the numerous and almost countless upper class that was emerging in the imperial and provincial administration. The reign of Justinian
persons who derived their living from them. And there was both in private and in marks the end of the ancient system of education. 417 Literary production was becoming predominantly
public sorrow and dejection, as though still another affliction from Heaven had < 'hristian and there is a dramatic increase in ecclesiastical writing from the end of the sixth century. The
smitten them, and there was no laughter in life for anyone. And no other topic change was profound. Monasteries, rather than the secular urban environment, became the centres for
whatever arose in the conversation of the people, whether they were at home or in the production of Christian literature.
the market-place or were tarrying in the sacred places, than disasters and calamities Procopius stresses that Justinianic measures drained the cities of their financial resources. In partic-
and misfortunes of novel kind in surpassing degree. 411 11lar, all civic funds and funds for public spectacles in all the cities of Greece were taken by the imperial
treasury and were used to finance the soldiers who guarded the pass at Thermopylae. Consequently
For Procopius a major factor in the urban crisis during the reign of Justinian was the decline of
public buildings were no longer restored, nor could any other civic activities take place. 418 Likewise,
classical education and of the upper class, as they were the backbone of ancient urban culture and iden-
Iustinian's attacks on the properties of the city councillors were seen as measures weakening the cities. 419
tity. Procopius focuses his analysis on the collapse of the institutions that directly depended on cities
InAnecdota, the urban crisis is described in financial and social terms, namely, the appropriation
and which maintained the flavour of ancient culture. Justinian's rule was a repressive rule. Classical ed-
11f the cities' financial resources by the imperial treasury, the end of the independent classical education
ucation ceased during his reign. The books of suspected pagans were burnt, intellectuals were arrested,
11lfored in the cities, and the weakening of the urban aristocracy. According to Procopius these meas-
and the Academy of Athens was closed. 412 In the cities pagans were not allowed to teach, 413 and the cir-
mes were motivated by fiscal policy, the result of the emperor's greed, a central theme in Anecdota.
culation of books was in decline. 414 Production of classical works was drastically reduced after the reign
l'rncopius was not interested in seeing the urban crisis in the context of a long process of administrative
changes and of imperial appropriation of civic funds that had started in the fourth century. 420 He points
to the weakening of the economic status of the urban aristocracy, but says nothing about its changing
410 Ibid., XXVI.2-5.
411
priorities and its diminishing interest in financing restoration or construction works and other civic ac-
Ibid., XXVI.6-11 (transl. Dewing): KaL µiJv xaL ooouc:; ot ,ac:; JtOAclc:; OLXOUV'tcc:; cm<ioac:; JtOAl'tlXWV m:plmv 118cWQfl'tl-
1ivities. In spite of his classical models in historiography, Procopius does not offer the sort of analysis of
xwv ol'.xo0cv JtcJtolriv,m n6gouc:;, xaL i;o{nouc:; µci:ayaywv qi6gmc:; avaµt:sm wi:c:; 6riµoolmc:; h6AµflOc. KaL ou,c tmgwv uc:; 11
6L6aox<iAwv ,6 AOLJtov eylvc,o A6yoc:; ou,c 6riµoolac:; uc:; E,L otxo6oµlac:; ngovoci:v l'.ozuocv ou,c Mxva i:ai:c:; JtOAWLV ev Ihe causes of the historical changes to be expected of a classical historian. 421 InAnecdota his purpose is
oriµool(!l EX<lc'tO O'U'tc uc:; ~v UAAfl JtUQU'ljJllX'YJ i;oi:c:; i;a{,i;ac:; OLXOUOl. Ta 'tc yag 0fo,ga xaL LJtJtOOQOµOL xaL XllVflYEOlU EX 'tOU solely to criticize Justinian's reign.
enL JtAci:owv anavi:a ~gya, ov 6iJ oi i:iJv yuvai:xa ,i::,t\z0m ,i:: xaL ,i::0g<iqi0m xaL nmm6i::uo0m 1;uvt\f3mvi::v. "Yo,i::gov OE
i;aui;a 6iJ agyi::i:v xaL EV Bvtav'tl(!l EXEAcllOc ,a 0i::<iµai:a, 'tOU µiJ 'ta dw06,a XOQflYELV 'tO 6riµ6mov JtOAAOLc:; 'tc xaL oxi::Mv 'tl
avagl0µmc:; O'UOlV olc:; ev0t\v6i:: 6 f3loc:;. 'Hv 'tc t6lq. 'tc xaL xmvfi A'UJtfl 'tc xaL XU't1'](jlcla, WOJtcQ UAAO u 'tWV an' O'UQUVOU
emoxiJ'ljJao0m Jt<i0oc:;, xaL f3loc:; Jtamv ayt:Aaoi;oc:;. "AA.AO 'tc 'tO JtUQUJtUV O'UOEV E(jlEQc'tO i;oi:c:; av0QWJtOLc:; EV fariyiJµamv, OLXOl ,111tico. Guida storica e critica (Roma, Bari 1989), 83-162; idem, La circolazione libraria nell'eta di Giustiniano, in G. G. Archi
'tc O'UOl xaL ayog<itovoLV xav wi:c:; ti::goi:c:; ◊Lmglf3oumv 11 ouµqiogal 'tc xaL Jtct0ri xaL XUlVO'tEQWV a,uxriµ<i,wv 'lJJtcQf30A1']. (rd.), L'imperatore Giustiniano. Storia e mito (Milan 1978), 201-236.
412 Malaias, 424.9-11, 377.17-24, 379.67-68. See A. Cameron, The Last Days of the Academy of Athens, Proceedings of the 115
John Lydus, De magistratibus III.28.3 (p. 176.18-19); II.12 (pp. 100-103); III.42 (p. 198.1-14); 68 (pp. 238.21-240.1 ).
11
Cambridge Philological Society 195 (1969), 7-30; H.J. Blumenthal, 529 and its sequel: what happened to the Academy?,Byzantion • <, H. Maehler, Byzantine Egypt: urban elites and book production, Dialogos 4 (1997), 118-136; Av. Cameron, Byzantine

48 (1978), 369-385; G. Fernandez, Justiniano y la clausura de la escuela de Atenas, E,ytheia 2.2 (1983), 24-30; E. Watts, Where 1\trica: The Literary Evidence, in Humphrey, Excavations at Carthage 1978, 29-62, esp. 45 ff.
to live the Philosophical Life in the Sixth Century? Damascius, Simplicius, and the Return from Persia, GRBS 45 (2005), m Cameron, Procopius, 19-32, esp. 19-24.
118
285-315, esp. 311-315. • Procopius,Historia arcana XXVI.31-34.
413 CJ I.5.18.4. Later Zonaras XIV.6.31-32 concluded that Justinian's measures resulted in decline of education and rusticity 11
" ' Ibid., XXIX.20. On the emphasis of Procopius on Justinianic attacks against the senatorial aristocracy see Cameron,

(aygmxla). l'rornpius, 144-145.

414 G. Cavallo, Conservazione e perdita <lei testi greci: Fattori materiali, sociali, culturali, in Giardina, Societii romana, IV, ·120 See infra, chapter 6.
83-172, 246-271; G. Cavallo, Libro e pubblico alla fine de! mondo antico, in G. Cavallo (ed.), Libri, editori e pubblico nel mondo 121
' Cameron, Procopius, 37-46, 143-144, 225-241.
82 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 83

The city and its benefactor in poetry and inscriptions 11111c will not efface the work of Victorinus. Line 3 is a direct quotation from Sophocles' Ajax (v. 646):
iirtttvO' 6 µax.QO£ x.avaQt8µ11-ro£ XQOV0£. 427 The second inscription evokes divine protection for the
The poems and the epigrams of the sixth century referring to the cities and their benefactors are nty. It begins with a reference to divine Providence and to the Virgin Mary, and describes the restoration
laudatory, employing inflated vocabulary and eloquence. They emphasize the ideal bond of the cities wmk as an act of piety (EU<JE~W£). It mentions Justinian's fortifications in Moesia, Scythia, Illyricum
with their benefactors, the governor or the emperor. Although the language and the style project an im- 1111d Thrace, unknown from elsewhere. The third inscription expresses confidence in the fortification
age of the city as it was in antiquity, the historical reality emerges clearly in the lines of these poems and w1 irks with which the city will be able to resist invading barbarians. The last inscription commemorates
epigrams. The governors and the emperor are praised for restoring mainly city walls. Several poems, 1he restoration of the west part of Byllis' walls, which had collapsed, while the second refers to the
written by Dioscorus of Aphrodito in the second half of the sixth century, praise provincial governors n 111st ruction of the new interior line of fortifications on the east side of the city. The fourth inscription
for restoring cities, that is, in principle, their fortifications. The vocabulary is archaic, in a style remi- lwgins with a reference to Byllis' beauty (X6.Qtv) given to her by the restored walls. It is interesting that
niscent of Agathias. The city is used to refer metaphorically to the dux of the Thebaid: "you are for us 11 couple of inscriptions from North Africa written in Latin and dating to 539-544 employ similar

the city of wisdom" ("Q6E DE JtaQ' 11µIv 11 :rtOAL£ owcpQO<JUV'l']£). 422 Cities are personified and presented v11rnhulary: "stranger, you see approaching this renovated city, and City, rejoice for having this pious
as dancing. Thebes is called "Lady Thebes" (:rtov-rta 011~11). 423 master and look ... " 428
Inscriptions commemorating restoration work by emperors, provincial governors or bishops also Thus, the image of the city occupies a central place in oratory, poetry and epigrams. The literary
project the image of the city by means of themes glorifying benefactors. Most elaborate in rhetorical l11rm of such works is marked by rhetoric, grandeur and idealization. Confidence and glorification of
themes, classical vocabulary and style are the four metrical inscriptions recording the restoration of the tlw city is the message conveyed. The city is cast in a thoroughly idealistic mode, and, as it is connected
walls of Byllis in the province of Epirus Nova in modern Albania, and the construction of the new with the benefactor-emperor or governor, is imbued with a heroic essence. This image of the city that
shorter line of walls by Victorin us during the reign of Justinian. They probably date to 549-550 imme- ,·merges from such texts is that held by its patrons, modelled by the poets who still adhered to the old
diately after the Slavic invasion. 424 Victorinus is also known from two inscriptions from Isthmus of 1·1 mventions. Tradition in this literary production was deeply rooted. The inflated archaic vocabulary il-

Corinth. 425 He has been taken to be either a high officer of the imperial administration, or the emper- l11sl rated the image of the city with symbolic forms and concepts, not in the realistic terms of the im-
or's architect who supervised reconstruction projects in Byllis, Isthmus and Corinth. 426 lllt~diate urban environment. The emerging new urban identity, the Christian identity, appears in most
uf the texts, although that, too, is seen from an idealized perspective. The image of the city is dominant,
1. The most powerful name of Justinian / shall not be given to the stream of oblivion/ but neither will illtd the view of the city is unflinchingly optimistic. This was certainly an upper-class view. But the ide-
long and immeasurable time,/ getting older, cover the works of Victorinus / for his virtues rise on high. alized image of the city cannot be explained only by the classicism of the educated elite. There must
lt:1ve been an emotional reaction that generated this idealized vision of the city. The crisis in urban
2. With the providence of God and the Virgin Theotokos, / rightly serving the plan and the meth- •;pace, the gradual disintegration of the urban monumentality was too deep and visible. As cities lost
ods I of Justinian the most powerful emperor/ after he built the fortresses of Moesia and Scythia / and their ancient form and identity, the reality was becoming disturbing. Historical circumstances had cre-
of all the territory of Illyricum and Thrace, / Victorinus builds with piety the wall of Byllis, / he, whose ;ited a new type of city, although assessment of the change, obvious to everyone, was too depressing for
nature is military. the classically educated elite to describe. Until about the middle of the sixth century, the intellectuals
dmse to face this reality through idealization and classicizing grandeur.
3. I do not lament for barbarians, I do not fear/ for I was granted a worker who works with his own
hands, / the great Victorinus.
Historiography: changing perceptions of the city
4. Stranger, do not overlook the beauty of Byllis / the walls of which once demolished were recon-
structed I by audacious Victorinus. Turning from laudatory genres, the modern reader might expect to find a realistic image of the early
Byzantine cities in sixth-century historiography. However, historiography, also a literary genre in an-
The first inscription praises Justinian and his architect in terms of a theme known from Procopius' tiquity, labours under significant restrictions imposed by literary conventions. History was to a great
Buildings. The restoration work will secure eternity for the emperor's name, and the long passage of degree defined by rhetoric429 and its affinities with poetry were often stressed. 430 Much of Roman his-
toriography was perceived as imperial panegyric, also aiming at indulging readers' desire for literary

422
Dioscorus, 4.9 (I, 378) (ea 551).
423
Ibid., 10.2 (I, 391; a. 565/566), 18.32 (I, 412; a. 567 or 568), and supra, n. 280 for the Thebaid dancing.
424 427
S. Mm,aj, Sistemi fortifikues i Qytetit te Bylisit ne Antikitetin e Vone (Le systeme de fortification de la ville de Byllis The last two lines echo other verses of tragedies: A Cameron, Greek Tragedy in Sixth-Century Epirus, The Classical
dans la Basse Antiquite), Iliria 20/1 (1990), 169-200; S. Anamali, Architettura e decorazione tardoantica in Albania, CorsiRav lfrview n.s. 17 (1967), 134.
428
XL (1993), 455 dates the walls between 550 and 554. Durliat, Les dedicaces, nos. 4 (p. 15), 15 (p. 38).
425 429
JG IV, 204, 205; Feissel and Philippidis-Braat, Inventaires, 278-280. See, for example, Cicero, De Oratore 2.15: Videtisne, quantum munus sit oratoris historia? A J. Woodman, Rhetoric in
426 ( '/assical Historiography: Four Studies (London, Sydney 1988), esp. 95 ff.; C. W. Fornara, The Nature of History in Ancient
M. Guarducci, Le due epigrafi di Vittorino sull'Istmo, Epigrafia Greca IV (Rome 1978), 326-330; D. Feissel, L'architecte
Viktorinos et Jes fortifications de Justinien dans Jes provinces balkaniques, Bulletin de la Societe Nationale des Antiquaires de ( rl't'ece and Rome (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1983), 120-134.
430 Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 10.1.31.
France, 1988, 136-146.
84 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 85

pleasure. 431 For these reasons historical narrative was adorned with legends and stories (µu8m) and 111 large territories (::rtQWTlJ), 439 or their antiquity ( &.Qxata) 440 are traditional themes of historiography.
various digressions (ekphraseis). 432 We find digressions on foundations of cities,433 on provinces, their Some cities are praised for their magnificence with the expressions "worthy of mention" or "not worthy
peoples and their famous cities434 and brief descriptions (ekphraseis) of cities. For example, in the work nf mention" (Myou ::rtOAAOU &.sta, &.stoAoyw,:a.,:ri),441 or "worthy of seeing" ( &.sLo8fowv). 442 The theme
of Ammianus Marcellinus a lengthy description of Alexandria is inserted, with references to its mytho- uf urban decay due to the passage of time and human neglect, so prominent in Buildings, is absent in
logical tradition, historical events and renowned monuments: the tradition of the city's foundation and llistory of the Wars. Instead, the presence of contemporary decay of the urban architectural infrastructure
of the establishment of the line of the walls, the climate, the Pharos, the Heptastadium, temples and the may be implied in the words of admiration for ancient Roman buildings and craftsmanship. Such
Serapeum are to be compared only to the Capitolium of Rome, and Alexandria's library with 700,000 1rnmants are the aqueducts of Carthage and Naples, a cistern by the city Auximus in Italy, the Appian
books burnt when the city was sacked by Caesar. There is also reference to Canopus, 12 miles from way extending from Rome to Capua, or a bridge on a road leading to the city Narnia in Tuscany built
Alexandria, which took its name from Menelaus' steersman buried there. Alexandria is also praised as hy i\ugustus. 443 The most praiseworthy of all ancient buildings mentioned in History of the Wars is the
centre of letters in the fields of geometry, music, astronomy, mathematics, prophecy and divination, and Mausoleum of Hadrian outside the Aurelian gate at Rome. It had been long ago incorporated into the
medicine. It is also recognized as the birthplace of religions and related wisdom that influenced ancient walls of Rome and resembled a tall tower. Procopius expresses his admiration at the quality of material
Greek philosophers. 435 Such digressions on cities are of interest because, although they are formulated used and the construction techniques of the ancient builders. He stresses the point that the stones of
in terms of traditional literary cliches, the selection of elements of cities for praise points to urban change l'arian marble were not jointed with mortar, a technique that in fact was used only for the revetment of
in each historical period. However, historiographers do not discuss the transformation of urban layout its walls. Procopius seems to contrast the classical appearance of the Mausoleum's walls with that of the
and institutions. Such transformation emerges slowly in their work. As Ammianus Marcellinus admit- typical early Byzantine walls made of bricks, stones with or without mortar and many spolia. Above the
ted, historiography was concerned primarily with dignifying acts: "non omnia narratu sunt digna, quae Mausoleum stood statues of superb artistic quality, made of Parian marble and representing men and
per squalidas transiere personas". 436 Furthermore, historians were writing about the emperors' deeds horses ( &.ya.Aµam ... 8auµa.ma oia). The Byzantines, in order to impede the assaults of the invading
and were mainly interested in the events occurring in Constantinople. 437 Moreover, victories were < ioths, smashed most of the statues and threw them from the wall on the ascending enemy. 444
appropriate to imperial panegyrics, and in periods of distress and profound transformation of earlier Walls and urban buildings distinguished modest towns from cities. 445 The greatness and distinction
social structures, there was little interest in recording and analysing failures of the imperial policy. 11f a city was manifested in its size, the strength of its fortifications, and its possession of a theatre and

a hippodrome. These features were still considered necessary for a great city, the first place being
reserved for the fortifications. 446 However, these priorities are not always maintained. As Anecdota
Procopius: History of the Wars 111akes plain, the promotion of Daras from a village (xwµri) to the status of a city (::rt6AEW£ &.stwµa) by
/\nastasius was achieved only by the construction of strong fortifications. 447 The beauty of the city and
In the military narrative of History of the Wars by Procopius, cities are mentioned only in the context nl its buildings is a recurrent theme in History of the Wars. In particular, Antioch is praised for its beauty
of expeditions. This explains why the historian focuses primarily on the cities' military role. Brief references and magnificence, which was not to be concealed even after its destruction by the Persians in 540. The
to the cities' size and population (µcya.AlJ ,:e xal, ::rtoAua.v8Qw::rto£), 438 their first rank in the provinces or heauty of the city was seen in its buildings, such as walls, theatres and hippodromes; these were the
dties' adornments. 448 More so than in other texts, in History of the Wars the city is emphatically cele-
brated for its beauty: Procopius, in order to stress the magnitude of cities' destruction by war makes his
:mbject more dramatic by equating the loss of a city's beauty with the loss of human life. In a speech of
431 Lucian, Ilwc; oei [aroQiav avyy(!aqmv, c. 7.8-9; Hermogenes, IleQi loewv, 404 ff.
432 Lucian, c. 10. See also Aristides, Texvwv QrJW(!lXWV, 11:f(!l lWAlTlXOV Aoyov, Spengel II, 535: KclA.A.1'] OE JtQOCTAaµpavEL
6 Aoyor;, 6 acpEAr]r;, xal EX 'tOJt(J)V, av OU't(J) 'tUXU, xal El; aAAWV 'tOJV JtC1.QC1.XOA01J60UV't(J)V, olov omv JtOALV Myu µeyaA1']V xal
439
eMalµova, otav JtOtaµov ~ o0Ev QEL, oaov 'tO eiigor;,, ad 'tU 'tOLaiita xaAAor;, JtQOCT'tL01']CTL 'tql Aoyo;i. Menander Rhetor, IlE(!l Procopius, De Bello Persico 11.18.7; De Bello Vandalico IV.20.31; De Bello Gothico VI.7.38; 23.6; VII.13.9; 35.2; 38.9;
avvraxrixoiJ, 200 (Spengel, 433.13-16: xaAAwnlaELr;, OE i:ov Myov xal dxom xal tawglmr;, xal nagapoAai:r;, xal mi:r;, a.A.Amr;, Vlll.13.3.
440
yAuxui:riaL xal Excpgaarnl tLmv Ev i:qi EJtalvo;i i:ijr;, noAewr;,, awwv xal ALµevwv xal nomµwv xal nriywv xal aAaewv. De Bello Vandalico IV.4.27; De Bello Gothico V.9.27; VI.19.22; VII.14.32; 22.9.
441
433 Zosimus V.27.1 (the foundation of Ravenna); 29.2-3 (the foundation of Emona, modern Ljubljana); Arnmianus De Bello Persico 1.17.21; 11.12.31 (Myou ouoevor;, al;wv); 13.14 (oute Aoyou a~la fotl); 29.18;De Bello Gothico VI.7.18;
Marcellinus, XXVII.4.13 (the foundation of the city of Aenus by Aeneas), XXII.16.3 (of Pelusion in Egypt founded by Peleus, Vll.22.9.
442 De Bello Persico 1.17.18.
the father of Achilles), XX:11.16.4 (Libyan Cyrene founded by the Spartan Battus).
443
434
Ibid., XXVII.4. De Bello Vandalico IV.1.2; De Bello Gothico V.8.45; 9.11; VI.27.19; V.14.7-11; 17.11.
444
435 Ibid., XXII.16.7-22. This tradition of brief enkomiastike ekphrasis or epainos continues in later Byzantine literature: De Bello Gothico V.22.12-15, 22.
445
Robert, Lettres, 152 ff.; Saradi, Kallos, 39, 41, 43, 47-48. De Bello Persico 11.17.3 (t0 'tE JtEQLPoAo,i xal'tft a.A.AU xmaoxeuft EXUQUV w xal aAAwr;, Emcpavij xmrni:tjomo).
446
436 Arnmianus Marcellinus XXVIII.1.15. De Bello Gothico VIII.2.14: AV't1'] JtOALr;, ~v 'tO JtaA.mov JtOAuav0gwnor;, xal 'tElxour;, µEv mJ'tl]V JtEQLEPaAE µeya 'tL
437 AS. Kozlov, Komit Marcellini o pozdneanticinom gorode, Vizantia i srednevekovii Krim (Barnaul 1992), 46-55; similarly /,!l~fW. 0EU'tQlJ,J oe xal LJtJtOOQoµo;i EXaAAWJtltew xal'toi:r;, aAAOLr;, aJtaCTLV oloJtEQ JtOAEWr;, µeye0or;, oElxvuo0m dw0E (city of

Lemerle, Miracula S. Demetrii, II, 56. t\psyrtus near Trebizond).

438 Procopius, De Bello Persico I.16.6; De Bello Vandalico III.4.30; IV.5.5; 13.26; De Bello Gothico VI.7.19; 7.38; 11.2;
447 De Bello Persico I.10.18-19.
448
VII.22.9; 23.14; VIII.2.14. The size of a city was a determining factor of its prestige, in which the citizens took pride. See, for Antioch: De Bello Persico 11.14.6 (i:wv oixoooµriµai:wv 'tU 'tE JtAELCT'ta xal xaAALO'ta); 10.5 (to 'tE xaAAor;, xal 'tO Er;,
example, Lucian, Ilar(!iooc; iyxwµwv, c. 2: JtOAELr;, µEv yag JtagapaAELV JtELQWµevo;i JtQOCT~XEL µeye0or;, El;ei:atELv xal xaAAor;, ibmvi:a µeyaAongrner;,); 8.23 (xciAAEL); Apsyrtus: De Bello Gothico VIII.2.14 (haAAwnltew); VI.16.24 (oui:wr;, 'AAUQLXO<;,
xal 'tr]V 'tOJV wvlwv acp0ovlav. Gregory of Nazianzus, PG 36, 221C: MLXQU CTOL (jl1']CTLV, 1'] JtOALr;,, xal O'lJOE JtOALr;,, aA.Aa XWQLOV X,(((lei:AEV QICTJtEQ a.A.Ao YE avtft ovo' i'moiiv UJtOAEAELmm 'tO'U JtQO'tEQOV xooµou, O'tL µiJ Jt1JA1']r;, µu'tr;, xal tijr;, xmaoxeuijr;, 'tO'U
l;1']QOV, xal axaQL, xal oAlymr;, oixouµevov. i'<'lc'upour;, AEL'lj)avov 'tL pgaxu ).
86 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 87

Belisarius to a representative of the citizens of Naples intended to persuade them to surrender, the and skilled workers besides. Thus, little by little, have they built the city, such as you
Byzantine general expressed his sentiments at the imminent human loss and the destruction of the behold it, thereby leaving to future generations memorials of the ability of them all
city's "beauty": (µvytµ£1:a -rfjc; :rtav-rwc; UQE'tfjc;), so that insult to these monuments would properly be
considered a great crime (ao(xytµa µeya) against the men of all time; for by such
Many times have I witnessed the capture of cities and I am well acquainted with action the men of former generations are robbed of the memorials of their ability
what takes place at such a time. For they slay all the men of every age, and as for the (-rriv -rfjc; UQE'tfjc; µv~µytv), and future generations of the sight of their works (-r&v
women, though they beg to die, they are not granted the boon of death, but are car- EQywv 'tlJV 0fov). 452
ried off for outrage and are made to suffer treatment that is abominable and most
pitiable. And the children, who are thus deprived of their proper maintenance and In this passage Rome's monuments, which Belisarius was trying to save from destruction, no longer
education, are forced to be slaves, and that, too, of the men who are the most odi- p11ssess political or other social function, but hold merely aesthetic and cultural value for the future
ous of all - those on whose hands they see the blood of their fathers. And this is not generations.
all, my dear Stephanus, for I make no mention of the conflagration, which destroys In another passage Procopius again refers to the preservation of Rome's ancient monuments by
all the property and blots out the beauty of the city (xal, -ro -rfjc; :rtOAEwc; aq:iav(~E'tm I he Romans as a sign of their love for their city. They were symbols of the greatness of their history:
xanoc;). When I see, as in the mirror of the cities which have been captured in
times past, this city of Naples falling victim to such a fate, I am moved to pity both it Yet the Romans love their city above all the men we know, and they are eager to
and you its inhabitants. 449 protect all their ancestral treasures and to preserve them, so that nothing of the an-
cient glory of Rome may be obliterated. For even though they were for a long peri-
The expression of ardent attachment to the city's beauty leads cunningly to the contrasting image od under barbarian sway, they preserved the buildings of the city and the most of its
of destruction by the war. Human life and city are also valued in a profound sense of unity. In other pas- adornments, such as could through the excellence of their workmanship withstand
sages, civilized life is defined in urban terms, and thus contrasted with the rusticity of the countryside. so long a lapse of time and such neglect. Furthermore, all such memorials of the
The Vandals, since they occupied Libya, used baths, were dressed in silk garments, attended spectacles race as were still left are preserved even to this day, and among them the ship of
in the theatres and hippodromes, and enjoyed other pleasant pursuits. 450 The city of Antioch is praised Aeneas, the founder of the city, an altogether incredible sight. For they built a ship-
for its wealth, size and population, beauty, and the leisure and luxurious life of its inhabitants. 451 house in the middle of the city on the bank of the Tiber, and depositing it there, they
The most elevated descriptions of cities and urban life are found in the Books on the Gothic wars. have preserved it from that time. 453
The cities of Italy, and especially Rome, with their splendid and historical monuments, neglected and
threatened during the war, were a source of inspiration. Military events offered Procopius the oppor- There are several references to ancient monuments in Procopius' History of the Wars. Most of them
tunity to contrast the urban civilization of the Romans and the Byzantines with that of the Goths, and arc found in the Books of The Gothic War and are connected to the Trojan war and the myth of Aeneas,
to elevate Roman monuments to national symbols of urban life and civilization. In a letter of Belisarius to the mythical ancestor of the Romans. Here they become national symbols connecting Constantinople
Totila, who had decided to raze Rome to the ground, burn the most beautiful and most noteworthy of with Rome and Troy and they legitimise Justinian's policy of the reconquista. The theme is treated by
its buildings, and turn Rome into a sheep-pasture, Procopius develops the theme of the urban beauty Procopius, who employs Thucydidean ring composition, thus lending a majestic tone to History of the
as viewed through the monuments, intimately linked with civilized life: Wars. 454 What is of interest in the treatment of this theme from our perspective is that urban monu-
ments, endowed with historical symbolism, are no longer connected with the tradition and topographical
While the creation of beauty in a city which has not been beautiful before could landscape of each city. Rather, they have become symbols of the state and are used to justify Justinian's
only proceed from men of wisdom who understand the meaning of civilization wars in Italy.
(:rtOAL'tLXW£ rLO't£1J£LV E:rtunaµevwv), the destruction of beauty which already exists Influence of Patria, which links cities with their glorious past, is also found in Procopius' History of
would be naturally expected only of men who lack understanding, and who are not the Wars. This is to be traced first in the reference to the cities' ancient name and legendary origin: some
ashamed to leave to posterity this token of their character. Now among all the cities cities received their name from heroes and others from kings, or from physical characteristics. 455 Second,
under the sun Rome is agreed to be the greatest and the most noteworthy. For it has reference is made to legends related to antiquities, for example, to the cave of Sibyl near Cumae and
not been created by the ability of one man, nor has it attained such greatness and
beauty by a power of short duration, but a multitude of monarchs, many companies
of the best men, a great lapse of time, and an extraordinary abundance of wealth
452
have availed to bring together in that city all other things that are in the whole world, De Bello Gothico VII.22.8-12 ( transl. Dewing).
453
Ibid., VIIl.22.5-8.
454
H. G. Saradi, Ta "Mvriµda i:ou n\vous;" oi:riv wi:ogtoygmpla i:ou Ilgoxomou: µta Aoyoi:EzvtxiJ TEXVLXTJ xm i:o wi:ogtxo
JtuQEA8ov, Byzantina 21 (2000), 313-329.
449 455
De Bello Gothico V.9.23-26 (transl. Dewing). Name from heroes: Procopius, De Bello Gothico VIII.2.12-13 (Apsyrtus near Lazica); 14.48-49 (Cotiaion in Lazica);
450
De Bello Vandalico IV.6.6-7. 22.31 (Anchialus in Greece); De Bello Persico I.17.13-20 (Comana of Pontus and of Cappadocia); name from a king: De Bello
451
De Bello Persico I.17.36-37; II.8.23: JtAOUT(]_) TE xat µEyE8a xat no1c1mv8gomlq xat xaAAEt xat i:fi aAATI EUOmµovlq. Persico II.5.4-5 (Zenobia); name from physical characteristics: De Bello Gothico V.15.4-7 (Beneventum).
88 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 89

her oracular shrine, the tusks of the Calydonian boar at Beneventum, the Palladion from Troy in the It is the rituals of the Hellenistic urban foundations, which are extensively developed in Malalas'
temple of Fortuna, later taken to Constantinople by Constantine, and the tomb of the hero Apsyrtus in l 'lrronicle. 464 They were performed to attract divine protection over the new foundation and secure
the city of Apsyrtus near Lazica. 456 The account of the Palladion, a relic of the greatest importance for safety and wealth in the future. Seleucus Nicator sacrifices to Zeus at a small city in Syria on the mountain
the Byzantines, and of monuments related to Trojan heroes, connected Constantinople with the Roman Kassion and prays for the site of his new foundation to be revealed to him, which then duly occurs. An
past, and underlined the legitimacy of the new capital. The legend would have been understood by the t·agle flies past, seizes a piece of sacrificial meat and carries it to the old coastal city at the emporion of
ancient reader as a justification of the Byzantine wars of reconquest in Italy. In the works of authors like Syrian Pieria. There Seleucus traces the line of the walls and names the city Seleucia after himself. 465
Procopius who expressed the Constantinopolitan point of view, such accounts were invested with a At Antigonia, built by Antigonus Poliorketes, Seleucus sacrifices to Zeus and prays with the priest
symbolism extending beyond the local communities and expressing the national aspirations and the in- Amphion for a sign as to whether he should build a new city on another site. Again, an eagle flies to the
terests of the capital. As ancient urban ideology declined, symbols relating to the empire as a whole .iltar, grabs some pieces of meat and departs towards the mountain Silpion, where he throws the meat,
appeared increasingly in the literary works. The capital's ideology will ultimately dominate all other I hereby indicating the site of the new city. The city of Antioch was built a little further on the plain by
forms of local identity. the river Orontes, in order to avoid the streams running down from mount Silpion. The consecration
ritual involves the sacrifice of the maiden Aimathe in the middle of the city by the priest and miracle-
worker (telestes) Amphion. Antioch is named after Seleucus' son, Antiochus Soter. He also builds a
The Chronicle of Malalas kmple to Zeus Bottios named after the kome on the site of which Antioch was built. Seleucus protects
I he new city with tremendous walls and constructs a bronze statue of the sacrificed maiden, which be-
City foundation legends and references to ancient monuments dominate the Chronicle of Malalas. comes the city's Tyche and to which he sacrifices immediately. 466 Foundation rituals are also men-
The work is a history of the empire with emphasis on the history and tradition of the cities, in particu- 1ioned regarding Seleucus' foundation of Laodicea and Apamea. 467
lar of Antioch and, in the later part, of Constantinople. The image of ancient cities dominates the Seleucus commemorates the foundation of Antioch by erecting statues: a stone statue of the eagle
Chronicle throughout from the early accounts of the mythical period. For example, Ulysses' wish to 111st outside the city, a statue of the head of a horse and a gilded helmet with an inscription commemo-
return home means returning to his city Ithaca, his own fatherland ( EL£ i:~v 'I0axriv noALv EL£ i:~v L◊iav rating his flight to safety and Antigonus' death, and a marble statue for the sheer Amphion inside the
aui:ou nai:Qi◊a). 457 The narrative of the Hellenistic period focuses on the glorious era of urbanization. Romanesia gate. 468 There is a symbolic element in these legends. The cities' past is endowed with a su-
Alexander and his successors are praised for building many cities, and according to the chronicler 11ernatural character and a strong and prosperous future is foreseen. Thus, for example, the formation
Pausanias, Seleucus built 75 cities. 458 The elevation of modest agglomerations to the status of a city in- 1if rocks resembling human beings, just outside Antioch, at a site named even in Malalas' time "Giants",
volved, first, a new name, usually that of the mythical, royal or imperial founder, or of a member of his and the myth of the giant Pagras, who lived in the area and was burnt by a thunderbolt, symbolize the
family. In some cases, the name may be symbolic, such as, for example, Kallinike, or Anthousa, for ,·ity's strength, in that it is situated in the land of the giants. 469 Furthermore, Seleucus imitates Heracles
Constantinople, implying future prosperity. 459 who planted cypresses at Daphne, originally called Heracleopolis after the hero. 470
The foundation of a new city was completed through building activity460 and in the case of Hellenistic The emphasis on legends and ceremonies of purification in Malalas extends even to the Roman
foundations especially through tracing the line of walls. 461 In the section of the Chronicle based on period, when, according to local tradition retailed in Malalas, restoration of cities after natural disas-
earlier sources, the elevation of a modest settlement to the status of a city involves granting the new 1ers included a sacrificial ritual of purification. The patrician Zarvos who was sent by the emperor Nerva

foundation a legal urban identity (6Cxmov n6AEW£), usually with the construction of walls and build- lo restore Diocaesarea in Cilicia, destroyed by earthquake, sacrifices a maiden and sets up her bronze

ings.462 Malalas passionately emphasizes the cities' foundation myths. They involved a sacrifice as a pu- statue as the Tyche of the city, now renamed Anazarvos. Tiberius sacrifices the maiden Antigone when
rification ritual and the creation of a guardian spirit, the Tyche of the city, to protect the new city. This he restores Antioch's theatre and adds another tier. 471 When Trajan rebuilds Antioch, which has been
was represented on statuary and coins in the form of a woman usually with a towered crown and symbols 1kstroyed by earthquake, he sets up a statue of the she-wolf with Remus and Romulus on the so-called
of the site and of fertility. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the Tyche of each city symbolized Middle Gate and sacrifices there a beautiful maiden from the city by the name of Kalliope. The name
future prosperity and was promoted in official iconography. In Malalas' Chronicle the Hellenistic insti- sl-cures Antioch's safety from natural calamities. The sacrifice, a bridal procession for the city, was
tution of the urban Tyche was extended to the cities' mythical beginnings for the cities of Gortyn, made as atonement and to purify the city (unEQ All'tQO'lJ xal, cmoxa8aQuJµou i:fj£ noAEW£, vvµcpayw-
Amandra, and Nyssa. 463 yi.uv aui:fi nmrioa£). Trajan immediately restores two large porticoes and many other buildings, a public
hath, an aqueduct and completes the construction of the theatre, which has been left unfinished. Finally

456 464
De Bello Gothico V.14.3; 15.8-14; VIII.2.14. On legends on the origin of cities see supra, pp. 52-54, 55.
457 465
Malalas, 85.20-21. Malalas, 150-151.
458 166
Ibid., 148.68, 154.43-45. · Ibid., 151-152.
459 467
For a list of sites or towns elevated to the status of a city see Jeffreys, Malalas' sources, 205 n. 22. Ibid., 153.24-34, 154.35-43.
460 468
Malalas, 145.12 (x1Cl;,n n611,w), 146.6. Ibid., 153.10-17.
461 469
Ibid., 151.49, 73-74, 153.31, 154.42-43, 159.20, 168.59-60. Ibid.
462
Ibid., 233.6, 248.53, 267.85-86, 268.18-19, 269.35-36, 326-327, 359.31-33. ,Po Ibid., 154.54-59.
463 471
Ibid., 23.53-57, 26.67-69, 108.33-36; Moffatt, Buildings, 105-107. Ibid., 202-203, 178.55-56.
90 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 91

he sets up a bronze gilded statue of the sacrificed maiden on four columns in the middle of the t·mperors are to stand up and prostrate themselves, while gazing at Constantine's statue with the Ty-
nymphaeum of the proskenion. She is depicted seated on the river Orontes crowned by the kings Se- dtc.477 The symbolism was obvious: the emperor dominated the city's welfare and future destiny. He,
leucus and Antiochus as the Tyche of the city. 472 alone, overshadowed the city's legend and urban ideology. Constantinople's Tyche merely symbolized
Such accounts of civic legends had a literary purpose. By embellishing the historical narrative, they prosperity, and it was empty of the earlier civic spirit. Gradually the cults of the Christian God and
gave the readers pleasure, whilst at the same time, as part of the tradition informing the Patria, they glo- saints, and in particular that of the Virgin, replaced the cult of the city's Tyche. Their attributes, like
rified their cities by referring to their mythical past shaped by gods, heroes, kings and emperors. The Ihose of the pagan Tyche, were protective. In the sixth century Christian foundation legends also begin
image of the city was optimistic, elevated to the sphere of the myth, mystical and projected into the fu- to appear. In the account of the Justinianic reconstruction of Palmyra, the city's legendary beginnings
ture in bright colours. The cities' great future was securely indicated through the symbolism of ancient derive from the Bible. In the past, she was a great city, since David fought Goliath there before the city
myths and the assertive power of monuments. Statues in particular were endowed with a mystical was founded. When Goliath fell, struck by David's stone, he was decapitated by David who carried his
power to reveal future events through various signs. 473 These legends were intended to be read as h,:ad to Jerusalem in victory. 478 For this reason Solomon, in commemoration of his father's victory,
revelatory for they suggested a future of power and prosperity for the cities. The emphasis on pagan built this great city and named it Palmyra, because it became the place of Goliath's death ( wi; y1:voµe-
civic traditions has been rightly explained by the antiquarian tastes of the literati. Attached to ancient vqv µo1:QaV i:cp foAux0). 479 As was fashionable at the time, Malalas understood the city's name as ono-
culture, they wanted to preserve local civic traditions, which were about to fall into oblivion at time of matopoeia.
this radical cultural and religious change. Such legends were reproduced in the epic of Nonnus' An essential part of the cities' legends were the statues which were set up by telestai, miracle-work-
Dionysiaca and in Malalas' Chronicle, where they are intended to appeal to the nostalgic ideology of in- ns, as talismans to avert all sorts of natural calamities. 480 During the rule of Antiochus Epiphanes, the
tellectuals. In these works the ancient city, hung with foundation myths, legends of purification rites 1r·lcstes Leios ordered a stone to be carved from the mountain above Antioch with a huge mask
and symbolic monuments, is a mystical and imaginary city. The poetic vision of the city, rich in legends (110oocorr1:1:ov), crowned and looking towards the city and the valley. The inscribed inscription saved the
and projected back to distant antiquity, stood in contrast to the reality of the early Byzantine period. In dty from plague. At the time of Malalas this was still called Haronion. 481 The emperor Tiberius added
the Christian environment of the fifth and sixth centuries, the cities' architectural appearance had dra- lo this statue a stone box containing a talisman made by Ablakkon to protect Antioch from flooding.
482

matically changed. The ancient monuments were left to decay, they were abandoned, dilapidated, or The most famous of all ancient miracle-workers was Apollonius of Tyana. In Malalas' Chronicle, Con-
converted for other use, 474 and their connection with the cities' mythical and historical past became stantinople's historical importance is projected into the past and Apollonius' magic power is extended
increasingly irrelevant. In the Patria and in Malalas' Chronicle, the image of the city embedded in the lo the capital of Byzantium. The modification of ancient legends in order to address contemporary issues
pagan tradition, as presented through the foundation myths and the monuments, is in contradiction is a technique to be observed in many sections in Malalas' Chronicle. 483 Apollonius, we are told, made
with the historical reality. It appears as a paradox that these legends celebrate the ancient city at exact- talismans to protect Constantinople from the storks, the river Lykos, tortoises and horses. From there
ly the time when its ancient structure was breaking down. he set off to visit other cities. In Antioch he made talismans to protect it from the north wind, from scor-
Some pagan civic legends were adapted to the Christian religion. According to the tradition, pions, and mosquitoes and established a ritual for this purpose. In the city also there was a talisman to
recorded by Malalas, the Palladion that Constantine removed from Rome is placed under his porphyry protect it from earthquakes, made during the rule of Julius Caesar by the miracle-worker Debborius.
column in Constantinople, thus legitimizing Constantinople as the empire's new capital. Constantine The inscription on it read "unshakeable", "immovable". Real life, however, demonstrated that the
names the capital's Tyche Anthousa, Flora in Latin, thereby securing future prosperity, and makes a power of the talismans was limited. When a statue, a talisman against earthquakes, on top of a porphyry
bloodless sacrifice to God. 475 This is the last surviving reference to a city receiving a Tyche, for the tra- rnlumn in the middle of the city, was struck by lightening, Apollonius refused to replace it with a new
dition faded away in the Christianized empire. However, in Malalas' narrative, the pagan foundation one, since he was able to foresee the city's future destructions. 484 In the early fourth century, during
rituals are presented as unchanging and of relevance up to the sixth century. This has been explained rnnstruction work a statue of Poseidon was found buried in the hope of averting earthquakes, but it was
by Malalas' own view of history, which sometimes lacked consciousness of historical evolution. At the melted down to make a statue of the emperor Constantine. Such was the belief in the power of talismans,
same time, by incorporating past cultural elements, the latter were deprived of their pagan connota- a Ibeit created by pagans, that the destruction of this statue brought about the earthquakes that destroyed
tions and became part of history. 476 The ritual established by Constantine to celebrate the anniversary Antioch in the sixth century. 485
of the foundation of Constantinople shows how civic ceremony was adjusted to imperial autocratic rule
and imperial worship. A gilded wooden statue of Constantine holding in his right hand Constantinople's
Tyche, Anthousa, also gilded, is to be brought into the Hippodrome on a carriage, escorted by soldiers
477 Malalas, 247.20-29.
holding candles, led around the turning post and placed in front of the imperial kathisma. All future 478 In fact this is a reference to a contemporary Byzantine practice: McCormick, Eternal Victory, 63.
479
Malalas, 355.19-27.
480 Moffatt, Buildings, 107-108.
472 481 Malalas,155.73-78.
Ibid., 208.30-46.
473 Moffatt, Buildings, 101-103; Dagron, Constantinople, 21-60 ( on the Patria of Constantinople), 127 ff., 143-150, 320 ff.; 482 Ibid., 177.25-35.
483 Malalas reshapes myths and earlier history to express contemporary preoccupations, cultural values and political priorities:
Saradi, Perceptions, 57-66; Chuvin, Chronique, 249-252. See infra, pp. 91, 378-380.
474 Scott, Malalas' View, esp. 150-156.
See infra, parts III and IV.
475 484
Malalas, 246.83-88. Malalas, 199-201.
476 E. Jeffreys, Malalas' world view, in Studies in John Malalas, 55-66, esp. 60; Scott, Malalas' View, 147-164. 485 Ibid., 244.44-49.
92 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 93

In Malalas' Chronicle numerous monuments adorn and dignify the urban landscape. Many are Hild churches outnumber all references to other buildings. Twenty-two temples are mentioned in Antioch
mentioned as part of the emperors' biography, a traditional element of historiography. 486 This literary uml Daphne, fifteen churches are mentioned in Antioch, 497 and over twenty in Constantinople. 498
496
tradition continued into mediaeval Byzantium. Other references to monuments are given on the occa- ·1'his record of buildings constructed in the early Byzantine period registers the transformation of urban
sion of their destruction during earthquakes or by the passage of time, and their subsequent restora- '>pace. The ancient and the new, the pagan and the Christian existed side by side and are reconciled in
tion. Other monuments are part of the narrative of myths and some, such as the Colossus of Rhodes, Malalas' Chronicle. There is no renunciation of the one for the other. The changing identity of cities
the Pharos of Alexandria, the temple of Hadrian at Cyzicus and that of Zeus at Heliopolis (Baalbek and the transformation of their architectural appearance contrast with the image of the ancient city
now in Lebanon), are cited because of the author's antiquarian interests, an interest that was also woven in the web of myths and symbolic monuments. We are left with the impression that Malalas'
expected by his learned readers. The majority of monuments mentioned by Malalas were located in c'hronicle is the swan song of the Greco-Roman city.
Antioch and Constantinople. After the earthquake of 526, in Book XVII.16 Antioch is no longer the
focus of the Chronicle. Perhaps Malalas moved to the capital and this explained his interest in events
and monuments of Constantinople in the Book XVIII. 487 Also a great number of temples are mentioned, Agathias and Theohylact Simocatta: the break with tradition
some because they formed an integral part of famous ancient myths, others as part of the emperors'
building programs, others because they were converted to churches. 488 One might expect the city to occupy a dominant role in Agathias' historiography for two reasons,
References to imperial building activities in the sixth century reveal a diminishing interest in orna- first, because of his involvement in the urban administration as curator civitatis, responsible for public
mental civic structures and buildings for public entertainment. In Antioch in 527 Justinian built the buildings at Smyrna and as thepaterpoleos, 499 and second, because of his attachment to classical themes
Church of the Virgin opposite the Basilica of Rufinus, that of Cosmas and Damian, a hospice, baths and literary style, and ancient culture. 500 However, an examination of the references and digressions on
and cisterns. Theodora sponsored the construction of the Church of St. Michael and the Basilica of dties in his work shows that he projects sixth-century culture more clearly than Procopius. 501 Writing
Anatolius. 489 In Constantinople, the emperor sponsored major construction projects. The Church of St. in the spirit of literary tradition, in the first lines of the prooimion he places the restoration and embel-
Sophia receives the place of honour, with mention of its restoration together with the Chalke, damaged lishment of cities (noAEWV i:£ avm-xwµot -xat ayAataµma) next in importance to military conquest.
during the Nika revolt, the repair of the dome damaged in the earthquake of 557, and the church's new
dedication in 562.490 Justinian also built a granary and cisterns by his palace, completed the construction
of the baths of Dagistheus, initiated by Anastasius, and constructed a cistern under the Basilica of Illos l'l'J.52-55), of Olbia (ibid., 325.11), of Paradise (ibid., 199.49-50), of the emperor Philip (ibid., 244.34-35), the Severianum
which received water from Hadrian's aqueduct, also repaired by the emperor. 491 The buildings construct- ( ibid., 224.30-31, 291 app. ), of the Syrian nation and of Trainadonhus (ibid., 344 app. 56), of Trajan (ibid., 291 app. ), the Varium
ed or restored by Justinian in Constantinople point to the changing priorities of imperial patronage. With { ihid., 184.39); in Constantinople mention is made of the baths of Zeuxippus (ibid., 246.6, 247.19, 292.91-92, 293.10, 396.60),
exception of St. Sophia, these were buildings of practical function. The lavish civic buildings with which .md ofDagistheos' (ibid., 364.38-39); in Laodicea in Syria, in Caesarea in Palestine, in Nicomedia and in Ephesus are mentioned
A11lonine baths (ibid., 212.37, 51-53); in Tripolis in Phoenice the Ikaros and the Phakidion (ibid., 289.41-45).
the Roman emperors decorated cities were no longer relevant even to the capital of the empire.492 495
In Alexandria the gates of the Sun and the Moon (ibid., 212.41-42); in Antioch the Eastern gate (ibid., 178.57-58), the
From the overall record of references to buildings in Malalas' Chronicle we can draw interesting ( 'hcrubim (ibid., 212.48), the Daphnetic, so-called Golden (ibid., 206.73, 281.90-91), of St. Julian (ibid., 348.69), the Middle
conclusions. Among the buildings for civic administration the references to basilicas are most numer- 1•,atc (ibid., 208.31-32), the gates so-called Philonautou and Rhodion (ibid., 268.96-97), the Romanisia (ibid., 153. 22); in
ous.493 Baths are represented by the greatest number of references and descriptions of their decora- < 'onstantinople the Golden gate (ibid., 406.88).

tion.494 Gates and their decoration commemorating historical events are also mentioned. 495 Temples 496 Temples of Aphrodite (ibid., 199.56), Ares (ibid., 163.52, 186.87, 208.32, 217.71, 72), Artemis (ibid., 186.87), Asclepius

(ibid., 199.57), Athene (ibid., 215.9), Dionysus (ibid., 178.50), Hecate (ibid., 237.7), Hercules (ibid., 186.87), Hermes (ibid.,
.'•14.37), Muses (ibid., 179.72, 75), Pan (ibid., 178.61), Pantheon (ibid., 163.58, 183.4), Winds (ibid., 198.25), Capitoline Zeus
(ibid., 178.45), Olympian Zeus (ibid., 215.12); at Daphne the temples of Apollo (ibid., 237.6), Artemis (ibid., 209.69),
486 Moffatt, Buildings, 92-93; Jeffreys, Malalas' sources, 212. See also, supra, p. 71. c)lympian Zeus and Nemesis in the stadium (ibid., 236.4, 237.5), Nymphs (ibid., 209.78), the Springs (ibid., 210.83) and of
487 Moffatt, Buildings, 94-96. Zeus Soter (ibid., 208.26-87).
488 497 Two churches of the Archangel Michael (ibid., 347.30-33, 351.54), of the Virgin (ibid., 347.31), the Holy Prophets (ibid.,
The temple of Rhea/Cybele was converted into a church of Mary during the reign of Zeno (Malalas, 55.89-90); the
Sostheneion was converted into a church of St. Michael at the time of Constantine (ibid., 55.4-56.17); three temples on the 147.35), St. John (ibid., 324.92-94, 325.8), St. Julian (ibid., 380.82), St. Cassianus (ibid., 378.50), St. Zachariah (ibid., 347.35),
acropolis of Constantinople were destroyed by Theodosius and converted for secular use (ibid., 267.75-83); Theodosius also Koimeterion (ibid., 251.23-24), St. Stephen (ibid., 344.55), St. Leontius at Daphne (ibid., 324.87), Kerateion (ibid., 347.42),
destroyed the temple of Zeus at Baalbek, considered one of the wonders of the world and converted it into a church, and that ( 'osmas and Damian (ibid., 351.51), Great Church (µEylm:17) (ibid., 244.33, 43,249.64, etc.), eukterion of Maria (ibid., 351.49).
498 Holy Apostles (ibid., 412.67, + 21, +23), St. Anastasia (ibid., 405 app. 64), St. Aquilina (ibid., 397 app. 69), Blachernai
of Damascus (ibid., 266.62-65); Honorius is credited for the destruction of the Serapion at Alexandria (ibid., 270.80-81).
489 (ibid., 423.61, 427.53, * 27), St. Diomedes (ibid., 406.90-92, 407.3, 425.28), St. Irene (ibid., 394 app. 25, 397 app. 69,426 *6,
Ibid., 351.49-56.
490 1131.34), St. Irene in Justinianai (ibid., 414.90-91), Great Church (ibid., 265.24, etc., 396.56, 405.64, 420.75, 429.81), St. Conon
Ibid., 396.54-56, 405.64, 420.75-81, 429.81-88.
491 (ibid., 360.49, 395.35), St. Laurence (ibid., 395.38, 396.53), St. Mamas (ibid., 296.41, 332.81), St. Maura (ibid., 400 app. 6), St.
Ibid., 364.37-41, 400.8-401.1.
492 Scrgius (ibid., 409 app., 412.75, +36), St. Stratonicus (ibid., 421.88, 8), Martyr Theodora (ibid., 424.17), St. Theodorus (ibid.,
Moffatt, Buildings, 93, 95. For a list of imperial building activities see Jeffreys, Malalas' sources, 212 and n. 28.
493 The Caesarion in Alexandria (Malalas, 163.65); in Antioch the basilicas of Anatolius (ibid., 280.82-86, 351.55), 197 app. 69), St. Vicentius (ibid., 419 app. 59), monastery ofDalmatou (ibid., 418 app. 50), Theotokos of Petala (ibid., 419 app.
Caesarion (ibid., 161.52, 217.68, 261.50-51 ), of Rufinus (ibid., 244.36, 325.15), of Zenodotus (ibid., 325.15), and others (ibid., SC/), St. Plato (ibid., 429 app. 82-88), St. Samuel (ibid., 419 app. 59).
499
261.50-62), of the Furriers (ibid., 397 app. 69). Anthologia Graeca IX.642-644 and 662.
494 500 Agathias was probably a pagan and influence of philosophical concepts has been discerned in his work: A. Kaldellis,
In Alexandria the so-called Horse (ibid., 146.9) and the Therma (ibid., 223.12-13); in Antioch nineteen baths are men-
tioned: the Agrippianum renamed Ampelion (ibid., 169.78), the Centenarium (ibid., 213.74), the Commodium (ibid., 215.8-9, The Historical and Religious Views of Agathias: A Reinterpretation, Byzantion 69 (1999), 206-252.
501
261.52), the Diocletianum (ibid., 236.87-88), of Hadrian (ibid., 291, app.), the Livianum (ibid., 224.33-38), of Medeia (ibid., Cameron,Agathias, 1.
94 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 95

Then he takes up the traditional theme of the debt to his fatherland. His city of origin, Myrina, is cited <)oov xal, &yvoEioOm w~
exdvri dri ~ naAm). 506 However, Agathias avoids any attempt to identify the
after his name and before that of his father: "My name is Agathias, my birthplace Myrina, my father changes or to explain them. Archaeological excavations in numerous early Byzantine cities confirm
Memnonius, my profession ... " However, the praise of Myrina is very brief: it is an ancient colony of t\gathias' observations: after devastating earthquakes, restoration did not preserve the cities' earlier ar-
the Aiolians situated at the mouth of the river Pythicus, and there is a vague reference to its splendid dtitcctural splendour. It was fortifications and churches about which the cities continued to care. 507
accomplishments (armvm ,:a xAELva xal, Jt<J.1:QLCI. EQya). Agathias explains to his readers that he was The city of Cos was also completely destroyed by the earthquake and the tidal waves that followed.
hoping to be able to write a complete praise of the city and in this way return the favour to the city for Agathias visited the island on his way to Constantinople from Alexandria. He describes the immensity
having brought him up. Significantly, he passes immediately on to his present subject, the composition of the catastrophe, the collapse of all buildings built of stone ( only those built with unbaked bricks and
of the history of the empire as a whole. 502 The empire overall dominates his work and overshadows any mud were still standing) and of the water system. In concluding, Agathias remarks that the only ele-
interest in characteristics of individual cities. 1m:nt of prestige left to the city of Cos was the reputation of the name of Asclepiadae and the glory of
Yet Agathias includes a few digressions on cities in his historiography. 503 In spite of his reproduc- having been the motherland of Hippocrates. 508
tion of rhetorical themes, he recognizes that each city changed differently. The first description is that Agathias' final digressions on cities are found in the book V.12, in connection with the fortification
of Massilia. After a brief reference to the city's foundation by the Phocaeans comes the statement that wal I that runs from coast to coast across the Chersonese and protects the cities of Aphrodisias, Thescos,
its occupation by the Franks brought about the dissolution of the ancient ways of life and constitution. <'ihcris and further Sestos. The latter is praised for references to it in ancient literary tradition:
Agathias states that there was still dignity in the city's life, not inferior to the dignity of the past, and '"renowned in poetry, doubtless because of its associations with the story of Hero's lamp and of the
praises the Franks for their superior customs and institutions influenced by Roman law. This judge- dt•ath of her lover Leander". 509 Last comes the description of the small town Callipolis in the province
ment was, however, apparently motivated by political considerations. 504 of Europe in Thrace. Neither the size, nor its appearance, but the beauty of the surrounding nature
In the narrative of military expeditions, cities are identified as polis, asty, polisma and phrourion. In 111stifies its name:
spite of his attachment to classical ideas and modes of expression Agathias is particularly concerned with
the military importance of settlements. Those protected by strong fortifications and by the inaccessibility Not far from Sestos is another ~mall town (noA(XVLov), which despite its extreme
of their site attract his attention and are praised as military strongholds. They provide an opportunity for smallness, its lack of beauty and generally unprepossessing appearance is called
literary excursus. Brief descriptions of the location of a city were an established tradition in Roman histo- Callipolis. The surrounding country is graced with fields and roadsteads, dotted
riography of the imperial period. In Agathias' work, the idyllic descriptions of nature surrounding cities with a great variety of trees and blessed with streams of good drinking water and
are adjusted to the new interest in the military character of cities. The city of Cumae in Italy is praised for with a rich, fertile soil that produces a plentiful store of all the necessaries of life. 510
its strong fortifications and the security of its location in a passage with few poetic tones:
We have seen that in earlier literary works the image of the city was shaped by the consciousness
Cumae is a very heavily fortified town in Italy, and it is no easy matter for an enemy of the classically educated elite. Now, however, the idea of the city has changed even in the eyes of a
to capture it. Situated on a steep hill, which is difficult to climb, it commands a view dassicizing author like Agathias. The historical circumstances and the features of the early mediaeval
of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The hill rises up over the shore, so that the waves surge and city appear clearly in his historiography: cities occupied by barbarians lost their ancient Greco-Roman
dash against its base while its top is encompassed with a ring of massive towers and dvilization; others were devastated by earthquakes and did not recover their ancient splendour; the
battlements. 505 praise of the city no longer included its antique architectural appearance, and had shifted instead to the
dt ics' military character; the image of the idealized city was no longer that with ancient embellishments
Two other digressions retain elements of the literary tradition, while at the same time reflect the 1 ii urban architecture. Rather, it was now a small town surrounded by idyllic nature and fertile land. It

historical reality of the second half of the sixth century. The first is a description of Berytus during the 1s surprising that the realistic image of the city of the second half of the sixth century emerges so clear-
earthquake of 551. The city is praised as being most beautiful (xaAAL<JTrJ) and an adornment (eyxaAAw- ly in the work of a classicizing author.
m<Jµa) of Phoenicia. In the earthquake Berytus lost its embellishments, namely its splendid buildings With Theophylact Simocatta, the intellectuals had reached the point of accepting the historical re-
(,:cm, 611 <XJtl)yAat<JOri <lJtC/.<JCI., 'XC/.l 'XC/.1:EQQLJti:O ,:a 'XAELV<l E'XELVC/. xal, JtEQLAUA'YJ'ta i:fl~ oixoboµ(a~ bm- ality of the urban transformation and of projecting the new model of the city in their work. The city was
baAµai:a). This is the only passage in Agathias' Histories in which architectural structures are praised as itt I longer a fantasy of the past. One of the most celebrated themes of early Byzantine literature, the city
a distinct urban feature. The schools of law were temporarily transferred to neighbouring Sidon. But 111 ils ancient form with splendid monuments and culture, was abandoned. This picture was replaced by
Berytus' restoration did not preserve the earlier architectural characteristics. Agathias notes that the re- a demystified image shaped by realism. The new, diminished image of the city, deprived of its architec-
stored city was very different from the old ( xal, yeyovEv r\xt<Jm µev 6no(a JtQOLEQOV ~v, nA11v aAA' ouxt 1ural splendour and reliant on its fortifications, often contracted into smaller settlements of military

502Agathias, proem 14-15 (p. 6). •mr, Ibid., II.15.2-4 (pp. 59.23-60.6).
503On digressions in Agathias' work see Cameron, Agathias, 35-36. ,o 7 See infra, pp. 450, 461-462.
ov
504 Agathias I.2.2 (p. 11.9-10): <palvEi:m 61; xal, vi:iv µ<iAa i:fjc; al;lac; i:wv rcaAmwv oixrii:oQWV xam6Ernti\Qa. The ·'
08
II.16.1-6 (pp. 61-62).
Franks could be the only allies of the Byzantines against the Lombards: Cameron,Agathias, 50-51, 116-121. •,o 9 V.12.2 (p. 178; transl. Frendo, 147).
505 Agathias I.8.2-3 (p. 20; transl. Frendo, 16). 111
' V.12.3 (p. 178; transl. Frendo, 147).
96 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 97

and agricultural character, as can be seen in the historiography of Agathias and Simocatta, was gradu- ilniving from rural or administrative terminology, are demoi, 517 ktema, 518 choria, 519 kleroi, 520 regiones, 521
ally breaking free of the past and revealing the profound change in the structures and in the idea of the tmctus (klimata) 522 or saltus, 523 which originated in the imperial res privata, and akontisma. 524 The term
city. What we do not learn from their works are the pace and dynamics of the change. Agathias and l,11stron is mentioned twice. 525 However, other settlements, ranked as cities in Synekdemos, are labelled
Simocatta admittedly do not offer explanations for this urban change, but at least they give a picture, 111 Procopius' Buildings as phrouria in the context of the Justinianic restoration of their walls. Some of

albeit fragmentary, of the new type of city. I ht'.SC were towns with military character, while others, like Dyrrachium, were cities. Here, rather than

The historiography of Simocatta, the last classicizing author of the early Byzantine period, stands llu'. size and the other functions of the city, it is their military character that counts. It is clear that the
closer to the style of seventh-century products of ecclesiastical authors, high-style hagiography and ad- rnntcxt and the function of the settlement that the author chooses to stress in each case determine the
1 ho ice of the term polis or kastron.
526 Such cases are Appiaria, Odyssus, Nicopolis, Abrittus, Marcia-
ministrative documents. 511 The urban features recorded in Simocatta's History are related to military
events, such as a description of the location which made the fort Acbas impregnable, or the restoration 1111polis, Novae in Moesia Secunda, 527 Aegissus, Constantiana, Callatis in Scythia, 528 Dyrrachium,
of Tiberiopolis' walls damaged by the passage of time. 512 The only city for which Simocatta reserves a Amantea and Alistrus in Epirus Nova529 and Anchialus in Haemimontum. 530 All these settlements
mention of its buildings is Antioch, and that in a general statement. In 573 the invading Persians de- wt·rc in the Balkans and because of invasions from the fourth century onwards had received the form
stroyed the beautiful buildings before the city's walls ('ta 'tE cfuv obwooµriµacwv JtQO cfi£ n6AEW£ 1111d function of fortified settlements (kastra ). 531

xanri Otacp0ELQU£). 513 The interest in cities, in the urban architectural environment, aesthetics and In most of the sources of the sixth century, the polis is distinguished from the kome in terms of size
urban culture, as we know it from earlier sources, is dramatically reduced. The new mediaeval, Byzantine and population. Thus the kome stands between the city and the village. Procopius states that the kome
city had already been shaped in the people's outlooks and it is now presented as such in the texts. Vdlurus in Rhodope ranked as a city in wealth and population (nAoumu µiov ouvaµEL xat noAuav0Qw-
1dc,t 1'.oa xat n6At£). 532 How close a kome was to a city can be discerned from passages describing the
promotion of a small settlement to the status of a city upon only the construction of a wall. 533 In other
Terminology passages, kome, polisma (small town) and phrourion (military stronghold) are distinguished from
11ol<•is. 534 They had different sizes and functions. However, the distinction is not always maintained. In
Examination of the use of terms designating urban settlements in historiography further illumi- •,, imc passages of Procopius, there is remarkable fluidity in the use of these terms: the same settlement
nates the slow change of the city in the sixth century and the new function it assumed. Scholarly discus- may be referred to both as polis and chorion, 535 polis and polisma, 536 polisma, polichnion and polis. 537
sions on the transformation and decline of the Byzantine cities have been based to a large degree on
change in terminology. 514 The use of the term kastron to designate a city in the Byzantine Dark Ages
instead of the term polis is rightly taken to indicate the profound transformation of the Byzantine cities 7
'>1 Four in Phrygia Salutaris and seven in Pamphylia: Synekdemos, 678.4-7, 679.6, 8,680.3, 4,681.8, 10, 11.
into small, fortified settlements. The cities had lost their traditional urban function, their ancient ar- '>1 8 In Pamphylia: 681.6.
chitectural appearance, their population had been dramatically reduced and their size had shrunk. The ',t•i One in Pamphylia and one in Caria: 680.9, 689.8.
20
poleis had become kastra. ' Two in Phrygia Salutaris: 677.3, 4.
In the Roman empire, when the status of a city was defined in legal terms, the word polis was used ' 21 In Pamphylia (681.7), Lycia (684.1), Bithynia (694.1, 2), Galatia Prima (696.9, 697.1), Galatia Salutaris (697.5, 698.1),

to identify urban settlements. In the early Byzantine period, however, when radical administrative 1 .ippadocia Prima (699.3), Cappadocia Secunda (700.8, 701.1).
In the Illyricum (640.8a).
changes were introduced, and the urban character of a settlement ceased to be legally defined, fluctu-
"' 23 Two in Thessaly (643.1, 2) and one in Helenopontus (701.6), in Euphratesia (713.9), and in Palaestina Tertia (721.11).
ations in terminology became more frequent: towns and medium size cities are not clearly distin- ·,z 4 640.8b.
guished from large villages and settlements of a military character. Sometimes, however, even in '' 25Kastra Martis in Dacia (655.5), and Klysma kastron in Augustamnike Secunda in Egypt (728.7).
sources of the Roman period the terminology identifying small cities is ambivalent: a small city could ,z<, For the convergence of the terms polis and katron in the sixth and especially in the seventh century and the use of the
be called a city (polis, polisma) in one passage and a village (kome) in another. 515 The size of a settle- "'' m kastron for the military settlement see Brandes, Stiidte, 31-37.
' 27 Procopius, De aedificiis IV.11.2; Synekdemos, 636.2-8. Dorostolos, however, is mentioned by Procopius as ochyroma:
ment was the predominant characteristic differentiating a city (polis) from a town or a village (kome).
I 1,• aedificiis IV.7.10.
However, the line dividing a city from a kome on the grounds of size was blurred even in official sources. 128
Ibid., IV.11.20; Synekdemos, 637.1-5: Tomis, Callatis, Constantiana, Zeldepa (Zaldapa in Procopius), Carsos, Trosmes,
In the Synekdemos of Hierocles, in the diocese of Oriens some komai are included. 516 Other terms used \cgissus (De aedificiis IV.7.20), Halmyris (De aedificiis IV.7.20), Axioupolis (Axiopa in De aedificiis IV.11.20).
529
Ibid., IV.4.3; Synekdemos, 653.1, 5, 654.la.
im Procopius, De aedificiis IV .11.20; Synekdemos, 635 .11.
511 M. Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and his Historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Wa,fare (Oxford :ut See Dunn, The transition, esp. 63-67, 75-80.
132
, Procopius, De aedificiis IV .11. 7.
1988), 336-347. 533 Daras: ibid., 11.1.4 (kome,polis), 10, 13 (polis).
512 Theophylact Simocatta 1.12.2 (p. 62); 1.14.6 (p. 67).
4
l,l De Bello Persico 11.29.18: Kwµal 'tE yaQ at Aal;;wv Jtaom 'tO'U Jto,aµoiJ EV't0£ evi:aiJ0a dat xat JtOAloµam EX JtUAatO'U
513 Jbid., III.10.8 (p. 131).
514 See supra, p. 15. <11Jfot i:m'.nu nrnolr]v,m, ev i:o1:£ 'AQxm6noAt£, EXUQW't<l'tTJ o'Doa, LEpaoi:6noAl£ ,E evi:aiJ8a xat i:6 IImoiJvi:os; (JJQ01JQL6v eon
515 See, for example, the use of these terms in Josephus: J. F. Strange, D.E. Groh, T.R.W. Longstaff, Excavations at :.;;t/1, vba 'tE xat LUQUJtUVL£ JtQ0£ 'tOL£ 'IPTJQLU£ OQLOL£. II6AEL£ µev,OL a~tOAoywi:m;m evmiJ0a ELOL 'Po66JtOAL£ xat Moxi]QT]Ot£.
,.1 5 Amida is called apolis (De Bello Persico 1.17.24; 1.21.6; 1.8.10; 1.9.14; 1.7.3, 29; 1.9.4, 23; De aedificiis 11.1.4; III.1.17) and
Sepphoris: The Location and Identification of Shikhin, IEJ 44 (1994), 223-225.
,1 t'/wrion (De Bello Persico 1.9.1 ); Auximus is referred to as a polis (De Bello Gothico VI.10.3; Vl.23.6; VI.11.2, etc.), and as a
5l 6 In the provinces of Asia (Synekdemos, 660.6), Lycia ( 685.6), Caria (690.2: xwµm x-tT]µm:txal), Arabia (e~axwµla xwµT]:
, ltorion (Vl.20.2).
722.2, 5).
98 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 99

Fortifications alone also determined the status of a settlement as city. A settlement of the size of a small In Malalas's Chronicle the settlement that already existed on the site of a new city foundation, was
town, a polichne, becomes a polis upon the restoration of its fortifications. 538 The reverse also could occur. a lwme, emporion, kastron, or chorion. 547 The terminology clearly distinguishes small settlements from
A large unfortified city like Tarentum in Calabria, once it received walls protecting only a small part dtics for which the term polis is reserved. In the Chronicle, the term kastron appears very frequently. It
of the inhabited area, became both polisma and phrourion. 539 This shows that although the size of the •~ first mentioned in Book XII.34 (third century, emperor Probus). 548 The use of the terms kastron 549
population may have remained the same, the new line of the walls altered the function and the model and kastellion, 550 designating strongholds with a small settlement or a garrison from the third century,
of the city. The change is immediately reflected in the terminology. Also, the term ochyroma, which l'oincides with the empire's gradual militarization in the early Byzantine period. In only one case,
corresponds to phrourion, 540 is used for cities in the context of military campaigns. 541 Thus the military Martyropolis, later renamed Justinianopolis, are the terms polis and kastellion used interchangeably. 551
terms, phrourion and ochyroma, are used to identify the city's new character. More often the term In Agathias' Histories the term polis often alternates with the term asty to designate the same urban
phrourion denotes a small town (polisma), which in some cases was promoted to the status of apolis. 542 552
n:ntre. The fluctuation in the termspolis,polisma,polichnion, andphrourion for the same urban centre
Ariminum is mentioned as a polis in several passages, and elsewhere as phylakterion. 543 Procopius, is also found in several passages: Cumae is referred to as phrourion, polichnion, polisma, polis ,553 while
however, rarely alternates the termspolis andphrourion for the same settlement. 544 111 the same section cities in Tuscany are termed polismata and poleis. 554 For Phasis in Lazica and
In the sources from the sixth century, the term kastron, which from the seventh century onwards Rodopolis in Colchis the terms polis, asty and polisma are used. 555 We have already seen that the ambi-
defines most of the Byzantine cities, designates a small, fortified city. In the Life of St. Symeon Stylites 1•,uity in urban terminology is found only in cities located on the periphery of the empire, where urban-
the Younger, we read that Soura was a kastron, which was a "small city" ( EV ~OUQOL£ 'tq> x,a.01:Qcp, OJtEQ ization had never been strong, and in areas where cities had collapsed on account of invasions.
foi;l,n6AL£ µLx.Qa). 545 Also in the Novel 128.20 of the year 545 the termkastron is placed next to the term We find parallels in the History of Theophylact Simocatta. The terms polis and asty naturally al-
polis (Ev w.1£ JtOAEOLv f\1:m x,ao1:Qm£). 546 In general in Procopius' works the terms city (polis), town Innate in many passages. 556 The terms designating city, town and stronghold also alternate, especially
(polisma,polichnion) and stronghold (ochyroma,phrourion and kastron) are distinguished. However, lor settlements in the northern Balkans, a phenomenon we have already seen in the terminology of
as we have seen, sometimes the distinction is blurred, indicating the slow change in the function and Svnekdemos and Procopius for this area. The fort Asemus/Asema in Moesia Inferior is referred to as a
topography of Byzantine cities. po/is, asty,polisma, andphrourion. 557 The fluctuation in the termspolis/asty andpolisma for cities of various
si,-.c is unexpected. The terms are used for Sirmium, which is defined as a "very large polisma" an
"glorious city" (µ1:y(owu JtOAtoµmo£ ... ao,:u 'tE JtEQLOo~ov), 558 Ratiaria, Bononia, Aquis, Dorostolos,
536
Amisus on the Euxinus is called a polis (De Bello Gothico VIII.3.5), a polisma (VIIl.2.2); Archaeopolis in Lazica, a polis '.l.aldapa, Pannasa, Marcianopolis, Tropaeum, 559 Tiberiopolis, 560 and Daras. 561 In the case of Sirmium
(VIII.13.3), a polisma (De Bello Persico II.29.18), a phylakterion (De Bello Gothico VIII.13.8); Ctesiphon on the Tigris river, a Ihe choice of the words is deliberate. The phrase JtEQLOo~ov amu implies the importance of Sirmium
polisma (De Bello Persico II.28.4), apolis (11.14.1; Historia arcana II.25); Fanus in Italy, apolisma (De Bello Gothico Vll.11.32)
as provincial capital and strategic centre for the Balkans, while the word polisma reflects the city's
and apolis (Vll.25.7).
537 1 val situation at the time. In particular the three terms polisma, polis, asty alternate in the same
Sura on the Euphrates, polisma (De aedificiis II. 9 .1 ), polichnion (II.9 .2) and polis (De Bello Persico 1.18.14; II.5 .8, 13, 14,
19, 20, 26; II.9.9). It is also called apolis by John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica, p. 587 and Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica passage 111.11.2, and in V.3.10 and 11 the terms polis-polisma and asty-polisma. These terms also
IV.25 (p. 172.4). Gaza, called by Choricius a polis, is defined as a polisma and a polichnion by Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica alternate for Philippoupolis, 562 Martyropolis, 563 etc. Most significant is the use of the termpolisma for
III.33 (pp. 131-133); IV.33 (p. 182.18).
538 De aedificiis 11.9.18 (polichne), 20 (polis).

539
De Bello Gothico VII.23.12, 14 (1t6Atv µeyl<Tt'l']V i:e unegcpuwc; xat 1tav1:a1tamv ai:Elxwi:ov o-foav), 15; VII.28.2 (polisma);
Vll.37.23 (phrourion ). 547
Kome: Malalas, 26.65, 27.74, 76, 108.34, 37, 145.13, 146.7 etc.; emporion: 146.18, 151.48; kastron: 233.6; chorion: 326.54.
540 548
As for Caesena, a fortress in northern Italy (phrourion: De Bello Gothico V .1.15; VI.11.3; Vl.19 .21; Vll.6.1, and ochyroma: Ibid., 233.6.
VI.29.40); for Petra/Pertusa in Italy (ochyroma: VI.11.10; VIII.28.13; VIII.34.16,phrourion: VI.11.2, 10, 14; Vll.6.1); Rhegium 149
· Ibid., 233.6 (Carrhae); 237.27-30 (kastra built by Diocletian on the eastern frontier); 252.52, 56-57 (Circesium near
in Italy (phrourion: VII.37.19, ochyroma: VII.39.1). 1'11phrates); 254.72 (kastra ofthe Persians by Euphrates); 303.65 (Limnai in Cappadocia); 389.68-69 (Abgarsaton in Osrhoene ).
541 550
Centumcellae in Etruria (ochyroma: De Bello Gothico Vll.36.11, polis: VI.7.18 (n6Atv µeylo1:11v 1:E unegcpuwc; xaL Ibid., 264.12, 311.10, 314.50, 315.59, 320.32 (in lsauria), 392.57, 68 (Martyropolis).
navi:anamv ai:dxwi:ov oifoav) and 19 (n6ALV Em8at-.aoolav, A6you JtOAAou a~lav); VII.37.16 and 17; Vll.39.25); Naples (polis: 551
Polis: ibid., 356.48; kastellion: 392.57, 68.
V.8.5, 6 ff.; V.8.45; V.9.11 ff.; ochyroma: V.14.2); Namia in Tuscany (polis: V.16.2; V.17.9; ochyroma: VI.11.9); Perusia in Tuscany 552
Lucca (polis: 1.12.1; 1.13.2; 3; 5 etc.; asty: 1.12.3, 7; 1.18.5), Ariminum (modern Rimini,polis: 1.21.1, 4; asty: 1.21.5).
(polis: V.16.4 (ngd:m1); Vll.25.1; Vll.35.2; VIII.33.11; ochyroma: VI.11.9); Spolitium in Italy (ochyroma: VI.11.9; polis: 53
' Phrourion: 20.10, 23; 21.18; 23.2;polichnion: 21.16;polisma: 21.3;polis: 36.11.
Vll.23.3). See also Dagron, Les villes, 7-8. 554
pp. 23.7, 24.4.
542 155
Strabo XII.3.41: not-.wµai:wv aµa xat cpgougwv. Circesium, fortress on the Euphrates, is aphrourion in Procopius, De Phasis, polis: 109.21, 116.20 (also polis in Menander Protector, fr. 2.5); asty: 109.30; 110.5, etc.; polisma: 109.24.
Bello Persico II.5.2 and 3, but a polisma in Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica V.9 (p. 204.13); Dryus or Hydrus, on the east coast Hotlopolis,polisma: 140.29; asty: 141.2;polis: 141.3.
of Italy (polisma: De Bello Gothico V.15.20;phrourion: Vll.9.22), Sebastopolis in Lazica (polisma: De Bello Persico II.29.18, 6
" See, for example, for Singidunum (polis: Theophylact Simocatta, 46.16, 22; 262.23; 263.22, 26; and asty: 46.19, 24; 264.27),
phrourion: De Bello Gothico VIII.4.4; De aedificiis III. 7.8, and polis: De aedificiis III. 7 .9). I kraclea (polis: 59.29; asty: 221.8), etc.
543 557
Po/is: De Bello Gothico VI.11.14; 12.1 ff.; 19.1; 20.27 ff.; VII.11.32; 37.23; VIII.28.5;phylakterion: VIII.28.2, 11. Polis: 249.20, 26, 28; 250.1, etc.; asty: 249.21;polisma: 249.24;phrourion: 294.23.
544 558
The terms polis, phrourion and acropolis are clearly distinguished from each other in the topography of Berroia: phrourion p. 44.22-23. Also polis in Menander Protector, fr. 12.5.24, 65; 12.6.24; 12.7.3; 25.1.11, 13.
is the fort on the city's acropolis: De Bello Persico 11.12.1; 11.7.11, 12; however, Tibur near Rome is aphrourion (De Bello Gothico 559
poleis: 54.25-55.l;polismata: 55.3.
VI.4.7) and also polis (Vll.10.19, 22, 23; Vll.24.31, 32). 560
polis: 67.6;polisma: 67.9.
545 161
Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 219.1 (p. 187). asty: 78.24, etc.;polis: 117.28; 132.3; 192.11, etc.;polisma: 78.25; 132.2, etc.
546 562
J. lrmscher, Kaoi:gov, in K.-P. Matschke (ed.), Die byzantinische Stadt im Rahmen der allgemeinen Stadtentwicklung. polisma: 103.19; asty: 103.20.
Referate und Diskussionen der byzantinischen Fachkonferenz in Leipzig 9. bis 11. Januar 1990 (Leipzig 1995), 93-97, esp. 95. 163
polis: 119.23; 172.25, etc.; asty: 182.25;polisma: 182.14; 187.5.
100 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE LITERARY TRADITION AND HISTORICAL REALITY 101

Constantinople, 564 which indicates that by this time the term had lost its original meaning of "town". order to avoid congesting urban space, the outer ramparts (proteichismata) should be built secure and
Thus the historians of the sixth century already used the terms phrourion, kastron or ochyroma to lar~e enough t?
accommodate the population from the countryside seeking refuge in the city. The
designate cities, especially with reference to their military character in the northern Balkans in the con- rdugees estabhshed between the outer ramparts and the walls are also expected to fight the enemy.569
text of military narrative. Progressively the role of the cities as military centres came to dominate the The profoundly changed character of urban space, as well as the reduced economic circumstances
function and the perception of the Byzantine city. This becomes the cities' predominant role in the seventh of th~ u~ban P?pulatio_n, are described in the chapter 10 On Building a City (llcei olxoooµffs .n6Acws).
1
and eighth centuries. In Theophanes' Chronographia the references to poleis are plentiful in the first part ,''. bmldmg a city,_ the fl~st c?nsideration is the location. It should allow the construction of strong walls.

of the work, but drastically diminish after Heraclius' reign. The term kastron appears only twice in the I he second consideration is safe access to water supply, especially if the source is located outside the
first half of Theophanes' Chronography, but more than forty cases are recorded in the part from the sev- \~alls. ~ut ther~ ~s n~ thought of building an aqueduct, since aqueducts can be severed by the enemy.
enth century on. Terms, such as kastellion andphrourion, are found throughout the entire work. 565 I he thtrd _condit~on is easy access to sources of stone and wood. Last is the access to food provisions
Malalas is the only one among the historians of the sixth century who paradoxically appears to lrnm the immediate countryside or from elsewhere. If these conditions are not met the project of
maintain a clearer distinction between the terms polis and kastron. It may be because his narrative l111 ilding a city should be abandoned. The Anonymous sketches urban change in br~ad strokes. He
11\IIOres the commitments expected of a city conceived in the classical tradition, and his realism reveals
focuses on major urban centres, away from the areas in the northern Balkans, where Procopius prefers
the term kastron. It may also be explained by the fact that the concept of the ancient city is a central I he new identity of the contemporary city.
theme in his Chronicle. The Christian perception of history in the Chronicle, and the simple literary
style and language, are at odds with the ancient concept of the city, as reflected in legends, monuments
and city terminology.

The Anonymous' Strategikon: the militarization of the Byzantine city

The new military function of the city in the sixth century is clearly explained in the treatise On Strategy
(ll1oei I:rearrJYias) by an anonymous author. The author insists that the only consideration, which
should be taken into account in founding a new city is security. In the past people believed that pros-
perity would remain forever 566 and thus built their cities on level ground, paying attention to their ap-
pearance, but not to security ( ou µciAAov ,:fi£ aocpo.AELO.£ 11 ,:fi£ E'llJtQEJtELO.£). They adorned the cities
with gardens, parks and lawns. By the time of the author, however, security, rather than appearance,
has become the primary consideration when choosing the site of a city (,:riv aocpaAELO.V µanov ,:fi£
E'lJJtQEJtELO.£ JtQOXQLVOVLE£):

Suitable sites for building a city, especially if it is going to be fairly close to the border,
are those on high ground with steep slopes all about to make approach difficult.
Also suitable are sites with large rivers flowing around them or which can be made
to do so, and which, because of the nature of the land, cannot easily be diverted.
Finally, there are sites on a promontory in the sea or in very large rivers connected
to the mainland only by a very narrow isthmus. 567

Large cities on plains may be built only away from the frontier zone and should be defended by
strong and solid walls. When there is fear of enemy invasions (,:a£ ,:wv ex,0QWV £JtEAE'llCTEL£ oeomxo-
,:e£), people seek security behind the cities' walls, or on hills, in caves, and on defensible islands. 568 In

564
pp. 272.1 and 312.2.
565 Kazhdan, Palis, 347-350.
566 Anonymous' Strategikon, c. 11.25-26 (p. 32): oux. ayvow 6i:: crtt itoAA.OL TrJV ngooouoav 1oMmµovlav 6gwv-tE£ x.al,

ta'Utf!V Ota navtO£ EOtavm voµLtovtE\; ...

567
Ibid., 11. 3-9 (transl. Dennis).
568
Ibid., c. 6.6-10 (p. 22). WI Ibid., c. 12.31-36 (p. 34).
 THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 103

in the solitude of the desert or of the countryside. It is ironic that the debate on the denial of urban life
in the early Christian texts was produced in a culture that was dominated by the city. 575
The idea of city as a place of sin for the saints is found in most of the hagiographical texts and the
incompatibility of the city with sanctity achieved in solitude became a topos in the Lives of saints. The
hagiographers restate the unwillingness of the saints to enter the cities, and devised various ways and
arguments to justify their decision. The Lives of two saints, St. Isaac (t406) and St. Alexander the
/\koimetos (tea. 430) employ attractive imagery to present the theme. St. Isaac settles outside the gates
1 if Constantinople and enters the capital only in order to visit his patrons. When he is returning at night
CHAPTER4 10 his cell, he finds the gates closed. The city wants to keep the saint, but he prays to God and upon his
making the sign of the cross on the gates, they automatically open. 576 St. Alexander the Akoimetos re-
fuses the bishopric of a city in Syria, which has been converted by him to Christianity. The city dwellers
THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE
try to keep him by force. They place guards at the gates, but the saint escapes at night with the help of
AND URBAN LIFE his disciples from the wall by means of a basket. 577 St. Melania the Younger is worried that she will
bring reproach upon monastic attire by travelling through cities (n6AEl£ JtEQLEQXoµtv11), should she
decide to meet the empress who has reached the Holy Land. However, she changes her mind, thinking
The repudiation of the city in the Christian tradition and an urban vocabulary:
that otherwise she might appear arrogant. 578
a contradiction
In his Instructions, Dorotheus of Gaza employs biblical vocabulary evocatively, so that three
dties symbolize vices. Of the three cities, which the Israelites built in Egypt, Pithom, Ramses and On
In approaching the purely Christian literary genre of hagiography we are faced with a striking
( Heliopolis ), the first symbolizes lust, the second avarice, and the third ambition. 579 Severns interprets
contradiction, in that the image of the city dominates the hagiographical texts of the early Byzantine
the parable in Luke X.30 allegorically, so that Jerusalem stands for Paradise, while Jericho symbolizes
period, 570 although most of them are set in the desert or in the countryside. The saints usually avoided
the cities on moral and religious grounds. However, episodes of their lives take place in urban contexts. the city in the valley, full of the sins of urban life that lead the soul to death. 580 In the Leimon of
Thus hagiographical texts offer a wealth of information about urban institutions, everyday life and Moschus, cities are places where hermits are likely to sin. The holy men are "hurt by what they see, they
customs in the cities, social groups and economic activities of various professionals. The philologist also hear, and by the appearances if they stay in the cities". Salvation can be found only in solitude. A bitter
discerns a number of literary figures that reproduce similes and metaphors from earlier biblical and ec- complaint is expressed that many hermits, in contrast to their forefathers' conduct, desired cities and
clesiastical texts that draw on urban imagery. For example, an urban metaphor is used to describe the cre- comfort (ta£ n6AH£ xal -r~v av£mv). The fact that ascetics were knocking on every door and visiting all
ation of the world. The Creator is compared to a king who founded a city. 571 Jerusalem, the city par excel- dties and towns, a practice which incites them to greed and vanity, is stressed as a failure of the ascetic
lence, became the symbol of Christians' spiritual life, the celestial Jerusalem, after Paul's metaphor. 572 In ideal. 581 Radical attitudes are expressed: "whoever wants to live in the desert hates the cities" .582 When
the Apocalypse of St. John, the section on the Heavenly Jerusalem is the last section before the the charioteer Phileremos in Apamea lost a race, his supporters shouted punningly at him: "Desert-
epilogue. Christians aim at reaching the celestial Jerusalem; it is the final act of the prophecy and the lover (Phileremos) does not receive the palm-leaf of the victory in the city" .583 The pagan demon that
completion of God's words. St. Augustine's De civitate Dei formulates the structure of the heavenly city inhabited the temple where St. Matrona (tea 510-515) has settled tries to tempt her by inviting her
here on earth: "Thus we find in the earthly city a double significance: in one respect it displays its own to the city of Berytus. 584 St. Alypius Stylites, who died at the time of Heraclius, follows the bishop of
presence, and in the other it serves by its presence to signify the Heavenly City". 573
In spite of all this, in ecclesiastical literature the image of the city is also negative. The ascetics who
withdrew to the desert avoided the temptations of the cities, in order to lead a spiritual life in Christ. ( 'ity as Metaphor in the Works of two Panopolitains: Shenute and Besa, in A. Egberts et al. (eds.), Perspectives on Panopolis.
Lives of saints and collections of their apophthegmata describe their experience, their constant fights An Egyptian Town from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. Acts from an International Symposium Held in Leiden on 16,
against temptations and demons and their repudiation of material life.574 Very often in hagiography, 17 and 18 December 1998 (Leiden 2002), 13-27.
575 See Julian, Letter to a priest, 288B; D. Satran, The Idea of the City in Early Christian Thought: Caesarean Perspectives,
the cities are present, merely in order to be repudiated by saints who sought the salvation of their soul
in Raban and Hoium, Caesarea Maritima, 531-540.
576 J. Zaimov and M. Capaldo, Suprasulski iii Retkov sbomik (Sofia 1982-83), I, 206 = AASS May VII (1688) 257A.
577 E. de Stoop, Vie d'Alexandre l'Acemete. Texte grec et traduction latine, PO 6/5 (1911), 675 (c. 23).
570 Seiber, The Urban Saint, esp. 15-22. See also the remarks of A. Kazhdan, ByzSl 55 (1994), 74-75 that rural hagiography 578 Vita S. Melaniae Jun., c. 58 (pp. 240-242).

begins in the seventh century. J. 0. Rosenqvist, Asia Minor on the Threshold of the Middle Ages: Hagiographical Glimpses 579 Dorotheus of Gaza XIII.145.18-22 (pp. 414-416).
580 Severns, Hom. 89, PO 23/1 (1932), 105-106. In other passages the Paradise is "the city of the man": Hom. 84, ibid., 20;
from Lycia and Galatia, in Aspects of Late Antiquity, 152.
571 Theodoret of Cyrus, Quaestiones, PG 80, 109A-B; Cosmas Indicopleustes 111.34.5-15. Paradise is a celestial city high up on Heaven: Hom. 85, ibid., 27.
572 Gal. 4.26-27; Heb. 12.22; Cosmas Indicopleustes 11.1.5-7 (buydou µiov 'IEQouoaA~µ JtUQOLxoi; i:uyxavwv, ouQavLou M 581 Moschus, 2861C, 2956B-C, 3076D. See alsoApophthegmata Patrum, 221B; Moschus, 3036A, 2973A-B.
582 Ibid., 3065A: 6 0£A.(l)V OLXELV ,:~v EQ!']µOv' µurnT ,:ai; Jt0A.EL<;.
CT'UV JtQ(l),:01:QXOL<; JtOA.LLrJ<; cmoyioyQaµµi\vmi;); V.221.4-6; V.251.9-10; VI.26.8-9.
573 St. Augustine, De civitate Dei XIV.28 ff.; XV passim; XV.2 (transl. H. Bettenson, London 1972, 598). 583 Ibid., 3017A. The palm-branch was the symbol of victory: Dorotheus of Gaza XV.164.17 (p. 454).

574 P.-A. Fevrier, La ville et le "desert" (Apropos de la vie religieuse aux 1ve et ye siecles), in Les mystiques du desert dans on
584 Vita S. Matronae, c. 17 (p. 799A): noAL<; eoi:L xaA~ xaL qitM~evoi; xaL navi:ai; ouyxQoi:ouoa. The Life of St. Matrona
['Islam, le judai'sme et le christianisme, Gap, Association des Amis de Senanque, 1975, 39-61; S. Efthymiadis, Living in a City was written before the middle of the sixth century: see C. Mango, in A.-M. Talbot ( ed.), Holy Women ofByzantium. Ten Saints'
and Living in a Scetis: The Dream of Eustathios the Banker (BHG Nov. Auct. 1317d), ByzF 21 (1995), 11-29; H. Behlmer, The Uves in English Translation (Washington, D.C. 1996), 16.
104 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 105

Paphlagonian Adrianople to Constantinople on some business against the bishop's will, for he knows of the desert (wu£ T11£ EQ~µou JtOAtTa£), 593 and the saint became renowned everywhere, like a city on
that visits to cities incite the soul to pleasures (bd Ta 11Ma xal EµnaOfoTEQQa). 585 There was thus a fun- a hill which cannot be hidden, a biblical quotation. 594
damental opposition between the desert and the city, between the salvation of the soul in solitude and
the blandishments of the body in the city. Biblical in origin and reshaped by the New Testament, this
opposition became a predominant theme in the hagiographical texts. The bishop and the city: a contrast and a rational accommodation
As we have said, in accord with early Christian tradition, urban vocabulary is used to describe
Christian ideas, even the ascetic experience, which consists in the denial of urban life. The ascetic In ecclesiastical literature the incompatibility of asceticism with urban life was stressed in the
retreat to the desert is described in the Life of St. Anthony, the founder of Egyptian monasticism, by fourth century in an emotional manner by Gregory of N azianzus and John Chrysostom. 595 Gregory of
means of an urban metaphor, a technique very popular in Christian rhetoric, in the classic phrase, "the Nazianzus, in the funeral oration to St. Basil, speaks of unfriendly and unsociable solitude. 596 In the
hermits have transformed the desert into a city" (xal 11 eg1iµo£ EJtoALoOri uno µovaxwv). 586 Severns re- t!nd Homily, Gregory, while displaying knowledge of the rhetorical rules of city praise, elaborates on
produces it. Christians retreat to the desert following St. Anthony's example as if they were going to a the contrast between the city and the solitude in a village. He has been reproached by his opponents for
city. While Paradise has lost its only citizen (Adam), the desert receives a great number of citizens to living in a small city, which is nothing more than an ugly village, devoid of any urban pleasures, with very
inhabite it. 587 In the Leimon of John Moschus, the desert evokes urban terminology: T11£ EQ~µou lcw inhabitants. With this is contrasted the attraction of Constantinople. In a brief praise mention is
JtOAEW£.sss Also in a monastic context, Dorotheus of Gaza, in his Instructions to his disciples, elaborates made of the capital's fortifications, theatres, hippodromes, palaces, the beautiful and long porticoes,
on the ascetic virtues in a civic metaphor. Ascetics are compared to travellers departing each one from the aqueduct, the column with the statue of Constantine, a market with merchandise in abundance,
his own city and attempting to fulfill his own aims in the Holy City. Each, however, accomplishes only vibrant citizens and a council of excellent men. The enkomion is completed by Gregory's addition of the
part of the journey. Some just manage to leave the city's walls and remain by the rubbish heap, others mention of the capital's privileged location on land and sea. Bishoprics in large cities meant concerns
advance further, but return, some reach Jerusalem and enter it, while others remain outside and can for the ecclesiastical administration, addressing various secular problems, and involvement in state and
not enter. 589 John Moschus employs the vocabulary of urbanism to describe asceticism. The spiritual <'hurch politics. It was attractive for many ecclesiastics, but not for Gregory who exclaims, "so, do we
combats in which a hermit engages are exalted as if they were a public competition in the theatre have to die because we built neither a city, nor did we surround ourselves with walls, nor do we boast on
against a mighty adversary. 590 hippodromes, stadiums, places for hunt and the related insane customs, nor magnificent baths with lux-
The version of the Life of St. Theodosius coenobiarches (t529) written by Theodore, bishop of urious marbles and other painted or embroidered decorations"? Following the rhetorical tradition
Petra, is remarkable for the use of civic vocabulary to describe the holy conduct of a desert saint. This <lregory adds a mention of wealth to the capital's enkomion. 597 Gregory delivers a brief, but very ac-
vocabulary was dictated by conventions of high literary style and derives from earlier Christian literature. n lmplished, praise of a city, only to reject the very city he has just praised. In the fifth century, Theodoret
The saint withdrew to a cave, where later he built a large coenobium, famous for its attached charitable of Cyrus observed that the regular movement of holy men between the cities and the countryside was
institutions. In the Life, elaborate classicizing literary figures are used to describe the spiritual fights of
an established practice and a necessary accommodation to various circumstances. 598
the saint. They are compared to a combat against the common enemy in the stadium: 591 the saint fights
In the Lives of some bishop saints, the incompatibility of the ascetic life with the secular concerns
the good fight (Tov xaAov &ywva) to win the wreath of justice; some hermits go to him as to a master
<if the bishopric is a central theme. The early ideal of the bishop who led a life of a monk was abandoned
of physical education (nmomgC~ri£), to anoint them with oil in preparation for exercise. The monastery
when the bishops begun to assume political power. 599 The bishop saints from the provinces are present-
is defined as a µvriµci:ov, and Easter as the acropolis of all the holidays. 592 The hermits were the citizens
ed as preoccupied with the problem and finally the ascetic life often wins over the episcopacy. 600 St. John
who became bishop of Colonia in Armenia (t 559), having lived an ascetic life in his bishopric,601 nine
years later retreated to the lavra of St. Sabas, and from there to the desert of Rouba. St. Abraamius
585
Vita S. Alypii Stylitae, c. 10 (p. 155.18-19).
Vita S. Antonii, c. 14.31 (p. 174). The use of metaphors and antitheseis was very common in Christian rhetoric. See
586

Cameron, Christianity, 155 ff., esp. 175 ff. On the Christian reinterpretation of antique pagan expressions and terms see H.
593
Hunger, The Classical Tradition in Byzantine Literature: the Importance of Rhetoric, in Mullett and Scott, Byzantium, 40-43. Ibid., 56.5. St. Sabas inhabited the desert as if it were a city: t'Y]V aylav JtoALV xata1caBEi:v xaL ~ovxaom ev tft JtEQL aut'Y]V
587 Severns, Hom. 86, PO 23/1 (1932), 57, 70. i'v11µc:p. "E6EL yaQ fa' C('l.ltOU tctUtl]V JtOAL00fjvm (Cyril of Scythopolis, 90.7-9); EL OAOJc; Bou1cn t'Y]V EQl]µOv taUtl]V JtOALOm
588 Moschus, 3004C. (98.2); tOV tOJtOV EQl]µov ovta EJtOALOEV (104.8-9); JtOALOm t'Y]V EQl]µOv (126.5); t'Y]V EQl]µov JtOAloac; t(() JtA~0EL tWV µovaxwv
589 Dorotheus of Gaza X.107 (pp. 344-346). ( 158.17-18). He was the noAuJttjc; and no1cwuxoc; of the desert (141.9-10).
594
590 Moschus, 2917A-B. Vita S. Theodosii coen., 21.4-5: Matthew 5.14.
595 John Chrysostom, PG 47, 277-316, 319-386, 337-392. See G. Dagron, Les moines et la ville. Le monachisme a
59 1 Vita s. Theodosii coen., 14.7-9. The comparison of the saints with athletes draws on the Epistles of St. Paul and later

Christian literature: St. Paul, Phil. 3.13-14; Eph. 6.11-17; Vita S. Antonii, c. 7.8-10.4 (pp. 152-164); Eusebius, Historia Ecclesi- Constantinople jusqu'au concile de Chalcedoine (451), TM 4 (1970), 256 ff.
596 Gregory of Nazianzus, PG 36, 501A: <'iq.iLAoc; EQl]µla xaL to axmvwvrit6v tE xaL aµLxtov.
astica VI.4.3 (p. 530) (the martyr is an athlete of piety), V.1-2 (pp. 402-432); Theodoret of Cyrus, Historia Philoth., proem 1
597 Ibid., 221C-224C.
(tfjc; UQEtfjc; a0Al]t&v); II.9.7 (t'Y]V UOXl]tLXTJV JtC(AC(LOtQCtV EJt~~ato), III.4.10 (aQEtfjc; a0Al]tctl), III.18.5 (tov VL½l](j)OQOV
EXELVOV a0Al]t~v), IV.13.1-4 (tOLOUto1Jc; VL½l](j)OQ01Jc; aywvLOtac; o 0Ei:oc; Euo!\Bwc; o tWV()E tWV aywvwv JtctL()OtQlBric; 598 Theodoret of Cyrus, Historia Ecclesiastica, 268.4-6: outwc; ft6rnav ot 0Ei:OL avc>QEc; EXEi:vm ta JtQ6oq.ioQa exaot([.l

xaL yvµvaOt'Y]c; naQEOtl]OE tqi 0Eqi· xaL a1c1covc; 61: JtAElotovc; anoq.i~vac; toLOutovc; EtEQmc; na1calotQmc; 6L6aoxa1covc; JtQOOctQµ6ttELV XctLQ(() xaL Jtl]Vlxa µi:v XQTJ t'Y]V ~ovxlav aonatwem, Jtl]VL½C( 61: JtQOtLµav tac; JtOAELc; tfic; EQl]µlac;.
599 E. dal Covolo, Vescovi e citta tra ii IV e ii V secolo: Eusebio di Vercelli, Ambrogio di Milano, Massimo di Torino, in
JtctQEJtEµ'lj)Ev), etc.
592 Vita S. Theodosii coen., 16.10-15 (an allusion to a passage of the second Epistle of Paul to Timotheus: II 4.7-8); 21.14- "Humana sapit", 229-237.
16 (see also Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita s. Sabae, 94.17-18: we; xa1coc; JtctL()OtQlBric; JtQOEBlBatEv autov xaL eyuµvatEv de; 600 Bishops maintained their ascetic conduct in Theodoret of Cyrus, Historia Philoth. I.7; II.9; V.8; X.9; XVII.5-6.
601
'lJ'lj)l]AOtEQctc; UQEtac;); Vita S. Theodosii coen., 21.19; 24.25. Cyril of Scythopolis, 202.23-203.4.
106 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 107

became a monk in a monastery near Emesa, then in a monastery in Constantinople, and later hegoumenos had led as a monk. He slept on the floor, he did not wash in a bath, he chanted for long periods of time,
in a monastery in Crateia of the province of Honorias ( a. 500). In 511 he left the city secretly because ate vegetables, and bought bread from the market which was sold to the poor. 609 The defence of urban
he desired to attain solitude in Jerusalem and went to the lavra of St. Sabas. The bishop of Crateia, Ii re by Severns and the particular efforts of his biographers to portray him as attached to the ascetic ideal
after many unsuccessful attempts to bring him back, excommunicated him. In 515, the saint returned show that in such texts the literary model employed can mislead. In spite of the tension between urban
to Crateia and after the bishop's death, accepted the bishopric. In the end, however, his desire for life and asceticism in these texts, Severns' bishopric is symbolically visualized in the dream of a holy
tranquillity away from the city prevailed: 602 he returned to Jerusalem via Constantinople, and withdrew man as the personification of the city of Antioch:
to the Tower of Eudocia, near the lavra of St. Sabas.
St. Theognis (t 522), bishop of the small city of Betylion603 near Jerusalem, became a monk and And I saw an exceedingly beautiful woman, and her tears ran down upon her cheek
visited Jerusalem. There he was asked to administer the monastery of Flavia in Gesthemani. Soon, and her breast, and her garments were defiled and torn, and she was lamenting and
however, because of the proximity to the city, he felt distracted by the noise of visitors and withdrew to weeping exceedingly, because of the nakedness of her flesh. And as I stood, I per-
the desert. His appointment to the bishopric of Betylion is presented as being imposed on him by the ceived a great commotion, and I heard one say unto his neighbor, Behold Severns
Patriarch of Jerusalem. The saint reached a compromise: he could divide his time between his duties in comes to cut out the thorns from this place, and to plant the vine of the Lord of
the bishopric and the solitude of the desert. 604 Before his death, he went back to his monastery where Hosts. Then they told the woman, saying, Fear not, 0 city of Antioch! Behold thy
he died. Compromise between the two opposing ways of life, the one in the desert and the other in the king Severns comes, and he is an upright man, built up in the canons which the bish-
city, is expressed in a poetical passage at the end of the Life alluding to the way of life of the saint: ops who assembled at Nicaea ordained. And the woman said to those that talked
"Although I stay in the desert, my thought oversees the cities, reflects upon official duties and business, with her, When then will Severns come? And they said to her, As yet the sins of the
changes the one path for another, makes encounters". 605 council of Chalcedon are not finished. This therefore is the vision that I Romanus
Some texts of the sixth century stress the reconciliation between these two opposing models of life. saw. 610
In his 90th Homily, Severns opposes the belief that only asceticism in the desert could lead to salvation
by suggesting that a pious life in the city, with a chaste marriage and almsgiving, can also lead to salva- The image of Antioch, personified as a beautiful woman in despair, an image striking for its secu-
tion.606 In the 99th Homily, he justifies holding a bishopric over living a life in solitude and he employs lar classical character, finds parallels in the Miracles of St. Demetrius. There the bishop of Thessalonica
arguments similar to those expressed in the fourth century: "Then get out of the city, prove your power has a dream in which a tragodos predicts the city's future distress at the hands of her enemies and alludes
perfectly and according to the law, and apply yourself to philosophical retreat. Why do you mix the two lo her as the bishop's daughter. 611
types of life, the one which is appropriate to the monastery and that appropriate to the city, which in
practice cannot intermingle"? Severns replies with a re-evaluation of the opposition between city and
desert in a passage echoing Theodoret of Cyrus: "But I do not disturb the order, but I know how to dis- Saints and cities: a continuous interaction
tinguish the places and the times, and I do not ignore what philosophy and solitude seek, nor what life
in the world promises". 607 Both ways of life are acceptable, the only difference being that each form of In the lengthy epigram that St. Abercius, who flourished around 160-170 AD., requested that be
life belongs to a different time and space context. Zachariah Scholasticus, however, in the Life of written on his tomb, the saint takes pride in having visited Rome, Syria and all the cities ( aa,:ca navw)
Severns, employs a hagiographical topos. Having gained the favour of the emperor, Severns faced pres- as far as Euphrates. 612 As we have seen, the activities of bishop saints who were active in cities stand in
sure to take care of the Church and be ordained Patriarch. He refused because he desired tranquillity opposition to asceticism and its rigid rules, pursued away from cities, as do the activities of itinerant
(~auz(a ), the monastic life and contemplation. The monks of the East, however, with the consent of the saints and holy men who visited cities for various reasons and saints who settled near cities and estab-
people, elected him Patriarch. 608 The Life of Severns, written by John, hegoumenos of the monastery lished contacts with urban communities. Palladius informs us that he visited many cities and large vil-
of Beith Aphthonia, describes Severns' ascetic conduct when he became Patriarch of Antioch. He dis- lages (noAAai; OE JtOAELi; xal nAdawi; xwµai;), caves and ascetic establishments in the desert in order
missed the cooks of the episkopeion, he closed its baths, and continued to live the austere life which he to get information on the life and achievements of holy men. 613 The fascination with the city attested in
all kinds of sources from the Roman empire and Late Antiquity is often reflected in the hagiographical
texts. Many texts reconcile the desert with the city. In the Leimon of John Moschus, holy men travel
602Ibid., 247.15-21.
from one city to another for a variety of reasons. Often their destination is the Holy Land, in particular
603
Vita S. Theognii, c. 10 (p. 89.2). On Betylion, 90 km south of Jerusalem, the last town on the coastal road to Egypt see Jerusalem, or a specific monastery. A hermit travels to worship the Holy Cross and the holy sites in
P. Figueras, From Gaza to Pelusium. Materials for the Historical Geography of North Sinai and Southwestern Palestine (332
BCE-640 CE) (Ben-Gurion University 2000), 170-171.
604 Vita S. Theognii, c. 10 (p. 89.3-4).

605
'Ev EQ~µ<,J xci0l]µm xal 6 VO'U£ µou i:a£ rt6AEL£ EJtOrti:E1JEL, ngayµmda£ Evvoei: xal Eµrtogia£ i:tva£, QVµl]v h QVµ1']£ 609Vita Severi, PO 2/2 (1907), 243.
µei:at-.Acina xal ouvi:uxia£ rtotehm: ibid., c. 24 (p. 110.13-15). 610E. J. Goodspeed, The Conflict of Severns Patriarch of Antioch by Athanasius. Ethiopic Text Edited and Translated,
606 Severns, Hom. 90, PO 23/1 (1932), 162. For the West: R. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge, 1991),
PO 4/6 (1908), 606-607.
157 ff. 611 Miracula S. Demetrii I, 146-147.
607
Severns, Hom. 99, PO 22/2 (1930), 218-219. See supra, n. 598. 612 E. Batareikh, Une nouvelle recension de la vie d'Abercius, Oriens Christianus 4 (1904), 306 (11. 6-10).
608 613 Historia Lausiaca II, 4.22-24.
Vita Severi,PO 2/1 (1907), 110-111.
108 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 109

Jerusalem, and to pray in Sinai, in the churches of St. John at Ephesus, of St. Theda at Seleucia, and between saint and city. The Life of St. Symeon Stylites the Younger is set between the rural world and
of St. Sergius at Saphas. 614 At the end of the sixth century, St. Gregory, later bishop of Acragas, went Ihe urban environment. Although he has retreated to the outskirts of Antioch and never visits the city,
to the Holy Land via Carthage and Tripolis and visited Jerusalem, Antioch, and from there went to the saint has continuous contact with, and cares continuously for, the urban population. All his activi-
Constantinople and back to Rome. 615 Practical reasons also brought monks into the cities. Some fre- ties take place in the countryside, which throughout the Life remains subordinate to the city. The Life
quented cities and towns close to their monasteries to sell their products or for business (6ux XQELa£) in of St. Symeon illustrates the transition of the popular saint from desert to city. A range of common el-
connection with monastic communities. 616 In Syria and Egypt, the isolation of ascetic communities was t·ments runs through the Lives of popular saints. There are numerous miracles performed by means of
not absolute, since monasteries were established on marginal land close to cities and towns, thus making a staff, 621 various manifestations of divine power and of the malevolence of demons, theological stereo-
contact with urban settlements possible. types and popular traditions. The relationship of the saint to the city of Antioch was spiritual. Divine
The two collections of hagiographical texts, Lives of the Eastern Saints of John of Ephesus and the revelations identified eminent dangers. God reveals to the saint that the Persians are about to attack
Leimon of John Moschus which mark the sixth century, offer a panorama of the cities of the East in Antioch; the efforts of the saint to intercede for Antioch's salvation are not successful and the city is de-
regard to the activities of saints. Urban images dominate the edifying stories. Urban life here appears stroyed on account of its impiety, namely for sacrificing to its Tyche. 622 In other instances, however, the
vibrant, with references to urban professionals, such as traders, ship owners, scholastikoi and chariot saint is able to cure many Antiocheans of bubonic plague by his prayers. He also saves the city from an
drivers and mimes. 617 When holy men appear, they are identified with their city of origin, which precedes earthquake, which has been foretold him in a vision. 623 Extremely interesting for its popularly inspired
reference to their family. In both collections, the setting in which the holy men live and act is rural and religious symbolism is the description of the saint's efforts to save Antioch from plague. Since physical
urban. The saints moved freely from their settlements in the countryside to cities and towns. There is contact of the saint with the city is not normally permitted, it has to take place miraculously. When the
no hostility on the part of the urban population towards holy men, other than opposition animated by devil descends to the city with his two wings open and the disease spreads, the saint has a vision in which
doctrinal and ecclesiastical disagreements and competition with the local clergy. 618 In both collections he is miraculously taken by angels to the gate leading to Daphne, where he prays for the safety of that
references to cities are numerous. Cities are mentioned as the places of origin of saints, episcopal sees, part of the city. A few days later, in another vision, he is taken to the south gate leading to Seleucia, to
in connection with monasteries located in their territory and as places in which edifying stories were prevent the devil from attacking the entire city. 624 Furthermore in many instances, the cure of Anti-
recorded. In the Lives of the Eastern Saints, cities are mentioned also because the saints exercise chari- ocheans is miraculously performed from a distance without the saint's contact with the city. Thus, in
ty there. Some saints deliberately choose cities for their missionary activity during the Christological order to cure a poor paralytic in the city, the saint's power is transmitted to a beggar who performs the
controversies, and their activity in an urban environment is praised, particularly their institutionalizing miracle in his name. 625 In another instance, the cure of an Antiochean possessed by a demon is also per-
of charity. It is interesting that Monophysite holy men are presented as more actively concerned with formed at a distance. At his monastery the saint visualizes him, and follows him spiritually through the
the social problems of urban populations than the Chalcedonian saints, whose similar activities are pre- city to his house. 626 There is a mystical element in the saint's relationship to the city. The saint is deeply
sented by the hagiographers in terms of benevolence achieved through miraculous interventions. 619 In concerned about the city, although he does not yet belong to it. His benevolent activities are achieved
several stories the saints act as patrons of the poor, helping those who have debts and have suffered in- from a distance. Thus his mother, St. Martha, asks him to pray for the city in which he was born, although
justice at the hands of the powerful. They cure them of disease and save them from other calamities. he has become anoAL£ for Christ and citizen with the saints. 627
The saints, abandoning the countryside or the desert, have evidently begun to play an important role
in the cities. In addition to his existing role as patron of rural communities, the saint now emerges as
patron of urban centres, too. 620 The saints saloi in Christ and the denial of the city
An example of a saint acting as protector of the city is St. Symeon Stylites the Younger (t 592).
Here the dialectic between the city and the saint operates at a different level, without physical contact A strong ideological dimension to the confrontation between the city and sanctity is present in the
Lives of the saints saloi, the "holy fools". The model of the saint salos which is paralleled by Greco-
Roman Cynics, has been interpreted in various ways: it represents a conscious "ascetic reversal of the
614
values of ascesis"; the holy man stands on the borderline between sanity and insanity; he attempts to
Moschus, 3052B.
615 achieve a new type of martyrdom, after the end of the persecutions. 628 In any case, it is an extreme form
Vita S. GregoriiAgrigentini, 150-153 (c. 5-8), 154 ( c. 9), 155 (c. 10), 179 (c. 28), 189-190 (c. 37). See also P. Maraval, Lieux
saints et pelerinages d'Orient. Histoire et geographie des origines a la conquete arabe (Paris 1985), esp. 163-177.
616 For example, Moschus, 2945A, 3076C.

617 Traders: Moschus, 2928A, 2936D, 3068A; shipowners: ibid., 3041D-3044A; scholastikoi: ibid., 2996B, 3040C; chariot 621 On the corresponding evidence from art see T. F. Mathews, The Clash of Gods. A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art
drivers: ibid., 3017A; mimes: ibid., 2880C-2881B. For professionals in the Lives of urban saints see Seiber, The Urban Saint, (Princeton, New Jersey 1993), 54 ff.
65-67. 622 Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 57 (pp. 50-52).
618 On other cases of saints' competition with the clergy see Saradi, Constantinople, 90, 92-93, 98, 99, 108. 623 Ibid., c. 69-70 ( pp. 59-60), 78 (pp. 66-68).
619 S. Ashbrook Harvey, Asceticism and Society in Crisis. John of Ephesus and the Lives of the Eastern Saints (Berkeley, Los
624 Ibid., c. 126-127 (pp. 112-114).
Angeles, London 1990), 94 ff., 134 ff.; idem, The Politicisation of the Byzantine Saint, in The Byzantine Saint, 37-42, esp. 39-40. 625 Ibid., c. 162-163 (pp. 144-145).
620 On the saints and holy men as patrons of rural communities see P. Brown, The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in
6 26 Ibid., c. 177 (pp. 156-157).
Late Antiquity, and idem, Town, Village and Holy Man: The Case of Syria, in idem, Society and the Holy, 103-152, 153-165; on 627 Vita S. Marthae, c. 22.15-17 (p. 269): 1.1:rtEQEUXOU M xaL T11£ :rtOAEW£ aou f::v TI f::ycvv~0Tj£ xaL i;wv f::v av,fi, xa.v c'i:rtoAL£
the saints patrons of urban communities see Saradi, Constantinople; Seiber, The Urban Saint, 42-55. On saints avoiding the ytyova£ CHU XQLCTTOV, auµ:rtOALTTj£ ycv6µEVO£ TWV aylwv.
cities or settling inside them see also M. Kaplan, Le saint, le village et la cite, in C. Jolivet-Levy, M. Kaplan and J.-P. Sodini 628 Patlagean, Hagiography, 110; J. Grosdidier de Matons, Les themes d'edification dans la Vie d'Andre Salos, TM 4

(eds.), Les saints et leur sanctuaire aByzance. Texte, image et monuments (Paris 1993), 81-94, esp. 82, 90. (1970), 277-328; D. Krueger, Symeon the Holy Fool. Leontius' Life and the Late Antique City (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
110 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 111

of holiness modelled on the ideal of hidden sanctity and extreme humility in an urban context. Such 1n another incident, he asks God to blind a group of girls who ridiculed him, but he cures only those few
saints had chosen to live in cities and mingle with the urban population, although their conduct annoyed who accept being kissed by him. 638
the people of the city. They were accompanied by prostitutes, slept in public places, worked or stole The relation of the saint salos with the city was thus very difficult. The city could not accept him be-
merchandise to help the poor. Some pretended to be drunk, while others went about naked. 629 In cities, t·ause of his provocative behaviour, whilst for his own part, the saint was vindictive. The theme of the
they deliberately chose to behave as fools (aat.o(), convinced that this was a life in Christ. We are told, /)(>[IUlar saint who had deliberately chosen to display behaviour indecent and provocative by any stan-
for example, that Mark Salos in Alexandria merely pretended to be a salos (JtQOOJtoLouµ1ovo£ Eavtov ilards became a literary device for depicting urban life in a negative light. This is also expressed in the
aaMv). 630 In Amida a couple adopted the manners of a mime and his courtesan. They wandered about metaphor vtxa£ 'tQ) ~amAEL xal, Tfi not.a that St. Symeon Salos often shouted wearing a wreath and
the city, deceiving the citizens and performing buffooneries, becoming subjects of ridicule and suffering holding a branch, the symbols of victory. The hagiographer explains that city stood for the soul, and
aggressive insults. We are told that they had followed the advice of another holy man: "take her [his l1asileus for the mind, a distant echo of Platonic philosophy. 639
wife] and go out in an assumed garb and in strange countries, hiding the great profit of excellence which The blessed Mark Salos of Alexandria leads a whole group of saloi in the streets of the city, half-
you are earning, lest it be snatched from you, that thus you may live the spiritual life". 631 The saloi saints 11aked, dancing and grasping the goods from the market, which he gives to his companions. At night he
are a scandal to all in the cities. 632 The ecclesiastical establishment criticizes them and contact with ,,lccps in the hippodrome. Only abba Daniel of Scete recognized his sanctity and declared that he was
monks and clergy is difficult. 633 But as soon as saloi saints are recognized as holy men and women, the the only "man" he found in the city. 640 The reaction of the city dwellers to him is different from that of
contact with the community created by means of their disguise is broken. Emigration to another city or the citizens of Emesa to St. Symeon Salos. They feel sympathy for Mark because they thought that he
even death are the only solutions left. 634 was insane. Mark reveals his identity to the Patriarch and explains that he was pretending to be a salos
According to his hagiographer, St. Symeon Salos attained holiness by living in the dirt, namely in in the city in order to achieve holiness and the purging of his sins. He dies the night he is forced to reveal
the city. He achieves such a degree of purity and apatheia, that he passes as pure as a pearl through all his real identity to the clergy. The city honours him. The Patriarch and the governor of Alexandria
pollution and obstacles on the path to virtue, such as living in the city, keeping company with women gave orders for the day of his death to be a feast day. Monks, hermits, and common citizens sought the
and other similar sins. 635 Thus he demonstrates his moral strength. His entry into the city of Emesa is blessing of his corpse. The whole population carrying branches and candles and "sprinkling the city
unprecedented. He drags a dead dog from the garbage dump outside the city, and the school children with tears" followed his corpse to rest, 641 a procession resembling a purification ritual. The saint can be
run after him calling him a~~<X£ µwQ0£. In church, he throws nuts at the chandeliers and at the women. accepted by the city only after his sanctity is revealed, which in turn leads to his death. There is a tragic
He overturns the merchants' benches outside the church. He works for a merchant and at a tavern, but dement in the figure of the saint salos that emerges through the constant oppositions between urban
is dismissed for causing trouble. He appears naked in front of the owner's wife. He does not observe life and sanctity. The stories of the saints saloi describe an irrational phenomenon not in accord with
fasts, and relieves himself in the market place. He goes to the women's baths naked. At the theatre he traditional social norms. Whatever the nature of these texts might be, ideological or fictional, so char-
throws stones at one of the mimes during the performance. 636 He goes out in public with actresses and acteristic in periods of transition, they vividly project the persistent antithesis in the Christian tradition:
behaves indecently. 637 Unlike other saints, St. Symeon Salos is not a protector of the city. On the con- sanctity versus city.
trary, on several occasions he demonstrates his supernatural power by punishing those who have
ridiculed him, including children. Before a major earthquake he hits some of the school's columns with The integration of the saints into the urban environment
a thong marking those that will remain standing. By kissing selected school children, he points out those
who are destined to die of plague. He prays that adulterous women be struck by a disease or by demons. Popular saints and bishop saints enjoy close relations with cities. In the fourth and in the fifth cen-
tury, the bishop saints were active as missionaries fighting paganism and heresies in cities, one of the
best-known examples being Porphyry of Gaza. The bishop saints can also exercise their power to protect
the cities from enemies. The metropolitan of Edessa, St. James, arrives at the city just before the
1996); I. Gagliardi, I saloi, owero le "forme paradigmatiche" della santa follia. Analisi di alcune agiografie e racconti agiografi-
ci di area bizantina dal IV al X secolo, Rivista di ascetica e mistica 19 (1994), 361-411; V. Deroche, Etudes sur Leontios de Persian attack in 544: "God had brought him to save the city", asserts John of Ephesus. The inhabitants
Neapolis (Uppsala 1995), 154-225; S. A. Ivanov, From "Secret Servants of God" to "Fools for Christ's Sake" in Byzantine address him as their only hope: "Our saintly father, offer supplication to God, that he may save it from
Hagiography, W55 (80) (1998), 188-194. this man and the impious kingdom". 642 The saint prays at night and the next day the Persians depart. In
629 Vita S. lohannis Eleemosyn., c. 23 (pp. 373-375), 38 (pp. 387-391), 50 (pp. 400-401); Daniel of Scete, 60.12-13, 62.5, 11.
S60 he saves the city of Amida from demons, which are believed to be a divine punishment on the
630
Ibid., 60.10-11. inhabitants for having adopted the doctrine of the council of Chalcedon: he takes incense from the
631
John of Ephesus, Lives, PO 19/2 (1926), 166 ff., 176.
632 'EoxavoaAL~cto de; a1.11;ov :rtiioa ~ :rt6Atc;: Vita S. Iohannis Eleemosyn., c. 38.164 (p. 391).

633
Ibid., c. 23.67-71 (p. 374); Vita S. Symeonis Sali, 87.
634 638 Ibid., 84.20-85.9; 90.5-10; 91.17-92.8.
John of Ephesus, Lives, PO 17 (1923), 169-170.
635 Vita s. Symeonis Sali, 56.17-21: de; toCTO'UtoV xa0ag6-trri:oc; xal a:rta0cLac; u'lj!oc; avi\ogaµcv, WCTtc Ota tOJV 00%01JVt(J)V 639
Ibid., 100.9-12; B. Williams, The Analogy of City and Soul in Plato's Republic, in E. N. Lee, A. P. D. Mourelatos and R.
toi:c; eµ:rta0ECTtEQOL<; xal CTUQ%WOECTtEQOL<; µoAuoµov xal 0M0riv xal eµ:rt60LOV tO'U :rtQO<_; UQEt~V 0Lou :rtQOCTyLvw0m, Ota M. Rorty (eds.), Exegesis and Argument: Studies in Greek Philosophy Presented to Gregory Vlastos (Assen 1973), 196-206; see
t01Jt(J)V oiitoc; 6 xa0agonatoc; WCT:rtEQ µagyagLtric; Ota 0og06QOU aµoAUVt(J)<_; OtW0c1JCTEV, Myw 0~ Ota tfjc; EV :rtOAEL OtatQt0fic; also M. Schofield, The Stoic Idea of the City (Cambridge 1991).
640
xal tfjc; tOJV yuvmxwv avaCTtQO<pfj<; xal tfjc; Aot:rtfjc; tO'U 0Lou amitric; ... Daniel of Scete, p. 61.1.
636 641
Ibid., 79 ff. p. 61.31-32.
637 642
Ibid., 88.28-89.18. John of Ephesus, Lives, PO 19/2 (1926), 263.
112 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 113

church and sets it before the altar. He requests that the city be purified with incense in the streets, the 1,anctity of his solitude. Finally he concedes, but only because he considers the mission to Constantino-
houses, and the walls. He also purifies the cities of Maipherqat, Constantina, Edessa and Carrhae. 643 ple divinely imposed. On his way back, just twenty stadia from the city, he foresees his death, in imita-
Severns, Patriarch of Antioch, likewise saves the city from drought, epidemics and demons that attack 111 Ill of Christ's death, which offers men salvation. 650 Indeed the disruption of his solitude cannot be re-
651
the citizens. 644 ;;h ired: he dies, while approaching Thessalonica. A heroic concept emerges in the elaboration of this
Gradually saints were integrated into urban life. City dwellers came to accept them, and for their lltt:me. By sacrificing his solitude in order to save the city, the saint becomes a civic hero. He is hon-
part, the saints ceased to regard cities with hostility as places of sin, since they now had a role to play 1111red by the entire city. The inhabitants of Thessalonica return his corpse to their city. They carry it
there. In the gradual acceptance of the saints in the cities, aristocrats played a major role. Having been ,1round the wall, a symbolic act intended to secure his protection for the city, and buried it in his
Christianized by then, they offered protection to the saints. 645 This change of attitude and the appear- monastery. 652
ance of the urban saint are evident in several hagiographical texts. Before his death Patriarch Eutychius (552-565, 577-582) foresaw the troubles (bnva), which were
We will look at two Lives which present particular interest on account of their ingenious treatment ahout to befall Constantinople, but which the text does not specify. He prays to God to end his life to
of the subject by the hagiographers, the Lives of St. Matrona and St. David. St. Matrona seeks shelter at avoid the pain of seeing the city's misfortunes (µET<XCTTlJCTov µE wu j)(ou, Yva µ~ 'i'.bw T~v xaxwmv auTfj£).
a pagan temple near Berytus, escaping her husband who is trying to bring her back to Constantinople. I lis prayer is heard. 653 For the saint-Patriarch who is identified with the capital, the pain of the disaster
Her desire to return to the capital is convincingly justified by the hagiographer. She hopes that in that only he knew was imminent on the city was intolerable. 654 During the rule of Phocas, Patriarch
Constantinople she can escape her husband, and she wishes to see her spiritual father Bassianos. While Thomas showed similar desires. He asked St. Theodore of Sykeon to pray to God to grant him a speedy
she is debating in her mind and in her heart whether it is appropriate to abandon her solitude and return 11·lease from the troubles threatening the empire. 655 Indeed the Patriarch died soon afterwards. The
to the city, a divine vision helps her to decide. In a dream three men by the names of Alexander, Antiochus development of the saints' intimate relation with the city in the sixth century finds interesting literary
and Constantine appear in front of her. They tell her that she will marry one of them, but she rejects rxpression in the Lives of St. David and of Patriarch Eutychius. The first dies before returning to
them, arguing that she has promised herself to God. Then the three men, the personifications of the l'hessalonica, because his ascetic life cannot be restored after the disruption it has suffered. The life of
cities of Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch, compete among themselves. In three subsequent h1tychius ends on a profoundly emotional note that is tied to the capital's imminent troubles.
drawing oflots, Constantine is the winner. The message was clear. St. Matrona, following the divine sign,
goes to Constantinople. 646 The male personification of the cities is a symbol unique in our sources. In
this hagiographical text, written by a contemporary, probably a monk of the monastery of Bassianos, be- Enlarging the city's limits: the saints of the nation
fore the middle of the sixth century, the relation of symbolism to ideology and historical reality becomes
clear. The attraction that the cities exercised on St. Matrona corresponds to similar symbolism that we Hagiographical texts also stress the ability of Constantinople to attract holy men, at the expense of
find in other literary genres. By contrast with earlier Lives, when the saint returned to Constantinople in 1 •t her cities. Constantinople promoted saints as national, or at least supra civic. In the middle of the

472-474, the capital received her without confrontation. The saint is returning home: her trip by sea is •;ixth century, Romanus Melodus received the divine power of composing hymns in Constantinople. 656
quiet and miraculously quick. In Constantinople, she explains that her visit to the capital is not a deser- St. Theodore, hegoumenos of the monastery at Chora (504-595 or 568), Theodora's uncle, was asked
tion (Ann:m:a;Ca). 647 She became a "legal citizen of Constantinople" (voµLµO£ Kwv01:avTLvoun:oAEW£ !11 stay in Constantinople to defend it from heresies. 657 The creation of national saints is emphasized in

otXYJTWQ ), when she received the donation of a proasteion to build her monastery. 648 The legal aspect of the Life of St. Golindouch (t 591). A Persian of noble background, she converted to Christianity and
the saint's residence in Constantinople also suggests her new strong ties with the capital. was renamed Maria. Her hagiographer employs civic vocabulary to describe her firm faith, which he
St. David of Thessalonica ( t ea. 540) was also an urban saint, and his Life was written in Thessalonica rnmpares to a strong wall. 658 The saint played a major role in the restoration of the empire: the cities of
ea. 720. He was an ascetic in the monastery of Saints Theodore and Merkourios, the so-called the Holy Martyrs and Daras were returned to Byzantium by the Persians by the intercession (n:QE-
Koukoulleotai, near the city's walls. He lived for three years on a tree by the church as a dendrites and uf\i::1m) of the saint. 659 It is the capital, however, that claimed St. Golindouch, although she came from
then settled in a cell. Enjoying the support of the people and of the Church, St. David plays an impor- a frontier area. Asked by the bishop of Melitene to go to Constantinople to bless the emperors and the
tant role in the historical events of that time in Thessalonica. His contact with the city is achieved only
through miracles, and he is regarded by the entire city as an angel sent by God. 649 A turning point in his
relation with the city occurs when he is sent on a mission to Constantinople, to persuade Justinian to
650 Ibid., c. 14 (p. 10.23-26), 15 (p. 10.29-32).
transfer the seat of Illyricum from Sirmium, threatened by barbarian invasions, to Thessalonica. He resists 651 Ibid., c. 18 (p. 13).
accepting the embassy, because any involvement in civil affairs would disrupt his holy way of life, the 652 Ibid., c. 19 (p. 13-14).

653
Vita S. Eutychii, 80-81 (II. 2509-2521 ).
654 On the rhetoric of the text see Av. Cameron, Eustratius' Life of the Patriarch Eutychius and the Fifth Ecumenical
643 Ibid., 259-261. < 'ouncil, Ka0rJyijrQta. Essays presented to Joan Hussey for her 80th birthday (Camberley, Surrey 1988), 225-247.
644 Vita Severi, PO 2/2 (1907), 245. 655
Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 135 (pp. 107-108).
645 Saradi, Constantinople. 656 A. Papadopulos-Kerameus, Mitteilungen i.iber Romanos, BZ 2 (1893), 600, 602; H. Delehaye, S. Romanos le Melode,
646 Vita S. Matronae, c. 25 (p. 802A-B). lnBoll 13 (1894), 441; Synaxarium, 95-96.
647 Ibid., c. 28 (p. 803C-D). 657
Vita S. Theodori Chorensis, c. 14 (p. 6.31-32): 1.11tcgµaxfjom itOALV 1.1rco ULQEOEW£ xLvbvvEuovoav.
648 Ibid., c. 36 (p. 807A). 658 Vita S. Golindouch, c. 5 (p. 153.23-24): UJ01tEQ xat 1tOAL£ TELXO£ CtQQUYE£ UOELOTOV TE xat axmaywvw,:ov 1tEQL~E~AT]µEVT].
i, 59 Ibid., c. 23 (p. 170.21-23).
649 Vita S. David, c. 12 (p. 9.1-2).
114 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 115

city, 660 she refuses, aware that her death is imminent. In her last prayer, however, she prays for the safe- nnpcror Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius, 667 before returning to Nicomedia where he performs mira-
ty of the emperors, for Constantinople, the ~aOLA.Euouoa rt6AL£, and for all its citizens, for the capital's dt·s. In all the towns of the area and in the city people receive him warmly. They go out to welcome him
surrounding territory, and for all the cities and lands (n:aoav n:oA.LV xal xwgav) of Christians. 661 She 1111d lead him in the cities in procession. He returns to Sykeon through Heledomon, Synae and Galos.
was venerated in Constantinople. 662 I k also travels three times to the Holy Land. 668
ln the account of his ordination as bishop of Anastasioupolis, the hagiographer defines the city in
1ht· following terms:
The Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon: the end of a tradition
... through all his virtues and good deeds he exalted the renown of the city which
In the Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon (t 613), who came from the village of Sykeon near the city of had welcomed him, inspiring in the citizens such a virtuous activity that their city be-
Anastasioupolis in Galatia, the relation of saint to city is marked by a notable evolution. The contacts came the envy and the admiration of other towns and thus it really proved its right
of the saint with the city and the ecclesiastical establishment were smooth, in contrast to the con- to its name of 'Resurrection' (Anastasis ). It was fittingly entitled the city of Anasta-
frontations depicted in earlier Lives of rural and desert saints. He was well accepted in the urban envi- sius (Anastasioupolis); it rose to fame not from its fortifications and the embellish-
ronment and performed miracles for the urban population. The setting of the Life is, however, pre- ment of imperial gifts; not from the size of its population or from the exceeding
dominantly rural, thus providing much valuable information on the customs and topography of rural wealth and power of its prosperous inhabitants, but rather because it was enriched
Anatolia. The main concern of St. Theodore was to relieve the rural population from sufferings and dis- by such deeds of the inspired man as we have described and on account of these
tress. He was ordained bishop of Anastasioupolis. Following the established topos of the genre, the ha- deeds it was fortified not by men alone - it was its fortune to be ruled and inhabited
giographer stresses the incompatibility of the secular concerns of the ecclesiastical administration with also by angels, and to be always under the oversight and guardianship of the heavenly
the monastic ideal. 663 As bishop, the saint faces serious difficulties in the course of his administrative King Christ. 669
duties. He makes enemies among the members of the upper class, he is treated disrespectfully by some,
he is insulted and physically attacked, while some even attempt to assassinate him. 664 Finally he resigns In this passage there is a reversal of the traditional elements of city praise, as is natural, given the
from the bishopric. On the other hand, as a monk, he does not avoid the cities. His visits to several cities dtanged role of the city. The fortifications are now the primary element of the city worthy of praise, the
are motivated by a desire to pray at specific churches, to carry on ecclesiastical business, or to assist the 1111perial benefactions come next, and then the size and prosperity of the population, but, most impor-
local population in distress. Fear of cities is no longer a dominant hagiographical theme. Theodore tantly, the city has been enriched with the sanctity and the holy deeds of St. Theodore and strengthened
therefore visits Jerusalem, Constantinople and Sozopolis. He goes to Pontic Heraclea (in the province hv Christ's protection. The Christian ideology prevails.
of Honorias) to pray in the Church of the Virgin and performs miracles. The leading citizens (protik- The glorification of the city by its saint, especially the city of his origin, became a topos in hagio-
tores) of Ancyra (metropolis of the province of Galatia Prima) bring him to their city to save them from v.raphical texts of high literary style. This is an adaptation of an element of laudatory rhetoric to hagiog-
1aphy.
670 Cyril of Scythopolis combines this topos with an allusion to a biblical story. The town, small and
plague, which is then devastating the city. St. Theodore declares a day of supplication, when the inhab-
itants of the whole city and the surroundings assembled. He goes in procession with them and offers modest, in which St. Sabas was born, was until then unknown, but the saint makes it famous and distin-
prayers to God, thus freeing them of the plague. 665 There follows a second trip to Ancyra, and to 1•,11 ished in the eyes of all, just as Harmatham became renowned for being Samuel's fatherland. 671
Constantinople where he is invited by the emperor Maurice and Patriarch Cyriacus to give them his We have discerned different images of the city in the hagiographical texts. The city is an ambigu-
1 HIS symbol, signifying either the lapse of morality or a place protected by the benevolent actions of the
blessing. In the city of Germia he receives the relics of St. George. He is called to the city of Pessinus to
save it from drought. There he proceeds from one church to another in a litany, followed by a liturgy, '.,aints. The traditional incompatibility of the city with the ascetic ideal comes up in all hagiographical
communion and a feast, which brings about the desired rain. He also visits Sozopolis in Pisidia and texts of the sixth century. It is found in the Lives of popular saints where the anti-urban ideal was strong-
Amorium and returns to Sozopolis, Amorium and Germia. 666 In all these cities he performs miracles. ly projected. However, although popular saints consciously avoided the cities, most of them played an
At the invitation of the Patriarch, he visits Constantinople again via Dorylleon in Phrygia Salutaris and active role in urban life by saving people from calamities and by healing individuals with their miracu-
the emporion of Pylae. He meets the emperor Phocas, and predicts the imminent problems of the empire lous power. The social origin of the popular saints determines neither their choice of forms of asceti-
to Patriarch Thomas namely, the enemy invasions, the empire's troubles during the rule of Phocas, and cism nor their relations with the cities. Many of them had a socially respectable origin. 672 The popular
the coming of the adversary. Later he travels to Constantinople for a third time, at the invitation of the saints who promoted an anti-urban ideal chose the countryside or lived on the periphery of urban

667 Ibid., c.130-135 (pp. 104-108), 154-155 (pp. 124-126).

660 668 Ibid., c. 156-160 (pp. 126-138), 24 (pp. 20-21), 50-51 (pp. 44-45), 62-63 (pp. 52-53).
Ibid., c. 23 (pp. 170.24-171.1).
661 Ibid., c. 23 (p. 171.2-13), 24 (p. 172.4-7). 669 Ibid., c. 58.33-44 (p. 50) (transl. E. Dawes and N. H. Baynes, Three Byzantine Saints. Contemporary Biographies of St

662 Synaxarium, 815-818. /)aniel the Stylite, St Theodore of Sykeon and St John the Almsgiver, Crestwood, N. Y. 1977, 130).
663 Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 58 (pp. 49-50), 62-63 (pp. 52-53), 74.14-16 (p. 62), 75-78 (pp. 62-66). 670 Pernot, La rhetorique, 156-157.

664 Ibid., c. 75-78 (pp. 62-66). 671 Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita S. Sabae, 86.27-87.6; see also Saradi, Kallas, 43.

665 Ibid., c. 44-45 (pp. 39-40). 672 R. Browning, The 'Low Level' Saint's Life in Early Byzantine World, in The Byzantine Saint, 126-127; Patlagean,

666 Ibid., c. 78 (pp. 66-67), 82 (pp. 69-70), 100 (p. 80), 101 (pp. 80-82), 106-109 (pp. 84-87). 1lagiography, 103; Seiber, The Urban Saint, 74.
116 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE: ASCETIC SOLITUDE AND URBAN LIFE 117

communities and their contacts with the cities were difficult. The greatest tensions are evident in the people, the fluency of the orators, the glory of the military. Only in one point
Lives of the saloi saints whose conduct, since they had chosen to face the temptations of the urban en- Seleucia fails in the competition with Tarsus and quietly gives way and concedes the
vironment in order to strengthen their purity of soul, was a negation of urban culture. first place to Tarsus; this is because Tarsus is the fatherland and the city of great
We have seen that in several hagiographies the writers reveal a change of attitude. There is now PauI.675
compromise, resting on rational argument, between city and country. Gradually, the sharp contrast be-
tween city and desert softens. In some hagiographical texts, some saints establish an intimate bond with The image of the city and of urban culture in the hagiographical texts is complex. Three major con-
their cities. We have seen the tragic element in the Life of St. David of Thessalonica, whose events endow clusions emerge from their study, however. First, urban life as depicted in the sixth-century hagio-
the saint with the dimensions of a civic hero. graphical texts is thriving. The role that cities played in the saints' lives is major. Even saints who did not
What produced this gradual acceptance of the saints in urban culture? The support of the saints by live in cities had direct contact with the urban population and the authorities and were deeply con-
the upper class was a decisive factor in their slow integration into the cities. It is not surprising that urban cerned with the problems of the community. Although urban life is seen as negative in terms of Christian
aristocrats in particular welcomed saints of aristocratic origin. Furthermore, the saints increasingly morality, the images of urban life employed are still realistic and the underlying historical reality is that
assumed leading roles in the cities, ecclesiastical, political and social. More difficult was the acceptance (,r prospering cities. 676 By contrast, in the hagiographical texts of the seventh century the setting of most
of the popular saints in the cities, where they often faced antagonism and hostility from the clergy. nf the Lives is rural and this has been rightly interpreted as evidence of urban decline. 677 The second
The support of the aristocrats and of the emperors facilitated their way into cities. 673 The progress of conclusion is social. The saints of the countryside and of the desert were gradually integrated into the
Christianity, the simplification of culture, a phenomenon often stressed, and the disintegration of the urban life. The third conclusion concerns ideologies. Sanctity and city are close to each other. The
ancient institutions and city ideology were also important dynamics in the urbanization of the popular sharp contrast between the two opposed ideologies in hagiographical texts is substantially modified and
saints. It is not a coincidence that in the debate between urban life and desert the compromise is clearly a compromise is reached. This is a significant ideological change, the cause and the effect of the saints'
being established in the hagiographical literature during the period when urban institutions and the integration in urban society and of the demise of ancient city culture.
ancient urban ideology were collapsing. The city was Christianized with its bishop and saints, and a new
urban model was created, that of the Christian city. 674
In Lives of high literary style, asceticism is defined by means of urban metaphors and terms repro-
ducing classical vocabulary are employed. These literary figures are a legacy of earlier tradition. They
reveal the persistence of city ideology and its appropriation by the Church. It should be stressed that
the choice of urban vocabulary does not conceal the contradiction between city and ascetic life. The lit-
erary style of the hagiographical texts also determined the image of the city. Lives written in high or
classicizing style employ more urban metaphors, imagery and civic terminology in describing the ascetic
life of the saints and their relations with the cities. Furthermore, city praises are found in Lives written in
high style. In the Life of St. Theda, written in a classicizing style, we find an enkomiastike ekphrasis of
Seleucia where the saint has settled in order to pursue her missionary activity:

This is a city situated at the borders of the land of the East; she is first in rank and
above all the cities of Isauria, situated by the sea and near a river. This river is called
Kalykandos, and begins from a place high up, at the inmost areas of Ketis, passes by
many districts and cities, and on its way towards us it receives other rivers which
come from areas on either side and make it that large that we see here; Kalykandos
ends at our area and at the nearby sea which extends towards the east and the south
and separates us from Cyprus. The city is admirable, most gracious, and so large
that it is not lacking the grace of the right proportions; it is so splendid and charm-
ing that it surpasses most of the cities, it is equal with the others, but it competes
with beautiful Tarsus for the limits, the location, the temperate climate, the abun-
dance of fruits, the afflux of merchandise, the good supply of water, the grace of the
baths, the splendour of the magistrates, the eloquence in the letters, the joyous
675
Vita S. Theclae, c. 27 (pp. 276.27-278.48). On descriptions and praises of cities in hagiographical texts in the early Byzantine
period and later see Robert, Lettres, 153-154; Saradi, Kallas, 43-44, 47-48.
673
Saradi, Constantinople, 108-109. 676
Patlagean, Hagiography, 109-111; see also the remarks of A. Kazhdan, Two Notes on the Vita of Anastasios the Persian,
674
A. M. Orselli, L'idee chretienne de la ville: quelques suggestions pour l'antiquite tardive et le haut Moyen Age, in in C. N. Constantinides et al. ( eds.), <PtA.EM1JV, Studies in Honour of Robert Browning (Venice 1996), 151-157, esp. 155-157.
677
Brogiolo and Ward-Perkins, The Idea, 181-193. See supra, n. 570.
118 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTERS

THE CITY ASA VISUALMOTIFINEARLYBYZANTINEART

You mean the city whose establishment we

have described, the city whose home is in the
ideal; for I think that it can be found nowhere
on earth. 678

Schematic representations of cities: an ornament and its symbolism

We. have already considered various images of the city in the literary sources of the early Byzantine
period. Now we turn to their parall~ls in art. The city as a literary and artistic theme is a central concept in
this period, embodied in tradition. It is part of a specific literary and artistic development that becomes a
question of style. Of course, the city in literature and art carries on a specific symbolism, that is, it refers
to an underlying historical reality and a system of cultural values, although the image of the city is now in-
creasingly used as ornament. This aestheticization of the city in literature and in art expressed the spirit of
the time, and, if carefully analysed, sheds light on the cultural consciousness of the period.
Representations of architectural units, such as palaces, villas and churches679 were very popular
features in compositions of early Byzantine art. The famous Y akto Mosaic, dating to the middle of the
fifth century, whose central figure is a personification of Megalopsychia, has a topographical border de-
picting sites and monuments of Antioch (supra, p. 46, Figure 2). 680 Urban life is shown in the urban
landscape defined by various architectural structures. The composition expresses the ancient percep-
tion of civic life. In a medallion in the centre the personification of Megalopsychia throws coins to
hunters with mythological names in a scene thought to be a representation of a real venatio (Figure 6).
Her gesture suggests the munificence of a public benefactor, apparently Ardabur, who financed spec-
FIG. 6. The personification of Megalopsychia in the Y akto mosaic. tacles and other aspects of civic life after the devastation of the city by the earthquake of 458. On the

678
Plato, The Republic IX.592 (transl. P. Shorey, ed. Loeb): EV TI V'UV Ot~A0oµEv olxLsovw:; JtOAEt AEyEt~, i:ft EV Aoyot~
XEtµevn, EJtEL yfj~ YE ovoaµoii otµm aui:~v dvm.
679
N. Duval, La representation du palais dans !'art du bas-empire et du haut moyen-age d'apres le Psautier d'Utrecht,
CahArch 15 (1965), 207-254; G. De Francovich, II Palatium di Teodorico a Ravenna e la cosiddetta "architettura di potenza".
Problemi d'interpretazione di raffigurazioni architettoniche nell'arte tardo antica e altomedioevale (Rome 1970); T. Sarnowski,
Les representations de villas sur les mosaiques africaines tardives (Warsaw 1978); N. Duval, Representations d'eglises sur
mosa1ques, La Revue du Louvre 22 (1972), 441-448.
680
J. Lassus,Antioch I, 114-156; Downey,Antioch, 659-664; Lassus, Yakto; F. Cimok,Antioch Mosaics (Istanbul 2000),
254-275; Mundell Mango, Artemis.
120 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 121

border, of which only three parts are preserved, are depicted aspects of daily life in the city and various
monuments (Figures 7a, 7b ). On the side opposite Megalopsychia are the fountains Pallas and Castalia
in Daphne, the pribaton (bath) of Ardabur, the Olympic stadium, workshops of the Martyrion, a peri-
patos (portico), a public bath (,:o 6riµ6mov ), three houses of magnates with the names of Leonti us, He-
liades and Majorinus. On the two other sides are depicted shops of various vendors, statues, different
buildings, a plaza with the inscription axwvw, probably a tetrakionion at a crossroads, a bridge obviously
on the Orantes, a circular plaza surrounded by trees, somewhat like a park, and a church. Individuals are
shown on horseback, one in a position of prayer, two groups of two reclining and drinking, some selling
merchandise, one with a rolled carpet on his back, another one with a basket in the one hand and a
bundle on his head, another one leading two sheep, others leading horses, a woman on horseback, another
one carrying a package on her shoulder and holding a child by the hand, two pairs of dice players seated
in front of a table in a portico. This is not an abstract image of the city. Rather, it is a real city vibrant
with life, with all social strata represented, the rich, the merchants, women, slaves and peasants.
In Christian iconography depictions of cities appear in the catacombs early on. They illustrate bibli-
cal narrative and depict the cities where the action occurred. Depictions of cities may also stand for a
country, such as Egypt. 681 We also find symbolic representations of the cities standing for the celestial city,
heavenly Jerusalem. The best example is found in the dome mosaic of the Rotunda of St. George in
Thessalonica, dating to the fifth century. 682 Schematic representations of cities surrounded by a wall, and I.
personifications of cities, a pagan tradition, were included in Christian artistic compositions, adapted to
convey a new message or used as simple decorative elements. They are found in mosaic pavements of
various monuments, secular and ecclesiastical, as well as in small objects, and have been subject of special
studies. Often such representations of cities are part of Nilotic scenes, which had a decorative or symbolic
character. Deriving from the Hellenistic tradition, they multiply in the sixth century. 683 In the Tabula
Peutingeriana, produced in the second half of the fourth century, Rome appears at the centre of the Roman
world, whilst most of the other cities are represented in a stylized and schematic design. Personifications
represent the greatest cities of the empire, Rome, Constantinople and Antioch (Figures Sa, Sb).
Alexandria is represented by the Pharos. Six other cities, Aquileia, Ravenna, Thessalonica, Nicaea,
Nicomedia, Ancyra are shown in a schematic representation resembling those in Palestinian churches. 684
In sixth-century manuscript illuminations, the motif of walled cities is further developed, although it
clearly derives from the earlier tradition (supra, p. 48, Figure 3). 685 In other artistic compositions images
of cities become purely ornamental, as, for example, in a sixth-century silver plate from Cyprus at the
Metropolitan Museum, with the representation of the combat between David and Goliath, where the
two cities flanking the figures are shown in a conventional manner. 686

FIG. 7a. Scenes of daily life in Antioch from the topographical border of the Yakto mosaic: 1. The
workshops of the Martyrion with a reclining figure. 2. The house of Heliades, of Leontius, a public
681
F. Bisconti, Le rappresentazioni urbane nella pittura cimiteriale romana: dalla citta reale a quella ideale, ACAC XI bath (i;o 6riµomov ), a portico (6 JCEQLJCmoi;) with a vendor and two figures playing a dice game.
(1986), II, 1305-1321. Representations of provinces as cities are also found in the copy of the Notitia Dignitatum in the Bibi.
Nat. lat. 9661 deriving from a fifth-century original: Achaea, Europa, Palestine, Pamphylia, Lydia, Italy, Illyria and Campania.
See H. Omont, Notitia Dignitatum (Paris), nos. 38, 41, 43, 58, 63, 103.
682
See Spieser, Thessalonique, 125-164; A. Lidov, Heavenly Jerusalem: The Byzantine Approach, in B. Kuhnel (ed.), The
Real and Ideal lentsalem in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art. Studies in Honor of Bezalel Narkiss on the Occasion of his Seventieth
Birthday (Jerusalem 1998), 341-353, esp. 341-343. On the symbolism of Jerusalem in art see B. Kuhnel, From the Earthly to the
Heavenly lentsalem: Representations of the Holy City in Christian Art of the First Millenium (Rome, Freiburg, Vienna 1987).
683
R. Hachlili, Iconographic Elements of Nilotic Scenes on Byzantine Mosaic Pavements in Israel, PEQ 1998, 106-120,
esp. 111-115.
684
E. Weber, Tabula Peutingeriana. Codex Vindobonensis 324 (Graz 1976).
685
Ehrensperger-Katz, Representations, 1 ff., esp. 10-14.
686 Ibid., 14-17.
122 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 123

r• 1
\.,/ (0111
.,.,! ,,.,:n.u:~
.
""_vtt•
~

,.

-·· t'
~-,
~·· I
.
.,,

1.

FIG. Sa. Tabula Peutingeriana, Tyche of Constantinople with column

and statue of Constantine.

2.

FIG. 7b. 1. The Olympic stadium in Daphne, the baths of Ardabourios, and Castalia fountain.
2. The Island in the Orontes with the octagonal Church of Constantine, the imperial palace
complex, and a race track.

FIG Sb. Tabula Peutingeriana, Tyche of Antioch.

124 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 125

Early representations of cities in church mosaic pavements of Palestine occupy a marginal area in with Egypt perhaps explain these Egyptian cities in the mosaics. The stylistic design of the compositions
larger compositions and their function was merely decorative. For example, in a fourth-century basili- in the two churches from Gerasa appears to derive from the iconographical tradition for depicting
ca at 'Ein et Tabigha a city is shown in the upper right corner of a mosaic only with its fortifications and landscape, rather than from cartography. 688 However, the monuments chosen as the landmarks of the
without any other urban feature. Two separate structures are placed at a distance, all of them incorpo- urban designs were venerated Christian sites, their presence thus conveying a distinct Christian message
rated in a large composition with plants and birds. 687 But in sixth-century church mosaics, representa- and presenting the city in Christian terms. Such representations of cities on church mosaic floors clearly
tions of cities gain in importance. They occupy more central place in mosaic pavements, they are larg- deviate from other urban designs in wall paintings. The latter were part of large narrative scenes
er and they often become part of a narrative. In the Church of St. John the Baptist at Gerasa, the elab- from the Old and New Testament, which were depicted on the walls of churches, as in the Basilica of
orate mosaic floor of the nave ( a. 531 ), drcular with four exedrai, contains three irregular sections be- I >amokratia in Demetrias (fourth-fifth century). 689 Moreover, the schematic images of walled cities on
tween the round border and the central square decorated with a Nilotic scene with representations of dmrch mosaics are contrasted with the idealized cities in St. George at Thessalonica, and in St. Apollinare
cities and churches at renowned religious or pilgrimage sites. Only three have survived. Alexandria, Nuovo with the representations of Classis and Ravenna. Nilotic scenes in church mosaic pavements
walled, with the Pharos, occupies the centre of the north segment with an inscription identifying it (Fig- have been viewed either as implying a Christian reinterpretation or as a revival of an earlier artistic tra-
ure 9). Inside the walls with at least ten towers are shown churches marked with crosses. To the left is 1 lition.
690 Since the Nile was considered one of the four rivers of Paradise, artistic motifs associated with

shown a city, perhaps Canopus, and an entrance to the precinct of a church identified as the Church of representation of the Nile were appropriate for church decoration. Alternatively, representations of
dties on floor mosaics may refer to the worldly life and contrast it with the celestial life to which usually
wall frescoes alluded. 691 Other, specifically Christian reinterpretations were sometimes defined by
inscriptions. As in earlier iconography in catacombs, Egypt is also depicted on church mosaic pave-
ments as a city. 692 In other cases, the inscription "Egypt" next to a city stands for Memphis, a Hellenistic
tradition, or for the fortress of Babylon, now old Cairo. 693 Representations of cities are also found on
mosaics of secular buildings in the East. For example, in Hierapolis, in a mosaic pavement dating to
-tS0-550 containing a scene of the abduction of Europa, the upper right segment contains a representation
1 if Si don.
694 From Diocaesarea (Sepphoris) comes a mosaic with a Nilotic scene in a building of the early

Byzantine period. It includes a personification of Egypt as a semi-naked female figure, reclining on a

basket and holding in her left hand a cornucopia, both basket and cornucopia being filled with fruit. To
the right is a mason inscribing numerals on a nilometer. In the lower register appears a city with the
inscription "'At..csavOQELa". Another mosaic in the same building depicting a centaur has the inscription
"HEo~ ~ori0o~". 695 In the Jewish mosaic of the so-called House of Kyrios Leontis in Scythopolis, capital
111' the province of Palaestina Secunda (middle of the fifth century) Alexandria is depicted with the

Nilometer and a personification of river Nile. 696

The Madaba map in the so-called Church of the Map at Madaba in northern Jordan, dated to after
V!2, which is the date of the dedication of the Nea Church in Jerusalem identified in the city vignette,
1s the most famous church mosaic with representations of cities (Figure 10). Its size is 15.70x5.60 m. It

1s a picture map with representations of cities, towns and villages, mountains, rivers and animals. The

FIG. 9. Alexandria surrounded by walls, depicted in a mosaic of the Church

of St. John in Gerasa. 688
On the representations of cities in the churches of Gerasa see F. M. Biebel, Mosaics, in Kraeling, Gerasa, 327-329, 333-
114, 341-351; Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 288, figs. 504-505 and 542-545, p. 292, figs. 554,556; N. Duval, L'iconografia architettoni-
, a nci mosaici di Giordania, in M. Piccirillo ( ed.), Mosaici di Giordania (Rome 1986), 151-156, esp. 151-153 suggests that most
Saints John and Cyrus at Menouthis. At the gate, a lamp hangs, perhaps suggesting the oil from the of the buildings shown in cities' representations in those and other churches were probably basilicas.
89
" P. Marzolff, Das friihchristliche Demetrias,ACAC X (1980), 300-301.
lamp used for miraculous healing. On the opposite side, in the centre of the southern segment another 1 90
' Maguire, Earth, 69-12; idem, The Nile and the Rivers of Paradise, in Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba Mosaic Map,
city, probably Memphis, also walled, is represented. In the Church of Saints Peter and Paul at Gerasa l/!J-184; Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins,Pavements, 47-49.
(ea. 540), representations of cities appear below the dedicatory inscription of the nave mosaic which 1 91
' M. Avi-Yonah, The Haditha Mosaic Pavement,JEJ22 (1972), 122.

records the church's dedication to the Apostles Peter and Paul by Bishop Anastasius. At the left end an 692 Ibid., 118-122. Personification of Egypt in the sixth century on ivory box: W. F. Vo Ibach, Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spiitantike

inscription identifies the missing building as the Pharos, whilst immediately to the right is the repre- mu/ des friihen Mittelalters (Mainz 19763 ), no. 105, fig. 56; Piccirillo, Mosaics, 341, no 752.
sentation of Alexandria and further Memphis, both walled. Contacts between Gerasa and its churches rm A Hermann, Agyptologische Marginalien zur spatantiken Ikonographie,JbAChr 5 (1962), 82; L. Roussin, The Iconography
,1/ the Figural Pavements of Early Byzantine Palestine (Ann Arbor 1985), 308-309.
"i1 4
J. Baity, inAAAS 37/38 (1987/88), 251-278.
95
" Z. Weiss and E. Netzer, Qadmoniot 24 nos. 95/96 (1991), 113-121.
687 M. Avi-Yonah,Art in Ancient Palestine. Selected Studies (Jerusalem 1981), 305, no. 72 and pl. 52. 6
w, N. Zori, The House ofKyrios Leontis at Beth Shean, IEJ 16 (1966), 123-134, esp. 128 fig. 4, 131 and pl. 12.
126 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 127

surviving part contains one hundred fifty seven cities and other sites. This map depicts a purely Christ-
ian geography. The sites refer to stories of the Old and the New Testament and Christian churches. The
area of Madaba was central in the story of the Promised Land. At Mount Nebo in the territory of Mad-
aim Moses passed his final days. There he delivered his speech, he bid his people farewell, had his vi-
sion of the Promised Land and died. His cenotaph was located at the site. The area depicted is that of
the 12 biblical tribes and the territory around it, which thus contains the land of Canaan promised to
Abraham. 697 The geographical area at the centre of which stands Jerusalem is viewed from the west to-
wards the east. The composition probably derives from the Onomastikon of Eusebius and is based on
some road map such as the Tabula Peutingeriana. 698 The geographical situation of Palestine is accu-
rntely described in the Madaba map. For example, the many cities in the Negev are represented, while
Ihey are missing from the Peutinger Table, since they flourished in the early Byzantine period. Like-
wise, the territory south of Palaestina Tertia ( the areas of Petra and Hisma in southern Jordan) is little
represented, since at the time it had been abandoned to local phylarchs. 699 The larger cities are shown
walled with some buildings, such as Jerusalem, Gaza, Neapolis (modern Nablus in Palestine), Ascalon,
Pelusion, Charach Muba (modern al-Kerak). The smaller cities are depicted with some buildings or
colonnaded streets. The centre of the map is Jerusalem, depicted with walls with towers and gates (Figure
11 ). The colonnaded cardo begins in the plaza inside the Damascus Gate with a column in the middle.

FIG. 11. Jerusalem and the surrounding region.

697
J. Briend, Une lecture de l'Ecriture, Le Monde de la Bible 52 (1987), 33-36; E. Alliata, The Legends of the Madaba Map,
111 Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba Mosaic Map, 47-101; I. Shahid, The Madaba Mosaic Map Revisited. Some New Obser-
vations on its Purpose and Meaning, ibid., 147-157.
698
M. Avi-Yonah, The Madaba Mosaic Map (Jerusalem 1954), new edition by H. Donner and H. Ciippers,Die Mosaikkarte
1•011 Madeba I (Wiesbaden 1977); see also Piccirillo, Madaba, 76-95; H. Donner, The Mosaic Map of Madaba (Kampen, The

Netherlands 1992). But there were certainly other maps suggesting other itineraries: Y. Tsafrir, The Maps used by Theodo-
sius: On the Pilgrim Maps of the Holy Land and Jerusalem in the Sixth Century C.E., DOP 40 (1986), 129-145; H. Donner,
The Uniqueness of the Madaba Map and its Restoration in 1965, in Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba Mosaic Map, 37-40; E.
Wcber, The Tabula Peutingeriana and The Madaba Map, ibid., 41-46; L. Di Segni, The 'Onomasticon' of Eusebius and the
Madaba Map, ibid., 115-120; G. Canuti, Mosaici di Giordania con raffigurazioni di citta: itinerari di pellegrinaggio?,ACAC
XII (1991), II, 617-629.
699
G. W. Bowersock, Roman Arabia (London 1983), 181-185.
128 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 129

From there a second colonnaded street is depicted along the Tyropaeon Valley and meets in the middle
a street from the Lions Gate. At the south end of the cardo the Basilica of Zion and the Nea Church,
dedicated to the Theotokos by Justinian, have.been identified. Some architectural urban features are
also accurately depicted, such as the colonnaded streets, the exedrai (semi-circular porticoes) and doors
and gates with towers. 700 The Madaba map, as a Christian artistic creation, is aimed at instructing
Christians in the Christian legends associated with sites and monuments. It also creates a visual image of
Christian Palestine in which the cities formed not only important road stations, but were themselves part
of the Christian world marked by venerated Christian monuments. The creation of this mosaic might
have promoted the rising importance of Jerusalem after the creation of its patriarchate and of the bish-
oprics east of Jordan in the late sixth and in the seventh century. 701 In the Madaba map, Christian sites
and cities are celebrated and are linked with each other in a Christian itinerary. Although the pilgrimage ,' ~'_,
to the Holy Land could have been a major incentive for such artistic creations, nevertheless, these mosaics
certainly underline the power of the tradition of the representation of cities. It has been suggested that
the city pride and the competition among cities is now expressed in a Christian context. 702 Furthermore,
a positive and optimistic attitude towards urban life, now profoundly Christianized, is evident in these
maps. The Church was the most appropriate place to express this view. The Madaba map may be seen as
~yJi · · -"•-··-
~
:,.,:<~~:··.'
. ..-;::·)_:·~
a declaration of the confidence of the Church in the urban context. -~
i<;--
.
At Umm al-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa) near Madaba, in the so-called Church of the Lions (dated to
·-''
-...,,'-/"'"·
."'

574 or 589) only one representation of a city survives, that of Kastron Mefaa, between the northern _:.~/.-:. v_•:
.
'·✓'
columns of the nave (Figure 12).703 Outside the walls a small church, part of a large ecclesiastical complex,
:::,.,:
dating to 586 A.D. is richly decorated with a mosaic pavement. In a band between the central mosaic .': :-:~·
of the nave and that of the south aisle, are depicted a series of four identical female busts, half naked
and holding a cornucopia from which pours water. They are symbols of the Seasons. Between them are
depicted complexes of buildings with three towers. 704 These buildings may represent cities in a context
k'tI
r_••,:"'K,,,.,:;,

of prosperity, as is suggested by the Seasons with the cornucopia. The tradition of representing cities in
panels in borders of large compositions continues well into the seventh and eighth centuries. In the :~!.
' ·:::<~~-.. ~~'
pavement mosaic of the Church of St. John the Baptist at Khirbat al-Samra ( a. 639), half way between -.":'{.:<'',
✓,.,•·,),;;

Philadelphia and Bostra in the province of Arabia, two representations of walled cities survive with
polygonal fortifications. Inside the walls the dominating buildings adorned with cupolas and crosses are
obviously churches. 705 The inner border of the central mosaic floor of the church at Ma 'in (ancient
Belemous near Madaba to the southwest) dates to the Umayyad period (719/720) and contains a long
series of representations of cities and villages on the banks of Jordan river (Figure 13). Originally there
must have been twenty four buildings representing cities, of which only eleven remain, separated from
each other by stylized trees: Nicopolis, Eleutheropolis, Ascalon, Maioumas, Gaza, Odroa, Charach
Muba, Areopolis (modern Rabbah), Gadoron, Esbounta (modern Hesban) and Belemounta (modern

700 G. Ortolani, Cartografia e architettura nella "Carta di Madaba", Palladio. Rivista di storia dell'architettura (Milan,

Rome) 14 (1994), 55-68, esp. 62; R. Farioli Campanati, Citta, edifici e strutture architettoniche nei mosaici pavimentali de! vi-
cino Oriente: Giordania e Siria, Fe/Rav 1993-1994, 259-291; N. Duval, Essai sur la signification des vignettes topographiques,
in Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba Mosaic Map, 134-146; Y. Tsafrir, The Holy City of Jerusalem in the Madaba Map, ibid.,
155-163; W. Pullan, The Representation of the Late Antique City in the Madaba Map. The Meaning of the cardo in the
Jerusalem vignette, ibid., 165-171.
701 P. Donceel-Voute, La carte de Madaba: cosmographie, anachronisme et propagande, Revue Biblique 95 ( 1988), 519-542.

702 P.-L. Gatier, L'ideologie de la cite et la carte de Madaba, in Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba Mosaic Map, 235-237.
FIG. 12. Umm al-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa), Church of the Lions.
703 Piccirillo, Mosaics, pp. 236-237, figs. 337,376; idem, Mosaicists, 397-398, pl. 10.

704 Idem, Mosaics, 242-243 and figs. 396, 397.

705 Ibid., 304-305, figs. 595,596,599. For J.-B. Humbert, Khirbet es-Samra 1981-1982, Syria 60 (1983), 311 these images of

cities were either decorative or allegorical representations of Jerusalem, Bethleem or Rome.

130 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 131

FIG. 13. Representations of cities and villages from Ma 'in, ancient Belemous, near Madaba.

Ma 'in) and they are shown as large rectangular buildings. 706 Back at Umm al-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa)
the large mosaic floor of the Church of St. Stephanus, paved in the eighth century contains representa-
tions of cities surviving intact in two borders (Figure 14).707 The first zone lies around the central oblong
mosaic panel decorated with vine scrolls and containing images of animals and men engaged in various
activities, hunting, agricultural and pastoral. The zone contains Nilotic scenes and includes ten Egyptian
cities: Tamiathis, Panaou, Pelusion, Antinaou, Heraklion, Alexandria, Kasin, Thenesos, Cynopolis,
Pseudostomon. To the right and left of this border are two other bands between the columns with rep-
resentations of Palestinian cities. In the north border between the columns are depicted eight cities west
of Jordan river, Jerusalem, Neapolis, Sebaste, Caesarea Maritima (Figure 15), Diospolis, Eleutheropolis,
Ascalon and Gaza. In the corresponding south intercolumnar border are represented seven cities east of
Jordan river: Kastron Mefaa, shown in two panels (Figure 16), Philadelphia (modern Amman), Madaba,
Esbounta, Belemounta, Areopolis and Charach Muba. That these representations of cities were realistic
can be seen from the depiction of Kastron Mefaa showing a column surmounted by a cross, just outside
the city gate, in the Church of St. Stephanus and in the Church of the Lions708 (Figures 12 and 16). The
villages Limbon and Diblaton depicted on the mosaics of the aisles are connected with the benefactors
who are represented there. The representation of the city of Neapolis by the temple of Zeus Hypsistos
is particularly striking (Figure 17).
While the mosaics with these motifs of cities usually decorate ecclesiastical buildings, there are other
examples in which the symbolism is reversed. On a fabric from Egypt, the city of Antioch is symbolized
by its churches on the borders of a central scene depicting Daniel between the lions visited by the
prophet Habakkuk. The churches, identified by inscriptions some of which are poorly preserved, are the
Great Church, and the martyria of Saints Michael, Stephanus, Sosanna, Acacius and perhaps Victor,
and the church of Kerataion. The composition has been interpreted as alluding to the destruction of

706
Piccirillo, Mosaics, 35-36, 201, figs. 303-310.
707
Ibid., 233, 238-239, figs. 344-358, 380-387; N. Duval, Le rappresentazioni architettoniche, in Piccirillo and Alliata,
Umm al-Rasas, 165-230, shows that the buildings represented in these cities were Christian basilicas: 201 ff.
FIG. 14. Floor mosaic of the Church of St. Stephanus at Umm al-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa)
708 See infra, pp. 230, 468. with representations of cities in the two borders.
132 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY
THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 133

FIG. 15. Representations of Jerusalem, Neapolis,

FIG. 16. Kastron Mefaa, from the floor mosaic of the
Sebaste and Caesarea from the floor mosaic of
Church of St. Stephanus at Umm al-Rasas.
the Church of St. Stephanus at Umm al-Rasas.
134 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 135

inch by the Persians in 540. Just as David was persecuted at the orders of Darius, so Antioch was
nm11i,.1,:,u by the Persians. The churches depicted would have been restored after their destruction in 540. 709
The representation of cities in churches became very fashionable in the fifth and sixth centuries.
St. Lawrence of Sipontum in Italy invited artists from Byzantium to decorate his church. The
i·, imposition included representations of churches which depended on Sipontum set around the depictions
Sipontum and Gargano. 710 The bishop thus made clear the increasing power of his Church over the
through their visual images. But further to the west the image of the city in art declined from the
lnmth to sixth centuries. 711 Obviously the specific historical circumstances in each geographical area
rel1ected in the selection of artistic models. In the East, while the tradition was maintained in
Pah:stinian churches in the Umayyad period up to the eighth century, in manuscripts it is not found after
IIH· sixth century, although it reappears later in the ninth, a phenomenon also observed in the West. 712
This coincides with the ruralization of the Byzantine empire and the decline of cities. In the seventh and
1·1ghth centuries Byzantine artists and their patrons showed no interest in cities. The coincidence is too
'+lrong to suggest a change in artistic preferences alone.

Personifications of cities

Personifications of cities in art continue the Hellenistic and Roman tradition, to which Christian
•,vmbols are now added. Given the fact that there was a constant circulation of ideas and motifs between
!he literary production and the visual arts, it is not surprising to find that the city's iconography and its
literary descriptions reflect each other in the same context. In an aristocratic house at Halicarnassus ( a.
•1',0-500), a mosaic floor contains the personifications of Halicarnassus, Alexandria and Berytus, de-
pirted as female busts set in medallions, while an inscription evokes similarities to the language of Nonnus'
I 1/unysiaca. Indeed, these representations date to the time of Nonnus or a little later. 713 The room may
have been the official entrance to the house that included an audience or reception room. The type of
1he city personification is that of the Tyche, the goddess of the city that ensures its prosperity and hap-
piness. In Antioch there was a temple dedicated to the city's Tyche, the Tycheion, of which Libanius
wrote an ekphrasis, describing its lavish decoration. Situated in the middle of the city, it contained the
statues of the twelve gods and in the middle that of the Tyche. This was shown crowned by the Earth,
and in its turn the Tyche crowned Alexander. A statue of Charis invoked the gracious nature of the
land. On the top was set the statue of the city's founder. Statues of Nikai flanked the Tyche and in the
middle bronze poles had inscribed the city's customs (voµtµa). 714

FIG. 17. The city of Neapolis represented by the temple of Zeus

Hypsistos, depicted on the floor mosaic of the Church of 709 P.-L. Gatier, Un temoignage sur des eglises d'Antioche, Syria 65 (1988), 383-388.
St. Stephanus at Umm al-Rasas. 710 G. Bertaux, L'Art dans l'Italie Meridionale (Paris 1904), I, 66-67;AASS Febr. II, p. 59, c. 14.
711 In Spain representations of cities in mosaics, sarcophagi and other monuments are rare, while, not unexpectedly, those

of villas in rural settings are numerous: X. Barra! i Altet, L'image litteraire de la ville dans la peninsule iberique pendant
l'antiquite tardive,ACAC XI (1986), 1398-1399. For the changes in the representation of cities in the West in Late Antiquity
and in the early Middle Ages, where there is an increasing emphasis on official scenes and people, instead of scenes of the city,
and for the survival of the image of the Tyche of the city see C. Bertelli, Visual Images of the Town in Late Antiquity and the
Early Middle Ages, in Brogiolo and Ward-Perkins, The Idea, 127-146.
712
Ehrensperger-Katz, Representations, 20, 27.
713 B. Poulsen, The city personifications in the Late "Roman Villa" in Halikarnassos, in S. Isager and B. Poulsen (eds.),

Patron and Pavements in Late Antiquity (Odense, Denmark 1997), 9-29. For an analysis in a broader context of the paideia of
the upper class see also R. Leader-Newby, Personifications and paideia in Late Antique mosaics from the Greek East, in
Stafford and Herrin, Personification, 231-246.
714
Libanius, Descriptiones 25 (VIII, 529-531).
136 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 137

From the early Byzantine period are known several representations of city personifications of the
type of the Tyche (supra, p. 69, Figure 4). This image of the Tyche was not maintained merely as an
artistic convention, as an ornamental motif in artistic compositions. The belief of the inhabitants in the
Tyche of the city is attested in inscriptions marked with the sign of the cross. 715 In the Life of St. Symeon
Stylites the Younger the inhabitants of Antioch worship the city's Tyche up to the time of the saint. 716
Tyche and Tycheion are also recorded in inscriptions in villages in the Hauran. 717
The so-called Hippolytus Hall of a wealthy house at Madaba dating to the first half of the sixth cen-
tury has a mosaic pavement decorated with a large central composition of which two sections survive
(Figure 18). In the first one the figures of Phaedra and Hippolytus with maidens and servants are de-
picted, in the second Adonis, Aphrodite, Cupids, Graces and Agroikis (Rusticity). The interior border
is decorated with acanthus scrolls and hunting and pastoral scenes. At the corners are depicted per-
sonifications of the Seasons of the Tyche type, in the form offem ale busts wearing towered crowns and
holding cornucopia. In the exterior border appear personifications of three cities, Rome, Gregoria and
Madaba, next to two sea-monsters and birds (Figure 19). They are represented as the Tyche type, all
seated, Rome holding the cornucopia, Gregoria with a basket with flowers, and Madaba with two flowers.
They all wear crowns, the first two also have earrings, and in their left hand hold a sceptre with a
cross. 718 One is left with the impression that in this composition, so markedly pagan, the crosses were an
inevitable concession to a reality that the owners of the house had to accept. A personification of Mega-
lopolis in the Peloponnese is also known from a mosaic floor, now lost. She was shown wearing a crown
with three towers, and earrings. The mosaic laid on the floor of a pi-shaped portico, belonged to an
earlier building, incorporated later into an early Christian church. 719 The mosaic pavement of the exedra
occupying half of the Roman Odeum of Scythopolis behind the west portico of Palladius Street was also FIG. 18. The mosaic in the Hippolytus Hall at Madaba with representations of mythological figures
decorated with a medallion with the city's Tyche with a crown with towers holding a cornucopia (Figure (Phaedra, Hippolytus, Adonis, Aphrodite, Cupids, Graces and Agroikis ), Seasons of the Tyche type
°
20). 72 From the so-called Maison du Cerf in Apamea in Syria comes a mosaic with the representation at the corners, and personifications of Rome, Gregoria and Madaba.
of the city's Tyche in a medallion 2.20 m in diameter with walled crown, holding cornucopia in the left
arm and a branch in the right hand. In the folding of her dress on the front are shown many fruits, in-
cluding some pomegranates (end of the fifth or early sixth century). 721 The motif of the city's Tyche -~;;,,",;<' " "

·i:.-; "' "\ 1i;

appears to have survived until late in Egypt, too. 722 In a sixth-century ivory relief from the cathedral of
Aachen, the Tyche of Alexandria is shown as Isis. She wears a modius (grain measure) as a crown, she
holds the cornucopia in her left arm, supporting a small temple of Horns, and in her right hand she holds
a commercial ship. She is surrounded by dancers, erotes playing the flute and a small Pan.
The representation of the city of Theodorias on the mosaic floor of the East Church at Qasr-el-
Lebia in Libya is loaded with symbolism. It shows how ancient motifs could be used in the Justinianic

715For example, D. Knibbe, Tyche und das Kreuz Christi als antithetische Bezugspunkte menschlichen Lebens in einer
fruhchristlichen Inschrift aus Ephesos, Festschrift fur Fritz Eichler (Vienna 1967), 96-102.
716
See supra, p. 109.
717 M. Sartre, L'epigraphie du Hawran dans Jes archives de W. J. Bankes, Syria 73 (1996), 85.

718 Piccirillo, Madaba, 50-60; idem, Mosaics, 66, figs. 3, 10, 13, 14, 26, 27; R. Avner-Levy, A Note on the Iconography of

the Personifications in the "Hippolytos mosaic" at Madaba, Jordan, Liber Annuus 46 (1996), 363-374 suggests that perhaps
Gregoria was a local benefactress, rather than a city personification.
719 P. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, with the collaboration of E. Pelekanidou, 1:vvrayµa rwv :rr:a}.awxewuavixwv ip17cpu5w-

rwv oa:rr:iowv rijc;'E}.}.6.ooc; II. lldo:rr:6vv17aoc;-1:uesa 'EU6.oa (Thessalonica 1987), 71 n. 37.

720 Mazor, ES! 6 (1987/88), 19.

721 Ch. Baity, Syria 60 (1983), 295; idem, Nouvelles mosa1ques d'Apamee: fortune et declin d'une demeure (Ve-v1e siecles),

in VI Coloquio intemacional sabre mosaico antiguo, Palencia-Merida, Octubre 1990, 187-199. FIG. 19. Representations of Rome, Gregoria and Madaba on the mosaic floor of the Hippolytus Hall.
722
K. Wessel, Koptische Kunst. Die Spiitantike inA.gypten (Recklinghausen 1963), 10 and pl. 2.
138 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 139

l'l'a to convey a contemporary message in a Christian environment. The mosaic occupies the east part
111' the nave located off-centre towards the entrance of the baptistery. It is divided into squares with
Irames of looped circles containing various iconographic compositions (Figure 21 ). In the squares are
1kpicted various animals, marine life and sea-monsters, four river gods, Geon, Phison, Euphrates and
I'igris, the nymph Castalia, a horseman, the fa~ade of a building perhaps a church, a fortress with six tow-
ers and a gate, the god Pan flanked by trees walking to the right and with a pedum with wings on his shoul-
der and a shell-shaped cup on his right hand, a shepherd, Triton, the Pharos and a boat (Figure 22).
In the central square of the upper row is represented a fortified city with the inscription "n6Au; vfo
BrnOWQLri£" (Figure 23). According to Procopius, the city was renovated by Justinian. Previously called
Vaga, it was renamed Theodorias in honour of the empress Theodora. 723 A mosaic inscription of the
diurch dates its construction to 539-540. 724 The panel on the left contains the personification of K6aµrim£
( I )ccoration) as a standing female figure with a censer towards the city, that to the right the personification
uf KtCm£ (Foundation), 725 extending a crown towards the city. Below is depicted the personification of
'Avavewm£ (Renewal), in the form of a female bust with a basket with fruits. She is shown framed by a
structure resembling a ciborium with two columns and a scalloped conch above an architrave. On both
sides of the figure are curtains whose ends are tied to the columns. 726 The imperial renovation of the city
is thus projected by the church and is glorified in an ecclesiastical context. It has been suggested that this
underlines the effort of the Church, particularly in the border areas of the empire, to strengthen its
position by promoting the presence of the state. The composition of the Ananeosis represented like the
pagan Tyche of the city together with the personifications of Kosmesis and Ktisis honouring the city,
directly derives from earlier pagan prototypes. The figure of Kosmesis is the counterpart of the figures
of pagan priests who hold the censer toward the Tyche of the city, whilst the figure of Ktisis offering the
crown to Theodorias corresponds to Victory in pagan compositions. But while the latter symbolized the
l'lcrnal Tyche of the city, constantly renovated, the figure of Ktisis in the church of Qasr-el-Lebia sym-
bolizes the specific renovation of the city by Justinian. The image of the city itself with its fortifications
points to the reconstruction work of Justinian. 727 The Ananeosis may also have been understood to rep-
resent the city's spiritual renewal through the conversion of its inhabitants to Christianity. 728 The depic-
tion of the god Pan on the same mosaic floor, placed slightly off-centre closer to the door of the baptis-
tery, suggests Christian symbolism. The newly baptized Christians walking on the image of the pagan
god are denouncing paganism. 729 The representation of Castalia as a woman reclining with its jar turned
down, and of the rivers corresponding to the rivers of Paradise have been variously interpreted. 730 They

FIG. 20. The Tyche of Scythopolis, from the exedra of Palladius Street.
723
Procopius, De aedificiis VI.5.12-14.
724 Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, 146-148.
725 Personifications of Ktisis and Kosmesis is also found on the mosaic pavement of the church of Ras-el-Hilal also in

Cyrenaica: Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, 40-41, 140-141, and pls. 83, 102. See also a mosaic with a per-
sonification of Ktisis at the Metropolitan Museum, dated to the first half of the sixth century: H. Evans, Personification of Kti-
sis (Foundation), The Metropolitan Museum ofArt Bulletin 56.2 (1998), 15. See also supra, p. 70, FIGURE 5.
726 Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, 121-133, fig. 10 (p. 122), and plates 5-17.
727 A. Grabar, Une nouvelle interpretation de certaines images de la mosa'ique de pavement de Qasr el-Lebya (Libye),

CRAI 1969, 264-279, esp. 266-268, 273. See also Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, 33-37, 123 and for an
overall discussion of the Christian symbolism of the mosaic see M. Guarducci, La piu antica catechesi figurata: ii grande
musaico della basilica di Gasr Elbia in Cirenaica,Mem. Acc. Line., ser. VIII, 18/7 (Rome 1975), 659-686.
728 Maguire, Earth, 50-55; Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, 33-37; J. Engemann, Deutung und Bedeutung

fi'iihchristlicher Bildwerke (Darmstadt 1997), 154-156.

729
H. Saradi,Aspects of the Classical Tradition in Byzantium (Toronto 1995), 29.
730
Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, 37-40.
 THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 141
140 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

I. 2.

3. 4.

FI G. 22. Segments of the mosaic pavement of the East Church at Qasr-el-Lebia (Theodorias):
1. Personification of Castalia. 2. Pan. 3. A pagan temple. 4. Pharos.

FIG. 21. Justinianic mosaic pavement of the nave of the East Church at
Qasr-el-Lebia (Theodorias) in Libya.
142 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 143

nrny symbolize the closing of the oracle at Daphne and allude to the victory of Christianity. Thus the
1\naneosis of the city is the counterpart of the spiritual ananeosis of the newly baptized Christians. The
1111agery of the city's renovatio expands to include Christian personal renovatio. Other representations
nl cities are found incorporated in hunting and animal scenes of the cathedral and the central church
111' ( 'yrene. 731
Personifications of the capitals Rome and Constantinople are depicted on consular ivory diptychs
wdl into the sixth century, those of Clementinus (a. 513), Magnus (a. 518) and Orestes (a. 530) being ex-
amples. Constantinople is marked with the letter A for the city's poetic name, Anthousa. 732 Such objects
rnnveyed a specific political message and, being produced for members of the upper class, maintained
I hi: ancient iconographic tradition longer than other objects. They are found on reliefs, such as the obelisk
111 • l'heodosius. In the sixth century Tychae are represented above the charioteer Porphyrius in one of the

hases in the hippodrome. They stand for the cities of Nicomedia, Berytus and perhaps Constantinople. 733
l'he Tyche type continues to figure on solidi until the reign of Justin II. At that period the Tyche on the
:.11lidi, shown with a helmet, a spear and the globe with cross, was interpreted by the Byzantines as
Aphrodite. But the Tyche of the city is also found on other objects, for example, sculptured on a tabletop
probably from Salamis-Constantia in Cyprus, or on a comb of the Benaki Museum in Athens (fifth-sixth
rentury) or as furniture ornaments. 734 A small marble medallion with a crowned Tyche from a rural
rhurch of St. Bacchus at Kh. Sheikh 'Ali Malikina, identified with Betomelgezis near Haditha in Israel,
111 the area of Diospolis, bears an inscription with the name of a person who was probably a governor in
1. 2. whose time the medallion was donated to the church. The date of the medallion with the Tyche is late,
'182 A.D. 735 On a gold vessel from the hoard from Vrap, south of Dyrrachium, now in the Metropolitan
Museum, the four female figures with walled crowns are identified by inscriptions on the border as
Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Cyprus. They probably represent bishoprics. The type of the
, halice dates to the sixth-seventh centuries. The similarity of the iconographic type of the two capitals
;ilso testifies to a date after the middle of the sixth century. While the figures of the two capitals hold
orbs, all hold a sceptre. The persistence of the image of the Tyche is remarkable. 736
The representation of city personifications in churches in the sixth-century and later, and other
1 ihjects as well, is not an isolated artistic fashion, but it coincides with a general trend towards creating

a broad repertoire of personifications, such as those drawn from nature. They appear in the second half
nf the fifth century and were further developed during the sixth. Such compositions include portraits
of months, the seasons, the earth, the sea, the rivers of Paradise, the Castalia fountain in the church at
Oasr-el-Lebia. Although such concepts were attacked in the fourth century as being derived from
paganism, by the fifth and sixth centuries they had been given a Christian reinterpretation, that they
derived from God and there were manifestations of divine power. 737 An interpretation of personification
of the elements of nature in Christian literature is offered by Severns: "But, in order that the account
3. 4. may be clearer, he (John Chrysostom) also personifies the whole of this world, as the prophets too do,

FIG. 23. Segments of the mosaic pavement of the East Church at Qasr-el-Lebia (Theodorias):
1. The city of Theodorias. 2. Personification of Kosmesis. 3. Personification of Ktisis. 731 Ibid., pls. 39; 40, 1; 43, 1; 70, 2, and p. 58.
4. Personification of Ananeosis. 732 G. Buhl, Constantinopolis und Roma: Stadtpersonifikationen der Spiitantike (Zurich 1995), 197-217.
733 Cameron, Porphyrius, 28-30; A Grabar, Sculptures byzantines de Constantinople (IVe-xe siecle) (Paris 1963), 25-29 (pl. V.4).

734 G. Roux, Tables chretiennes en marbre decouvertes a Salamine, Sa/amine de Chypre IV, Anthologie Salaminienne

( Paris 1973), 136-139 and pl. 32, a; W. F. Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spiitantike und des frilhen Mittelalters (Mainz 1976),
110. 88b (p. 68) and pl. 49; R. Brilliant, Personifications, in Weitzmann,Age of Spirituality, 176-177.
735 Dahari, Betomelgezis, 248 and plate XII (p. 210); idem, J:Iorbat Tinshemet, Church of St. Bacchus, ES/ 18 (1998), 67-68.

736 For a discussion of these figures and earlier bibliography see Saradi, Albania, 122-124.

737 H. Maguire, Christians, Pagans, and the Representation of Nature, Begegnung von Heidentum und Christentum im

.171iitantikenAgypten, Riggisberger Berichte 1 (1993), 131-160, esp. 147-153.

144 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE CITY AS A VISUAL MOTIF IN EARLY BYZANTINE ART 145

when they introduce rivers clapping hands, and high places leaping, and the mountains dancing; not
that we may understand these to be animate, nor that we may assign any reason to them; but that we
may learn the abundance of good things, so that it reaches even to things without perception". 738 Thus VJ
i::
such personifications were figures of speech serving to make some narrative or oration more clear and
·s....
<l.l
vivid and could be understood allegorically. By the sixth century the pagan image of the city had been ....
...c::

-~........
...c::
incorporated into the Christian repertoire of literary and artistic themes. They were intended to convey a
specific message, different in each context, while being at the same time used as figures of speech and <l.l
<l.l
visual ornaments on objects of art. ........
[/J

~
The ideal city, the beautiful and magnificent city of Late Antiquity, was praised in literary images ~
>
and figurative representations. We have discerned a variety of themes, poetic, rhetorical, biblical and ....
...c::
-~
Christian, imaginary and realistic. They all converge to cherish the city from various perspectives. Fiction
_gi::
and reality rival one another in many of the texts we have examined. It is clear that there was a profound ....u
i::
desire to maintain the ideal ancient city, glorified with its traditions and splendid monuments. The .:?.,
Hellenistic and Roman typology of the city persisted in Late Antiquity, charged with the symbols of <l.l
.... ci
...c::
ancient culture and was finally invested with the symbols of the new religion and new meaning. The "O
i:: 0\
<r:
ro
works that have been examined in the previous chapters show a culture obsessed with the city. The ....<l.l -s:I"
i:--
'+-<
exalted image of the city as a theme in literary and artistic works is reversed in the historiography in the ........
<l.l
[/J
.!:<I
0
<l.l
second half of the sixth century. There a realistic description of the city emerges, free of the typology VJ ro
::i ::i
and symbolism imposed on it by ancient culture. This realism reveals the profound change in the city at ;a ...c::Cl"
,.:Sl ....
....
the end of the early Byzantine period. crj ro
~ <l.l
<l.l
11) ...c::
........ ....
ro
<l.l
....
...c:: "O
<l.l
<l.l ,n
·-
i::

....
...c:: 0.
,.:Sl
~ 0u
0 ....
o. ro
...c::
........
0
u
ro <l.l
<l.l 0.,
....
...c::
'+-<
s
<l.l

-] s
0

<l.l
E-<
i::
ro
0
....
...c::
~

738
Severns, Ep. 27, PO 12/2 (1919), 254.
146 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

PART III

THE DISSOLUTION OF ANTIQUE PUBLIC SPACE

AND THE TRIUMPH OF PRIVATIZATION

FIG. 25. View of the Arcadiane in Ephesus leading from the harbour to the theatre.
 THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 149

In addition to assuming a practical function, architecture plays a symbolic role, both political and
religious. It expresses social realities, for it differentiates social groups by revealing their special inter-
ests and economic dynamics. It defines and distinguishes public space from private, a matter of partic-
ular interest during the period under examination. The organization of urban space and the arrange-
ment of the parts within each urban architectural unit reveal social identities and practical needs. They
also illustrate changing modes of expression, aesthetic principles and ideological concepts. Artistic
Irends are also intricately related to the urban space. They reflect social phenomena. They express new
CHAPTER6 concepts of space, new attitudes to art, changing responses on the part of the viewer, and adjustment to
functional needs. Artistic style marks the physical framework in which cities lived. The historical period
examined here offers a complex variety of trends consisting of surviving classicizing themes and motifs
THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE, set next to less disciplined order in architecture, marked by variation of the parts, and more abstract
ADMINISTRATION AND URBAN ELITES forms in figurative art. In the urban context of the sixth century, the new trends coexisted with the remnants
of the pagan past. The interplay between old and new in the urban space, the adjustments and com-
promises made, the accommodation of opposing trends all express aspects of sixth-century urbanism.
But the most conspicuous achievement They define it as the period in which earlier trends were crystallized and older traditions faded away or
of Roman architecture was its dominant merged with the new dynamics of city life. 741
role in creating, rebuilding, and expanding Urban buildings concern sixth-century historiography directly. Procopius in his introduction to
hundreds of cities and towns - its urban lluildings defines the relevance of the theme to historiography as twofold: the one is practical; the other
instrumentality. 739 is symbolic and political. First, he recognizes that the subjects of the empire benefit from works of
imperial patronage, and second, that the acknowledgement of such benefit should be preserved for fu-
ture generations:
Urban architecture and the sources: an introduction
Apart from all this, history shows that subjects who have received benefits have
Urban space is defined by the organization of its parts and its architectural appearance. In early proved themselves grateful toward their· benefactors, and that they have repaid
Byzantine cities, this was a subject for praise by orators and a cause of pride on the part of their inhab- them with thank-offerings in generous measure, seeing that, while they have profit-
itants. Choricius, in his second Laudatio for bishop Marcian, declares that the magnificence of urban ed, it may be, for the moment only by the beneficence of their rulers, they never-
buildings, together with the city's climate and the inhabitants' fair habits, made up the excellence of a theless preserve their sovereigns' virtue imperishable in the memory of those who
city. 740 Such statements were not mere rhetorical exaggeration. The inhabitants of early Byzantine are to come after them. Indeed it is through this very service that many men of
cities inherited from the Romans cities magnificently decorated with public buildings, to serve the public later times strive after virtue, by emulating the honours of those who have preceded
needs of the communities: buildings for municipal administration, concentrated in the agora/forum, them, and, because they cannot endure censure, are quite likely to shun the basest
colonnaded avenues with sidewalks covered with mosaic pavements and decorated with statues of civic practices. 742
benefactors, emperors and heroes, monumental arches at crossroads and public plazas with imperial
statues and symbols of Roman power or of the local civic tradition, temples in prominent positions and In the sixth century, the inhabitants of Byzantine cities lived in an urban environment very differ-
libraries, buildings for public spectacles, theatres, amphitheatres, and hippodromes, elaborate water ent from that of the fourth century, let alone of the Roman empire. By the sixth century a dramatic
supply systems to serve the citizens' needs for drinking water, and hygiene and to offer pleasure from change had occurred in urban space. The pagan symbolism of the civic monuments was increasingly
water fountains, ornamental reflection pools, public and private baths. During the Hellenistic period suppressed under pressure from Christianity, which created new landmarks in urban centres, namely
and the Roman empire, numerous and varied buildings were erected in cities to promote royal and im- Christian churches. Socio-economic, administrative and cultural changes imposed new priorities and a
perial propaganda, cultural values, religion, and political organization. Such buildings also catered the radical reorganization of public space. Its transformation, as it adjusted to the new standards and
practical needs of urban communities, which enjoyed an advanced and civilized life. Such buildings needs, was slow and gradual, starting in the fourth century onwards. At the same time, however, the
were magnificent, with elaborate sculptural ornaments, mosaics and paintings. Some, such as water need for change often conflicted with the profound respect for the ancient architecture of the cities, an
fountains, reflecting pools and porticoes, were built to please the eye. The spectacular remains of certain attitude which expressed the culture of a venerated past, at least among the educated members of the
early Byzantine cities, as, for example, Ephesus and Aphrodisias, offer us glimpses of the magnificence upper class. When Totila was planning to set Rome on fire and burn down the "finest and most note-
of their architectural and sculptural decoration. worthy of the buildings" ('t&v olxo6oµtwv 'ta xaAALCT'ta 'tE xal, a~toAoyonaw ), Belisarius attempted to

739 741See the remarks ofR. Cormack, The Classical Tradition in the Byzantine Provincial City: the Evidence ofThessalonike
MacDonald,Architecture II, 1.
°
74
Choricius, Or. Il.5 (p. 29.6-8): 'Agn~ i:olvuv rc6Armc:; agµovla ,ml xgiimc:; a!\gmv µrgL~oµ!\vmv e~ i'.oou ,o ewe;, olxo60µ11µa- and Aphrodisias, in Mullett and Scott, Byzantium, 103-118.
742
,mv EUJtQEJtELa, ,g6rcoc:; olx11,6gmv emELXT)c:;. Procopius, De aedificiis I.1.4-5 (transl. Dewing).
150 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 151

prevent such a destruction in a letter addressed to him in emotional tones. He praises ancient civic Administrative changes:
monuments as expressions of urban civilized life and as symbols of the greatness of the Roman empire. the decline of the curial class and civic finances
Procopius praises the inhabitants of Rome for loving their city more than anyone else, and for being
"eager to protect all their ancestral treasures and to preserve them, so that nothing of the ancient glory In the Roman empire responsibility for financing the construction and maintenance of buildings
of Rome may be obliterated" (on:w£ 611 µl]OEV acpavttri1:m 'Pwµn WU Jt:ct/1.aLOU x6aµou). 743 From for the public administration, streets, porticoes, baths, spectacle buildings, water supply system, and
Cassiodorus' Variae, we get a different perspective. Cassiodorus displays contempt for the inhabitants walls rested with the bouleutai (curiales, decurions). 746 Their conduct of civic affairs consisted of elect-
of Rome, who lacked respect for the elegant works of the ancient Romans and so inflicted serious dam- ing magistrates, collecting taxes for the imperial government, taking care of the city's food supply, and
age (gravissimum damnum) on them. 744 It is clear that in the sixth century the past, as reflected in organizing festivals, public spectacles and other civic activities. The construction and maintenance of
architecture, was still a powerful presence in the cities. public buildings were financed mainly from civic revenues from taxes, from properties donated or be-
In chapters two and three we have seen that most of the sixth-century authors adhere to traditional queathed to the cities, and from interest of civic funds. Civic funds deriving from certain sources were
themes and rhetorical conventions in their descriptions of urban space. At the same time, however, they allocated to cover specific expenses. 747 However, in the fourth century cities lost part of their revenues,
reveal the new function of some urban elements, such as the agora, and new urban features, such as when Constantine and Constantius II confiscated municipal land and taxes and included it in the res pri-
churches or the greater importance of fortifications. In other instances, literary references to urban space l'Clta. From the revenues of the confiscated land only one third returned to the cities. The properties of
are static. They do not take note of the changing features of the urban layout. They do not mention the temples, also administered by the civic authorities, were confiscated by Constantine and then given to
decay of ancient civic buildings, the changes in porticoes and colonnaded avenues nor do they attest the individuals by Constans. Civic revenues were restored briefly by Julian, but were again confiscated per-
radical alterations in the domestic space of the upper class. Most of the texts employ antique rhetorical manently by Valentinian and Valens. These confiscations affected the ability of the municipalities to
terminology to describe the sixth-century urban setting, thus creating additional difficulties of interpreta- maintain municipal buildings and initiate new construction works, while some of the municipal ex-
tion. Procopius' Buildings, for example, written from an imperial perspective, projects a fossilized image penses were now borne by the imperial government. 748 The transfer of civic taxes to the imperial treas-
of early Byzantine cities. Procopius identifies the emphasis on the new elements in the urban landscape, 11 ry has been often interpreted as a policy of greed or as an effort to save funds by cutting excessive ex-
the churches and the fortifications, but he avoids any elaboration relating to other alterations in the an- penses and use them to remedy major problems. 749 Liturgies (munera) were another major source of
cient urban structure. The reader is left with the impression that very little has changed in early Byzantine revenue for Roman cities. The munera were various. Some were the liturgies (XOQYJYLat), funds for or-
cities. Procopius' Buildings promote the traditional Roman idea of renovatio and aims at glorifying the ganizing public spectacles, and heating the public baths. Others, OLaxovtm, were services to munici-
emperor and at inspiring confidence in the future. Under those circumstances, there was no interest in palities, such as participation in embassies, supervision of work or political and judicial initiative from
identifying changes which by his time had altered the ancient urban layout. Imperial legislation, however, which the cities would benefit. The munera, of Roman origin, included the collection of taxes, the main-
is concerned with the maintenance of decaying buildings, especially of those serving practical needs of tenance of the cursus publicus, and the provision of animals for it, and shipping wheat to Constantino-
urban communities, and with attempts to find administrative solutions to the problem. Yet such legislation ple. In the fourth century, the terminology used for liturgies no longer preserves the classification em-
is far from giving a full idea of the scale of the change. Archaeology reveals a very different picture of the ployed in the preceding period. This is primarily manifested in the Theodosian Code. The change
urban environment in the early Byzantine period. Excavations show that ancient civic structures were left shows that the old municipal charges were becoming obligatory public services, to be assumed under
to decay. They were dilapidated, appropriated by private individuals or by the Church, and converted to pressure from the state. In the fourth century, some municipal obligations, such as the cursus publicus,
other uses to meet new needs. The architectural symbols of the new culture were erected next to the old the maintenance of streets, the construction of forts, traditionally imposed on the decurions, were
ones, thus becoming the cities' new landmarks. 745 While literary texts offer sporadic and often confusing transferred to possessores (x1:~1:0QE£). Such obligations were assigned by Julian to the landowners of
information on the changes in urban space, the archaeological evidence reveals details of a profound the areas, who, it was thought, had an interest in these public works. Valens made this liturgy a land tax
transformation. Archaeological excavations show that in the sixth century, the dissolution of urban lo be imposed on all possessores. 750 The conversion of the liturgy into a tax did not by any means make
public space, a process that had started in the fourth century, accelerated and was marked by a pro- it certain that the funds from the tax would be used for municipal works. At the same time, in order to
nounced trend towards privatization. The literary sources, when studied in this light, complement the ensure the civic revenues, the state attempted to direct part of the decurions' properties to the munici-
picture. They help one to comprehend the new cultural trends and changing attitudes towards the civic palities. From the reign of Constantine, the properties of decurions who died without heirs were given
public space, by identifying its new functions, and tracing the causes of these developments. to the cities. In 428 one quarter of the decurions' real estate was transferred to the cities, and by the

743 746 See W. Langhammer, Die rechtliche und soziale Stellung der Magistratus Municipales und der Decuriones in der
Ibid., VIII.22.5. See also supra, pp. 86-87.
744 Cassiodorus, Variae 7.13. lihergangsphase der Stiidte van sich selbstverwaltenden Gemeinden zu Vollzugsorganen des spiitantiken Zwangsstaates (2.-4.
745 P. Amandry, Chronique delphique (1970-1981), BCH 105 (1981), 736: "Mais tous ces batiments appartiennent a une Jahrhundert der romischen Kaiserzeit) (Wiesbaden 1973), 245-262; Bowman, The Town Councils, 87-90.
meme phase de civilisation materielle. L'installation dans le sanctuaire de thermes et d'un reservoir, le pavage d'une rue a 747 Liebeschuetz, Decline, 170-171, 178-179.

748 See W. Liebeschuetz, The finances of Antioch in the fourth century AD., BZ 52 (1959), 344-356; idem,Antioch, 151-
travers le sanctuaire avec des pierres des monuments de ce sanctuaire, la construction du stylobate de l"agora romaine' et du
mur acontreforts al'Ouest du sanctuaire avec des blocs de meme provenance, tout impose a!'esprit !'image d'une ville installee 156; Lepelley, Les cites I, 67-72; Delmaire, Largesses sacrees, 276 ff., 645-657.
749
au milieu de pans de murs des monuments du sanctuaire apollinien, - un peu, mutatis mutandis, comme les constructions de Ibid., 277-278.
750 Libanius, Or. XXV.43 (II, 557); Dig. L.4.1 and 18; Petit, Libanius, 45-62.
la Renaissance dans les forums romains ou dans le palais de Diocletien".
152 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 153

reign of Justinian, the amount had increased to the three quarters. 751 These measures helped the cities in- The importance of the bouleutic class in the administration and prosperity of the cities is elo-
crease their property holdings and their revenues, but were obviously considered an unfair obligation 1111ently stressed in various sources. Libanius repeatedly praised the decurions' role in cities, and con-
upon the decurions. The constant decrease in the size of the curial class was the reason for such measures. duded that "the whole structure of the city is based upon this [the council] as upon a root", 763 and that
City properties were also leased to the members of the curial class. This was a measure designed to in- "the council's power was the city's soul" (~ ,:fj£ ~ovAfj£ l,azu£ 'ljJ'lJX~ JtOAEW£ fo,:Lv). 764 Later, Evagrius
crease civic revenues, although the amount of the rent and the conditions were certainly beneficial to the 11ostalgically referred to the decurions as "the flowers of the cities" (,:a av0ri ,:wv JtOAEwv). 765 Even un-
decurions. Moreover, civic taxes were allocated to the decurions to carry out expensive liturgies. 752 der the Roman empire the decurions had been hard pressed by restrictions and compulsory activities
Distinguished citizens were motivated to assume expenses for civic works by a spirit of competi- imposed on them, 766 and they were often accused of showing neglect, greed, money-grubbing and slug-
tion. Civic benefactors were glorified by urban communities, which expressed their gratitude in various p,ishness ( aµEAHa, aJtAY]CT,:la, UQYVQOAoyla, ~QaM,:ri£). 767 In the fourth century, many decurions, es-
ways, for example, by erecting their statues in public places accompanied by honorific inscriptions. pecially the less wealthy, avoided office. 768 Libanius recognizes that bouleutic status, although still ben-
Those who held public office and spent money on public entertainments "are more widely known and dicial to the rich, was detrimental to the poorer members of the class. 769 Curial charges were not pro-
more talked about by all men than Solon the Athenian ever was on account of his interview with Croesus", portional to the decurions' wealth, whilst the upper members of the curial class could secure exemp-
states the emperor Julian. 753 The city of Antioch turns those who hold public offices into her lovers, t ions from their obligations. Consequently the burden fell on the poorer decurions, who, naturally feel-
writes Libanius. Each one of them, at every stage of his office, desires to add something new to the i11g crushed, sought ways to escape their obligations. Libanius' works illustrate the decline of the curi-
city, so that they will be remembered for the beauty of their works. 754 The competitive spirit of civic 11/es in the fourth century. 770 In his Oratio XVII.27 the orator exclaims that the power of the bouleutic
benefactors is revealed by the term protos, often found in honorific inscriptions for magistrates and w
hody is collapsing, soon to become a mere shadow ( ~O'\JAE'\JtY]Qlwv iaxu£ xmaQQEO'\JCTa ,:1: ~OYJ xal,
benefactors in the Roman empire. The term, traditionally applied to athletes, was used for distin- 1:rnwAov a<pL~oµrvri wxrw£). The Theodosian Code XII.1 refers to decurions' attempts to avoid
guished citizens. 755 In Libanius' Antiochikos we find an idealized image of the bouleutic class and its houleutic obligations and curial status. Another reason for this trend was oppression by the officers of
contributions to the city's prosperity. The orator expresses the traditional values of this class, the an- Ihe central administration. Provincial governors were increasingly using corporal punishment on decu-
cient spirit of generosity and competition. In the same Oration he includes a lengthy praise of expendi- rions who in the past had enjoyed immunity. Libanius in dramatic tones states that such humiliation is
ture by the bouleutic class to the city's advantage. 756 The bouleutai of Antioch have learnt from their the main reason for the decline of the boulai. 771 Furthermore, some members of the class were facing
parents to use their fortune for the benefit of the city (frn XQ~ ,:~v oualav ,:0 xmv0 xi:x,:fja0m). 757 financial difficulties, since they were liable for collecting the taxes. Obliged to place their properties as
They have spent large sums of money from their own properties on account of their generosity ( <pLAO- surety, shall they be unable to collect the desired amount of taxes, they thus ran the risk of loosing their
,:Lµla ). 758 They enjoyed immunity from taxes in order to be able to perform their liturgies (,:~v EX ,:wv property. The decurions avoided curial obligations by taking offices in the provincial administration, by
v6µwv a,:rA.aav ,:aT£ µ1:yaAO'tJJ'lJXLm£ EL£ ,:rAO£ ayov,:i:£). 759 Terms applied to the generous contribu- 1oining the army, the bar and the clergy, or by moving to other cities, since residence was a requirement
tions and magnanimity of the bouleutic class are µ1:yaAO'ljJ'\JXLO., <pLAonµla, µcyaAO<pQoauvri eµq:ivw£, lor bouleutic status. To satisfy their personal ambitions, many moved to the capital Constantinople,
1:uvma for the city, and the decurions' competitive spirit is characterized by use of the words aywvLaµa, which had become attractive thanks to the presence of the imperial court, where they became members
aµLAA.a and EQL£. 760 It was love for their city that urged the bouleutai on to their generosity (,:o JtQO£ ,:~v nf the Senate. Their attachment to the imperial administration gave them power, prestige and protec-
oixdav <plA,:Qov), their desire to glorify their city and make her superior to the other cities. 761 When, t ion from abusive provincial governors, all of which privileges provincial cities could no longer offer
from the fourth century, the municipal liturgies were gradually transformed into obligatory services to them. Wealthy decurions had no interest in remaining in the curial class, which, in social terms, had
the state, civic patriotism was lost. In Libanius' works, services to the state were not considered chore- been profoundly transformed by the emperors' attempts to force more social groups with landed prop-
giai, because they were compulsory and they gave little glory. 762 1•rties into curial status and by making it hereditary. Laws from the fourth century on, aiming at bring-
ing the decurions back to the cities and their duties, were not successful. 772 Libanius observed that the

751
Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 733-734, and infra, p. 155.
752 763
Ibid., 734. Libanius, Or. Xl.133 (I, 480.11-12): to m'iv oxfiµa tfj,; Jt0AEW£, EJtl ta1Jt1'],; WOJtEQ EJtl tLVO£ QLS1']£, EOt1']XE (transl.
753
Julian, Misopogon 342C (transl. Wright). I )owney, p. 667).
754 764
Libanius, Or. Xl.193 (1, 502.18-21, 503.5-7): -wu,; EJtl ta,; &gxa,; LOVta,; EQ(Wta,; EUUtfi xa0lot1']0LV if.iv EXa.Otq_) xaL Libanius, Or. XVIII.147 (II, 299.9). See also Novella VII ofMajorian, proem (a. 458): curiales nervos esse rei publicae
ngoolµwv tfj,; 0LOLXT]OEW£ xaL µfoa xaL tEAEUtafo t6 tL JtQ000Ei:vm tfi JtOAEL ... w,; O'llJtOtE avtou,; A.1']01'] XatUAT]'\jJEtm tWV a,: viscera civitatum nullus ignorat.
EQYWV avtoi:,; EV tip XUAALOtq_) tWV UJtO tOV ~ALOY EOt1']XOtWV. 765
Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica III.42 (p. 144.29).
755 766
Des Gagniers, Laodicee, 267-268. P. Garnsey, Aspects of the Decline of the Urban Aristocracy in the Empire,Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt,
756
Libanius, Or. Xl.133-138 (I, 480-482). l'rincipat 11/1, ed. H. Temporini, 2.1 (Berlin, New York 1974), 229-252.
757 767
Ibid., c. 133 (I, 480.17). N. Lewis, In the World of P. Panop. Beatty, BASP 28 (1991), 167-173.
758
Ibid., c. 134 (1, 481.1 ). 768
On the flight of the decurions see Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 740-757; Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 174-186; F. Millar,
759
Ibid., c. 134 (1, 481.14-15). Hmpire and City, Augustus to Julian: Obligations, Excuses and Status, JRS 73 (1983), 76-96; Lepelley, Les cites I, 242-292.
760 769
Ibid., c. 134 (1,481.14), 138 (I, 482.13-14), 133 (I, 480.15), 136 (I, 482.2, 4), 137 (I, 482.7). Libanius, Ep. 375.5 (to 0ouAEVELV ntcouolcp µev ~yEi:tm xaMv, JtEV1']tL OE 6outcElav) (X, 364.12).
761 770 Petit, Libanius, 335-345; Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 167 ff.
Ibid., c. 148 (I, 485.15-16); 138 (I, 482). See also T. R. Stevenson, Social and Psychological Interpretations of Graeco-
Roman Religion: Some Thoughts on the Ideal Benefactor,Antichthon 30 (1996), 1-18; idem, The Ideal Benefactor and the 771 Libanius, Or. XXVII.13, 42 (III, 29, 42); XXVIIl.4 ff., esp. c. 22 (III, 48 ff., 56); LIV.51 (IV, 93-94); Ep. 994 (XI, 124).

Father Analogy in Greek and Roman Thought, CQ 42 (1992), 421-436. 772 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 543-545, 740-755; W. Schubert, Die rechtliche Sonderstellung der Dekurionen (Kurialen)
762
Petit, Libanius, 49-50. i11 dcr Kaisergesetzgebung des 4.-6. Jharhunderts, ZSSRom 86 (1969), 287-333; Laniado, Notables municipaux, 4-26.
154 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 155

boulai, the members of which in the past were numerous and wealthy, were declining: some bouleutai In the fifth and sixth centuries the term politeuomenos, first recorded in the second half of the third
had joined the military, others the Senate, while others were living "a life of ease and bodily pleasure". n·ntury, becomes more frequent than bouleutes. Although in Libanius' texts the term is equivalent to
The remaining bouleutai were very few and were in economic distress. 773 /101,leutes, 782 its new meaning is that of "administrator". The change of terminology is another indica-
783
The decline of the curial class in the fourth century is evident from the diminishing number of refer- lion that the city administration was gradually detaching itself from the boule. Over the sixth centu-
784
ences to the decurions in the papyri from the fifth and sixth centuries. 774 Inscriptions referring to the ac- 1y there are various references to the decurions. Several laws of the Justinianic Code and Novels deal
tivities of the boule are attested until the early fifth century,775 whilst in some provinces not all cities main- with decurions and their properties, in an effort to ensure that they continue to serve the cities with
tained the boule. 776 It is obvious that the boule had ceased to function as an independent political institu- their properties. Thus the term bouleutes now assumed a fiscal meaning and lost its political and insti-
tion with deliberations in the antique manner. The imperial government, however, continued to consider tutional meaning. Justinianic legislation testifies to the dramatic decrease in the decurions in the sixth
the decurions indispensable for the cities' administration and their prosperity, and tried to keep them at n·ntury. A law of the year 531 785 and Novel 38 of the year 536 indicate that decurions still existed, but
their civic duties. Decurions are mentioned in several Justinianic laws, where the legislator still showed in- 1101 in all cities and not in great numbers. Other texts also mention the bouleutai and related issues. For

terest in maintaining them by forcing them back to their traditional duties. 777 Novel 38 (a. 536) Ilrel 1·xample, the XQ'lJCTO'tfAEta ~ou1,.1ou1:wv (lucrativa descriptio ), a tax on the decurions' succession, is men-
f3ovArvrwv recognizes that the number of city councils functioning in the empire was very small, and that Jioned in an inscription from Caesarea Maritima dated to the sixth century. 786 Procopius in his
the bouleutai were very few. 778 Guided by individualistic concerns, the bouleutai have devised numerous l11ecdota includes the story, often cited, of a curial family from Ascalon. The daughter of the bouleutes
ways to escape their obligations. As long as they were numerous, they could share the burden of their r\natolius was obliged to give the Treasury and the boule three quarters of her fortune, according to a
duties. Now that they are few, it is impossible to serve the cities. Justinian considers the private interest of recent law of Justinian, probably a lost law dating between 528-531. After the death of her husband and
the bouleutai the cause of their withdrawal from their civic duties, which became detrimental to the mu- of her daughter, who left no children, Justinian confiscated the fortune of the daughter of Anatolius al-
nicipalities (proem: E~ WV eµi),),E 'ta µev 'Lota ½UAW£ E~ELV, 'ta oe
xmva xal 011µ6ma Ota :rt<XV't(!)V EAm- lowing her to keep an annuity of 365 solidi. Procopius bitterly comments on Justinian's decision: "and
'tOUCT8m). He imposes restrictions on the ability to escape the office of the bouleutes. Although the yl:t never since the creation of man has either Treasurer or Emperor been empowered to share in sen-
decurions were obliged to bequeath one quarter of their property to the boule, they found ways of evading atorial property" .787 It is suggested, however, that Anatolius' granddaughter inherited her fortune from
the law by dividing up their properties and transferring them to others. The obligation to bequeath one her father, Mamilianus, who was a bouleutes and not from her husband who was probably also a member
quarter of their property to the boule is restated. Only appointment to the high offices of patricius, t if the curial class. After her death, therefore, her property returned to her mother, Anatolius' daughter.

hypatos, eparchos, and strategos could allow lifting of the curial obligations. For decurions without children Since the property was not given to the boule of Caesarea, this probably explains why Justinian confis-
the amount to be bequeathed to the city was increased to three quarters of their property. Justinian hopes rated the fortune of Anatolius' daughter. 788
that with the new regulations the cities will not be deserted by decurions. 779 The Jews, the Samaritans and There are some references to decurions and to the proedria of the boule in sixth-century papyri and
heretics were also tied to curial duties. 780 According to Novel 87 of the year 539 the decurions have other references to the boule in the early seventh century. They come from provinces on the periphery
invented malicious interpretations of a law ( xaxouQyta£ xma wil voµou) forbidding donation of their of the empire789 and would seem to indicate the continuing existence of the boule in the sixth and in the
properties and imposing restrictions on transfer of curial properties through their will. In future, no early seventh century. 790 In general, the power and functions of the late bouleutai were both different
decurion will be allowed to make a donation mortis causa. Only the donatio propter nuptias and dowries from those in the past and also very limited. In Italy, however, decurions are mentioned in connection
were excluded from the restriction. The curial properties could not be transferred to others through
donations. Instead, they are to remain in the decurions' possession, subject to curial liturgies. 781 Novel 101
IIeel f3ovArvrwv of the year 539 also attempts to tie the heirs of the bouleutai to curial duties (1:a ~ou-
782
Petit, Libanius, 30-31.
Acuuxa AEL'tOUQy~µma). Justinian expresses optimism that through his regulations the city councils will 783 H. Geremek, Les no}.iu;v6µt:vot egyptiens sont-ils identiques aux f3ovAt:vrai?, Anagennesis l (1981), 231-247; A.
flourish with more members and with funds deriving from their own properties (proem: xal av8~oEt 1:a Laniado, BovAt:vrai et noAtuv6µt:vot, Chronique d'Egypte 72 (1997), 130-144; K. A. Worp, Bouleutai and Politeuomenoi in
~ouAEU't~Qta owµaot 'tE :rtAdom xal 'ta£ :rtEQtouota£ exovm£ 'ta£ au1:wv ). 1.ater Byzantine Egypt Again, ibid., 74 (1999), 124-132. The Petra papyri, recently discovered, do not mention the boule nor
houleutai, but only the politeuomenoi: Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 215-216.
784
CJX.32.
785 CJI.3.52.6: d µ~ CT\'flOOQa eunoglav exoL f3ouAeui:wv ~ JtOALc:;, i\ndi:mye i:fjc:; yeli:ovoc:; ~ JtOQQWl:EQW µEXQL µuxc:; i\nagxlac:;
773
Libanius, Or. XVIII.146 (II, 298-299). 1'tEQac;, ev8a µaAwi:a f3ouAEui:wv xa8foi:T]XEV &nogla. The same situation is attested in sixth-century Italy: Brown,
774 ( ientlemen, 18.
I. F. Fikhman, Oksirinch: gorod papirusov (Moscow 1976).
775 786 Lifshitz, Une inscription, 118 (I. 12); Delmaire, Largesses sacrees, 281.
Foss, Ephesus, 13-14; Roueche,Aphrodisias, nos. 22, 24, 31.
776 787 Procopius, Historia arcana XXIX.20: xali:m oMenwno,:e OT]µ6mov ~ f3amAeuc:; &cp' oii yEyovamv av8gwnm XQT]µ<ii:wv
Lepelley, Les cites I, 141-142.
777
Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 759-760. /louAeui:Lxwv µei:aaxe1v foxe (transl. Dewing).
778 Proem: Eli:a xai:' oAlyov ~A,a,:,:w8Tj ,:a f3ouAE1Ji:tjQLU ... , proem 1: ,:myagoilv d w:; UQL8µtjCTELE ,:a i:fjc:; ~µEi:Egac:; JtoAL- 788 Ibid., XXIX.17-25. J. Beaucamp, Le droit successoral relatif aux curiales: Procope et Justinien, in S. Puliatti and A.

,:dac:; f3ouAEmtjgm, i\Acixwi:a EllQtjCTEL, ,:a µiov O'Ul:E &vogwv E1JJtOQOUV,:U O'Ul:E XQT]µ<'mov, ,:a OE oAlywv µiov fowc:; &v8gwnwv, Sanguinetti (eds.), Legislazione, cultura giuridica, prassi dell'Impero d'Oriente in eta giustinianea tra passato e futuro. Atti del
XQT]µ<ii:wv OE ou6aµwc:;. c. VI: f3ouAeui:aL µiov yag EA<ixwi:m Jtavi:axoae i:fjc:; ~µEl:EQac; ELCTL convegno Modena, 21-22 maggio 1998 (Milan 2000), 379-395.
779 789 Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 30-31; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 109.
c. V: (J)<Jl:E ,:ac:; JtOAELc:; µ~ ,:e"A,dwc:; E~EQT]µW8fjvm f3ouAfjc:;.
780 790 H. Geremek, Sur la question des boulai dans les villes egyptiennes aux ye_ yne siecles,JJP 20 (1990), 47-54; Alston, The
Novella 45 (a. 537).
781
Novella 87.1: a.AAwc:; av,:oi,c:; µ~ Mvaa8m OWQELCT8m JtQ<iyµai:a &xlVT]l:U, aAAa ,:ai],:a µEVELV ad nag' aui:mc:; i:a1c:; City, 310-311; Hoium, Bouleutic Class, 615-627, esp. 624-627; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 193 and n. 150; Brandes, Byzantine
f3ouAeunxa1c:; 1.1noxdµeva AELi:ougylmc:;, µ6vT]c; aui:o1c:; i:fjc:; ngaaewc:; auyxexwgT]µEvT]c;. Cities, 30-31. In Italy also the decurions are mentioned until the seventh century: Brown, Gentlemen, 16-19.
156 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 157

with the tax collection and the registration of documents of private transactions. 791 An inscription from were members of a civic Senate. 800 Papyri from Egypt indicate that in some cities, councils still met and
Philae in Egypt, dating to 577, commemorates the restoration of the walls built at the initiative of the held some responsibilities at the end of the sixth and in the seventh centuries, 801 but these were councils
emperors Justin and Sophia and through the benevolence (<:pLAav0QwrtL~) of the decurion Theodore, 1if the politeuomenoi and not of the bouleutai.

who also held the office of dux and augustalis in the province of Thebaid. 792 It is clear that the decurion, By the sixth century the protoi, the proteuontes and the ktetores, together with the bishops and offi-
instead of representing an autonomous civic body, as the boule was in the past, was now a high provincial 1·crs with financial and judicial responsibilities were responsible for civic affairs. 802 The protoi and the
officer. woteuontes were the wealthier members of the curial class. They were probably members of senatorial
By the sixth century major changes had occurred in the office of the bouleutai. They existed only in rank and their families had long been detached from the boule to receive high offices in the imperial ad-
some cities of the empire. The civic spirit which motivated their civic activities in the past had been lost. ministration.803 By the sixth century, the protoi were assuming civic responsibilities, not as members of
The actual role of the remaining bouleutai in the cities of the sixth century was very different from that the boule as an institution, but as individuals who had economic, social power and influence in the city.
of their earlier predecessors. Now the bishop and the protoi had the power to make decisions in the ·I'hey were defined solely in terms of social status and power, rather than in terms of institutional offices.
cities. They were the leaders of the urban communities, they appointed officers and decided about civic They also bore high offices in the imperial administration. They formed a group of individuals that was
affairs and supervised and coordinated the civic works. 793 In his De magistratibus John Lydus, who railed to act in an ad hoe fashion depending on the circumstances each time in each city. They were not
wrote in the middle of the sixth century, states that the emperor Anastasius had weakened the bouleu- obliged by law to serve their cities in the way the decurions were forced to contribute to their communi-
teria, when his praetorian prefect Marinus appointed the vindices to collect the taxes. 794 According to 1ics in the past. Rather, the obligations of these notables to their cities were voluntary, since participa-
Malalas, Marinus dismissed all decurions and replaced them with vindices. Priscian praises Anastasius 1ion in the group depended on themselves. It was not obligatory, since it was not an administrative office.
for relieving the peasants of their fiscal burden, when he removed tax collection from the decurions. It is obvious that the new system was less efficient and less reliable than the old one. 804 Malalas, project-
Evagrius, writing at the end of the sixth century, connects this administrative reform with the loss of taxes ing the practice of his time, uses the terms ktetores and politeuomenoi to designate the decurions even for
in the cities, which resulted in the financial decline of the municipalities. 795 However, early fourth- the Roman period. 805 There is no doubt that socially the ktetores of the sixth century were the landown-
century sources, especially papyrological ones, already show that the decurions were not the only tax ers who belonged to the class of the decurions, but who were no longer members of the boule. In an im-
collectors and that various provincial officers were also involved in tax collecting. 796 Later, in the Novels perial edict they are mentioned as µ1:yaAm xal, 11,rn,:ol, XTYJWQE£. 806 In the sources these groups appear
of Justinian, various officers are mentioned as tax collectors, among which are also cited the decurions. 797 to form an establishment in the cities, and the laws legitimate this new set of circumstances.
In spite of the radical reduction of the decurions' functions, Anastasius and Justinian continued to In the Novel 128.16, the bishop, theproteuontes and thektetores of the city are to nominate the pater,
issue laws on decurions, whose main concern was to regulate the transfer of curial properties to the rhe sitones, and other municipal officers. Other officers with civic duties were gradually disconnected
cities. 798 Although the decurions were becoming less involved in city administration and the collection
from the boule. From the fourth century the office of the syndikos, with financial responsibilities,
of taxes, they were still obliged to perform certain liturgies, a duty which was hereditary and which was
evolved independent from the boule. 807 In the same century, the defensor civitatis/ekdikos with judicial
transferred to anyone receiving curial property. 799 At the end of the sixth century, Evagrius speaks
functions was no longer supervised by the boule, but by the provincial governors. 808 The office of the
of the bouleuteria as belonging to the past: many years ago the members of the upper class had been
defensorwas originally introduced to protect citizens from the abuses of governors whom the decurions,
registered in the civic registers, so that each city regarded the members of the bouleuteria as if they
socially and financially weak at the time, could no longer resist. In 505 the defensor was elected by the
bishop and the clergy, the principal landowners and the decurions. 809 The sitones, responsible for the
corn supply of the cities, was also elected by the same persons. 810 The title of pater of the city appears
791
Ibid., 16-17. in the middle of the fifth century and is attested in the sixth and in the seventh centuries. The office,
792 Lefebvre, Recueil, no. 584. absent in the Theodosian Code, is found in the Justinianic legislation, endowed with a variety of civic
793 Dagron, Les villes, 12 ff.; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 104 ff.; idem, The Government, 119.

794 John Lydus, De magistratibus 1.28: /!we; &.v ,:a ~ouAeui:i]gw. 6u()?{ouv i:ac; n6Anc;, <i:>v anoAoµi:\vwv ouve!;wAw0e 1:01:c; ev

yi:\veL i:a lv el'.6n. 111.46, 49: ,:a µi::v ~ouAemi]gux naowv nagi:\1,.uoe i:wv n6Aewv. Lydus' view was nostalgic of the old days, but
800 Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica 111.42: 'Ev 1:01:c; 1,.euxcbµam yag i:wv n61,.ewv ot evnmgl6m ng6o0ev aveygaq:,ovw,
he had accepted the change: Maas, John Lydus, 18-21. See also E. K. Chrysos, Die angebliche Abschaffung der stadtischen
Kurien <lurch Kaiser Anastasios, Byzantina 3 (1971 ), 95-102. /:xaoi:ric; JtOAewc; ,:ouc; EV 1:01:c; ~O'UAE'U1:1']QLOL£ av,:l ouyxAtJ1:0'U 1:Lvoc; EXO'U01']£ ,:e xal OQL~oµi:\vric;.
795 Malalas, 327.74-76: oonc; wuc; JtOAL1:E'Uoµi:\vouc; anavi:ac; EJtfjQE i:fjc; ~O'UAfjc;, xal EJtOLr]OEV av,:' ct'l.11:WV wuc; Aeyoµi:\vouc; 801
Liebeschuetz, Decline, 193.
802 Claude, Stadt, 114-121; Dagron, Les villes, 12-14; Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 171-174; idem, Decline, 110 ff.
~lv6Lxac; de; naoav JtOALV ,i:fjc; 'Pwµavlac;; Priscian, Panegyricus Anastasii, vv. 193-194 (p. 64); Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica
803 Ibid., 113, 115.
111.42: "00ev xma JtoAu oi'. ,:e q:,6gm ◊LEQQ'Ur]Octv ,:a ,:e c'iv0ri i:wv n6Aewv ◊LEJteoev. A hypothetical interpretation of the
804
reform of Anastasius is proposed by Laniado, Notables municipaux, 27-36, esp. 35-36: Anastasius dissociated the curial class Dagron, Les villes, 13; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 119 ff.; idem, The Government, 118-119, 124-126.
805
from the council of the boule, and consequently the bouleutai ceased to participate in the boule, except for the principales. Thus Malalas, 155.81-82, 185.19, 188.27, etc. See J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Malalas on Antioch, Topoi, suppl. 5 (2004), 144-147.
806
the council of the principales was formally instituted. Feissel and Kaygusuz, Un mandement, 399.3, 405 and n. 29.
796 R. Delmaire, Cites et fiscalite au Bas-Empire. Apropos du role des curiales dans la levee des impots, in Lepelley, La 807 Bowman, The Town Councils, 46-52.

808
fin de la cite, 59-70. V. Mannino, Ricerche sul' "Defensor Civitatis" (Milan 1984); J. Kramer, Liste der syndikoi, ekdikoi und defensores in
797 Novellae 128.5, 8, 134.2, 163.2 (of Tiberius, a. 575); see Liebeschuetz, The Government, 126; Brandes and Haldon, den Papyri Agyptens, Miscellanea Papyrologica (Pap. Flor. XIX/1), M. Capasso, G. Messeri Savorelli and R. Pintaudi (erds.)
Towns, 144-145, 154-155. (Florence 1990), 305-329.
798 CJX.32.66 (a. 497-9), 67 (a. 529), 35.3 (a. 528); Novellae 38 (a. 536), 87 (a. 539), 101 (a. 539); Claude, Stadt, 108-114. 809 CJl.4.19; MAMA III, no. 197A.

799 Dagron, Les villes, 11; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 108-109; idem, The Government, 122. 810 CJl.4.17 (a. 491-505); Novella 128.16 (a. 545).
158 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 159

functions. The pater was in charge of civic revenues from loans and civic real estate. 811 The pater was Strategius from municipal funds (&no noAmxwv) (a. 546-606). 819 Expenses for maintenance of public
also elected by the bishop and landowners. In Justinianic legislation, the pater and the defensorwere the h11ildings and other civic needs were paid from civic and imperial funds.
leading magistrates in the cities. 812 Inscriptions from various cities record that the pater was also Justinianic legislation provides us with lists of expenses paid or expected to be paid from munici-
responsible for civic works either alone, or together with the governor and the bishop. 813 Not all cities pal revenues. A priority was the cities' corn supply and works supporting cities' communication and
had a pater, apparently. 814 The new administrative system of the fifth and sixth centuries was not uniform their security system, harbours, fortifications, towers, roads and bridges, and public amenities, mainte-
and made allowances for local variations, although Justinianic legislation attempted to establish nance of aqueducts and operation of baths. 820 Interestingly, entertainment buildings are not included
uniformity. We get glimpses of the duties of the civic officers from inscriptions and the papyri. 815 in the list. They were no longer a priority of the emperors and in most cities the theatres and hippo-
In the early sixth century, cities still maintained municipal funds derived from civic taxes and from drnmes had declined long ago. However, provision of spectacles (OEatQWV emµeA.aa) is mentioned in
revenues from properties bequeathed or donated to the cities by citizens, or decurions who were Novel 149.2 of Justin II ( a. 569) as a responsibility of the provincial governors.
obliged by law to transfer to the cities part of their estates. 816 An inscription from Caesarea Maritima Two laws of Justinian of the year 530 explain the administrative procedures in the management of
dated to the sixth century gives a list of local taxes part of which was allocated to the city's btn6tQocpm dvic funds and the problems involved (CJ 1.4.26 and X.30.4). The CJ 1.4.26 is part of a series of laws
defining the bishops' authority. The administration of civic funds was entrusted to the bishop and three
for the circus. These are taxes on professionals, trade, habitations and personal taxes ( wii ot6A.ou, ano
kading citizens of good repute (tov 0EO<pLAfotatov EJtLoxonov tQEL£ tE twv EU'lJJtOA~ntwv xat ev
toi:i µrnitou, toi:i ◊LXEQO.tLO'lJ, toi:i tEtQO.XEQO.tLO'lJ, tow O'UVO.QXLWV, emxEcpaA.aLou xat uJtOJt'UQYLO'lJ,
ibtaoL JtQOEXOVtwv xata t~v JtOA.Lv). They were to meet every year and supervise the works financed
oxta~aQLWV xat µuQE'ljJwv, tuywv xat voµLoµchwv, XQ'lJOOtEAELO.£ ~O'UAE'Utfuv, OOJtQEOJtWAwv). The
hy civic funds, and examine those who administered them (enontEuav tE ta ycv6µEva EQYO. xat
emperor's aerarium takes part of the taxes, but they were allocated back to the city to cover the expenses
IWQCI.OXE'UatELV µEtQE'ioOm xat A.oyoOEtELV tO'U£ tai:ita ◊lOLXO'UVtCI.£ 11 ◊LOLX~OCI.Vt0£). They are to
of the circus. 817 Edict XIII.15-16 of Justinian, regarding the city of Alexandria and its provinces, pro-
rnnfirm in a formal document that the work has been properly executed. The document is to indicate
vides a list of expenses to which was allocated the exagogion, an export tax, a total of 1.469 gold coins.
whether the officer who administered and executed the work had completed the work or not, in which
During the administration of Marinus, the Prefect of the East, 492 gold coins of this tax were allocated
case he is liable and he is to pay the amount due. The emperor is to supervise the procedure with his au-
for the heating of the baths, 419 for the antikantharos, and 558½ to the collector of the tax for the trans-
ditor, and, if the accounts are found to be in order, he will give the civic administrator a certificate con-
portation of the annona. Later 100 coins were allocated to the city's politeuomenoi, and 320 to the Pre-
firming that he and his heirs do not need any further investigation by the auditor. The procedure is to
fect of Egypt for the circus' horses. Justinian redistributed the amounts for the various expenses differ- dose with an oath on the Holy Gospel. If the administrator refuses to give an account of his manage-
ently: from the total of 1889 nomismata, 369 are relieved (xoucpw0fjvm) on account of the emperor's ment of the funds and of the work executed, then the provincial governor is to intervene. The emperor
philanthropy (~O'UAOµE0a yaQ XCl.l tl Cj)LACI.V0QWJtOtEQOV tfi£ UXQL~ELCI.£ JtQdsm), 1520 are allocated to is aware of the fact that the intervention of the state officers may lead to abuses, and he forbids them to
the Prefect for his salary (◊La t~V toi:i xata XCI.LQOV auyouotCI.A.lO'lJ O'lJYXQOt'Y]OLV), of which the 320 send auditors to the cities (discussoras 11 Aoyo0eta£ 11 esLowta£) to check the cities' public finances (ent
were to cover the circus expenses, and the remaining 1200 for his own mt~OEL£. The other expenses, the 1UL£ twv oriµooLwv AoyLoµwv esEtaornLv ).
821 Officers of the state administration often presented written
heating of the baths, for the antikantharos and the transportation of the annona is to be covered from 1 irders to cities asking for funds for various purposes, including the setting up of statues. If they attempt
other unspecified sources. 818 A late inscription from Caesarea Maritima records the construction of an to demand more than six nomismata, penalties are to be imposed. The civic expenses for which the state
arch, a wall and a staircase in the so-called Byzantine Esplanade by the pater and proteuon Flavius officers tried to overtax the cities (uJtEQaJtmtE'iv) were various: cleaning of the water conduits, demo-
lition of buildings arbitrarily erected next to the city walls or of structures erected in the porticoes or of
buildings that establish so-called servitude (nQo◊ouAE'im) and of ruinous places, or the demolition of
811
constructions between the columns and setting up of statues. 822 The CJ X.30.4 regulates the office of
CJXI.33.2; I.4.26.9, 12 (a. 530); VIII.12 (a. 485-486); Novellae 128.16, 160.
812 the auditor (Aoyo0Et'YJ£) and deals with the same issues. No one can assume the work of the auditor
Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 758-759 and vol. II (p. 1312), n. 104.
813 Roueche, A New Inscription; D. Feissel, Nouvelles donnees sur !'institution du nar~e rijt; n6,l.swt;, in Dagron and Feissel, without an imperial order. It is forbidden for anyone to hold this office in the provinces appointed by the
Inscriptions, 215-220; Sijpesteijn, The Title narfJe, 171-174; Di Segni, Urban building, 325-326.
814 Roueche, A New Inscription, 183-184; Dagron, Les villes, 15.

815 For example, J.M. Diethart and K. A. Worp, SPP III 368 + 370, ZPE 46 (1982), 231-232: a receipt of ascholastikos and
819 Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, 82-84 (no. 59).
ekdikos paid for cleaning the city (vJtEQ tfjc; &vaxa0aQCTEwc; tfjc; n6Aewc;): 5th-6th century, Hermoupolis; Alston, The City,
309-310.
82°CJI.4.26. proem (a. 530): d'.te de; i:Qya Ei'.te de; mtwvlav ehe elc; c11µ6mov 61.xov Ei'.te elc; ExxauoELc; f3aAavelwv el'.te de;
816 CJ I.4.26 proem (a. 530): JtEQL tG.JV xa0' exaotov /hoe; ta1:c; n6AwL JtQomouowv noAmxwv JtQoo66wv f\ JtOQWV EX cri- ldllEvac; ELtE de; tELXWV f\ JtUQYWV olxocoµac; f\ yecpUQWV f\ OCJOCTtQWCTLWV EJtUVOQ0WCTLV. X.30.4. proem (a. 530): f\ JtOAmxwv
µooLwv f\ E~ LCLWtLxmv XQ11µatwv JtaQa twwv avtaic; f\ xmaALµnavoµi\vwv f\ CwQouµi\vwv f\ aAAwc; Emvoouµi\vwv f\ JtEQL- i'0ywv f\ CTLt(l)VLXWV XQ11µatwv f\ ALµevrittxwv f\ tWV JtEQL touc; criµoolouc; OAXOuc; tmv JtOAEWV canavwµi\vwv f\ JtEQL tELX0-
nm1161100µ!\vwv ... X.30.4.1 (a. 530): JtaQ' EtEQOU xataAEAELµµi\va XQtjµma noAECTL JtQoc; ana~ f\ xat CL11vrnwc;. Novella 128.16 11mlav f\ JtEQL OCJOCTtQWCTtav f\ yecpUQWV f\ µwAwv xmaoxeutjv, ctAA' O'UCJE tmv AOUtQWVLXWV XQ11µatwv f\ aAAwc; ()Jt(l)CTOUV de;
(a. 545): to1:c; XQtjµaow atLva to1:c; EQYOLc; xat mtwvLxoic; tmv n6Aewv fjtm &ywyoic; f\ aAAmc; oimoctjnote ooAeµvlmc; f\ .rtoALtLX'Y]V ttjtrimv &vacpEQoµi\vwv. Novella 128.16 (a. 545): water conduits, Novella 160: fuel of baths. Edict XIII.14-15 refers
oaAaQlmc; &cpwQlo0rioav. Novella 38 (a. 535). Edict XIII.14: fjtLc; &noyQacpri c111.woEL oacpwc; EX nolwv tE taiJta ouvayetm 10 a document (criµoolav nuxttjv) drafted during the reign of Anastasius, in which was fixed the city's revenue from an export
t6nwv xat tltAwv fjtm JtQocpaoewv xat JtQoownwv, xat n6oa f::ott xat ovnva JtQootjxEL famxe1:o0m tQ6nov ... Novella 160, tax and how this was allocated to various civic expenses, the fuel of the baths, the antikantharos and the corn shippment.
821 CJ 1.4.26.4.
proem: XQUolov ouxvov ~0Qo1:o0m tft noAEL Ex JtQECTf3elwv xataAEAELµµevwv JtaQa twwv tft '.AcpQOCJWLEwv noAEL... Procopius,
822 CJ 1.4.26.8: JtEQL tfjc; tWV 'l)()(JOQQOWV fjtoL 'lJJtov6µwv &vaxa0aQCTEWc; f\ JtEQL tfjc; tmv 0Lxocoµ11µatwv JtQOc; to1:c; tELXECTL
Historia arcana XXVl.6: ooouc; oi tac; JtOAELc; oLxoiJvtec; cmaoac; JtOAmxwv ocpLmv f\ 0EWQ11tLXWV ofao0ev JtEJtolrivtm JtOQOUc;.
817 Lifshitz, Une inscription. On these taxes see Delmaire, Largesses sacrees, 280-281. ;tuOmQfoewc; f\ tmv f::v ta1:c; otoa1:c; yevoµi\vwv xataAuoewc; f\ tmv xaAouµi\vwv JtQOCouAamv xat EQELJttwv t6nwv fjtm
818 See also ibid., 282 and n. 18 for the meaning of the antikantharos. fH'OOCTtUA(l)V ctVatQOJtfjc; f\ JtEQL elx6vwv f\ toLOUtOtQOJt(l)V oAwc; Emvmwv f\ JtOAmxwv aJtAmc; trittjCTEWV.
160 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 161

Prefects or the provincial governors. The same text informs us of the origin of the funds for the civic "pestilent hirers" (oA.c0QtOU£ µw0w-ra£). 829 Justinianic legislation indicates that state officers, great
works. They came from two sources, first, from the emperor and, second, from civic revenues. When the landowners, influential local citizens and provincial governors also benefitted from municipal funds.
initiative for a civic work was imperial, then the emperor may use funds from the fisc or from the cities. 823 I•'.diet XIII.15 refers to the reduction of civic funds deriving from an export tax allocated to specific civic
The auditor sent by the emperor is to do the accounting for the expenses and report back to the emper- t·xpenses, including fuel for baths, as a result of neglect, maliciousness and theft by some leading citi-
or. Those who have been placed in charge of civic works are to receive a letter of confirmation from the 1.t:ns (-rtvwv µEv Q<;t0uµt<;t nvwv M xaxoUQYL<;X -rwv OE JtA.do-rwv xAortfi). They had received permission
auditor that the work has been completed and that there will be no further demands on them or on their from the provincial authorities to exclude pottery and other objects from this tax. Another example
heirs. Only works executed with private funds were not subject to imperial auditing. 1•omes from Aphrodisias. The leading citizens of this city, taking advantage of the law, had retained
Novel 128.16, of the year 545, attempts to protect civic revenues allocated to municipal expenses dvic funds lent to them, the interest of which was intended to pay for fuel for the city's baths. 830
from being appropriated by state financial officers (toi:£ -rwv 011µoo(wv arw.L't'J']'teti:£), the cities' influ- In the view of John Lydus, yet another change had consequences for civic revenues, traditionally
ential landowners (tou£ x-r~toQCt£ -rwv JtOAfWV 11 olx~'tOQet£), and the officers of the provincial ad- directed to cover civic expenses. Lydus considers the new system of taxation detrimental to the works
ministration. In the cities, the officers responsible for the management of the municipal revenues, the usually undertaken by municipalities. He praises the old tax system based on the real production in the
pater, the sitones, and others, were appointed by the bishop and the leading citizens. The latter are to fields, while in his day the collection of taxes is inexorable ( aouoWJt'J']to£) and standard ( WQtoµev11), or
supervise civic works and receive an account of the income and expenses. If there is a deficit in funds, indeed has increased slightly. In the past, once the amount to be paid by each contributor had been de-
which have not been collected (enocpaA.6µcvov 11 anoµci:vav), the officers are to collect it, in the dded on the basis of the actual production of his land, the rest was conceded to the taxpayers
knowledge that those who had appointed them, that is, the bishop and the leading citizens, were liable. (nuyxwQci:'to). Thus, Lydus concludes, so many marvels were achieved in the cities, such as baths,
Thus, by the sixth century, the civic administration responsible for the construction and mainte- agorai, and water conduits. 831
nance of public buildings had changed profoundly. Civic revenues were declining, due to reduced con- The decline of the curial class and of the boule as an institution, the appointment of civic officers
tributions by the diminishing class of decurions and the appropriation of civic estates and taxes by the who depended on the provincial governors with different priorities and interest, the corruption of the
central government which were transferred to the res privata. This shift is manifested in the change of slate officers and the promotion of the personal interests of the urban elite instead of that of the com-
terminology. In some late sources of the early Byzantine period, the distinction between civic offices munities, affected urban public life, in regard to the maintenance of public buildings and the construc-
and those of the imperial administration is lost. 824 In the light of the increasing involvement of the im- 1ion of new ones. 832 Indeed, the archaeological record indicates that from the fourth century there was a
perial administration in civic affairs, this development is not surprising and its consequences are obvi- gradual decline in the construction of new civic buildings. From the beginning of the fourth century, ex-
ous. The point of view and interests of the imperial officers would have been primarily that of the state emptions were granted to decurions regarding their obligation of construction and maintenance of public
and this is made clear in numerous Justinianic laws. In addition, from the fourth century, changes in the huildings. 833 On the other hand, public contractors paid by the state did not serve the municipalities
urban administration opened the way to abuses. City property had been passing in to the ownership of .-tliciently. Their heirs became liable for finishing the work, and the expenses of correcting construction
private individuals. 825 In praising the emperor Julian for returning civic property to the cities in 362, defects, if any, were to be covered by funds from their property. 834 In an effort to help communities
Libanius states that "private houses have become great and those of the community rendered ugly". 826 maintain their buildings, a decree of 395, issued in the West, stipulates that the municipal councils
Besides, it was governors and their subordinates who in particular laid hands on civic funds allocated should use a third of the annual taxes of municipal properties for repairing buildings. 835 Of course, such
for civic buildings. In a constitution of the emperor Zeno (474-491), the governors' subordinates are measures did not guarantee the financial independence of urban communities. The papyri of Egypt
threatened with perpetual exile, while their property is to be confiscated and awarded to the city, show some restoration work of public buildings, but in the fourth century no new large construction
against which they have committed an injustice by appropriating funds from municipal resources or pri- works are mentioned. 836 Inscriptions recording public works in cities steadily decline. For example, in
vate munificence allocated for construction works. The governor of the province himself was subject to
a fine of 50 pounds of gold. 827 The abuses must have continued, however, as various Justinianic laws
insist on the issue. State tax collectors were still appropriating funds, which should have been spent on 829
John Lydus, De magistratibus III.49; Novella 38, proem. See also Malalas, 327.12; Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica III.42
civic expenses, or used civic works as a pretext to extract more taxes. 828 The vindex, an office instituted (p. 144).
by Anastasius to be responsible for the collection of imperial taxes in the cities, extended his authority 830 Novella 160. See also Novella 128.16 ( a. 545). Such incidents are recorded earlier. For example, according to a law of

and control over municipal revenues. John Lydus calls the vindices "enemies of the cities" ( ot JtaQaAa- the year 372 (CTh X.3.2), it was not permitted bouleutai to lease municipal land to themselves, because it was possible that on
~6v-rc£ toU£ ouv-r£Ac1£ ouOEV JtOAcµtwv ~ooov 'ta£ JtOAfL£ Ote011xav). Justinianic Novel 38 calls them this pretext they could avoid the payment to the city. Private interest prevailed.
831
John Lydus, De mensibus III.23 (p. 62.15-20): o0EV EJt' ElQ~VY]£ EVUJtOVEµovi:wv EJtL JtA.El<J'tOV xaho A.OlJtOV <JUYXWQOU-
11i'vwv 't0l£ <JUV'tEA.ECTl 'tWV CfJOQWV, i:maui:a 'tUL£ JtOA.EOL JtEQLYEYOVE 0auµama, A.OU'tQU Myw 'XUL ayogat 'XUL 'U◊U'tWV OA.'XOL
,i.im.gov EU◊mµovLav i:wv otx111:6gwv 'X'Y]QU't'tOV'tE£.
823 CJ X.30.4.1: A{n:0£ yag 6 f3amAEU£, E'Li:E ex 611µ00Lou XQ~µma exneµ'll'n JtQO£ i:nxonmLav ~ hegou navi:0£ i::gyou 832 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 736, 757; Liebeschuetz, Antioch, 256-265; idem, Decline, 121-124. Cameron, The

'XU'ta<J'XEU~V, E'L'tE EUQTI JtaQ' E'tEQOU 'Xa'tUA.EA.ELµµeva XQ~µma JtOA.EOL JtQO£ aJta~ ~ 'XUL ◊l'Y]VE'XW£. l\ft,diterranean World, 162, recognizes the relation of the provincial cities to the central government as a major factor in the
824 Dagron, Les villes, 13-14; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 195 draws a similar conclusion regarding the cumulation of the dtanges in urban space, the encroachment on public space and subdivision of houses and ruralization.
833
stratelateia with civic charges. The stratelateia, however, in this period had become a mere title. See infra, p. 167. CTh XV.1.5 (a. 338. CJVIII.11.1).
825 On the alienation of civic properties to private persons and the Church see infra, chapter 7. 81
4 CTh XV.1.24 (a. 385).
826 Libanius, Or. XIII.45 (transl. Norman); CTh X.3.1; CJ XI.70.1. 835 CTh XV.1.33. Not unexpectedly in the version of this decree in the Justinianic Code VIII.11.11 the municipal councils

827 arc omitted.

CJVIII.13.1.
836
828 CJ 1.4.26; X.30.4 ( a. 530). Lukaszewicz, Edifices, 149.
162 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 163

Athens in the early Byzantine period, inscriptions commemorating public works are not known after the education being regarded as a virtue of the urban elite. Second, the use of verse undermines the public
end of the fifth century. 837 This evidence, however, is not entirely reliable, since the ancient custom of aspect of the benefactors' work, since in the Roman period verse was considered the appropriate medi-
recording public announcements in inscriptional form was gradually abandoned. 838 There are, however, um for private, rather than public, activities and concerns. The disappearance of the formality and of
some exceptions. In Syria and Palestine, the number of inscriptions increased from the fourth to the sev- the public character of the language of the council's decrees shows how civic munificence was losing its
enth centuries, in contrast to the Roman imperial period. At Aphrodisias, too, there are more inscrip- traditional public character. At the local level, civic munificence was increasingly perceived as a matter
tions than anywhere else regarding public works executed by governors and state officers in the fourth for the individual, no longer inspired by the public character of ancient civic life, nor was civic life pro-
century, but unexpectedly in the fifth century and in the early sixth century inscriptions record more pri- moted by the obligations of a specific administrative system. It was becoming a matter of individual
vate and local benefactors. 839 A law of the year 398 demanding the emperor's approval for setting up choice, dependent on the paideia and culture of the members of the upper class. 847 Imperial legislation
governors' statues may have been the reason for the decline in inscriptions commemorating governors also shows changes in the attitudes towards private munificence. The emperor Zeno declared that in-
in the cities. 840 It is clear, therefore, that building activities in the cities were not uniform. However, the dividuals who had promised to sponsor construction of public buildings at their own expense (pro sua
overall picture of the archaeological evidence is that of a constant decline in public construction. liberalitate) were not required to complete the work they had promised. Their heirs also should not be
Unfortunately, the late inscriptions from Aphrodisias cannot be dated with greater precision than considered liable for the unfinished work. 848 It is clear that private benefactors often carried out only
to the late fifth to sixth century in general. The wording of most of the inscriptions is very elaborate and enough of the work to which they had committed themselves to give them the desired glory. There was
conveys the ancient spirit of civic pride. There are references to the virtue of the honoured men, their probably the expectation that the work would be completed by someone else, private persons or most
many acts of generosity ( EllEQYECTtm) to the city and their benevolence ( <JlLAo-nµtm). 841 The benefactors probably the administration.
are called E'lJEQYf't11£, avavEW'tTJ£, X'tLCT't'J']t:;, <JlLAOX'tLCT't'J']t:;, olxW'tTJ£, <JlLAOJta'tQLt:;. 842 The city expresses its That the decurions were no longer responsible for the construction and maintenance of public
gratitude for the benefactors' benevolence by erecting their statue. 843 For example, in the late fifth cen- buildings is evident in imperial legislation. Among the fifty-three laws contained in the Theodosian
tury a lengthy epigram, employing archaic vocabulary, praises a benefactor in these words: "The light Code XV.1 On Public Works (De operibus publicis) only two mention the boule. 849 It is evident that a
of virtue shines even for dead men, who, undertaking many labours for their country, established gen- new order with a different focus and set of cultural values was replacing the old one in the civic admin-
eral benefits. The saying fits Asclepiodotus, for whom this city has dedicated this statue as for a istration. The ancient civic spirit, which in the past motivated urban elites "to maintain the public mon-
founder. Long time wears away even stone; but the fame of Asclepiodotus' virtues is immortal, the uments transmitted to them by the ancestors", 850 had been lost. In the imperial legislation in the fourth
number and kind of privileges which he obtained for his country. In addition to all these, let this adja- century, it was the emperor's concern to ask the provincial governors to protect the cities' ornaments
cent structure of the vaulted chamber be counted as well". 844 In late inscriptions from Aphrodisias, we (propriis ornamentis), "since indeed it was not considered right by the ancients (non est acceptum a
find also two antique notions of the benefactor, disregard for his own wealth, shown by his generosity, veteribus) that a municipality should lose its embellishments". 851
and the glory he enjoys in return for his benefaction: "you have disregarded wealth and obtained glory,
Albinus clarissimus". 845 It is important to note that the antique vocabulary of the late inscriptions in
Aphrodisias is reserved for benefactors who are also office holders, especially governors who held the Private benefactors
initiative in matters regarding construction at that time. Perhaps the persistence of the ancient civic
ideals of the benefactor and the related vocabulary may be explained by the continuous pagan tradition In classicizing texts of the sixth century, private benefactors continue to be praised in the archaiz-
until late in Aphrodisias. 846 However, in an important change, early Byzantine honorific inscriptions ing style that echoes earlier texts. Their benevolence honoured the benefactors and their name was
are written in verse. First, this change underlines the importance of the education of the benefactors, mentioned everywhere. 852 However, private benefactors of civic works were becoming increasingly
rare in cities everywhere. In Italy, private munificence had ceased almost completely by the end of the
third century, a phenomenon rightly attributed to the general crisis in this century that created a nega-
837 E. Sironen, The Late Roman and Early Byzantine Inscriptions ofAthens and Attica (Helsinki 1997), 87-89, 377. tive environment for the urban aristocracy. Works by private benefactors are recorded up to the late
838 C. Lepelley, Evergetisme et epigraphie dans l'antiquite tardive: les provinces de langue latine, in M. Christo! and 0. fifth century in Campania and Samnium, areas in which the great senatorial families of Rome had their
Masson (eds.),Actes duXe congres int. d'epigraphie grecque et latine, Nimes, 4-9 octobre 1992 (Paris 1997), 335-352. See also the estates. They maintained the tradition of private munificence longer. However, since in the inscriptions
remarks of Liebeschuetz, Administration, 162-168 that the inscriptions indicate the political changes in the area of construc- the governor received glory as supervisor of the construction works and the benefactor aristocrat
tion. They come from provincial capitals where the political power of the governors was concentrated and they also show
imperial evergetism.
839 Roueche,Aphrodisias, XXV-XXVI.

84
° CJI.24.1. See Roueche, Benefactors, 355-356. 847 Idem, Benefactors, 364-365.
841 Roueche,Aphrodisias, nos. 63 (noAMwv EUEQYEatawv: for a governor), 87 (pater), 88 (a local citizen). 848 CJVIII.12.1 (a. 485-486?). See also infra, n. 866.
842 EUEQYE'tT]<;: ibid., nos. 62.4, 65.6 (for governors); 86.1-2 (for a sitones), 87.17-18; x,:loi:T]<;: 83.VI, XV (Albinus); cpLAoxi:l- 849 CTh XV.1.33 and 34 (a. 395-396).

850 See the phrasing of an inscription from Messene at the time of Augustus: L. Migeotte, Reparation de monuments
oi:T]i;: 83.VIII (Albinus); olxwi:~i; (founder): 53.4; avavEwi:~i; and xi:loi:T]<;: 62.2-3 (for governor), 87.11-12 (for asitones and
pater); cpLA.OJta'tQL<;: 86.6, 87.4 (pater), 83.VII, XVII, XIX (Albinus). publics aMessene au temps d'Auguste, BCH 109 (1985), 597: ,:a oaµoma ouvcpuAUOOELV ,:a ano ngoyovwv naga◊E◊oµeva
843
Ibid., no. 62.11-12 (for a governor): Euxagwi:wv avE0TJXEV. uu,:q. xaL ,:a olxma 6cpElAov,:a 't'Y]QEL00m ,:qi 'tE ~aµqi ,:qi 'Pwµalwv xaL ~E~ao,:qi KaloaQL (11. 1-3).
844 851 CTh XV.1.1 (a. 357, transl. Pharr). See also Lepelley, Les cites I, 65-66.
Ibid., no. 53.
845 Ibid., no. 83.XVI. 852 Choricius, Declamatio II.84 (p. 173.3-4). Compare this with a statement of the emperor Julian referring to officers-

846 Roueche, A New Inscription, 182. benefactors: supra, p. 152.

164 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 165

received only second place in terms of praise, usurpation by governors was apparently discouraging to The new leaders of the urban communities, the bishop and the wealthy landowners (protoi, pro-
private initiative. Only in Rome are private benefactors found for civic works up until the late fifth and fl•twntes, ktetores ), had other priorities, very different from those of the earlier bouleutai. The protoi had
early sixth century. 853 Once the ancient spirit of civic munificence had disappeared, personal funds lust the competitive spirit that motivated the bouleutai in the past. Private interest and corruption on
were increasingly directed to works of Christian piety. 854 The phenomenon is attested everywhere in I he part of the urban leaders and of the officers of state administration is repeatedly stressed in the
the empire. Papyri show that the various contributions of the Apions to churches were more numerous ll·xts. On the other hand, the bishops were primarily interested in works of a Christian character. They
than to civic institutions. The areas of the Apions' civic contributions were the circus factions, the stables were also concerned with the practical needs of their flock. The overall impression given by the epi-
and a new public bath. 855 The new attitudes of the aristocracy are best observed in Constantinople, p,raphic evidence is that the production of honorific inscriptions commemorating local benefactors was
where, with very few exceptions, the members of this class do not demonstrate the traditional lavish 111 decline, while the majority commemorate emperors and governors. 864 Justinian's laws cited above

munificence. 856 The Constantinopolitan elite, being new and closer to the trends of the age, did not mdicate that those appointed to administer the civic funds for the needs of the urban communities did
have the tradition of civic benevolence of the Roman aristocracy. A couple of epigrams appear to refer 1101 perform liturgies. Rather, they performed a public duty as civil officers. This development started
to private benefactors at Aphrodisias in the late period. A certain Hermeias paid the large sum of 3,000 111 the fourth century, when the provincial governors became more and more involved in carrying out
solidi for the city's bath and received everlasting fame (µvi'joi:Lv aHtwo'Uoav hp1oug1ov). 857 However, it public works. 865 The involvement of provincial governors in authorizing and supervising public works
is not certain that the funds were paid for construction work. The gift may have been an endowment for dt.•prived the decurions of an initiative which in the past had given them authority and prestige in cities.
financing the operation of the baths. A certain Philip, son of Herodian, with the title of admirandis- The curial duties and the liturgies had become a burden to be avoided. As early as 485/6, legislation
simus (0a'Uµamwi:ai:o£) was probably acting as a private benefactor. He covered the intercolumnia- showed flexibility regarding the obligations of private contributions. Private benefactors who have
tions of the south portico of the agora and was honoured with a statue. 858 These epigrams to private in- promised to erect a public building at their own expenses are not forced to complete the work. Their
dividuals are much simpler in terms of antique vocabulary in comparison to those honouring officers of htdrs are not considered liable if the work was not performed or if the entire amount of money prom-
the urban or provincial administration. Other examples show how simple the wording of inscriptions ised has not been spent. In order to encourage potential benefactors, no other obligations were imposed
was becoming. In Epiphaneia (modern Hama in Syria), in the province of Syria Secunda, the restora- on such citizens or on their children. 866
tion and enlargement of a winter bath was defrayed from the personal funds of Elias, honoured by the Ancient euergetism derived from the ancient way of life and ancient values, and it was perceived
emperor. He also paid the artisans. 859 In Gortyn in the fifth to sixth century, according to an inscription, as directly connected with ancient culture. In the fifth century, the philosopher Proclus was not in-
three individuals cooperated over the renovation of a cistern, and in another inscription, one of them, volved in civic life, because he was taken up with philosophy. He urged, however, Archiadas, grandson
a certain Georgios, is mentioned as benefactor of the city's water supply system, without, however, any nf the philosopher Plutarch, to involve himself in the city's affairs, to offer his services to citizens, and
indication of the nature of the work. 860 In general, inscriptions rarely refer to citizens' cpLAO't:LµLa. 861 An make benefactions. Proclus himself bequeathed his fortune to his native city and to Athens. 867 In the
inscription from Gerasa mentions that a pool or cistern (i:o f!gyov i:ou owµai:o£ i:ou 'Qxwvou) was '.,ixth century, this spirit was lost. It is true that Justinianic legislation refers to private munificence ( 6 OE
ex
built through the munificence of the clarissimus Sergius ( cpLA.oi:LµLa£ i:ou nav1,aµngoi:ai:o'U ~1ogyLo'U).862 tli'.xo81ov oanavfuv ~ JtfQL f!gya i:i'j£ JtOAfW£ ~ JtfQL aAA'YJV xmvwcpEAi'j X,Qftav), 868 although the number
By the end of the sixth century and at the beginning of the seventh, the change was complete. We no of individuals willing to contribute to their communities with private funds was very small. John Lydus
longer find inscriptions praising the munificence of the benefactor in the antique manner. For example, n·marks that the ancient tradition of public display and public generosity was no longer to be found and
an inscription from Panion (in the province of Europa west of Heraclea on the north shore of the sea attributes the change to individualistic trends on the part of the members of the upper class: "Yet such
of Marmara) dating to this period simply records an unspecified construction (egyµa x,:wµai:wv i:i'j<JOE philanthropy(~ i:maui:11 cpLAav0gwnia), however, did make its way to our Rome, too, but thereafter it
oixoooµi'j£) by the local inhabitants with funds and the help (i:u <J'UvOgoµft xal, ono'UOft) of the bishop did not become established because the illustrious men among us display the superiority of their
and a certain 1,aµng6i:ai:o£ x,:~,:wg Georgios. Since no office is mentioned, the ktetor was probably lortune only towards themselves" (i:wv ev ~µi:v evo6~wv ax,QL£ fomwv ,:~v un1ogox,~v i:i'j£ i:ux,11£ ev-
a private benefactor. 863 In this text there is no reference to the pride or the competitive spirit of the •1HXV'Uµ£vwv). 869 By now, we are far from the spirit of ancient generosity, according to which generous
ktetor. The wording is so vague that neither the type of the construction nor the kind of contribution can Npcnding of money implied virtue of some kind. 870
be discerned.

864 Lewin, Urban public building, 30-31; idem, Studi, 128-135; Th. Antonopoulou, A Quantitative Survey of the Christian-
Byzantine Inscriptions of Ephesus and Thessalonica, in Ephesos (1995), 177; Di Segni, Urban building, 312, 329-331.
853 Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 18-21; Jouffroy, La construction, 171. 865 See Bowman, The Town Councils, 87-90; Jouffroy, La construction, 169-171.
854 866 CJVIII.12; X.30.4.4 (a. 530): 'O c>E otxo0Ev fonavwv f\ JtEQL EQYct tfjc:; JtOAEwc:; f\ JtEQL aAATJV xmvwqiEAfj XQELctV µl]c>Evt
See the analysis of Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 65-70.
855 Alston, The City, 313-314.
i11toxEto8w Aoyo0rntqi µ~tE autoc:; µ~tE XATJQOVOµoc:; µ~tE c>tac>oxoc; autoii, µl]c>E EmtTJt~oa c>ljµootwv Aoytoµwv, oiov EJtL
856 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 706; Al. Cameron, Theodorus tQtCEJtaQXOC, GRBS 17 (1976), 269-286, esp. 283.
ltr()i'\&v f\ tWV AEyoµevwv &ywytx&v f\tm JtctQctJtoµmxwv f\ t&v ()C(JtctVWµevwv JtEQl touc:; c>ljµootouc:; ovouc:; f\ OVT]Acttctc:; f\ t&v
857
Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 74. i)t(l)yµTjttx&v xat t&v aAAwv, a yevtxqi 6v6µcttt xctAEitm sollemnia. For the decline of the civic spirit of the curial class see
858 Ibid., no. 66 (pp. 108-109).
h mes, The Later Roman Empire, 755, 757; Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 135-136, 167 ff.; Petit, Libanius, 339 ff.
859 IGSyr V, no. 1999: EtEUl;Ev eoi\; XtEcttrnm ... EX O(j)EtfQT]c; JtctQEXWV ta tEAEOµcttct ouotac; aut6c:;. 867 Vita Procli, Marinos of Neapolis. The Extant Works or The Life of Proclus and the Commentary on the Dedomena of Euclid,
860 Bandy, Inscriptions, nos. 32, 33.
nl. Al. N. Oikonomides (Chicago 1977), c. 14 (p. 38).
861 Di Segni, Urban building, 312. 868
CJ X.30.4 ( a. 530).
862 Welles, Inscriptions, no. 278 (p. 470); Di Segni, Urban building, 326-327. 869
John Lydus, De magistratibus 1.20 (p. 34.20-22).
863 Asdracha, Inscriptions, 324-327. 870
Julian, Or. IIl.129D: ~ t&v XQT]µatwv EAEU0EQtoc; c>ctJtctVT] µEtezouoa ttvoc:; ctQEtfjc:;.
166 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 167

The corporations and the oikoi: municipal obligations <1fficers, for a period of time proportional to the wealth of each oikos. A characteristic of the new system
is that oikoi accumulated simultaneously several civic duties, such as the proedria, the logisteia, and the pa-
Corporations of professionals, such as jewellers and makellarioi, contributed to works of benefit to teria, which in the past had been separate and had been assumed by separate individuals. Thus the oikos
urban communities. 871 This was a form of liturgy imposed on guilds. Libanius mentions the obligation of Timagenes assumed the three offices in 458,553, and 571. 877 The accumulation of charges suggests that
on shopkeepers to maintain the porticoes and clean the drains and regards them as corvees. 872 A series fewer people were involved in municipal offices. The rising importance of these few powerful citizens is
of imperial regulations refers to civic obligations (munera) imposed on artisans, although many were reflected in the fact that there were no time restrictions on the exercise of the municipal duties by the
excluded by a law of Constantine873 Early in the fifth century the properties of the temples in the cities 11ikoi, although in the past the decurions assumed civic charges for about a year.
were given to the municipes and the guilds on perpetual lease. Many public buildings, including temple It is difficult to interpret the involvement of the oikoi in civic liturgies. Gascou considered that the
properties, had been abandoned and were in a state of decay. If they were not subject to tax assessment, state government imposed civic liturgies on oikoi in an effort to maintain some areas of urban adminis-
they were given to decurions and the guilds in order to meet their obligations towards the cities. 874 This l ration.878 In Liebeschuetz's view, the evidence suggests a totally different evolution. The senatorial
is the obvious explanation for the proliferation of shops and workshops in all sorts of public buildings rank of the provincial aristocrats, mentioned in various papyri and in the early seventh century in the
in the early Byzantine period. 875 1lcrmoupolis tax-register, suggests that the provincial aristocracy was becoming independent of the
Characteristic of the administrative changes that had occurred is the involvement of oikoi in mu- central government, which was now weakened and losing control. 879 However, another explanation
nicipal activities. 876 Papyri indicate that from the fifth century oikoi, ecclesiastical institutions and may be offered. Entrance to the senatorial order was possible either through tenure of an office or
guilds performed various services for the central government and had absorbed some of the civic duties through imperial grant. Thus the senatorial aristocracy was increasingly losing its hereditary status,
of the earlier decurions such as providing police officers (riparii), and serving in the offices of proedria, °
Ihereby becoming an aristocracy of office. 88 Consequently, senatorial membership lost its ancient value,
logisteia and pateria. It remains unknown how much the system was generalized and whether it had and the rank of spectabilis (JtEQL~Arnwi;), a rank normally held by provincial governors in connection
wider applications in the other provinces outside Egypt. Nor is the process of this development certain. with another title, and the rank of clarissimus (AaµJtQOTawi;) became mere honorific titles. 881 The title
It would appear that civic duties were imposed on the oikoi. Perhaps the properties to which the mu- magnificentissimus (µEyaAOJtQEJtEOTawi;) became more common in the fifth and sixth centuries, and
nicipal liturgies were attached belonged to decurions, and by the sixth century had been transferred to I hat of admirandissimus (0auµaou:inmoi;) declined. Thus individuals who were not civil or military
oikoi through various kinds of transactions including wills. In this case, the masters of oikoi were actu- governors could carry high titles. The titles of illustris and magnificus declined in the first part of the
ally the heirs of ancient curial families. In order to fulfil their municipal duties, oikoi used the contri- seventh century, whilegloriorissimus (ev6o~6rnwi;) remained in use until the 740s. 882 In Egypt women
butions of small landowners who depended on them. The new system thus transferred the civic liturgy simultaneously held the offices of pateria and of stratelateia. 883 The office of stratelateia had become an
from the individual to his property, a development that is to be seen in Justinianic legislation. In the honorific title, 884 as is explained by Justinianic legislation. High offices, among which is cited the strate-
past, the mechanism at the heart of the old system of the boule consisted of the rise of the individual de- lateia, were given as honorific titles and did not offer immunity from curial charges. 885 Other important
curions as benefactors and their acquisition of personal glory and prestige in the execution of their duties. titles such as protektores/protiktores and scholarioi, originally part of the palace-guard, were given to
In the course of the early Byzantine period this fundamental characteristic of the system was lost. It was
corroded by the individualistic trends of the old system of administration, now collapsing, and was replaced
877
by the personal ambitions of provincial governors. The next step was the emergence of powerful and P.Mich. inv. 3780; P.Oxy. 2780; SB XII.11079.
878
wealthy individuals who assumed some liturgies, but no longer as individuals. Their responsibilities do See supra, n. 876.
879
not appear to have been of great significance, and they were probably financial rather than executive. Liebeschuetz, Decline, 197, 200-201, 280-281; Kurbatov, Osnovnje problemy, 119-171 expressed a similar view suggest-
111g that a group of the decurions were becoming some sort of mediaeval feudal class. For the difficulties created by the nature
In fact, civic duty was tied to the property of the oikos as a financial unit. An individual was appointed
•,r our sources in formulating such theories see the thoughts of J.-M. Carrie, Economie et societe de l'Egypte romano-byzan-
to perform the liturgy on behalf of the oikos, while the oikos was responsible for the liturgy. Oikoi provided linc (IVe-vne siecle ). Apropos de quelques publications recentes,AntTard 7 (1999), 351-352. See also Kazhdan and Cutler,
<'ontinuity, 445-446, and p. 446 "any attempt to maintain that the protobyzantine aristocracy had already possessed any salient
feature of feudalism appears to be a failure".
880
See A. A. Cekalova, Predstavlenija o znatnosti v Vizantii IV-pervoj polovine V v., W 51 (1990), 32-44; idem, Evoljuci-
871 IGSyr XIII, nos. 9129, 9133, 9134 and pp. 210, 211; E. Popescu, Inscriptiile grece§ti §i latine din secolele IV-XIII de-
jH predstavlenij o znatnosti v Vizantii vtoroj poloviny V-VI v., W52 (1991), 57-69.
881
scoperite in Romania (Bucharest 1976), no. 8. In the papyri also members of guilds are nominated to liturgies: P.Mich. inv. 3780 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 525-530; F. Tinnefeld, Die friihbyzantinische Gesellschaft. Struktur-Gegensiitze-
(a. 517) (P. J. Sijpesteijn, Five Byzantine Papyri from the Michigan Collection, ZPE 62 (1986), 133-137; idem, P. Mich. inv. ,\,wnnungen (Munich 1977), 66-72.
882
3780: A Reconsideration, ZPE 71 (1988), 123-126), P.Med. inv. 71.66 (421 ), andP.Rainer Cent. 122 ( 429) (R. S. Bagnall, K. A. R. Guilland, Etudes sur l'histoire administrative de !'empire byzantin. Les titres nobiliaires de la haute epoque (Jye_ yJe
Worp, Two Nominations of Goldsmiths to Collect Taxes, ZPE 59 (1985), 67-70); PSI XII 1265. sii:cles), Zbomik Radova Vizantoloskog Instituta 8/1 (1963), 117-133, esp. 125-131; Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 527-529;
872 Libanius, Or. XLVI.21.
11 aldon, Byzantium, 395; Di Segni, Urban building, 318. On the devaluation of high titles in the West see Brown, Gentlemen, 130 ff.
873 CTh XIII.4.2 = CJ X.66.1. See also Sodini, L'artisanat, 107; J.-M. Carrie, Les associations professionnelles a l'epoque 883
In 584 the patrician Theophania is attested together with her two daughters: CPR X.127.
884
tardive: entre munus et convivialite, in "Humana sapit", 309-332, esp. 319 ff. Sijpesteijn, The Title nar:1Q, 173.
874
CTh X.3.5 (a. 400); XV.1.41 (a. 401). 885
Novella 38, proem, 3: i;a.c:; ya.g ◊LO. µ6v11v TLµ'Y]V 0L0oµevac:; TOLaui;ac:; al;lac:; (i;a.c:; JtQaEcpEXTWQLac:; cpaµev, i;a{no OE EOTLV
875
See infra, pp. 203-204, 206. dmoTv xal oi;gm111cao[ac:;) oux E(;mQEi:v i;oi:i ~01JAE1mxoi:i AEuxwµmoc:; i;ouc:; i;oui;wv rnx6v,ac:; E0wrtloaµEv. On the devalua-
876 J. Gascou, Les grands domaines, la cite et l'etat en Egypte byzantine (Recherches d'histoire agraire, fiscale et admin-
11011 of the title of stratelates see J. Durliat, Magister militum - oi;gm111ca.,11c:; dans I' empire byzantin (VIe-VIIe siecles ), BZ 72

istrative), TM9 (1985), 1-80, esp. 51-52; J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Civic Finance in the Byzantine Period: the Laws and Egypt, ( 1979), 306-320. Liebeschuetz, Decline, 195, however, suggests that the women's responsibility was financial rather than mili-
BZ 89 (1996), 395-407; idem, Decline, 181-198 with a discussion of the theory of Gascou. tary. It may have involved the payment of salaries and supplies to the soldiers of the local military unit.
168 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 169

prominent urban citizens as honorific titles. 886 Thus the accumulation of senatorial titles by the Egyptian
urban aristocracy appears to have been the result of the devaluation of the titles, rather than a sign of
their independence and increase of power vis-a-vis the central government.
In the sixth century the old urban elites underwent a profound crisis. The indications are various.
The traditional large estates show signs of weakness, while free peasants increase and become eco-
nomically stronger. 887 Land ownership by military officers was rising, obviously at the expense of the
curial class. 888 The increasing importance of the military in the provincial and imperial administration
weakened the traditional role of the urban aristocracy and contributed to the vulgarization of its cul-
ture. 889 The urban upper class was also weakened, since many of its members, powerful individuals who
had senatorial status and a career in the civil service, joined the Church and became bishops. 890 The
change in elite culture and of its increasingly restricted economic circumstances is also evident in the
decline oflarge houses of the Roman peristyle type (domus). Archaeological excavations show that the
few houses of the domus type that were maintained in the early Byzantine period were enlarged and
their new monumental features, apsidal audience room for public functions and triclinia, were en-
hanced to emphasize the owner's status, his high administrative position and his power. 891 In some cases,
the increase in large aristocratic houses in some cities of the East may be explained by assuming that
these were the establishments of Italian aristocrats who fled Italy ravaged by invasions in the fifth cen-
tury. 892 But most of the aristocratic houses underwent profound transformation. In a first stage, from
the fourth and the fifth centuries, some houses were gradually subdivided into smaller units, obviously
I I

by the aristocrats themselves who apparently were unable to maintain them (Plans 1, 2). By the end l L-~--
1... _ _ _ _

of the early Byzantine period, such aristocratic houses in the provincial cities had been subdivided
into poor dwellings and were inhabited by people whose activities were artisanal and rural (Plan 3).
Archaeological and papyrological sources seem to indicate that at an early stage, before the invasions,
rent was extracted from the apartments created in the subdivided large houses, thus generating income
for their aristocratic owners who were already in financial difficulties. 893 Furthermore, such subdivi-

886 Brandes and Haldon, Towns, 157-158. a a s

,-------.
887 Kaplan, Les hommes, 181-183.
"f>"S :I: I J : - - - - ..
'
~
888 J.-M. Carrie, Patronage et propriete militaires au 1vc s. Objet rhetorique et objet reel du discours Surles patronages de F !l
'I
Libanius, BCH 100 (1976), 159-176. Egypt appears to have been an exception where land ownership by military officers was I
I

not very significant: R. S. Bagnall, Military Officers as Landowners in Fourth Century Egypt, Chiron 22 (1992), 47-54. __,
.., l I
889 P. Brown, The Study of Elites in Late Antiquity,Arethusa 33/3 (2000), 332-333. I!
890 Th. Kopecek, The Social Class of the Cappadocian Fathers, Church History 42 (1973), 453-465; F. D. Gilliard, Senato-

rial Bishops in the Fourth Century, HThR 77 ( 1984), 154-157; E. Plumacher, / dentitiitsverlust und ldentitiitsgewinn. Studien zum
~
Verhiiltnis von Kaiserzeitlicher Stadt und friihen Christentum, Neukirchen-Vluyn Neukirchener Ver!., 1987, 70-80; H. Montgomery, c.,
Decurions and the Clergy. Some Suggestions, Opuscula Romana XV (1985), 93-95; C. Rapp, The Elite Status of Bishops in m V

Late Antiquity in Ecclesiastical, Spiritual, and Social Contexts,Arethusa 33/3 (2000), 379-399, esp. 385 ff.; Bowden, Church
"' m "'
;:i
0
builders; idem, Epirus Vetus, 228-231. :::r:
891 S. P. Ellis, The End of the Roman House,AJA 92 (1988), 565-576; idem, Power, Architecture and Decor: How the Late
;:;
Roman Aristocrat appeared to his Guests, in E. K. Gazda (ed.), Roman Art in the Private Sphere. New Perspectives on the
Architecture and Decor of the Domus, Villa, and Insula (Ann Arbor 1991 ), 117-134; Sodini, Habitat (1997), esp. 518-519. For
the closing of parts of the porticoes of rich houses in order to create long apsidal rooms or perhaps chapels see E. Morvillez, I'
I I

L'architecture domestique aAntioche dans l'antiquite tardive. Conservatisme ou modernite?, Topoi, suppl. 5 (2004), 271-287. '
I__ _
1

For an example of a rich house with parts of the walls well preserved see the so-called Hangaus 2 in Ephesus: Fr. Krinzinger
(ed.), Das Hanghaus 2 van Ephesos. Studien zu Baugeschichte und Chronologie (Vienna 2002).
892 Bowden, Epirus Vetus, 56-58.
893 J.B. Ward-Perkins, J. H. Little and D. J. Mattingly, Town Houses at Ptolemais, Cyrenaica: A Summary Report of Survey

and Excavation Work in 1971, 1978-1979, Libyan Studies 17 (1986), 109-153, esp. 111-126; H. Saradi, Privatization and Subdi-
vision of Urban Properties in the Early Byzantine Centuries: Social and Cultural Implications, BASP 35 (1998), 30-41; W.
Bowden, R. Hodges and K. Lako, The Anglo-Albanian Project at Butrint, Iliria 24 (1998), 291.
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172 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 173

sions may have responded to an increasing demand for housing in cities during the early Byzantine pe- on the upper floors or in corners of houses, so that the aristocratic owners of these houses were not <lis-
riod, since according to the papyrological evidence even terraces were subdivided with partition t urbed. In contrast, the living conditions in some of the upper class houses at the end of the early Byzan-
walls. 894 Another explanation proposed is that the aristocratic houses were subdivided and assigned to 1ine period appear to have been very different from what they had been in earlier centuries. In the House
several owners through inheritance. 895 It has also been suggested that the aristocrats themselves settled of the Bronzes at Sardis a dyeing workshop functioned near the triclinium, which apparently was still in
their clients there to secure their support in political activities, 896 a suggestion that accords with the use by its owner. 902 In Thessalonica, in a house with a triclinium dating to the fourth to fifth century, a dye-
socio-political practices of the Roman empire, rather than with that of the early Byzantine period. An- ing workshop functioned in an unroofed court opening directly to the right in front of the triclinium. Oth-
other factor also must be considered. Aristocrats who joined the Church sold their urban properties or t\r rooms next to the triclinium and the open workshop were used for storage.
903 A room in the Byzantine
donated them to the Church, thus transforming them into churches or charitable institutions. When in palace of Caesarea Maritima was converted into a workshop for production of panels in opus sectile, and
404 St. Melania the Younger (383-439), together with her husband Valerius Pinianus, both great Roman its door was blocked to isolate it from the rest of the house. 904 The existence of workshops in wealthy
aristocrats, decided to follow the ascetic life, they attempted in vain to sell their huge aristocratic domus. houses still in use by upper class members indicates the changing circumstances and standards of living
The asking price was so high that no Roman senator could afford to buy it. They donated only their <,f the upper class. From the middle of the sixth century no new Roman peristyle houses were built. In the
collection of statues to the empress Serena. Finally the domus was burnt down by the Goths in 410 and last phase of old aristocratic houses crude subdivisions were introduced, blocking the intercolumniations
was sold for a very low price. Part of it had been transformed by Melania herself into a chapel. Later, of the atria and dividing rooms, including triclinia. The walls up to the level to which they survive were
in the early seventh century, Gregory the Great transformed his paternal house on the Caelian into a built of rubble and spolia, using mud or plaster as bonding material, and are found right on top of the lux-
monastery. 897 A similar trend is to be seen in Constantinople. 898 In Stobi, in the House GR or House of urious mosaic pavements, without any respect for them. Ovens, mills and mangers were also installed.
Peristerias, alterations date to the late fifth to early sixth century and include a second apsidal room and The new residents who settled in were evidently peasants and artisans. This last phase of aristocratic
pavement with flagstones. A floor inscription records the names of the donors of the mosaic, probably houses is very difficult to date with precision. It is frequently dated to the period of invasions, when the
all of them co-owners. The representation of a vessel with branches of the vine of life flanked by two aristocrats fled the cities to more secure provinces and the invaders settled in, subdividing aristocratic
stags suggests that the room might have become a chapel. 899 From the provinces of the East the mansions. 905 Cultural changes might have played a role in the transformation and final abandonment of
archaeological evidence is limited. A good example comes from a Roman peristyle villa 45 km south- aristocratic houses, with the increasing emphasis on private life and modesty promoted by Christianity.
west of Alexandria at the site of the modern village Huwariya. In the middle of the sixth century the
There might also have been a genuine return to the pre-Roman type of house, typical of the Mediter-
main wing of the house was transformed into a chapel, which later developed into a church with a bap-
ranean countries, which was arranged around a central courtyard. Above all, however, the economic dif-
tistery. In the last phase, the house was turned into a hostel for pilgrims visiting the famous shrine of St.
ficulties of the old urban aristocracy and its social and cultural transformation account for the decline of
Menas. 900 More broad and complex historical causes have also been advanced to explain why aristocratic
the aristocratic houses. All these are signs of the decline of the old urban elite of senatorial rank and an-
houses were abandoned by their owners and left to decline. Invasions, the economic weakening of the
ticipate the emergence of a new upper class in the course of the seventh century, militarized, ethnically
upper class caused by the bureaucracy of the central government and increases in taxes, the flight of the
diverse and of different social origin. 906 The crisis in the urban elite undoubtedly affected cities' pros-
aristocrats to Constantinople and their entry into the Church. 901
perity, the maintenance of the public space and their economic vitality.
Conversion of parts of large houses into apartments for rent is known from the early centuries of
the Roman empire, but such houses had separate entrances and staircases. They were usually located
902
G. M. A Hanfmann, Excavations at Sardis 1958, BASOR 154 (1959), 27 and n. 50.
903
E. Marki,AD 47 (1992), 432.
904
Y. Porat, Caesarea-1994-1999, ES! 112 (2000), 38.
894 G. Husson, Olxia. Le vocabulaire de la maison privee en Egypte d'apres les papyrus grecs (Paris 1983), 64-65. 905
The flight of the aristocrats during invasions is often mentioned in the historical sources. For example, Ammianus
895 A Walmsley, Vestiges of the Decapolis in North Jordan during the Late Antique and Early Islamic Periods,Aram 4/1-2 Marcellinus X:XXl.16.2; Procopius, De Bello Persico Il.21.31; Hoium, Bouleutic Class, 626 n. 64; Foss, Syria, 262. According to
(1992), 348. the Life of St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, the saint's grandfather Claudius Gordianus abandoned his house in Carthage when the Van-
896 S. Ellis, The Seedier Side of Antioch, in Sandwell and Huskinson, Antioch, 129 (He [the aristocrat] obtained their
dals took over the city and fled to Italy. Later when his sons returned to their homeland, they asked in vain for the ancestral house
allegiance in elections, political riots, and other activity). that had been given to Arian priests to be returned to them: Diacre of Carthage: Vie de Saint Fulgence de Ruspe, ed. G.-G. Lapeyre
897 Vita s. Melaniae Jun., c. 14 (p. 154-156): xaL EJtEL6lj ov6EL£ 'tWV EV ,ft 'Pwµn ouy%Afl'tl%WV 'tljV olxlav 'tOU µaxaQlou
( Paris 1929), c. 1 (domo propria donata sacerdotibus arianis ); Magni Felicis Ennodi Opera, F. Vogel (ed.), Monumenta Germaniae
IlLvLavou JtQlao0m fllJJtOQflOEV, 611Aoiim ,ft JtQOELQflµEvn f3amAl6L 6L' aylwv EJtl0%0JtWV, tva UlJ'tljV ayOQCWEL. 'H 6/, µ11 f3ou- llistorica,Auctores antiquissimi 7 (Munich 1885, repr. 1995), 98.15-17 refers to abandoned aristocratic houses that were subdi-
Afl0Ei:Oa 'tOU'tO JtOLfjom, E(f.lfl JtQO£ 'tOU£ µwa~OV'tU£' «'Eyw voµl~w µ11 LOXUELV µE 'taU'tflV ayOQ<XOm 'tOU al;lou 'tlµTjµa'tO£.» vided with poor walls by soldiers for them to settle in. A good example of dissolution of a rich house before and during the inva-
IlaQE%<XAEO<XV 'tE UlJ't'YjV, tva %UV 'tWV ES avi:fj£ JtOA.1J'tlµwv µaQµ<XQWV sEVLOV JtUQU 'tWV aylwv xoµlorii:m. 'H M µ6AL£ sions comes from Thasos. The house was built in the early fifth century and it was partially destroyed around 575 and robbed of
EJtEVE1JoEv, µ11 f3ouAri0Ei:om EJtL JtAEi:ov Aunfjom avwu£ 1:11v 6io olxlav µ11 loxuoav'tE£ nwAfjom ot µaxaQLOL, µE,a 1:11v l!cpo6ov its rich materials and the revetment of the walls and floors. Part of it was immediately reoccupied with poor structures with some
,G.Jv [3aQ[3ctQWV W£ EµJtuQL00Ei:oav av1:11v wu µri6EVO£ uo,EQOV ani\6ovw. See also B. Brenk, La cristianizzazione della modifications, like opening of new doors and rising of floors, until 619-620 when it was finally destroyed by a Slavic attack. The
Domus dei Valerii sul Celia, in Harris, Urbs Roma, 69-84; F. Guidobaldi, Le domus tardoantiche di Roma come sensori delle new inhabitants lived in low economic conditions. The earlier fine pottery, dating to the time of the rich owners of the residence,
trasformazioni culturali e sociali, ibid., 53-68, esp. 65-68. was replaced with low quality ware and two handmade vases were left by the new inhabitants: Fr. Blonde, A Muller and D.
898 Magdalino, Constantinople, 42.
Mulliez, Thasos. La ceramique d'usage quotidien dans une demeure paleochretienne, in Ceramique Medievale, 773-776.
899 Hattersley-Smith, Public Architecture, 56; Mikulcik, Stobi, 179. 906 Kazhdan and Cutler, Continuity, 444-447; Haldon, Byzantium, 165 ff., 388-396; idem, Some Considerations, 111-112;

900 M. Radziewicz, Remarks on the Domestic and Monastic Architecture in Alexandria and Surroundings, in Archaeology of Brown, Gentlemen, 130 ff.; Kaplan, Les hommes, 181-182; Alston, The City, 345 concludes that the urban landed elite was be-
the Nile Delta (Amsterdam 1988), 271-273. See also infra, p. 411. coming narrower in the early Byzantine period; Sodini, Social Structures, 50 points to the lack of archaeological evidence of
901 Avramea, Le Peloponnese, 126. the seventh and eighth centuries, suggesting that the old upper class had disappeared; Whittow, Recent research, 149.
174 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 175

The governors' responsibilities resided, in order to boost their popularity there and glorify themselves. They often ruined smaller cities
by extracting municipal funds from them. The trend, however, was sanctioned by law: in 390 a constitu-
The initiative in matters relating to building public works in cities had passed to the provincial gov- tion of Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius allowed large cities to take funds for works of construc-
ernors.907 Intervention by governors in urban building activities is attested as early as the Roman empire. t ion and repairs from the budget of small municipalities. 915 Imperial legislation also testifies to the gov-
In the early second century, Pliny the Younger supervised construction works in cities of Bithynia and ernors' desire to decorate the capital of their provinces by removing architectural pieces and various or-
Pontus and insisted on completing works that had been started earlier and on reducing expensive naments from buildings of smaller cities. 916 For example, the paintings of the Poikile Stoa in the Athen-
ones. 908 The orator Menander praised governors for restoring cities (to n6AEL£ eydgELv). 909 A law of ian agora depicting the battle of Marathon were removed by a proconsul of Achaea in the late fourth
Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius promulgated at Thessalonica in 380 expresses the imperial per- century. 917
spective on governors' construction projects and stipulates: "If a judge should be sent to a province, he How much the cities depended on the provincial governors is eloquently described by Choricius of
shall restore to their former state of splendour two thirds of the works which have crumbled through ( ,aza:
neglect or age, and he shall construct as new a third thereof, if he wishes to provide for his own fame
and glory" .910 Inscriptions from the East indicate that this trend started in the first half of the fourth Therefore, I imagine I see cities standing round in a circle, each asking me to speak
century, 911 and a century later in the Theodosian Code (XV.1, De operibus publicis) the provincial gov- on its behalf, because it owes you more gratitude than the others ... And somehow
ernors were primarily responsible for public works in the cities. Libanius' orations and epistles do not I see in my imagination the other cities in this way; but I imagine I see our city
mention building initiatives on the part of the boule. Instead, Libanius refers to the ambitions of gov- [Gaza] smiling, if, although she is present there, another [city] intends to grab the
ernors expressed in construction works, the manner in which the funds were raised and materials were place of the winner and they do not consider from what source they have been
supplied, and the decurions' reaction to these works. The orator describes how governor Modestus in benefited. 918
Antioch built a stoa and how the city reacted to this compulsory work. The stoa was large, long, high
and attached to the Dionysium. Libanius hopes that the stoa will stand as long as mankind exists, so pre- The governors' desire to receive glory through civic euergetism caused an unprecedented change
serving the name of the builder. The bouleutai, however, did not approve the governor's initiative, since in the architectural appearance of cities. Old buildings were allowed to decay and were delapidated, to
new obligations (munera extraordinaria) were now imposed on them. Some had been ordered to bring provide ready building material for new building programs. New construction works initiated by gov-
the columns from Seleucia. From some others this was requested as a favour. The bouleutai performed ernors could not be completed in the limited time of their office, while new governors preferred to start
the service without complaint, some, however, expressing their discontent. They sarcastically called the new ones. The imperial legislation of the fourth century addressed these issues in an attempt to main-
portico To unagxov wtxtov. They realized that the contribution that had been asked as a favour, would tain the architectural beauty of the cities. The law of the year 380 that we have already referred to or-
become something compulsory ( &vayxri). Libanius recommends the governor to ask for volunteers, so dered the governors to restore two thirds of the buildings that were ruined on account of neglect or age,
that no one will curse the construction ( ouDEL£ xmagaonm Tq:> notovµEvQ) ). He advises him that con- and to construct as new a third for the glorification of their name (si tamen famae et propriis cupit
struction of small buildings will please everyone, while works that might be compared with the walls of laudibus providere ). 919 In 394 Theodosius stated that governors, who inscribed their name on public
Babylon annoy all citizens. 912 Libanius criticizes the vanity of the governor's work, its uselessness, and buildings so that they, rather than the emperor, should receive the glory, had committed the crime of
the strain placed on the boule. 913 The Prefect of the city of Rome, Lampadius, repaired buildings all majestatis obnoxii. 920 The reference to the emperor next to that of the governors found in numerous in-
over the city, with the aim of being commemorated not as a restorer of old buildings, but as a builder of scriptions appears to comply with the imperial decree. Governors were repeatedly ordered to repair ru-
new ones (non utveterum instaurator sed conditor). His attendants seized materials without paying for ined civic buildings and to complete buildings left unfinished by their predecessors. 921 In order to en-
them, an action that provoked the anger of the people of Rome. Lampadius' vanity was such that, in courage governors to complete works that were commenced by their predecessors, a law of 380 allows
order to glorify himself, he inscribed his name as builder of buildings which had been built by the them to finish earlier works left unfinished by their predecessors "as if begun by themselves" .922 They
emperors. 914 The governors' priority was to construct works in the provincial capitals where they could therefore inscribe their name and so be commemorated as builders of works that they had only
completed. This explains the appearance of inscriptions commemorating various governors in the same
structure, or the glorification of a governor as builder of a building that had been only restored. 923 In
907Claude, Stadt, 146-149; Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 132-135; Petit, Libanius, 250, 318-319; Foss, Ephesus, 25-28; Di Segni,
Urban building, 317-323; Lewin, Urban public building, 31-36; Lepelley, Les cites I, 61-64; Ward-Perkins, From Classical
915
Antiquity, 23-28. CTh XV.1.26. See also XV.1.18 (a. 374).
908 Lepelley, Les cites I, 62 and n. 11. 916 CTh XV.1.1 (a. 321); 14 (a. 365); 18 (a. 376), 19 (a. 376), 37 (a. 398). See also Lepelley, Les cites I, 62-63; Lewin, Studi,
909 129-130.
Menander Rhetor, 416.10 (Spengel III, 416).
910 917 Synesius, Ep. 54 and 136; Frantz, TheAthenianAgora, 55-56: perhaps the paintings were removed after the stoa suffered
CTh XV.1.20 (transl. Pharr).
911
Lewin, Studi, 54, 115-116; idem, Urban public building, 32. damage by Alaric.
912
Libanius, Ep. 196 (X, 182.7-9): d11 OE om µLXQct xmaOXE'Uatw0m O'UVT]OOµEVWV artavtwv ~ ~agvvoµi\vwv ta wlx11 918 Choricius, Or. IIl.52 (p. 62.17-19), c. 53 (p. 62.24-27), transl. Litsas, Choricius, p. 168.

919
Ba~v11.wvlwv. In fourth-century inscriptions governors appear to give orders to decurions to restore buildings and assign them CTh XV.1.20.
parts of the work: Feissel and Philippidis-Braat, Inventaires, 285-287 (no. 24); JG XII 9, no. 907 ( a. 359). 92
°CTh XV.1.31.
913 921
6 Of Al0ou; µev 11slov µdtw t~V rtOA.LV rtOLELV, ta o' EL£ t~V ~O'UA.~V EA.Utt(J) rtavtwv µev YEAWVtWV, rtUVt(J)V OE EAEYXO- CTh XV.1.3 (a. 326,362). See also XV.1.11 (a. 364), 14, 15, 16, 17 (a. 365), 27 (a. 390), 29 (a. 393).
922
VtWV tfi£ rtEQL tourn ortovofi£ t~v <XXQT]Otlav tq.i µT]OE fact twv 811glwv tov 11.atovgyt'joovi:a Eivm: Libanius, Or. XXXIII.14. CTh XV.1.21.
914 923 Di Segni, Urban building, 318.
Ammianus Marcellinus XXVII.3.5, 7, 10.
176 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 177

390, in a law issued at Milan, officers and governors are threatened with a penalty of ten pounds of gold ltum municipal funds (ex t&v :n:oAmxwv XQ'Y]µcitwv), as if they were fathers of the cities (ate :n:ate-
"so that they will at least through fear, as they should have done voluntarily, devote their efforts to the i11tc;).931 The public works that the governors were to sponsor, however, were only the most necessary
repair of the older works" .924 In a decree of the emperors Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius in 394 ( , i't c1.vayxm6tata t&v EQywv) namely bridges, streets, harbours and walls. The same rules are repeated
issued at Constantinople, governors are not allowed "to court a reputation for industry by undertaking 111 the Novels regarding the provincial governors of Pisidia, Lycaonia, Thrace and Cappadocia. In these
new constructions". Administrators who commenced new buildings without imperial permission were laws, Justinian appears very concerned about the effect of the governors' abuses on the cities, and
obliged to finish them at their own expense after the end of their office. 925 lu 1ped that his measures would ensure that the cities would flourish again. 932 Apparently this legislation
In the Theodosian Code XV.1 On public buildings, 14 laws between 321 and 395 deal with the restora- did not bring about the desired effect and, later, in 545, Justinian took a different approach to the prob-
tion of old buildings. More numerous are the decrees issued by Valentinian I. Restoration of old buildings li·m and introduced a radical measure. He forbade the provincial officers to administer civic revenues
was a priority instead of the construction of new ones. It has been argued that the repeatedly issued regu- allocated for the corn supply and civic works. The civic finances were to be managed by civic magis-
933
lations were enforced, since inscriptions indicate that in this period there were more restoration works than 1 rates, the pater, the sitones, and others under the supervision of the bishop and the leading citizens.
construction of new buildings. 926 It appears, however, that the decreasing interest in construction of new An inscription from Caesarea Maritima (546-606) seems to indicate that the law was applied for some
public buildings was caused primarily by administrative changes and financial reasons. lime: the pater of the city and proteuon Flavius Strategius built the arch of the so-called Byzantine
It was expected that, under normal circumstances, the provincial governors would finance munic- t •:splanade with one wall and the staircase from civic funds (a:n:o :rtoAmxwv ). 934 A little later the imperial
ipal public works from civic funds that were administered by the pater. 927 A law of Arcadius and Honorius policy was again changed. Novel 149.2 of Justin II, of the year 563, considers the provincial governors
of the year 396 informs all provincial governors that construction of new urban fortifications or restora- alone responsible for restoration of walls and cities, the heating of baths and management of spectacles
tion of old ones should be financed by a tax on all urban citizens. The cost of the work is to be calculated, ((lFUtQWV tE emµEAEta).
the land of all citizens is to be assessed and a tax is to be imposed in proportion to the land held by the Inscriptions also show the increased involvement of governors in construction works, 935 but only
citizens in question. The emperors insist that the expense of the fortifications should be "imposed equally sometimes do they reveal their actual role. The wording is usually very vague, with expressions indicat-
on all". 928 Sometimes provincial governors managed to secure funds from other sources. After his ing their care and initiative in the construction work ( a:n:ouo'fj toi:i, a:n:ouc>'fj xal, emµEAdQ. toi:i, :rtQovoLq.
victory over the Vandals in 539, Solomon, general of the Byzantine army and praefectus praetorio per rou, etc.), or the date of the administration of the governor (e:n:l, toi:i, or ev XQ6vm~ toi:i), which might
Africam, financed the construction of forts in North Africa from the booty. 929 Flavius Nysius Sergius of indicate that the work was carried out with the authorization and under the orders of the governors. 936
Scythopolis, komes and hypatikos, constructed a portico (embolos) in 534/5 "without touching civic Inscriptions also show that municipal magistrates, instead of initiating building works, were simply im-
money" (:rtoAt'nxwv XQ'Y]µatwv µl] :rtaQa'ljJaµcvo~). 930 In the fifth century imperial legislation was con- plementing the governors' orders. 937 In the sixth century, inscriptions reveal that, with the exception of
cerned with maintenance of public buildings from public funds, but in reality very frequently the offi- fortifications, the governors' building activities in the cities were minor. In Caesarea Maritima, gover-
cers were reluctant to provide such funds and efforts were made to finance building construction with nors repaired the streets and water pipes and improved some sections of the city. The restoration of
private contributions. The involvement of governors in construction works opened the way to abuses. a basilica was limited only to installing a marble revetment, a mosaic pavement and a staircase. The
In 535, Novel 17.4 (mandata principis) of Justinian reveals that the governors' officers often oppressed inscription inscribed on a reused slab suggests the reduced conditions of urban euergetism. 938
citizens by demanding additional taxes, on the basis of court decisions, to finance construction work for The enkomion by Choricius for the military governor, dux Aratius, and for the civil governor of
water conduits, harbours, street pavements, bridges, images (obviously of emperors and magistrates), Palaestina Prima, archon Stephanus, gives information on their initiatives in Caesarea and Gaza.
walls and for clearing away buildings built in public places (ev oriµoaLcp t6:rtcp ). The emperor orders the Stephanus repaired the walls of Gaza, covered a public building with a roof, perhaps a civic basilica, and
governors to proceed with the works without imposing charges on the citizens. The same Novel speci- completed the summer theatre and a winter bath. 939 He also showed philanthropy during a famine in
fies that it was the governors' responsibility to take care of cities' food supply and any civic works required Caesarea,940 he had Caesarea's aqueduct cleaned and repaired, 941 and he contributed to the festival of

924 CTh XVl.28 (transl. Pharr),

925 CTh XV.1.31. 931 On the expression see Roueche, A New Inscription, 181.
926 Lepelley, Les cites I, 65, 75-78. 932 Novella 25.4: oili:wc:; avaJtVEUOEL Jt01:f 1:01JJt1']XOOV, oili:wc:; <XV8Y]OOUOLV a'iietc:; at Jt0AEtc:; xat ai\l;11otc:; i:oi:c:; OLX01JOL i:au-
927 CJVIII.12 (a. 485-486); Novella 17.4.1: 'At,).a xat i:fjc:; acp8ovlac:; i:wv Emi:116Elwv xati:wv l!gywvi:wv Jt0AE(J)V EmµEAY]OU,
rnc:; we; JtAELO'l:1'] yEVY]OE,m, xat OU i:ac:; Jtai:gl6ac:; anocpeul;ovi:m x,a8ctJtEQ 1:L i:wv cpo~EQW'l:ctl:(J)V Ota Tl]V i:wv agxovi:wv x,ax,lav
nagaox,euatwv EX i:wv JtOAti:LXWV XQ1']µcti:wv aui:ouc:; c'he Jtal:EQU i:a avayx,moi:ai:a i:wv l!gywv JtOLELV xat yecpugwv oµolwc:; OIX,ELV EV i:oi:c:; eaui:wv EUAa~ouµevm.
xat 66wv xat ALµEvwv, EV oic:; 0AWc:; ELOL 1:0JtOLc:; i:fjc:; foagxlac:; ~c:; agxac:; ALµEvec:;, xat 1:ELXWV EmµEAEi:o8m. Novella 26.4 (a. 535): 933 Novella 128.16.

<XAA' aui:oc:; 0Jt0Oa 6uvmov EX, i:wv JtOAti:LXWV Jt0QWV EJtavog8w8fjvm nagaoxeuatei:w. Novella 30.8 (a. 536): c:I>govi:tEL Of 934 Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, 82-84 (no. 59).

xat i:fjc:; JtOAEWc:; xat i:wv xaAouµevwv OL'l:(J)VLX,WV xat i:wv l!gywv i:wv aui:fjc:;, xat nagaoXEUctOEL x,ma i:ov iJµE,EQOV voµov 935 Di Segni, Urban building, 317-323; Lewin, Studi, 99-134; idem, Urban public building, 31-36; D, Feissel, Gouverneurs

ouyygacpeo8m i:ouc:; Aoywµouc:; xat 6anavao8m xat i:a i:aµetaxa xat JtoArnxa. On the control of civic finances by governors cl edifices dans des epigrammes de Smyrne au Bas-Empire, REG 111 (1998/1), 125-144.
see C. Lepelley, Temoignage epigraphique sur le contr6le des finances municipales par Jes gouverneurs a partir du regne de 936 Di Segni, Urban building, 318-321; Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, 29.

Diocletien, in Il capitolo delle entrate nelle finanze municipali in Occidente ed in Oriente, Actes de la xe Rencontre franco-italienne 937 Di Segni, Urban building, 328.

sur l'epigraphie du monde romain, Rome, 27-29 mai 1996 (Rome 1999), 235-247. 938 Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, 80-82 (no. 58) and 16.
928 CTh XV.1.34 (CJVIII.11.11). 939 Choricius, Or. III.54-55.
929 940 c. 43.
Procopius, De Bello Vandalico IV.20.28-29; see Durliat, Les dedicaces, 102,
930 Mazor, ESI 6 (1987-88), 17. 941 c. 44-49; Litsas, Choricius, 263-265.
178 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 179

the inauguration of the Church of St. Stephanus in Gaza. 942 The origin of the funds is not clear in our text. '1111ricius speaks of unspecified expenses covered by him alone, probably from public funds ( au 'ta
Stephanus is praised for having contributed in the construction of the Church of St. Stephanus in Gaza 1u'tVl]£ OEoµEva µ6vo£ JtAl]QOi:£), and distributions to the people. 954 The governor displayed excel-
(rtaQa ooiJ), and for having searched for funding for the repair of the city's walls (c\La ooiJ). 943 Stephanus' in war, organized public festivals, and distributed land to the poor. 955 From the works of Chori-
involvement in the restoration of the city's walls was probably to help the bishop receive public funds. 944 l'lus, it becomes evident that the concept of euergetism is adapted to the ideology expressed in each lit-
au
The contribution to the church was personal. It was a piece of munificence ( oe <:pLAO'tLµtq. ). 945 my genre employed. Thus in one of his rhetorical exercises the ancient concept of euergetism that
As in the West in this period, personal funds were rarely directed to public works. Instead, they glory to the benefactor is projected ( a1 <:pLAouµ(m 'tOU£ XOQlJYOiJVm£ oEµvuvoum xal, JtEQLEQXE-
were spent on religious projects. For example, the donation of the komes Elias ( EX JtQOCT<:pOQU£) for the 11!1 tou'twv ovoµa rtav'taxou). 956 But in the enkomion to Summus, the new Christian type of benevo-
decoration of the west wall of a church in Bostra is recorded in an inscription. 946 Usually inscriptions do euergetism performed in secret (xExQuµµEVlJV EUEQyw(av), is praised. 957 The latter example ex-
not reveal the source of the funds used for construction by governors. Sometimes it is explicitly stated it! t'sscs the cultural change completed by the sixth century. In the poems of Dioscorus of Aphrodito, ar-
that the funds were an imperial donation ( EX 'tfj£ oo0ELCTlJ£ 0EL«£ <:pLAO'tLµta£), 947 or that they came from vocabulary is used to praise governors for their noble lineage, their rhetorical skills in public speak-
sources other than municipal funds. 948 In some cases, even when the funds are labelled "imperial grant" Iheir sense of justice, their generosity to the poor and for securing cities from the enemies. 958 They
(<:pLAO'tLµta, OWQEet) this did not mean that they derived from the imperial treasury, but that the emper- 1111.· called "lords of the cities" (moAL«QXE), 959 "great patrons of the people" (Ol]µOXlJOEµwv µEy«£), 960
or gave the permission to the governor to use provincial funds. 949 In extraordinary situations funds '',,aviours of cities" (12uoimoAL£, 961 QU't~Q JtOAEwv, 962 moALouxo£ 963 ), "captains of cities" ( xu~EQVlJ'tfj-
from taxes could be used for restoring damaged cities. 950 1roA~wv),964 "curators of cities" (ao'trn xouQitwv), 965 "restorers of cities" ('tL0~VlJV xma xooµov &.d
We have seen that in the late inscriptions from Aphrodisias, dating to the late fifth or sixth centu- I 1wpi.l]£ xeova 't~VOE / 11µE'tEQlJV xovinmv &.vao'tfjom EQLrtouoav). 966 It is significant that the adjective
ry, the governors are praised as renewers ( &.vavEW't~£), founders ( X'tLCT'tlJ£), and benefactors ( EUEQYE- iioTlJ£, used in the past for the builder or for the restorer of buildings, is absent in these texts. In the
't'YJ£) of the provincial capital. In a late inscription from Caesarea Maritima, the provincial governor is 11crnnd half of the sixth century, to which these poems date, the provincial governors are presented as
praised as cpLAOX'tLCT'tO£. The building work, however, was a minor affair, the reconstruction of an an- having the real power in the cities, but lacking in interest in works of civic building, except for restora-
techamber with a basin and benches in his praetorium. However, the vocabulary of the inscription sug- 111111 of city walls. The contrast with the earlier period when they were eager to undertake construction
gests munificence on a grand scale. 951 Only slightly later, in the literary works of the sixth century, the works in the provincial capitals for their personal glorification is clear. In Italy the building activities of
ideal governor is depicted as possessing other qualities and responsibilities. In his concluding remarks ~11vcrnors end in the first decade of the fifth century. Obviously the available funds were directed to
in the enkomion to dux Aratius and to archon Stephanus, Choricius praises both governors for their rover military needs in addressing the military crisis. 967
bravery and justice ( &.vc\Qaya0ta£ EVExa xal, OLxmoouVlJ£), rather than as builders. 952 Earlier in the
enkomion, Aratius was praised for his military success in suppressing the rebellion of the Samaritans
and the Jews, in taking over the fortress of a gold-mine, for clearing roads of Saracens, for suppressing Imperial euergetisrn
the attacks by the Saracens of Egypt, for establishing security in the roads in the area of Caesarea by
In the Roman empire city euergetism was a traditional imperial responsibility. The emperors' gen-
suppressing bandits, for extinguishing a fire in the same city, and for a military enterprise. 953 In anoth-
rwsity (munificentia) towards the cities, 968 was a major quality expected of them, a demonstration of
er oration in praise of Summus, the endoxotatos stratelates of Palaestina Prima between 535/6 and 540,

'"·1 Ibid., Or. IV.35 (p. 79.18-20).

942 c. 62-65. ,,i, Ibid., Or. IV.32 (p. 78), 30 (p. 78).
943 'N, Ibid., Or. XII.84 (p. 173).
c. 54 (p. 63.6-7).
944
Litsas, Choricius, 266. ') Ibid., Or. IV.29 (p. 78.2-6): Xf½QUµµsvriv fUfQYWLUV, 11 "tOL£ C(JtoQO'UOLV i\mxoucptscL£ Tl]V EV◊Hav. KaL /1.UJtrJOW µiov LOW£
17

945
Choricius, Or. III.60 (p. 64.10-11), I.30-31 (p. 10). See also L. Di Segni, Metropolis and Provincia in Byzantine Palestine, ii !'IIIV EL£ cpGl£ ~v XQUJt"tfLV E8EA.fl£ Jt/1.l]V "tO'UTO µc µi'i11.11.ov EQf8LSfl JtQO£ fomvov, O"tL µcTQLC\) cpgoviJµau rouA.fl ½U/1.'lJJt"tfLV.
18
in Raban and Hoium, Caesarea Maritima, 585-586. ''· Dioscorus 1, 337-342 (on the rhetorical influence on the poems of Dioscorus see ibid., 683 and passim); L. S. B. MacCoull,
946
JGSyr XIII/1, no. 9139. I t, ,scorns ofAphrodito. His Work and his World (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1988), 70-71, 91 ff.
1
947
The restoration of the walls of Scythopolis was achieved by means of an imperial donation (i\x TT)£ oo8ctcrri£ 8fla£ <Jo() Dioscorus 1 (I. 1; ea 551), 3 (1. 5; a. 567). See also Vita S. Nicholai Sion., c. 53.5, 14 where the provincial governor of

cpt11.ouµta£), at the request (xaT' ahricrtv) of the endoxotatos Flavius Arsenius, at the time of the lamprotatos archon Flavius I vcia is called agxwv TT)£ i\nagxta£ and agxwv TT)£ n611.cw£.
Anastasius: M. Avi-Yonah, Greek Inscriptions from Ascalon, Jerusalem, Beisan, and Hebron, QDAP 10 (1940), 166-169 (a. %o Dioscorus 4 (I. 13; a. 551 ).

525); similar wording: IGSyr II, nos. 348 and 349: i\x Twv cucrcrwv cpt11.0Ttµtwv of the emperor Justinian with the care of astrate- %I Ibid., 23 (1.6; a. 565/566-573); 14 (11. 33-34: xaL Jt"t0/\.Lf8QOV fowcrav i\uoµrii:ov 'AvTLVOT)"t0£, xaL Jt"t0/1.LV i\~wawaav

lates ( Chalkis ). i 11 1{mov 'AvTtvof)o£; a. 567 or 568-573).

948
Mazor, ES! 6 (1987/88), 17: "without touching public money" (534-535). See Di Segni, Urban building, 319. %Z Ibid., 10 (I. 22; a. 565-566); 20 (I. 26; a. 567).
949
Ibid., 330. Ibid., 14 (I. 8; a. 567 or 568-573).
'lllJ
950 Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita S. Sabae, c. 73 (pp. 176-177). 4
% Ibid., 14 (I. 32; a. 567 or 568-573).
951
Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, no. 39 (p. 65), and p. 15. %S Ibid., 11 (I. 38; a. 568); 20 (I. 23; a. 567); 30 (I. 1; a. 565/566-573?).
952
Choricius, Or. III.83. Justice and integrity were traditional themes in the praise of governors: L. Robert, Hellenica IV %(> Ibid., 15 (11. 2-3; a. 567 or 568-573); 20 (11. 24-25; a. 567). In the fourth century Himerius praises the proconsul of Achaea

(Paris 1948), 35-114; A Cameron, Pap. Ant. III. 115 and the iambic prologue in late Greek poetry, CQ 64 (1970), 119-129, esp. I '•·rvonius as OQ06noAu;: Or. 38.9 (pp. 157-158).
7
125-129. % Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 27-28, 67.
953
Choricius, Or. III.10-19, 20-27, 28-29, 33-34, 35-37, 39-42, 66-78. %X Marcellinus Comes, s.a. 436: ... multaque eidem civitati munificentia praestita ...
180 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 181

their care for their subjects and a means of propaganda for increasing their popularity. Roman law imperial treasury or the emperors may have ordered governors to search for money in provincial
made emperors responsible for construction and restoration of fortification walls, although in practice sources. A passage in the Chronicle of Joshua the Stylite refers to the restoration of Edessa after the
it was necessary for the local authorities and especially for the governors to become involved. 969 In spite Persian war by the emperor Anastasius and mentions the provenance of the funds used and the authorities
of the confiscation of civic revenues by Constantine the Great and Constantius II, construction of public involved. Governor Eulogius received two hundred pounds of gold from the emperor to restore the
buildings continued at the initiative of the emperor. 970 In hisAntiochikos, Libanius explicitly mentions dty. He rebuilt the outer wall, the two aqueducts, the public bath, the praetorium and other buildings
imperial funds intended for the construction of magnificent civic buildings. Influential citizens who had lhroughout the city. The emperor gave also the bishop twenty pounds of gold for repairing the walls.
access to, and connections with, the imperial court, are able to receive and use imperial funds and are The bishop's involvement in the restoration of the walls might have been a symbolic act, to invoke
able to decorate the city with splendid buildings. Libanius recognizes that spending imperial funds for divine protection for the city. The minister Urbicius also gave the bishop ten pounds of gold to build a
civic munificence was more effective and easier than the use of private funds, since imperial funds were church to the Virgin. 978
provided without involving any care, effort or concern on the part of the bouleutai. 971 Imperial donations The praise of the emperor-benefactor by Procopius in his Buildings marks the end of a period. The
for building projects were secured at the request of local influential citizens or bishops. 972 change that had started in the fourth century with the governors' involvement in municipal works was
By the sixth century, emperors had emerged as the main benefactors throughout the empire. now complete by the reign of Justinian, by which time the emperor emerges in literary works as the
Large-scale construction or restoration of urban buildings now occurred for two reasons. Firstly, in new rhief benefactor at a national level. This is also evident in Malalas' Chronicle, which refers particularly
cities that were imperial foundations, buildings were a means of imperial propaganda. Second, after to constructions sponsored by emperors. The picture of the governor-benefactors of individual cities,
natural disasters, building was naturally required. In both cases this was an imperial initiative, since rnmpeting for the first place in building activities has now broadened. Now the individuality oflocal ini-
large sums of money were needed. For example, Anastasius built various buildings, walls and water tiatives is obscured by the uniformity imposed by imperial care, as is described in Procopius' Buildings.
conduits, he cleansed silted harbours, built public baths and gave many other buildings to each city. 973 In the sixth century, new historical circumstances began to divert imperial munificence from the beau-
In a praise of the strategos of Palaestina Prima, Summus, Choricius employs a figure of speech, to state tification of cities with monumental civic buildings to the principal concern of the time, the defence of
that if Apollo were asked how to restore Antioch, which had collapsed in an earthquake, he would have I he empire, for which the construction or restoration of urban walls and fortresses was considered nec-
replied that this could be achieved by means of a good king and an equally good strategos, for the king rssary, a reflection of the changed priorities of the age. Procopius, in a frequently cited passage of his
would restore the collapsed buildings, the strategos would have addressed the needs of the unfortunate Anecdota, blames Justinian for draining the cities of their revenues. The emperor abolished the salaries
residents. Indeed, the emperor has showed generosity ( WQE~E XEtQa i:ft JtOAEl n1vouo(av) and restored of doctors and teachers from public funds, and transferred the civic funds allocated for public specta-
the city, while the strategos has supported the people who suffered from the disaster. 974 cles and civic needs to the state treasury. 979 Cities' diminishing resources undoubtedly affected their ar-
The wording of the inscriptions is often vague and describes in general terms the kinds of buildings chitectural environment. As Procopius observed, urban communities were no longer able to maintain
restored or constructed by emperors. In an inscription from Trebizond, Justinian is mentioned as having I heir buildings. At the same time the emperors' munificence was increasingly directed towards church
restored the public buildings of the city ( &.vavewoEv cpltvouµ(~ ,:a oriµoma xi:(oµai:a i:rjc; n61vcwc;), construction and restoration. In Italy from the fifth century, the emperors showed more interest in ec-
helped by the zeal and munificence ( onouoft xat cpltvoi:LµL~) of the bishop. 975 In another inscription desiastical than in secular munificence, while in the East the shift in favour of ecclesiastical construc-
from the same city, however, only the imperial donation is mentioned without reference to the kinds of t ion is clear from the reign of Justinian. 980
buildings restored ( aui:oxQCtl:WQ ... 'Iouoi:LvLavoc; ... JtUQ£0XE1:0 ... ). 976 Emperors were particularly
concerned with governors who inscribed their names on buildings erected at the public expense without
mentioning the emperor's name and such officers were considered guilty of high treason. 977 Conse- Bishops as euergetes
quently, the emperors' name was usually mentioned in building inscriptions next to those of the governors,
bishops and other officers who might have requested the imperial funding and were responsible for
In the course of the early Byzantine period, bishops emerged as prominent figures in cities. Their
carrying on the work. In such cases, the funds for imperial construction may have derived from the
power increased as soon as Christianity was recognized as a state religion. It was consolidated and in-
creased by the measures of Theodosius against paganism. The decline of civic administration was the
major reason for bishops' involvement in the civic affairs. The politicization of the Church, reflected in
969 Durliat, Les dedicaces, 93-98.
970
the acclamations of clerics in North Africa, grew in parallel with municipal institutions. 981 The formal
Lewin, Urban public building, 28-30; idem, Studi, 135.
971 Libanius, Or. XI.194 (p. 503.14-21): ... af.).' OL 'tfjt:; JtEQL'tOV ~ctCTLAEa yEyovamv hmgtat;, JtAELW 'tfjt:; EV'tctii8ct avaAw- recognition of the bishops' authority in urban administration is to be found in a law, issued in 409 for
CTEW£ ~ 'tOU JtQOCTAct~ELV foxov EQW'tct xal Jtavwz60Ev XCXAA't] H0wv a0QOLCTctV'tE£ EyxmEµLl;av oixoc\oµriµai;wv XCXAA't] 'tql lhe West, and repeated in 505 for the East: the defensor is to be appointed by the bishop, the clergy, the
UCT'tEL ◊LX't]V UCT'tEQWV EXACXµJtovi;a xal yEvoµEVOL 'tfjt:; µEyctAOJtQEJtELctt:; ~yEµOVE£ JtOAAO'U£ foxov 'tO'U£ UXOAO'U0~CTctV'tct£ Aa- lwnorati, the possessores and the curiales. 982 The bishop, together with the proteuontes, was also re-
µJtQO'tEQct 'tfjt:; c\vvaµEwt:; ~E~O'UAE'UµEVO'U£.
972 JGSyr XIII, no. 9134 (Bostra): EX cpLA01:Lµiat; wil ◊ECTJtowv 'Iovoi;mavoil Jtagaoxri0Elorit; EX JtQECT~dat:; wil ootov

UQXLEmox6Jtov ... ; no. 9129.

978
973 Malalas, 335.21. Joshua the Stylite, c. 87 (p. 69).
979
974 Choricius, Or. IV.6-8 (p. 71). Procopius, Historia arcana XXVI.6-7. See also supra, pp. 80-81.
980
975 CIG no. 8636. Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 69-70; Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation, 159, 164.
976 CIG no. 8637 (a. 542). 981 Lepelley, Les cites I, 146-147.

982
977 CTh XV.1.31 (a. 394). CJI.55.8 (a. 409); 11 (a. 505).
182 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 183

sponsible for the appointment of the curator and the sitones .983 This development was perhaps to be ex- Novel 131 recognizes the obligation of the Church to contribute to civic building and restoration, like
pected because bishops possessed the spiritual authority to protect the weak and to ensure the food other urbanpossessores. 995 Occasionally, however, our sources may be misleading. For example, a passage
supply of the city. In the sixth century, numerous Justinianic laws recognized the bishop's authority in from a lost work of Marcellinus Comes, De temporum qualitatibus et positionibus locorum, preserved in
civic administration. The bishop's role was mainly supervisory, rather than executive and it derived Marcellinus' Chronicle, states that the construction of Daras was entrusted by Anastasius to the patri-
partly from his qualities and obligations as a leader of the Christian community, namely Christian com- cian Calliopus, while Zachariah of Mytilene entrusts the bishop of Amida, Thomas, with the opera-
passion and charity, and his fairness and justice.984 The bishops' spiritual authority over their flock and tion.996 Inscriptions also do not clearly specify the bishops' actual role in construction work. For example,
their care for their needs in the urban centres was recognized by all. In time, bishops extended their au- according to a sixth-seventh century inscription, a wall of some unspecified buildings in Panion was
thority in cities to positions of real decision-making, and assumed political initiatives at a local level for constructed by the inhabitants with the assistance (1:fi ouv0Qoµfi xo.t mwuofi) of bishop Justin and the
the benefit of their community. Choricius, in his funeral oration for the orator Procopius of Gaza, ktetor Georgios. 997 In inscriptions recording civic benefactors, the omission of the ecclesiastical order
states that, after Procopius' death, the city will be moored in a great and secure harbour, bishop Mar- or of the civil office creates additional difficulties. 998 Often the bishop is presented as being responsible
cian.985 The bishops, together with the protoi, had fiscal responsibilities in the cities. They collected taxes for construction works, even when the funds were given by the emperor, as in the case of Edessa men-
from land owned by the Church. 986 Bishops took initiatives in times of war and negotiated with the tioned by Joshua the Stylite. 999 In some cases, the bishop had solicited funds from the emperor.10°0The
enemy for the safety of the cities or to ransom Byzantine captives. 987 State administration regarded inscriptions from Bostra, capital of the province of Arabia, show that the sponsors of public works
them as the chief figure responsible for the cities. An imperial edict regarding measures to restrain the changed significantly between the fifth and the sixth centuries. In the fifth century, the dux or the gov-
private guards of landowners from pillaging the countryside was also conveyed to the bishop of Adria- ernor was in charge of the building works, whilst in the sixth century it is the bishop who assumes re-
nopolis in Honorias. 988 It was only in Egypt that, with the exception of Alexandria, the bishop appears sponsibility, even for some military works. 1001 Civil buildings constructed or restored by bishops were
to have had limited involvement in the city administration. 989 various: porticoes, baths, bridges, pools, aqueducts, prisons, walls, public hostels, and harbour. 1002 As
Bishops, together with local leaders, were responsible for protecting the citizens from the abuses for construction of churches and other buildings connected with the Church and philanthropic institu-
of state officers who arbitrarily imposed taxes for various restoration works. Bishops, together with the tions, bishops were naturally responsible for funding and supervision. Communities contributed with
pater and the reputable ktetores, were to enforce the regulations regarding buildings in the cities: they voluntary work to construction projects initiated by bishops. In an inscription from Egypt, soldiers clear
were to prevent people from building on state or civic land next to the walls or inside the porticoes or the debris from a site and the bishop, together with the people, builds a hostel for strangers. 1003 The
on streets, and they were not to allow transfer of ownership of public lots to anyone without imperial people of Panion undertook a building project with the assistance and care of the bishop and a ktetor. 1004
permission. 990 In the fifth century bishops took the initiative in civic construction, for which they used Bishop Marcian of Gaza is praised by Choricius as a benefactor of the city. He has taken the initiative
ecclesiastical funds. Theodoret of Cyrus built porticoes, two bridges, one aqueduct, and renovated of restoring the city's walls. He has asked funds from the emperor, and, with contributions from the cit-
baths with funds from the Church. 991 In Epistle 139, the bishop resembles an ancient civic benefactor izens, he has brought the work to completion. 1005 It would appear that bishops were more persuasive
in his concern to beautify his city with buildings. 992 In Diocaesarea (Sepphoris), in the province ol than their civil counterparts in extracting donations from the citizens for restoration work thanks to
Palaestina Secunda, under bishop Eutropius, the porticoes of the central avenue were repaved by their spiritual authority over their flock. At the same time, bishops collaborated with civil authorities,
Marianus, pater of the city. 993 In Philae in Egypt, the restoration of the walls in the middle of the fifth and vice-versa, at various levels of the administration. The provincial governor Stephanus contributed
century is recorded in two inscriptions. In one, it is stated that bishop Daniel provided the funds.9 91 to the construction of the Church of St. Stephanus in Gaza built by bishop Marcian. 1006 In the disturbed

98 3CJI.4.17; X.27.3 (a. 491-505). 995

Novella 131.5 (a. 545): EL µev-rm 66001:gwotac; f\ yecpugwv otxo6oµfjc; f\ avaVEWOEwc; xgda yevri-rm, xma µtµrimv 'tWV
984 On the role of the bishop as leader of the Byzantine city see Claude, Stadt, 119 ff.; A. Hohlweg, Bischof und Stadthen ciAAWV X't1']"tOQWV 'tO 'tOLO'U'tOV l:gyov xal, -rac; aytac; EXXA1']0Lac; xal, -rouc; UAAOuc; OE~aoµtouc; o'txouc; JtA1']QO'UV, T]VLXa UJt'
im friihen Byzanz, JOB 20 (1971), 51-62; W. Liebeschuetz, The Rise of the Bishop in the Christian Roman Empire and till' 1'.·xetvriv XEX't1']V"taL 'tT]V JtOALV ucp' f\v 'tO 'tOW'U'tOV ylve-rm l:gyov.
996
Successor Kingdoms, Electrum l ( Cracow 1997), 113-125; idem, Decline, 137-155. Marcellinus Comes, s.a. 518.2; Zachariah of Mytilene, Historia Ecclesiastica VII.6. See B. Croke, Marcellinus on Dara:
985 Choricius, Or. VIII.SO (p. 127.10-12).
A Fragment of His Lost De Temporum Qualitatibus et Positionibus Locorum, Phoenix 38 (1984), esp. 83-84, 86-88.
986 J. Durliat, Les attributions civiles des eveques byzantins: l'exemple du diocese d'Afrique (533-709), XVI Int. Byzanti 997
See supra, p. 164.
998
nistenkongress, Wien, 4.-9. Oktober 1981, Akten II, 2 (Vienna 1982), 73-84. Bandy, Inscriptions, nos. 32 (pp. 61-62), 33 (p. 63): renovation of a cistern in Gortyn by a wealthy benefactor or a bishop?
987 999
Claude, Stadt, 124-129; Dagron, Les villes, 17. See supra, p. 181.
988 Feissel and Kaygusuz, Un mandement, 409-410. On the private guards of the powerful see A Lewin, 'lus armorum' 1000
IGSyr XIII, nos. 9134, 9129, 9130.
1001
polizie cittadine e grandi proprietari nell'Oriente tardoantico, Atti dell'Accademia Romanistica Costantiniana, IX Convegn" Feissel, L'eveque, 801-826, esp. 821-823.
1002
lnt., Universita degli Studi di Perugia 1993, 375-386. A. Avramea, Les constructions profanes de l'eveque d'apres l'epigraphie et les textes d'Orient,ACAC XI (1986), 829-
989
Liebeschuetz, The Government, 119-120. 835; idem, 0 mtoxoJtoc; xm 1'] JtOA1']: -ra xooµLxa x-rtoµam, Byzantiaka 7 (1987), 77-89; Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation,
99
°CJI.4.26.8-10 (a. 530). 153-158.
991 1003
Theodoret of Cyrus, Ep. 81 (II, 196.15-19); 79 (II, 186.9-11); 139 (III, 146.15). J. Gascon, Deux inscriptions byzantines de Haute-Egypte (reedition de/. Thebes-Syene 196 r 0 et v°), TM 12 (1994), 337.
992 1004
Ibid., 139 (III, p. 146.13-15): OLClE yag uµwv 'tO µeye8oc; -rfjc; JtoAtxvric; 'tT]V EQ1']µtav, ~c; aµ1']yEJt1'] 'tO d6ex8ec; Xa"tEXQU\I)(( Asdracha, Inscriptions, 324-327.
1005
µev -rai:c; -rwv Jtav-ro6aJtwv ob-to6oµriµa-rwv JtoA1J'tEAdmc;. Choricius, Or. I.7 (p. 4.17-19): µeyat-.mjrnxtac; ouvagaµevric; ~amALxfjc; xal, <:pLAO"tLµtac; -rwv tvmxouv-rwv xma ~fjAov
993 Z. Weiss and E. Netzer, Zippori-1992/1993, ESI 14 (1994), 42-43 (undated); idem, Quadmoniot 30/1 (113) (1997), 14. llflE'tEQOV yevoµevric;. Or. Il.16 (p. 32).
994 1006
E. Bernand, Les inscriptions grecques de Philae, II, Haut et Bas Empire (Paris 1969), nos. 194, 195. Choricius, Or. III.60 (p. 64).
184 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE 185

years of the Avaro-Slavic invasions in the Balkans, the bishop of Justiniana Prima became responsible shaping the values and priorities of the urban elite. At the same time the composition of the upper class
for the imperial interests in the mines in the area. 1007 This collaboration is also clear in the promotion was changing. The old urban aristocracy was losing power and was in financial decline. It was losing its
of imperial propaganda through ecclesiastical monuments. The decoration of the floor mosaic of the members to the imperial service and to the Church. Those who remained were increasingly detached
East Church of Qasr-el-Lebia in Cyrenaica, a Justinianic foundation, contains the representation of from ancient culture and ancient city ideology. A new upper class was emerging without social and cul-
personifications of the kosmesis, the ktisis, and the ananeosis of the city. 1008 tural ties to the old urban aristocracy. Of course, institutional changes and the transformation of the
upper class alone do not account for the profound urban crisis in the Balkans in the last decades of the
sixth century and in Asia Minor in the seventh century: the depopulation, the relocation of cities and
Let us now summarize the facts presented above. The institutional changes of the municipal ad- their ruralization. 1013 The decline of the old administration by the decurions was not the reason for the
ministration, the decline in the funds available, and the transformation of the urban elite are responsi- crisis of the empire and for the collapse of urban life at the end of the early Byzantine period. 1014 Insti-
ble for the demise of civic buildings in the early Byzantine period. The restoration of public buildings tutional changes, together with other cultural, economic and social factors, were responsible primarily
was becoming increasingly difficult; the quality of the work and of the materials used had deteriorated for the decline of urban public space and its ancient monumental appearance. The sources of the sixth
in comparison to those used in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. 1009 century refer nostalgically to the days when the city councils ruled the cities, implying that the respon-
Administrative changes played a major role in altering the physical character of the ancient city. sibilities traditionally executed by the upper class were lost.
The involvement of the state officers in the civic affairs, through their control of part of civic revenues,
and through their decisions on various civic matters, such as construction and maintenance of urban
buildings, was detrimental to the cities' ancient structure. At the same time, the upper class shifted its
interests from civic matters to matters of the imperial administration. The sources describing the de-
cline of the old administrative system insist that the administrators were corrupt and constantly pro-
moted their own financial interests. They also insist on the indifference of the leaders of the local com-
munities regarding their cities. The civic spirit and patriotism and the desire to acquire prestige and
power in cities through civic services was lost forever. The system that had created and maintained the
model of the Greco-Roman city was collapsing and at the same time manifestations of urban public life
were in decline. 1010 The new system of civic administration, formed by the powerful members of the local
communities and the bishops, did not acquire a constitutional structure. 1011 Their duties were not clearly
defined in law, except when it was to deal with the corruption of the state officers or of members of the
local society. They met to decide about civic matters only when urgent issues were confronting the com-
munity, and even then such meetings and decisions were not invested with the formality of the decisions
of the earlier decurions. The new administration of the protoi and the bishops was less efficient than the
old system run by the boule. Civic needs were left unaddressed, whilst aspects of civic life, such as ancient
buildings, were neglected. Steadily declining civic funds could not be recovered. Local administration
was in the process of transformation and there was not enough time to put in place an efficient new
system before the military crisis struck at the end of the sixth and in the seventh century. Moreover, the
central administration of Constantinople had absorbed most of the resources and functions of the
provincial cities. In any case, that the old system was obsolete as regards the needs of the empire from
the end of the sixth century is obvious from the fact that the new administrative structure was based on
the themata rather than on cities. 1012 Cultural changes and the progress of Christianity were now

1007
Popovic, Les activites, 302-303.
1008
See supra, pp. 139-143.
1009 On the deterioration of the construction techniques and materials see infra, pp. 446-448.

1010 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 757; Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 256-265.

1011 Idem, Decline, 120: "In this account of late Roman civic politics I have again and again drawn attention to the absence 1013 M. Whittow, Ruling the Late Roman and Early Byzantine City: a Continuous History, Past and Present 129 (1990), 3-
of formal definition of constitutional institutions, rights, and duties ... Lack of constitutional definition was a characteristic of the 29, insists that the institutional changes had no consequence for the urban life and did not affect urban prosperity and conti-
politics of the age". Idem, The Government, 120-121: "I would suggest that the absence of constitutional definition is character- nuity; Cameron, The Mediterranean World, 168-169.
1014
istic of the political culture of this late period which is very different from the sophisticated constitutionalism of the classical city". See, however, the different view of Liebeschuetz, The uses, 237, and the response of B. Ward-Perkins, in Lavan, Recent
1012 Idem, Decline, 121-124; J. Haldon, Ideology and social change in the seventh century: military discontent as a barom- Uesearch, 240-241 that the constitutional changes in the cities were not the reason for the decline of the empire. In the period
eter, Klio 68 (1986), 171-173; idem, Byzantium, 38, 96-99; idem, The Idea, 9-10. of invasions the empire's survival depended on the military organization and not on local government in the cities.
 THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 187

layout and orderly organization of the urban space was gradually dissolving. The phenomenon is general
and is found in all excavated cities and towns in the East and in the West. Wherever there was a vacant lot
or a disused and decaying public building, private structures were installed. Trespassing on public land
and buildings by private structures is apparently a spontaneous reaction to the abandonment of civic lots,
caused by the decline of the curial class and the changes in the urban administration. The diminishing re-
sources of the municipalities made it increasingly difficult to maintain decaying civic buildings, while the
members of the urban upper class, who were no longer motivated by the spirit of local patriotism and mu-
CHAPTER 7 nificence of their ancestors, showed indifference to preserving the ancient monumentality of their cities.
Furthermore, the process of the Christianization of the empire created more vacant buildings, with the
abandonment of temples and their properties. The archaeological evidence gives the impression that the
THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE urban administration was not efficient enough to protect public property. 1016
AND THE HISTORICAL SOURCES This image of anarchy encroaching on the urban layout, as revealed by the excavations, is, however,
substantially modified by the literary sources, which throw light on the reasons for the phenomenon and
illustrate the process of privatization of public properties. 1017 The written sources reveal that, at least at
The trend toward what we will refer to as "privatization" of urban public space, namely the appro- an early stage, the trend towards privatization was coordinated by the state and municipalities. Civic and
priation of public lots and buildings by private persons, is clearly indicated in the archaeological record pagan vacant lots and buildings attracted influential citizens who acquired ownership through payment
by the extensive construction of poor private dwellings and workshops on the sites of the ancient civic of money, or by illegal appropriation. These were powerful members of the local communities or state
centres - the agora/forum, open public plazas, sidewalks, streets, theatres, hippodromes, administra- officers. In their turn, they will have sold or rented the properties to others to generate income.
tive buildings and pagan temples, and large aristocratic houses of the peristyle type. The poor early Already by the middle of the fourth century the appropriation of public buildings by private indi-
Byzantine structures, with which all archaeologists are familiar, were built with stone rubble and bricks, viduals and the erection of private dwellings on public sites was widespread. This trend alarmed the
spolia and broken reused tiles bonded by means of mortar or mud, or sometimes without any binding emperors who enacted a series oflaws addressing the problem. In an attempt to impede the liquidation
material. The careless construction technique and materials of these early Byzantine structures, inserted of public properties, they sometimes ordered the demolition of private structures, which in other cases
in magnificent earlier Greco-Roman architectural units, contrast with the worked orthogonal ashlars they spared. Thus, for example, in 362, ownership of private houses built above municipal workshops
of ancient buildings. In some cases in an early phase they give the impression that they are sporadically by private individuals was recognized. 1018 Temporary commercial structures or workshops encroaching
intruding into urban public space. Later, however, they gradually occupy it, completely altering the use
of the space, with the result that most of the earlier public buildings and lots were ultimately apparently
owned by private persons. To label such structures, archaeologists employ terms that stress the poverty
of the building materials and of their inhabitants, and the arbitrary and illegal nature of the occupation: 1016
See Claude, Stadt, 58; Sauvaget,A/ep, 104-105.
1017
"poor Byzantine structures" or "squatters' occupation". These early Byzantine structures in urban public In the modern bibliography on the subject we now find a new approach to this phenomenon. Liebeschuetz, Late Late
sites are very difficult to date, because of the poverty of the datable material remains. In most of the Antiquity, p. 45 states that encroachment before the final collapse of the cities in the seventh century "is not necessarily evi-
archaeological publications, they are referred to in general terms as "early Byzantine structures". In dence of the loss of control by the civic authorities", and p. 46: "But infilling of a less substantial kind became increasingly preva-
lent towards the end of the sixth century and later, and this may well reflect a weakening of municipal administration". Fiema,
some cases, as will be seen in the following chapters, they date already to the fourth and fifth cen-
Late-antique Petra, 220: "In this respect Petra's Early Byzantine market is more comparable to the planned and fairly orderly
turies.1015 It is certain that they multiply towards the end of the early Byzantine period, in the sixth and Umayyad structures of a suq ... than to a spontaneous and haphazard expansion transforming a classical colonnaded street
in the seventh centuries. In studying them, we face an additional difficulty, for classical archaeologists into a mediaeval commercial quarter ... the 'Byzantine shops' in Petra can hardly be considered a makeshift or temporary
have often neglected them and cleared them away in order to reach the Roman levels and reveal pres- arrangement". S. T. Loseby employs a similar approach at Aries in Late Antiquity: Gallula Roma Areias and Urbs Genesii, in
tigious classical monuments. There are rarely recorded accurately and only exceptionally has interest Christie and Loseby, Towns in Transition, 57, speaking of a "utilitarian approach as the visual appearance of some monuments
been taken in placing them in the broader urban context. is compromised and redundant buildings and spaces are sacrificed". This transformation "begins as official policy, it never
descends into anarchy (unless temporarily), and it takes a long time", and p. 54: " ... an orderly relaxation, or redefinition, of
The poor early Byzantine private constructions erected in vacant urban lots and in decaying civic
the boundaries between public and private space which, in Aries in the fourth and fifth centuries, can only have been carried out
buildings give the impression that public buildings were abandoned and were illegally appropriated by with official encouragement". Leone, Topographies, 275-277 speaks of "ordered evolution" of the proliferation of workshops
private persons. The picture revealed by the excavations everywhere is that, in fact, the ancient urban in the urban space, and p. 282: " ... the North African evidence does suggest that the establishment of production sites in un-
usual settings should not universally be interpreted as part of urban decay. The locations of production centres might still relate
to the practical commercial choices made by artisans over several hundred years". Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 209
recognizes how much archaeological evidence alone can be misleading if it is not complemented with the historical sources: "As
1015 See, for example, Muller-Wiener, Von der Polis, 449,459 dates the encroachment onto streets to the fifth century. C. an archaeologist (as well as historian), I certainly find it a suitably humbling warning of the dangers of guessing too freely at mo-
Sintes, La reutilisation des espaces publics a Aries: un temoignage de la fin de l'antiquite, AntTard 2 (1994), 181-192: the tivation, to realize that, if I had excavated the sixth-century private houses built into the Porticus Curva in ignorance of Variae
encroachment on the streets and other public sites dates to the end of the fourth and to the fifth century. The phenomenon IV.24, I might well have labelled them 'squatter occupation', and undoubtedly would never have guessed that they were also
has been interpreted as a consequence of population increase, when the administrative and political centre of Gaul was moved part of a carefully controlled government policy of preserving unwanted, but aesthetically pleasing, buildings".
from Trier to Aries between 394-408. 1018
CTh XV.1.9.
188 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 189

on the sidewalks are recorded in the Roman cities earlier, but the phenomenon was not general nor did
it bring about the dissolution of ancient stoas. 1019 More often these installations were movable. Pompeian
wall paintings depict street-stall of various merchants in front of colonnades probably of the forum. 1020
Similar merchants' booths are depicted in the Yakto mosaic in Antioch. Booths of vendors were also
installed on sidewalks during festivals. Such stands are described by Choricius in the early sixth century
and are called "tents" ( axriva(). 1021 By contrast, in the early Byzantine period trespassing on the colon-
nades and sidewalks and later on streets became a permanent feature. From the fourth century, the
porticoes of streets and civic centres gradually lost their earlier function as places for socializing and as
architectural adornments of the cities. A utilitarian approach to the colonnades is evident and eco-
nomic considerations prevailed over the traditional functions of the porticoes. Gradually private struc-
tures encroached on the colonnades. This trend was slow but widespread and it is revealed in excava-
tions of most urban centres of a later date (Plan 4, Figures 26, 27, 28a, 28b ). Libanius describes it in his
Antiochikos:

The cities which we know pride themselves especially on their wealth exhibit only one
row of goods for sale, that which lies before the buildings, but between the columns
of the stoas no one works; with us, however, even these spaces are turned into shops,
so that there is a workshop facing almost each one of the buildings. These are wooden
huts, with brushwood for the roofs, and no space is without some handicraft; but if
a man gets possession of a little strip of space, it at once becomes a tailor's shop or
something of that order, and people cling to such places as they would to ropes, like
Odysseus to the wild fig tree. 1022

In Oratio XXVI, addressed to governor Icarius, Libanius refers to the same structures in between
Antioch's columns as tents ( CT'XY)VU£) and huts ( xaM~a£). 1023 This text also throws light on the circum-
stances which brought about the encroachment onto the street porticoes in fourth-century Antioch.
Merchants and artisans were allowed to establish their workshops in the intercolumnar space of the
porticoes, so that the city would increase its income from their rent. 1024 The komes Orientis Proclus im-
posed rent on these businesses at sometime between 382-384, which was then sanctioned by his succes-
sor Icarius. 1025 Thus the city benefited financially from the commercial enterprises lodged between the
columns of the porticoes ( auAAeyoµevwv XQY)µai:wv, i:o UQYUQLOV, i:fuv ELCTJtQan6vi:wv ~µfuv ). 1026 The

1019
For references see Festugiere,Antioche, 57.
1020 Ling, Roman Painting, 163-164.
1021 Choricius, Or. II.61.

1022
Transl. Downey, 679-680. Or. XI.254 (I, 527.3-13): at JtOA.ELc;, oaac; l'.aµEv E:rtL JtA.OUtqJ µaA.LOta cpgovouaac;, /lva atoi:xov
tWV wvlwv 0ELXVU01JOL, tOV tWV OLXT]µctt(J)V :rtgoxElµEVOV, EV OE toi:c; µfomc; tWV XLOVWV egya~Etm 01.16Elc;, nag' ~µi:v Of xaL
tailta JtWA.T]tl]QLa, WOtE EXctOt01J µtxgoil tWV OLXT]µctt(J)V avtLJtQOO(J)JtOV EgyaOtl]QLOV, avtl:rtvgym ~UA.LVOL xaL QW:rtEc; ELc;
OXEJtT]V, xaL t6:rtoc; oMELc; 'ljJLA.oc; XELQOtEXVl]µatoc;, UA.A.a xav µtxgoil tLc; A.a~T]taL xgaa:rte6ov, :rtagaxgfiµa toilto axEOtl]QLOV ~
tL naga:rtA.l]OLOV, xaL exovtm 6~ twv t6:rtwv olov xa1,,w6lwv, &a:rtEQ 'O6vaa1ovc; toil EQLVEOil. See Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 55-56.
1023
Or. XXVI.20, 21 (III, 12.15, 13.1). The term OXT]Val is also used by Choricius in Or. II.61 (p. 43.7).
1024
Or. XXVI.20 (III, 12.14-20): IlaQQT]OLctOOµm 6~ xaL JtEQL tWV a:rto tWV EV µfoqi tWV XLQV(J)V OXT]VWV, tl yag <'iv a.A.AO PLAN 4. Encroachment on colonnades and late antique
tLc; ELJtOL tailta; 01JA.A.Eyoµevwv XQT]µctt(J)V, TovtL yag ~XLOta XQfiV yEyovevm to egyov, ecp' (9 xaxwc; µEta 6axguwv axouoµEv street, according to the schema established by Sauvaget.
'UJtO tWV 01.IX E:rtL tOUtOLc; avtac; t~V agx~v JtE:rtOLT]XOt(J)V, UA.A.' o:rtwc; EVtEil0Ev ELT] tL toi:c; UVT]A.WXOOL.
1025
c. 22 (III, 13.9-17). Petit, Libanius, 96: "c'est done plut6t un layer". On the "6T]µ6ma tEA.rj" paid by the workshops of
Constantinople distinguished from the rent (ati,yov6µta) see Novella 43.1.3 ( a. 537).
1026 c. 20, 21, 22 (III, 12.16, 13.5, 13.10-11).
190 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 191

FIG. 26. The south side of the upper part of the Embolos in Ephesus in front of the Gate
of Hercules, with walls blocking the intercolumnar space.
FIG. 28a. Exterior of the south stoa of the ancient agora of
Messene blocked with early Byzantine walls to create shops.

FIG. 27. Walls built between street columns in Apamea.

FIG. 28b. Early Byzantine subdivisions inside the portico of the agora of Messene forming shops.
192 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 193

renting of merchants' stalls to generate income for the cities is also known from the papyri. 1027 Libanius
defends and sympathizes with the merchants burdened by the new rent. These structures are liable to
be demolished by the passage of time, the planks and other building material will be dismantled, and
the merchants will be forced out, to be left without a place to live. 1028
These were predominantly artisans (XELQOTEXV'fl~), 1029 were poor and resided in these humble
structures. There is no doubt that the encroachment on the porticoes, rather than being caused by neglect
CHERCHEL c. AD430

on the part of municipal authorities, was in fact permitted, in order to generate income at a time of
PHASE 4
declining urban revenue. Libanius explains that Proclus had invented this rent for a good cause, to pro-
church
vide some income for those who were burdened with the liturgy of supporting the poor. However, during
the administration of Icarius, the money was actually used to finance theatrical performances. 1030 It is I
I
likely that these temporary wooden huts were gradually replaced by permanent structures built of stone I
door
bonded with mortar or mud, similar to those found in all early Byzantine cities. How long the cities con- Ina rt hex nave

tinued to extract revenues from these structures in the porticoes is unknown. They probably finally
passed into the ownership of the merchants and artisans, thus becoming permanent dwellings and 1 wooden
screen

workshops. The perishable material with which these structures in the colonnades were originally built doors
has not leave traces, unless excavators have failed to record the remains of wood left when these struc-
tures were destroyed by fire. 1031 Rarely are the holes of the poles supporting such structures mentioned north ambulatory
in site reports. Such holes, however, have been identified in the forum of Iol Caesarea, capital of the
Roman province of Caesarea Mauretanensis, modern Cherchel in Algeria (Plan 5). They are found
near the Christian church of the forum and they probably indicate the site of wooden commercial struc-
east
tures like those described by Libanius. These structures were attached to the columns of the porticoes
of the forum and the entrance to the stalls has been identified. Graffito near one entrance carved on a
paving stone refers to the owner of the stall. These inscriptions date to the fifth century. 1032 Numerous
Lj_LJ
I Stal Is
L
ambulatory

post holes are found in the ancient agora of Corinth. They may have been used for posts supporting
boards for public announcements or more probably for market stalls. 1033 Post holes and grooves found
in other fora are not arranged in such a way as to allow their identification as traces of stalls with cer-
tainty. Only at Philippi in Greece on the east side of the agora do the marks suggest installation of
forum
•
stalls. 1034 The difficulty in identifying such traces may be caused by the poor state of preservation of
paving in many agorai. 1035
In 398, a decree of Arcadius and Honorius, issued at Constantinople and addressed to the City's
•
Prefect, describes the trend towards the expansion of private construction on the city's vacant lots.
Structures, especially the commonly called parapetasia, were attached to public or private buildings,

1027 Alston, The City, 275, 337.

1028 c. 21 (III, 13.1-8): ·d b' a{n:ac; CLUCTWCTEL tac; 'XUAU~ac;, otav Oµi':v XQOVOc:;, 0 Ctj JtE<jlU'XE JtOLELV, <p0ELQU, ~0110ti bi': µ116Elc;,
u;
f\ 'XUL ◊Laamiaac; EXU E'XUCTtoc; tac; tE oavlbac; xal ta CJ.AA.a, to DE fVOL'Xi'jCTOV OU'X Jt00EV O'UV fotm tOUtO to UQYUQLOV; f(J) yaQ, 0 5 15
m
we; OU'X fotm to1:c; JtEV1'jCTLV OL'X1'jCTLc; tOUtWV µi::v UVUQ11µtvwv, toU DE t&v oi-x11µatwv µw0ou µEltovoc; f\ 'Xat' f'XELVouc; ovtoc;.
1029
c. 23 (III, 14.1).
1030 c. 23 (III, 13.18-14.2): IlQO'XAOc:; t&v AELtoUQYOUVtWV to1:c; JtEV1'jCTL JtOQOV tLVa tOUtOV UVEUQEV, OU 'XUAOV µi::v oubi\

0.~LOV ti'jc; JtOAEWc:;, OU YUQ Iaov ~µE1:c:; tE -xal B1'jQUtoc;, JtQOCTi'jv b' O'UV tL axiJµatoc; tq:, JtQayµatL ... vuv DE fJtL tt]V CT'X1'jVt]V tOUto PLAN 5. Part of the forum of Iol Caesarea with an early Byzantine church
tEtQUJttm, onwc; a 'XAUWV oXELQOtExvric; tl01'jCTLV, f'X tOUtWV EL1'j tQU<jlUV OQXUCTta1:c; tE 'XUL µ[µme; ... See also Petit, Libanius, installed in the portico and post holes of merchants' stalls.
228-229.
1031 Saradi,Urban Space, 299.

1032 Potter,Iol Caesarea, 36-39 and figs. 14-17 and 25.

1033 Corinth I/iii, 141.

1034 M. Seve, P. Weber, Le cote nord du forum de Philippes, BCH 110 (1986), 580.

1035 Potter, fol Caesarea, 73-75.

194 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY
THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 195

causing an increased risk of fire. On avenues, porticoes were narrowed, obviously in order to create new
commercial space ( aut angustentur spatia platearum vel minuatur porticibus latitudo ). Such structures n 1cs wer~ ~eacons. In Spoleto the deacon Helpidius, doctor and friend of Theodoric, made a request
were to be destroyed. 1036 In the capital the phenomenon had become widespread. In an imperial decree It ,r perm1ss1on to restore a portico and a small plaza (areola) behind the baths of Torasius. The aim of
of the year 409, even parts of the grounds of the imperial palace were occupied by private buildings, ll1t· request was to restore the beauty and splendour of the place, ruined by the passage of time. How-
which were to be demolished.1 037 In 439 a law of Theodosius II and Valentinian prohibits residents of t·wr, buildings transferred to private persons were, of course, stripped of their valuable materials,
Constantinople from appropriating portions of streets or entire streets, or porticoes without imperial h1onze, lead and marble. In Rome, another deacon asks permission to build a house in the portico
rescript, and those, which had already been appropriated by private persons, should be returned to the 1·alled the Curua of the forum of Nerva, whilst another notable asks for permission to take possession
1,f a public warehouse in Rome.10 44
city. 1038 The substantial fine, 50 pounds of gold, levied on those who encroached on the porticoes of the
capital's streets indicates that it was not poor merchants and artisans who were responsible for these ~ la:" _of Justinian of the year 530 forbids state officers to overtax the cities who pretend to perform
constructions, but rather the wealthy owners of the houses behind the colonnades of the central av- n·rtam c:v1c works, among which is mentioned the demolition of buildings constructed next to the city
enues.1039 Later the emperor Zeno forbade the construction of workshops and dwellings closing the walls or m the colonnades and between the columns (ncgl i:fji; i:&v ol'Xo&oµ17µa,:wv ngoi; i:oii; i:dxrnL
space between subsequent columns of the public porticoes from the Milion up to the Capitolium in 11 11 0mgfocwi; ~ ,:wv EV i:aii; oi:oaii; ycvoµevwv 'XUTaAUOf())V ~ ,:wv 'XUAO'lJµevwv JtQO◊O'lJA.flffiV %UL

Constantinople. These were built with boards or other materials. 1040 The emperor orders that the width h 1nntwv i:onwv fji:m µrnooi:uAwv avai:gonfji;). 1045 Bishops, with the leaders of the urban communi-
of their fa<;ade on the avenue should not exceed six feet and the height seven feet. They should also . t~e provincial govern?rs, the wealthy landowners and the citizens are assigned the duty of lodging
11 h1cct10ns to any state officers' attempt to burden the cities financially in order to carry on such works.
leave passages from the porticoes to the avenue free for traffic. On the exterior, these workshops are to
be dressed with marble slabs to adorn the city and so be pleasing to passers by. 1041 The Prefect of the 111 addition, the bishop, the pater of the city and other respectable leading citizens, are made responsi-
City is to decide about the regulations regarding the workshops built between the columns of the other for establishing order in urban areas regarding construction. They are to prevent the appropriation
streets in the capital ( ev i:oii; µfomi; i:&v 'XLovwv i:onmi; 'Xai:ao'XEUatoµcva egyaoi:tj(na). He should be ol lots belonging to the municipalities or to the state, lots by the urban fortifications or inside the public
careful to secure the rights of the neighbours. Zeno's concern was mainly aesthetic. 1042 Such modest porlicoes and avenues or in any other place. 1046 Other public buildings were also divided with wooden
structures between the columns of the avenues' porticoes were poor residences and workshops of artisans walls. Boards were appended to the intercolumniation of the circus in Constantinople and divided its
(,:a ,:mai:i,:a ol'Xtjµa,:a fj,:m egyaoi:rJQLa) .1043 Upper porticoes, which had to be removed because they constituted a fire hazard. 1047 Basilicas were also
By the fifth century such structures were therefore firmly established in the urban space and were Mtlidivided with boards, to create offices for professionals or workshops.1048
sanctioned by law. The trend was precipitated in the sixth century. In Italy, thanks to barbarian inva- In his treatise On the Laws or Customs in Palestine, the sixth-century architect Julian of Ascalon ex-
sions and settlements, the dissolution of the urban space was more dramatic. In Cassiodorus' Variae, pi 1'sscs aesthetic concerns in connection with preserving the beauty of the cities. He also mentions reg-
conversion of porticoes to houses is legal. The public porticoes were recognized as properties of the 11t1t ions defining the legal rights of the shopkeepers and artisans on the space of the street colonnades.
crown and the individuals interested in appropriating them had to make a formal request to the king. I lne it is recognized that all shopkeepers have the right to use the space under the public porticoes and
In the two cases, attested in Cassiodorus' Variae, the individuals asking for ownership of public porti- small alleys in front of their house. 1049 This practice may be illustrated in the Y akto mosaic from
t\111 i< >eh where various activities of professionals are depicted in the colonnades (see supra, p. 121, Figure
. . o f a11eys and side
l•1050 .The appropnat1on . streets by pnvate
. . also attested in archaeological
structures 1s
1036 CTh XV.1.39; 46 (a. 406). ,',cavattons. They usually date earlier than the encroachment of structures on major streets and avenues.
1037 CTh XV.1.47. h11 licr Roman regulations imposed restrictions on the use of porticoes and streets by private persons.
1038 CJ VIIl.11.20: Qui sine auctoritate divini rescripti ad iudicium tuae celsitudinis destinandi angiportus integros vcl
. regulations attributed to Papinian in the Digest and written in Greek (e'X ,:oi} aoi:uvoµL'XOiJ µovo-
partes suis domibus incluserint seu porticus usurparint, procul dubio iura pristina sacratissimae reddere civitati iubemus: multa fitl IA.ou i:ou IlamvLavou) give orders to keep the streets and the area in front of the workshops free to
auri quinquaginta librarum non defutura, si quis posthac in similem audaciam prodire temptaverit.
1039 Patlagean, Pauvrete, 60. In Rome and in Roman provincial cities the houses of the rich had shops in the front and th,·
the circulation of chariots. Special provision was made only for the fullers who were allowed to
engagement of the Roman upper class in commercial activities is well documented: A. Wallace-Hadrill, Elites and trade in th,:
Roman town, in Rich and Wallace-Hadrill, City, 249-264. Olympias owned all the houses by the Great Church in Constan
tinople and all the workshops in the so-called µeariµPgtvov eµPoAov: Vita St. Olympiadis,AnBoll 15 (1896), 414.6-8. During
lfHI Cassiodorus, Variae IV.24.1, 30; 1.25; VII.44. On the policy of Casssiodorus to transfer antique buildings to private
the reign of Justinian members of the upper class are also attested as owners of workshops: A. Cekalova, Fortune des senateurs
see Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 204 ff.; idem, Re-using, 241-242; C. La Rocca, Una prudente maschera
de Constantinople du 1ve au debut du vne siecle, in Eupsychia I, 121-122. Archaeology confirms the written sources. Frn
"m,tiqiia". La politica edilizia di Teoderico, in Teoderico ii Grandee i Goti d'Italia,Atti del XIII Congresso internazionale di studi
example, the shops of a residential quarter that was developed in Pella in the second quarter of the sixth century were part I/to Medioevo, Milano 2-6 novembre 1992 (Spoleto 1993), II, 451-515, esp. 466-471.
of large houses some of which had up to 14 rooms: Walmsley, Pihl (Pella), 252. See also Sodini, L'artisanat, 110. Later in 1111
., Cl 1.4.26.8; X.30.411.
Constantinople workshops were an attractive investment of the Byzantine aristocrats: M. Kaplan, Les artisans dans la societ,:
rni,, CJ 1.4.26.9. See also CJX.30.11 and 14: the transactions with which public lots were transferred to private persons against
de Constantinople aux vne-x1e siecles, in Byzantine Constantinople, 257-258.
l.iw should be declared null. Only with the emperor's rescript could public properties be transferred to private owners.
°
104 CJ VIII.10.12.6: µl]OEVL e1;e1:vm JtOAAOU£ Ecpel;fi£ XLOVU£ EV taL£ oriµoalm£ CT1:0UL£ taL£ &no toil xaA01JµEV01J MtALOll 11111
CTh XV.1.45 (a. 406).
UXQl toil KaJtEtWAL01J &nocpgattElV oixtjµamv EX aavlowv µ6vwv f\ xaL UAAW£ EV µfocv tWV XlOVWV XatUCTXE1JatoµevOL£. 18
w Cl VIII.11.21 (a. 440): neque in aliqua parte eiusdem basilicae tabulato quicquam opere stationes ergasteriave constitui
1041 Ibid. c. 6b: xaAAwnlteaem OE ta tmailta oixtjµata l]tOl Egyaattjgta µagµaQOL£ e1;w8ev, WCTtE xaAA.0£ µEv faMvm 111
II< HJ111S.
JtOAEl, '\j)vxaywy1']v OE tOL£ paoltovm. 1111
'' Julian of Ascalon, c. 36: Kexgfio0m OE exaotov ev tE oriµoalm£ at0m£ xaL i6twttxa1:£ xaL nagaogoµlm i:q:, ngopepArJ-
1042
Saradi, Kallas, 41-42. , <thoil ol'.xcp UXQl toil ~µlCTEO£ 1:WV 0lOQLt6vtwv wlxwv ta Ea1Jt0il xaL ta toil yElt0VO£.
1043 CJVIII.10.12.6b; Libanius,Descriptiones, vol. VIII, 474.1-2. 111 11
' Antioch I, 134 and fig. 13 (p. 135), 137-138 and figs. 16 (p. 139), 20 (p. 138).
196 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 197

dry fabrics outdoors and carpenters who could place their wheels outside their workshops. 1051 In the wne charged with the maintenance of water conduits. 1060 In the sixth century, the cleaning of the
treatise of Julian of Ascalon, the responsibility for repair of the porticoes was proportional to the de 1tcwage system was an obligation of the residents of city neighbourhoods. 1061 With the passage of time,
gree of use by the owners of the dwellings and shops in the porticoes. When the columns of a portic( 1 when the civic administration had weakened and the importance of public space was declining, the cit-
and the superstructure above them had to be restored, the shop owners in the portico were to con ltt•ns' obligations to maintain public amenities adjacent to their properties contributed to their exclu-
tribute half the expense, on account of their use (XQllOLV) of the portico, for the shopkeepers and arti ~1vc use and ownership by private persons. In the past, construction and restoration of urban fortifica-
sans used most of the space in the colonnades. 1052 This was a form of liturgy attested in earlier cen 1inns was financed from civic revenues. In the early Byzantine period, however, the law exacted contri-
turies. 1053 The owners of the level above the portico were to contribute the other half of the expenSl'. h11tions from citizens for this purpose. 1062 In a law of the year 413, the owners of the lands through
The owners of the level above the workshops in the upper part of the portico are not to be charged, be which the new Theodosian wall of Constantinople was erected are assigned the duty of repairing the
cause not only they do not benefit from the portico, but they are actually obscured by it. For the repair lowers at their own expense each year. In return, they were given the privilege of using the towers,
of a portico roof, the owners of the workshops in the portico are to bear half of the expense, since it was pt 11bably for storage. The obligation was transferred to the future owners of these lands. The legislators
they who used the portico. The owners above the ground level shop, inside the portico are to pay 01w ,It-dare: "thus the splendour of the work and the fortifications of the City shall be preserved, as well as
sixth, while the owner of the apartment on the roof of the portico is to pay the remaining third. Only the the use of such fortifications to the advantage of private citizens" .1063 Once again, the initiative on the
restoration of the columns, their capitals and bases is to be defrayed with public funds. 1054 These regu part of the state to transfer the maintenance expenses of public buildings to the citizens indicates how
lations regarding the share of the expense for the porticoes' repair by the shop owners echo local tra lhc distinction between public and private was fading.
dition. According to Talmudic sources, the shop owner at the ground level pays for the repair of the Pagan sites were also transferred to private persons from the fourth century on. The occupation of
ceiling of the stoa, and the one above it for the roof. 1055 The use of the space of the portico by the shop lemples for other uses is very difficult to date and new structures are difficult to identify. 1064 The
keepers is also mentioned in another regulation of Julian of Ascalon, according to which in front of the prncess is documented in the historical sources and archaeological excavations. The sanctuary of Zeus
taverns lining porticoes, mattresses or straw mats (O"tt~aoa,; 11 'ljJtaOta) were sometimes spread io HI Gerasa, which functioned only for a short period, offers one of the earliest examples of the transfer
order to serve those customers who would like to look on the street or on the market. This practice is nf public property to private owners: in the third and fourth century workshops were already installed
1065 In the middle of the fourth century in Rome structures were already attached to
forbidden, however .1056 ,111 parts of the site.

Julian of Ascalon defines the preferential rights of the owners of the stores and workshops in rela 1t·rnples, and in 367, Praetextatus, the pagan Prefect of the City (367/8), ordered that they be cleaned
tion to the colonnades. These regulations and the established practice of the use of the porticoes obvi away. 1066 In a smaller site like Delphi, shops and workshops were installed on the sacred site of the temple,
ously had consequences in the urban public space, leading to the extension of the businesses into the as well as houses. Rich private houses were constructed in the area around the pagan temple of Apollo
porticoes. In the regulations collected by Julian of Ascalon the distinction between public and privak 1111 the terraces of the sanctuary' s peribolos, to the south, west and north. A poor neighbourhood

space was blurred. Julian documents the transition from the right of merchants and artisans to use the , kvcloped to the east. 1067 The impressive Christian basilica of the fifth century was built near the temple
porticoes to their actual appropriation. 1057 111 Apollo on a terrace above it. At that time the pagan sanctuary was abandoned and only its adytum

In other cases also the state transferred the expense of maintaining public structures to private cit • was destroyed. The Sacred Road was converted into a commercial street. In one of its niches was
izens. In the Digest, a regulation attributed to Papinian specifies that each citizen is obliged to repair 111stalled a glass workshop, money dealers in the Treasure of the Athenians and a pottery kiln above the
the public street in front of his house and clean the water conduits to facilitate the passage of chari- 11iches. The early Byzantine city expanded in the area around the pagan sanctuary. 1068 In Kato Paphos
ots.1058 Constantine had exempted landowners over whose lands aqueducts passed from extraordinary m Cyprus new structures were built on the dromos leading to the underground pagan sanctuary of
burdens and ordered them to cleanse the aqueducts when needed instead. 1059 In Antioch, shopkeepers l\pollo. The sanctuary went out of use in the late fourth or early fifth century and an early Christian
hasilica was built on the site. 1069 Further to the east, the Great Temple in Petra was converted into a

1051
Dig. XLIII.10.2: 'EmµEAEL08wcrav M 01tW£ µl]OEL£ OQUOOt] TU£ 0001.1£ µl]OE xwvvun µl]OE X'tLOt] El.£ TU£ 0001.1£ µl]Ot'V'
d M µtj, o µi\v OOilAO£ uno Toil EvTuxc\vw£ µacri;Lyoucr8w, 6 OE EAEU8EQO£ evOELxvucr8w i;oi:£ &.cri;uvc\µm£, oi OE &.cri;uvc\µ01
1060
t11µwui;wcrav xma i;ov vc\µov xal, To yEyovo£ xarnA'UETwcrav. C. 4: 'EmµEAELcr8wcrav OE xal, 01tW£ JtQO i;wv egyacri;11gtuiv Libanius, Or. XLVI.21 (III, 389.14).
1061
µl]OEv JtQOXELµEvov TI, JtA~v Mv xvacpE'l.1£ iµchLa 'ljJuyn ~ i;i\xi;wv TQOXO'l.1£ /!l;w TL8ft• TL8fo8wcrav OE xal, oui;m, &cri;E µ~ xwAunv Julian of Ascalon, c. 45.
1062
aµal;av BaottELv. See also Saliou, Les lois, 11-13. CTh XV.1.34, 49. See also Durliat, Les dedicaces, nos. 29 (pp. 71-77), 30 (pp. 77-78), 32 (pp. 80-83); Ward-Perkins,
1052
Julian of Ascalon, c. 37.1: El. OE crwa1:£ itago.xELVTaL xal, EJtLXELV'tm l.otwnxol, olxm EJtLJtEOot TE xal, UJtEQ/pOL, El OET]8d.11 Viom Classical Antiquity, 36-37, 194-196.
1063
011µocrta (J'tO(l JtEQLJtOLtjOEW£ xal, 0LOQ8WOEW£, emyLVWOXELV XQ~ EJtL µEv 'tft JtQOBoAft xal, 'tft 't<DV XLOVWV O'tO.OEL xal, Tft 't(Hl CTh XV.1.51 (transl. Pharr; CJVIII.11.18).
1064
EJtt(J't1JAO'U XU'tUOXE'Uft 't(l µEv egyacri;tjgLa 'ta EV 'tft (J'tO<;i µEQO£ fjµwu OLa 't~V XQfiOLv, fjv exoumv EV au'tft TO JtOA'l.l yag 'tl)C, See, for example, S. P. Kowalski, Doubtful Christian Reutilization of the Baalshamin Temple in Palmyra, DaM 9
xgtjcrEW£ To egyacri;tjgwv EXEL ev Tft crw<;t. ( 1996), 217-226.
1065
1053
See supra, p. 166. J.-P. Braun, Gerasa, Sanctuary of Zeus,AJA 102 (1998), 598.
1066
1054
Julian of Ascalon, c. 37.2, 3. Ammianus Marcellinus XXVII.9.10.
1067
1055
L. Di Segni, Using Talmudic sources for city life in Palestine, JRA 13/2 (2000), 786. Petridis, Delphes, 685, 694; A Badie, V. Deroche and Pl. Petridis, Delphes. Villa Sud-Est, BCH 121 (1997), 754-755
1056
Julian of Ascalon, c. 17.3. and plan; BCH 122 (1998), 543-547.
1068
1057
Ibid., pp. 129-130. V. Deroche, Delphes: la christianisation d'un sanctuaire pafon,ACAC XI (/989), III, 2717-2722.
1069
1058
Dig. XLIII.10. F. Giudice et al., Paphos, Garrison's Camp. Campagna 1990, RDAC 1994, 215-268; idem, Paphos, Garrison's Camp.
1059
CTh XV.2.1 (a. 330). <'ampagna 1991, RDAC 1996, 171-267.
198 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 199

residential quarter .1070 In Egypt, houses were built in the courtyard of the temple of Chnum in ElephantitH-,
on the temple site of Jeme (Medinet Habu), and on the dromos of Karnak. 1071 Wealthy individuals
appropriated temple land at several sites, as, for example, they did at Delphi in Greece. Libanius informs
us that temples were bought by Antioch's leading families and transformed into private houses. lff/'
Obviously the notables of the local communities had the means of appropriating pagan temples and
their land under advantageous conditions through legal methods or by exercising their influence. Although
Constantine forbade petitions for privatization of temples, 1073 emperors often gave them to privah· L:
persons. 1074 Private individuals plundered the temples for building materials and stole their precious
treasures, 1075 and in 397 materials from temples were to be used for construction or renovation of roads,
bridges, aqueducts and walls. 1076 Most of the temples and their properties were taken by the emperors·
res privata, while others were transferred to the Church. 1077 In Constantinople the courtyard of the tempk·
of the Sun on the acropolis was converted into dwellings by Theodosius and donated to the Church of SL
Sophia, the temple of Artemis was turned into a gaming room for dice players, and the temple of
Aphrodite was turned into a carriage-house. 1078 In a law issued in Milan, Arcadius and Honorius gave tht·
~
properties of temples inside the cities to the municipalities and to the members of the guilds on per
petual lease. 1079 From the fourth century, then, the properties of the temples were owned by the res
privata and the Church and were transferred to the municipalities, professional corporations and pri
vate persons. While workshops and houses were frequently established on the sites of pagan temples.
upon the arbitrary expropriation of the site of the temple, more frequently temple properties were trans-
ferred to new owners following the legal procedure of a petition. 1080 In Italy, according to Cassiodorus,
temples were transferred to individuals who promised to restore them, but who ultimately plundered
them. 1081
Everywhere the areas of the ancient civic centres - the agora/forum - were also gradually aban-
doned and their civic buildings were assigned other uses, more often commercial or industrial. Private
houses also occupied the open area and porticoes of the agora Cyrene in North Africa is one of the
best-known sites (Plan 6). Private houses appeared on the north and east sides of the agora in the sec-
I
ond half of the third century. After the destruction of the area by an earthquake in 365, more houses
were constructed. In the early fifth century houses more densely built multiply, and construction ,%/,
spreads over the open area of the agora. In the centre, house XI was a rich residence, decorated with
mosaics dating to the early fifth century and probably owned by a high official. 1082 Open areas in the

1070
Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 196.
1071
Alston, The City, 116-119, 317.
1072
Libanius, Ep. 724.2 (X, p. 650.6-8): ... Ek66ou1coc; oux il~QEL xat JtaQotvlc,x 6u\ona i:o LEQOV, atctc' ovi:wv i:wv mo-
tcouvi:wv EWVYjl:O n0dc; i:ac; i:tµac;, JtQiiyµa JtOLWV, oJtUOLV i'ol;fiv i:oi:c; 6uvaµevotc; WVEi:o0m; 1364.7 (XI, 411.16-18): ME1:EJtAa-
oav vEwc; de; olxlav ot 0atcaoolou JtQiiyµa Jtotouvi:Ec; aQfoxov i:cr XQmouvi:t 1:61:E.
1073
CTh X.10.24 (a. 405), 32 (a. 425). It was also forbidden to sell the temples to the res privata; CJVII.38.2 (a. 387).
1074
Libanius, Or. XVII.7 (II, 210.4-5): ,:oi,c; M ~e~111couc; anocp11vac; JtOQVotc; i'ovmxei:v i':'6wxe; XXX.38 (III.108.1 ): EXElv6~ PLAN 6. Late antique houses built on the site of the agora of Cyrene.
YE xat ◊&Qa vaouc; i:oi:c; aµcp' aui:ov i'o6[6ou; CTh XVI.10.20 (a. 415); XI.20.6 (a. 430); CJXI.70.4. See also Delmaire, Largesses
sacrees, 642-643.
1075
Libanius Or. XVIII.126 (II, 290.3-6); Ep. 724.2 (X, 650.5-8).
1076
CTh XV.1.36.
1077
Delmaire, Largesses sacrees, 641-645.
1078 Malalas, 267.
1079 CTh X.3.5 (a. 400).
1080
Stud. Pal. XX 143 and SB 9598 (fifth century) testify to the sale of temples to individuals.
1081
Cassiodorus, Variae III.31.4.
1082
S. Stucchi, L'agora di Cirene. I. I lati nord ed est della platea inferiore (Rome 1965), 293-346; house XI: pp. 323, 330-336.
For other examples, see infra, pp. 236, 239, 241, 245, 248, 249.
200 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 201

D
SETTORE C

PLAN 8. Hypothetical reconstruction of a house in the early Byzantine district

of Gortyn between the Praetorium and the temple of Pythios Apollo.

centre of cities were also occupied by houses and workshops. For example, in Gortyn, capital of Crete,
around the middle of the fifth century, probably after an earthquake, in the area between the temple of
Apollo Pythios to the west and the Praetorium to the east, a residential quarter of peasants and artisans
appeared (Plan 7). There were successive reconstructions of these houses surviving until the end of the
dty around 670. They had small rooms with a second floor and a court opening onto the street (Plan 8). 1083
In Rome and its port, fiscal storehouses had been converted to private use, which the City Prefect
Symmachus was ordered to return to public use. 1084 In the year 383 a decree of Gratian, Valentinian
and Theodosius explicitly mentions structures built in the agora of cities and in other public places. The
TORE A
legislators state that neither prescriptions of time nor imperial decree could secure ownership of such
structures. In an effort to maintain the ancient form of the urban centres, they demanded that such
structures be demolished. 1085 The decree is included in the Justinianic Code VIII.11.6 where a com-
promise is observed, since it is added that such structures should be demolished only if they were con-
trary to the ornamentation, convenience and appropriate appearance of the city (contra ornatum et
PLAN 7. Early Byzantine district with houses of peasants and artisans between commodum ac decoram faciem). It is clear that in the reign of Justinian structures encroaching onto
the Praetorium and the temple of Pythios Apollo at Gortyn (fifth century). the urban public space had become firmly established and the principles of urbanism had been so pro-
foundly changed that it was impossible to maintain the adherence to the early law. The phenomenon

1083 Di Vita, Gortina V, LXI.

1084 CTh XV.1.12 (a. 364).
1085 CTh XV.1.22 (CJ VIII.11.6): Praescribtio temporis iuri publico non debet obsistere, sed ne rescribta quidem. Adque

ideo diruenda sunt omnia, quae per diversas urbes vel in foro vel in quocumque publico loco civitatis extructa noscuntur.
202 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 203

also spread to the new capital of Constantinople. In 389, in a decree addressed to the Prefect ol nhandoning the praetoria and conducting their public duties in their residence. 1094 Two laws of the
Constantinople but issued at Rome, the emperors Valentinian, Theodosius and Arcadius express concern y1•ars 378 and 398 show that such administrative buildings were neglected or converted to another use
for the aesthetic deterioration of the urban area of the capital, caused by the construction of private ill sold by public auction and that various individuals, especially low ranking officers, appropriated
structures attached to splendid public buildings. The owners of such buildings trespassing on public lots llwm to reside in them. 1095 Once again we are left with the impression that the diminishing importance
are accused of greed: "It is disgraceful that the ornaments of public splendour should be ruined by tht• 1 ,I public space was not so much the result of popular pressures as was a consequence of a changing upper
attachment thereto of private buildings, and that those structures which have arisen for the decoration rlass culture.
of Our distinguished City, either in Our time or in the time of a previous age, should be associated with By the end of the fourth century the trend towards the appropriation of decaying public buildings
eagerness for acquiring money". The Prefect of the City was ordered to destroy such buildings, although nnd public lots for private use had accelerated. Emperors therefore attempted to secure ownership of
it was left to his discretion which ones should be spared. 1086 1 wic properties and lots for the decurions and the guilds against other petitioners. It was thus hoped

The process of privatization described above was precipitated by governors who were responsible 1hat the state and the municipalities would benefit financially. The emperors of this period also at-
for plundering materials from public buildings. In 357 Constantine forbade the despoliation of build- h·mpted to regulate the transfer of civic buildings and land to new owners. Julian encouraged con-
ings of smaller cities undertaken to decorate buildings of other cities. 1087 In a decree of 365 Valentinian '>I rnction of private houses on civic land, if they did not cause damage to the city and if they constituted
and Valens explain that the governors "to the ruin of the obscure towns, pretend that they are adorning HII adornment, and ownership of such buildings was recognized. 1096 In another decree, the same em-
the metropolitan or other very splendid cities, and thus seek the material of statues, marble works, or p1iror orders that rent be paid for houses (aedes) built on public land. 1097 A law issued by the emperors
columns that they may transfer them". 1088 In 376 Valens, Gratian and Valentinian stipulated that new t\rcadius and Honorius in Milan in 400, defined which properties were to remain on perpetual lease to
buildings should be built "without bringing together old buildings, without digging up the foundations 1hi: decurions and guilds of the cities, who were to pay rent to the fisc. These included urban properties,
of noble buildings, without obtaining renovated stones from the public, without tearing away pieces of edifices, gardens and courtyards of public buildings, and lots inside the walls or adjoining the space
marble by the mutilation of despoiled buildings". 1089 In 398, a constitution of Arcadius and Honorius, mside or outside the city walls, or properties of temples which were sought on petition by different per-
issued in Milan, repeats these regulations. This text indicates that it was ornaments of bronze or marble s1 ms ( aut per diversos petita) or were taken by the fisc or were included in the civic territory.
1098 A law of

and other materials that were removed from buildings by governors. Such pieces were still in use or thi; year 401 issued by the same emperors at Milan, stipulated that public buildings and those belong-
were considered ornaments of the cities ( quae fuisse in usu vel ornatu). 1090 Their removal from public mg to temples, which were not obligated to any tax assessments, should be held by decurions and mem-
buildings was allowed only with the permission of the Praetorian Prefect. Violation of the law involved bers of the guilds, who were expected to meet their obligations toward the municipalities. Subsequent-
a fine of three pounds of gold. The decurions were penalized "if they should fail to protect the orna- ly, petitions by individuals to appropriate them were not accepted. The law recognizes that there were
mentation of their ancestral municipality". However, it is unlikely that the decurions could resist the 111dividuals who had received public places "by a sacred imperial annotation", or had built on vacant
governors' despoliation of civic buildings. In 458, Novel 4 of Majorian in the West sanctions the spoli- li11ildings at their own expenses following a rescript. Such sites were "of no use or ornament to the mu-
ation of ancient buildings: some of them may be demolished and their ornaments (ornatus) used in other nicipality". In cases of conflicts between the decurions and the guilds on the one side, and the new owners
1091
buildings. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the provincial governors, motivated by a desire to boost of vacant lots on the other, the former were not allowed to regain possession of the buildings through
their reputation by building activities, sponsored new construction works without having completed their own authority. They had instead to refer the issue to the governor of the province, or to the Prefect.
those started by their predecessors. They neglected other civic buildings which had been abandoned The same law reveals that the officers of the palace administration (palatina sane officia) were to stay
and were decaying through the passage of time. Imperial legislation also informs us that from the fourth out of such places. It also reveals that palace officers favoured some private persons by drafting docu-
century high officers appropriated the civic buildings where they conducted their public duties. In 362 ments through which ownership of vacant buildings was passed onto them. The emperors, in order to
the emperors Constantius and Constans ordered that such buildings "ought to have been vindicated to stamp out corruption on the part of individuals, order that such transactions be decided by imperial
public ownership and use" .1092 A year later the same emperors issued another law in which it is stated rescripts sent directly to the governors. This law, which begins by recognizing the right of decurions and
that high-ranking officers illegally appropriated public buildings "by an obscure interpretation of the
law". Such illegal appropriations were declared void: "For not only do We annul anything of this kind
that has been done, but We also provide for the future that nothing of the kind shall be attempted
by any fraud". 1093 In fact, a new trend is to be observed in the fifth century, with the civil governors 1094 CJ I.40.15.1 (a. 471 ?); L. Lavan, The praetoria of civil governors in late antiquity, in idem, Recent Research, 43.
1095 CTh X.2.1 (De domibus ad rem privatam pertinentibus distrahendis vel praetoriis iudicum reservandis): Rationales
vcl ordinarii iudices earum domorum, quas procuratorum nequitia et rationalium neglegentia labi patitur in ruinas, instituant
1086
CTh XV.1.25 (transl. Pharr). On the imperial decrees regarding civic properties and their transfer to new owners see auctionem hastis habitis ex licitatione currente. Sane si quae sunt per varias provincias huiuscemodi domus, quales esse in
Janvier, La legislation; G. L. Kurbatov, Razlozenie anticnoj gorodskoj sobstvennosti v Vizantii IV-VII vv., W 35 (1973), 19- Augustensi Suitranea civitate suggeritur vel aliis in locis, praestantes et privatis usibus ampliores, ut servari forsitan oportebit,
32; Saradi, Urban Space, 295-308. iudicum mansionibus deputandas provincialium et eorum cura reficiendas; and 2: Ne domus ad nostrum patrimonium perti-
1087
CTh XV.1.1. nentes, quae sunt in diversis urbibus, ex neglegentia nostro aerario adferant detrimentum, omnes licitatione habita volumus
1088
CTh XV.1.14 (transl. Pharr). venundari. Palatinos autem fide probatos ire praecipimus. Ordinarios quoque iudices tua sublimitas admonebit, ut certa
1089
CTh XV.1.19 (transl. Pharr). pretiorum fides et domorum sit iusta in auctione taxatio.
109
°CTh XV.1.37. 1096
CJVIII.11.3: 'O El£ 1:0JtOV i:fi£ JtOAEOl£ xi:Loa£ Ot%ELOL£ avaMiµamv, EV (fl µ~ ~AO.Jtl:'[] ,:~v JtOALV, i'.owv av,:ov EXEl:Ol ,:o
1091
On the spoliation of ancient buildings see infra, pp. 364-372. xuo8ev xal µatctcov c1.1xagLoi:clo8w W£ i:~v JtOALV xooµuov.
1092
CTh XV.1.8 (transl. Pharr). 1091 CJXI.70.l.
1093
CTh XV.1.10 (transl. Pharr). 1098 CTh X.3.5.
204 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 205

guilds to own vacant buildings, concludes with a stipulation concerning the transfer of ownership ol land, attempted to regulate their transfer to private persons. It is not known whether the laws were
civic properties to private persons: 1,nforced and payments for such transactions transferring civic properties to new private owners were
11lways made to the municipalities or to the res privata. We have seen that occasionally the emperors
Thus if it should appear that the requested property is not fit for the use or the adorn- w1shed to secure ownership of civic buildings for decurions and members of the guilds, in the hope that
ment of the municipality, it shall be delivered to the petitioner, with the attestation of tlwse groups would continue to serve the cities with liturgies. But with the increasing disintegration
the records and without the collusion of any favoritism, at the risk of the municipal 111 the civic administration such obligations on the part of the decurions and the guilds were less likely
senate and the provincial office staff. We order that the payments, moreover, which In have been met. The laws also make clear that officers of the imperial administration showed
are thereafter exacted from the petitioners shall be imposed reasonably, and they favouritism toward influential individuals who made requests to acquire vacant buildings and land. We
shall go to the benefit of repairs in the municipality, except payments for past time, of have seen that a rich house, probably owned by a high official, was constructed in the open plaza of
course, which already customarily are due to Our sacred imperial and private treasury. t 'yrene's agora. The peristyle court of an early Byzantine house was built over the eastern section of the
portico of the basilica on the north side of Ephesus' Upper Agora (Plan III). 1105 In the same city, the
Thus the revenues of such transactions were to be given to the municipalities for restoring old 1'1 ,rticoes of Verulanus were occupied by early Byzantine structures, whilst the houses built along the
buildings. Only payments for past transactions were to be given to the imperial treasury exacted specif- eastern part of the Gymnasium attached to the Thermae Constantinianae were of various sizes, two of
ically for this. 1099 In 405, in a law issued at Ravenna, emperors Arcadius and Honorius encouraged pe- 1hem having peristyle courts paved with mosaics. 1106 A fairly rich house was built in the southwest
titions for ownership of public places, "upon condition that they do not remove anything useful, orna" nlrner of the court of the public baths of Corinth in the fifth or the sixth century. 1107 We have seen that
mental, or advantageous to the municipality" (ne quid usui vel ornatibus aut commodis civitaturn rich houses were built on the terraces to the south, west and north of the peribolos of the temple of
auferatur ). The emperors state that they did not believe that there were men "who would connive at any t\pollo in Delphi. 1108 Some of the houses built in the area of the west gate of the theatre of Scythopolis
surreptitious undertaking of petitioners, as against the advantages and ornaments ( contra commoda were rich with mosaic floors. 1109 In the sixth century, in the north part of the hippodrome of Sirmium,
vel ornatum) of his own municipality". The Praetorian Prefect was responsible for giving authorization a rich house was built complete with a central heating system employing hot air. 1110 Obviously such
to deliver public places and the officers of the provincial administration were threatened with a penalty if powerful persons would have acquired public buildings and civic lots under very favourable terms. In
they acted without his authorization. 1100 their turn, they would have divided up some of these properties and sold them to a greater number of
It would appear that the emperors' measures to secure vacant public properties for the decurions new owners or they would have leased them to new residents and artisans, to generate income. It has
and the guilds explain to a great degree the proliferation of numerous artisans' workshops, established been suggested that the aristocrats who bought public buildings gave them to poor people in order to
in earlier public buildings in excavated early Byzantine cities. A remarkable example comes from Scyth- create a large number of clients. 1111 Since, however, the role of clients in the early Byzantine period was
opolis at the end of the fifth or in the early sixth century: an inscription indicates that the governor and very different from their role under the Roman empire, it is more likely that, when such buildings were
scholastikos Rometalkes restored the Roman basilica for industrial use, probably the linen industry. 1101 not sold or leased by the aristocrats to new poor residents for income, they were given to poor people
There is evidence that in the fourth and fifth centuries the class of the artisans and merchants enjoyed who could work in the estates or urban workshops of the aristocrats. In Rome from the fourth century,
remarkable prosperity. Imperial legislation reveals that in the fourth and fifth centuries artisans and senatorial families established their houses on sites of prestigious public buildings encroaching onto
merchants (the negotiatores) took advantage of the declining civic institutions to purchase shops and streets,1112 indicating thereby clearly that the Roman aristocracy was increasingly controlling public
workshops, so strengthening their position. 1102 Inscriptions record members of trade associations who space. In Ostrogothic Italy in the sixth century one had to apply to the king for authorization to convert
possess high honorific titles, analogous to those received by members of city councils. 1103 public sites, such as porticoes, to private use or to remove blocks from a ruined amphitheatre to repair
In 443, by a law of Theodosius II, all civic properties lost to individuals over the previous thirty fortification walls. The Ostrogothic king, as heir to the legacy of Rome and for aesthetic reasons too,
years were returned to the cities. In 451, however, Marcian ordered that rent be paid to cities for civic introduced a policy protecting Roman buildings. Later, in the seventh century, popes had to receive
properties transferred to private persons through donations, sales or other transactions ( ex titulo do- permission from the Byzantine emperors Phocas and Heraclius in order to convert the Pantheon into
nationis vel ex emptione sive ex alio quolibet titulo ), while ownership was recognized. 1104 Funds ex- a church and to cover the Church of St. Peter with bronze tiles from the temple of Rome. 1113 From the
tracted by such measures would have been welcomed by the municipalities, already in financial distress. ' of the empire, imperial legislation is our main source on the procedure required to acquire
eastern part
Imperial legislation shows that the state, unwilling to abandon decaying public buildings and vacant

1105 See supra, p. 198, infra, p. 236.

1106 O. Benndorf, Vorlaufige Berichte tiber die Ausgrabungen in Ephesus,JOAI 1 (1898), Beibl. 63.
1099 CTh XV.1.41 (transl. Pharr). See also Delmaire, Largesses sacrees, 653,657. 1107 R. Scranton, Corinth XVI, 16-21.
11 oo CTh XV.1.43 (transl. Pharr). 1108 See supra, p. 197.
1101 Foerster and Tsafrir, ESI 6 (1987/88), 31; idem, ESI 11 (1992), 7. 1109 S. Applebaum, Beth-Shean, IEJ 10 (1960), 126.
1102 1110 Jeremic, L'hippodrome de Sirmium, 9-11 (p. 11: "le seul exemple bati en dur de construction protobyzantine connu
G. E. Lebedeva, Nekotorye problemy evoljucii gorodskogo plebsa v rannevizantijskom zakonodatel'stve IV-VI vv., in
lz istorii Vizantii i vizantinovedenija (Leningrad 1991), 5-20. pour I'instant a Sirmium, avec, qui plus est, Jes qualites d'un immeuble confortable, voire luxueux ... ").
1103 1111 S. Ellis, Power-Broking and the Reuse of Public Buildings in Late Antiquity,ACAC XIII (1994), III, 233-239.
L. Pernot, Guilds, in G. W. Bowersock, P. Brown and 0. Grabar (eds.), Late Antiquity. A Guide to the Postclassical
World (Cambridge Mass., London 1999), 481. 111 2 Marazzi, Rome, 26-28.
1104 Theodosius II, Novella 23.1; Marcian, Novella 3. 1113 Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 204.
206 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE PROCESS OF PRIVATIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE 207

ownership of a civic lot or building. A rare reference is found in the Life of St. Theda, according to that the encroachment by private structures on vacant civic properties had already started in the fourth
which a basilica functioning as law court in Constantinople was transferred to the Church with the em- ri•11tury and was caused by administrative changes and shifts in cultural attitudes. The early Byzantine pe-
peror's authorization, after it had been destroyed by fire. 1114 In the sixth century, St. Nicholas of Sion, nod is marked by an increasing emphasis on privatization and private life as opposed to public, a trend
bishop of Pinara in Lycia, attempted to appropriate what appears to have been a civic lot, in order to Ihat has been observed even in domestic architecture and correctly interpreted as a consequence of the
construct a church. The saint claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him in a vision and urged a·mpire's Christianization. 1120 The invasions, which in the Balkans disrupted urban life from the last quar-
him to build a church dedicated to her on this particular piece of land. The civic magistrates and the lt•r of the sixth century, accelerated a phenomenon that had started much earlier. 1121 At many sites, the
clergy, who at that time, in accord with Justinianic legislation, were responsible for the city administra- uumber of poor early Byzantine structures in civic public space increases rapidly in the years just before
1122
tion, were opposed and forced Nicholas to purchase the lot. 1115 1ht· invasions, when the rural population was seeking refuge inside the urban fortifications. But this
The sources analysed above show that, while illegal appropriation of decaying and abandoned public p,·1fod of transition constitutes a new chapter of urban history.
buildings and civic land was widespread and involved influential persons and the Church, it was ex- From the fourth century on, the importance of the public space began to fade away under the pres-
pected, however, that the transfer of public properties to private persons and the Church should be ',lll'C of administrative changes and new cultural trends. The liquidation of urban buildings and lots was

done through petitions to the authorities via various legal transactions, a procedure imposed by impe- precipitated in the sixth century. This is best indicated by the diminished interest in public buildings in
rial legislation. Local municipalities and the imperial treasury benefited financially from change of 1111pcrial legislation. In the Theodosian Code XV.153 decrees on public buildings from the years 321 to
ownership through onetime payments or through rents. The municipalities also benefited from the are included, but only 22 have been preserved in the Justinianic Code VIII.11 from a longer time pe-
transfer of civic lots and buildings to decurions and guilds, for civic services could be secured in this way. 1 iod, from the year 338 to 472. The model of the city promoted by the imperial administration is above

However, the transfer of public properties to private owners accompanied by the proliferation of poor all revealed by Justinian's restoration program in Constantinople. The emperor restored or built only a
houses and workshops, as illustrated in excavated cities, has often been interpreted as evidence of pop- lt•w civil buildings. He restored the vestibule of his palace, the baths of Zeuxippus, the Senate House,
ulation increase and a need to accommodate new poor inhabitants in the cities. 1116 Indeed, archaeo- he constructed the Basilica Cistern, the court (aule) by the Arcadianae, and completed the baths of
logical reports make it clear that during the early Byzantine period, in all the provinces of the East, with I >agistheus, a project that begun in the reign of Anastasius. He also built six hospices and suburban
the exception of the Balkan provinces, which suffered from invasions, there was an unprecedented in- palaces. The number of churches, however, increased: while fourteen churches are mentioned in the
crease in population in urban and rural settlements. Consequently, there will have been a great demand Notitia, one century later about fifty churches are recorded. 1123 From the provinces of Palestine and
for housing and business establishments in the cities. Egyptian papyri show the increasingly crowded Arabia which have yielded many inscriptions dating to Justin I and Justinian, the majority of buildings
housing conditions of the early Byzantine period. 1117 At the same time, new cultural and socio-economic were churches. After Justinian's reign, almost all construction projects were religious. 1124 The process of
forces corroded the ideological foundations on which the maintenance of public buildings was based. privatization of the public space was more intense in the West, where in Rome in the fifth century pri-
The concept of urban space was changing and new attitudes towards its function were being formed, vate fora are recorded. 1125 This is yet another sign of profound transformation of the urban space, since
which will be discussed in the following chapters. 1118 Earlier research dated the poor early Byzantine in many provinces in the Roman and early Byzantine periods great landlords held markets only in their
structures to the period of invasions. 1119 The evidence of the historical sources analysed above indicates t'.states. 1126

1114
Vita s. Theclae, p. 308.85-87: i;~v viiv µEv EXXA17alav ouaav, JtaAm OE olx17t:; xaL 8eµLOO£ ov xwglov, Ot' oxaL Wt; qmmv in G. Wilhelm ( ed.), Die Orientalische Stadt: Kontinuitiit, Wandel, Bruch (1997), 350 dates the encroachment of buildings into
- fomA i:o naga ~amMa. public space from the second half of the seventh century. For an earlier date before the Muslim period see Tsafrir and
1115
Vita S. Nicholai Sion., c. 69 (p. 102). 1,.oerster, Urbanism, 140-141; Cameron, The Mediterranean World, 152-175; Kennedy, From Palis; idem, The Last Century,
1116
Patlagean, Pauvrete, 59-61, 233-234; G. Dagron, Naissance d'une capitale. Constantinople et ses institutions de 330 a451 153 ff.; idem, Syria, 170 n. 91.
1120 Alston, The City, 122-123, 318.
(Paris 1974), 530; Spieser, La ville, 327 n. 69; Janvier, La legislation, 355; Foerster and Tsafrir, ES/ 6 (1987/88), 43. Foss,Ephesus,
1121 Similar conclusions ragarding the changes in the public space in Rome, which in the past were attributed to the Visigothic
97, speculates that the residents of poor early Byzantine structures might have moved there from other districts of the cities
and that this would suggest that the population was stable or that it would have declined. Economic distress caused an influ~ sack of the city in 410: Marazzi, Rome, 21-22.
of poor and disposed in Constantinople: E. Patlagean, La pauvrete a Byzance au Vie siecle et la legislation de Justinien: les 1122 See supra, pp. 24-25, infra, pp. 251, 268, 455-456.
1123 Mango, Le developpement, 52; Magdalino, Constantinople, 25-50. For Italy see Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity,
origines d'un mode le politique, in M. Mollatt (ed.), Etudes sur l'histoire de la pauvrete (Mayen Age - XVF siecle) (Paris 1974),
I, 59-81, esp. 68-70. LiebeschuetzDec/ine, 40, 62 expresses a different view. Bowden, Epirus Vetus, 169-170 suggests that the poor 68-70.
1124 Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation, 159, 164.
subdivisions do not indicate a new or increased poor class, but that the poor were building with poor materials and deteriorating
techniques. 1125 Barnish, The transformation, 385 and n. 3; idem, Pigs, Plebeians and Potentes: Rome's Economic Hinterland, c. 350-
1117
See supra, pp. 33-37. <>00 AD., PBSR 55 (1987), 166.
1118 1126 See John Chrysostom, PG 60, 147: xaL &.yoga£ µEv xaL ~aAavEi:a nmoiimv oi noAAol, Exx1,.17alat:; OE ouxl. P.Oxy. 1000
See, for example, the remarks of Foerster and Tsafrir, ES/ 6 (1987/88), 43: "Population pressure and change in municipal
concepts resulted in inroads of buildings into public areas and monuments and in putting practical considerations of housing, (ea 572) contains a receipt for repairing the cauldron in the food market of a landowner (roii yeovxtxoii µma;}J.aQiov). For
commerce and low cost of construction before the preservation of the monuments' splendor". this text see R. S. Bagnall, Four Receipts for Tin and Lead, in Papyri Greek & Egyptian edited by Various Hands in Honour of
1119
For example, Sauvaget, Damas, 158 dated the disruption of the regular city-planning of Damascus to the time of the Eric Gardner Turner on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, London 1981, 194-197). It is known that in the Roman period
Arab conquest, but he stresses that the Persian invasion in 540 should have caused long-lasting destruction. He admits, however, great landlords attempted to get permission to held markets in their estates, but they faced objections from the cities, which
that the available evidence is not conclusive. Claude's view (Stadt, 58-59) that this development occurred after the end of the wanted to preserve the income deriving from the markets. In Roman North Africa, however, the right of landlords to have
early Byzantine period is no longer accepted. Even recently M. Gawlikowski, The Oriental City and the Advent of Islam, markets on their estates was recognized: Alston, The City, 338-339.
208 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

PART IV

CHANGES IN URBAN ARCHITECTURE:

IDEOLOGICAL THEMES
AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC REALITIES

FIG. 29. The columns, some of which have been re-erected, on the front of the Basilica Stoa
in the Upper Agora of Ephesus. Behind it is the Bouleuterion (Odeum) and the Prytaneion.
210 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTERS

ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES

... 'Hµ'lv M, cprwl uixr1 ,mi eiarQa,

xai ln:mxa xai f3aaiJ,.,na xai xaAA'YJ
OTOWV xai µEyie'Yj . . . xai ayoQCX
nJ,.,10ovaa xai oijµoc; xvµaivwv . .. 1127

ell
00
(:l
<l)
c., The agora: from civic centre to commercial thoroughfare
.....i::
The agora was the heart of the ancient city. Pausanias, in a frequently quoted passage, defined the
ancient city in terms of its public buildings and functions: "From Chaeroneia it is twenty stades to
l'anopeus, a city of the Phocians, if one can give the name of city to those who possess no government
, ,ffices, no gymnasium, no theatre, no market-place, no water descending to a fountain, but live in bare
shelters just like mountain cabins, right 1on a ravine". 1128 The orator Hermogenes in one of his progym-
1wsmata elaborates on the advantages of urban life, the source of human happiness: that people own a
house, go to the assembly, and derive enjoyment in the theatre with various spectacles and songs. 1129
<>ver the course of time several changes occurred in the architectural form and functions of the Greek
agora. In large Hellenistic cities the commercial section of the agora was dissociated from the adminis-
trative centre and moved to a separate location. The ancient agora continued to be the administrative
centre of the cities. For example, in Ephesus, the Upper Agora, also known as State Agora, was an
Augustan foundation with political and ceremonial functions, while at a lower level the Lower Agora
or Tetragonos Agora, built in Hellenistic times, had commercial functions (Plan III). Pergamon also
had an Upper and Lower Agora in the upper city: the Upper Agora had a political character, and the
Lower Agora was the commercial centre. In smaller cities, both functions, the administrative and the
commercial, remained housed on the same site, following the ancient Greek model. 113 Further °
changes in the function of the agora/forum appeared in the Roman imperial period. 1131 Imperial rule
imposed restrictions on the political life of cities, and with the passage of time citizens began to abandon

1127 Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 33.6, PG 36, 221-224.

1128 Pausanias X.4.1 (transl. W. H. S. Jones, ed. Loeb).
1129 Hermogenes, Progymnasmata, 3.6-12.

1130 Segal, Function, 55, 61-62.

1131 On the changes of the Roman forum see P. Zanker, Veranderungen im offentlichen Raum der italischen Stadte der

Kaiserzeit, inL'Italie d'Auguste aDiocletien (Rome 1994), 273-279; W. Hoepfner, Das Ende der Agora, in Brands and Severin,
Stadt, 145-150.
212 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 213

the traditional centres of civic administration, the agora/forum, to other urban structures lacking a pn, market place (ayoQa) and all the other commercial sites (xal 't'YJV 'tE ayOQU.V ooa 'tE ana EµJtOAl']-
litical character, such as theatres, amphitheatres, baths and club houses. In the second and third cm urv JtWAl']'t'YJQL<X ECT'tL). 1137 By the fourth century the term agora had become equivalent to the com-
turies, such civic buildings also functioned as places of assembly. In the fourth century A.D., when mu 1dal avenue,plateia; 1138 the latter is often contrasted with other smaller streets, QUµl'], 1139 O'tEVOQU-
nicipal administration by the boule begun to decline, the trend intensified. A passage of Libanius de 111o O'tEVWJtO£, 1141 JtaQa&Qoµt£. 1142 Thus by the early Byzantine period the market ( agora) was found

picts activities in the bouleuterion of Antioch in a different context, although the circumstances to whidt 111g the major colonnaded streets, or in plazas and complexes of the Roman type, like the macellum.
it refers were somewhat unusual. After the revolt of 387 in Antioch, the wealthy citizens abandoned I lt1· constitutes a total break with ancient Greek city planning, according to which the commercial el-
city, which, as Libanius dramatically states, was left deserted, the baths were closed, while the bouku wnl was small and incorporated in the civic centre (agora). 1143 The dissociation of the market from
tai withdrew to the bouleuterion. Its architectural design was that of a covered theatre (8fo'tQOV umo111'i dvie centre was gradual and occurred in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. At the same time, in
cpLov), with a court surrounded by four stoas. The court had been turned into a garden with vines, vari< ,w, fttnlrast with traditional Greek urbanism, shops also lined the streets in Hellenistic and Roman cities,
trees and vegetables, where the bouleutai passed their time pleasantly, studied books, listened to lectmr1, aspect of planning fully documented in Pompey, Ostia and Hellenistic cities of the East. 1144 This ex-
and discussed literary issues. 1132 h•nsion of the market along the streets was very popular in the cities of the East. The shops lining the
In the sixth century, the term agora is rarely used with its ancient meaning, namely the site 1 ,1 11111th side of the Roman agora in Thessalonica were built in the Roman period and were open towards
the urban administration and the commercial centre. When this occurs, it is an anachronism. Procopiu,, street (Plan IV).11 45 This arrangement presents a combination of the Greek type of the agora with
describes the city of Caputvada in North Africa, founded by Justinian, in ancient terms: the Roman commercial street. In the early Byzantine period the decentralization of the central busi-
1wss district is a general phenomenon, to be seen in the shops flanking central avenues, especially
For a wall has been brought to completion and with it a city, and the condition of a 111111111d baths and churches, where traffic was more intense, so as to attract potential customers. In
farm land is being suddenly changed. And the rustics have thrown aside the plough I·1•.vpt, sources attest the existence of several markets in each city. 1146 Libanius refers to the fragmenta-
111111 of shopping areas in Antioch, when he states that the people of Antioch bought goods in various
and lead the existence of a community (noAL'tLXW£ ~LO'teuouow), no longer going
ltwations of the city, instead of in one central market. 1147 In Procopius' Buildings the use of the plural
the round of country tasks but living a city life. They pass their days in the market- 1148 also implies several markets in commercial
1 ,I the term ayoQa, sometimes associated with stoas,
place and hold assemblies to deliberate on questions which concern them (End xal
ayOQ<X~OUOLV EV'tai38a ()Ll']µEQE1JOV'tE£, xal 'IJJtEQ 'tWV ocptmv avayxatwv EXXAl']-
ma~oum1133); and they traffic with one another (xal ayoQav aAAYJAOL£ ouµ~aA-
Aoum), and conduct all the other affairs which pertain to the dignity of a city. 1134 1 rn Procopius, De aedificiis IIl.4.18. The term JtWATJ't~QLa appears also in De aedificiis IV.1.24.
1138 Aelius Aristides, Or. XVIII.6: 66ol... &vr &yoQil£ anaoaL. The term plateia designated the avenue from the Hellenistic
By promoting the classical model of the agora, Procopius certainly believed that he was therebv 1w1 iod. The references multiply in the Roman period: Robert, Etudes anatoliennes, 532-538. The termplateia for thoroughfare is
, ,1re in classical Latin authors but frequent in the later centuries: P. W. Harsh,Angiportum,platea, and vicus, Classical Philology
glorifying Justinian's restoration program. In reality, in the sixth century the ancient agora had lost ils
\.' ( 1937), 49-50. In the treatise of Julian of Ascalon the term &yoQa£ JtAai:ei:a (c. 20.4, 25, pp. 47, 51) is synonymous with the
earlier function as a civic administrative centre. It is impossible to believe that in a new foundation in
11·1m <1yoea and designates a commercial street. Eusebius, Vita Constantini IIl.39: en' aui:fi£ µfo11£ nAai:ela£ &yoQil£. III.SS: ev
North Africa, where the inhabitants were settlers from the countryside (ayQoixm) without any tradi ,iyovai:£ xat JtAU'tELUL£. Vita S. GregoriiAgrigentini, 209 (c. 52.14-15): evi:u JtAU'tEL~ 'tfi£ JtOAEW£; Malalas, 124.22, 177.15, 212.44,
tion in ancient urbanism, the concept of the ancient agora as an administrative centre would have been L'.8.80. See also Malchus, fr. 11.3-4 (i:a£ ,:e i:wv 611µoolwv nAai:eLwv oi:oci£) for Constantinople.
maintained. No similar description of urban social and political life is found in other sixth-century 1139 St. Basil, PG 31, 1521C; Vita S. Theognii, c. 24 (p. 110.14); Malalas, 183.3 by the Pantheon of Antioch; P.Ness. 22.21,

sources. Procopius also uses the term agora for the forum of Constantinople in a passage describing the '7 ( 011µoola Quµ11: a. 566); Julian of Ascalon, c. 17 .3; 46.4.
1140 Vita S. Symeonis Sali, 87.19.
Augustaeum with the statue of the emperor in front of the Senate House. In this passage, there is no
1141 Gregory of Nyssa, PG 44, 152D; Procopius, De aedificiis 11.2.15 (i:~v i:e &yoQaV xat i:ou£ oi:evwnou£); II.10.20 (oME
reference to an assembly of the people and deliberations. Instead, the new ceremonial role of the Senate
1tyOQU£ Jt1'j xa0wi:aµEV1'J£, OU◊E ,:wv 01:EVQJJt(J)V 'ta£ &yma£ ◊LULQOUV'tQJV i:u JtOAEL); II.10.22 (&yoQUL£ ... 1:0L£ CT'tEVQJJtOl£
is stressed: it assembled at the beginning of each year and celebrated an annual festival. 1135 1tfUpo6ou£ anaoa£). See also CJVIII.10.12.3: i:fi£ nAai:Ela£ 11 i:ou 01:evwnou in Constantinople. On the earlier use of the term
In the sixth century, the term agora merely indicated the market place where business transactions ,\yma in ancient Greek texts see J. Pouilloux:, Lavoie officielle d'acces au stade a Delphes, BCH 107 (1983), 217-219.
were conducted, 1136 while the administration had been moved to the governor's palace and the bishop's 1142 Julian of Ascalon, c. 36 and p. 116.

1143 Delos, with workshops dispersed everywhere in the city, appears to have been an exception in the Greek world. The
palace. The buildings of the administration ('ta 't&v aQx&v xmaywyLa) were no longer connected with
international character of the sanctuary had probably created conditions in which the formality of Greek urban planning could
not be maintained. The distribution of shops and workshops in all districts of the city among private houses aimed at serving
as many potential clients as possible: M. Brunet, L'artisanat dans la Delos hellenistique: essai de bilan archeologique, Topoi 8
( 1998), 681-691.
1132
Libanius, Or. XXII.31 (II, 487-488). 1144 MacDonald,Architecture II, 122.
1133
The term exxA11matw had a political meaning referring to civic administration. See Dionysius of Halicarnassus 1145 See infra, p. 243.
III.67.4: ,:~v 1:E &yoQ<XV, fV TI ◊LxatouoL xat fXXATJCTL<Xtoum xat 't<X£ a/I.AU£ JtoAL'tLX<X£ fJtL'tEAOUCJL JtQ<Xl;EL£. 1146 Alston, The City, 132-134, 337.
1134
Procopius, De aedificiis VI.6.14-16 (transl. Dewing). 1147 Libanius, Or. XI.251 (I, 526.6-10): a ◊La Jt<XCT1'J£ µEv OU'tQJ XEX'lJ'tUL 'tfi£ JtOAEW£, 00£ µ11 µEQ0£ 1:L 'tfi£ JtOAEW£ EV &yoQCXV
1135
Ibid., I.2.1; 10.6-7. XEXAfjo0m µ1'j◊E 6Ei:v EL£ EV n (J'lJVEA0Ei:v (J)V1'jCTOµEVO'll£, aAAa JtUCTLV fV JtOCTLV Elvm xat JtQO 0'lJQWV xat navi:axou XELQU
1136
Anonymous' Strategikon, c. 42.23-25 (p. 122): foi:w OE i:6no£ µEv ~ &yoQa xa0' ~v JtOAAot i:wv ,:e ~µE'tEQWV xat ,:wv i'.:xi:Elvavn Aa~ei:v uJt<XQXELV. See Festugiere,Antioche, 56-57; Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 55.
UAAO'tQlwv CT'lJVEQXOV'taL, 1:QOJt0£ OE 1:0 'tfi£ eµJtoQlU£ em,:~6euµa. 1148 Procopius, De aedificiis I.11.21; II.10.22; IV.1.23.
214 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 215
1149
streets. In the cities of the eastern provinces the Roman tradition of shops along the streets en
countered the oriental concept of the market-the bazaar (souq). 1150
In urban centres of the East market places also developed near heavily used city gates. In the early
sixth century, a market was built by the northeastern gate of Scythopolis at the end of Valley Stred
(Plan V). There were twenty stores, set in four rows and lining two alleys. Two central rows of store,,
were built with adjoining back walls and two storeys. The floors were paved with bricks or stone slabs,
0 0
and in some stores the floors were made of crushed and stamped chalk. The planning of this market was 0
Q IO
If)

irregular, displaying the architectural trends of the age. Various finds show the variety of commercial ac z z z'
tivities in the stores: there are numerous stone jars, marble trays, pottery and metal stands, stone bowh,
and basins. A glass workshop was found to the east of this bazaar, with glass vessels, glass lamps, bottles,
bowls, and pieces of window glass. The glass was stored on shelves on the walls. The market went out ol
use in 614, when it was destroyed during the Persian invasion. 1151 Concentration of shops is also to lw
noted near baths, such as the famous Byzantine Shops at Sardis along the Main Avenue on the side ol rJ:i
the Bath-Gymnasium and Synagogue (Plan 9), and the baths at Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria. 1152 13
~
In the urban topography of the early Byzantine period markets (agorai) were often connected t1, [/J

churches, thus revealing the Church's new economic role in the cities. In the Yakto mosaic the work
shops of the martyrium of St. Babylas in Daphne (i:a rgyaoi:~gta i:ou µagi:ugtou) are depicted (sec
supra, p. 121, Figure 7a/1). 1153 Justinian built an agora on the shore of the Bosporus in front of the re
stored Church of St. Michael at Anaplous. 1154 In front of the Church of St. Acacius in Constantinople,
there was also a market place. In Stobi in Macedonia Secunda, a semicircular plaza with shops was built
opposite the central basilica} church on the other side of the street (see infra, p. 216, Plan 10). 1155 The
Church of the Holy Apostles in Gaza was built on a side street (mxgoc'>o£) that was very busy and "re
sembled a crowded market-place" (noAuav0gwnov ayogav), and the Church of St. Sergius in the I I

~
same city was on the edge of the market place. 1156 The temple of Serapis, adjoining the commercial
Lower Agora of Ephesus to the south, was converted into a Christian church dedicated to St. John
1157
(Plan III). In Pella a new market was developed in the court north of the Cathedral. 1158 In Scyth
opolis the stores opposite the nymphaeum at the foot of the acropolis served the worshippers who went I
up to the acropolis to visit the Round Church, probably dedicated to St. Basilius (Plan V). 1159 Markets I

were also established near pilgrimage sites where the opportunities for business were great. The con-
nection of Christian churches with market places continues an ancient tradition, since markets and
workshops were often located near pagan places of worship. In some cases workshops are found in or
around pagan sanctuaries and belonged to the religious centres, while in other cases shops and work-

1149
See, for example, ibid., 1.11.21; IV.1.23; V.5.17; Miracula S. Demetrii I, 80.13: xai:a µi:v i:ac; ayogac; xat i:ouc; o\'.xouc;. I
I
There are also earlier references, as, for example, Himerius, Or. 39, 7 (p. 161). a:: w
-zzo"'
J
1150 I-
See A. N. Barghouti, Urbanization of Palestine and Jordan in Hellenistic and Roman Times, in Jordan I, 217; Mango, et I-,,,
.J !
La vita, 235. <t::i:
N(ll
1151 >-
Mazor and Bar-Nathan, ES/ 17 (1998), 27-29. Cll
1152
See infra, pp. 287-288. 0 Ii I
1153 Q ,i::i I
Lassus, Yakto, 133 (fig. 12); idem, Antioche en 459, d'apres la mosai:que de Yaqto, inApamee (1969), 142. BJ=
1154
Procopius, De aedificiis 1.8.7-10; 1.4.26. See also 1.11.21. See Bauer, Stadt, 245-246.
1155
D. Boskovic, Quelques remarques sur la Grande Basilique de Stobi et son rapport envers la structure urbaine de cettc
ville, XaeiaTl'/(!lOV Elc; 'A vaaraawv 'Oe.l.avoov, 4 (Athens 1967/68), 184-189.
1156
Choricius, Or. II.17; 1.17.
1157
Foss, Ephesus, 64.
1158
Walmsley, Fihl (Pella), 251,253.
1159
Agady et al., Byzantine Shops, 441-442.
216 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 217

C'hurch did not sanction them and was not willing to play any role in these civic activities. 1161
11 t hcrmore, Christians were advised to avoid the ancient agora, primarily because it was a pagan site,
1h a concentration of pagan shrines and temples. In the Roman period, a proliferation of naiskoi in
,man fora further emphasized the religious character of the civic centres. For example, Pausanias
that in Corinth most of the city's temples were concentrated in the forum. 1162 In the Roman period
large temples opened onto the city forum, one to the west (Temple E) and another to the northwest
(Temple C) (Plan Vlla). Many small temples were also built in the area of the forum: temples D, K, J,
<i, F and the temple of Hermes, all south of the northwest stoa and in front of Temple E. 1163 In the
of Athens in the Roman period stood the Southwest Temple, the altar of Zeus Agoraios, the
kmple of Ares, the temple of the twelve gods and the temple of Apollo Patroos. On the periphery of
agora was the Hephaisteion, and west of the Poikile Stoa the temple of Aphrodite Ourania. 1164 In
l phcsus the temple of Serapis was attached to the Hellenistic Lower Agora. In the centre of the
0

lfoman civic centre, the Upper Agora, stood the Temple of Caesar and Rome. To the east were
11llached a temenos of Augustus and Artemis, and to the west a temple of the Emperors of the Koinon
111 Asia (Plan III). 1165 Other agorai were connected to important temples with monumental avenues, as
111 Damascus, in the province of Phoenice Libanensis, modern Damas in Syria (Plan 11 ). 1166 Myths
tN;ociated the ancient agora/forum with the foundation of cities and their venerated past, and pagan
lest ivals were held there to commemorate historical events and highlight civic traditions.

100 JOO 300

,..,..,,,4
-
-
"' ~
rtiMPlE

>-----+-
>----- f-
PLAN 10. The Episcopal Basilica and the commercial exedra facing the basilica at Stobi. >----- f--
'" - -
- -
-

shops merely served the worshippers at festivals by producing and selling votive objects. 1160 In Gerasa
the market place, an oval plaza, stood in front of the temple of Zeus (supra, p. 210, Figure 30; Plan VI).
Most of the ancient aspects of urban life in the ancient civic centres (agora/forum) ceased to be
considered important in the early Byzantine period and were fading. The Christian Fathers had nu-
merous reasons, moral and religious, for rejecting the ancient civic centres, and strongly expressed their
hostility to such areas. Civic centres, their civic institutions and civic public life were not Christianized.
PLAN 11. Plan of Damascus.
1160
On the connection of temples with markets see Alston, The City, 207-212; also the discussion following K. Kilian,
Weihungen aus Eisen und Eisenverarbeitung im Heiligtum zu Philia (Thessalien), in R. Hagg (ed.), The Greek Renaissance of 1161 See the remarks of Lepelley, Les cites I, 374-376.
the Eighth Century B. C.: Tradition and Innovation, Proceedings ofthe Second International Symposium at the Swedish Institute in 1162 Pausanias II.2.6.
Athens, 1-5 June, 1981 (Stockholm 1983), 131-147; C. Risberg, Production in a Sacred Place, Topoi 8 (1998), 671-678; A 1163 Williams, Temple E, 325-356.

D'Hautcourt, Les cites grecques et les revenus de leurs sanctuaires. L'exemple d'Asie Mineure a l'epoque romaine, in II capitolo 1164 T. L. Shear, Jr., The Athenian Agora: Excavations of 1980-1982, Hesperia 53 (1984), 24-40.
delle entrate nelle finanze municipali in Occidente ed in Oriente. Actes de la Xe rencontre franco-italienne sur l'epigraphie du 1165 Scherrer, Topography, 74 and figs. 3-10.
monde romain. Rome, 27-29 mai 1996 (Rome 1999), 249-260. 1166 Sauvaget, Damas, 345-349.
218 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 219

All sorts of meetings and business transactions were conducted in the agora/market place, and uml plateia are naturally connected. 1180 Severns is critical of members of the Antiochean elite who
were condemned by Christian Fathers as worldly. 1167 The Christian Fathers denounced such business waste their time wandering about public avenues. In the sixth century, public life in a city's markets,
transactions, since they lead to greed (t~v <plAO.QYUQ[av, ,:~v &y6Qmov, ,:~v µmvaoa.) 1168 and perjury. 111"1 which lined central streets, included commercial activities, meetings with friends, ceremonial proces-
Later texts interpret the statue of a pig in the forum at Constantinople as symbolizing the merchants' i,11 ms, and festivals. The sources present us with commercial avenues in large cities, flanked by porticoes
cries at the fair (,:~v X.Qauy~v "trj£ nav11yuQEW£), and a simple stele bare of any decoration as suggesting and adorned with columns and marbles, full of crowds and merchandise. Choricius describes Gaza's
the shamelessness (,:6 &va[oxuv,:ov) of the buyers and vendors. 1170 The agora was also a place or market place at the festival of St. Stephanus as a noisy place of busy commerce: although it is common
prostitutes. 1171 Pagan festivals in the agora and the commercial activities associated with them were also fnr the vendors to advertise their merchandise with cries, there they remain silent, for the view of the
condemned. 1172 For these reasons Christians were advised to stay away from the agora and remain at h1od-stuffs is so impressive that people are easily attracted to them. The booths of the vendors are dee-
1181
home (otx.m µeivm). 1173 Abstinence from the evils of the agora is included in Christian values, while , ,rated with branches of laurel, colourful fabrics, gold and silver and an abundance of merchandise.
monks are praised for having removed themselves from its noise and settled in the desert. 1174 The <'hristian processions on the occasion of religious festivals passed through commercial avenues and
1182
worldly activities of the agora, incompatible with Christian morality, are contrasted with the spirituality dmrches, while both locals and visitors, gathered along them to enjoy the sight. Governors and
of churches. 1175 generals also displayed their power in the central avenues. Belisarius would go to the agora of the
In the fourth century, a pagan response to Christian theologians came from Libanius, who de- capital from his house escorted by a large number of Vandals, Goths and Moors, attracting crowds who
fended the agora as a market place and as a place of social contacts. He contrasted the Christian ideal t:njoyed the spectacle. 1183
of life in the tranquillity of gardens and of the private home, with the activities of the pagans in the agora: In practice, this radical reorientation of the existing culture had consequences for the articulation
"Is it not sweeter to walk among the goods offered for sale than to go through the midst of gardens, and (if urban space. Christianity promoted a new ideology, radically different from the pagan ideology, and
is it not pleasanter to meet in the market squares than to pass one's time at home? Is it not the very thus a shift from the public to private life. 1184 Christianity moved people's focus from the site of the
throng which flows through the city sufficient for the pleasure of a spectacle?" 1176 The joyousness of the ancient civic centres to new Christian religious centres associated with commercial activities in different
markets ( &yoQd£ <pmOQO"t:11£) is one of the greatest assets of city life, one of the sources of pleasure districts of the cities. 1185 Together with the decline in civic administration and financial resources,
( a<poQµ~ ~oovrj£). 1177 The political contacts which citizens made in the agora are no longer mentioned Christian ideology certainly affected the vitality of the ancient civic centres (agora/forum), and con-
in the texts of the sixth century. Pagan intellectuals also cherished the ideal of tranquillity. The transition tributed to the gradual reduction in their activities. The dramatic decline in the sites of the agora/forum
from the ancient value of engagement in public life to the ideal of retreat into privacy is eloquently is revealed in archaeological excavations in all the cities of the empire. Although in the sixth century
illustrated in some texts of the turn of the sixth century: tranquillity is praised and private life is equally some Christian moralists continued to denounce the agora because of its supposed incitement to vain-
enjoyed by educated members of the upper class, although the city's noisy activities are not rejected. glory, 1186 the early Byzantine market place, the central commercial avenue, was profoundly Christian-
The neoplatonist philosopher Proclus praises the value of tranquillity (~oux[a) in a city as more appro- ized. Thus it became an integral part of the new Christian city. The pagan demons that it was earlier be-
1187
priate for wise souls and for gods, but he is also familiar with the city's diverse and noisy life (0oQu~w- lieved enjoyed wandering in the streets, the plateiai and the market, were exorcized and chased
oou£ tw'fl£ x.at nmx.LA-11£). 1178 Procopius of Gaza is praised for balancing his life with the demands of his away by saints. St. Symeon Salos expelled a demon from a narrow street in Edessa by playing a musical
public appearances at the agora to deliver his speeches, and his time at home, where he played with his instrument and reciting the prayer to St. Nikon. 1188 In moments of distress bishops with the clergy and
sister's grandchildren, his visits to baths, churches, and the time he shared with friends and disciples. 1179 urban inhabitants processed down city streets carrymg . crosses an d smgmg
. . psalms an d hymns. ns9
Severns of Antioch stresses the contrast between the public character of the commercial centres at the Through the blessing of St. Symeon Stylites, a miracle was performed in the plateia in the centre of Antioch
plateia (the commercial avenue) and the benefits of private space: in the Gospel the termplateia has
connotations of vainglory, simply because it was a public space. Thus the Pharisees pray in the assemblies
and in the corners of the plateiai, so that they may be seen. It is obvious, concludes Severns, that assembly 1180 Severns, Hom. 98, PO 25 (1943), 145.
1181 Choricius, Or. II, 59-65; Miracula SS. Cyri et lohannis, mir. 12.13 (p. 268): 1:onoi; oiiwi; Ertlo11µoi; 1:i'ji; 'AAEl,;avc\QEWV
xa8E<J't1']XEV JtOAEwi;, EX AEwcpoQOU <JXT]µmoi; xElµEvoi;, Eµ~oAmi; µtv c\uolv µrnouµEvoi;, xat xlom xat µaQµ<J.Qmi;
1167 xooµouµEvoi;, AEql 'tE <J'tEVOXWQOUµEvoi; JtAELOVL, xat w'i:i; EV ayoQmi; Jtavwc\ano'i:i; JtQa't'l']QLOLi; ~QL8oµEvoi;.
John Chrysostom, PG 49, 111-112.
1168
Asterius, PG 40, 196B. 1182 Choricius, Or. I.93 (wu µtv LEQEWi; auwu c\u':t µfo11i; ayoQi'ii; oxouµi\vou ouyxa811µ!\vwv E'tEQWV 't~V aU't~V al;lav
1169 XA'l']QW<Jaµi\vwv, ES LEQOU c\e JtQOi; LEQOV 't~V JtQOJtOµJt~V JtOLOuµi\vou, U<J'tWV c\e xat (;EV(J)V <JUQQEOV't(J)V EJtL 't~V 8fov).
John Chrysostom, PG 64, 436C.
1170 Patria II, 206.11-14. 1183 Procopius, De Bello Gothico VII.1.5-6.
1171
Procopius, De aedificiis I.9.4; Historia arcana XVII.5. 1184 H. Hunger, Christliches und Nichtchristliches im byzantinischen Eherecht, 6ste1Teichisches Archiv fur Kirchenrecht 18
1172 (1967), 305-325; Cameron, Christianity, 141 ff., 149-150; Kazhdan and Cutler, Continuity, 447-450, 463-464.
John Chrysostom, PG 48, 955 ff.
1173 Ibid., 957. 1185 See the remarks of Potter, fol Caesarea, 64-73, 100-102.
1174
St. Basil, PG 32, 1045C; John Chrysostom, PG 48, 992. 1186 Leontius, Hom. 8.59-60 (µ~ Ev 1:a'i:i; ayoQa'i:i; naltov1:Ei; / aAA' EV w'i:i; o'txoLi; 11JctAAov1:Ei;); Severns, Hom. 98, PO 25/1
1175 Gregory the Theologian, PG 36, 444A.
(1935), 145-146.
1176
Libanius, Or. XI.266 (I, 532.12-16; transl. Downey, p. 681). 1187 Severns, Hom. 86, PO 23/1 (1932), 44; A Strittmatter, Ein griechisches Exorzismusbtichlein: Ms. Car. C 143 b der
1177 Ibid. (I, 532.9, 7-8). Zentralbibliothek in Zurich, Orientalia Christiana 26 (1932), 130.4-6 (1:a JtVE1Jµma 'ta axa8aQ'ta ... 'ta UJtUV'tWV'ta UJtO 'tWV
1178 oc\wv, ... 'ta ()LUVUX'tEQE1JOV'ta Eli; 1:ai; JtAawlai;, 'ta JtEQLXUXAOUV'tU Eli; 'ta aµcpoc\a ... ).
Procli in Platonis Rem Publicam Commentarii, ed. G. Kroll (Leipzig 1899, repr. Amsterdam 1965), I, 5, 13-22. For the
tranquillity, appropriate to sites of temples see Libanius, Or. LX.6. 1188 Vita S. Symeonis Sali, 87.18-20; see also p. 91.5-11.
1179
Choricius, Or. VIII.31 (p. 121). 1189 Joshua the Stylite, c. 36 (pp. 26-27; a. 499-500).
 ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 221
220 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

( ev i:fi nAmdg, xma µfoov i:fj~ JtOAEw~), to demonstrate pagan deceit. 1190 The sick were placed in t ht·
plateia in the hope of being cured by a miracle from a passing saint. 1191 Holy men from the desert frl·
quented urban markets to sell their products or to preach. In Antioch, a man cured by St. Symco11
Stylites the Younger placed an icon of the saint above the doors of his workshop. The icon was vencr·
ated with candles and veils, and divine intervention frustrated pagan attempts to remove it. 1192 The custom
of hanging Christian icons and crosses in central avenues became widespread. The governor of Edessa
ordered the city's artisans to hang crosses over their shops with five lighted lamps attached to them rn1
Sunday evenings (496/7). 1193 Christian symbols, especially crosses, were carved on porticoes, walls and
all sorts of monuments in sixth-century cities. John Chrysostom states that the cross is everywhere and
shines on the walls of houses, books, cities, markets, streets, and villages, in both deserted and inhabited
places. 1194 In Ephesus during the reign of Justinian, the statues of the four Evangelists were placed
on four columns along the central avenue, the so-called Arcadiane, leading from the harbour to the
theatre and the city centre (Figure 31). 1195 Water fountains and nymphaea, fashionable in the Roma11
and early Byzantine periods, 1196 were marked with Christian symbols, especially the cross. For example,
at the intersection of two main streets at the centre of Laodicea in Phrygia a nymphaeum received
Christian symbols as early as the fifth century, while the water basin was filled with discarded pagan
statues. 1197 The Hellenistic heroon in the lower Embolos in Ephesus was remodelled into a fountain
surrounded by slabs engraved with crosses (see infra, p. 262, Figure 35).
As we stated earlier, the Christianization of the market place is also manifested in the trend to-
wards linking it with churches. In a reversal of the pagan tradition, Christian ideology brought burials
into urban space. Sources also refer to the established custom of carrying the deceased round in the
markets before they were brought to the burial site. 1198 In texts referring to Christian burials the term
"agora" also took on a purely Christian meaning, designating the churchyard as an assembly place. 119'1
By the sixth century, social life in the commercial thoroughfares is depicted in a different light. Travel-
ling showmen demonstrate their art in market places; 1200 in ecclesiastical literature numerous beggars
frequent them, extending their hands, in descriptions that clearly recall the narrative of the New Tes-
tament.1201 Such themes in the literary sources of the early Byzantine period give a tone that contrasts
with the perspective of the texts of earlier centuries. In the past literary texts embedded in the classical
tradition and expressing the attitudes of the urban elites did not look sympathetically on the poor sitting
in public places. Instead, such texts aimed at projecting a dignified image of the civic sites, replete with
civic political life, social prestige, intellectual preoccupations and wealth. 1202 In the sixth century,

1190 Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 162-163.

1191 Vita S. GregoriiAgrigentini, 209 (c. 52.13-15).
1192 Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 158 (pp. 139-141).

1193 Joshua the Stylite, c. 29 (p. 20); Miracula SS. Cyri et /ohannis, mir. 36.28 (p. 329): 1::v tqi µ1oyaAq.> ... to'D tf)c; xavMAac;

l::AaLou tf)c; avw JtQO tf)c; TOU ~WTY)QOc; dxovoc; UJttoµevric; ...
1194
John Chrysostom, PG 48, 826.
1195
W. Wilberg, Ephesos I/I, 133-140.
1196
Parrish, The urban plan, 20.
1197
Des Gagniers, Laodicee, 132-134. On the Christian symbols in the early Byzantine cities see infra, pp. 429-432.
1198
Moschus, 2932B. On burials inside cities see infra, pp. 432-439.
1199
SEG 38 (1988), no. 451.
1200 Malalas, 381.
FIG. 31. One of the four surviving columns with the statues of the four Evangelists in the middle
1201
Gregory of Nyssa, PG 46, 457B; Historia Lausiaca XXI (pp. 64-65); Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 162-163 (pp. 144-
of the Arcadiane in Ephesus (sixth century). The columns stood on round pedestal bases, two meters
145); Daniel of Scete, 62; Sophronius, PG 87/3, 3476B.
1202 Beggars are depicted in Roman paintings in market scenes, as in the property of Julia Felix in Pompey. But themes
high with niches. On the capitals of the columns stood the statues of the four Evangelists.
of everyday life in Roman wall paintings have been described as representing "the undercurrent of so-called 'popular' art"
222 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 223

however, the market place was very different from that of the Roman period, because it was profound Iv market. A glass workshop dates to the fifth or sixth century.1 207 In most of these shops Jewish in-
Christianized in its ideological, social and physical setting. l!!niptions and symbols on columns, the pavement and the slabs of the walls indicate established Jewish
We will now look at various models of markets in use in sixth-century cities. We find an example of a husinesses. The Sebasteion had lost its earlier imperial prestige. The symbolism of Roman imperialism
monumental early Byzantine agora which follows the model of the Roman forum in Malalas' descriptio11 no longer relevant to the citizens of early Byzantine Aphrodisias, and it was converted into a market.
of the agora ( cp6Qo~) of Valens in Antioch (Plan VIII). 1203 It was located at the end of a colonnaded South of the South Agora was a large civic basilica, and to the southeast the theatre with a large peristyle
avenue that ran between the mountain and the river and was perpendicular to the main colonnaded rnurt, a tetrastoon, and a bathing establishment, all forming a complex.
avenue of the city. Important Roman monuments already stood there: the temple of Ares, the basilica In some early Byzantine cities the Roman type of permanent market, the macellum, was main-
Kaisarion, built by Julius Caesar, and a monumental arch built by Trajan, the Middle Gate. Valens de 111incd. In the Roman period the macellum was often associated with the forum, an example being the
molished part of the Kaisarion and rebuilt its vaulted apse. Vaults with marble paving were built ovc, macellum built by Trajan above his forum in Rome. 1208 The formality of such buildings was increasingly
the torrent Parmenius. Four basilicas (BamAtxa() surrounded the open space of the forum with columns It 1st in the early Byzantine period. In Gerasa, close to the south tetrapylon on the cardo maximus was the
from Salona, coffered ceilings, paintings, and a variety of marbles, mosaics, and statues. In the centre nty's macellum (50x55 m) (Plan 12). It had the form of an octagon with four semicircles (exedrai) and a
stood a statue ofValen's brother, Valentinian. Around the forum were prestigious buildings, some already ~iosk in the middle in the open space with a fountain and a pedestal for sculpture. In the middle of the
there, others constructed by Valens: the Plethrion for the Olympic Games, the Baths of Commodus 1·wdrai was a table with carvings of animals on the legs, probably used as stalls for money-dealers. Behind
1he octagonal patio are forty-six shops, while the tables of the exedrai and other sales stalls offered more
which later became the praetorium of the governor of Syria, the Xystos used in the Olympic Games,
space for commercial . transactions.
. Th"1s macellum was converte d m. t o an art·1sans' cent re. 1209
opposite which Valens built a new basilica. Near the forum, on the site of the temple of Ares, Valens
built a macellum. The open area of the market, was surrounded by porticoes onto which shops opened,
and was decorated with a fountain in the centre.
Another type of agora/forum is found in Aphrodisias in Caria. Aphrodisias' civic centre was main-
tained until the early sixth century (Plan IX). The city had two plazas-agorai, the northern (205x120 m)
and the southern (212x69 m). In the North Agora the bouleuterion was located and behind it in the early
Byzantine period there were shops, including the famous Sculptors' Workshop. Immediately to the
north is the temple of Aphrodite, which was converted into a Christian church in the early Byzantine
centuries. A major building next to the bouleuterion, to the west, has been identified either as the bishop's
palace or the governor's palace. 1204 The South Agora is also known as the Agora of Tiberius, after the
dedicatory inscription to Tiberius on the north portico. The South Agora was accessed from the east by
a monumental gate. In the late fifth century the gate was transformed into a nymphaeum after an earth-
quake caused substantial damage. The work was commemorated with an inscription mentioning the
generosity of the pater of the city, Flavius Ampellius. The nymphaeum was decorated with panels
removed from other buildings and depicting scenes of a Gigantomachy, an Amazonomachy and a
Centauromachy. 1205 The South Agora was a large rectangular area, colonnaded, with an ornamental
reflective pool in the middle, fashionable in Roman imperial city planning. The overall setting was aes-
thetically very attractive. The architectural arrangement of Aphrodisias' South Agora was dictated by
aesthetic concerns and it is obvious that it was not designed to accommodate civic gatherings. 1206
West of the South Agora are the large Hadrianic baths. To the northeast is located the famous Se-
basteion, a large basilica! hall with sculptures symbolizing Roman power over the conquered peoples,
and Roman imperial authority. When it was damaged by an earthquake in the middle of the fourth cen-
tury, it was restored to its earlier form, but was subdivided with partition walls to function probably as
PLAN 12. The macellum of Gerasa.

parallel to the grandiose mythological subjects of classical art (Ling, Roman Painting, 164-165). In the written sources a change
1207 Smith and Ratte,AJA 102 (1998), 238.
is observed in the attitudes towards beggars in pagan writers already in the fourth century. They contrast with earlier texts of
1208 Segal, Function, 61-67.
the Roman period: R. MacMullen, Social History in Astrology, Ancient Society 2 ( 1971 ), 115-116; idem, Roman Social Relations.
1209 M. Martin Bueno and A. Uscatescu, ElMacellum de Gerasa (S: aras, Jordania): La transformaci6n de un edificio publi-
50 B.C. toA.D. 284 (New Haven and London 1974), 87.
1203
Malalas, 261. co romano en un area artesanal bizantina, inActes XIV Congres Internacional d'Arqueologia Classica. Tarragona, 5-11/9/1993.
1204
See infra, p. 258. La ciutat en el m6n roma 2 (Tarragona 1994), 262-264; M. Martin-Bueno, The Macellum in the Economy of Gerasa, in Jordan
1205
K. Erim,AnatSt 31 (1981), 180-181. IV, 315-319; A. Uscatescu and M. Martin-Bueno, The Macellum of Gerasa (Jerash, Jordan): From a Market Place to an
1206
Smith and Ratte,AJA 104 (2000), 222. Industrial Area, BASOR 307 (1997), 68-88.
224 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 225

The Hellenistic and Roman type of market place, however, designed as an open plaza surrounded
by porticoes with shops, was more common. This type of market was maintained in various cities in
early Byzantine period. In Corinth the Roman Market was built behind the Semicircular Building a111I
north of the temple of Apollo (Plan Vila). It was rectangular with an open court in the middle, a colon
nade on all sides and stores, fifteen along the south and north sides, and ten along the east and wnd I Ncl =: =
sides. Most of the shops were 2.92 m wide and 4.40 m deep. In front of them the floor of the port in 'l''l
was covered with mosaics. In the interior the court was adorned with statues and monuments. Tl11 1

shops had a second floor that served only for storage. By the fifth century the eastern part was demo!
ished to make room for a brick building (nymphaeum). The Market was destroyed by fire at the end 111
the fourth century. The shops were used continuously afterwards with various modifications with( 1111
maintaining neither the order of the earlier plan nor the quality of materials (closing of doors, openi11r1
of other doors, floors with irregularly laid slabs of marble and stones). 1210 In Philippi, west of the Roman
forum and the exedra of the Egnatia, a rectangular market has been detected. It was approximately Kl
m long and 25-35 m wide along Market Street (Plan 13). 1211 Delphi is an example of a small earlv
Byzantine city in Greece. In front of the main entrance to the sanctuary, the early Byzantine market wa•, L N1l1
0
0
.-1

a paved court with colonnades on the three sides. To the north there were shops resembling those ol I

Sardis. The stylobate was built from reused material, including a fragment of a dedicatory inscripti(lll
to Apollo. It is clear that when the market was designed, some pagan monuments were destroyed 8 N\! j
I

South of the court was a bath, constructed at the same time. 1212 The Lower Agora of Ephesus, 01
Tetragonos Agora (Plan III), was the city's market, which was also used for social meetings. It was rebuill
by Theodosius I and was named Foros Theodosianos. 1213 With the exception of the eastern portico, all (,Nll I

the other sides were rebuilt, but probably without the upper storey. The Lower Agora had 61 shops.
their dimensions being 4.50x4.50-5.50 m. In the early Byzantine period it underwent various chang<:s I
0
01 N\li
A new gateway was constructed on the north side with spolia. Sections of the colonnades were walled
up, others were rebuilt, the doors of the south side were closed with walls, ramps were constructed wcsl
of the west entrance to be used for bringing in animals, and basins were installed next to them. The market ..;
(")
maintained its form with alterations and late repairs employing a great deal of spolia that are n< ,1 ,..., 1)
..!<I
....rn
dated. 1214 The Lower Agora, the city's commercial site in Sagalassos, was a trapezoidal square 45x31 m I
i
I.O
M C:

"' ·;;;-e
~ .sEi 1)

-
(Plan X). It was accessible through a monumental gate in the southwestern corner and a monumental ,1 N\I .-1 p..

"'"' fill"'
:,
M
staircase. The Ionic portico on the east side was almost completely rebuilt in the late fourth or in the i:::
V) .-1 rn
"
·,!!l C
2 C:
0
N
;>..
early fifth century. Not too long afterwards the portico lost its monumental appearance and during the ,,.," ~
C
·(!>
e-
0
ii]
V)
B p:)

fifth or sixth century a poor dwelling was established on the site, which took over two shops and the cor ,!!l "" ":, '"a ..Q
e-,!!l ,,.,"""' "0 ea ....rn
'~ <f)
s C:

responding part of the portico. By the early seventh century the shops of the east portico were aban•
V)

-~ "
<ii .S "' ·~ u"
1)

E 80 .Ell "
'in ~ ~
..Q
doned and a water channel lay through their higher levels after they were filled with earth. 1215 After the 0
C .c
a. > a: ,:§
<I> <I> :9
<(
"'"'0
earthquake of 518, which severely damaged the city, the west portico may have continued to function p..
for some time, until it was altered by the typical early Byzantine subdivision walls which created new ,....;

shops and workshops opening onto the open plaza. Behind these shops to the west was the temple of
Apollo, now converted into a Christian church, the new shops obviously serving the worshippers

121
°Corinth I/iii, 180-193.
1211Provost and Boyd, Philippes, 469-474.
1212
P. Amandry, Chronique delphique (1970-1981), BCH 105 (1981), 724; V. Deroche and P. Petridis,AD 47 (1992), BI,
218-219.
1213 Inschr. Ephesos V, no. 1534.

1214
Foss, Byzantine Cities, 455 n. 97; idem, Ephesus, 63.
1215 Wealkens et aL, Sagalassos III, 29-31.
226 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 227

attending the church. Most of the Roman gateway collapsed in the earthquake of 518 A.D., except 101
its west wing, which was incorporated in a new structure resembling a tower. A new stairway was then
constructed, divided in two sections of 21 and 6 steps each. Being narrower than the earlier Roman
I I

staircase, it formed on the side a ramp for transportation. The market continued to function, until tlw
I I
u I
I
.I
earthquake in the mid-seventh century, when it collapsed and was abandoned together with the rest 111 :\ <J)

the city.1216 ·1 Q)
u
co
An example of this type of market was also erected in Scythopolis (Plans V, 14). When the city\ 0 E
u .2
monumental avenue, the Palladius Street, was reconstructed in the late fourth to early fifth century, a t0
a.
market place was built to the east of the avenue. It was bounded by the Palladius Street to the west, t I1c
theatre to the south, the East Baths to the east, and the Temple, Nymphaeum and Antonius Monumrnl
to the north. The plan of this market place was irregular, an asymmetrical trapezoid, and its size 8:b
84.5x116-122 m. A basilica that had stood there in the past was dismantled. On the three sides of tlw
market place, there were porticoes paved with mosaics depicting animals. In the early sixth century, tlw
south part of the market place was reduced in size, its plan thus becoming rectangular. A new portico
was constructed on the south side separating the market from the square in front of the theatre portic11
New pavements were laid in the porticoes some with slabs of bituminous limestone and others in opm, 3l
::,
sectile, fashionable in the sixth century. 1217 0
.c
.c
In early Byzantine cities, porticoes and plazas interrupting and decorating major avenues now <ii
.0
made up urban centres. These plazas were open spaces surrounded by magnificent buildings and colon t5
co
nades with shops, and decorated with water fountains and statues. Circular and oval plazas had been in Q)

troduced in the Roman imperial period in the second and third centuries A.D. and became very popu
lar in the fourth century in the cities of the East. We find them in Palmyra, Bostra (Plan XI) and Gerasa
(Plan VI, supra, p. 210, Figure 30). This architectural design of the circular and oval plazas was orna
mental in function. 1218 Other plazas were laid out in front of important monuments, which had been
architecturally modified in the early Byzantine period. For example, a plaza was created in front of the
Library of Celsus in Ephesus, the fa<_;ade of which was converted into a fountain. Some plazas had a simpk .!: Q)
Ol ~
architectural design and less pretentious functions: in the early Byzantine period in Sardis at the east <J) C: ::,
0. ·-
-0
<J)
0
end of the Marble Street, southeast of the Roman Bath-Gymnasium, a plaza with a portico with mosak C
.c
<J)
=u
::, C:
pavement was formed. 1219 We can see the layout of the sixth-century urban centre in the form of a 0
.0 Q)

~ -~
circular plaza in Justiniana Prima (Caricin Grad) (Plan I). The city's commercial centre in the upper ~,._
(l)
I i='s
Q}
u
u

§
1216
Waelkens et al., Sagalassos V/1, 362-378; idem, Sagalassos IV, 208-210. The two rectangular plazas at the central
intersection of Xanthos in Lycia dating to the third or fourth century were probably commercial: Des Courtils and Cavalier
Xanthos, 163-164.
1217
Mazor and Bar-Nathan, ES/ 17 (1998), 17-18. Pavements and walls of churches were also decorated in opus sectile: A
H. S. Megaw, Byzantine Architecture and Decoration in Cyprus: Metropolitan or Provincial?, DOP 28 (1974), 67 and fig. <i;
P. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, H TEXVlX'YJ opus sectile ar:iJv ivr:oixia oiax6aµ17ar7- Ivµ/30).,iJ ar:iJ µdfr17 r:ijt; uxvixijt; cbro r:ov I (I
0

µtxei r:ov 7o µ.X. alwva µt /36.017 r:a µv17µi,ia xai r:a xdµeva (Thessalonica 1980), 95 ff. It is suggested that the abandonment
of mosaic floors was due to aesthetic reasons. In the lavishly decorated interiors of middle Byzantine buildings plain marble
pavements would match better: H. Maguire, The Medieval Floors of the Great Palace, in Byzantine Constantinople, 171-174.
It should be noted, however, that the trend had started in the early Byzantine period and it is also attested for open spaces, such
as street colonnades. It may very well be that by replacing mosaic pavements with marble slabs, pagan themes which traditionally
decorated mosaics were avoided. Economic factors may also have played a role: floors in opus sectile were less expensive than
mosaic pavements.
1218
Segal, Function, 67-79; MacDonald,Architecture II, 51-66.
1219
C. H. Greenewalt, Jr., C. Ratte and M. L. Rautman, The Sardis Campaigns of 1990 and 1991,MSOR 52 (1994), 3-7;
idem, The Sardis Campaigns of 1992 and 1993,MSOR 53 (1995), 4-6.
228 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 229

city was a circular plaza below the acropolis. Its diameter was approximately 22 m, with porticoes ap
proximately 3 m wide. At the point where the four streets lead to the plaza four arched gates wcn·
formed with massive brick pillars. The porticoes opened onto the public plaza, but were enclosed at the
level of the sidewalk. Thus each one of the four porticoes formed a particular unit. Columns and pillars
alternated in the porticoes. In the middle of the circular plaza stood the base of a statue, probably of tlw
emperor Justinian. 1220 The pavements of the streets lack the luxurious appearance and grace of those
of the great cities of the East. In J ustiniana Prima, the streets were paved with stones, the sidewalks wi l h
bricks. The roofs of the colonnades were probably covered with lead tiles. The plaza in Dyrrachium, ill
the centre of which probably stood Anastasius' statue on a podium, appears to have been similar. 12li
Imperial fora in Constantinople, drawing on Roman prototypes, conveyed imperial symbolism (Pla11
XII). Among the seven major fora mentioned there, the forum of Constantine was the most famous. It
was located on the central avenue, the Mese, in front of the Senate House, while on the opposite sidr
there was probably a nymphaeum. It was circular, adorned in the centre with the emperor's statue on a
porphyry column. It had two-storey colonnades decorated with sculptures with figures of Medusa. 12:1:
The equestrian statue of Justinian stood in the open place known as the Augustaeum surrounded by tht·
Basilike Stoa, the second Senate House, the Church of St. Sophia and the Baths of Zeuxippus. 1223 The
Forum of Theodosius I was rectangular and imitated the famous Forum of Trajan in Rome, with an
arch on each side, a basilica and a gigantic column with spiral reliefs commemorating the emperor's PLAN 15. Circular plaza of Antioch after the Justinianic restoration.
military achievements. 1224 At the Philadelphion stood a cross on a pillar, and various statues, including
that of the Tetrarchs, decorated the plaza. 1225 In Antioch, a large circular plaza, regarded as the om-
phalos of the city, was adorned with the statue of the emperor Tiberius, offered by the city to honour
him for his building activity. The statue stood on a porphyry column. On the site was a stone with the
sculpture of an eye. At the time of Malalas, the column with the statue still stood in situ. 1226 In 540, after
the sack of Antioch by the Persians, Justinian built a circular plaza (Plan 15). Its diameter was approx-
imately 36 m and it was paved with slabs of basalt. Colonnaded porticoes ran around the plaza and
continued along the avenue. In the centre there was probably a monumental water fountain. It is possible
that the Justinianic plaza followed the arrangement of an earlier Roman circular plaza of the third
century with a building in the centre, perhaps a tetrastylon, and a fountain. The temple of the Nymphs
mentioned by Libanius in theAntiochikos was probably similar. 1227 The semicircular plaza of Jerusalem
in front of St. Stephen's Gate, the modern Damascus Gate, at the conjunction of the cardo maximus
and the Valley cardo had embedded with religious symbolism. In the centre of the plaza, approximately
60-80 m in diameter, stood a tall column. In the Tabula Peutingeriana, on top of the column a statue of
Constantine is depicted, carrying a lance and a globe. Later, in the Madaba map, however, the statue is
missing (Plans XIII, 16). According to Christian and, later, Muslim tradition, the column was the symbol

1220
A. Grabar, Les monuments de Tsaritchin Grad et Justiniana Prima, CaMrch 3 (1948), 57-63; Kondic and Popovic,
Caricin Grad, 322-323; Vasic, Le plan, 307-315 suggested that the plaza was originally designed closer to the acropolis so that
the central street east-west (decumanus) leading to the acropolis would continue on a straight line onto the acropolis. Duval,
Caricin Grad I, 326-327, however, argues that the plaza was designed from the beginning in that position because of the strong PLAN 16. Jerusalem in the Madaba Mosaic Map and identification of the most important sites: A. The northern
slope of the hill near the acropolis. On the decoration and statuary of early Byzantine plazas see Bauer, Stadt, 363-373. gate (Porta Neapolitana, Porta S. Stephani, modern Damascus Gate). B. The plaza with the column. C. The cardo
1221
The excavation report remains unpublished. maximus. D. Secondary colonnaded street (modern Valley Street). E. The street leading to the eastern gate (modern
1222
Mango, Le developpement, 25-26; Bauer, Stadt, 167-187. Via Dolorosa). F. The eastern gate (today Lions Gate). G. The western gate (Porta David, today Jaffa Gate). 3.
1223 Procopius, De aedificiis I.2.1-12; Mango, The Brazen House, 42-47, 174-179.
The fa~ade and the propylon of the church of the Holy Sepulchre. 4. The basilica of the Holy Sepulchre. 5. The
1224
Mango, Le developpement, 43-45; A. Berger, Tauras e Sigma. Due piazze di Costantinopoli, in Bisanzio e ['Occidente:
inner courtyard in front of the Rotunda. 6. The Rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre. 7. Part of the forum. 9. The bap-
arte, archeologia, storia. Studi in onore di Fernanda de'Maffei (Rome 1996), 17-24; Bauer, Stadt, 187-203.
1225 tistery(?). 10-16. Various buildings north of the Holy Sepulchre (patriarchate, monasteries, hostels?). 17. The
Mango, Le developpement, 28-30; Bauer, Stadt, 228-233.
1226 Malalas, 177.19-24. Tower of David. 22. The Zion Church. 27. The Nea Church. 33. The Church of St. Sophia and the Praetorium
1227
Antioch V, 14-15, pl. IV-V, figs. 8-9. Libanius, Or. XI.202. depicted with two columns to which Christ was bound. 43. The Church of St. Mary near the Probatike Pool.
230 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 231

of Jerusalem located at the centre of the world. 1228 In the mosaic representation of the Kastron Mcfaa,
in the Church of the Lions at Umm al-Rasas in Jordan (588/9), a column is shown with a cross on top m
the lower town. In the representation of the same town in the Church of St. Stephanus, the column
depicted without a cross (see supra, pp.129, 133, Figures 12,16). 1229 Statues of emperors and goventot',
were set up in central plazas even in small and modest urban settlements of the periphery of the empi1t·
For example, in Subeita, in the Negev, the stone podium in the centre of the irregular and unpaved
square, in front of the so-called Governor's House was probably the base of a statue. 1230
Central avenues of provincial capitals were decorated with statues, busts and painted images 111
emperors, governors and private benefactors from different periods. 1231 In the fifth century, the goldc11
statue of a provincial governor was erected in Caesarea Maritima. 1232 The honorific inscriptions lt1
benefactors commemorated their contributions to these cities and Book 16 of theAnthologia GraC'nt
contains dedications to emperors and other high officials. In all cities images of emperors were set 11p
in porticoes and public buildings. 1233 The occasions were celebrated with festivities, and speeches were
delivered. 1234 Porticoed avenues with statues formed an impressive setting for the first official visit 11I
the governor to a city, the adventus, and various other civic ceremonies. 1235 Christian ideology also pn 1
moted the public display of imperial images, going so far as to suggest that, when images of past c111
perors were not carried in procession, they were "painted and set up in the midst of the market plan·
becoming a protection to the whole city". 1236 Inscriptions also evoke imperial protection over cilit·i,
through imperial statuary set up in public places, functioning like the cities' palladium. 1237 Furthc1
more, members of the upper class were eager to have their statues erected in public in the belief that
they were thus made immortal. 1238 About 35 inscribed bases for honorific statues survive from Aphrodisim,
dating from 300 to 600 A.D. A great number of large parts of statues have also been found. Thcs1·
decorated the porticoes of the agora and the peristyle courts of the baths and the theatre and wcn·
made from earlier parts reused, plinths, bases, and statues with reworked heads. Often only the base,,
were reused, poorly reworked, while the statues were new and carefully executed. 1239 In the Embolo:,
of Ephesus, numerous early Byzantine statues were displayed with dedicatory inscriptions (Figure 32).
Inscriptions recording decrees of emperors and provincial governors and acclamations to the Greens
were also displayed there. 1240 A number of statues of proconsuls of Asia dating to 450-550 have identical

1228
P. Verdier, La colonne de Colonia Aelia Capitolina et !'imago clipeata du Christ Helios, CaMrch 23 (1974), 28; A. ( i
J. Wightman, The Walls ofJerusalem from the Canaanites to the Mamluks (Sydney 1993), 221.
1229
Piccirillo, Mosaicists, 397-398.
1230
J. Shereshevski, Byzantine Urban Settlements in the Negev Desert (Beer-Sheva V, Jerusalem 1991 ), 65.
1231 Libanius, Or. XXII.7-8 (II, 474-475).
1232
Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, 56-57 (no. 25).
1233
CTh XV.1.44; Zosimus IV.37.3. On the Roman tradition of displaying images of emperors during civic festivals, se,·
Roueche, Pe,formers, 145-146.
1234
Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 1 (p. 4.13), 28 (p. 24.15-16).
1235 Lavan, Political Topography, 327-331.

1236
A Homily on the Virgin by Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, 90, cols. 1-2, text and transl. in W. H. Worrell, 77H' FIG. 32. The north side of the upper part of the Embolos in Ephesus leading to the
Coptic Manuscripts in the Freer Collection, Univ. of Michigan Studies, Humanistic Series, 10 (New York 1923), 308-309 (text). Gate of Hercules with statue bases in front of each column.
375 (transl.). One headless statue is erected on the base dedicated to the physician Alexander.
1237
C. Zuckerman, The Dedication of a statue of Justinian at Antioch, in Th. Drew-Bear et al. ( eds.),Actes du F Congrcls
international sur Antioche de Pisidie (Lyon, Paris 2002), 243-255.
1238 Ammianus Marcellinus XIV.6.8.

1239 Smith and Ratte,AJA 102 (1998), 242-244.

1240
R. Heberdey, Vorlaufiger Bericht iiber die Grabungen in Ephesus 1905/06,JOAI 10 (1907), Beibl. 68-69. Foss,Ephesus, 66
67 and n. 42 with a list of decrees displayed on the Embolos; C. Foss, Stephanus, Proconsul of Asia, and Related Statues, Harvard
Ukranian Studies. VII. Okeanos. Essays presented to Ihor Sevcenko on his Sixtieth Birthday (Cambridge, Mass. 1983), 196-219.
232 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 233

torsoes but heads with individual characteristics. The statue of the provincial governor Stephanus, wlu 1 pt ,rt icoes. The surviving fragments of the paintings date from the Roman and the early Byzantine periods.
held office during the reign of Justinian, is accompanied by an inscription. Honorific inscriptions wn Tlw frieze between the ground-level doors and the windows of the upper storey was covered with painting
increasingly inscribed on the colonnades of the avenues and the adjacent monuments of early Byzan Imitating marble slabs. Below, the architrave was decorated with a frieze of a garland. The painted
tine cities, instead of in the agora where they had been displayed in the past. During public ceremonit>s. 1krnration in red lines on a white background dates to the fifth or sixth century. 1252 Paintings and mosaics
participants apparently stood in places designated with circles and pronounced acclamations to Ihr publicly displayed were an adornment of the cities and offered delight to all the citizens. In the treatise
emperors and the factions that were inscribed on the porticoes. 1241 From the fifth century, inscriptiow. 111 Julian of Ascalon regulations are mentioned forbidding one to obstruct the view of public paintings

recording acclamations may have become an alternative to honorific statues, since a law of the year 411•1 1kpicting mythological themes, such as Achilles, Ajax, and other recognizable subjects. 1253 In spite of
ordered personal funding of honorific statues by the honourees. 1242 Inscriptions honouring the empc 1 111,.: profound Christianization of the cities in the sixth century, urban public space was still decorated
ors were to be seen everywhere in public porticoes. In Gaza, the lanterns in the streets displayed i11 with sculptures and paintings with mythological compositions. Pagan themes and Christian symbols
scriptions praising the emperor, the empress and the bishop: "May the Emperor reach old age, Mav w1.·rc to be found side by side.
there be a long old age for the Empress", and "May the bishop receive the same things". 1243 Other i11 In Procopius' Buildings, Justinian restores market places (agorai) only in Antioch, destroyed by the
scriptions commemorated local benefactors. Twenty acclamations were inscribed in the west portico ol l'ersians in 540, whereas in Carthage he constructs porticoes on either side of the so-called Maritime
the South Agora of Aphrodisias, most of which were for Albinus who had restored the columns. Thi' l"orum. 1254 Archaeological excavations in the Maritime Agora on an island in the middle of the Circu-
portico had twenty columns, of which nineteen survive. Each one of them carries an inscription on t lw lar Harbour of Carthage confirm Procopius' account and show that the Maritime Agora was improved
side towards the interior of the portico and the letters were covered with red paint. The first inscription hv Justinian: the porticoes were rebuilt closer to the centre of the Island, creating a waterfront space
is an acclamation to God, the next four inscriptions are acclamations to the emperors, the Prefects, tlw larger than before. The area had a purely commercial character and it was probably used for storage
Senate, the metropolis, the next fourteen praise the benefactor Albinus, and the last is an acclamation imd transportation of the annona. 1255 Markets ( agorai) were also included in the new imperial founda-
to the Tyche of the city. They most likely date to the early sixth century. 1244 1ions of Justiniana Prima and Caputvada. 1256
With the gradual decline of statuary, 1245 there was a notable preference for painted and mosaic Excavations at Scythopolis' civic centre illustrate the changes that occurred in the sixth century and
portraits instead of statues. Mosaic images of emperors were displayed in the markets. 1246 Choricius I he priorities of the urban community at that time. The reports have been published and analysed in an
explains that the painted images of urban benefactors, displayed in public, honoured them, and they exemplary fashion by the Israeli archaeologists, who focus on the transformation of urban features in each
were pleased when crowds gathered to look at them. 1247 Procopius of Gaza wrote an ekphrasis of a paintin11,, historical period. The Roman basilica southwest of the Central Monument in Scythopolis ceased to serve
publicly displayed at Gaza, with mythological scenes and scenes from the Trojan war and the image ol I he municipal administration already in the fourth century. Perhaps it suffered damage during the
the hypatos, who subsidised horse races and baths ( q:itAouµEhm, Cf)LAO'ttµtav ). 1248 Paintings of renowned earthquake of 363, but, while other buildings were restored, the basilica was left in ruins. The decline
citizens were also set up in some cities in the sixth century. A picture of a certain sophist was displayed of municipal institutions was obviously the reason for the basilica's abandonment. The city's commer-
at Pergamon in recognition of his labours and care for the city. 1249 Michael the Grammarian wrote an cial centre was then transferred to the shops of the central avenues. 1257 Scythopolis' main avenue, the so-
epigram on the image ( Elxova) of Agathias, which together with those of his father and brother, was set called Palladius Street, was built in the late fourth century and was decorated with a portico with a
up in a public place to honour him: "The city, with the regard of a mother to her son, figured here mosaic pavement by the governor Palladius Porphyrius in the late fourth or early fifth century. 1258 The
Agathias the rhetor and verse-writer, admiring the harmony of his eloquence in both respects, giving avenue was carefully maintained and renovated in the early sixth century: 1259 the fa<;ades of the shops
him the portrait as a testimony of its love and his own literary skill; and with him it set up portraits of of its west portico were dressed in fine marble, while the mosaic floor of the portico was replaced with
Memnonius, his father, and of his brother, representatives of a most venerable family". 1250 The back marble slabs; in 506/7 behind this portico about ten shops were dismantled and an exedra (sigma) built
walls of porticoes of courts or avenues were very often decorated with mosaics and paintings giving the (Plan 17). It was 40 m wide with three apses, one in the middle and two on either side, a semi-circular
urban setting a colourful tone. 1251 In Apamea wall paintings decorated the back walls of the two-storey portico and twelve shops in the back of the portico. The exedra occupied part of the Roman Odeum that
lay behind. The walls of the fa<_;ade were dressed in marble, and most of the shops in the exedra dis-
played mosaic floors with poetic inscriptions and representations of animals and plants. One mosaic
1241
C. Roueche, Looking for Late Antique Ceremonial: Ephesos and Aphrodisias, inEphesos (1995), 161-168. depicted the impressive personification of the Tyche of the city: she wears a crown with towers and
1242
CJ I.24.4; M. Horster, Ehrungen spiitantiker Statthalter,AntTard 6 (1998), 37-59.
1243 Choricius, Or. II.65 (p. 44.9-12; transl. Litsas, Choricius, 149).
1244 Roueche,Aphrodisias, nos. 82-84, pp. 125-136.
1252
1245 B. Kilerich, Sculpture in the Round in the Early Byzantine Period: Constantinople and the East, in Ryden and Rosenquist, L. Reekmans, Fresques des portiques de la Grande Colonnade,Apamee (1969), 117-122; idem, Remarques sur la
Aspects of Late Antiquity, 85-97, esp. 95-97. decoration peinte des portiques de la grande colonnade d'Apamee,AAAS 20 (1970), 133-138. The composition of this period
1246 Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.24.22-27; John Lydus, De magistratibus II.20. is marked by lack of organization and order of the design.
1247 1253
Choricius, Declamatio 11.105 (p. 506.8-13). Julian of Ascalon, c. 54 (p. 75).
1248 1254
Procopius of Gaza, Ekphrasis, p. 18 ( c. 42). Procopius, De aedificiis II.10.22; VI.5.10.
1249 1255
Anthologia Graeca XVI.36. See also Libanius, Or. XLII.43 (III, 328). Hurst et al., Excavations at Carthage II, 1, 109-119, esp. 114-115.
1250
Anthologia Graeca XVI.316 (transl. Paton). See also C. Mango, Epigrammes honorifiques, statues, portraits a Byzance, 1256
Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.23; VI.6.16.
1257
in'AcpdQwµa arov Nfxo .E/Joewvo, B. Kremmydas, Chr. Maltezou and N. M. Panagiotakis (eds.), I (Rethymno 1986), 23-35. Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 115-116.
1251 For example, Libanius mentions a painting in the court of the bouleuterion in Antioch: Libanius, Progymnasmata 1258
G. Mazor, ESJ 7-8 (1988/89), 26-28; Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 114.
1259
XII.2 (VIII, 465-468). Tsafrir and Foerster, ESJ 9 (1989/1990), 120.
234 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 235

h11lds a cornucopia (see supra, p. 138, Figure 20). The inscriptions indicate that some of these shops were
places of entertainment. The construction of this exedra in 506/7 is recorded in two inscriptions: it took
place during the administration of governor Theosebius under the care of the protos Silvinus. The new
mchitectural arrangement was aesthetically very pleasing. The Roman Odeum, part of which was taken
over by the exedra, had been abandoned long before and, as in other cities, it had probably previously
housed the boule. That it no longer served the city's boule is suggested by the fact that the protos
Silvinus was responsible for its demolition. 1260 Although at the beginning of the sixth century, the
nimmunity had the resources and the interest to create this beautiful exedra, at the end of the same
n'lltury it could no longer maintain the monumental appearance of the site: the exedra was demolished
111 the end of the sixth or in the beginning of the seventh century. 1261 Over the fifth to the sixth century
I ht: north end of Palladius Street was also profoundly changed. The temple of Dionysus and a magnifi-
cent propylaeum originally stood there, leading to the acropolis. This area, through which civic proces-
1,inns would have passed, was marked by a profound symbolism. In the Byzantine period the area lost
its formal civic aspect: the proliferation of shops and workshops gave the area a commercial character,
cvL:n while most of the ancient monuments of the site were still standing. 1262
-~
0
0..
CJ 0
..c::
.....
G
[/J
The dissolution of ancient civic centres
.s.....
(])
(])
,....
The major changes that occurred in urban architecture of the early centuries of Byzantium affect-
.....
[/J ed primarily the sites of the ancient centres of civic administration, the agora/forum. 1263 The diminish-
CJJ
:::i mg importance of the agora is indicated by the fact that in some cities it was not included in the early
~
..::l Ilvzantine fortifications, as, for example, at Athens, Ephesus and in smaller cities, such as Hierapolis in
cil
~ l'h rygia. 1264 We can see the dissolution of the ancient civic centres in revealing details at excavated sites.
L
4-<
0
,-,, 111 numerous cities, the ancient agora was abandoned and in most cases the open square was not occu-

□j
<:::!
pied again, remaining an empty space. In some cities it was partly covered with new structures, usually
-~
~ houses and workshops and less frequently churches. In all cities, however, the monumental appearance

~...
~ nl the site was in decline. 1265 Some of the ancient agorai declined earlier, while others at a later point in
"<:l
~
~ t lw early Byzantine period. Most of the buildings, deprived of their public functions, were taken over by
ll> (])

-- a:, ~ private individuals or guilds and were used for commercial or industrial activities or as dwelling places;

Ii.s
ll> 0)

_J 0.
0.
0
c--:
,.....

j
1 ,t hers were given to the Church; others were left to decay and were robbed of their building materials,

1hdr stones being used in new construction projects. Archaeological excavations show that decline
.c. ,;truck first in the smaller cities, while in large cities the civic centres resisted decay longer. Although ar-
ell
~
diacology reveals the scale of the transformation, the date of the abandonment and subsequent trans-
formation of civic buildings is rarely dated with accuracy. However, in spite of regional variations, the
E
l'.l' ncral picture throughout the empire is the same: the process of decline of the ancient civic centres began
~
111 the fourth century, continuing in the fifth and accelerating over the sixth and seventh centuries.
In the following paragraphs we present the changes in the agora of some cities, as they can be seen
111 the archaeological excavations, In Ephesus the Upper Agora lost its function as an administrative
1 c ntre (Plan III). The prytaneion, used for state business and ceremonies, had two rooms and a peri-

1260
0
Bar-Nathan and Mazor, ES/ 11 (1992), 43-44; Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 121-122.
1261 Bar-Nathan and Mazor, ES/ 11 (1992), 44.
1262
Foerster and Tsafrir, ES/ 11 (1992), 12-13; Tsafrir and Foerster, From Scythopolis, 110.
1263
For references but without an evaluation of the archaeological evidence see Claude, Stadt, 64-68.
1264 D'Andria, Hierapolis, 112.

1265
Spieser, La ville, 326-327.
236 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 237

style court and had strong religious associations, since the fire of Hestia Boulaea was kept burning in us t~xplains the variety of materials of uneven height used in the columns, while the restoration work
the inner room. The building was destroyed and its material reused for paving and for the reconst nw· lht: western portico sponsored by Albinus, was more carefully executed.1 274
tion of the Baths of Scholasticia. Some of its columns were used in the colonnades of the Embolrni, The changes that occurred in the early Byzantine period in Sagalassos's civic centre in Pisidia have
while some statues of Artemis were destroyed and others were buried so as to save them from the hm, ·,·11 revealed in interesting detail during recent excavations, since the site, having been destroyed by
tility of the Christians. The temple of Caesar and Roma in the centre of the agora was destroyed arnl t·arthquake in the middle of the seventh century, was subsequently abandoned. The city had two
only its foundations were left in place. A colonnade was built on the east side, while most of the op1·11 the Upper Agora, which was the civic centre, and the Lower Agora, the commercial centre. The
space of the agora was occupied with houses. 1266 A Christian inscription on the south bench of t lui open plaza of the Upper Agora was surrounded by impressive monuments and porticoes (Plan X).
square indicates that this section might have been used for Christian ceremonies. 1267 The three-aislnl 1 arched gateways located at the south corners formed the monumental entrances. In the middle of
basilica stoa north of the agora (supra, p. 208, Figure 29), originally dedicated to Augustus, was Cluii, 1,pen plaza were erected many Roman honorific monuments and statues of local benefactors stood
tianized by erasing the name of Artemis from the inscriptions and by carving crosses on the foreheads 1•I · 4m columns 10 m high in the four corners. 1275 In the fourth century, early Byzantine emperors were ho-
the statues of Augustus and Livia. After the destruction of the basilica, probably by an earthquake arou11tl Ill 111red in the agora with new monuments or by reused earlier Roman ones. 1276 An impressive Roman
500, it was robbed of its stones and the material used for the construction of the Church of St. John. ·1 'lit· 11v111phaeum, 27 m long and 7 m high, adorning the north side of the Upper Agora was remodelled in the
eastern part of its portico was occupied by the peristyle court of a house, constructed from pieces of tlw Byzantine period. Water was collected in a pool in front of the central niche, and from there it was
upper storey of the basilica. The house continued to be used until the early seventh century. Th,· rarried across the agora. A votive column for Demeter and Persephone was Christianized with the in-
remaining part of the basilica was taken over, together with other structures. Only the bouleuterion ww, iption EL£ 0£6£, but the numerous statues decorating the aediculae of the nymphaeum's fa<;ade were
preserved longer and was used by Christians, as indicated by the large cross over the east door. 1268 iksl royed by the Christians. They were thrown into the basin and smashed to pieces. The statues of the
The civic centre of Aphrodisias had two parts, the North Agora and the South Agora. Adorned two corner niches were saved since they could not be removed without breaking the niches. But
with magnificent buildings, it appears to have been in use until the end of the early Byzantine period, 1h1.·se last niches were closed with walls engraved with crosses. A Christian inscription in red paint was
albeit deprived of its ancient civic function. The various changes to be discerned there reflect the trend:, 111arked on the architrave of the central niche. 1277 Behind the nymphaeum, in the so-called Terrace
of the time (Plan IX). The north portico of the North Agora lost its earlier elegant design consisting< 11 lh1ilding, was an early Byzantine market with shops and workshops expanded after the earthquake of the
an exedra flanked by two niches for statues. The numerous lamps and lamp fragments found there and Vt·ar 518. 1278 At the northwestern corner of the Upper Agora stood the Northwest Heroon, an impres-
dating to the late fifth and sixth centuries testify to its commercial use. 1269 To the north was located the ,,,ve building in the form of a naiskos standing on a high podium. It was decorated with an elegant frieze
Odeum or bouleuterion of the city, a magnificent building in the form of a theatre. In the middle oft lw 111 dancing girls and in the interior stood a colossal statue. Around 400 AD., when the early Byzantine
fifth century it was remodelled and converted into a hall for lectures and entertainment with athletic ildensive wall was built, a number of utilitarian alterations were made. The Heroon was incorporated in
competitions (it is called a palaestra in the inscription that records its transformation for a new function). 1ltr fortifications and formed a tower by the city gate. On the other side of the gate the Doric Temple had
At a later, unspecified date, it lost its roof.1 270 The area around the bouleuterion was taken over hy aln:ady partly collapsed, and that too was incorporated in the wall forming another tower. 1279 Along the
industrial facilities, among which was the Sculptor's Workshop. 1271 The famous Sebasteion of the city, ',Hies of the Hernon two water reservoirs were built, along with a square building for military purposes.
with sculptures symbolizing imperial authority and Roman power over conquered peoples, was given This building was destroyed by the earthquake of 518 and was levelled. The citizens, however, rather
to artisans. The continuous series of coins from the fourth to the sixth centuries indicates that the shops I han neglect the site, took pains to remodel it. To the east of the Heroon, the area was transformed into
were in use well into the sixth century. 1272 The Agora Gate on the east side of the South Agora was con 11 small fountain house. It was vaulted and its interior walls adorned with marble slabs. The area in front

verted into a fountain, with a large pool closing the opening of the Gate, an arrangement which no of the fountain formed a small plaza. The earthquake of the mid-seventh century destroyed the site: the
doubt gave a refreshing tone to the entire area. The porticoes of the South Agora were restored by plaza was covered with numerous pieces of statues that fell and broke in pieces, including parts of the
Philip admirandissimus, after they had suffered some damage in the late fifth to the early sixth century, rnlossal statue that was still standing in the Heroon. To the southeast of the Heroon there was also a
An inscription commemorates Philip's generosity in having covered the two sections (,:a WOL«XWQ<t first-century AD. sundial with a base in the form of a lion's paw on a column, bending downwards so that
Eoxbtaocv). 1273 The southern portico was apparently restored with contributions of several donors. people could see the time. It remained in place until the earthquake of the mid-seventh century brought
11 down and it was broken into pieces. After this major destruction the area was abandoned. 1280

1266 M. F. Eichler, Die osterreichischen Ausgrabungen in Ephesos im Jahre 1964,Anz. 102 (1965), 96 (Wohnquartiere). 1274
a
M. Waelkens, Notes d'architecture sur l'agora et le portique de Tibere Aphrodisias de Carie, in J. de la Geniere and
1267
Foss, Ephesus, 82 n. 70: ofrtoc; 6 i:6noc; 1jmg1:avayvciio1:ffiv ◊La'XOVffiV ngw~un\gffiv.
K. Erim (eds.),Aphrodisias de Carie. Colloque du Centre de recherches archeologiques de l'Universite de Litle Ill. 13 novembre
1268 W. Atzinger, Das Regierungsviertel,JOAI 50 (1972-1975), 229-300, esp. 258-259 for the early Byzantine house built on
IW/5 (Paris 1987), 123-129; N. de Chaisemartin, Recherches sur la frise de l'Agora de Tibere, ibid., 135-139.
the east part of the basilica, and 261-262 and figs. 16, 18, 19 for the Roman portraits with engraved crosses, 295-296 ph. 34 of 1275 S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, Cremna and Sagalassos 1987,AnatSt 38 (1988), 62-63.
the early Byzantine peristyle house. See also Foss, Ephesus, 80-82; Scherrer, Topography, 69-72. 1276
Waelkens, Sagalassos II, 15-16.
1269
Smith and Ratte,AJA 104 (2000), 235. 1277
Waelkens et al., Sagalassos IV, 136 ff., 147 and fig. 67, 161-162.
1270
Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 43 and pp. 79-80; Ratte, New research, 134-135. 1278
Ibid., 170-173.
1271 R.R. Smith and C. Ratte, Archaeological Research at Aphrodisias in Caria, 1995,AJA 101 (1997), 6. 1279
Waelkens, Sagalassos II, 12.
1272 See supra, pp. 222-223; Smith and Ratte,AJA 102 (1998), 238-239; Ratte, New research, 135 and n. 58. 1280
Waelkens et al., Sagalassos IV, 173-193 and figs. 118-128 of the frieze with the dancing girls; M. Waelkens et al., The
1273 Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 66, pp. 108-109; nos. 82-84, pp. 125-136, esp. p. 130.
Northwest Hernon at Sagalassos, in Sagalassos V/2, 553-593, esp. 560-568.
238 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 239

A portico constructed in the fourth century along the south side of the Upper Agora remained 1111 1w11cs in the same period. 1290 The maintenance of the monumentality of the street maybe connect-
finished, 1281 and another fourth-century portico was built with reused material and columns on the w1·1,I with the conversion of the Tetraconch of the Library into a church. By the sixth century, the broad-
side. In the fifth to sixth century a section of it was occupied by a Christian chapel, probably dedicate,! 1m·a of Athens' ancient civic centre had been Christianized, with Christian churches established on
to St. Michael. 1282 An early Christian basilica was built in the area in front of the bouleuterion west 111 1 buildings of the Roman market: the Agoranomeion and the Tower of the Winds, the Tetra-
the agora's open plaza. Coin finds indicate that the open plaza of the Upper Agora ceased to be usl·d 1rh of the Library of Hadrian and on the site of the Fethiye Cami. 1291 At the same time, the dissolu-
in the fifth century, but it was not completely abandoned. 1283 111 ,f the public character of the ancient agora was intensified. A house was built east of the Tholos in
Among the agorai of the cities of Greece those of Athens, Corinth and Thessalonica have bt:1·11 lalc fifth or early sixth century. It was a rather large house 16x21 m with at least 10 rooms of various
studied in greatest detail. The agora of Athens suffered a dramatic decline earlier than other cities, al'tt-1 and shape, and constructed from numerous spolia. Three of its walls are connected with the
its destruction by the Herulians in 267. 1284 For some time the area was left deserted, being used as a dump ,, 1phcry of the Tholos. In some rooms the last pavement was made of heavy square terracotta tiles. 1292
and occupied by workshops to melt the destroyed bronze statues. The debris was removed and the mate 'l'hc deterioration of the agora was even more rapid in the sixth century. The Palace of the Giants
rial from the demolished buildings was reused in the construction of the new fortification wall protectin1'. .ihandoned around 530 and subsequently part of it was probably turned into a monastery. In 529 the
only the Acropolis and the Roman Agora, and leaving the ancient agora outside (Plans XIV, XV). Most ,sophical schools of Athens were closed, and this undoubtedly affected the city's already diminished
of the buildings in the agora suffered severe damage at the hands of the Herulians. Those on its east and while the Slavic invasions in 582 mark the next major shock to the city. 1293 The agora was de-
south sides were burnt: the Odeum, the Middle Stoa, the Library of Pantainos and the Stoa of Attalos, tlw 1111ovcd and after some time squatter occupation appears on the site. In the late sixth century and in the
Metroon and the bouleuterion. The Tholos was rebuilt, while the Stoa of Zeus, the Temple of Apollo Pa 111'\Tt1th, the area is marked by agricultural activities: olive presses were established in and near the
troos and the Stoa Basileios functioned until the end of the fourth century. 1285 The decline of the civic in of the Giants and in the Metroon, and many millstones were found. In the seventh century, there
stitutions and the use of the Roman agora account for the lack of interest in rebuilding the ancient agor.L several tile kilns functioning on the site for small-scale building activities. 1294 In spite of the total
The streets leading to and from the agora continued to function; the Panathenaic street was restored and d,,,intcgration of the Athenian agora in terms of function, architectural appearance and as a symbol of
lined with stoas, whilst a new colonnaded street was built about the middle of the fifth century leadinp llw past culture, sixth-century Athenian potters imitated earlier mythological motifs, such as Aphrodite,
from the point where the Panathenaic street entered the agora to the Library of Hadrian, thus emphasiz !\I hcna Pro machos and animals. It is remarkable that the figure of Athena Promachos, an expression of
ing the role of the Roman agora. In 396, the invading Visigoths of Alaric caused new destruction at tlw IIn· lost cultural tradition, is found in the designs of the Athenian lamps in the seventh century. 1295
site. The Stoa of Zeus, the Stoa Basileios and the Temple of Apollo Patroos were destroyed, whilst tlw The open plaza of the Roman agora of Corinth was flanked with long porticoes containing shops,
Metroon was probably turned into a Synagogue. 1286 In the first half of the fifth century, the area of tlw liasilicas, numerous temples and the Peirene Fountain (Plan VIIa). The agora was accessed from the
agora was improved with some construction work that in most cases left very few remains, whilst the mos I I n·haion Road through the Propylaea Gate. Important buildings also flanked the Lechaion Road. The
celebrated earlier buildings were lost. A Round Building with a public function was built at the point l{r 1111an lower agora of Corinth is one of the largest civic centres of the Roman empire, over 160 m long,
where Panathenaic Street entered the agora. An inscription indicates that another public building was longer than the forum of the city of Rome. Texts praise Roman Corinth as the first city in Greece in
constructed east of the post-Herulian wall. The most prominent position, the centre of the agora, was oc population, wealth and wisdom. 1296 In the fourth century the city suffered damage by earthquakes in
cupied by the Palace of the Giants, and to the northwest two public buildings connected with it were ltii and 375, and in 395 it was destroyed by fire by Alaric. Most of the public buildings were destroyed
built. 1287 The Library of Hadrian flanking the Roman agora to the north was restored in the early fifth irnd not restored. 1297 During the early Byzantine period, the pagan temples were abandoned, the Julian
century. Baths were built in the southwestern part of the ancient agora from the late fourth to the late sixth Basilica on the east side of the agora might have been converted into a Christian church and the South-
century, and one on the site of the Palace of the Giants. With one exception, all were small baths. 1288 cast Building next to it might have become the bishop's palace. 1298 At the end of the fourth or in the early
The area of the agora may have been damaged by the Vandals in 467 and from the second half of I1ft h century, the south side of the agora, with the Central Shops and the Berna, was radically modified.
the fifth century it was in rapid decline. The agora lost its ancient formality and the cultural tradition of l'hc Central Shops opening on the open plaza were probably destroyed by the invading Goths in 395.
the past faded away with the disappearance of the ancient public buildings, and with the installation of They were subsequently demolished, and a flight of stairs 130 m long was constructed leading from the
workshops, houses and water mills, all utilitarian structures. The north-south road on the west side of upper part of the agora to the lower plaza. Numerous spoils from various demolished buildings were
the agora fell out of use; an aqueduct was constructed along the Panathenaic street; three water mills
were built east of the Palace of the Giants near the Panathenaic street, and a fourth mill appeared west
of the north mill. 1289 However, a street leading to the Library of Hadrian was restored with flanking 1290
Ibid., 79.
1291 Ibid., 71-74.
1292 H. A. Thompson, The Tholos ofAthens and its Predecessors (Athens 1940), Hesperia suppl. IV, 121-126.

1293 Frantz, TheAthenianAgora, 13-14, 82-94.

1281
Waelkens, Sagalassos II, 16 and fig. 28.
1282 1294 Ibid., 120-122.
Waelkens et al., Sagalassos III, 26-27 and fig. 18 (p. 41).
1283 1295 A. Karivieri, The Athenian Lamp Industry in Late Antiquity. Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens
Waelkens, Sagalassos II, 16; Waelkens et al., Sagalassos III, 23.
1284
Shear, Athens, 356-377; Thompson, Athenian Twilight, 61-72. ·, (Helsinki 1996), 29; Thompson, Athenian Twilight, 71-72.
1285 1296 John Chrysostom, PG 61, 9-11.
Frantz, TheAthenianAgora, 12-15.
1286 Ibid., 25, 53-59. 1297 Corinth XVI, 5; see also D. Engels, Roman Corinth. An Alternative Model for the Classical City (Chicago and London

1287
Ibid., 58-66. I990), table 11, pp. 169-171.
1288 Ibid., 30-33. 1298 For a general description of the Roman agora of Corinth and the aesthetic impression made upon the viewer see Corinth

1289 Ibid., 78-82. I/iii, 152-154. For a survey of the changes that occurred in the area during the early Byzantine period see Corinth XVI, 6-26.
240 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 241

used in the construction of the stairs. Fountains were created on both sides of the Bema. 1299 This an·a f'nobably in the early sixth century. The north and west colonnades were blocked and the porticoes were
was Christianized early on because it was associated with the appearance of St. Paul in front of t lw divided into rooms. The complex might have been converted into a monastery. The famous Peirene
Roman governor and the conflicts that occurred during his efforts to convert the local community. Shop h111ntain, in its Roman form, had a two-storey colonnaded fa<;ade with caves forming niches whence
VI was converted into a chapel probably before the end of the fourth century. On the site of the Bcma . water flowed. It was remodelled during the reign of Justinian and a new fa<_;ade was constructed at a dis-
a small chapel was perhaps built, and later during the Middle Ages a church. This section of the agora of 1.50 m from the old one, employing spoils from abandoned buildings. The columns, capitals
was embellished and given a refreshing tone by the fountains, but the area lost its monumentality. Th,· 11ml bases were of different sizes and of different materials. The blocks of the architrave, also reused,
colonnade of the South Stoa was dismantled around 300. Some of the rooms behind it serving the civir w1·rc placed upside down and a palm branch was engraved on them. In front of the fa<;ade, the Roman
administration were closed with a wall, while some were abandoned and fell into ruin with the passagt· 1111:idrangle pool with apses on the three sides was replaced by a circular pool 6.15 m in diameter. 1309
of time. Some others, however, were preserved for longer, such as the Council Chamber in the form ol Two burials in the court of the Fountain probably date to the sixth century. 1310
a roofed theatre. The remodelling of the colonnade of the South Stoa and the creation of separate rooli, The area of the agora gradually lost its civic function from the fourth century. It appears to have
of the small rooms had created a different architectural style in this part of the agora. After the fill h lw,·n in use until the late fourth century and perhaps, at a reduced level of activity, into the fifth century.
century, the area of the Berna was neglected and earth began to accumulate. The shops and the bath ol hivate encroachment is attested only on its periphery, especially on the southwest section. The ancient
the South Stoa fell out of use towards the end of the reign of Justinian. By the end of the sixth centu1 v public buildings were decaying, and by the sixth century most of them were ruined. Some were converted
the South Stoa was ruined. 1300 In the shops and the bath of the South Stoa tombs appeared in the sixth 1111 some other use, probably as Christian churches. Both utilitarian and aesthetic concerns are to be
century. A vaulted tomb was constructed beside the southwest corner, dated perhaps to the late fifth rn observed in the restoration of Peirene Fountain and in the creation of fountains on the fa<;ade of the
to the sixth century. Behind it, the South Basilica might have become either a rich house or a Christian ~~outh Stoa. The last honorific inscriptions date to the early fifth century. The honorific statues date to
church and burials were ultimately established on the site. 1301 llw fifth to sixth centuries, but since they have not been found in situ, it is difficult to use them as an
The West Terrace, with a series of temples, was maintained longer, although the temples were aba11 mgument for the continuous function of the agora. 1311 As in other cities, from the sixth century, the
doned without being demolished. 1302 In this area encroachment of private structures had already stark1 I Hl'.ora at Corinth was used for burials (Plan 18). These tombs of the sixth and seventh centuries were
in the late fourth century. The pavement of this section was stripped of its marble slabs, and burials ap
peared later at the end of the early Byzantine period. 1303 The West Shops were repaired after the earth Cl "nLEGRAVE

quake of 365 and a new structure was built in front of the northern part of their southern section. This al , " "T GI.A\'l:
•'"' SPOL1A CIST GRAVE
■ =MASONRY MULTif'I..[ BURIAL VAULT

O "'Sl'OLlA MULTIPLE BUltlAL TOMB

teration dates perhaps to the sixth century, after the earthquake of 551. 1304 The south portico of the pcri
bolos of Temple E behind the West Shops was closed and reused, but the new complex was abandone1 I
in the late fifth century. 1305 After the earthquake of 365 Temple E was robbed of its building materials.
and its marble slabs were reworked on the site for a new use. The open plaza of the agora might have bee 11
used as a thoroughfare, since neither private constructions nor burials occupied the place. 1306
On the north side of the agora, the Roman monumental gateway, an impressive monument, was
partially dismantled in the fourth century. The arch was decorated with gilded statues of the charioteers
Helios and Phaethon on top and with sculptures depicting scenes of Roman public life, symbolizing
Roman imperial authority. 1307 Next to this monumental gate to the west stood a fa<;ade decorated with
columns, four of which on the upper storey were colossal figures. This highly ornamental structure.
occupying the space between the Gate and the Northwest Shops, appears to have collapsed sometime
towards the late fourth century. 1308 Outside the agora, the so-called Semicircular Building west of tk
Lechaion Road, which may have functioned as a market, was probably destroyed by an earthquake in
the sixth century. The Peribolos of Apollo, outside the northeastern corner of the agora, was modified

1299
Corinth I/iii, 110, 117, 131-132; Corinth XVI, 12-14.
°Corinth I/iv, 151, 159; Corinth XVI, 23-24.
130
1301
Ivison, Burial, 104, 110-112.
1302Corinth XVI, 24, 47-48, 56-57.
1303
C. K. Williams II et al., Excavations at Corinth, 1973, Hesperia 43 (1974), 7-11; C. K. Williams II and J.E. Fisher,
Corinth, 1974: Forum Southwest, Hesperia 44 (1975), 6 ff.
1304 PLAN 18. Burials in the forum of Corinth.
Corinth XVI, 24-25.
1305 Williams, Temple E, 336-338.
1306
Ivison, Burial, 110.
1307 t 3o9 R. B. Richardson, Pirene,AJA 4 (1900), 204-239, esp. 217-221, fig. 9, 226-239, fig. 11.
Corinth I, 159-192; C. M. Edwards, The Arch over the Lechaion Road at Corinth and its Sculpture, Hesperia 63 (1994),
263-308. l 310 Ivison, Burial, 104.
1308
R. Stillwell, Corinth I/ii, 55-88. t 311 F. P. Johnson, Corinth IX, 150-154, nos. 325-328.
242 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 243

built with spolia and were inserted in various abandoned buildings. The fashion and care evident in h1_:en a response to the Slavic invasions. 1319 However, such transformations are also recorded in other
their construction rule out the possibility that they were constructed by squatters. 1312 The tombs dating provinces where they do not seem to be connected with an enemy threat. 1320 Also, attached to the
to the late sixth to the seventh century in which were found buckles of barbarian origin, have general• 1·ryptoportico-cistern, was a small room with a fresco of Saints Cosmas and Damian, and on the upper
ed much discussion. They have been interpreted as indicating that the city was occupied by Slavs, whilst part Christ seated and flanked by two Angels. This was probably the site of a hagiasma, dating to the
it has also been argued that the items belonged to Slavs serving in the Byzantine army, rather than to sixth or early seventh century. 1321 The Odeum on the east side of the agora of Thessalonica was origi-
invaders. It has also been proposed that the buckles were, in fact, manufactured by Byzantines, and it is 11ally built as a bouleuterion to accommodate around 200 people. Toward the end of the second century
true that such items circulated inside and outside the empire. 1313 In the seventh century, the area of thl' or in the early third, it was rebuilt as a covered Odeum with a capacity of about 400. In the middle of the
agora was totally abandoned. The ancient buildings were ruined and stripped of their building blocks, fourth century, having ceased to serve the civic administration, it was converted into a theatre. From
the stair of the South Stoa was dismantled, and the church on the Julian Basilica was abandoned and Ihe fifth century on the site was occupied by kilns, some of which were established in the east colonnade,
decaying. In 662, however, a statue of Constans was erected in the forum and a round altar was used as thereby destroying part of the mosaic pavement. In the same century, pottery workshops appeared on
its base. 1314 It seems likely that in the centuries that the civic centre of Corinth was decaying, the city's the scena of the odeum/theatre. 1322 After the fifth century, in a period that cannot be determined, the
centre was transferred to a location as yet unidentified. <)deum was transformed to collect the rainwater for the cistern in the cryptoporticus. The columns of
The Roman agora in Thessalonica had two open plazas, the Upper and the Lower, known from late, the colonnades of the agora probably collapsed in an earthquake of 620, also mentioned in the Miracles
Byzantine sources as Megalophoros (Plan IV). 1315 Only the Upper Agora has been excavated. Both of" St. Demetrius and, rather than being restored, were reused to repair the walls near the gates. 1323 A
plazas were surrounded with porticoes, but not all of them have been uncovered. A cryptoporticus con shift of priorities from the Roman agora to the Christian church is evident in the decision of the citizens
nected the upper with the lower plaza. The agora with the two plazas formed a large complex of build to repair the damage to the Church of St. Demetrius after a fire, but not to restore the porticoes of the
ings in the centre of the city: it included an Odeum, a Library, a stadium along the agora's north line agora. 1324 The site of the agora of Thessalonica, however, was not reoccupied by buildings and lay in ruins
and, north of it, a public bath, on part of which was built the Church of St. Demetrius. To the south, ad until recent times.
jacent to the agora, were probably a palaestra and a bath. The famous colonnade of the Incantadas lay On the south side of the agora of Thessalonica twenty shops opening towards the street lined the
on the south side of the gymnasium opening onto the bath. 1316 This complex of buildings was built 011 so-called Commercial Street. Only thirteen of them have been excavated. The colonnade in front of
terraces. The Upper Agora was surrounded by double porticoes only on the three sides, the southeast them had columns and piers alternating towards the south, an arrangement fashionable in the late Roman
southwest and northwest. The southwest portico was based on the cryptoporticus. The double porti- period. The space of the cryptoporticus behind them was given to the shops for storage, and doors were
coes were closed with panels at the lower level, and until the end of the fourth century access to the opened for direct access to the cryptoporticus. In the first half of the sixth century, these doors were
open plaza was possible through doors. At the north end of the east side stood the city's mint, func- blocked and the cryptoporticus converted into a cistern. The interior of the stores was altered with
tioning until the end of the fourth century. The southern room of the east side housed the archives. On rough walls and the level of the Commercial Street was raised. From the complex of the ancient agora
the east side of the agora was the Odeum. Renovation and improvement of the agora took place in the only these shops continued to be used until the end of the Byzantine period. They were paved in the
fourth century. The porticoes were then paved with mosaics, sections of the porticoes were repaired, twelfth century with slabs from the agora plaza, while the entire area of the agora was abandoned. 1325
and the Odeum was enlarged, perhaps during the reign of Julian, and converted into a theatre with ca- The Roman agora of Philippi was divided in two parts by the Via Egnatia (Plan 19). In the upper
pacity up to 2,500. During the reign of Theodosius I, the offices of the administration were transferred part stood temples and Christian Basilica A. The lower plaza, south of the Via Egnatia, was the ad-
from the agora to the Palace. 1317 Immediately afterwards, the open area of the agora was abandoned ministrative centre. The agora was closed with two doors leading to the Via Egnatia. The lower plaza
with the exception of the shops behind the porticoes. In the fifth century, the plaza of the agora was was rectangular with double porticoes flanking the south, east and west sides. A row of twenty-one
used to extract clay, as large pits found on the site indicate. 1318 In the first half of the sixth century, the shops lined the long south portico ending to the east and west to the library and the tabularium, the
double cryptoporticus was transformed into a cistern. Furthermore, the portico of the lower part of the shops opening towards the exterior to the south. On the west side, a long civic basilica stood next to the
agora was probably transformed into a cistern. The creation of cisterns in the sixth century may have

1319
Bakirtzis, Agora, 17.
1312
Ivison, Burial, 105-114. °For example, the colonnaded passage leading from the street to the agora of Apamea in Syria was converted into a water
132

1313 , tservoir in the sixth century: Ch. Baity, Syria 60 (1983), 296.
J. Russell, Byzantine Instrumenta Domestica from Anemurium: the Significance of Context, in Hohlfelder, City, 137-
1321 A Xyngopoulos, 'H IlaAmoxQwnavtx~ ,mxoyQa<pla ,fi£ Pwµa°Lxfi£ &.yoga£ E>waaA.ovlx11£, Byzantina 9 (1977), 409-
145; Ivison, Burial, 114-120; N. Poulou-Papademetriou, ButavnVE£ Jt0QJtE£: 11 JtEQlm:wa11 "t1']£ Mwa~V1']£ xm "t1']£ EA.eu0EQ
VU£, in Themelis and Konti, Messene, 125-136, esp. 133-134. •l l 7. The best-known parallel in Salamis, Cyprus, is also dated to the sixth century: M. A Sacopoulo, La fresque chretienne la
1314
Corinth I/iii, 147, pl. 67, 3. plus ancienne de Chypre, CaMrch 13 (1962), 61-83; Spieser, Thessalonique, 90 n. 61, however, suggests the early seventh century;
1315
For a description of the agora and bibliographical references see M. Vitti, 'H :n:oJ,,wooµixry t,~{;J,,i~17 rijc; 6h:aaaJ,,ovixr1c. llakirtzis, Agora, 16-17.
1322 V. Kalavria and A Bali, H a,Qwµmoygaq.ila CT"t'l]V avmoAtx~ m:eguya, in Adam-Veleni,Agora, 39-63, esp. 47-48.
a:n:o rryv lO[IV01] rr,c; l!wc; TOV I'aUQlO (Athens 1996), 93-104.
1316 1323 c. Bakirtzis, IlEQL "tO'U CT'UYXQO"t~µa"tO£ ,fi£ 'AyoQiJ.£ "tfi£ 0ECTCTUA.OVlX1']£, in ½Qxaia Maxsoovia II.½ vaxoivwanc; xara
A Mentzos, IIQ6,aa11 yta "t'l]V EQµ11vela "Eu'koAwv" (Incantadas) "t1']£ E>waaAovlx11£ µe acpogµ~ ve6wQa eug~µmu,
AEMT 11 (1997), 379-392. r,J 15dns[)o ois0vi:c; avµ:n:6aw, 6JwaaJ,,ovix17, 19-24 Avyovawv 1973 (Thessalonica 1977), 267-269; Spieser, Thessalonique,
1317
G. Velenis and Adam Veleni, AQxaia ayo[)a ewaaAovixr,c; (Thessalonica 1997), 22. il/1. Cf. G. Velenis, Agxala ayoga E>waaAovlx11s,AM 23 (1990), 141 against the earlier theory of the destruction of the agora
1318
P. Yeorgaki and I. Zografou, H a,gwµmoyQa<pla "t1']£ JtAmElas xm wv vo,wavmoAtxou wµfo, in Adam-Veleni. hy an earthquake.
Agora, 65-86, esp. 66-67; I. Bokotopoulou and P. Adam-Veleni, Egyaales a,11v agzala ayoga ,11£ E>waaA.ovlx11s,AEMT 7 1324 Spieser, La ville, 327.
1325 A Bali and Y. Skiadaressis, H a,gwµmoyQa<pla CT"t'I] v6na mEQvya, in Adam-Veleni,Agora, 87-104.
(1993), 322; G. Velenis and P. Adam-Veleni,AEMT 8 (1994), 160; P. Adam-Veleni et al.,AEMT lOB (1996), 510.
244 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 245

hik the interior was abolished and replaced by a wall. By the end of the sixth century and early in the
vcnth, rural installations are found in the area.13 26
Archaeological evidence and written sources indicate that in all cities of the empire the disinte-
nit ion of the site of the agora/forum begun in the fourth century and was caused by the decline of mu-
institutions and the reduction of the cities' financial capacity. Earthquakes and invasions made
more difficult for the local communities to restore the damaged buildings. Where restoration works
undertaken, most of the buildings lost their earlier function and their formal public character. The
of the civic administration were gradually moved to offices of the provincial governors. Pagan
h'mples concentrated in the agora were either destroyed or left to decay and public buildings every-
were robbed of their building materials. By the sixth century, the area of the agora/forum had
,mpletely disintegrated and privatization of the sites is evident everywhere. Only the intensity of the
G phl·oomenon varied from one city to the other. Private houses occupied earlier public sites. The best-
0/~0@00 known example comes from the agora of Cyrene in North Africa (see supra, p. 199, Plan 6). Houses
\\Trc built in the northern and eastern sides of the agora already from the second half of the third cen-
I. Ii i !'t. i
i!'L...-'~---'--'
....J~
LJL!i ! Li_WjJJJ_UJ
-~,~------
:1
4
t my. They were destroyed by an earthquake in 365, but were rebuilt more densely. A large house in the
m11 Idle of this new residential quarter probably belonged to a high official. 1327 Houses also appeared in
!In· centre of the Upper Agora of Ephesus on the site of the Temple of Caesar and Roma, while part of
' ,J ~ ..
civil basilica was occupied by the peristyle of a rich house. 1328 A large house was built over the South
{.ri:-1,n .tl2i.==~;;;;;;;;;,~
Basilica in the Roman forum of Corinth with a dining room with an apse and a sigma table. 1329 Private
·':elll.Sill~=='"' 1csidences are found spreading on the periphery or in the centre of the agora of other cities, such as, for
·--· :....:.: -~ --~ ,
• ,- ~ ==--;~'cci ;' nample, Priene, 1330 Hierapolis, 1331 Corinth, 1332 and Salona. 1333 The South Market of Miletus lost its
-:;_,:i :· ::iiar:-- -
111 iginal function. In the northern part of the east colonnade in front of the Hellenistic shops, new build-
-~"'-<
.•-..
:.~
~:c.-':-.~ -
1111•.s were erected and paved with mosaics and marble slabs as early as the late third or early fourth cen-
1334
~; m
5~~;-·:..;.; I~.
.
1111 y. The street beside the colonnade was built over with early Byzantine houses. But on the south
c:::::::...= ... -..-- ·.-;_
•,1dc of the city's civic centre, the monumental gate leading to the South Market was restored by Justinian,
,111d commemorated by an inscription. 1335 The privatization of the space of the agora of smaller urban
n-nlres is best illustrated in Messene in the Peloponnese, where the civic buildings, the bouleuterion,
Ihe ekklesiasterion, in the form of an odeum, and a room for the archives were located east of the
Asdepieion. This was the most prestigious site in the city and consisted of a museum of art objects, with
II. LDC□LJLIJLJ.JJ□□LJ a rnllection of statues. In the middle of the peristyle court stood a temple and an altar. Early Byzantine
111 iuses were built on the archives room, the bouleuterion, and the propylon east of the complex in three
PLAN 19. Plan of the forum of Philippi in Greece: I. The lower part of the forum phases. They date from 400 to 600 A.D. (Plan 20, Figures 33a, 33b ). They are built densely, and at least
of Philippi during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. 1. Temple of imperial cult. live of them were large. The only fully excavated house was built on the Hellenistic room at the south-
2. Building with four rooms. 3. Library. 4. Shops. 5. Tabularium. 6. Basilica. 1·ast corner of the Asclepieion, identified as the archives. It was 16.45x19.75 m, with sixteen rooms and
7. Statue of Fortune. 8. Curia. 9. Monumental gate to the street.
II. The forum at the time it was abandoned.

1326 M. Seve, L'oeuvre de !'Ecole frarn;aise d' Athenes a Philippes pendant la decennie 1987-1996,AEMT 10B' (1996), 705-
/15, esp. 707-709.
1327 See supra, p. 198.

archives and at the northwest corner the curia with the statue of Fortuna outside. To the north, the wall 1328 See supra, p. 236.
1329 0. Brooner, Excavations in Corinth, 1934,AJA 39 (1935), 53-75, fig. 1; Corinth IN, pls. 46:3 and 53.
supporting the Via Egnatia was decorated with two water fountains. In the late fourth or early fifth cen-
1330 Wiegand, Priene, 478.
tury, baths were constructed in the north or upper plaza, thus destroying its original function. About 1331 D. de Bernardi Ferrero et al.,Hierapolis di Frigia, 1957-1987 (Turin 1987), 58, 88-90; idem, Excavations and restorations
500, the buildings of the agora were severely damaged and, although some repairs were made, their 1.18-240.
function changed. By the early sixth century, the space between the columns of the colonnade of the 1332 H. S. Robinson and S.S. Weinberg, Hesperia 29 (1960), 227-233 and fig. 2.

basilica had been closed by a wall with doors. On the east side, the library was reduced to create a corridor 1333 Clairmont, Salona, 88-90, 107.

between the east portico and the atrium of the famous Christian church, the Octagon. The portico 1334 H. Knackfuss, Der Siidmarket und die Benachbarten Bauanlagen, in Milet 1/7, 56, 69, 180, 223.
1335 Ibid., 303-304 (no. 206).
flanking the agora on the three sides had probably collapsed and was replaced by a portico with arches,
246 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 247

• •
• •
•
•
•

7 •
•
•

FIG. 33a. Early Byzantine walls subdividing the Archives Building of the civic centre of Messene .
•
•
•
4 0
•
0
•

YnOMNHMA
1. AOKArJTTlElO
2. EKKA.rJOlOOTT)plO
3. npc\nUAO
4. 80UAWTT)pl0
5-7. /\£itjJava
npwT0[3u~avnvou
OlKlOµOu

PLAN 20. Part of the civic centre of Messene in Greece, showing encroachment dating
to the early Byzantine period: 1. Asclepieion. 2. Ekklesiasterion. 3. Propylon.
4. Bouleuterion. 5-7. Early Byzantine houses.

FIG. 33b. View of the early Byzantine walls occupying the civic centre of Messene.
248 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 249

two large rooms serving probably for storage. To the east was located a house with a glass workshop. u 111 nmtinuing a pagan tradition of earlier centuries. The authority of the Church, recognized by all, guar-
In Dodone, from the late fourth century and in the fifth, dwellings and workshops with brick hearth~, t111lced safety, and the bishop was regarded as the guarantor of law and order. Indicative of the in-
occupied the area between the theatre and the sanctuary with the bouleuterion and the prytaneion. 1111 v11lvement of the Church in judicial procedures is the audientia episcopalis and the construction of pris-
1348
Workshops also appeared in many agorai. The workshops in the Athenian agora have been mentioned 1 ms by bishop Paul of Gerasa to keep those who awaited trial. Clerics were also active in opera foren-
1349
above. 1338 In the middle of the south side of the agora of Amanthous in Cyprus a structure in the agora ""' · the redaction of deeds of private transactions and the bar. The carbonized archive found in the
court was used as a house and workshop and a dye-house or a tannery. 1339 d111rch of Petra dating from 528 to 578 AD. contains documents of private persons, apparently de-
Buildings serving the taxation system were often neglected. Imperial legislation indicates that tl1t· posited for safe keeping after the death of Theodoros, son of Obodianos, to whom the individuals in-
authorities were often unable to maintain fiscal storehouses that were abandoned and converted fm v11lved in the transactions were related. Theodoros was archdeacon of that church and his father had also
private use. 1340 Buildings assigned for archives were increasingly neglected or transferred to governors· 1;1,1ved in the church. 1350 The involvement of the Church in the registration of private transactions was
palaces or to other administrative buildings no longer located in the agora. The transfer of most of tlw t·nrnuraged by the imperial legislation that ordered certain types of transactions to be recorded in the
civic administration to the provincial officers obviously affected the maintenance of civic archives. rn'lcsiastical archives, as, for example, the acts of nomination of tutors and the wills. 1351
records of civic self-determination and independence. Public archives (011µ6mov <XQXei:ov), however It was not only the function of the ancient agora that was becoming obsolete over the years, taken
continue to be mentioned in Egyptian papyri up until the sixth to seventh centuries.1341 Scarce infor 11wr, as it was, by the provincial administration and the Church. The architectural concept of the civic
mation from sources indicate that in some cities of the East civic archives (tabularium) in which wen· n·ntre in the form of the agora/forum also ceased to be fashionable. The open plaza surrounded with
kept the city records (acta urbis) were still maintained in the sixth century in cities such as Edessa, magnificent administrative buildings with ancient decoration deriving from the old culture had no
Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople. They were records as well as symbols of each city's cultural place in the emerging Byzantine city. Roman architectural state symbolism was abandoned. The mon-
tradition and identity 1342 and were probably kept in the provincial capitals. In the Petra papyri, a XUQ't0 uments of the old religion were ignored and, in the vast majority of cases, were treated with disrespect.
cpuAa~ seems to indicate the officer responsible for the public records in the municipal archives. 1343 But t\rchitectural aesthetics had also changed. The closing up of the open space of earlier buildings and
it remains unclear whether the archives mentioned in these sources were housed in specifically as porticoes of the agora, creation of water fountains, disregard for the symmetry and order of the old ar-
signed municipal buildings or in the governor's facilities. On the other hand, archaeology testifies to tht· rhitectural designs, and ample use of spolia are some of the marked trends of the time. The steady de-
abandonment of the archive buildings in the agora/forum. For example, we have already seen that the dine in the sites of the ancient agora/forum is manifested in the loss of their formality and public char-
Southeast Building at Corinth, which was used for archives and also housed a library, was converted for acter in favour of considerations of daily life, such as private houses, small businesses, agricultural ac-
domestic or commercial use in the fourth century. Subsequently it may have become the bishop's 1ivities and ultimately burials. The poverty of early Byzantine installations in the sites of the agora con-
palace. 1344 In the Athenian agora, the Metroon, which housed the archives, was destroyed by the Herulians.
11 asts with the magnitude and magnificence of the Roman scale. The process of the decline of the ago-
It is mentioned by Julian as the building "where all the documents of the Athenians used to be kept" 1W•
, a started in the late fourth century, intensified in the fifth and was completed in the course of the sixth
and it was probably converted into a synagogue. The register of private properties, the ~L~ALOcpvAaxwv
crntury. 1352 The enemy invasions merely brought an abrupt end to the last forms of occupation of the
eyx1:rioewv, is last mentioned in the papyri in the fourth century. 1346 In general, the interest of munici-
-,ites, private houses, workshops and agricultural installations, and ecclesiastical establishments.
palities in preserving civic archives was declining, in particular in smaller cities. Justinianic Novel 15
There is no doubt that the Church did not attempt to Christianize the agora and the civic institu-
states that municipal archives recording the acts of private transactions (insinuatio) were no longer
1ions. However, with the passage of time, Christian churches were established in different parts of the
maintained in cities. Justinian tried to restore them in order to secure private transactions, but did so in
vain. 1347 Archives with records of private transactions were transferred to the churches for safe keeping, civic centres, in administrative buildings, porticoes, temples, and on vacant lots. These lots were owned
i·ither by the municipalities or by pagan temples. 1353 In Corinth, the Julian Basilica may have been
transformed into a Christian church as early as the fourth century, and in the late fifth century the
1336 South Basilica was destroyed and a new building was constructed on the site, either a luxurious house,
Themelis, Messene, 29-30, 35-37.
1337 11r a Christian basilica. At Athens, the Palace of the Giants was abandoned after 530 and was probably
S. Dakaris, Dodone, EAE 1992 (1993), 67; Bowden, Epirns Vetus, 40-42.
1338 See supra, p. 238. converted into a monastery. At Salona the curia and other civic buildings ceased to function from the
1339 M. C. Loulloupis, Excavations at Amathus,ARDA 1989 (1990), 53; 1990 (1991), 51.
fourth century (Plan XVI).13 54 The curia was taken over by Christians, probably transformed into a
134
° CTh XV.1.12 (a. 364).
1341 Lukaszewicz, Edifices, 39 n. 76. On archives see R. Haensch, Das Staathalterarchiv, ZSSRom 109 (1992), 209-317.
1342 B. Croke, City Chronicles of Late Antiquity, in G. Clarke et al. (eds.), Reading the Past in Late Antiquity (Rushcutters
1348P.-L. Gatier, Nouvelles inscriptions de Gerasa. 1 La prison de l'eveque Paul, Syria 62 (1985), 297-307.
Bay, Australia 1990), 194-196.
1343 Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 216. 1349CJ I.3.40. See also H. G. Saradi, Il sistema notarile bizantino (VI-XV secolo) (Milan 1999), 25-28.
1344 Corinth XVI, 11-12. 1350 L. Koenen, The Carbonized Archive from Petra, IRA 9 (1996), 177-188; idem, Phoenix from the Ashes: The Burnt

1345 Julian, Or. VIII (V).159B. Archive from Petra, Michigan Quarterly Review 35, 3 (1996), 513-531; P. M. Bikai, Petra Church Project, Petra Papyri,AJA 100
1346 Lukaszewicz, Edifices, 45 n. 10. ( 1996), 533-535.
1347 Novella 15, proem: O'U()EVOc:; ovi:oc:; UQXELOU, xa8' 0 ta JtQai:t6µi::va nag' taui:oic:; cmotl8nm; V.2: IIgoata~ELc:; ()E 1351 CJI.4.30.2 (a. 531).
JtOLTJCTUa8w 11 a~ UJtEQOX~ xa8' EXUCTtT]V EJtagxlav, WCTtE EV taic:; JtOAECTLV o\'.x11µa tL 611µ6awv acpogw8fjvm, xa8' oJtQOCTfjx6v 1352 Lavan, Political Topography, 317-320.
1353 See, for example, Smith and McNicoll, Pella, 100-107: the Civic Complex Church was built on an empty site of the civic
eau wvc:; exolxouc:; ta unoµvtjµai:a anotl8w8m. See H. Saradi-Mendelovici, L'enregistrement des actes prives (insinuatio)
et la disparition des institutions municipales au vie siecle, Cahiers des Etudes Anciennes (Quebec, Canada), 21 (1988), 117- ,•,;ntre. For Greece see Spieser, La ville, 331-332.
1354 Clairmont, Salona, 54 ff.
130. See also Liebeschuetz, Decline, 121-122.
250 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 251

basilica. In some cases, the demise of the ancient agora was related to the establishment of churches 1 •ll In all cities, enemy invasions completed the dissolution and abandonment of the sites of the an-
the site. For example, the looting of the agora of Selge apparently began when the Christian basilini rnl agora. The agora of Apamea lost its civic function when at a later stage, not precisely dated, struc-
was built on the site of the Odeum at the end of the fourth or in the early fifth century with ample w,,, 1 for feeding horses were installed. 1364 The destruction caused by the Persian invasion in 573 is ev-
of spolia from the agora. 1355
r 111 in the area of the agora where the houses were completely destroyed. 1365 The site then appears to
Around Christian churches markets were developed to serve the needs of the worshippers, somt• wt· been abandoned, 1366 while churches and large houses were restored. In Athens excavations illus-
of which were probably owned by the Church. The large Christian basilica next to the Lower Agora 111 11l· the impact of enemy invasions on urban life in terms of both its architectural structure and eco-
Pergamon explains the presence of Christian businesses established in the rooms of the colonnade, 1 t111111ic vitality: the agora did not fully recover after the Herulian invasion in 267, and it was abandoned
whilst temporary booths appeared in the colonnade by the Christian church of Iol Caesarea's forum. 1 its destruction by the Slavs in the 580s. In the cities of the northern Balkan Peninsula, the barbar-
But the total abandonment of the sites of the ancient agorai at the end of the early Byzantine peri1 ,d infiltration had a profound impact on urbanism early on. Nicopolis ad Istrum suffered during the
and the looting of their monuments for building materials often makes it difficult to identify car Iv · h1vasions of the Goths in the third century and began to decline from the fourth century. In 347/8 the
Christian churches on the sites.1358 ,1hs of Ulfila were permitted to settle in its territory, and the city was occupied in 378. From the
Archaeology reveals that in some cities the disintegration of the agora was often accelerated by n f1 ,1111 h century onwards, the new buildings constructed in the city were poor structures. They were built
ternal factors, such as earthquakes, floods, fires or enemy invasions. At the beginning of the car Iv ul stone and mud on the monumental agora, now abandoned and lying in ruins, on streets and baths. 1367
Byzantine period, after such disasters, urban communities were able to reconstruct some of their darn Tht· dissolution of the ancient urban layout started in Roman Nicopolis much earlier than in other
aged buildings. One such example is Athens. Such reconstruction, however, was becoming increasini•. and was the consequence of the barbarian penetration in the area.
ly difficult, and by the later part of the period, especially in the sixth century, not only was there lack 111 Justiniana Prima requires a further look, because it is a typical sixth-century city (Plan I). Founded
interest in restoring the sites of the agora, but also their public monuments were actually looted 1 ,1 an administrative centre, it was the ecclesiastical capital of western Illyricum, and the seat of the
building materials. We list some examples. At Priene the bouleuterion south of the upper Gymnasium f'1 actorian Prefect of Illyricum. 1368 In his Buildings Procopius gives an account of the buildings con-
was destroyed by fire and never restored. 1359 The agora of Miletus lay ruined by an earthquake befo1 ,. t 11cted by Justinian in his new foundation. The city was designed without a civic centre in the ancient

the Byzantine wall was built in the Byzantine Dark Ages. The agora of Philadelphia (modern Amma11 ,,tvle (agora/forum), but with a commercial centre in the form of a circular plaza in the upper city sur-
in Jordan), capital of the province of Arabia, after suffering damage in an earthquake in 365, was nol 11111nded by shops. According to Procopius, Justinian endowed the city with administrative buildings
restored and the earthquakes of 551 and 631 completed the destruction. 1360 In Pella, in the course uf (lftmtywyLa OE aQxovtwv cpQatrn0m Mycp aµrixava), 1369 but the Praetorian Prefect of Illyricum ac-
the sixth century, the city's forum was abandoned because of the rising water table in the natural watershn I 111:illy resided in Thessalonica and the vicarius of Dacia in Sardica. Only the praetorium for the military
that collected the rainwater and crossed the city centre, and the lack of maintenance of the city's watn lwadquarters has been identified in the upper city. 1370 Next to it and communicating with it in the first
1361 phase was a domus with an apsidal room, probably the residence of a high officer. Two other apsidal
supply system. At the same time a shift in emphasis from earlier Roman buildings in the agora to thi •
central Christian basilica is evident. A new monumental staircase was built leading to the church, whil~· li11ildings, both on the acropolis, may have been used by officers of the administration: one has been
part of the baths was covered by the open space in front of the church. The dissolution of the ancient 11kntified as the bishop's palace and the other as the consignatorium. The episcopal church and the
architectural setting of the agora at Pella was completed early in the seventh century.1362 Stobi, in his hop's palace were located on the acropolis, clearly implying that the bishop was actually responsible
Macedonia Secunda, is a parallel case: its agora was abandoned because the river Erigon had silted up, It ,r Ihe city's administration. The population and the artisans lived in the lower city, and only in the last
and over it was built the new wall of the fifth century. The old agora was not replaced with a new one. phase of the city's life, during the Avaroslavic invasions, did they move inside the walls of the upper
Instead, the city market probably moved close to the Episcopal Basilica, opposite which an exedra with dty. 1371 It was then that the previous articulation of the urban space disintegrated.
shops was built (Plan XVII and supra, p. 216, Plan 10). 1363 In the West, the rapid disintegration of the forum was precipitated by the demise of the Roman
slate. Houses, workshops and pottery kilns appear in the forum of Roman cities everywhere, and they
are ultimately marked by ruralization. In North African cities, the forum ceased to function as a place

1355
A Machatschek and M. Schwarz, Bauforschungen in Selge (Vienna 1981), 107.
1356
Foss, Byzantine Cities, 255.
1357
1364
Apamee (1972), 26; see also N. Duval and J.-C. Golvin, Haidra a l'epoque chretienne, IV. Le monument a auges et les
See supra, pp. 192, 193 plan 5.
1358 hilt iments similaires, CRAI 1972, 133-172; N. & Y. Duval, Fausses basiliques ( et faux martyrs): quelques 'batiments a auges'
See Y. D. Varalis, Un sceau paleochretien de pain eucharistique de l'agora d'Argos, BCH 118 (1994 ), 341-342. On tlw d'!\frique, MEFRA 84 (1972), 675-719.
proliferation of Christian churches in the cities' fabric and in the ancient agorai see infra, chapter 13. 1 65
1359 3 Syria 60 (1983), 297; 63 (1986), 394.
Wiegand, Priene, 220 ff. 1366
1360 J. Ch. Baity, Apamee au VIe siecle. Temoignages archeologiques de la richesse d'une ville, in Hammes et richesses I, 92.
A Hadidi, in D. Homes-Fredericq and J.B. Hennessy,Archaeology of Jordan II, 1 (Leuven 1989), 166. 1367
T. Ivanov, Nicopolis ad Istrum. Problemi e scoperte, in Ratiariensia 3-4 (1987), 253 ff.
1361
See Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 198, 220-221. 1368
1362 Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.19; Novella ll (a. 535).
A McNicoll et al., Pella in Jordan 1, An interim report on the joint University of Sydney and The College of Wooster 1369
Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.23.
Excavations at Pella 1976-1981 (Canberra 1982), 103-109; R. H. Smith et al., The Byzantine Period, in Pella in Jordan 2, Th,• 1370
B. Bavant, V. Kondic and J.-M. Spieser, La fouille: stratigraphie et constructions, in Caricin Grad II, 13-85; B. Bavant
Second Interim Report of the Joint University of Sydney and College of Wooster Excavations at Pella 1982-1985 by A W. McNicoll + and M. Petrovic, Proposition de restitution architecturale, ibid., 87-122; B. Bavant, Identification et fonction des batiments,
et al. (Sydney 1992), 147-149.
1363 ibid., 123-160; Lavan, Residences, 143-144; Poulter, Urbanism, 125.
Hattersley-Smith, Public Architecture, 65-66. 1371 Popovic, Les activites, 303-305.
252 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 253

for civic business in the late fourth century, while in Iol Caesarea it was the Church that generated markl'I a house for strangers. In contrast, Malalas' Chronicle, marked by an antiquarian spirit, contains
activities in the city's forum. 1372 In the cities of the East, in the last decades of the sixth century and i11 .1mmerous references to buildings and statues, especially in Antioch. It is of interest that in this text
the early seventh century, the agorai were abandoned: they lay in ruins, the ancient monuments Wt.'t are only two references to the city's bouleuterion, but several references to the praetorium, the
despoiled, the public buildings left vacant and disused. In many sites earthquakes caused them to c111 .fir rmanent residence of the provincial governors. 1376 The shift from the agora/forum to the praetorium
lapse. Private structures, shops and workshops were established on the periphery of the open plaza 111 also evident in the location of some governors' palaces in or next to the ancient agora. The praetori-
encroached on it. The establishment of lime kilns for burning marble blocks from the despoiled buildirw.s. um of Cirencester in Roman Britain, the second city after London, was built in the forum. In Athens,
and the appearance of burials mark the very end of the ancient agora/forum everywhere in the empin· so-called Palace of the Giants was constructed in the fifth century in the middle of the agora; the
New centres of the cities had moved gradually to other locations, to the governors' palace and, charac prnetorium of Gortyn was located on the east side of the city's agora; the so-called Bishop's Palace next
teristically, around churches. to Aphrodisias' bouleuterion may have been a praetorium. 1377 The praetorium was the new adminis-
For centuries, the ancient agora/forum formed the core of the ancient city. It had endowed llw nl ive centre with the governor's residence, baths, tax offices, archives, prisons and horrea. It was also
civic centre with symbolic connotations of Greco-Roman civilization, with a style of architectural com forum for social and political events where the members of the provinces' upper class met. In
plexes suited for ancient civic life. The splendour, spaciousness, sophistication of design and orname11h hens, the teacher of philosophy Himerius delivered his orations in the praetorium, instead of the
of the agora through which the ancient tradition and the greatness of the Roman empire were seen, hm I h1111leuterion or the odeum. 1378
lost their purpose and content. The new religion, changes in civic administration, economic restrni11•, Archaeological evidence confirms the impression we gain from the written sources and allows us a
and the transformation of the upper class led to the abandonment of the agora and its buildings. Regard I\,;,-, fleeting glimpses of administrative buildings in the sixth century. The plan of such buildings was
of local conditions and external factors that surely accelerated the change, the process was the sanw that of a large domus, but more magnificent, combining residential with public quarters. Caesarea Mar-
everywhere. The urban model emerging across the empire was characterized by homogeneity of for111 il mta, capital of Palaestina Prima, provides two remarkable examples. Herod's Palace on a promonto-
and irregularity, in comparison to the Greco-Roman antecedent, and simplicity, if contrasted with tlw 1 m the south edge of the city was used as the Roman governor's palace in the period. It was a mag-

splendour of the Greco-Roman city. The grand classicizing style of the Greco-Roman agora was replaced mlkent complex, built on two terraces, but in the middle or late third century part of it ceased to func-
by informal centres of a commercial character, of a simple, unpretentious and popular taste. 1h111. 1379 A second praetorium was also built for the Roman procurator provinciae who was responsible
the financial affairs of the province. It is located south of the Crusader city and it served both as res-
hknce of the Byzantine civil governor and as the place where he exercised his public duties (Plans XVIII,
Governors' palaces I). Built on a grandiose plan, the complex included the governor's residence, a bathhouse, an impres-
,,1v1• apsidal audience hall, courtyards, gardens, a hall for the archives with library, a tax revenue de-
Written sources rarely mention administrative buildings in the sixth century, and when they do s1 l ment and a latrine to serve the public. The complex also expanded over the insula across the cardo
they do not inform us of their architecture and location in the urban fabric. We have already seen that lo I he east. One courtyard was located on higher ground leading to the apsidal audience hall that served
imperial legislation repeatedly refers to the decline of many public buildings, including those servi111'. a law court. The hall housing the archives (tabularium) and a library was located next to the audience
the administration: some were left in ruins, others were assigned a new use, while others were tram, hull to the north. Also apsidal, it dates to the second half of the sixth century. The corridor next to this
ferred to or illegally appropriated by private persons, guilds or the Church. Legislative texts also reveal tuf,11/arium contained niches for shelves to store records. Directly in front of the archives/library, to the
the changing perception of public space and how this caused the blurring of the distinction between ,•w,I, was located the tax revenue office of the province with seven rooms around a central hall. 1380 The
public and private space: a sign of this is the fact that the provincial governors preferred to condut'I lw,niption in room VI commemorating in ancient vocabulary (xttOtl]~ or xtttcLv), the builder, who is
their public duties in their residences. 1373 Procopius in his Buildings mentions the headquarters of t lw governor, is dated to the late fifth or sixth century (Plan 22). In terms of rhetoric, it is antithetical to
magistrates constructed by Justinian in Justiniana Prima, as xm:aywyLa aQxovtwv. 1374 In the account other inscriptions, which convey a Christian message. The other inscriptions inside the rooms I, IV,
of the restoration of Antioch by Justinian after the city's destruction by the Persians in 540, admini~ V 11 and VIII employ a language that has broken with the past and expresses the realignment of the
trative buildings are not mentioned. Instead, Procopius refers to the walls, the public porticoes and
markets, water conduits and fountains, theatres and baths, and "all the other public buildings by mean~
of which the prosperity of a city is wont to be shewn". 1375 The account ends with a brief rhetorical d1· 111
" Malalas, 179.71, 278.10-13 (bouleuterion), 179.71, 75, 244.48, 52, 261.52, 316.60-65, 319.16, 325.16, 344.56 (praetori-
scription of the churches of the Theotokos and St. Michael, and a reference to a hospital for the prn 11 ). On the terminology and the architecture of the praetorium and the palatium see Frantz, The AthenianAgora, 110-116; N.
Ih1val, Les maisons d'Apamee et !'architecture "palatiale" de l'Antiquite Tardive, inApamee (1980), 447-470; idem, Existe-t-
11 mw "structure palatiale" propre a l' Antiquite Tardive?, in E. Levy (ed.), Le systeme palatial en Orient, en Grece et ii Rome,
Its du Colloque de Strasbourg 19-22 juin 1985 (Leiden 1987), 463-490; Lavan, Residences; G. Dareggi, I luoghi dell'ammin-
1372 Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 184. A pottery workshop for production oflamps was established in the south l,1t ,1zione della giustizia nella tarda Antichita, inAtti dell'Accademia Romanistica Costantiniana, XI convegno int. (Perugia-
portico of the forum in Cyrene and it functioned from the middle of the fourth century to the early fifth: M. Luni, Atelier I It Jwllo-Oubbio, 11-14 ottobre 1993) (Naples 1996), 377-396.
lucerne di Cirene, in G. Barker, J. Lloyd and J. Reynolds (eds.), Cyrenaica in Antiquity (BAR Jnt. Series 236, Oxford 1985), 2:,•1 1117 Lavan, Residences; idem, Political Topography, 316.
1118
276; S. Keay, Tarraco in Late Antiquity, in Christie and Loseby Towns in Transition, 36; Potter, fol Caesarea, 64-79. Frantz, The Athenian Agora, 24.
1373 See supra, pp. 202-203. I ll'l Lavan, Residences, 155-157.
1374 Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.23. 1180
J. Patrich, A Government Compound in Roman-Byzantine Caesarea, Proceedings of the Twelfth World Congress of
1375 Ibid., II.10.22 (transl. Dewing). lrwtsh Studies, B (Jerusalem 2000), 35-44; Lavan, Residences, 153-155.
254 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 255

COURTYARD

I
II
STREET lI
I
I
I
0

0
STEPS TO
HYPOCAUST

,, ..,.. ....
IIANus

PLAN 21. The early Byzantine praetorium at Caesarea Maritima. PLAN 22. The Archives Building in the praetorium at Caesarea Maritima.

governing class to the Christian religion. The inscription inside the threshold of room VII expresses a
Christian blessing: ELQ'tlVTI ~ dooM£ oou xal ~ rsoM£ oou, deriving from Ps 121.8. The inscriptions 111
rooms I and V projected the abiding power of the state administration and the expectation that the suli
jects will obey it. The inscription in room I, a partial quotation from Ps 13.3, encourages the visitor lo
embrace honesty by recalling the power of the authorities: 0EAEL£ µ~ cpo~c1o0m ,:~v esouoiav; T<"t
&ya0ov JtotEL ("Do you wish not to fear the authority? Then do good!"). A development of the sanw
idea is found in the inscription of room V: + 0eAEL£ µ~ cpo~£1o0m ,:~v esouoiav; i:o &ya0ov JtotEL, xul
esEL£ rnmvov es aui:fi£ ("Do you wish not to fear the authority? Do good and you will receive praise
from it.") (Plan 23). The two inscriptions in rooms VIII and IV contain Christian invocations of offi
cers of the provincial Revenue Office. 1381 Next to the audience hall to the south, there was a room that
functioned probably as a reception or dining hall. It was lined with couches on the three sides and of
fered a magnificent view over the sea, typical of Roman villa architecture. It was adorned with a mid
fifth to sixth century mosaic floor with a classical composition: the personifications of the Seasons, and
a representation of Pegasus, which, apart from the inscription, does not survive, and the inscription of
Karpoi. All these were symbols of prosperity and the eternal renewal of life and may have been under-
stood as a reference to the prosperity provided by the authorities. 1382

1381
PLAN 23. Inscription in the Archives Building of the praetorium at Caesarea Maritima.
K. G. Hoium, Inscriptions from the imperial revenue office of Byzantine Caesarea Palaestinae, in Humphrey, Near
East 1, 333-345; Lehmann and Holum,Inscriptions, 96-102 (nos. 85-91 ).
1382 Spiro, Mosaics, 250-257 and figs. 12-14.
256 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ADMINISTRATIVE CENTRES 257

In the middle of the Agora of Athens, the Palace of the Giants built around 410, was an impressive
that probably served as the governor's palace when he visited the city or as the residence of
1 high officers (Plan XV). It was adorned with gardens and was surrounded by a wall. Built on the
11 the Odeum of Agrippa, the Middle Stoa, the South Stoa II and two temples, it occupied a central
in the Athenian Agora next to the Panathenaic Way. Its entrance was magnificently decorated
,,ix colossal figures of Giants and Tritons, re-used from the Odeum of Agrippa that lay in ruins
1111· J4). It might have been built as a residence for the Prefect of Illyricum Gessius, brother of the
111·ss Eudocia. Apparently, at the site, a statue of Eudocia was erected on a column by the emperor
ndosius II. 1383 Several elements of the palace's architectural design reveal an appreciation for the
I lustory and culture of Athens: parts of its plan imitate those of other buildings in the agora - in
lic11lar, the reuse of the Giants on the north fac;ade is remarkable. These originally decorated the
1384
11111 of Agrippa at the time of the Antonines, and copied figures from the Parthenon's pediment.
'130 it was abandoned and was only partly reused. Archaeological evidence perhaps suggests that
later transformed for Christian use.
I'he palace of the governor of Crete in Gortyn was a large complex, including a bath and a temple
1lw northeast corner. The governor Oecumenius Dositheus Asclepiodotus constructed a new prae-
1111111 at the northwestern corner of the site in 382/3 after a destructive earthquake in 365, and statues
1h1· emperors Gratian, Valentinian and Theodosius were erected by the entrance. 1385 The new
1wlmium was built on the Basilica Thermarum. On the west side, where a large latrine was located
1IH•r, a series of workshops facing the street was now built. At a later stage, tabernae were built to the
th. 1386 Around the middle of the fifth century, modest houses and workshops occupied the large
between the temple of Pythios Apollo and the praetorium. 1387 In the late fourth and in the fifth
· t'rnt 11 ry, behind the basilical hall of the Praetorium of Dositheus were constructed private houses with
w,anal activities. In the first half of the sixth century, they continued to expand on the available empty
south of the basilica. Between the fifth and the first half of the sixth century the ruralization of
section at the southwestern corner of the complex1388 led to the transfer of the monumental entrance
1he complex from the south to the northeastern corner. The new entrance was reduced to only one
. In the first half of the sixth century, huge pillars (2.00xl.40 m) were built along the West Street
h,·tween the columns of the portico flanking the Praetorium of Dositheus toward the street. These pillars
t1",l't11ble in size and construction the pillars supporting the arches of the aqueduct constructed in the
years of Justinian's reign on the opposite west side of the West Street right in front of the Byzantine
111 ,uses. It appears that the construction of the pillars along the portico of the praetorium was not
1111pleted. The project certainly shows that there was no interest in maintaining the monumentality of
tlw portico of Dositheus. 1389 Some further alterations date to the reign of Heraclius: a large hall was

IIKJ Frantz, TheAthenianAgora, 95-116; E. Sironen, An Honorary Epigram for Empress Eudocia in the Athenian Agora,
ll,•1peria 59 (1990), 371-374 and n. 11.
1.1 84 Frantz, The Athenian Agora, 113. Imitation of earlier sculptural elements by the Byzantines in the fifth century are
k.nown from other cities: e.g. F. K. Yegiil, Early Byzantine Capitals from Sardis. A Study on the Ionic Impost Type, DOP 28
FIG. 34. Colossal statues decorating the entrance of the Palace of the Giants in the ancient agora of Athens. I l'l74), 265-274.
1.1 85 Jnscriptiones Creticae IV, nos. 284 a, b, 313-322.
1386 A Di Vita, Atti della Scuola,ASAtene 55 (1977), 352-357.

ux 7 Di Vita, Gortina V, LVII-LXI and figs. 6, 34, 35; G. de Tommaso, ibid., 337-348.
1.1 88 A Di Vita, Gortina,ASAtene 62, n.s. 46 (1984), 1988, 240 ff., esp. 243; idem, Gortina V, LXIII; E. Lippolis, Il settore
I ', ( ;ortina V.1, 460 ff.
D 89 Di Vita, Gortina V, LXIII.
258 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

built on the northwestern corner of the peristyle above the praetorium of the fourth century. Similarly
1390
to the Palace of the Giants in Athens, part of the praetorium was later converted into a monastery.
There are several other early Byzantine domi that have been identified as governors' palaces, but,
in the absence of inscriptions, the archaeological evidence remains inconclusive. For example, in the
Upper Agora of Aphrodisias west of the bouleuterion a large peristyle domus (Plan IX) is traditional
ly identified as the bishop's palace, because the seal of a metropolitan was found on the site and be
cause the peristyle domus is located next to the cathedral. Fragments of wall paintings depicting the
three Graces and a Nike dating to the sixth or seventh century suggest that this may have been ttw CHAPTER9
governor's palace.1391
While there is no reference to construction or repairs in the ancient civic centres ( agora/forum) i11
the late early Byzantine period, construction of a praetorium is attested in an inscription from Aenus, STREETS AND PORTICOES
in the province of Rhodope, in the second half of the sixth century. The work was done at the time ol
the vikarios Flavius Marcianus and the hegemon Flavius Valerius Stephanius. The hegemon (praeses)
exercised the judicial jurisdiction and wielded economic power in the province. 1392 This winding of the streets will make the spectator
discover a new structure at every step, and the f a<;ade
and entrance of each house will face the middle of
the street directly. 1393

Urban ideology and urban planning

Porticoes flanking avenues and adorning agorai were an essential feature of Hellenistic and Roman
i·itics. 1394 As Cicero stated, in Roman urbanism the portico and the arch were valued as much as the
theatre and the gymnasium and were endowed with political meaning. 1395 The porticoes and their function
m city life occupy a prime position in Libanius' Antiochikos. In caput 196 of his Oration, the orator
n 1111mences the praise of the location and size of Antioch (UJtEQ TE Tfj£ 0EOEW£ xal ,:ou µEyt0ou£). 1396
I'll<: city extends straight (l0uTEVlJ£) from the east to the west, stretching out rows of high double-storied
·,tnas (&t&uµov o,:owv u'lj)o£ exwtvouoa) (Plan VIII).13 97 Indeed, Antioch's central avenue was impressive
Ii ir its length of 3,200 m. 1398 Including the extension outside the walls, it reached a total length of 5,916
m. 1399 Libanius begins the description of the city's topography with porticoes, for him the symbol that
most promotes the magnificence of the city. The colonnades flanking the central avenue extend at great
h·ngth, "gently sloping and unbroken" (umLov xal ouvEXE£ c>ux TEAOU£) over a smooth terrain, without

1J 93 L.B. Alberti,De ReAedificatoria IV.v, p. 307, ed. G. Orlandi (Milan 1966), transl. Chr. Smith,Architecture in the Culture
ttf Farly Humanism. Ethics, Aesthetics, and Eloquence 1400-1470 (New York, Oxford 1992), 119.
1194 On the origin and spread ofthe large colonnaded avenues see Shear, Athens, 371-372. On the architecture and the aes-

tlwtics of the colonnaded avenues in the Roman cities see MacDonald, Architecture II, 33-51, especially 43 ff.; J. Lassus,
I Juclques remarques sur les rues a portiques, in Palmyre. Bilan et perspectives. Colloque de Strasbourg (18-20 Octobre 1973)
I Strasbourg 1976), 177-178; G. Bejor, Vie colonnate: Paesaggi urbani del mondo antico (Rome 1999).
1395
Cicero, De Republica III.44: aut theatrum, gymnasia, porticus, propylaea nobilia aut arx ... rem publicam efficiebat.
IJ'!6 Studies based on archaeological and literary evidence calculate the inhabited area of Antioch intra muros to have been

!llh ha including 306 insulae: J. Leblanc and Gr. Poccardi, Etude de la permanence de traces urbains et ruraux antiques a
Autioche-sur-l'Oronte, Syria 76 (1999), 124.
1390
Inscriptiones Creticae IV, no. 468. 1.197 On the expression olouµov oi:owv v1.j!o£ see Festugiere,Antioche, 39-40.
1198 D. N. Wilber, in C.R. Morey, The Excavations of Antioch-on-the-Orontes, Proceedings of the American Philosophical
1391Erim,Aphrodisias, 72-73; S. Campbell, Signs of prosperity in the decoration of some 4th-5th c. buildings at Aphrodisim,.
inAphrodisias Papers 3, 189-192; Lavan, Residences, 150 insists that the archaeological evidence for identifying it as a governor\ \t1f'iety 76 (1936), 368.
199
palace is inconclusive and suggests that it might simply have been a rich domus. 1. Malalas, 177.8 refers to 4 miles and he obviously includes the parts outside the city walls: J.-P. Callu, Antioche la
1392 Asdracha, Inscriptions, 287-289. 1•1 andc: la coherence des chiffres, MEFRA 109 (1997), 151-152.
260 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 261

mountains and streams, "as in a picture in which the colours combine according to their natural 1409
t11111, whilst the Embolos of Ephesus was adorned with several nymphaea, which included the
( wortEQ ev yQacpfi XQ<Dµa,:wv xm' i':souo(av rtQOOEA86vi:wv). 1400 The side streets spring from th1· 1uy of Celsus also converted into an attractive nymphaeum. At important intersections, colonnad-
on both sides ( c. 198). The stoas resemble rivers that flow through the greater part of the city, whll,· vrnues were given a monumental appearance with tetrapyla, characteristic features of the large
side streets are compared to streams running into the rivers. The stoas allow the view of the 1 if the East. The tetrapyla connected the eight porticoes of the four merging colonnaded avenues,

nature at the foot of the mountain (rtQO£ i:a£i:i'j£ Urt<DQ£La£ xaQL1:a£), while others open onto othc1 1 111 oviding a covered intersection. If the four podia of the tetrapyla were unconnected, they were
roofed streets, so that they resemble a network of channels flowing from one river to another ({/111 d tdrakionia. 1410 According to Libanius, the city's layout, as emphasized by the colonnaded av-
ex noi:aµoil rtQO£ noi:aµov ◊LWQUXE£ EL£ OtartAouv rt£rtot11µtvm: c. 201). The imagery of riw1 t hus created a sense of unity, a sensation that all public areas, such as temples and baths were
channels indicates sensitivity to the urban environment and gives an idea of the aesthetic experic111 ''" hy. ll was the porticoes too, that connected private residences with public monuments. 1411
would evoke. t In roofed alleys (unat0QtOL oi:cvwrto() and large avenues (rtAai:£1:m ,:wv 6owv), instead of being
The colonnades emphasize the avenues' length. In most Roman cities, only the cardo and th1• I hy pack animals, were to remain an adornment to the city and a demonstration of extravagance
cumanus were colonnaded, 1401 but in large cities more streets had a monumental appearano· 111tm i:tvo£ ev£xa rtQOXELvi:m xat rtoAui:£A£La£). 1412 The splendour of the urban layout created by
colonnades. The Notitia of Constantinople mentions 42 colonnaded streets. The high number is 111 1mt.·s and their porticoes can be seen today in the remains of the city of Ephesus (see supra, p. 146,
explained as the result of applying a particular method of counting: the colonnades of some sl! 1m· 25 and Plan 111). 1413 The two central avenues of the city were lavishly decorated with colonnades
were counted in sections and each portico of each side of the street was counted separately. 1402 In 111 I I llanked by numerous magnificent monuments dating from various periods. One long avenue
texts, rhetorical hyperbole is found: the orator Himerius, in his praise of Thessalonica, exaggt·1 11,snl the city from the southeast to the north, passing in front of important civic monuments. It started
when he writes that there were porticoes throughout the entire city (oi:oat Ota nao11£). 1403 In Alexandt 1111 the Magnesian Gate at the southeast corner of the city, passed by the Upper Agora, the Lower or
the number recorded is also high. A Syriac Notitia deriving from a late Roman original records a ' 11 agonos Agora, the theatre and continued north passing in front of the stadium and the Gymnasium
of 456 porticoes in the five districts of the city. 1404 There were, however, numerous small cities all 11\vt Vt•dius at Koressos. In Roman inscriptions, it is termed plateia. From the harbour the entrance to
the empire in which not only the secondary streets, but the central avenues too were very motkr,1!y dty was made by another great colonnaded thoroughfare, the Arcadiane, named after the emperor
constructed. In Amorium, for example, the main street that leads to the lower city wall was construe It'd 1catlius, who constructed it. At the two ends of the avenue a magnificent gateway added to the avenue's
compacted earth and gravel, rather than being paved. 1405 In large cities, colonnades of avenues we 11, t11t11mmentality and splendour. The Arcadiane was paved with marble and it was 11 m wide. Empha-
beautifully decorated with polychrome mosaic pavements, with columns often of multi-coloured marhlr the focal points of the city's fabric in a straight line, it connected the harbour with the theatre
and with statues of civic benefactors in the intercolumnar space. The architrave and the entablatm,· 1111 ,1ted on the slope of a hill opposite the harbour. There the Arcadiane merged with the other long avenue,
were adorned with a variety of architectural compositions. The wall at the back of the porticoes w;i~ Roman plateia. Immediately to the right, the Arcadiane led to the Lower Agora, the commercial
decorated with coloured frescoes. 1406 The aesthetic impression made by the colonnaded avenues ww, rn1tre. Thus the avenue offered a magnificent view of the city and the harbour throughout its length.
majestic. They were splendid thoroughfares connecting various parts of the city and leading to ago, ,11 • mg the Arcadiane, to its north side, were the large complex of the Baths of Constantius and the huge
major temples, and important monuments. An example is the temple of the Nymphs in Antioch. Civrnnasium, which in the course of the early Byzantine period was occupied by private houses. Next to
impressive for the splendour of its stones, the colours of its columns, the beauty of its paintings and Ihe II was the Theatre Gymnasium. The colonnades of the avenues were covered with mosaic pavements of
abundance of its flowing waters. 1407 Nymphaea adorned major avenues. They were magnificent buildini•:,. •;imple geometric design, whilst behind the colonnades were shops. The city's founding myth, a central
with a theatrical fa<;ade composed of niches, columns and sculptures of water divinities and mythologiral tlwme in the urban tradition, was prominently presented: at the east end of the Arcadiane, in a square
scenes. The most impressive was the nymphaeum at Miletus. The nymphaeum of Hierapolis of Phrygia. ,t111od a statue of the boar which, according to tradition, had led the city's founder, Androclus, to the
lying along the city's central avenue, was 70 m long and decorated with sculptures of Tritons, perso111 '!ill\ Androclus' heroon was located further up on the Embolos, and in the Byzantine period was
fications of rivers and springs, and with the battle of the Greeks and Amazons. 1408 Nymphaea becamr n inverted into a nymphaeum or a water fountain (Figure 35). 1414 The location of the statue of the boar
very fashionable in the early Byzantine period and there was a trend for converting older buildings into 1n·alling the city's foundation on the Arcadiane is indicative of the change in the conception of the agora,
fountains: at Aphrodisias, the Agora Gate on the east side of the South Agora was converted into a •,111ee in ancient Greece the monument commemorating the city's founder was located in the civic

1400 1409
Libanius, Or. Xl.197 (I, 504), transl. Downey, 673. See also Or. LXI (IV, 333.6-7): ai:owv Mo ouam 6tetAT]µµ{v Ratte, New research, 136, 143-144.
11
(Ntxoµ~oaa) ◊LT]XOUCTat£ ,:oi] JtaVl:0£. 1410 On the architectural type of the tetrakionia, the four-square structures, see Segal, Function, 140-149; MacDonald,
1401
Aelius Aristides, Or. XVIII.6 ( bri ~µVQVV µowpoia) ( ed. Keil, 10.7): xai:aai:eym xal i\nm0QOL. lrchitecture II, 87-92.
1402 1411 Libanius, Or. XI.212 (I, 510). On the architectural function of the stoa flanking streets and its aesthetic concept see
Mundell Mango, Porticoed Street, 44-47; Parrish, The urban plan, 11-12.
1403
Himerius, Or. 39.7 (1. 52, p. 162). L J. Coulton, The Architectural Development of the Greek Stoa (Oxford 1976), 177-180; G. Downey, The Architectural Signif-
1404
Alston, The City, 160-161. 1rance of the Use of the Words Stoa andBasilike in Classical Literature,AJA 41 (1937), 194-211.
1405 1412
C. Lightfoot, Excavations at Amorium,AnatArch 1 (1995), 5. Julian, Misopogon 355B.
1406 1413 For a detailed description of the city's monuments along its avenues and the impression made on the visitor see F. K.Yegiil,
As in Apamea, see supra, pp. 232-233.
1407
Libanius, Or. XI.202 (I, 506.12-15): i:o JtEQL m'ii:a£ Nuµ(j)WV LEQOV 01JQav6µT]XE£ A[0wv auya'i:£ xal XLOVWV XQOaL£ xui The Street Experience of Ancient Ephesus, in Z. <;elik, D. Favro and R. Ingersoll, Streets. Critical Perspectives on Public Space
yQa(jlfj£ atyA'!] xal vaµai:wv JtAOUl:(J_) Jtavi:a O(jl0a1cµov EJtWl:Qf(jJOV. ( Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1994), 95-110.
1408
D'Andria, Hierapolis, 111. 1414 H. Thur, Der ephesische Ktistes Androklos und (s)ein Hernon am Embolos,JOA/ 64 (1995), 63-103.
262 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 263

FIG. 35. The Heroon of Androclus, the mythical founder of Ephesus, at the end of Marble Street at the PLAN 24. Reconstruction plan of the four columns supporting the statues of the four Evangelists in
point where the street turns upwards after the Library of Celsus. In the early Byzantine period the the Arcadiane at Ephesus.
heroon was enclosed with panels decorated with crosses and converted into a water fountain.

,,ign of luxury. 1419 The citizens of Alexandria were so proud of the abundance of lighting in their streets
that they referred to other cities as lampless. 1420 On the Madaba map, colonnaded streets are depicted
centre. It is obvious that by the early Byzantine period the central avenue, which had assumed the n ,k hy hanging lamps. When, later, Justinian deprived the cities of their civic revenues and transferred
that the ancient agora had played in civic life, had become the site in which to project local tradition them to the public fisc, one of the consequences for urban life recorded with sadness by Procopius, was
At the time of Justinian, a new monument was built in the middle of the Arcadiane to underline tlw 1he end of street lighting. 1421 In some cities, oil was supplied by the governor. 1422 In the first half of the
city's Christianization: the statues of the four Evangelists were placed on four columns on a base 3 111 sixth century in Hermoupolis oil for public lighting was paid from regular taxes. 1423
high which were decorated with statues in niches (see supra, p. 221, Figure 31 and Plan 24). 1415 Ar At the east end of the Arcadiane, there was a Hellenistic fountain, built in front of the theatre.
cording to an inscription, the avenue was lighted at night by fifty lamps, hanging in front of the shops There the Arcadiane met the other colonnaded avenue, the Roman plateia, and then led right to the
of both colonnades. 1416 Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that for Antioch the light of the lamps at night I ,ower Agora, the Upper Agora and the Magnesian Gate at the southeast corner of the city. This sec-
was equal with that of the day. 1417 Indeed street lighting emphasized the cities' splendour and afflu t ion of the avenue leading from the theatre to the Library of Celsus and paved with marble slabs is
ence. At Antioch, shop owners were obliged to provide lamps outside their stores and to keep them
lighted at their own expense. 1418 Libanius complained that in Antioch the lighting was excessive and a

1419 Libanius, Or. XVI.41 (II, 176.11-13): to JtOA'U xal µatmov touto q:iwr; xal, UXQl]OtOV ()ELXVUOV to Jt(JO tWV ~aAavelwv
XQEµaµEVOV.
1420 Severns, Ep. 318.
1415 1421 Procopius, Historia arcana XXVI.7: outE Mxva tai:t; JtOAEOLV Ev oriµoolq:, EXUEto. On street lighting see W. van Rengen,
On the Arcadiane see Ephesos I, 55 ff.; Foss, Ephesus, 56-58; Bauer, Stadt, 271-275. On the monument with the statues
of the four Evangelists see W. Wilberg, Die Viersaulenbau auf der Arkadianestrasse, inEphesos I, 132-140. I,' eclairage public d'Apamee de Syrie aI' epoque byzantine, in La Syrie moyenne de la mer ala steppe (Damascus 1999), 91.
1416
Inschr. Ephesos II, no. 557: + EXEL~ 'AQ,ta◊LUVTJ EW£ wu ~vay(Jov at~, crtoal, xav6riAat; v' +. 1422 Joshua the Stylite, c. 87 (p. 69) (a. 504-505).
1417 1423 Matter, Factions, 153. See also M. Mossakowska, Les huiles utilisees pour l'eclairage en Egypte (d'apres Jes papyrus
Ammianus Marcellinus XIV.1.9.
1418
Libanius, Or. XI.267 (I, 533); XXII.6 (II, 474); XXXIII.35-37 (III, 183-184). µ,recs),JJP 24 (1994), 101-131.
264 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 265

named the Marble Avenue, whilst its continuation is labelled the Embolos, meaning the colonnaded 111·
enue. 1424 Scholars also call the Embolos Curetes Street from the re-used columns of the Prytaneum ou
which are inscribed the names of the mythological figures of the Curetes. At the point of the junctio11 nl
the Marble Avenue with the Embolos and a side street stood a monumental gate next to the Library 1,I
Celsus. There the area bounded by the gate of the Lower Agora, the Library of Celsus and the monu
mental gate, formed a large plaza beneath street level. Along the avenue stood various funerary 01011
uments, 1425 some of which were converted into fountains during the early Byzantine period. The Embol1 ,,,
was lined with private houses, stores and various public buildings. Immediately next to the Lower Agora,
also labelled by the excavators the Tetragonos Agora or Commercial Agora, was the impressive Roman .
Library of Celsus. The Library was converted into a monumental fountain probably around 400. Iii,
elaborate fa<;ade, with lavish sculptural decoration, became the back wall of the nymphaeum and ww,
reflected in a pool immediately in front of it. 1426 On the opposite side were located private houses, a
public latrine, the famous Baths of Scholasticia and a temple of Hadrian. On the south side of the Emb< 1l1 r,
were the so-called Hanghaus I and II (Slope Houses). The north colonnade of the Embolos was repavn I
with reused marble slabs by Eutropius, proconsul in the late fifth century. To commemorate him, thr
citizens erected his statue with an inscription recording their gratitude. 1427 The colonnade employ1·d
reused columns and capitals, a feature typical of the early Byzantine period. Another section of t lu·
colonnade of the Embolos on the south side was restored by Alytarches in the late fifth or in the sixth
century: the columns were of different coloured marble and statues of governors were erected in front
of them; the pavement of the colonnade was paved with colourful mosaic depicting birds flanking tw, 1
canthars and geometric motifs (Figure 36). 1428 The fa<;ade of the shops added to the polychrome ap FIG. 36. The Stoa of Alytarches on the south side of the Embolos in front of the Slope Houses 1
pearance of the site with coloured frescoes representing marble revetment. The north side of the upp1 ·1 and 2 opposite the Baths of Scholasticia. It is 4. 70-5.50 m wide and paved with a multi-coloured
section of the Embolos leading to the Upper Agora had also statue bases in front of each column inscrilw1 I mosaic with geometric design, birds and flowers, and one field with two canthars and doves.
with dedications to athletes and civic benefactors (see supra, p. 231, Figure 32). In the mid-fifth cent111v.
a Gate was built near the Upper Agora which narrowed the Embolos, a characteristic trend in earlv
Byzantine urbanism. It was adorned with re-used herms of Hercules (Figure 37). 1429
Another example of the lavish decoration of the central thoroughfares with porticoes and magnil
icent monuments is to be found in the frontier city of Palmyra. Palmyra's porticoes possessed columw,
9 m high, dating to the second-third century AD. The city's streets are interrupted by oval and circul:11
plazas and tetrapyla. The sculptural decoration of the upper part of the colonnades and surroundi111'.
buildings is baroque, combining Roman elements with Hellenistic trends and the Oriental liking fm
rich ornament and extravagance. 1430 The splendour and adornment of the central colonnaded avenue•,
aimed at providing aesthetic satisfaction to the citizens and at projecting the city's ideology, and tl11·

1424
On the Embolos see Foss, Ephesus, 65-79; Bauer, Stadt, 284-290, 295.
1425
I. Kader, Heroa und Memorialbauten, in M. Wi:irrle and P. Zanker (eds.), Stadtbild und Bii.rgerbild im Helleni,1·111111
(Munich 1995), 212-220; Scherrer, Ephesos, 6-7, 10-11.
1426
Foss, Ephesus, 65; Bauer, Stadt, 280-283.
1427
R. Heberdey, Vorlaufiger Bericht iiber die Grabungen in Ephesus 1905/06, JOA! 10 (1907), Beibl. 71-73; Jnsd11
Ephesos IV, no. 1304: + Tr']v◊E cpLAayg{mvwv oALy11v XUQLV dlgao µ6z8wv Ein:gomE, ta8e11c; 'Ecpfoou 8aAoc;, O'UVE½U na-q,qv
µagµagemc; xooµr']cmc; EUO'CQCD'WLOLV ayuta1:c;.
1428
Ephesos VIII/2, 31-34, pls. 38-50.
1429
Bammer, Torbau 93-126.
143
°C. Saliou, Du portique a la rue a portiques. Les rues a colonnades de Palmyre dans le cadre de l'urbanisme romain FIG. 37. The Gate of Hercules partially blocking
imperial: originalite et conformisme, in Palmyra and the Silk Road=MAS 42 (1996), 319-330. the beginning of the Embolos.
266 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 267

dominance and prestige of the Roman state. It was a manifestation of wealth, cultural tradition aml m 11). 1442 A wide variety of products, both basic and luxury, were available there. Libanius stresses the
litical power. mdanee of merchandise (i:6 i:fjc:; &yoQdc:; u:rt£Qj3aAA.ov ). 1443 He also describes a second row of shops,
We have already seen that in Libanius' Antiochikos the porticoes are praised first for crcat wooden shops and workshops, built in front of the shops lining the porticoes, and between the por-
1445
unity in the city's fabric. 1431 At the same time, parallel to the topographical unity, the public fun et ii lfl 11 rnlumns. 1444 The spirit of the market is joyous (&yoQdc:; cpmOQO'l:'Y]c:;). It is much more pleasant
the portico brought about a civic unit: the porticoes facilitated public life, for they were the at walk through the merchandise than through gardens, and meeting at the market is sweeter than staying
which social contacts were created and maintained. Texts from other provinces of the empire crn1lll lu 1111e. The sight of the crowd flowing through the city offers satisfaction enough ( oux. aui:oc:; 6 QEWV
11 rqc; :rt6A1:wc:; oxAoc:; de:; 0foc:; X<XQLV aQX.cT;).
1446 Commercial activities in the porticoes were intense,
this picture: in papyri references to the stoa are connected with the administrative activities of II
1447
city. 1432 In theAntiochikos, Libanius exclaims, "And the lengthening of my discourse, entirely ahoul ii 'I ilc displaying and selling their merchandise, and donkeys loaded with goods were passing through.
stoas, to what will it bring us? It seems to me that one of the most pleasing things in cities, and I 1111M urh scenes were depicted on the mosaic pavements in the colonnades.
add one of the most useful, is meetings and mixings with other people. That is indeed a city, where t Archaeology offers us glimpses of the appearance of stores along the cities' central avenues. The
is much of this" .1433 The orator elaborates on the pleasures and benefits of social interaction walls were covered with marble revetment or were painted. The interior walls often had paint-
friends. 1434 Yet those who live in cities without lengthy porticoes in front of their houses are nat u1 wall decoration. Some had pavements covered with mosaics, others with tiles and slabs, while others
isolated from each other because of climatic conditions. 1435 In Antioch of course the mild climate 1,I floors of beaten earth. Some were of two storeys with masonry or wooden stairways and wooden
region did not impede social contacts. However, even when it rained, the Antiocheans were protc1·1nt uwaanines. 1448 Business activities in such stores were extremely diverse. The so-called Byzantine
by the roofs of the porticoes, and could walk or sit in the stoas at leisure in the company of others. 1 Shops at Sardis are best known (see supra, p. 215, Plan 9). Located on the Main Road, a street leading
Those who dwelt at the extreme ends of side streets could reach the porticoes protected from rain 1111 central Anatolia to the coast through Sardis, they were apparently built in the early fifth century.
the balconies. The constant contacts between the city's inhabitants in the porticoes allows friendsl11p!i lhe colonnade in front of the shops was built from various spoils: the length and width of the columns
to flourish. 1437 The length of the porticoes also contributes to the citizens' participation in and enj11v wnc uneven, and the capitals and bases were of various dimensions and orders. The entablature of the
ment of the greatest activities among humans, the public spectacles at the hippodrome and the theat1 rnlonnade was wooden and the pavement was covered with a mosaic. The Byzantine Shops at Sardis
and the pleasures of the baths. 1438 People spend time in the porticoes. They meet friends, talk and pl,1v prnduced and sold a great variety of goods: glass in various shapes and sizes, including window glass,
chess games. Such scenes are depicted in two sections of the Yakto mosaic from Antioch (see supr p1 ,t tery, the vast majority of which was of local production, a great variety of objects of metal, stone and
p. 121, Figure 7a). 1439 In Ephesus, in the colonnade of the Embolos boards were carved for games nl h1 me, numerous tools and kitchen equipment, locks, some shops were restaurants, one was specialized
dice. 1440 The vestiges of ancient cities with the large number of statues and inscriptions in the port icon 111 the enamelling of small metal objects and jewellery, some workshops of the second storey perhaps
are salient testimonies to the various manifestations of urban public life. •,p,·cialized in dye. 1449 The five early Byzantine shops built opposite the nymphaeum of Scythopolis next
Colonnaded avenues were also the cities' markets: in front of the houses, shops lined the back w,tll 1, 1 1he Monument of Antonius display similarities with those at Sardis. They had floors of hard beaten
of the colonnades. Libanius stresses that Antioch's markets were to be found on all streets of the dlv , arlh and muddy plasters, and the second floor was reached with a ladder. The shops were destroyed
and he contrasts this arrangement with the central market in the agora of the ancient Greek cities. 1111 liv fire in the early sixth century. In their ruins were found vessels, bowls, lamps, glass, glass weights, eu-
The orator offers a vivid image of Antioch's crowded markets. The colonnades bustled with life. Tlwv li ,gia tokens etc. 1450 The shops excavated at Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria, dating to the time of Justinian,
were full of people and merchandise (x.at wo:rt£Q µrni:a :rtavi:a &v0Qw:rtwv, oihwc:; wv(wv :rtavw •,pecialized in ivory and bone carving, inlay decoration of furniture, and works with glass, coral, amber
and semi-precious stones and flasks of St. Menas. 1451 Various commercial and industrial activities are
1452
,11 tested in workshops and shops of the central streets of other early Byzantine cities. In some of the
1431
The unity of the orthogonal urban planning in Antioch was created by the layout of the streets, especially the cenll al
colonnaded avenue and the rectangular insulae of Hellenistic type (126x56 m). See E. Will, Antioche sur l'Oronte, metropnl,
de l'Asie, Syria 74 (1997), 104-106.
1432 1442 Libanius, Or. XI.252 (I, 526.14-15).
Lukaszewicz, Edifices, 64.
1433
Trans!. Downey, 675. Libanius, Or. XI.213 (I, 510.11-16): xal to YE µrixuvm tov JtEQL tG.JV o,:owv oAW£ Myov EL£ tl n:011 144 3Ibid., c. 254 (I, 527.3).
1444 Ibid. See also supra, pp. 188-192.
ail <pEQEL; ooxEi: µm toov ev tai:£ n6AECTL xal zagLfotmov Elvm, ngooOElriv 6' av OtL xal XQrJCTLµonmov, at ovvoOoL xal. tii
1445
avaµLz0ijvm. Kal v~ ~la YE xa0aQOO£ JtOAL£, oil to'Uto EVECTtL JtOAlJ. Ibid., c. 266 (I, 532.9).
1434 1446 Ibid., c. 266 (I, 532.15-16).
Ibid., c. 214 (I, 510-511).
1435 1447 Julian, Misopogon 355B-C.
Ibid., c. 215 (I, 511 ).
1436 1448 Crawford, Byzantine Shops, 7-11, 107-125.
Ibid., c. 216 (I, 512.4-5): ~µEL£ ClE EV autai:£ tCI.L£ Otoai:£ µrnx Q<;wtWVrJ£ paol~ovtE£ oil XCI.LQO£ ouyxa0l~oµEv.
1437 1449 Ibid., 1-7, 12-106; G. M.A. Hanfmann, The Fifth Campaign at Sardis (1962), BASOR 170 (1963), 50-51.
Ibid., c. 217 (I, 512.10-11): nag' ~µi:v ClEtq_J tij£ 6µLAla£ anafotqno tij£ <pLAla£ axµa~EL.
1438
Libanius, Or. XI.218 (I, 512.13-513.1): Oinwol µi':v OU tL JtQO£ ~()OV~V µaAAOV ~ ta µi\yw,:a t(J)V EV av0gwn:m£ to t(J)V 145° Agady et al., Byzantine Shops.
o,:owv µijxo£ ouµ0i\0ArJtm, al£ tnn66goµ6£ TE ngoovcpavtm xal Ofotgov xal Aoutg6v ... On the description of Antioch\ 1451 Majcherek, Alexandrian Habitat, 141-142; M. Rodziewicz, Les habitations romaines tardives d'Alexandrie ii la lumiere
porticoes and their function in Libanius' Antiochikos see B. Cabouret, Sous Jes portiques d' Antioche, Syria 76 (1999), 127-150, ties fouilles polonaises a Kam el-Dikka, Alexandrie III (Warsaw 1984), 241-242, 249-251; idem, Bone Carvings Discovered at
esp. 143-147. Korn el-Dikka, Alexandria, in 1967, ET 3 (1969), 147-152; idem, Reliefs figures, 317-336; Z. Kiss, Les ampoules de Saint Menas
1439
Lassus, Yakto, 133-134 (fig. 13), 139 (fig. 17 and 18). dccouvertes a Korn el-Dikka (1961-1981),Alexandrie V (Warsaw 1989); BCH 121 (1997), 838.
144
° Keil, Fuhrer, 111. 1452 For example, in Justiniana Prima (Popovic, Les activites), Pella (Walmsley, Fihl (Pella), 252), Gerasa (Ball et al., The
1441 North Decumanus, 363).
See supra, p. 213.
268 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 269

stores on the west side of the agora of Thessalonica on the Commercial Street, businesses for dy1•in1& 11 h three apses has been mentioned above (Plan V). Shops stood at the back of the exedra with mosaic
and tanning functioned until the end of the fifth century. 1453 Concentration in the same district of slH 'I'" ymwmcnts and fa<;ades dressed with marble. At the end of Silvanus Street and opposite the Silvanus Hall
with the same specialization was quite common. 1454 Some workshops may have belonged to colk1•.1a, 11111I her semicircular exedra has been excavated. Similar, but more complex, was the market in Gerasa be-
like those in the Circular Harbour of Carthage which engaged in various industrial activities: cloth 111 the South Tetrakionion and the Oval Plaza: it formed a complex of four exedrai and a triple gate-
dustry, metal and glass production, bone carving, manufacture of Egyptian blue and marquetry. t.i,,·, 111 v. The exedrai with two columns each formed an octagonal peristyle (PLAN VI and supra, p. 223, Plan
Justiniana Prima during the last decades of the sixth century, when the city was threatened by llw In the centre the complex was adorned with a fountain. 1462 An inscription mentions an exedra in
Avaro-Slavic invasions and the population from the countryside and the suburbs moved inside I ,stra.1463
walls, numerous workshops were established in the city's open space and in subdivided buildings. 111 ( 'ourts and plazas offered another set of open-air architectural schemata. The so-called Byzantine
spite of the anarchy prevailing in these troubled years of invasions, it is interesting that even there a n·1 t:. ,planade in Caesarea Maritima dates to the sixth century (Plan 25). This court, employing two reused
0

tain concentration of professionals is to be noted: the ironsmiths occupied the west part of the pla,a, ~lalm~s and numerous other spolia, reveals the practice and taste of sixth-century architects. The re-
goldsmiths and silversmiths were located around the south gate of the upper city, furriers and pot 11·1 t'I ,·et ion of statues in new public places by governors is recorded in inscriptions. The statues were often
near Basilica D, while bakers' ovens were located in many districts. 1456 Near the doors of the stores 1,I from decaying temples or public buildings no longer in use. 1464 The long court of Caesarea was
Apamea's cardo inscriptions indicating the prices of merchandise were painted, especially the priCL' 111 with reused slabs of grey marble. It was 11.6 m wide, bordered on the two long sides with walls
old and new wine, 1457 and in most cases benches were placed in front of them to serve the customers 111 11la11ding 3 m high, and it led to an important building. The entrance formed three openings with arches
to display the goods. wit It two columns on different bases. On both sides of the entrance were placed two statues facing each
In the early Byzantine period, exedrai, presented an architecturally pleasing arrangement. Thn 11llu.·r and representing seated figures: the one, a porphyry statue of Hadrian from the Hadrianeum
elegantly broke the straight line of the columns of the Greco-Roman colonnaded street, thus offeri1w h head, neck and limbs missing, was installed in the northeast corner, and placed on a different
an unexpected architectural surprise. It has been suggested that the design may have come from
Constantinople, where two sigma are attested, one constructed by Theodosius II outside the Goldrn
Gate and another one in Region III. 1458 However, in Roman fora of the imperial period, wherever span
was available, apsidal or rectangular exedrai were designed, breaking the straight line of the colonnades. 1·1··• 1
Trajan's market in Rome shows the preference of the Roman architects of the imperial period for thh,
design. The sigma offered a simpler form of the oval or circular colonnaded plaza. In Philippi, in northc rn
Greece, south of the Roman forum and on the south side of the Egnatia, there was a semi-circular porti
co/exedra, 45 m in diameter, encroaching on the pavement of the Egnatia (supra, p. 225, Plan 13). 1460 111
Stobi in Macedonia Secunda, the southern part of the central street (Via Principalis), the Via Sacra,
which extends from the Episcopal Basilica to the city's south gate, had curves and varied in width
throughout its length. The Via Sacra was completed in the late fourth to the early fifth century with
arcades and an exedra opposite the Episcopal Basilica (Plan XVII). A low parapet made of re-used
seats from the theatre created a line of demarcation between plaza and street. In front of the exedra a
plaza was formed, paved with flagstones. In the middle stood a plinth for an equestrian statue, probably
of the emperor Theodosius II. Behind the arcade of the exedra were ten shops. 1461 The exedra (sigma),
built in 506/7, behind the west colonnade of Palladius Street at Scythopolis with a semi-circular colonnadv

1453
A Valavanidou, EgyaCTTTJQLUXE£ XQ~CTEt£ aTov xwgo TT]£ Agzala£ Ayoga£ E>waa1,,ovlx11£, in Adam-Veleni,Agom.
119-130,esp. 129.
1454 Sodini, L'artisanat, 112; Alston, The City, 155-157.
1455
Hurst et al., Excavations at Carthage II, 1, 64-70.
1456 Popovic, Les activites, 292 ff., 299.
1457 Baity, Guide d'Apamee, 78 and figs. 81-82 (p. 80). PLAN 25. Restoration plan of the Byzantine Esplanade with the two seated statues at Caesarea Maritima.
1458 Mundell Mango, Porticoed Street, 37.
1459 J.E. Packer, Report from Rome: The Imperial Fora, a Retrospective,AJA 101 (1997), 328. On the sigma see W. Muller•
Wiener, Das "sigma" - eine spatantike Bauform, in Armagan-Festschrift E. Akurgal ( =Anadolu-Anatolia 21, 1978/80) (Ankara
1987), 121-129. 1-1<i2 R. Khouri,Jerash. A frontier city of the Roman East (London and New York 1986), 69-71. See also supra, p. 223.
1460 Provost and Boyd, Philippes, 478-480, and fig. 37. ,,, h JJGSyr XIII/I, no. 9122.
1461 Mikulcik, Stobi, 109, 151; Wiseman, Stobi, 54-55. 1•11>4 Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 32-33, 43-44.
270 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 271

re-used granite seat; the other statue, of white marble, was placed in the northwest corner and hail nvironment that dominates the description is in agreement with the traditional use of the term aule,
probably been cut in half for transportation. The missing parts were replaced by reused spolia witlu 111! t11dirnting the open space of urban and rural houses. 1475 In the enkomiastike ekphrasis of the aule,
any concern for aesthetic appearance. An inscription on the mosaic floor north of the court men I l•wwpius avoids the word stoa, perhaps because the term would have evoked the social context of an
the erection of the apse, the wall and the stairs from public funds by Flavius Strategius, pater aml 1ud1itectural feature no longer fashionable. He refers to the stoas of the aule only in the description of
proteuon of Caesarea, at the time of the governor Flavius Entolius. The inscription is dated to the architectural ornaments: the court was adorned with columns and marbles from which a brilliant
of the fifth to the early sixth century. 1465 light shone and with a number of bronze and marble statues so beautiful that they looked like
Porticoes with reflecting pools adorned Roman cities of the imperial period, which provided w1 nks of Pheidias, Lysippus or Praxiteles. On a purple column stood the statue of the empress Theodora,
pleasant ambience for a stroll. In the early Byzantine period more practical considerations came into 1ll•dication made by the city as expression of its gratitude to her. 1476 In other sources of the late early
play, and we notice a trend towards abolishing such porticoes and replacing them with urban struct111 llv1,antine period, porticoes continue to be mentioned, but no longer as places of civic social life. The
that served people's practical needs: the Roman pool, for example, on Silvanus street in Scythopoft,, ii ,vcrnor of Edessa Alexander constructed a covered walk (:rtEQL:rta-cov), beside the Gate of the Arches
was replaced by a huge hall (Plan V). 1466 Porticoes were also built on harbours as architectural ado, 11 1196/7). 1477 As in the ekphrasis of the Justinianic court by the Arcadianae, the termperipatos suggests
ments and places for travellers to rest. 1467 Ornamental pools also adorned harbours. During the n:i1•11 pnsonal enjoyment rather than social contacts. By the sixth century the emphasis on public civic life in
of Anastasius a series of shallow ornamental pools were built in the harbour at Caesarea Maritima, h111 porticoes was reduced, while their role as shelters from the rain is still mentioned in the texts. 1478 In
later in the sixth century were no longer maintained. 1468 In smaller cities, the design of plazas for coml\ 111 texts, street colonnades are included in narratives of public ceremonies and it is here that people
and shelter was simpler. The lower part of the inner wall of Stobi in Macedonia Secunda forms a bench-lil,,1. l½lood to greet parading state officials. 1479
projection (0.35-0.40 m wide, and 0.55 m high above the street level). 1469 In Tiberias, a series of scah
was incorporated in the wall by the city gate. The curved line of the wall with the seats formed a shadt•1 I
plaza, paved with a layer of plaster. 1470 The gradual dissolution of the porticoes and changes in the street network
In the texts of the sixth century, the image of the porticoes and their function are different frrnu
that presented in the fourth-century Antiochikos. Porticoes, no longer praised in literary sources 101 As mentioned in chapter 7, literary and legislative sources attest a trend towards encroachment by
serving civic needs and social life, are presented as responding to the personal needs of private mo private structures on the porticoes and streets from the fourth century: initially built of wood, they were
ments. In Procopius' description of the colonnaded court ( av1v~), built by Justinian near the Baths 111 n1nstructed inside the porticoes and in between the columns as temporary shops and workshops and as
Arcadianae by the Sea of Marmara outside Constantinople, 1471 convenience and the beautiful natural 1esidences of poor vendors and artisans. The colonnades were frequently encroached on by the wealthy
environment occupy a prime place. The court was always open to the inhabitants of the area for a walh , ,wncrs of the shops behind the colonnades. The municipal authorities and the res privata extracted
and to those who anchored while sailing in the Sea of Marmara (-w'i:i; µev EXELvu Ota-tQL~'Y]V EXovotv t', 1rnt from these temporary structures. With the passage of time they were replaced with other modest,
:rtEQL:rta:rovi; &et avEtµtv11v, ei; M 1:6 evoQµLoao0m -w'i:i; :rtEQt:rtMovm). 1472 It was full oflight in the morninl' 1wrmanent units built of stones, bricks and spolia and bounded with mud or mortar. The porticoes
and shaded in the afternoon. The surroundings were peaceful; the sea flowed quietly around the court lik1·
wadually closed up with private structures, shops, workshops and modest houses. The process was slow
a river, so that people sailing by could converse casually with those walking in the court, this being pos
nnd its pace varied from one city to another. In the sixth century the encroachment of private structures
sible because the sea was navigable very close to the court, and because of the profound tranquillity ol
1111 the porticoes of avenues and on streets began to accelerate.
the site (i:fji; OE ya1v~v11i; 't({) v:rtEQ~a1v1vov1:t). 1473 The entire environment of the court is very different fro111
Governors were often concerned with the deterioration of public porticoes and streets and took
the pulsating life and lively social activity of the street porticoes in Libanius' Antiochikos. Procopius
11wasures to restore their earlier appearance. At the end of the fifth century in Edessa governor Alexan-
strongly emphasizes the beauty of the surrounding nature to which the architectural value of the court
1ln cleared the streets of the city of accumulated dirt, and demolished the booths built by artisans in the
and its practical function were subordinate. Thus the court is described as adorned with the view ovc1
the sea ( xanwm~oµtvu µev i:fj ei; av1:11v o'ljJEt) and "breathed upon by the gentle breezes which come
p1 ,rticoes and streets. 1480 The new governor Demosthenes continued the work of his predecessor and
from it" (:rtEQL:rtvrnµtvu ot a:n:a1va'i:i; ouomi; i:a'i:i; &:rt' avi:fji; auQmi;). 1474 The presence of the natural 11rdered that the porticoes be painted white. 1481 Bishop Marcian of Gaza also demolished the structures
dosing up the porticoes of the city's streets. According to Choricius, the bishop's concerns were practi-
t'al rather than aesthetic: by freeing the space of the porticoes, the citizens could walk protected from
1465
S. Yeivin, Excavations at Caesarea Maritima,Archaeology 8 (1955), 122-129; M. Avi-Yonah, The Caesarea Porphyry
Statue, IEJ 20 (1970), 203-208; P. R. Diplock, The Date of Askalon's Sculptured Panels and An Identification of the Caesarca
Statues, PEQ 103 (1971 ), 13-16; Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, 16, 82-84.
1466 1475 M.-Ch. Hellmann, La maison grecque: Jes sources epigraphiques, Topoi 4 (1994), 135.
Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 123.
1467 1476 Procopius, De aedificiis I.11.6-7.
Libanius, Progymnasmata 8.6 (VIII, 484.8-9): <Ttoat b' i\cp' hmegai; JtAEvgai; to1:i; ngoowumv avanavot~QLOL.
1468 1477 Joshua the Stylite, c. 29 (p. 20).
A Raban, Combined Caesarea Excavations (B), ES/ 17 (1998), 63.
1469 1478 Choricius, Or. VIII.52 (pp. 127-128); Theophylactus Simocatta, Questioni naturali, ed. L. Massa Positano (Naples
J. Wiseman and D. Mano-Zissi, Excavations at Stobi, 1973-1974,JFA 1 (1974), 128.
1470 1%5), 34.18-20.
Y. Hirschfeld, Tiberias, Mt. Berenice-1992, ES/ 14 (1994), 36-37.
1471 1479 Corippus, Jn laudem Justini, IV. 205 ff. On processions in Constantinople through the capital's streets see A Berger,
Procopius, De aedificiis I.11.1-9.
1472 Imperial and Ecclesiastical Processions in Constantinople, Byzantine Constantinople, 73-87.
Ibid., I.11.2.
1473 1480 Joshua the Stylite, c. 29 (pp. 19-20) (a. 496-497).
Ibid., I.11.4.
1474 1481 Ibid., c. XXXII (p. 23) (a. 497-498). White, however, was considered an omen of future disaster.
Ibid., I.11.5.
272 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 273

the rain. 1482 In fact in many sites archaeological evidence shows that, when ecclesiastics sponsored p11hl llthcr level, and the shops were restored. After the next destruction, that by the Persians in 540, Jus-
works, aesthetic improvement of the urban public space was not a priority, except for the area am11 oian sponsored major restoration works. Procopius' account illustrates the devastation of the city:
churches. For example, in Diocaesarea (Sepphoris), the aim of the renovation of the portico ol lhf wrything was everywhere reduced to ashes and levelled to the ground, and since many mounds of ruins
cardo, near the intersection with the decumanus, by bishop Eutropius, attested in an inscription, 1111l ·re all that was left standing of the burned city, it became impossible for the people of Antioch to
seems to be to adorn the approach to the two churches of the site. It appears also that in many cai,t•ll r,,wgnize the site of each person's house, when first they carried out all the debris, and to clear out the
indifference on the part of ecclesiastics regarding secular urban space explains why public space watt ft•mains of a burned house; and since there were no longer public stoas or colonnaded courts in exis-
allowed to deteriorate when it did not serve ecclesiastical buildings. Justinianic legislation also rcv1·,1ht h·m·c anywhere, nor any market-place remaining, and since the side-streets no longer marked off the
that restoring porticoes to their earlier appearance provided an opportunity for state officers to cm uh thoroughfares of the city, they did not any longer dare to build any house". 1485 Archaeological excava-
U1111 confirms Procopius' description. The Roman street was buried under debris one meter below the
themselves: they overtaxed the cities to cover the expenses for civic works, which, among other thin/\'¾,
lrvd of the Justinianic restoration. 1486 The street was slightly narrower than the previous Roman one,
involved demolishing structures between portico columns. The bishop, the pater, and the distinguishnl
It It t t le over 6 m, and paved with basalt slabs. The sidewalks were very wide, but their paving was not very
leaders of the municipalities were to reject such demands, and they were to ensure that municipal l11h,
for dully executed. A new drainage system was laid underneath. The porticoes were double, one inside
including porticoes, be given to private owners only on the basis of an imperial rescript. 1484 It is imp11•,
sible to know how often the law was enforced.
Ow other. Their columns, which were the earlier Roman columns re-used of red and grey granite, were
nu ire than 6 m high. The sidewalk was 2.03 m plus the width of the stylobate 1.45 m, and the portico
Archaeological excavations illustrate the phenomenon mentioned in the literary sources. Tlw
fllosaic pavement 6.28 m. The street was 6.80 m wide. The total width of the street and porticoes was
space between the columns of the porticoes was gradually walled up (see supra, p. 190, Figures 26, .'h
]td2 m and 700 columns on each side, a total of 1,400 columns, flanked the entire street. The pavement
walls projecting from the back divided the porticoes into separate compartments, while other strw
ol the pre-Justinianic porticoes was decorated with beautiful mosaics as in other urban avenues. 1487
tures encroached on the streets. Some small side streets virtually disappeared thanks to the extensi< m•,
'IIH· Justinianic pavement was of grey stone in opus sectile, the type of pavement preferred in the sixth
of houses: this is presumably a consequence of the application of the rule quoted by Julian of Ascal1111,
4'1•111 ury. 1488 The walls of the stores behind the porticoes had remained intact despite earthquakes, although
that the owners of houses had the right to use the smaller streets in front of them. In a later phase, ag11
tlH'ir floors were raised. Malalas stated that in Antioch there were tetrapyla at all crossroads, but only
cultural installations were established on streets leading to ancient public sites that were gradually falling
111w has been recovered in excavations, which dates from the time of Justinian, and whose circular plaza
out of use, such as the agora and theatres. Larger avenues were narrowed by the construction of housi",
bud a diameter of ea. 17 m. 1489 After Justinian's reign, during the next stage of transformation, this large
and workshops. In Constantinople, stoas were built on avenues, thereby narrowing their width. The ohl
1111,·nue of Antioch lost its monumental character. Just above the pavement of the avenue of the Justinianic
order imposed by the principles of Greco-Roman urbanism was slowly collapsing. The urban network , 11
I n1ovation, shops and houses were built closing it entirely, while the two colonnades were transformed
colonnaded avenues and streets was gradually changing to a new type of irregular layout, where privalt
111111 streets. Although it is certain that Antioch's urban fabric was transformed after the Justinianic
interests prevailed and dictated the new urban forms. The gradual closing-up of porticoes flanki1w
1,·•,toration, there is no agreement on the time that had elapsed since the Justinianic pavement was laid.
avenues and agorai, and encroachment on streets is to be observed in all cities of the empire, but it is 111 ,1
S1 1111c scholars date the change in the years immediately after the reign of Justinian. Others place it to
always recorded in archaeological publications and for the majority of the sites it is only vaguely dated. 111
tlw Arab period, when the breakdown of the old order in the urban space was complete. 1490 However,
the past, classical archaeologists interested in monuments of classical antiquity often dismissed the pon1
!he transformation of Antioch's main avenue finds a precedent in Apamea, where a similar change was
early Byzantine structures encroaching on porticoes and streets as unworthy of attention. They removnl
lnl roduced at the initiative of the emperor.
Byzantine structures, in order to reach the classical strata and neglected to record any Byzantine finds i11
Earthquakes destroyed Apamea in 526-528. The city's main avenue, the cardo, built in the second
their notebooks and publications. In recent years, however, more attention has been paid to dating tlw
t'rntury AD., was 1,800 m long and 17 m wide, flanked with colonnades 17.5 m wide (Plan XX) and was
transformation of early Byzantine civic space. Encroachment on the sidewalks and streets is now dated lo
Interrupted by two high votive pillars. Before the Justinianic renovation, the walls of the colonnades
the fifth century and later, accelerating in the sixth and in the seventh centuries. Only at a few sites dm·i,
were painted and the sidewalks were paved with mosaics. The part of the mosaic pavement that has
archaeological evidence indicate that the process had started already in the late fourth century, which co
hn·n preserved depicts various scenes of the city's economic and social life, a group of camels and a
incides with the information offered by literary sources.
In spite of this general trend all over the empire, major avenues were still renovated in the provi11
cial capitals in the East in the sixth century, after they had suffered destruction from natural causes 01
1185
enemy invasions. In Antioch, excavations of the main colonnaded thoroughfare, the direction of which Procopius, De aedificiis II.10.19-20 (transl. Dewing).
1 181
" ' Antioch V, 7.
follows the modern street, show the degree of the catastrophe caused by the earthquakes of 526 and 528 87
H As, for example, the Arcadiane in Ephesus (Keil, Fuhrer, 71), Sardis (Hanfmann, Sardis, 163; Crawford, Byzantine
and the Justinianic restoration. After the earthquakes the street was cleared of the debris, repaved at a
. ',/tops, 5-6), Apamea (Duliere, Mosaiques, 30-42, 50-53 depicting animals, plants, a caravan of camels, human figures, a noria ),
!'trvlhopolis (see supra, p. 233, infra, p. 279 and figure 39). See also the description in Nonnus' Dionysiaca (supra, p. 53).
1 188
' On the Justinianic restoration of the avenues and porticoes of Antioch see Antioch V, 21-29, 94 ff., esp. 148-151;
1482
Choricius, Or. VIII.52 (pp. 127.23-128.2): rj TE YCJ.Q Jt0AL£ TOOOUTOV JtQOCTELAl](f)E µeyE00£ T<DV 01:0<DV, 00£ el;Eivrn httiodt I, 93-100.
Jt0Ll]TLX<D£ E'UQUUY'ULUV U'UT~V 6voµa~ELV-EVTEU0Ev EOTLV a~QOXOU£ TCJ.£ OTOCJ.£ ()LLEVUL /1.EAUµevwv oaa TOL£ JtUQLOUOLV EµnoOct)V l lH'I See supra p. 228 and Plan 15 (p. 229).
1190
eyey6va. Choricius repeats an earlier literary topos. · Antioch V, 44-49, 94-95, 146-150, figs. 64-77, pls. XXVII-XXVIII. Kennedy dates the transformation of Antioch's
1483 Weiss and Netzer, Sepphoris, 125 and fig. 6. ,1t1Tts to immediately after the reign of Justinian: The Last Century, 153; Foss, Syria, 194 and n. 18 and 19 dates the encroachment
1484 See supra, pp. 159, 195. l1t the Umayyad and Abbasid periods.
274 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 275

water wheel. 1491 An inscription dates this pavement to 459. At the time of Justinian a new paw111
with marble slabs was laid in the colonnades covering the earlier mosaic, and sidewalks were a1h
along the porticoes, thereby doubling their width. Consequently the cardo was narrowed from 20 11
12 m. Parts of the street were repaved with limestone blocks, and steps were laid across the street, m
ing it inaccessible to chariots. 1492 Chariots were thus diverted to the side streets, while, in the view 1,I
Ch. Balty, the cardo became a monumental alley for pedestrians and pack animals. 1493 Just befon· I
entrance to the agora that had fallen out of use after the destruction of the temple of Zeus, a tetrnslvh
or tetrakionion was built, probably after the earthquakes of 526 and 528, part of the same reconstnwlu
project. It had four bases ea. 4.50x4.50 m on which stood four monolithic columns 9.30-9.40 m hi1•.h 1
eluding a capital 1 m in height. Statues probably stood on the columns, but have left no traces. Si1ml
arrangements from the sixth century are known in Ephesus, on the Arcadiane, and in Ptolenliw,
Cyrenaica. The tetrakionion in Apamea marked a new orientation of the urban topography: a st rt't' 1
the east and an important, but still unidentified, building to the west. Another tetrakionion is found,
the decumanus running east-west in front of the cathedral, endowing the northwest entrance ol
cathedral court. This tetrakionion is also dated to the 30s of the sixth century. Both tetrakionia ma111'd
new foci in Apamea of the sixth-century. 1494 The intersection of the cardo with the decumanus
adorned with a monumental nymphaeum, and behind it was a public latrine. In 573 Apamea, falli111.•
the Persians, was plundered and destroyed by fire. This was a major blow to the city's ancient layrn1I,
which was then totally abandoned. The central administration lacked the resources and the interest 111
restoring Apamea's public avenues and colonnades. They were consequently occupied by private
ecclesiastical constructions. 1495 The colonnades and sidewalks were closed in with shops built betw1·1,11
the columns. Various modest structures dating to successive periods appeared on the splendid Jus11111
anic colonnaded alley. The encroachment on the colonnades and the street is contemporaneous wit Ii 1:10. 38a. Reconstructed section of Jerusalem cardo: western colonnade in the central part of the cardo.
profound ruralization of the site. Agricultural installations appear, as do rural houses, whilst andrnt
sarcophagi are used as troughs for watering animals - to mention a few features that marked the
disintegration. Coins date the change to 627-629. 1496 Numismatic evidence is not certain enough to all"w
one securely to date the encroachment to the Byzantine period before the Islamic occupation of tlw
city, since these coins may be later imitations from the Islamic period. 1497
Other restorations are known in cities that did not suffer from natural calamities in the sixth cm
tury. The cardo of Jerusalem was restored by Justinian and extended south to the Nea Church co11
structed by the emperor (Plan XIII). A section of it was 12 m wide with colonnades 5.25 m wide on each
side, a total of 22.50 m. This section with the colonnade has been restored by archaeologists (Figur
38a and 38b ). 1498 At Caesarea Maritima, a provincial capital, streets were also attractively repaired 111
the sixth and seventh century. At the same time lead pipes were replaced with terracotta ones, a sign ol
decline, since clay pipes were less durable. 1499 Some mosaics decorating public esplanades in Caesan·a

1491Duliere, Mosalques, 35-39.

1492 Apamee (1969), 41-43; pls. XII, 2, XIII, 1.
1493
For a discussion of the interpretation of the transformation of the central avenue see Foss, Syria, 209 n. 65.
1494
J.-Ch. Baity, Tetrakionia de l'epoque de Justinien sur la grande colonnade d'Apamee, Syria 77 (2000), 227-237.
1495
Apamee (1969), 41-43, 77.
1496
Napoleone-Lemaire and Baity, L'eglise a atrium, 136, nos. 4 and 24;Apamee (1969), 42;Apamee (1972), 18.
1497 Foss, Syria, 209 and n. 68.
1498
E. Niv Krendel, The Story of a Street: Restoration of the Cardo at Jerusalem, in Bulletin of the Anglo Israel Archaeo
logical Society. News and Meetings, 1984-85, 48-52.
1499
R. C. Wiemken and K. G. Hoium, The Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima: Eighth Season, 1979, RASOR 24,1
(1981), 27-52; J. Patrich et al., The warehouse complex and governor's palace (areas KK, CC, and NN, May 1993-Decemlwt
1995), in Caesarea Papers 2, 75. FIG. 38b. The colonnade of the cardo of Jerusalem in the southern part close to the Nea Church.
276 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 277

are dated after the middle of the sixth century ( ea. 550-650). 1500 Although there was a substantial dl1 nib; were built in a similar manner. In the same city, southeast of the Bath-Gymnasium and Syna-
to maintain and upgrade Caesarea's central street network in the sixth century, there are signs of dd tp,11t: and east of the Marble Road and the Byzantine Shops, there was a plaza with a monumental
rioration. In the sidewalks of decumanus S3, for example, significant encroachment from the buildiu mhlc portico to the south. The pavement of the plaza was made of irregular slabs and spolia. The neglect
on both sides was taking place. 1501 lhc area dates to the early Byzantine period when the pavement of the plaza and of the north colon-
It is indeed remarkable that Justinianic renovations maintained the most magnificent element;;, It· was looted. The pavement of the colonnades was not uniform. Both colonnades of the west portico
Hellenistic and Roman urbanism. They also reveal the financial restrictions in the sixth century and lh• 11 he southern colonnade of the east portico were paved with mosaics, while the north colonnade of
new trends in the articulation of the urban space that had been adopted by that time. The best exa111plf 1/ast portico was paved with irregular marble slabs (Plan 26). 1506 Deterioration is also evident in
is to be found in Justiniana Prima. There elements of Hellenistic and Roman urbanism have been 111 lh1d ,1hcr section of Sardis. South of the Synagogue an early Byzantine street (field MMS), built in the
in the city's planning- the acropolis, the central plaza, streets with porticoes, the cardo and decumaum1 1ly fifth century, was 10 m wide with 4 m wide sidewalks, with piers and columns lining the portico at
in the upper city, and the creation of insulae (Plan 1). 1502 There is no doubt that here the city layout w111 11·f•,ular intervals of ea. 2.5 m. Towards the end of the fifth century or in the mid-sixth century, the
designed with a view to producing a monumental appearance. Some elements, however, reveal the lw,h,t •ttcl'I was no longer maintained and layers of soil accumulated, after which domestic encroachment
of the sixth-century builders, which deviated from the aesthetic principles of earlier centuries: 1lwv h•ok place. Habitation continued in the early seventh century and the colonnades and buildings prob-
show the diminishing importance of the rigid rules of ancient urbanism that dictated symmetry a111l tthlv stood until the middle of the seventh century. From the late sixth century, however, the inhabitants
order in the arrangement of the parts of architectural units. Thus, for example, while the porticm·s 11f of this area were in the habit of dumping their debris there. 1507 A variety of architectural members in
the decumanus maintain an even width of ea. 3.25 m, the doors of the shops or houses behind the pi 11 · ,111 ly Byzantine constructions is to be observed everywhere, as, for example, in the Embolos of Eph-
ticoes do not always correspond to the open space between the columns of the porticoes. FurthernH 11 t·, l'MIS, 1" 08 or in the basilica of Silvanus in Scythopolis.
1509
Variety of columns, capitals and bases is also
the interval between the porticoes' pillars, in addition to varying from street to street, varies even in t hi, i11111c common in early Byzantine churches, since these features were removed from earlier monu-
same street. It could be that the colonnades, instead of being constructed on the basis of a unifyit1J! 1111·11ts. The trend accelerated in the later part of the early Byzantine period. For example, a variety of
design under the supervision of the state authorities, were constructed by the different architects of th,· 111d1itcctural parts is to be noticed in the later churches of Gerasa, while in the earlier ones, the Cathedral,
buildings behind the porticoes. If this was the case, then the municipal or state authorities had given up 1111d the Churches of the Prophets, of St. Theodore and of St. John, columns, capitals and bases are
control over one of the most important features of urban architecture. In front of Basilica B, the pillm ·•
of the portico were replaced with columns. It is clear that the architects thought that the colum11•,
adorned the entrance of the church more magnificently than the pillars. The width of the portico wa•,
also reduced to serve an entrance to the church. 1503 As in many other cities, the authorities' prioriti1·.,
were directed to the churches for which the best materials and elegance of design were provided, whih
less attention was paid to secular public space.
Irregularity in the articulation of architectural units is typical of many cities of this period. Restora
tion of urban streets and porticoes shows an established trend, in which variety is now preferred to lhr
discipline of earlier Greco-Roman architectural compositions. According to Procopius, in the frontk1
city of Zenobia Justinian restored the city's cardo, built porticoes, a tetrastylon, baths and a palaestrn
In spite of his efforts to give this city the traditional features of Greco-Roman urbanism, neglect of ancic111
aesthetic principles is evident. The architectural units were set irregularly into the plan and ample use b
made of spolia. Capitals of different orders are used in the same colonnade and columns of uneven
height are matched with bases of different size. These irregularities have been explained as the work ol
local workers. 1504 However, deviation from the rules of ancient urbanism is common in cities every
where in the empire. Excavated sections of Sardis' main avenue, the Marble Road, 12 m wide with sick
walks 2 m wide, reveal the variety of pedestals, bases, shafts and capitals used. 1505 Other streets ol

1500Spiro, Mosaics, 245-260.

1501 Y.Porath, The Evolution of the Urban Plan of Caesarea's Southwest Zone: New Evidence from the Current Excavations,
in Raban and Holum, Caesarea Maritima, 116-117.
PLAN 26. Reconstruction plan of the late Roman portico of sector MMS/N at Sardis.
1502 Vasic, Le plan, 307.
1503 Guyon and Cardi, L'eglise B, 65-70 (fig. 64.).
1504 J. Lauffray, Ifalabiyya-Zenobia place forte du limes oriental et la Haute-Mesopotamie au Vie siecle. Vol. 2. L 'architectur<'
11116 C. H. Greenewalt, Jr., and M. L. Rautman, The Sardis Campaigns of 1994 and 1995,AJA 102 (1998), 475-477.
publique, religieuse, privee etftmeraire (Paris 1991), 47. 1107 C. H. Greenewalt, Jr., N. D. Cahill and M. L. Rautman, The Sardis Campaign of 1984, BASOR, Suppl. 25 (1982-85),
1505 Hanfmann, Sardis, 163; Crawford, Byzantine Shops, 3-5; C. H. Greenewalt, Jr. et al., The Sardis Campaigns of 1981 and
1Wi8, 18-20.
1982, BASOR, Suppl. 23 (1981-83), 76; inverted capital at the base of a pillar: C. H. Greenewalt, Jr., Chr. Ratte and M. L. 15118
Foss, Ephesus, 69.
Rautman, The Sardis Campaigns of 1988 and 1989,MSOR 51 (1994), 4. 11119
Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 123.
278 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 279

uniform. 1510 In the same period, there is also a preference for piers over columns in the colonnades at 11s1Tiption on the sidewalk, commemorating the governor Palladius Porphyrius, and was paved with a
for arches instead of flat architraves. The Justinianic foundation of Justiniana Prima, and Stohi of11, (Figure 39). 1519 It was renovated again in the sixth century and its new pavement was constructed
good examples of this. 1511 marble slabs. 1520 Early in the century, the fa<_;ades of the shops behind the west portico of Palladius
Some sections of Scythopolis' streets exemplify the renovation work carried out on central avc1111t'ii 1eel were dressed with fine marble. The north end of this portico was also remodelled and ten shops

as well as the profound transformation that occurred in secondary streets (Plan V). Four major col1111, dismantled. In 506/7 an exedra was built behind this portico occupying part of the Roman Ode um in
naded avenues led to the centre of the early Byzantine city. On the east side of the excavated area Iw, 1 hack, which by that time had been abandoned. The exedra had three apses, a semi-circular portico and
of them, Valley Street and Silvanus Street, merge in front of the so-called Roman Central Monunw111, An inscription commemorates the erection of the exedra by Theosebius, governor of Palaestina
Silvanus Street was repaved and extended to the south in 515/6 with financial assistance from the rn1
peror Anastasius. 1512 This sixth-century central avenue, instead of being laid out at a straight line in acri
with Roman tradition, follows a gentle curve. 1513 The monumental portico of the Roman period,
a pool in front, on one side of Silvanus Street, was probably ornamental. At the same time with the n 111
struction of the street, a basilica, the Silvanus Hall, was built over the Roman portico and the pool. 'I 'lw
construction of Silvanus Hall is commemorated in two inscriptions from the fa<_;ade of the buildi111~. U
was built through a donation of the emperor Anastasi us at the request of the brothers Sallustius and Sil
vanus, the Scythopolitan scholastici, at the time of the governor Entrichius. 1514 The Silvanus Hall ww,
paved with reused marble of the earlier pavement and mosaics depicting plants and animals. Silva11m
was a Samaritan of consular rank with links to the imperial court. The architectural design and the n 11 ,1
were ambitious and elaborate, although the columns were built with drums of varying thickness, proh
ably from other buildings in a fashion, which has been described as "very negligent, a practical a11d
economical approach, of poor appearance, in sharp contrast to the 'striking plan of the basilica". 151 ''
Valley Street that led to the Central Monument from northeast was 11.5 m wide and with the sidr
walks ea. 24 m wide. In the sixth century, parts of the sidewalks were occupied with shops, while the earfo ·1
mosaic pavement was replaced with an oil-shale tile pavement. The new stores were not poor construction'.,
one had a mosaic floor with geometric designs. The five early Byzantine shops opposite the Nymphae11111
and next to the Antonius Monument were destroyed by fire in the early sixth century, probably durinv a
Samaritan revolt after 529. They were not restored, and the entire area was abandoned. The pavement t 11
the portico in front of the shops was removed. The gate to the acropolis was blocked and subsequently t h, ·
acropolis was accessed from another way to the north. 1516 The ancient city centre was abandoned. In front
of the Nymphaeum and the Antonius Monument private structures were built in the seventh century aml
in some places earlier. 1517 At the end of the sixth and in the early seventh century, the open area betwcrn
the Central Monument, the Antonius Monument to the north, and the Nymphaeum to the south ww,
covered with private structures. The area was transformed into a residential section, and the erection 1 ,I
buildings there narrowed the street, although encroachment onto the street had started earlier: tlw
building constructed on the street in front of the Antonius Monument is dated from numismatic evidem'I·
to the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century. 1518 West of the Roman temple, the long central
avenue, Palladius Street, leads to the Propylaeum at the foot of the hill. The west portico of Pallacliw,
Street, which has been excavated and restored, was built in the late fourth century according to a11

1510
Crowfoot, Christian Churches, 186, 196-197. FIG. 39. Mosaic inscription of Palladius on the pavement of the
1511
Caricin Grad II, 56-60, 107-110; D. Mano-Zissi, Stratigraphic Problems and the Urban Development of Stobi, i11 colonnade of Scythopolis' central avenue (Palladius Street). The
Stobi I, 224. inscription commemorates the restoration of the colonnade by
1512
Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 116, 117. governor Palladius. In the back early Byzantine shop.
1513
Ibid., 121; Tsafrir and Foerster, From Scythopolis, 107.
1514
Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 123-125.
1515 Ibid., 125.

1516 Agady et al., Byzantine Shops, 442-445.

1517 1519 Mazor, ES/7-8 (1988/89), 27-28.

Foerster and Tsafrir, ES! 6 (1987/88), 29; idem, ES! 11 (1992), 22; idem, From Scythopolis, 110.
1518 Foerster and Tsafrir, ES! 11 (1992), 18-19; idem, From Scythopolis, 110. 1520 Tsafrir and Foerster, ES! 9 (1989/1990), 120-121.
280 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 281

Secunda in 506/7. 1521 Later in the same century the earlier mosaic of the portico in front of the exedm FORUM
paved with marble slabs. Some of the shops of the exedra were places of entertainment. The walls of II NORTH END
!
fa<;ade were dressed with marble, and most of them had mosaic floors with poetic inscriptions and n·p1
I I
sentations of animals and plants and a personification of the city's Tyche (see supra, p. 138, Figure I I
I I
This commercial unit of the exedra gives the impression of belonging to a prosperous city in the early I I
I I
century. The picture, however, soon changes: the exedra was demolished at the end of the sixth cent lll v l<E-Y
I I
, I
' I
the beginning of the seventh. 1522 In another sector of Scythopolis, Flavius Orestes is commemornkd -e,AQ.LY fOll:VM
I I
I I
I I
two inscriptions for having paved a street by the amphitheatre. In one inscription there is also refcn·m·t 111111 ANTON I NE-
I :
to the construction of the new water supply system under the supervision of Silvinus, son of Mari11111½* I I

,Jr
I I
I
illustrius komes and protos ( a. 522). 1523 But in sections of another paved street of the city laid in the - DD
1
I I
[3
century, encroachment occurred and by the end of the sixth century it ceased to be used. 1524 In Diocacsa rcit,
Ar.lAL\ WALL~ I I

the mosaic pavement of the colonnade of an early Roman street, 5 m wide, was destroyed in the fifth rni, D""'""'
tury. In some parts small private structures, including a glass workshop, were installed on the sidcwalkl¾
and their thresholds were placed on the street's stylobate. 1525
Today, in some contemporary cities in the Middle East the process of transformation from pt II I1 /

co to shops is visible, and in fact, ancient portico columns survive in the fa<;ades of contemporary M1P+ I
lim shops. There the early Byzantine city plan with its street network has been preserved during Ihe i
Middle Ages up to the present. The streets of Laodicea in northern Syria were 3-5 m wide, the laq 1,1",I
I
being flanked by porticoes with columns of monolithic granite, 5.30 m high. The central avenue wast / MOD(:OIN
I L'(

2 km long. The ancient columns of the porticoes can be seen incorporated in the front walls of l'(II! I
temporary shops. 1526 In the old district of Jerusalem three columns from the Justinianic renovation ul I
I
the main avenue, the Byzantine cardo, can also be seen incorporated in the wall that closed up I II, I
colonnade and which today forms the fa<;ade of Muslim shops. A fourth column was uncovered a11d I
found standing in situ. 1527 The distance between the three northern columns of the colonnade varies, a, 1
arrangement that was not unusual in sixth century urban architecture. In Damascus, the central coh 111 PLAN
PRtllMINARY SKUCH
naded avenue running from one city gate to the other, known from The Acts of the Apostles (IX. I I) a•,
Straight Street, is 1,300 m long and adorned with monumental arches, an arrangement whose dimrn
sions give some idea of the city's importance. 1528 The width of the street was 13.68 m and that of ead1 PLAN 27. The north section of the forum at Gerasa.
portico 6.12 m., whilst the total width of the central avenue with the two colonnades was 25.92 m. 15 ,,''
The invasion by private structures onto the porticoes and avenues of Gerasa occurred earlier. Tlw
colonnaded cardo 1.200 m long ran in a straight line from the north gate, passing in front of the Tempk
r, 1111pletely occupied by dwellings. At the same time, walls were constructed extending 2 m onto the
of Artemis and the city's large ecclesiastical centre, to the oval plaza at the south end of the city in front
rnrdo (Plan 27), where coins were found dating from the fourth to the seventh century. 1530 When the
of the temple of Zeus of 80x90 m, which served as the city forum (Plan VI, and supra, p. 210, Figure 30)
l'111pylaea Church was built into the propylaea of the Temple of Artemis, it blocked one of the city's
The east colonnade of the cardo north of the forum was gradually enclosed by walls of prival;·
main avenues, and the west end of the bridge that connected the eastern with the western part of
dwellings. The first encroachment, consisting of a wall parallel to the columns, is dated by the excava
, i1·1w:m over the river Chrysorrhoas. The bridge had probably been destroyed before the construction
tors to the early Byzantine period. It was pierced with doorways opening onto the portico, indicatin1•
111 lhc church, perhaps by the earthquake in the year 551 or 554. 1531 At that time the priority for the
that the portico was still in use. During the next stage, the portico was divided with partition walls and
nty's authorities was the construction of the church, rather than the restoration of the bridge, thus leaving
Ilic city with only one bridge, and so very much reducing the communication between the eastern and
wi·stcrn part. Gerasa's south tetrapylon, actually a tetrakionion in the middle of a circular plaza at the
1521
Mazor and Bar-Nathan, ESI 17 (1998), 15,
1522 111lcrsection of the cardo with the south decumanus, is one of the few known monumental structures
Bar-Nathan and Mazor, ESI 11 (1992), 44-45,
1523 Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 105-106. h11ilt by the Romans at important intersections of main avenues. On all sides of the circular plaza stood
1524
M. Peleg, Bet She'An: A Paved Street and Adjacent Remains, 'Atiqot 25 (1994), 139-155, esp. 145. •,hnps. Toward the end of the early Byzantine period, the ornamental aspect and commercial function
1525
J. Strange, Sepphoris,AJA 98 (1994), 510.
1526 Sauvaget, Laodicee, 86, 99-102; idem,Alep, 104.
1527
S. Margalit, Jerusalem, The Butchers' Bazaar, ESI 12 (1993), 114.
1528 1510 C. S. Fischer, The 'Forum', in Kraeling, Gerasa, 157-158.
Julian, Ep. to Sarapion, 392c: i:ov i:fj£ hpa£ anaCT'Y]£ O(j)0aA.µ6v- i:~v LEQUV xat µEylai:11v ~aµaax6v.
1529 Sauvaget, Damas, 320-321, 326-330. 1111 Crowfoot, Christian Churches, 233.
282 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 283

of the plaza declined. A late repair to the pavement was executed in reused stones from other buildinp~.
By the sixth century the northeast quadrant was neglected and debris had accumulated. 1532 Donwsll,.'
encroachment by the south decumanus dates also to the early Byzantine period. 1533 The northern dis I I irl
of Gerasa, although it had been designed in monumental fashion by the Romans, never became important
in the urban fabric and was never completely occupied. The shops on the south side of the north decuma1111~
were closed as early as the fifth century, and all the entrances were walled up. The north colonnadt· 1,I
the north decumanus, between the north theatre and the north tetrapylon, fell out of use towards I
end of the sixth century when soil started to accumulate. In the sixth century the columns and sidewalk
paving of the decumanus were reused in other buildings, including the Church of Bishop Isaiah by th,·
North Theatre. The area thereafter dramatically deteriorated and fell out of use. Numismatic evidcm e
indicates that at the junction of the cardo with the north decumanus the BI building was transformnl
into stables in the last quarter of the sixth century. 1534
In Petra, capital of the province of Palaestina Tertia, by the limes arabicus, encroachment on the
un
sidewalk and on the colonnaded street dates to the fifth or sixth century (Plans 28a and 28b ). 1535 TIK
colonnaded street running between the Roman Bath and the north tower was partially destroyed by a11 ,,. , :;,~' ,

earthquake in 363. Byzantine structures appeared in front of the shops inside the portico, some of thl'm
encroaching onto the street. 1536 Early Byzantine encroachment on the street may be explained by tlw
damage caused by the earthquake of 363, which damaged or destroyed the dams designed to prokll ~·~
the city centre from flooding of the Siq torrent. Repairs in the late fourth and in the fifth century we 11 ·
of poor quality, causing partial flooding of the civic centre, which then deteriorated rapidly and fell 1 >Ill
PLAN 28a. Restoration of the colonnaded Roman street with shops at Petra.
of use. Thus in the Byzantine shops built on the sidewalk alluvial material was deposited. 1537 While t lw
community showed no interest in repairing, or was unable to restore, the anti-flood system, the city·~.
focus was directed to the area of the Christian churches. In the northern part of the city, between t lw
two churches, the Church with the Mosaic Floors and the Ridge Church, 1538 the district continued tn
develop and new construction is recorded.
In Carthage, in the middle of the sixth century, construction at the harbour front resulted in na1
rowing of the streets and closing up the porticoes of the buildings with manufacturing and commercial
use. 1539 The picture is similar in Asia Minor. In Ephesus the magnificent central colonnaded avenue.
the Embolos, was 11 m wide. At the upper end, near the civic centre, an early Byzantine arch, the Gali·
of Hercules, narrowed its width, so making it inaccessible to chariots, although pedestrians could still
walk through steps (see supra, p. 265, Figure 37). 1540 The space between the columns of the south sitk
of the upper part of the Embolos, immediately after the Gate of Hercules, was blocked with walls ( sec
supra, p. 190, Figure 26). The outer colonnade on the south side of Eutropius street, renovated by

1532C. H. Kraeling, The South Tetrapylon, in idem, Gerasa, 103-115.

1533
M. Gawlikowski, A Residential Area by the South Decumanus, in Zayadine, Jerash I, 107 ff.
1534 Ball et al., The North Decumanus, 351-357, 359 ff., 363-365, 393.

1535
·-
·~-
P. Parr, The Last Days of Petra, in M.A. Bakhit and M. Asfour (eds.),Proceedings of the Symposium onBilad al-Sham
during the Byzantine Period 2 (Amman 1986), 195-196. _; " 1-.
1536 D. Kirkbride, A short account of the excavations at Petra in 1955-56, ADAJ 4-5 (1960), 117-119, 121 and pl. VII. I.
< -~.:
-~-
·-:>;.
,·
showing the encroachment onto the street; C. Kanelopoulos, Petra. Roman Street Project,AJA 103 (1999), 508 and fig. 22.
1537 Z. T. Fiema, The 1997 Roman Street in Petra Project-A Preliminary Report,ADAJ XLII, 1998; idem, Roman Street
-~~
Project, Petra,AJA 102 (1998), 600; idem, Late-antique Petra, 198-199, 220, 235-236.
1538 P. M. Bikai, The Ridge Church at Petra,ADAJ 40, 1996, 481-486.

1539 Hurst and Gibson, Building Materials, 63.

1540 F. Miltner, Vorlaufiger Bericht iiber die Ausgrabungen in Ephesos,JOA/ 44 (1959), Beibl. 353 ff.; Bammer, Torbau, PLAN 28b. Early Byzantine structures encroaching on the colonnade of the
92-126. Roman street next to the ruined pier of the arch.
284 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 285

proconsul Eutropius in the late fifth century, was walled up and covered with marble. The function last years of the reign of Justinian. 1549 Encroachment by poor buildings on the large commercial av-
these structures is not known and the date of the colonnade's transformation is also undeterminnl, 1:1111e running north-south between the Pytheon and the Praetorium (the West Street) dates to the sixth
While the inner colonnade of the west section of the avenue maintained its earlier appearance, the mtlt•r n·ntury. In the last years of the reign of Justinian, the construction of the pillars on which the main ar-
was virtually abolished, although it was given an elegant fa~ade. It is clear that at the time of this trn11tt+ of the aqueduct runs, to provide the Praetorian baths with water, affected the commercial function
formation some control was exercised by some authority, the municipality or the governor. 1541 In th~ ol the shops. Consequently walls were built from the shops on the street. After the earthquake of the
Arcadiane, leading from the port to the theatre, in the area of the Tetrapylon with the statues of 1 618, their structure resembled corridors extending from the houses onto the street, while the shops
Evangelists, the encroaching walls that close the intercolumniations of the portico and spread out <lllh 1 Wl·rc converted into dwellings. The residents of these houses were farmers and pottery artisans. 1550
the street date to the early seventh century. 1542 In Sardis, two of the so-called Byzantine Shops on t ht' The encroachment on porticoes and streets certainly creates the impression of haphazard sponta-
north side of the Marble Road encroached on the colonnade in the fifth to sixth century: a 1111 11,11 nmus development. Monumental porticoes were increasingly taken over by shops and workshops,
Corinthian capital was placed outside a shop window, whilst an L-shaped structure was extended fr 111n large avenues were narrowed through the construction of new poor structures, and magnificently dec-
a tavern into the colonnade. Artisans' installations indicate the establishment of businesses in lh,, orated plazas became commercial alleys. Archaeological reports suggest that the chaotic situation in
colonnade. 1543 Elsewhere in the same city, encroachment by private structures on the portico of llw 111han public space was caused by population increase and weakened civic administration. 1551 In some
plaza at the east end of the Marble Road (sector MMSJN), southeast of the Roman Bath and Gymnasium, rnscs, parts of the streets incorporated into houses, became courtyards preserving the street pave-
dates to the late fourth century. These structures were removed when in the early fifth century the col, 111 mcnt.1552 In some cities smaller streets were almost completely covered with late structures and no
nade was constructed and paved. 1544 Further to the south (section MMS) in a domestic quarter, a colo11 longer functioned as streets. 1553 Encroachment onto streets was often facilitated by the abandonment
naded street also deteriorated in the middle of the sixth century. When the north wall collapsed into llw pagan buildings, after a new Christian focus had developed in the district. Streets leading to theatres
street, it was not restored. Crude structures appeared on the sidewalk and at the end of the sixth cent111 we re encroached on by private structures, since the use of the theatre was in decline. In Corinth, for ex-
or in the early seventh, the street was abandoned and the site was filled with dumped debris. 1545 mnple, encroachment by private dwellings on the street east of the theatre dates to the early Byzantine
In Philippi in Greece, buildings dating to various periods were erected on both sides of the Egna p\·riod, after the destruction of the area by Alaric in 395. 1554 Earlier the street served pedestrians going
tia, gradually closing it. On the south side of the Egnatia was built the propylaeum of the Octagon wil Ii 111 the theatre or to the Odeum. The junction of the street underwent a complete change. In the early
its porticoes encroaching on the street, and later other structures of the bishop's palace also etJ Byzantine period it was marked with grooves to provide a grip for animals now passing on the slippery
croached on part of the street. Encroachment also occurs on the north side of the Egnatia. These al 111ad surface. In many places inhabitants pillaged the Roman pavement of the street and used the slabs
terations narrowed the width of the Egnatia from 9 m to 6-5.50 m. 1546 East of the Octagon the nat1111' h1 repair houses and shops. Part of the propylon of the street leading from Lechaion Road to the theatre
of the encroachment on the colonnade of a street is now better understood and dated with greater p1 t was robbed of its building materials. The Theatre Street in Thasos was reduced by the encroachment of
cision. A street colonnade was lined with columns and piers, while shops and workshops opened at the 11rivate houses in the early Byzantine period. 1555 A wine press was installed in one of the most important
back. The intercolumniation was walled up, probably in the fifth century, and was used for shops and ·,I rcets of Delos by the theatre in the fifth to sixth century. 1556 In Palaestina Secunda, the street leading
workshops. A glass workshop, dating probably to the early fifth century, occupied the space of the p(lf h I the Odeum of Pella was abandoned, and the area was used for the construction of a new monumental
tico in front of it, where two ovens were installed to process glass. 1547 From southern Greece, Gorty11. entrance to the city's Cathedral, a large staircase and a colonnaded terrace. 1557
which is better documented, fits the same pattern. As in so many other cities, the public buildings, the Streets leading to abandoned temples were also encroached on by private structures. The Sacred
baths, the theatre and the odeum, abandoned and degraded by time and earthquakes, were not re 1{1 iad of the temple of Apollo at Delphi is an example. 1558 In Gerasa in the area between the atrium of
stored, while the Christian basilicas were maintained. 1548 Some streets continued to be maintained i11 the Church of St. Theodore and the temple of Artemis, a street fell out of use in the fifth century after
lhc construction of some houses (IV, V and VI). The old street no longer provided access to the aban-
doned pagan temple, being instead divided into courts, connected with houses on both sides (Plan 29:
1541
R. Heberdey, Vorlaufiger Bericht iiber die Grabungen in Ephesus 1905/06, JOA/ 10 (1907), Beibl. 69 ff. The norlli
colonnade of the street south of the Upper Agora was also walled up and structures encroached onto the street: M. F. Eich
ler, Die i.isterreichischen Ausgrabungen in Ephesos im Jahre 1964, Anz. 102 (1965), 97-98; idem, Die osterreichischcu
Ausgrabungen in Ephesos im Jahre 1965,Anz. 103 (1966), 8-11; on the west side of the agora the shops of the terrace of the t549 Idem, Gortina bizantina, Studi Tardoantichi 4 (1987), 341-351.
1550
te_~ple of Domitian encroached on the street in a slow and lengthy process: H. Vetters, Domitianterrasse und Domitiangassc Idem, Atti della Scuola 1986-1987,ASAtene 64-65 (1986-87), 475.
1551
JOA/ 50 (1972-5) Beibl. 311-330; the square on which the Embolos terminated was also encroached on by late structures: F See supra, pp. 186-187, 206.
1552
Miltner, Vorlaufiger Bericht iiber die Ausgrabungen in Ephesos,JOA/ 45 (1960), Beibl. 25 ff. As, for example, in Sagalassos: Waelkens et al., Sagalassos IV, 198 and figs. 153, 154.
1542 1553
P. Schneider, Bauphasen der Arkadiane, in Ephesos (1995), 475. Pergamon: W. Radt, Pergamon, 1986,AnatSt 37 (1987), 212; Thasos: J.-J. Maffre and A. Queyrel, Thasos, BCH 108
1543
Crawford, Byzantine Shops, 6-7. I 1984), 878.
1554
1544
C. H. Greenewalt Jr., C. Ratte and M. L. Rautman, The Sardis Campaigns of 1990 and 1991,AASOR 52 (1994), 3-7. C. K. Williams, II, Corinth, 1982: East of the Theater,Hesperia 52 (1983), 27; idem, Corinth, 1983: The Route to Sikyon,
1545
C. H. Greenewalt, Jr., N. D. Cahill and M. L. Rautman, The Sardis Campaign of 1984, BASOR Suppl. 25 (1982-85 ). lfrsperia 53 (1984), 89.
1555
20. The same process of encroachment on colonnades and streets is documented in other cities. See, for example, A. von F. Blonde et al., Thasos, Abords nord-est de l'agora, BCH 117 (1993), 668.
Gerkan, Kalabaktepe, Athenatempel und Umgebung, in Milet I/6, I/8, 108.
1556
Ph. Bruneau and Ph. Fraisse, Un pressoir avin a Delos, BCH 105 (1981), 127-153; idem, Pressoirs deliens, BCH 108
1546
S. Pelekanidis, 'Avaaxacpal <l>LAlrtnwv, PAE 1971, 83, 85; idem, 'Avaaxa<pTJ <l>LALJtJtWV, PAE 1978, 67. ( 1984), 713-730.
1547
G. Gounaris and G. Velenis, Ilavemai:17µLax~ avaaxa<p~ <l>LAlrtnwv 1988-1996,AEMT lOB (1996), 719-733. t 557 Walmsley, Pihl (Pella), 253.
1558
1548
Di Vita, Gortina V, LXX-LXXI. See supra, p. 197.
286 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 287

10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 39). When the Church of St. Theodore was constructed at the end of the fifth
111nry, the east part of this road was paved at the same time as the church atrium, obviously being
h·ndcd to serve the church. However, by the end of the sixth century or early in the seventh, the layout
Ihis district was deteriorating and this new modest street was closed by a wall at the northern end and
·nipicd by two rooms (A 6-7) and a cistern (cistern 2). The access to the pagan temple was thereby
1111plctely closed, while only a small road allowed access to the church. 1559 A similar example comes
11111 Ephesus. The Via Sacra, lined with the Stoa of Damianus, led to the temple of Artemis. The stoa

1;11llapsed because of earthquakes in the middle of the fourth century, and since the cult of Artemis had
banned, the stoa was not restored. There was formed a street consisting of mortar, covered with a
of sand, and leading to the settlement that had developed around the Church of St. John. 1560 In
the dromos of the temple at Karnak was covered by houses. 1561
In most of the best-excavated sites encroachment on streets and sidewalks is usually dated to the
h to seventh century. We know of only a few archaeological reports that date the phenomenon to
the sixth century. In Sardis, for example, the encroachment on the colonnade by the Bath-
«lvmnasium complex dates to the late fourth century. There the structures were cleared away when the
llhkwalks were repaved in the early fifth century. 1562 In Sebaste (Samaria), in Palaestina Prima, the
f11111nnaded street, 900 m long with columns of 4.5 m high, connecting the west gate with the agora and
t:ast gate, was encroached on by small shops dated by numismatic evidence to the fourth century. 1563
Soloi in Cyprus, private houses in the south portico of the central avenue date to the fourth centu-
i •,fi4 In Carthage, encroachment on many sidewalks and streets is dated in part to the end of the fourth
fflllury but mainly to the fifth. 1565 However, most avenues of Carthage were repaved in the sixth cen-
l!uy during the Byzantine occupation, during which time encroachment continued. The process of en-
n 1 ,achment was accelerated in the seventh century, by the end of which rough structures had been built
nvn streets in some areas, completely interrupting the circulation of traffic. It has been observed that
111 <'arthage the construction of some new churches longer than the size of the city's insulae set a prece-
d1•11t for encroachment on streets. In several other cities, churches disrupted the earlier orthogonal
planning. 1566 Often the available lots were not sufficient enough to accommodate the huge Christian
hasilicas, which were then built on parts of streets. We have already mentioned that in Gerasa the
l'111pylaea Church blocked the avenue and the western end of the bridge over the river Chrysor-
ihuas.1567 The Church was certainly making its control over city space clear, while at the same time
1h·taching itself from the tradition of ancient urbanism.
A different process is documented in Alexandria, where encroachment on the streets may be a re-
"Jl< mse to a radical reorganization of the interior of insulae. The district of Korn el-Dikka (Kum al-Dik),
litt·rally meaning "pottery hill", provides striking evidence of the gradual development of an insula in

iwi Fischer, Buildings, 289-292, 294.

60
" D. Knibbe and W. Pietsch, Via Sacra-Damianosstoa,JOA/ 63 (1994), Grabungen 1993, 17-20.
i:,,,i Alston, The City, 317.
1) 62 See supra, p. 284.
i11,3 Fulco and Zayadine, Coins, 199.
i,M J. des Gagniers, Les Fouilles de l'Universite Laval a Soloi, in V. Karageorghis (ed.),Archaeology in Cyprus, 1960-1985

i Nirnsia 1985), 259.

t5<i, Humphrey, Vandal and Byzantine Carthage, 108-109, 113-115.
" 66 For examples from Greek cities see Lavas, Poleis, passim; idem, OL "XQLO'tLavLxei;" Ehj~E<; Tr]<; E>waaA(ai;: am:Lxr'j

n1ry<ivwCT1'] xm itoAEOOoµLxci xagax-t1']QLO'tLXci, inAgµ6,;. TtµrJnu6,; r6µo,; cn:ov ua0rJyrJT,j N. K Movw6nov1o 2 (Thessalonica
i'l'll), 996.
1567 See supra, p. 281.
288 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 289

the early Byzantine period. The area, containing rich Roman villas, was destroyed at the end ol t ha11 upper class had detached itself from the cultural values of the past, urban public space was in-
third century, probably because of an invasion by Palmyra and the general economic crisis of thL· 1111 rad given over to private industrial and commercial activities.
After a period of abandonment, it was rebuilt in the fourth century. Large public buildings, a tlwal The narrowing of streets in some major cities with long traditions in urbanism, such as for exam-
(odeum), large public baths, cisterns, private houses and workshops formed the neighbourhood, Thessalonica, Laodicea in Syria Prima, and Antioch, did not change the network of streets, which
monumental colonnades lined the streets. In the rebuilding of the fourth century, however, many Ii l'!'t'ars to have been maintained in the Middle Ages and even longer in modern cities. 1571 The persist-
were left empty inside the insula. The earlier small secondary streets connecting the villas weH· 111
!11T of ancient urban planning alone does not necessarily imply the continuity of these urban centres
abolished. It would appear that the rebuilding was organized under the supervision of the state in arn 1
the Middle Ages. 1572 A characteristic of the early Byzantine period is the slow dissolution of the
with the conventions of Greco-Roman urbanism. By the beginning of the sixth century the buildings
orthogonal planning of Greco-Roman cities, and a preference for a loose and irregular layout and
been greatly altered. The theatre, originally accessed from the public baths, was covered thus losi1w
t·ncroachment of private structures that altered the streets' original straight line and narrowed their
previous character. Communication with the baths was interrupted and the theatre/odeum was now
h. This trend appeared gradually from the fourth to the fifth century. Deviation from the tradi-
cessed from the street. In the sixth century, the excavated site of Korn el-Dikka was rebuilt on a totally d,I,
lh mnl orthogonal planning is more intense in secondary and isolated streets, but it is also to be observed
ferent plan from that of the earlier period. In empty spaces inside the insula, dumps of earth with tit'½,
111 central avenues, where the earlier straight line was abandoned in favour of a curved one. This be-
carded materials, rubble and sherds were left to accumulate. Two different plans of urban layout wen· 1111
t'11111es a pattern everywhere in the cities of the Balkans, 1573 Asia Minor, the Middle East and Egypt, and
plemented in the insula. The buildings lining the streets followed the grid system, while the small im·gu
II 1s often considered to be a "triumphant return" to the local pre-Hellenic tradition. 1574
lar constructions in the interior of the insula were laid out according to the local Egyptian "solar" arra111\1"
'rhe irregular layout also marked new urban districts, usually peripheral ones. 1575 In the provinces
ment. The return to a local layout is also attested in other districts of Alexandria and dates to the sec11111I
half of the fifth century or to the sixth century. It appears first in peripheral areas of the city, gradually ul I he Middle East the formation of such districts is often attributed to the initiative of an ethnically di-
spreading into the interior urban space. 1568 The rules of Greco-Roman urbanism were, therefore, appa1 sc indigenous population. For example, in Jerusalem, the fifth-sixth century quarter south of the
ently replaced by local city planning habits in areas where the control of the state would have been lnnple Mount with large houses was designed without concern for orthogonal planning. 1576 Bostra ex-
rigid. The provincial administration and the urban upper class were losing interest in preserving the earl1c1 pm1dcd toward the northwest, where many churches were located, with the direction of the secondary
urban layout, thus allowing the local population to return to its traditional city planning. At the same Iirn,' t·ets suitably modified. 1577 East of Antioch, in Berroia in the province of Syria Prima, new Jewish and
as these alterations, encroachment on the streets was taking place. Parts of earlier houses were left rui11nl l\rah districts gradually developed in the fourth and fifth centuries on the periphery of the Greco-Roman
and were closed with partition walls, while the front parts of houses expanded onto the street. In the late 111v. Outside the walls, to the southwest, towards Antioch, a suburb was developed by Arab merchants
fifth century, workshops 2.30-2.50 m deep were constructed along the western side of street R4, subs1m1 nwl nomads from a trade station that accommodated caravans in the open space outside the city. In
tially reducing its width to about 6.50-6. 70 m. This process continued into the sixth century. The new strw Ik rroia, the layout of the new districts was irregular with winding streets of uneven width. 1578 A similar
tures occupied larger parts of the street, which was consequently reduced to less than half its origi11,d phrnomenon is to be observed in Gerasa, where the grid-plan was often abandoned in the expanding
width, to ea. 3.50 m wide. The workshops that were thereby created specialized in minor metal and glw,•, ,,ulmrbs. 1579 As has been noted, in Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria and in the city's peripheral urban districts
production and dyeing. The last stage of alterations in this district dates to the early seventh century. 1·,1,,, llll'rc was a return to the country's traditional urban layout. Residential districts that developed in the
The economic vitality of the neighbourhood appears to have been related to the baths, which were Ihe
centre of social activities and stimulated business in the district. After the Persian invasion the bat Ii•,
declined, the business activities of the shops and workshops consequently died out. 171
1. M. Vickers, Hellenistic Thessaloniki, JHS 92 (1972), 156-170; Spieser, Thessalonique, 81-82; Sauvaget, Laodicee, 92;
In addition, at Korn el-Dikka a proliferation of the commercial and industrial space in the domei, I >11wney,Antioch, plates 6-8; Kennedy, Antioch, 192-193. For the West see Fevrier, Permanence et heritages, 100 ff. For Italy
tic area is to be observed. While in the Roman period, the shops and workshops occupied only the fro111 Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 179 ff.
1572
row of rooms of houses, in the early Byzantine period they took over the front two rows of the room~, B. Ward-Perkins, Can the survival of an ancient town-plan be used as evidence of dark-age urban life?, in G. Cavalieri
Manasse and E. Raffia (eds.), Splendida civitas nostra. Studi archeologici in onore di Antonio Frova (Rome 1995), 223-229.
Archaeological evidence of expansion of shops and workshops in urban public space of cities all ow, 1173
Lavas, Poleis, 613, 619-620 and passim.
the empire creates the impression that in this period small-scale commercial activities and local indus 1174 For example, Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 140-141; P. Watson, The Byzantine Period, in B. MacDonald et al., The
trial production were more intense. Today there is no doubt that occupation of streets and porticm•t, l1dweology ofJordan (Sheffield 2001 ), 467: "A more organic approach to urban development, closer to the traditional orien-
with private structures was not caused by economic crisis. 1570 The phenomenon indicates that the new Ltl format, began to re-emerge".
priorities of the urban communities were in operation, as the old social order and civic cultural values 1575
P. Marchetti, Recherches sur les mythes et la topographie d'Argos. V. Quelques mises au point sur les rues d'Argos.
were lost. As the aesthetic value and civic function of public space were no longer appreciated, since tlw propos de deux ouvrages recents, BCH 124 (2000), 285-286.
1576 B. Mazar, The Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem: Second Preliminary Report, 1969-1970 Seasons (Jerusalem

l'J'/ I), 11-13; M. Ben-Dov, In the Shadow of the Temple: The Discovery of Jerusalem (New York 1985), 243-260; Tsafrir and
I ncrster, From Scythopolis, 107-108.
1568 1577 S. Moughdad, Bosra. Apen,;u sur !'urbanisation de la ville a l'epoque romaine, Fe/Rav 111-112 (1976), 79-80.
B. Tkaczow, The Historical Topography of Korn el-Dikka. Notes on Plans XII-XV, Alexandrie VII (Warsaw 2000),
131-143. 1578 Sauvaget,A/ep, 61-64, 66-67.
1569
Majcherek, Alexandrian Habitat, 144. 1579 Ball et al, The North Decumanus, 393. A similar situation is to be observed in North African cities: in Djemila, the districts
1570
Tsafrir and Foerster, From Scythopolis, 106-109; A Zeyadeh, Settlement Patterns, An Archaeological Perspective: 11111side the walls were developed with winding streets (P.-A. Fevrier, Notes sur le developpement urbain en Afrique du Nord.
Case Studies from Northern Palestine and Jordan, in King and Cameron, Land Use, 130. I .rs cxemples compares de Djemila et de Setif, CaMrch 14 (1964), 4, fig. 2).
290 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 291

courtyard of the temple of Chnum in Elephantine and of the temple in Jeme were organized alo1 of uneven width, often leading to dead ends, and resembling alleys between the houses. 1585 The
irregular narrow streets and alleys. 1580 The absence of the principles of Hellenistic and Roman urha111Nttl with the past were broken, even in the cities of Greece and Asia Minor that were invaded, but not
is particularly obvious in the cities of the Negev that were developed by an indigenous N abate an p1 ipUs manently occupied, by the enemies. It is obvious that the change in urban planning was inherent,
lation. They are all marked by a common characteristic, namely absence of city planning, and of aestht•llt by a slow cultural and social transformation. The Church, the major cultural factor in this period,
considerations for private dwellings and public buildings. In one of them, Mampsis, the residential tltl¾• played a decisive role in shaping urban planning. In cities in various provinces, new urban districts that
tricts did not expand outside the walls. The increased population was then accommodated in the fmll· tkvdoped around churches did not follow orthogonal city planning. In the major cities of the eastern
fied area thanks to constant subdivisions of private dwellings or by transforming the function of carht\f" p11winces only imperial initiative and the interest of the provincial governors in their provincial capitals
f1111ld maintain the ancient magnificent appearance of streets and porticoes for a while. Even there,
buildings, such as stables, into dwellings. Houses were also built on streets and plazas. 1581 The pn:k1°
ence for an irregular city planning by the local population is also obvious in some towns that in the l'.at 111 ,wever, encroachment onto the streets and porticoes started slowly in the fourth century and continued
Byzantine period developed from villages into agricultural and artisan centres. These lack the formal lttrclerating towards the end of the sixth century and in the seventh.
The dissolution of civic public space occurred in two phases. The first phase began in the fourth
architectural features, imposed everywhere by the Roman state: they had neither theatre nor agora
n·nt ury and was caused by administrative changes, the reduced economic resources of the municipali-
their layout was irregular. 1582 In the East, encroachment onto sidewalks and streets was precipitated m
the decline of the curial class, indifference on the part of urban leaders and by cultural changes
the Arab period, when Byzantine rule collapsed and the upper class forced to leave. A new type of
hrnught about by the empire's Christianization. This phase is marked by a profound change in the con-
appeared in the Islamic world with an irregular organization of the urban space, narrow, windi11~
1eption and function of civic public space, which lost its importance. The second phase coincides with
streets with oriental markets, often roofed, the so-called souq .1583 the period of invasions and dates to the post-Justinianic period, just before or during the invasions at
The dissolution of ancient public space is related to the abandonment of Roman construction m;1 the end of the sixth century for the Balkans, and in the seventh century for the Middle East and Asia
terials and technique, using ashlars and bricks, and the use of easily available materials, stones, rubhk Minor. The period of the invasions was one of profound crisis and exacerbated the existing situation.
and spolia, bonded with mortar or earth. The new early Byzantine structures inserted in earlier publu Ifo: invading enemies disrupted urban life. The upper class fled to more secure provinces, 1586 whilst the
buildings and on sidewalks and streets give the impression of poverty and disorder. There is no douhl p11pulation in the suburbs and the countryside sought protection inside the urban fortifications, thus
that the presence of easily accessible materials that did not need specialized stonework indicates a cris1" rovcring the available lots with their poor constructions. Many cities retreated to more secure and nat-
in production and in craftsmanship. The ample use of layers of brick and mortar also strengthc1w1 I 11rnlly defended places, where only practical considerations mattered in the organization of urban
buildings in order to endure earthquakes. In some cases they have also been interpreted as a return t, 1 ,,pace. The crisis reached first the northern Balkans, an area devastated by subsequent invasions and
earlier local techniques and to rural architecture. Such structures encroaching on streets and porticm .. , •;1•ttlements of barbaric groups. In Tropaeum Traiani in Moesia Secunda (Plan 30), 65 km southwest of
and intruding onto earlier public buildings or luxurious private houses and dating to a later stage, haw c·11stanza, built in the second century by Trajan, and entirely rebuilt by Constantine and Licinius, the
often been interpreted as a consequence of the invasions: they were built by the rural population oft hc rncroachment by private structures onto streets and porticoes is evident as early as the fifth century.
cities' territory that fled inside the urban fortifications for protection, or by the military, or they wcn 1 >nly the north portico of the west part of the central avenue was still used. On the avenue's south side,
constructed during the final stage of the life of the cities by the invaders. 1584 near the intersection with the cardo there was encroachment onto the street. Further to the west, about
The return of local populations to their traditional architecture and urban planning is to be ex KO m from the cardo, the north portico of the central avenue was gradually occupied with buildings,
plained by the diminishing power and intervention of the state in public building projects and by tlw rnming up to only 3.50 m from the avenue's middle. It is significant that the south portico of the central
cultural transformation of an upper class that was moving away from ancient traditions. In the period avenue was used and maintained until the Basilica Cistern (so-called because it was originally built on
of the invasions, in the late sixth century in the Balkans, and in the seventh century in the Middle East a Roman cistern). As in other similar cases, this indicates that the community was interested in main-
and in Asia Minor, Greco-Roman patterns of urban planning were totally abandoned everywhere. 111 taining the monumental appearance of the portico leading to the church and did not lack the resources
the middle Byzantine period cities are marked by a complete lack of planning: they had narrow, winding 10 perform repairs to this section. But behind the south portico of the central avenue in the same part
, ,f the city, anarchy held sway over the construction of buildings, and they gradually closed up some of
the perpendicular streets running north-south of the central avenue. In the sixth century, some of these
1580 Alston, The City, 116-119.
streets were no longer used, by which time the central avenue had lost its monumental appearance.
1581A. Negev, The Architecture of Mampsis. Final Report II: The Late Roman and Byzantine Periods (Jerusalem 1988), 4. <)riginally it was 13,50 m wide at the point of intersection with the cardo, and the sidewalks were 3,50
1582 Kennedy, From Palis, 13-15; idem, Syria, 165, 178, 180.
111 wide. The cardo was 12 m wide between the two Christian basilicas. The width of the portico of the
1583 The first example of a souq of the early Arab period to be accurately published is that of Apollonia: I. Roll and E. Ayalon,
rnrdo in front of the two basilicas was also reduced in the same period. 1587 In Sirmium poor structures
The Market Street at Apollonia-Arsuf, BASOR 267 (1987), 61-76. Other examples: K. Al-Ascad and F. M. St1:pniowski, Thr dating to the fifth and sixth century are found dispersed throughout the city, when the city was occupied
Umayyad Siiq in Palmyra, DaM 4 (1989), 205-223: shops in the middle of the street west of the tetrapyla were built at the end by the Gepids and Ostrogoths. 1588 In Stobi small poor structures appear in the rich houses, on the site
of the seventh century or in the beginning of the eighth. In the middle of the colonnaded avenue in Palmyra Muslim shops ol
the colonnades were maintained: M. Gawlikowski, Fouilles recentes a Palmyre, CRAI 1991, 399-410; D. Sack, Damaskus die
Stadt intra muros. Ein Beitrag zu den Arbeiten der "Internationalen Kommission zum Schutz der Abtstadt von Damaskus".
DaM 2 (1985), 207 ff. Orthogonal planning of early Islamic cities is attested only when they developed from Islamic military 1585 Ch. Mpouras, IIoAwboµLXet ·uuv µeoo~vt;,avtLvcbv xm votEQO~vt;,avnvcbv JtOAEWV, DCME 20 (1998), 90-91.
1586 See supra, p. 173 and n. 905.
camps: D. Whitcomb, The Misr of Ayla: Settlement at al-'Aqaba in the Early Islamic Period, in King and Cameron, Land Use.
155-170. 1587 A. Barnea et al., Tropaeum Traiani (Bucurest 1979), 241 ff.
1584 See infra, pp. 455-457. 1588 Popovic, Desintegration, 550-554; Bavant, La ville, 260-261.
292 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY STREETS AND PORTICOES 293

various buildings, the bishop's palace, the civil basilica and the theatre. They spread after the city's
1589
I niction by the Huns in the middle of the fifth century.
The alteration of ancient public space with the establishment of private structures on the side-
streets, and in vacant civic lots and buildings is a complex phenomenon that begun in the fourth
111 ury and was caused by a combination of factors. Changes in modes of transportation have been ad-
1wcd to explain the narrowing of streets. It has been suggested that the Roman roads fell into disuse
t·ady before the Islamic conquest, because chariots were replaced with camels for transportation. 1590
1r written sources, however, tell a different story. Municipalities encouraged the transfer of urban
npcrties to private persons, and emperors transferred such properties to corporations and decurions,
'.,n:ure their services for cities. Legislative texts also reveal that encroachment onto colonnades and
1n·ls was primarily dictated by private interest over that of the public. Any discussion of this issue
111ld take account of the fact that indifference on the part of the administration in maintaining public
tt'c coincides with the cultural shift caused by Christianity. The old system, with its values and archi-
dural aesthetics of the classically educated urban elites, was collapsing. Art is marked by vulgariza-
,l'he new urban leaders, bishops and protoi held different values. They also promoted new priorities.
have seen that churches were often built on parts of streets and that new districts that developed
i1111und churches did not preserve the orthogonal planning. Encroachment onto the streets by wealthy
Jl111prietors is a phenomenon well attested in the sources of the early Roman empire and documented in
u1d1acological excavations. But then the authorities impeded most of these attempts. 1591 Encroachment
01110 the streets and porticoes of the early Byzantine cities was widespread. It became permanent and al-
the cities' layout. At the end of the early Byzantine period and in the seventh century the earlier
11padous streets and colonnades had been narrowed and occupied by small houses that resembled crowded
rnH·ntal urban planning. The view that the occupation of the intercolumnar space of the porticoes and
,,11 n:ts was the result of overpopulation from the fourth century only partly explains urban change. While
!line is evidence suggesting that the encroachment of workshops into the colonnades was encouraged by
llw local urban authorities as early as the fourth century in order to increase the cities' revenues, the trend
was accelerated by the decline of municipal authorities in the following centuries, and the triumph of
111 ivate interest over the public. During the period of invasions that caused the influx of people from the
"
,,uhurbs and the countryside into the cities and deprived them of their elites, the urban layout was
\
\\
pnmanently altered. The change in the articulation of urban space was radical.
,'
I(

- -
0 $Orn
~
--=---1,
1589 I. Mikulcic, Some New Factors in the History of Stobi, in Stobi III, 219-221.
°Kennedy, From Po/is, 26; Th. Bauzou, Les voies de communication dans le Hauran al'epoque romaine, in Hauran I,
159

II Recherches archeologiques sur la Syrie du Sud al'epoque hellenistique et romaine (Paris 1985, 1986), 137-159, esp. 155-158; R.
PLAN 30. Plan ofTropaeum Traiani.
W. Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel (Cambridge, Mass. 1975); R. Bagnall, The Camel, the Wagon, and the Donkey in Later
!<, unan Egypt, BASP 22 (1985), 1-6; D. H. French, A Road Problem: Roman or Byzantine?, IstMitt 43 (1993), 445-454 who
, nm:ludes that the archaeological evidence supports the theory that transportation by means of pack-animals was introduced,
and that this change occurred from 500-625, although this may have occurred earlier in Syria, Cilicia and Pamphylia. By contrast,
ll. F. Graf, Camels, Roads and Wheels in Late Antiquity, in E. D~browa (ed.), Donum amicitiae. Studies in ancient history
1•uhlished on the occasion of the 75'" anniversary of the foundation of the Department ofAncient History of the Jagiellonian University
mectrum 1 (Cracow 1997), 43-49 demonstrates that the Roman roads for wheeled traffic were still functioning until the
11·ign of Justinian.
1591 Y. Thebert, Private Life and Domestic Architecture in Roman Africa, in Ph. Aries and G. Duby,A History of Private

U/i•, I. From Pagan Rome to Byzantium, P. Veyne (ed.), transl. A Goldhammer (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London
1'187), 344-347.
294 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTERlO

THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS

Hippodromes and amphitheatres

Chariot races became very popular in the early Byzantine period, a fact that may be connected to
the decline in other forms of entertainment, such as athletic competitions in the gymnasium, gladiato-
1tal games and pagan festivals.
1592 The attraction of horse races is stressed in the writings of the Church
I·at hers. Some even dreamed of races and some had no other interest in life but attending public spec-
larlcs.1593 John Chrysostom complained that Christians knew all the features of racehorses, while they
n mid recall neither the number nor the cities to which the Epistles of St. Paul were addressed. 1594 John
<'hrysostom reproached his flock for preferring horse races to attending the liturgy: "again horse races,
again our group became smaller". Some of those who went to the church "were there only physically,
•,im;e their minds were wandering outside", and he threatened those attending spectacles in the circus-
with eternal punishment after death. 1595 Attendance of spectacles in the hippodrome and theatres
was associated by the Fathers with a life of worldly pleasures, inappropriate for Christians. 1596 Such
',pcctacles were wrong and demonic (a:tonov xal, omµ6vLov ). Horse races in particular inspired excitement
111 young men, Caught up in opposite factions, they attended shows in a state of madness, expressing
their excitement in various physical ways, and they swapped support with each other over horses, jockeys,
h'ams and leaders. Even poor youths who lacked the means to earn their daily bread spent money on
t lwse spectacles, 1597 to which spectators from all social classes were attracted. According to Ammianus
Marcellinus, for the poor "their temple, their dwelling, their assembly, and the height of all their hopes
1s the Circus Maximus" .1598 The main subject of their discussion was charioteers. Their anxiety was causing
FIG. 40. Early Byzantine chapel built in the amphitheatre of Dyrrachium.
I hem sleepless nights. 1599 Roman senators too were very much involved in the horse races and anxious
about their outcome. 1600 Even later in the sixth century this situation had not changed much. It is reported
that Menander Protector abandoned his legal studies for chariot races and pantomime. 1601

1592
Cameron, Circus Factions, 217.
1593 SL Basil, PG 29, 80A
1594
John Chrysostom, PG 51, 188.
1595
idem,PG 48, 755, 1043-1054; PG 51, 263-270.
1596
See, for example, Gregory the Theologian, PG 36, 16A
1597
Ibid., PG 36, 516A
1598
Ammianus Marcellinus XXVIII.4.29, transl. J.C. Rolfe (ed. Loeb).
1599 Ibid., XXVIII.4.30-31.
1600 Ibid., XXVIIL4.11.
1601 Menander Protector, 40.12-14 (Souda M 591).
296 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 297

In the early sixth century, Severns of Antioch repeats arguments and expresses concerns simila1 I 1:nty of evidence that circus factions had also spread to the theatre. 1611 Literary sources and inscrip-
those of the fourth-century Fathers. The inhabitants of Antioch were renowned for their love of s from theatres attesting to the existence of factions in many cities in the East are dated to the fifth
tacles and luxurious life, 1602 and the Church felt threatened by the popularity of public spectarhili!, sixth centuries. 1612 It has been suggested that, when factions from the hippodrome united with
Severns condemns the members of his flock who attended horse races and theatrical shows after attcrn hn1 fndions from the theatre, riots spread from theatres to hippodromes, and that this was caused by the
1613
liturgy in the church. 1603 He is concerned that, while the crowds attending spectacles in the thcal1tt, lnkrfcrence of the state in the fifth century in an attempt to control the spectacles. However, many
horse races and wild animal combats increase, the number of those going to church declines. 011n*, 11:1tt·ctacles had mixed programs and had long been dissociated from specific buildings, while individual
when he commemorated the poor and foreigners buried in the Pandektes, he had to cancel his sern1111h h11Hdings were used for different spectacles. For example, athletic performances that in the Greek
because his flock had gone to enjoy the public spectacles. Severns complained that although he ofh·n w11rld were traditionally held in stadia also took place in Roman hippodromes. In the Roman imperial
spoke about the danger into which these spectacles could lead souls, and based his arguments on Bihlirnl iod and in the early Byzantine centuries some spectacle buildings were transformed to cater for other
passages, he did not succeed in persuading his flock. He explains that these spectacles plunge the s1 iifll'l'.lacles that were becoming popular. Stadia, after they were no longer used for athletic contests,
into passions. He threatens his flock with divine punishment and reminds them of the calamities, whid1 w1·rc converted into arenas at one end. 1614 Several stadia-hippodromes were converted into amphithe-
had fallen upon Antioch the previous winter: drought, earthquakes and civil disorder were the acts 1 ,t utws, as, for example, those in Gerasa, Caesarea Maritima, Neapolis and Scythopolis (Figure 41). The
the demons' fury. 1604 One of Severns' arguments against horse races is that the spectators uttered detm 11111
words during the spectacles. Severns' words incidentally show that as late as the early sixth cenlm
horse racing was still tied up with the ancient culture of the city. He affirms that even the acclamatit 111
"Fortune of the city, give victory" irritates God and explains the incompatibility of the Fortune oft lw
city with Christian religion. The belief in the city's Fortune excludes Divine Providence and encouragr"
idolatry. 1605 Severns describes at great length the spectators' misbehaviour: they shout loudly, throw
dust toward the sky or, depending on the occasion, throw stones, a wave of folly flows from their moul h.
and they imagine that they are running with the horses, controlling their reins and striking them. Tlwv
shout and rejoice when their adversary's horses are defeated. 1606 Although no worship of pagan gmh
occurred during horse races, as Severns makes clear, and what was taking place was nothing more tha11
entertainment, this sort of treatment of horses is against the divine order. Horses should be used onh
for travelling, communicating with the frontiers, and for military purposes. 1607 However, following a
tradition established in earlier Christian literature, Severns used sports terminology to define Chrislia11
values. He urges his flock to love spiritual combats in his arena and avoid those at Daphne. St. Athana
sius was an athlete of the faith: his agon was religious, it was not a pentathlon, but a combat offeri111•
many thousands of victories. The Olympic games, which aimed at corporeal victories, were much inferiot
to the spiritual combats of St. Athanasius. 1608
The popularity of the spectacles in the hippodrome can be seen in the supporters' efforts to influ
ence the outcome of the races through magical practices1609 and in the riots caused by rivalry betwCl'll
the factions. Civil strife associated with public spectacles is attested from the early years of the Roman
empire onward and it also often broke out at theatrical performances. From the reign of Anastasius.
however, the competitive spirit of the circus factions and associated social and political factors led to a11
escalation of violence in the larger cities of the empire and especially in Constantinople. 1610 There is FIG. 41. The stadium of Messene in Greece converted into an amphitheatre with the construction of a wall.

1602
Zosimus III.11.4. See also Vita S. Theclae, c. 15 (p. 228.25-28). associations. Cekalova concludes that the organization of the demes takes on a military character in the sixth century and that
1603 1hey were sensitive to religious issues that divided the people. She discerns a variety of motivations on the part of the people
Severns, Hom. 103, PO 22 (1930), 301.
1604
Severus,Hom. 76, PO 12 (1919), 135-146; Hom. 91, PO 25 (1935), 25-27. in the Nika revolt that ultimately caused the movement's decline. For the political role of the factions see also Roueche,
1605
Hom. 26, PO 36/4 (1974), 545-547 (a. 513). Performers, 152-156; Liebeschuetz, Administration, 179-182; idem, Decline, 208-218.
1606 Ibid., 547. 1611 Cameron, Circus Factions, 192 ff., esp. 221 ff.

1607 Ibid., 549. 1612 Ibid., 314-317; Borkowski, Inscriptions, 75-90. See also Procopius, Historia arcana VII.13.

1608 1613 Cameron, Circus Factions, 223-229. For a different view see Roueche, Performers, 46, 58 who stresses that associations
Hom. 94, PO 25 (1935), 73-74; Hom. 91, PO 25 (1935), 25-27; Hom. 26, PO 36/4 (1974), 553 ff.
1609
Cameron, Circus Factions, 345; idem, Porphyrius, 173 n. 3,245; W. Van Rengen, Deux defixions contre les Bleus i1 of entertainers and athletes were gradually merging because the programs were mixed. This may have been the result of
Apamee (VIe siecle apr. J.-C.), inApamee (1980), 213-238. circumstances, namely employment difficulties for actors and athletes because of the decline of spectacles (pp. 57-60).
1610 1614 Erim,Aphrodisias, 67-70; Keil, Fuhrer, 61-63; F. Miltner, Ephesos. Stadt der Artemis und des Johannes (Vienna 1958),
See Cameron, Porphyrius, 232-239; idem, Circus Factions, 271 ff.; A A Cekalova, Konstantinopol' v VI veke. Vosstanic
Nika (Moscow 1986), against Cameron's opinion that the factions of the Blues and the Greens were acting merely as sporting .U-34.
298 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 299

term amphitheatre had often been used for the hippodrome since the early Roman empire, suggcstrnt Uwatres and hippodromes partly overlapped, since pantomime was included in the circus programs
1625
the overlapping of some of the spectacles performed there. 1615 Also in the early Byzantine sources top,d her with chariot races, which may explain the ban on theatrical shows in 502 and 524/5 .
1626
term theatron is used for all spectacle buildings. Gradually hippodrome spectacles were incorporated into imperial ceremonies. According to
By the sixth century the spectacles in the hippodrome included a variety of performances. A Anonymous' Strategikon, spectacles in the hippodrome with charioteers, musicians and mimes were
century papyrus, P.Oxy. 2707, unique of its kind, contains the program in the hippodrome, namdv: formed on the occasion of official celebrations, such as the emperor's birthday or his accession, the
1. chariot race, procession, singing ropedancers; 2. chariot race, singing ropedancers; 3. chariot ran\ dedication festivals of cities and especially triumphs. The latter included the display of prisoners of
gazelle and hounds; 4. chariot race, mimes; 5. chariot race, troupe of athletes; 6. chariot race. ivar. 1'' 27 Corippus also testifies to the transformation of circus races for imperial ceremonies: "But
document, which starts with an acclamation to good fortune and victories (&yaO'fj 'tUXtJ, v1xm), the maker of the sun decided to let himself be seen beneath the sun, and when God took the
perhaps a public notice, which had to be approved by a second person, probably a municipal offic1'I i.hape of human kind from a virgin, then the games of the sun were abolished, and honours and games
The Nixm may refer to statues of Victories dedicated to the emperors. The introduction of mim,1 were offered to the Roman emperors, and the pleasant amusements of the circus to New Rome". 1628
performances between the horse races functioned as a device to calm the spectators down. 1616 Athk11,1 ·urns spectacles were also organized on the occasion of the emperor's accession, 1629 or of festivals
contests were also included in the programs. 1617 11i,i,odated with secular holidays, such as that of the Ides on the occasion of promotions to the office of
The number of horse races per day was considerable. In some cases there could be as many as 1111mikerios. 1630 After the suppression of the Nika riot in January 532, hippodrome spectacles were not
or 25 races per day and even up to 50. In the Nika Riot, the factions kept up their demand until Ih1, hdd for a long time, to be reintroduced in 537. The inclusion of hippodrome shows in imperial cere-
twenty-second race that the emperor show mercy to two fugitive members of the factions. 1618 Leoni itP, 11u 111ies explains why in 691 the Council in Troullo forbade various spectacles, mimes, wild animal combats,

epigram on an inn that was conveniently situated between the Baths of Zeuxippus and the Hippodn m111 nml pantomimes, except for those held in the hippodrome. 1631
refers to races in the morning and in the afternoon with a break at noon. 1619 Circus performances had Consequently, the factions gradually assumed a major role in state and civic ceremonies, especially
become mere entertainment with very few exceptions and were no longer connected with pagan fl·~.11 111 Ihe acclamation of emperors and in greeting arriving officials, as is indicated by inscriptions in public
vals. On the other hand, there was a political aspect to spectacles in the hippodromes. From the Ronm11 places of cities of the East. This role may be understood as a continuation of the role of the synods of
period they were associated with the emperors who used them as a means of propaganda to incrl'W,!' !111· ephebate (neoi) on similar occasions in earlier Roman cities. 1632 The ceremonial role of the factions
their popularity. 1620 The tradition remained strong in the early Byzantine period. Thus a constitution 111 111 ( 'onstantinople was increased and institutionalized in the last decades of the sixth century and during

the year 409 forbade provincial governors from boosting their popularity by inviting charioteers ;11111 lhe reign of Heraclius. 1633 This transformation of the factions from sports associations to ceremonial
horses from other cities and provinces. 1621 The Persian king, in imitation of the Byzantine empc n 11. 011ps brought about the much-desired end of violence.1 634
endorsed horse races. After the looting of Apamea in 540, Chosroes organized races in the city 111 There is no doubt, however, that the gradual decline of chariot racing in the provincial cities in the
'd\l h century was a more complex process. Next to imperial policies, financial reasons played a major
entertain the people favouring the Greens, in opposition to Justinian who favoured the Blues. He ab11
111k. The organization and financing of horse races and wild animal fights were extremely expensive. In
imitated Roman and Byzantine emperors in building a new city in the area of Ctesiphon, named Anti< n h
of Chosroes, and providing it with baths and a hippodrome. There he settled captives from Antioch am I ntics in the provinces, the financial burden of the games had been a curial responsibility, while in the
brought charioteers and musicians. 1622 1,1pital circus performances were organized and funded by the consuls. Novel 105 gives the program of
It has been suggested that the unprecedented honours which the great charioteers, such as Porphyriu·.. 1111· consular festival, which lasted seven days. Horse races were placed at the opening and at the close,
received for their victories were part of an imperial policy designed to strengthen the shows at t lw 1liffcrent forms of animal hunts, and various performances of actresses and actors inciting laughter and
hippodrome and that it was Anastasius' aim to divert the rivalry of the factions from the theatre to hot 1wrforming various spectacles. These were magnificent games and a display of extravagance. A huge
races. 1623 Cont emporary sources, however, ms1st
. . t h at 1t
. wasth e sh ows m. t h e amp h'1theatres and circus1·•,
1624
that caused division in the cities, resulting in riots and fights. On the other hand, performances in the
1''·25 Malalas, 343-344; Joshua the Stylite, c. 46 (p. 35).
1" 26 Cameron, Porphyrius, 244 ff., esp. 251-252; idem, Circus Factions, 230-270; McCormick, Eternal Victory, 35-79; Mango,
I ,t vita, 265-269; R. Lim, Consensus and Dissensus on Public Spectacles in Early Byzantium, ByzF 24 (1997), 159-179 on the
1615J. H. Humphrey, "Amphitheatrical" Hippo-Stadia, in Raban and Hoium, Caesarea Maritima, 121-129; Y. Porath 11111wrialization of ancient festivals.
Herod's "amphitheatre" at Caesarea: a multi-purpose entertainment building, in Humphrey, Near East l, 15-27. 1" 27 Anonymous' Strategikon, c. 3.101-107 (p. 18): 'Pwµa.1:m bi:: xal n ETEQOV i:ovTmc; JtQOCTTL0fom noAndac; µ!\Qoc;, o o~

1616 Choricius, Or. VIII.114-118 (pp. 370-371). i h '1.1()1.XOV xai 0uµEALXOV ovoµatETm. "EaTL bi:: otov a(Jµa.T1']AUTm, µ01JCT01J(Jyol, UJtOXQLTO.L xai TO. oµma. XQWVTm bi:: TO'UTOLc;
1617 Procopius, De Bello Persico 1.24.42: Tov TE tnmxov xai yuµvLxov 0Ei'ia0m referring to the Nika revolt. ' ll I fl' yiwE0Alwv xai UVO.QQT]CTEWV 0aaLAEWV xat eyxmvlwv JtOAEWV' µaAWTa OE EJtL 0QLaµ0wv, ouc; 0~ JtOLOUCTL µno. T~V vlx11v'

1618 Malalas, 395. ,1nA.q1.louc; ◊LO. µfoou TWV 0EUTQWV OLa0L0atovTEc;. To bi:: Jta.Amov 01) µ6vov 'Pwµa.1:m, UAAO. xat "EAA1']VEc; xai JtOAAO. TWV
1619 Anthologia Graeca IX.650. i I lvurv wvTmc; EXQWVTO.
°
162 Cameron, Circus Factions, 157 ff.; C. Heucke, Circus und Hippodrom als politischer Raum. Untersuchungen zum grussm 1" 28 Corippus, Jn laudem Iustini, I.340-344 (transl. Cameron, p. 94).
Hippodrom van Konstantinopel und zu entsprechenden Anlagen in spiitantiken Kaiserresidenzen (Hildesheim 1994). 1'• 29 For Justin II see ibid., I.314 ff.
1621 CTh XV.5.3. i,,Hi Malalas, 395 (a. 531/2).
1622 Procopius, De Bello Persico II.11.31-35; II.14.1-2; John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica VI.6 (p. 386). i rd t Mango, La vita, 255-256.
1623 Cameron, Circus Factions, 226-227, 275. 1rd2 Roueche,Pe,formers, 143-147.

1624 Choricius, Or. VIII.114 (p. 370); the evidence of this and other sources is rejected by Cameron, Circus Factions, 16111 1" 13 Cameron, Circus Factions, 249-270; Liebeschuetz, Decline, 211-213.

7, and 228-229. 1t,i 4 Cameron, Circus Factions, 299.

300 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 301

amount of money, 288,000 solidi, was distributed to the people or spent on the organization of ( 'hristianized with Christian inscriptions and invocations. 1647 Christian tradition incorporated legends
games by Justinian on his consulship. In the amphitheatre of Constantinople 20 lions, 30 panthers n· la ting to the sites of the hippodromes. It was believed that at the time of Augustus, the king of Edessa
other wild beasts were exhibited. Justinian also donated chariots and provided horses for the hippo, asked the Roman emperor to build . a h'1ppod rome m . Edessa to entertam . h"1s peop1e. 1648 C on-
drome. 1635 These festivals came to an end after 541, when the consulate ended. Hereafter only i.lrnclion of Christian chapels in hippodromes dedicated to martyrs who suffered martyrdom on the site
emperor financed the chariot races in Constantinople. marks the profound Christianization of hippodromes, stadia and amphitheatres. Such chapels substi-
From the fourth century, governors transferred municipal funds for spectacles to the provinnnl lukd Roman shrines in hippodromes. 1649 In the stadium of Thessalonica, north of the agora, was built
budget in order to finance spectacles in the provincial capitals, or to use the funds for construrl dturch to St. Nestor who suffered martyrdom there. In the amphitheatre at Salona two oratories were
work. 1636 In the early sixth century, governors were still praised for their subventions for horse races aml 111 ranged in two earlier rooms in the south part of the building probably in the past used for the cult of
festivals, 1637 since circus entertainments were very expensive, and in the provincial cities were supporle1I N1·111csis. They date to the reign of Justinian. A group of six saints is depicted on the wall paintings of the
mainly through public funds. 1638 In the sixth century, provincial governors and the central governmrnl I ·ast Oratory among whom is identified St. Asterius, who suffered martyrdom in 304 in the amphitheatre
appear to share the burden of financing circus performances with contributions from the municipalil i1·~1 h other martyrs. The representation of the local saints of Salona resembles that in the Lateran oratory
and sometimes of private persons that might have been liturgies. According to Justinian's edict XI 11. I ol St. Venantius in Rome. There the relics of the saints of Salona were deposited by the Dalmatian pope
the augustalis had to pay 320 solidi for the purchase of horses for the circus. In sixth-century Caesa1n1 J, ihn IV (640/1 ), who ordered their translation to Rome after the fall of Salona. In the western hippodrome
Maritima, 5,629 1/4 solidi were used from the annual revenue of taxes for the hippotrophoi. 1639 Spectad1°1 111 <'aesarea Maritima, a Christian chapel was built over the pagan shrine dedicated to Kore. A chapel
were increasingly financed from taxes in Egypt, which may explain the increase of chariot racing in tfw, was built in the amphitheatre of Dyrrachium, probably dedicated to St. Asteios whose martyrdom took
province in the sixth century. 1640 Procopius explicitly states that actors and charioteers received t ht· 11 place in the amphitheatre (see supra, p. 294, Figure 40). 1650
salaries from public funds. 1641 Private contributions certainly continued in the sixth century, but it is 1111 Several cities in the East are known to have had hippodromes, namely: Thessalonica, Nicopolis,
clear whether these were liturgies or private munificence. From papyri, we learn that the Apions financn I Smnium, Dyrrachium, Corinth, 1651 Nicomedia, Chalcedon, Constantinople, Heraclea, Antioch, Tyre,
the circus factions, and that the banker Anastasius paid one solidus less four carats for an embrocati1111 ( 'at'.Sarea Maritima, Gerasa, Laodicea, Berytus, Edessa, Apamea, Neapolis, Alexandria (which per-
for the horses of the public circus for the faction of the Greens (P.Oxy. I, 145). 1642 In the sixth cent111 Imps had two hippodromes), Heracleopolis, Memphis, Antinoopolis, Oxyrhynchus, Hermoupolis and
there were still civic funds for public spectacles (OY)µOtEA~c; nav~yUQl<;), 1643 and the 0EWQLX6. mentionn I 1'1•lusion at the eastern fringe of the Delta. 1652 According to Malalas, Anastasius built a hippodrome at
by Procopius were confiscated by Justinian, striking a final blow against gradually declining publ11 I >vrrachium to honour the city of his birth, and Justin I provided hippodromes for the Seleucians and
spectacles. 1644 haurians. 1653 It is significant, however, that hippodromes were not included in the Justinianic restora-
Hippodrome spectacles were an expression of ancient urban culture. Honorific epigrams to cha, lmn program. We hear from John of Ephesus that Justin II built a palace and a hippodrome in the
ioteers stress their pride in their native cities, 1645 and record acclamations to, among other things, t h1 111, rt hwestern suburb of Constantinople. 1654 Surprisingly, a story regarding the construction of a hippo-
Tyche of the city. Personifications of cities' Tychae are depicted on three of the sides of one of Porphyriw, ilwme by an ecclesiastic comes from the late sixth century, but cannot be taken at face value. According
honorific bases. 1646 It is evident that spectacles in the hippodrome were still intimately connected with 11, John of Ephesus, the Patriarch of Antioch Gregory, with the emperor Maurice's permission, built a
the ancient civic spirit. However, in spite of this apparent continuity of the ancient tradition, by the six Ih hippodrome in Antioch to pacify his flock, which had been annoyed that the Patriarch had escaped
century many changes had occurred in the hippodromes all over the empire. Hippodromes were punishment for alleged paganism. He also took with him from the capital groups of pantomime actors,
11ml, in the words of John of Ephesus, he established in Antioch a Church of Satan. 1655
Archaeological evidence indicates that provincial hippodromes and amphitheatres were increas-
1635
Marcellinus Comes, s.a. 521. 111gly poorly maintained and ultimately abandoned. They were looted of their stones and their seats and
1636
CTh XV.5.1 (a. 372); XV.5.3 (a. 409; CJ XI.41.5); XV.5.4 (a. 424); XI.42.1 for construction of walls. See Rouecht
Peiformers, 10.
1637
Procopius of Gaza, Ekphrasis c. 42 (I. 424, p. 18): ndgg. yvwcr0i'jvm tv tnmxoi:£ aywm; in the sixth century in Aphro
11 •47 See, for example, the Christian invocations in Alexandria's hippodrome which, in some cases were intended to encourage
disias a governor is described as "agonothetes": Roueche, Peiformers, 9.
1638
Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 141 ff.; idem, Administration, 178-179; idem, Decline, 205-206; Cameron, Circus Factions, 2 l l/; p,111cction over the person who wrote them: Borkowski, Inscriptions, 90-95.
Roueche, Peiformers, 8-11. 1<, 4H Procopius, De Bello Persico Il.12.18-19.
1639 Lifshitz, Une inscription, 118-132. IM 9 See, for example, Malalas, 236-237.
1640
J. Gascou, Les institutions de !'hippodrome en Egypte byzantine, BIFAO 76 (1976), 185-212; Matter, Factions, l5J tr,so Bakirtzis, Agora, 7-9; E. Dyggve, L'amphitheatre, in idem, Recherches a Salone (Copenhagen1933), II, 107-110, 145-
154 for Hermoupolis. 1 lh; E. Ceci, I monumenti cristiani di Salona (Milan 1963), 241-247; J. J. Wilkes, Dalmatia (London 1969), 428-430; Patrich,
1641 Procopius, Historia arcana XXVI.8-9. 1lthan Space, 90; V. Toc;i, Amfiteatri i Dyrrahit (L'amphitheatre de Dyrrah), Monumentet 2 (1971), 37-43; A. Bryer, Saint
1642
Liebeschuetz, Decline, 206-207; Roueche, Peiformers, 28. Papyrological evidence of private contributors maintaininv, A•,tdos and the Amphitheatre Chapel in Dyrrhachion, in @vµiaµa arr, µv~µr, rr,r; Aaaxaeivar; I (Athens 1994), 41-45.
the hippodrome is not conclusive: J.-L. Fournet and J. Gascou, Papyrus inedits d'Edfou de la collection de l'lfao, BIFAO <JH 1r,s1 See now D. G. Romano, A Roman Circus in Corinth, Hesperia 74 (2005), 585-611. The hippodrome was located at the

(1998), 187-188. H• ,11hwest section of the city near the Gymnasium. Constructed during the Augustan period, it functioned until the sixth century.
1643 11 •5 2 Lukaszewicz, Edifices, 60; Matter, Factions, 151-156 (with a list of hippodromes in Egypt).
Choricius, Or. VIII.103 (p. 368).
1644 1" 53 Malalas, 345.64-65, 338.41-42.
Procopius, Historia arcana XXVI.6.
1645 Cameron, Porphyrius, 170-171. HM John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica III.24 (p. 204).
1646 Ibid., 28-30. tr,, 5 Ibid., III.34 (pp. 226-227).
302 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 303

other materials which were used in other building projects, often walls, churches and private how,,
Consequently soil accumulated in their interior, rubbish was discarded in some of them, and poor privu
dwellings and workshops, markets and churches were constructed over them. At the end of the t'HI
Byzantine period and in the seventh century they were also used for burials. Only in some major nl 1
were hippodromes used for spectacles until the end of the early Byzantine period. In the sixth cc11I 11
when performances were held in hippodromes and amphitheatres, the conditions were in most
very much degraded. In some cases spectacles were held even when parts of the construction were
teriorating from the effect of dilapidation, presumably of the upper rows of seats. In other cities, 1u
part of the hippodrome was used, since other sections had collapsed, or had been subsumed by prival
building. Antioch had several spectacle buildings: two theatres (that of Dionysus and the otlw1
Olympian Zeus in Daphne), two hippodromes, and the Plethrion where wrestling contests were
One of the two hippodromes was located on the island in the river Orontes. It was the largest hippH«
drome of the ancient world, 510 m long and could accommodate about 80,000 spectators. Malalas
it the "old hippodrome", probably to distinguish it from the "Byzantine stadium". 1656 The "Byzanl
stadium" was built in the late fifth to early sixth century in the suburb of Daphne, approximately
m. The Olympic games were held there (the 'O11.uµmaxov depicted on the Yakto mosaic), until
DEACON'S
when they were banned. 1657 The Justinianic line of fortifications left out the stadium, the circus. 11n, HOUSE
public baths and the palace of the Tetrarchs, all on the island of the Orontes.
The hippodrome at Gerasa is one of the best preserved from the ancient world. At some tinw
the late third or the early fourth century the building started to deteriorate because of its poor fou111l,1
tions, whereupon it was used for various industrial activities until the Islamic period: worksho1rn In! ~
pottery, lime and glass production, and leather tanning were installed on the site. By the second hall
the sixth century or the early seventh century the tanning industry had long been abandoned. Only lh,i
0 1
pottery workshops continued to function. These industries were established in the chambers ol tlw TOMB -=
-
e
e
hippodrome, some of which were used as dumps for waste from the workshops, pottery and lamps, wl11h1
others were converted into dwellings. By the late sixth century the workshops had expanded to th,,
periphery of the hippodrome and the entire area became an industrial suburb of Gerasa. Its dilapida I11111 0
TOMB
began in the fourth century: seats from the hippodrome were built into the wall west of the south
in 390. While the south part of the hippodrome ceased to function, at the same time, the north p,11 I
apparently continued to be used into the second half of the sixth century, since an inscription of
records the adornment and pavement with mosaic of the place of the Blues. The dilapidation conti1111nl
and stones from the hippodrome were burnt for lime in the limekilns, even while spectacles were perfon11n I
in the north section. In 570, the Church of Bishop Marianos was built immediately opposite it enti1
from spolia from the hippodrome. Apparently it served the community of artisans working and
there. Inside the hippodrome, in chambers E 49, 50 and 51, and facing the church, a deacon by the na11w
:.:u-----n--:.~
----
HlORIAN'S ARCH
-----
-----
---- ----
of Elias built his house (Plan 31 ). The east half of the cave a was abandoned after a partial destruct it 111
in an earthquake in 551. The remaining part collapsed in the earthquake of 748. In the second hall nl o""l.._,.,_"l,_.,.......-1"'1..,.,_..,~,.o----2""'0___..;3,.0_ _ _ _40-i:---_;;;50m
the sixth century burials appear inside the hippodrome, and in the seventh century victims of a plar,1w
were thrown in one of its chambers without being covered with soil. 1658
PLAN 31. The Church of Bishop Marianos and the house of the Deacon Elias
in the hippodrome of Gerasa.

1656Malalas, 171, 236.87-88.

1657G. Downey, The Olympic Games of Antioch in the Fourth Century AD., TAPM 70 (1939), 428-438; Malalas, 34,1.1
1658 Gawlikowski and Musa, The Church, 137-162; I. Kehrberg and A. A. Ostrasz, A History of Occupational Chang,",

the Site of the Hippodrome of Gerasa, in Jordan VI, 167-173, esp. 169-170; I. Kehrberg, Jerash/Gerasa, hippodrome,A.1.1
(1995), 525-526; A. A. Ostrasz, in B. de Vries and P. Bikai, Archaeology inJordan,AJA 97 (1993), 498-500; idem, The Hippod1n111P
of Gerasa: A Report on Excavations and Research 1982-1987, Syria 66 (1989), 51-77.
304 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 305

Caesarea Maritima had two hippodromes and one amphitheatre in the north section of tlw 11l1111ning, some on the arena, while others were attached to the walls of the hippodrome. One house,
(Plan XVIII). One hippodrome was located on the site of Herod's Circus, near the promontory 1111wcver, was built with solid materials with a hot air-based central heating system. This obviously belonged
in the southwest part of the city. In the early Byzantine period it fell out of use and a Christian chap1Jl a wealthy person. 1665
replaced its pagan sacellum. It was gradually filled with city refuse and private and public buildings Some times natural calamities brought an end to the use of hippodromes and amphitheatres as
constructed on the site. The other hippodrome, located on the east side of the city, was very 111wrtacle buildings. The amphitheatre of Eleutheropolis, in the province of Palaestina Prima ( modern
Falling out of use, it was already being looted of its stone in the early sixth century. 1659 Scythop1 Guvrin, 53 km southwest of Jerusalem, in Israel), was damaged by an earthquake in 363 and
hippodrome was converted into an amphitheatre in the second half of the fourth century. Its deteriorat 1, !I\ 1111hscquently converted into a market place. A circular colonnade was built on the interior with columns of
is to be observed in the fifth century, with the narrowing of its entrances by new constructions and v111ving sizes erected in the arena without bases. On the Madaba map the colonnade is represented by
partial blocking of the two new staircases to the cavea. The entire area around the amphitheatre rnlonnaded circular building covered with a dome. In a later phase, stone partition walls were built
turned into a residential district. Finally, in the sixth century the construction of Orestes Street to tlu1 lwlwcen the arena and the columns creating rooms, perhaps shops. 1666
north completely blocked the entrances to the arena and the cavea. Since the arena remained cmplV The circus of Carthage was apparently neglected, since a large rubbish dump was accumulated be-
until the early Islamic period, it was probably used for some kinds of spectacles, but horse races wcu; hmd the back walls early in the sixth century, although it was still used during the sixth century. In the
apparently organized at open field tracks. 1660 The hippodrome at Gadara in Palaestina Secunda in Jordan 11,·venth century, however, it had fallen into disuse. 1667 In Italy, public spectacles declined steadily on
!Ifft iunt of the wars that forced communities to spend their financial resources on fortifications. Very few
(modern Umm Qays) remained unfinished. It was abandoned in the fourth century and tombs appc,11,·11
on the site. 1661 lh1:atres and amphitheatres were restored in the fourth century. 1668 Senatorial games ceased in the fifth
In Thessalonica, the Tetrarchic hippodrome is located between the palace of Galerius and the wall r1·utury. The Ostrogothic kings, in an effort to stress the legitimacy of their rule, continued the legacy
It was there that in 390 thousands of people were massacred at the order of Theodosius. It has been s111• 111 the Roman emperors and organized games and shows of mimes and pantomimes. In Rome the last
11h1 iws date to 549 and were held by king Totila. 1669 The stages of the decline of the Colosseum in Rome
gested that by the middle of the fifth century it was already being looted, since some of its seats wcn·
then built into the city's west wall. The history of Thessalonica's hippodrome is currently under recom,11 I mi· similar to those of circuses in other cities. Dilapidation began as early as the fourth century. In the
eration, in the light of the discovery, west of the palace of Galerius, of a small section of a large theatre II
111th century, part of the hydraulic system was no longer functioning. Early in the sixth century, the
n111phitheatre was in decline. Many burials appeared from the fifth to the sixth century on its periphery,
is over 100 m wide, thus being the largest building of Thessalonica after the hippodrome. It limits 1111
while games continued to be performed inside. 1670 During the wars, spectacle buildings were more
complex of Galerius' palace and reaches near the Church of St. Sophia. It functioned until the end of 1111·
l11ll'nsely robbed to furnish stone for the fortifications. Theoderic gave permission to the leading citizens
fourth century A.D. The building may have been either an amphitheatre, or a theatre or a theatre-stadium. 1671
111 ( 'atane to remove stones from the city's amphitheatre to restore the walls.
that is, a stadium, one part of which forms a cavea. It may perhaps be the "0fo'tQOV 'tO xaAouµEvov 11 t,
Most sixth-century sources note that public entertainment in the hippodromes was still a source of
owv" mentioned in later Byzantine sources. It has been suggested that perhaps the contest of Nestor anti
rn1oyment to the urban population. Novel 105.1 (a. 537) recognizes that the spectacles had been invented
the capture and martyrdom of St. Demetrius took place there. After the theatre-stadium ceased to fun et i1111.
lo provide entertainment. These were horse races, shows and combats with animals, and theatrical
houses dating to the fifth century occupied its interior. 1662 The seats incorporated into the west wall oft lw
pnformances. The emperor declared that he was committed to maintaining them in the consular
city probably come from this theatre-stadium and not from the hippodrome, which remained in w,,
Jtmnes. However, there was no intention of maintaining provincial spectacles. Procopius bitterly complains
Procopius mentions charioteers in Thessalonica, and factions are mentioned in the reign of Phocas. 1,.,,
lltat Justinian transferred the municipal revenues for public spectacles to the fisc, and later closed the
Thessalonica had also a stadium stretching north of the agora to the public baths, where the Church of SI
lln·atres, hippodromes and circuses to save money. This brought an end to public spectacles. People's
Demetrius was built, which remained in use until the ninth century. 1664
111titudes towards life, Procopius explains, were profoundly affected. There was sorrow and a pessimistic
The situation was different in the frontier cities of the Balkans. There, Sirmium declined early 1111
l;'ding that major unprecedented catastrophes were impending. 1672
because of the invasions. The hippodrome, built in the early fourth century under Licinius or Constan
tine, and rebuilt after being destroyed, ceased to function as a spectacle building before the end of tlw
fourth century. Dilapidation started immediately and in the fifth to the sixth centuries the hippodrn1111 1'' 65 V. Popovic and E. L. Ochsenschlager, Der spatkaiserzeitliche Hippodrom in Sirmium, Germania 54 (1976), 156-181;
was occupied by crude structures and wooden huts, all of which were scattered over the site without
lnrn1ic, L'hippodrome de Sirmium, 1-15.
IM,1i A. Kloner and A. Hiibsch, The Roman Amphitheater of Bet Guvrin. A Preliminary Report on the 1992, 1993, and

1•1•J.1 Seasons, "Atiqot 30 (1996), 85-106, esp. 91-92, 96-97; A. Kloner and E. Asaf, Bet Guvrin -1992, ESI 14 (1994), 115; A.
1659J. H. Humphrey, A Summary of the 1974 Excavations in the Caesarea Hippodrome, BASOR 218 (1975), 6-9; Patri, h, II.J111wr, The City of Eleutheropolis, in Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba Mosaic Map, 246.
Urban Space, 92; but Y. Porat, Caesarea-1994-1999,ESI 112 (2000), 35 for a continuous use of the hippodrome until the cilv\ t,,1, 7 S. P. Ellis, The Stratigraphy of the Excavations in the Circus, 1982, in Humphrey, The Circus, 57-116.
11 •<•K Jouffroy, La construction, 168-169.
Persian occupation in 640.
°
166 Foerster and Tsafrir, ESI 6 (1987/88), 38; Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 133-135. 1t,h9
Ward-Perkins,From ClassicalAntiquity, 92-109; A. Cameron and D. Schauer, The Last Consul: Basilius and his Diptych,
1661 A. Hoffman, Gadara/Umm Qeis,AJA 98 (1994), 547; Kerner and Hoffmann, Gadara, 360. INS 72 (1982), 126-145.
1662 M. Vickers, The date of the walls of Thessalonica,Istanbu/ Arkeolojii Muzeleri Yilligi XV-XVI (1969), 313-318; id<'m. ll,/11 R. Rea, II Colosseo e la valle da Toedorico ai Frangipane: note di studio, in L. Paroli and P. Delogu (eds.), La storia

The Hippodrome at Thessaloniki,JRS 62 (1972), 25-32; P. Adam-Veleni,AD 45 (1990), Chr. B2, 302-304; G. Velenis and I' ,l/lumica di Roma nell'alto Medioevo al/a luce dei recenti scavi archeologici. Atti de/ Seminario. Roma, 2-3 aprile, 1992 (Florence
Adam Veleni, Pwµcitx6 0fo,go OTTJ ewoaAovixT],AEMTh 3 (1989), 241-257; P. Adam-Veleni,AD 46 (1991), Chr. B2, 27ft l'l'I I), 71-88.
1663 Procopius, Historia arcana 1.11; Miracula S. Demetrii I, 57.9. 1" 71 Cassiodorus, Variae 111.39.

1
1664 M. Vickers, The stadium at Thessaloniki, Byzantion 41 (1971 ), 339-348. ,,n Procopius, Historia arcana XXVI.8-11.
306 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 307

Gladiatorial games, a genuinely Roman type of public entertainment, had begun to decline as ml II 11 84
' In the cities where games were held, the games lost their competitive character and were trans-
as the fourth century. Such spectacles did not appeal to the changing taste and moral standards ol t fc II med into grand spectacles. The Christianization of the empire and cultural changes causedgymnikoi
early Byzantine period, while at the same time it was becoming difficult to finance gladiators. 1673 Anin 11g,111es to be abolished in the early fourth century. Boxing, wrestling and the pancratium were per-
combats (venationes), however, continued to be performed throughout the early Byzantine period. h nmed by professional athletes, and had long ago replaced the Hellenistic style of exercises in the gym-
469 in his ban on public spectacles on Sundays, the emperor Leo included the "ferarum lacrimosa spn•• nasia. Gymnasia were usually attached to baths and included areas for the imperial cult. In Egypt, the
tacula". 1674 The next ban imposed by Anastasius in 498 was not effective. 1675 Since there is evidn11:• magistrates serving the gymnasium began to disappear from the fourth century onwards and the gym-
that such spectacles continued to be performed in the sixth century, the ban may have been tempornry tmsiarchs are last mentioned in the year 414/5. 1685 From the fifth century the termgymnasion does not
or may have included only public executions by animals. 1676 Together with other forms of public cnl,'h ltppcar in papyrological texts, except on rare occasions to denote baths. 1686 Epigraphic evidence is also
tainment, animal combats were incompatible with Christian morality. 1677 Procopius of Gaza refers w1tlt . h1rnnclusive as to the survival of athletic exercises in the fifth century. 1687 Menander Protector mentions
emotion to the spectacle of a man being devoured by beasts, and praises Anastasius for banning thn• ,•iwrcises in the palaestra, although in a passage criticizing his licentious youth. 1688
spectacles of inhumane character. 1678 Animal combats are also attested in the large cities of the h11\I Archaeological evidence indicates that gymnasia attached to baths ceased to function as places of
early in the sixth century. Severns of Antioch condemns them for distracting Christians from their 1dl- 111hletic activities in the fourth and fifth centuries. For example, ~t Ephesus the gymnasium of the Baths
gious obligations, for being against Christian law and for their inhumane character (ea. 512-518). lhi'' In 11I <'onstantius was not rebuilt after its destruction in the third century, probably during the Gothic in-
Constantinople the consular diptychs of Areobindus and Anastasius (a. 506, 517) also represent w1hl
\/usion, while the baths themselves were restored. Its portico was occupied by private houses. 1689 The
beast combats. 1680 They are included in the consular games mentioned in Novel 105.1 in 537, but llwy
• pattern was similar in smaller cities, as in Anemurium, where poor rooms were built in the palaestra of
were no longer held towards the end of Justinian's reign. Instead, animals were paraded and perforn11:il
tltl• baths. 1690 In Messene in Greece, the gymnasium ceased to function in 360-370 A.D., when the city
shows in the hippodrome, a custom, which is also attested in earlier centuries and was maintained in lh«'
"uffcred some destruction from an earthquake. The gymnasium was turned into a residential quarter. 1691
middle Byzantine period. 1681 Death by wild animals was then reserved only for criminals. 1682 At thl' r ml
111 some cities gymnasia were maintained to serve other civic needs. For example, at Sardis in the late
of the sixth century, Agathias states that animal combats in amphitheatres belonged to the past. 111 tlw
third century to the early fourth century, the south part of the palaestra of the Bath-Gymnasium complex
account of a military expedition in the area of the city of Parma in Italy, Agathias feels it necessarv 111
explain to his reader that the old amphitheatre had functioned in the past for wild animal combats. 1"'1' h1·hind the Byzantine Shops was given to the Jewish community and a synagogue was built there (see
1;11pra, p. 215, Plan 9). A fragmentary inscription dated to the fifth - sixth century records the alteration
ol the gymnasium's Marble Court by the pater of the city Memnonius. The colonnades between the
Gymnasia and stadia I11gidarium and the palaestra were closed with crude walls, while graffiti indicate that it was used by the
111 Hile and gerousia, clearly for other civic purposes. 1692
Athletic games continued in the early Byzantine period, but they were in decline and undergoing Everywhere the last stage of the gymnasia is marked by occupation by private dwellings and work-
a profound transformation. The Olympic games at Olympia ceased during the reign of Theodosiw, i,lu ips. A good example comes from Anemurium (Plan 32). There the palaestra of the city's large baths,
l111ilt in the mid-third century, was abandoned in the early fourth century. The columns of the colonnade
,wre removed and by the late fourth century its mosaic pavement was covered with soil. The open court
1673Some scholars advance psychological and moral changes to explain the decline of the gladiatorial games, for ol It, v, 111 the palaestra was perhaps used as a market with temporary stalls. By the end of the sixth century,
Christianity played a major role, while everyone seems to agree on the difficulties in financing them. See G. Ville, Les jcu, ii, lu 111ses appeared on the court and the adjacent buildings, and extended to the north outside the palaestra.
gladiateurs dans !'empire chretien, MEFRA 72 (1960), 273-335; P. Veyne, Pa'iens et chretiens devant la gladiature, Ml:·Fu I
lhc finds in these houses include pottery, various household items and artisans' tools. The occupants of
111/2 (1999), 883-917; Cameron, Circus Factions, 216-217 suggests that the gladiatorial games were abandoned on accou111 1tl
!lit: houses were farmers, fishermen, a tailor, a leatherworker and a jeweller. In the adjacent baths, lime
"a genuine change of popular taste". On the contrary, for Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 112 ff., the influence ol tit,
Church was a determining factor, but financial considerations played also a major role (pp.114-115).
1674 CJIII.12.9.2.
1675 Priscian, Panegyricus Anastasii, vv. 223-227; Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 15; Joshua the Stylite, c. 34 (p .. ' 11
1 84
1676 Roueche, Pe,formers, 78. " For a survey of the evidence about Olympia in the early Byzantine period see U. Sinn, ELowAoAai:gci:; :rr;goaxuv111:ti:;
1677 See, for example, Zachariah Scholasticus, in Vita Severi, PO 21 (1907), 51 advises Severns before he received baptt,,111 u!l/.,qti:\i:; xm XQLCTi:tavoL H f~EAL~TJ 1:11i:; O1,,uµ:rr:tai:; ai:11v vai:cQTJ agzm61:11i:a, in Themelis and Konti, Messene, 189-194.
1685
to avoid the spectacles, horse races, theatrical performances and animal fights. Bagnall, Egypt, 60 n. 95.
1h86
1678 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 15 (p. 17). B. Meyer, "Gymnase" et "Thermes" dans l'Egypte romaine et byzantine, in B. Kramer et al. (eds.), Akten des 21.
1679 Severns, Hom. 103, PO 22 (1930), 301; Hom. 75, PO 12 (1919), 131. lnfl'!'flationalen Papyrologenkongresses. Berlin, 13. -19. 8.1995, II (Stuttgart and Leipzig 1997), 691-695.
1 187
1680 A. Chastagnol, Le Senat romain sous le regne d'Odoacre: recherches sur l'epigraphie du Colisee au Ve siecle (Bonn I%r, L < A Lewin, II mondo dei ginnasi nell'epoca tardoantica, Atti dell'Accademia romanistica Costantiniana, X Convegno

62 suggested that these were simulated fights. See also the thoughts of Cameron, Porphyrius, 228-229. lllll'mazionale, 623-628.
1 88
1681 In 521 Justinian included exhibition of a very large number of animals in his consular games: Marcellinus Comes, ,,,,, r, Menander Protector, 40.15-16 (:rr:aAaiai:gmi:; i\va:rr;1,uou6µ11v xat i\i:; waovwv E~WXfLAa &cpgoavv11i:;), and n. 3.
1689
521. Hyrcanian tigers were paraded in Constantinople's hippodrome at the celebrations of the accession of Justin II in Sh'< Foss, Ephesus, 60.
Corippus, In laudem lustini III.246-254. For the later development see J. Theocharides, Les animaux des jeux de l'Hipp11 ir, 9o Russell, Urban Life, 147.

drome et des menageries imperiales a Constantinople, ByzSl 19 (1958), 73-84; R. Guilland, Etude sur !'Hippodrome ,h trm Themelis, Messene, 31, 40.

Byzance, VI, Les Spectacles de !'Hippodrome, ByzSl 27 (1966), 289-307. tri'/2 F. K. Yegtil, The Bath-Gymnasium Complex at Sardis (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London 1986), 16, 51, 172. The
1682 Theophylact Simocatta, III.8.11 (in Persia); John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica III.33 (p. 223), 35 (p. 229). lower gymnasium of Priene was integrated into the city's fortifications: F. Krischen, Das hellenistische Gymnasion von Priene,
1683 Agathias I.14.5 (&vuw oio wvw &vogamv, oli:; 6 ~toi:; 81,wµi:\vou wv o~µou :rr:goi:; 811gta omywvttw8m). Ml, 38-39 (1923-4), 133-150. Its colonnades were occupied by private houses: Wiegand, Priene, 283-284.
308 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 309

nas. It is evident that the suppression of the Greek dromos was the result of the replacement of
lit ion al Greek athletics by Roman style shows. Now the purpose of physical training was to prepare
youth for hunting and the military. 1696 Procopius mentions a youth trainer in charge of a wrestling
11101 in Constantinople, who was a personal attendant to the army commander Bouzes. He attended

_jLJL uies in the baths and followed him on the campaign. He confronted the enemy with admirable bravery
@ ® 111 strength, with the result that he earned a mention in Procopius' Histories. 1697

Er LJ
I )
With the Christianization of the empire, games were gradually dissociated from paganism. The
1h of ceremonies connected with the pagan religion were abolished: sacrifices, the worship of statues
I visits to temples were forbidden. In the fifth century, St. Hypatius, attempting to stop the celebration
lht• Olympic games organized in Chalcedon by the Prefect of Constantinople Leontius, was unable to
1 h11c the evil nature of this festival, having only a vague idea of the Olympic games (ou ya.Q 'fi6et afrto d

I I fll'()LXW£ E~ &.xoijt;). Through divine intervention a holy man was sent to explain to him the festival's

(S) i:an nature. 1698 Remnants of pagan customs in the games survived in Antioch in the sixth century.
v,·rus mentions pagan-style processions at night in Antioch's Byzantine stadium: people were dressed
•,hort tunics and held candles and incense. He warns his flock that such performances lead to idolatry

J~I\r he refers to the corruption caused by stories from ancient mythology. 1699 The games maintained in
mw cities for some time had lost their international character. They were local events and the athletic
1111pctitions had become mere spectacles mixed with shows of mimes, acrobats and dancers. However,
71

~
tn 'ksiastics still attacked the games. Severns contrasted the spiritual combats of the saints with the cor-
7
al events in the Olympic games celebrated in Antioch.17°0 The Christianization of the empire and the
5 0 10
~
lrtluccd financial resources of the cities caused the decline of the games. The Olympic games ceased at
inch in 520 and its stadium was abandoned after the earthquake of 526. In Gaza, however, the games
c maintained into the seventh century. 1701 The stadium of Ephesus fell out of use in the sixth century
PLAN 32. Early Byzantine houses (indicated as A-D) built in the palaestra adjacent to the Roman baths al hlocks from it were reused in the Byzantine wall and in the Justinianic Church of St. John. In the same
Anemurium. n·11tury, private structures appeared on the site. In the northwestern section of the stadium the atrium of
dturch with funerary function has been identified, and in 578 a church was built against the south door
ul I he stadium.17°2 The stadium of Aphrodisias was modified to cater for the needs of the time. In the
nm Idle of the fourth century, the city wall included the west, north and part of the east sides of the stadium.
and pottery kilns and a grain mill were installed. 1693 Parallels can be found everywhere. In Italy, 11 the same time or later, the east part was turned into an amphitheatre that continued in use until the
example, the gymnasium of Agrigentum was abandoned in the fifth century and was then given to artismi;, ly sixth century.1703 The ancient stadium in Constantinople had been abandoned by the sixth century.
who established their workshops on the site. 1694 In the De aedificiis of Procopius, not a single gymnasi 11111 1111 icopius mentions a place in the capital called ~tac>tov, but the memory of the spectacles that took place
is mentioned as being restored by Justinian. By the sixth century the gymnasia were obsolete. lhne in the past had been lost (&.ywm yaQ, olµm, to JtaAmov &.veito ttm). On the site Justinian and
Once the competitive aspect of the athletic exercises was lost, athletic performances were incu1 llu·ndora built a large hospice (~ev&vat;). 1704
porated into the program of the hippodromes. 1695 This transformation of the athletic competitions
reflected in architectural changes in the stadium. In the early Byzantine period, the architectural form
of the amphitheatre became popular in the Greek East and then the stadia received permanent oval 1""" Choricius, Declamatio II.16 (p. 158). In c. 84 (p. 173), declamatio V.28 (p. 234.11-17) and VII.41 (p. 295.15-17) the
11h'n:nces are placed in an antique setting and do not seem to refer to contemporary practices.
i,m Procopius, De Bello Persico l.13.30-38.
1<>' 18 Vita S. Hypatii, c. 33.14-16 (p. 218).
1 99
" Severns, Hom. 95, PO 25 (1935), 93-95. On the Olympic games in Antioch see Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 136-140.
1693
J. Russell, The Archaeological Context of Magic in the Early Byzantine Period, in H. Maguire (ed.), Byzantine Magi. 11110 Severns, Hom. 91, PO 25 (1935), 25-27; Hom. 94, ibid., 71-73.

(Washington, D.C. 1995), 35-50, esp. 45-50. 11111 A. Gutsfeld, Im Spannungsfeld paganer Tradition und christlichen Wandels. Die Agone im 4. und 5. Jahrhundert n.
1694
G. Fiorentini, II ginnasio di Agrigento, KdnmAoc; XLII (1996), 9. 111" in S. Emmel and U. Gotter (eds.), From Temple to Church: Destruction and Renewal of Local Cultic Topography in Late
1695
Choricius, Or. Vlll.150 (JtW£ 0rnooµE0a Jt'IJKta£: p. 379.1), 152 (a0AY)1:~£ ... OQOµEU£: p. 379.9-10); c. 154 (xal µ1.11<11 lntiquity (forthcoming, Leiden).
xal nayxQmLaoi:a'i:£ xal OQOµEum xal a01-111:a'i:£: p. 379.22-23); Procopius, De Bello Persico 1.24.42: i:ov 1:E tnmxov 1ml 11112 Keil, Fuhrer, 61-63; Ephesos IV/3, 268-274; S. Kaiwiese, Grabungen 1993. Ephesos,JOA/ 63 ( 1994), 24;AJA 99 ( 1995), 239.

yuµvLxov 0Eiio0m aywva. P.Oxy. 2707. On the professionalization of sports in the Roman empire see H. W. Pleket, Sonw 1103 K. Welch, The Stadium at Aphrodisias,AJA 102 (1998), 547-569, esp. 565-569.

Aspects of the History of the Athletic Guilds, ZPE 10 (1973), 197-227. 1104
Procopius, De aedificiis 1.11.27.
310 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 311

Theatres Jude actors among their friends. For Zosimus, the invention of pantomime at the time of Augustus was
1111se of misfortunes (x.ax.&v). He links comic actors with luxury and shameless women. 1714 Mimes
We have already seen that early Byzantium inherited from Rome shows that included mixed pn 1g1 1m1 ycAotwv) and the pantomime dancers (oi x.ax.&c; aJtoAouµEvm OQX'Y]Otai,) lead to lewd conduct
of theatrical and athletic entertainment, of which acrobatic shows and pantomime were essential pa doxti6t'Y]ta) and to the destruction of the state (6tacp0oQ<'x.V toi:i JtOAttcuµatoc;). 1715
In the second century A.D. theatrical performances had already degenerated into pantominwi, l Jnderstandably, theatre was attacked by the Church Fathers on moral grounds. 1716 Theatrical
mimes. Long before pantomime had lost the sophistication of high classical art and had been redwnl 11vs projected a lifestyle incompatible with Christian values, and stories based on Greek mythology
grotesque buffooneries, reproducing stories from ancient mythology.17°5 Mute pantomime dam n· unacceptable to Christian morality. These spectacles were condemned as lewd and evil acts. 1717
performed male and female roles, employing gestures alone. A choir, singing songs related to the lh·ndance at such spectacles incites Christians to prostitution and licentiousness, while attendance at
ry, accompanied them. Such songs became popular and were sung by people outside the thcaln· ,me races leads to fights, abusive reproaches, beating, insults, and hatred. 1718 In many texts of the
Procopius of Gaza refers to performances that employed indecent gestures from the mimes, insll',111 'hurch Fathers, theatre is condemned merely because it is entertainment and because pantomime
the spoken text, the lewd spectacle exciting the spectators. 1707 The sources insist, perhaps unsurprisiu1! invokes laughter in the audience, something incompatible with Christian rules of life. "Continuous
that what the common people derived from such spectacles was simple-minded and undignified m1111 b1111•.hter is not appropriate to us but to those of the stage", declared John Chrysostom. 1719 Cyril of
ment, rather than intellectual pleasure. 1708 Libanius, however, valued pantomime on the grounds lhal Jrvl hopolis records the words of an Egyptian monk: "You have been tricked by the devil. You were
taught common people ancient mythology (naAm&v JtQascwv), 1709 but in the sixth century pantm11111 to weep, and you laugh. Have you not heard the Lord calling those who laugh wretched and those
had declined and only mimes survived. However, as pantomime declined, classicizing authors of the 1w111 weep blessed?" .1720 Sources of the sixth century continue to insist that public spectacles corrupted
defended it. There are several references to pantomime in Nonnus' Dionysiaca and several epig1 C'hristians: they were indecent and incompatible with moral life. This belief influenced attitudes regarding
written by authors of the Cycle of Agathias. 1710 The other form of theatrical spectacles, the status, with subsequent legal consequences for people's lives. Thus imperial legislation declared
contained performances by female and male actors whose role included speech, song, accompanied 11nen's attendance at spectacles without their husband's consent grounds for divorce. 1721 Actors were
chorus, but not dance. In contrast to pantomimes, the subjects of the mimes were derived from eve, vd;ty t1uditionally regarded as indecent and women of the stage as prostitutes. 1722 Procopius' description of
life. Gradually mimes came to offer a lower form of entertainment and included a variety of performam lhrodora's indecent performance on stage is an illustration of the behaviour of such theatrical prosti-
among which most popular were dances by naked women, swimming and acrobatic shows, involving lulcs.1723 Justinian's legislation showed understanding and compassion for such women. The emperor
turns as the tightrope walker depicted on the stage of Aphrodisias' theatre. 1711 John Lydus states
great disappointment that "miming is the only one that is obviously being preserved nowadays; tho111'J1 11
has nothing artful, it attracts the common people only by irrational laughter" .1712 1114Zosimus I.6.1; V.7.2: TQucpft xai µLµms yi::11.oLwv ~XLCTTa TE ataxuvoµevms yuvm~lv. Actors were considered infames in
Criticism of the art of pantomime appeared early on in pagan literature, in a lost work of Aelius A, Hw Roman society: M. Kaser, Infamia und ingominia in den romischen Rechtsquellen, ZSSRom 73 (1956), 220-278; B. Levick,
tides. Although pantomime was defended by Lucian's De saltatione and Libanius' Oration LXIV, pap,.111 I !w Senatus Consultum from Larinum,JRS 73 (1983), 97-115.
1115 Zosimus IV.33.4.
intellectuals deplored the decline of theatrical performances in the antique style. Julian, envisaging
irn, H. Jurgens, Pompa Diaboli: Die lateinischen Kirchenviiter und das antike Theater (Tiibingen 1972); W. Weismann,
intellectual form of paganism, rejected the licentious theatrical shows ( aOEAyfj 0fotQa) and wishc, 11! 1
Awltc und Schauspiele: Die Schauspiele im Urteil der lateinischen Kirchenviiter unter besonderer Beriick-Sichtigung van Augustin
expel them from the theatres in order to restore them to their ancient dignifying form (ano6oi:ivm 1111 Wiirzburg 1972); C. C. Schnusenberg, The Relationship between the Church and the Theater Exemplified by Selected Writings of
~wvuocv x.a0aQ<'x. ycvoµEva). 1713 He also advises pagan priests to avoid theatrical shows and nol 111 ( 'lturch Fathers and by Liturgical Texts until Amalarius of Metz - 775-852 A.D. (Lanham 1988); M. Turcan, in Tertullien. Les
11w<'lacles (de spectaculis) (Paris 1986), 54-68. Rabbinical sources also condemn public spectacles of the Roman type: S.
I It migman, Un regard sur le theatre romain: Jes sources rabbiniques, in Romanite et cite chretienne. Permanences et mutations;
wlt'gration et exclusion du I" au VI" siecle. Melanges en l'honneur d'Yvette Duval (Paris 2000), 171-195.
1717 John Chrysostom, PG 51, 68: &ai::11.yfj 8i::aµai:a xai &xovoµai:a. PG 56,264 ff.; PG 57, 22; PG 60,301.
1705
E. J. Jory, Continuity and Change in the Roman Theatre, Studies in Honour of T. B. L. Webster, vol. 1 (Bristol 1118M
143-152; J.P. V. D. Balsdon, Life and Leisure in Ancient Rome (London 1969), 274 ff.; L. Robert, Pantomimen im griechisrhn1
1718 John Chrysostom,PG 49, 159: xai yaQ ~ ev i:o'i:s 8i::aTQOLS c>LUTQL~TJV JtOQVElav, &xoA.aaLav, xai naaav &ae11.yi::tav ETEXE,
Orient, Hermes 65 (1930), 106-122. 1,11i 11 tfis aµLAATJS TWV LJtJt(J)V 8EWQLa µaxas, A.OLOOQLas, JtAT]YUS, U~QELS, UJtEX8Elas ()LT]VEXELS EJt~yayE. See G. Y. Theocharidis,
1706
S. Montiglio, Paroles dansees en silence: !'action signifiante de la pantomime et le moi du danseur, Phoenix 53 ( I911'1> 11,•irriige zur Geschichte des byzantinischen Profantheaters im Iv. und V. Jahrhundert (Diss. Thessalonica, 1940), 67 ff.; B. H.
263-280; Libanius, Or. LXIV, Against Aristides on Behalf of the Pantomimes (orchestai), c. 93 (IV, 480-481); M. E. Molloy \iandcberghe, Saint Jean Chrysostome et Jes spectacles, Zeitschrift fur Religi,on und Geistesgeschichte 7 (1955), 34-46; 0. Pasquato,
Libanius and the Dancers (Hildesheim 1996). 1,/1 spettacoli in S. Giovanni Crisostomo. Paganesimo e Cristianesimo ad Antiochia e Costantinopoli nel IV secolo (Rome 1976);
1707
Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 16 (p. 18.1-5): UQQEVES yaQ m{il>ES, WCTJtEQ TTJV toLav ELS yuvuixu Ii I.cyerle, Theatrical Shows and Ascetic Lives: John Chrysostom 's Attack on Spiritual Marriage (Berkeley 2001 ).
1719 John Chrysostom,PG 57, 71; PG 60,301; Severus,Hom. 54, PO 4 (1906), 47: the theatre is a temple oflaughter; Antiochus
aµEL~oµEVOL Cj)'IJCTLV, yuvaLXES rj8EA.OV dvm Tij) ax~µan xai ()LEXA.WVTO TOLS µeAECTLV, UVTL yAWTTT]S XlVO'UVTES TTJV XELQU )/tll
6ijµov OA.OV JtQOS &ai::Ayfj 8fov exµaLvoVTES, Monachus, PG 89, 1724C; 833B, 1721B ff. See also from earlier Christian literature Clement of Alexandria, PG 8, 445-452
1708
See, for example, Gregory the Theologian, PG 36, 581 C: xai xtvoiiat yeAwTa i:o'i:s EJtt XOQQTJS QaitLaµam xai 'ljlocp~fH 1, 11 ( 'tr11i yilww,;). I. Hausherr, Penthos. La doctrine de la componction dans /'Orient Chretien (Rome 1944), 109 ff.
1709 Libanius, Or. LXIV.112 (IV, 493). 1720 Cyril of Scythopolis 31.10 (transl. Price, p. 27: reference to Luke 6.21, 25).

1710 1721 Novella 117.8.6. Women usually did not attend theatrical spectacles: Procopius, De Bello Persico I.24.6; Choricius, Or.
0. Weinreich, Epigrammstudien I: Epigramm und Pantomimus (Heidelberg 1948), 161-172.
1711
Roueche, Pe,formers, 36 (no. 8ii). VIIl.51-52 (pp. 355-356).
1722 Libanius, Or. XLI.6-9 (III, 297-299); Miracula S. Theclae, mir. 42.5-9 (p. 400); Theophylact Simocatta, Ep. 12;
1712
John Lydus, On Powers, I.40 (pp. 62-63, transl. Bandy): µtµLXTJ ~ viiv 6ij8Ev µ6v1'] acptoµevf), TEXVLxov µtv EXOIHHt
ouMv, &Mycp µ6vov TO JtA.ij8os Emiyouaa yeAWTl. t1iophthegrnata Patrum, 369B.
1713 1723 Procopius,Historia arcana IX.10-26; about the mother ofBelisarius' wife: I.11 (Twv nvos Ev 8uµe11.n JtEJtOQVEuµevwv).
Julian, Letter to a Priest, 304B (ed. Loeb, vol. 2, p. 334).
312 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 313

attempted to protect women who were forced to become actresses and who had given official assurath' of Antioch condemns physical attacks on actors on theological grounds. They would provoke
that they would not abandon this profession. 1724 Social preconceptions that imposed obstacles 011 11111 divine anger, since they were directed against God's own creations. 1734 The dangers of dance and music
riages between high officers and actresses were combatted by Justinianic Novel 117.6 (a. 542), whh <'.hristians were great: dancing was "the mother of all lasciviousness", and was unacceptable for
declares such marriages legal. It is understandable that theatrical spectacles and actors are conde111111'4 'hristian morality. 1735 Theatrical shows incited spectators to pleasures of sensuality and thus consti-
t11l l·d a major threat for Christians. 1736 In addition, since the subjects of these songs and dances were
in the hagiographical sources and that conversion of pagan actors and actresses to Christianity
abandonment of their licentious life for a life in Christ attracted the hagiographers' attention. 1725 I11 1mp,an myths, they were directly related to paganism: "[It is] a sport which introduces paganism by
Life of St. Symeon Salos, St. Symeon shows interest in actors in two episodes: he succeeds in mirarn, ll1t·ans of lying stories, an inciter to hateful deeds" .1737 In the theatrical shows the habit of burning per-
t11111es and offering incense was also maintained, a remnant of pagan rituals to honour the pagan gods
lously preventing one of them from making indecent gestures in the shows, and he demonstra ll's
purity of his spirit by keeping company with actresses. 1726 to invite them to the proceedings. 1738
We get glimpses of the nature of theatrical performances in the later part of the fifth and in the e ,11 Severns of Antioch condemns theatrical shows in several of his homilies. Attendance at theatrical
sixth century, and of the arguments for or against them from the four surviving metrical Homilies of Jan ih pn formances was associated with a disgraceful way of life, visits to prostitutes, drinking, and amuse-
of Serngh (451 - +521), a Syriac poet and theologian, on the Spectacles of the Theatre, the Syn<'gmut 1111.·nt accompanied by cymbals, flutes and indecent songs. 1739 Severns was particularly concerned about
mimon of Choricius, and the Homilies of Severns. It would seem that in this period, the argumrnl~ °
lht· influence of such spectacles on children and warned their mothers to be vigilant. 174 Furthermore,
against pantomime and mime had intensified. This coincides with the popularity of the spectacles in 11111 'lmrch Fathers felt that they were competing with theatrical spectacles to attract worshippers. Chris-
hippodrome that included mime and pantomime shows. Jacob of Serngh was ordained bishop of Bat 11a11. l1ans often preferred to attend theatrical shows rather than the liturgy in church. 1741 The problem per-
the largest city of Serngh on the Euphrates in 519. His metrical Homilies against theatrical shmv,,, w,ted in the later part of the early Byzantine period. We hear complaints that people often spent the
although preserved only in fragments, provide very useful information regarding the subjects of tlw whole day attending shows in the theatre, neglected important matters of everyday life, and were not
plays and the nature of the theatrical performances in the early sixth century. Ancient myths were ~.1111 willing to spend one hour in the church or in prayer and the reading of the Holy Books. 1742 Itwas there-
the source of inspiration for theatrical plays: particular favourites were the stories of Kronos devou1 mit lore hoped that metrical poems and homilies in the church would bring about the desired effect and
his children and Zeus' immoral adventures, his various transformations into a swan in the myth of I utlract many people to church instead of the theatre. 1743 Severns threatens with punishment at the Last
into a bull in the myth of Europa and into a shower of gold in the myth of Danae. Other popular myth·, lmlgement those Christians who attended dances; their souls would be taken away by demons that
were that of Hermes who, transformed into a he-goat, attracted Penelope, daughter of Icarius, fmm liked such dances. In particular, he warns women who often went to the hilltop above Antioch's theatre
whom Pan was born, the myth of Apollo and Daphne, the stories of licentious Aphrodite, and the mvt h and enjoyed such shows. Women should stay home and go to church. 1744 An alternative solution, rec-
of Dionysus who invented drnnkenness. 1727 Choricius also refers to theatrical shows with Achilles, Brisl·t,,
ommended by Severns, for those who went to Daphne to attend spectacles, would be to visit first the
and Phaedra as heroes. 1728 But the sixth-century plays were written with the intention of provoki1w
, 'lmrch of St. Leontius, built at Daphne's entrance, and then with a chaste spirit go to entertainments
laughter. Thus, although these myths were directly associated with paganism, those defending I lu
larking in indecent songs and obscene laughter. 1745 Thus he composed a hymn with admonitions
theatrical spectacles insisted that they attended them for enjoyment alone; they were amused and
laughed at these stories. 1729 Jacob of Serngh, however, brings forward the old argument of Christian n mcerning spectacles:
apologists, that pagan myths were dangerous for Christians because they were immoral. 1730
These theatrical shows included dancing performances, an embarrassment to Christian moral there is quaking for those who look on at spectacles, and great fear for those who
ists, 1731
unacceptable sexual relations and performances involving naked actresses. 1732 Grotesque phy,. listen to foul sounds. And what will they do who look on at the vile effeminacies of
ical gestures and mockeries were also included to amuse the spectators and induce laughter. Jacob 111 the dancing of madness with their many gyrations, and in the thought of their heart
Serngh describes such a performance, in which one actor became "a playing-ball for the spectacle". 111 ' wander as in deep darkness, and to whom it often happens that they are suddenly

1724
CJ I.4.33; V.4.29 (a. 534); V.4.23 (a. 520-523).
1725See, for example, Historia Lausiaca XXXVII; Vita S. Matronae, c. 5 (792E-793A); Moschus, 2880C-2881B; Malalw.. 1734 Severns, Hom. 54, PO 4 (1908), 55.
241-242. 1735 Jacob of Serngh, Hom. 3, 105-106.
1726
Vita S. Symeonis Safi, 84, 88-89. 1736 Moschus, 3005D cites the 8foi:ga next to c'w8EvEi:c; fogi:ac;.
1727
Jacob of Serngh, Hom. 5, 109-112. See also W. Cramer, Irrtum und Luge. Zurn Urteil des Jakob von Sarng uber Resh 1737 Jacob of Serngh, Hom. 3, 106.
1738
paganer Religion und Kultur,JbAChr 23 (1980), 96-107. On performances of tragedies in Late Antiquity see P. Easterling and Ibid.
R. Miles, Dramatic Identities. Tragedy in Late Antiquity, in Miles, Constructing Identities, 95-111. 1739 Severns, Hom. 43, PO 36/1 (1971), 89; Hom. 18,PO 37/1 (1975), 19.
1728
Choricius, Dialexis XII.1 (p. 248), XXIX.30-32 (declamatio 8) (pp. 322-323). 1740 Severns, Hom. 41, PO 36/1 (1971), 27; Hom. 36, PO 36/3 (1972), 471; Hom. 20, PO 37/1 (1975), 63; Hom. 54, PO 4
1729
Jacob of Serngh, Hom. 5, 108-109. ! I '108), 62-63; Hom. 63, PO 8 (1912), 307.
1730 Idem,Hom. 5, 112 and pp. 12-13; Severns,Hom. 95, PO 25 (1935), 94-96. 1741 John Chrysostom, PG 49, 153.
1731 Jacob of Serngh, Hom. 2, 105: "dancing, amusement and music, the miming of lying tales"; Hom. 5, 109: "mimed with 1742 Anastasius Sinaites, PG 89, 829A.

dancing". · 1743 Vita Severi, PO 2/2 (1907), 244; Jacob of Serngh, Hom. 3, 105.
1732 1744 Severns, Hom. 76, PO 12 (1919), 142-143.
Severns, Hom. 54, PO 4/1 (1908), 55.
1733 1745 Severns, Hom. 27, PO 36/4 (1974), 571-573.
Jacob ofSerngh,Hom. 2, 103-104.
314 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 315

snatched from this life, when the dread angels come and stand over them, and they •struction, mimes provide quiet entertainment devoid of conflicts and fights. It was for this reason,
are full within of images of looseness and of the lasciviousness of fornication? And 'lu 1ricius maintains, that mimic performances are included in the program of the hippodrome, in order
how too will they endure the standing before the awful judgment-seat (~fjµa) and pacify people and help them control their passions. 1758 Finally, Choricius argues that to ban the
the experience of it? _1746 tlwatrical performances without demolishing theatres would be emotionally devastating, for people
not be able to forget them. 1759 From this statement it may be inferred that theatre buildings were
Male actors were still performing female roles dressed as women, a practice unacceptable by ( '111 standing in many large cities and may still have been used for spectacles.
ian standards, 1747 whilst in Nonnus' Dionysiaca actors gave performances wearing masks.1748 It is Theatre buildings were used for various purposes, for assemblies, to deliver speeches and for
therefore, that in the early sixth century, pantomime still maintained pagan themes, ritual and pcrr, Hll\t ivals. In the theatres people expressed their views and exercised pressure on the governors regarding
ance. Severus affirms that such performances took place in his time, and that "the theatre of the ganw'i" policy. 1760 Sources indicate that in the sixth century, several theatres were maintained and there is
(probably in the context, the hippodrome) was open and inviting, or he would not have delivered 1 v1dcnce that Christians used them for assemblies on the occasion of festivals. Joshua the Stylite
1

speeches. 1749 What alternatives could sixth-century Christians have for entertainment? In his frnu !!Turds a pagan festival held by Christians in the theatre of Edessa in 497/8:
Homily, Jacob of Serugh recommends plays with Christian plots, as, for example, Lazarus' resurrcct11
from which Christians would derive great spiritual benefit. 1750 Such performances with Christian subjt·•t- ... there came round again the time of that festival at which the heathen tales were
were probably performed for Christian spectators. sung; and the citizens [of Edessa] took even more pains about it than usual. For seven
On the other hand, intellectuals in the sixth century defended ancient culture as manifested in 11 days previously they went up in crowds to the theatre at eventide, clad in linen
ditional theatrical shows, although at the same time accepting the new order: Choricius of Gaza, in garments, and wearing turbans, with their loins ungirt. Lamps (-xav0fjAm) were
rhetorical exercise On the defence of the mimes, defended the mimes, while in his encomium to bislu111 lighted before them, and they burnt incense, and held vigils the whole night, walk-
Marcian, as was appropriate to his subject, condemned them. 1751 The elaboration of the subject in tlw ing about the city and praising the dancer until morning, with singing and shouting
first text may express Choricius' pagan ideology. Here his intention may have been to show the con I, and lewd behaviour (O'tQfjVo~)- For these reasons they neglected also to go to prayer,
diction between Christian preaching condemning the mimes and the Christians' love of these spn·111 and not one of them bestowed a thought on his duty. 1761
cles.1752 Alternatively, it may be that he was simply following the literary tradition of Libanius' Oral ii 111
LXIV and was revealing the sentiments of the educated citizens in a period in which theatre building'i Speeches were also delivered at the theatres. The panegyric of Procopius of Gaza on the emperor
and theatrical performances were in decline. In defending the mimes, Choricius reproduces Libaniw, "
Anastasius was delivered in the theatre at Gaza. 1762 Indeed, evidence from some excavated theatres in-
arguments, which defend the pantomimes but discredit the mimes. Choricius draws a rather dignifinl d1ratcs that they were used by Christians, and Christian symbols and inscriptions with Christian invo-
picture of the early sixth-century theatre. In his time, educated men could play in mimes in festivals. 1 ' ,11 ions have been found in some. The theatre at Aphrodisias, lavishly decorated with pagan sculptures,
The two main arguments of those who attacked the mimes were, first, that the plays contained stork•, was also used by Christians. Forty pieces of statues survive from its stage building, the largest number
of adultery, which had an immoral influence on children and adults and, second, acquaintance with , ,f statues to come down to us from an ancient theatre. The intercolumnar space of the scaenae frons
mimes would lead to corruption in general. 1754 Choricius rejects the accusation that to play roles ul was blocked and covered with frescoes reflecting the architectural trends of the time. The base of a statue
adulterers was morally destructive. 1755 Theatrical shows had been invented to entertain people and iu with the inscription of the governor of Caria, Vitianus, shows that the theatre functioned in the early to
duce laughter in them. In objecting to Christian ideals, Choricius defends laughter as valuable, sinct· 11 mid-sixth century.1763 Inscriptions also document that it was used for mime spectacles and that the factions
is a quality shared only with gods. 1756 This is the greatest value of theatrical shows in that they enterta111 patronised such shows in the theatre. 1764 Christians erased the names of Aphrodite and Aphrodisias on
and induce happiness in people. 1757 In contrast to horse races, which drive people mad and cau"'c 1·arlier inscriptions. If this is related to the city's new name of Stauropolis, dating to the early seventh or
late sixth century, 1765 the theatre would have been functioning until that late date, when it collapsed in
1111 earthquake. While the ancient sculptural decoration of the theatre was kept, Christian frescoes were
1746
Severns, Hymn 269,PO 7 (1911), 716-717. See also hymns nos. 270 (pp. 717-718), 282 (pp. 730-731).
added at least in the two rooms flanking the scena. In the room to the north, fragments of wall paintings
1747
Jacob of Serngh, Hom. 2, 104. See also Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 16 (p. 18).
1748
Nonnus, Dionysiaca XXII.60-63.
1749
Severns, Hom. 54, PO 4 (1908), 56-57. 1758 Ibid., c. 114-116 (pp. 370-371).
1750
Jacob ofSerugh,Hom. 4, 107-108. 1759
Ibid., c. 143 (p. 377): Tt oiiv EV'tEU8Ev ouµ~aLvEL; XEXAEL08m 1:a 8Ea1:QU xal, µaTf]V O'U1:W£ foi:avm· CJ JtOAU ◊ELV01:EQ0V E01:L
1751
Choricius, Or. II.70 (p. 45.11-15); Declamatio XI.29 (p. 485.23-25). On the Oratio VIII (Synegoria mimon) see H. Reich "H! 1m8EAELV. Ka8mQE8EV1:a µi:v YUQ xma~QUXU 1:'l]V µvtjµ11v anoµaQULVEL, e01:11x61:a 61: 01.IX eq. WU£ EQWV1:a£ EmAav8avw8m.
Der Mimus: Ein litterar-entwicklungsgeschichtlicher Versuch (Berlin 1903), 1, 204-230. 1760
Petit, Libanius, 225-227.
1752
T. D. Barnes, Christians and the Theater, in W. J. Slater (ed.), Roman Theaterand Society. E. Togo Salmon Papen I 1761 Joshua the Stylite, c. 30 (pp. 20-21).

(Ann Arbor 1996), 161-180, esp. 178-180. 1762 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c. 1 (p. 4.19-20); idem, Ep. 89.8 (p. 47); 91 (p. 49). See also Choricius, Or.
1753
Choricius, Or. VIII.5 (p. 346). IV.2 (p. 70.6-7); dialexis XVIII.5 (pp. 222-223); Or. VII.9 (p. 112.18-19).
1754
Ibid., c. 29-74 (pp. 351-361). 1763
Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 65; idem, Theatre, 103-105.
1755
Ibid., c. 75-111 (pp. 361-370). 1764
Ibid. An inscription, dated to the late fifth to early sixth century, commemorates victory of the Greens and of the
1756
Ibid., c. 30-32 (pp. 351-352); c. 92-94 (pp. 364-365). mimes of the Greens: Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 182.
1757
Ibid., c. 112-122 (pp. 370-372). 1765 Idem, Theatre, 107.
316 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 317

lltling, the hippodrome or the theatre-stadium. In any case, according to the Miracles of St. Demetrius,
mp Eusebius of Thessalonica had a dream that a 1:Q<;xyw06£ was about to perform a tragic show, the
J
,:~,,- 1 ll'S of which were the bishop himself and his daughter Thessalonica. When he woke up, he realised

f
/. I the tragodoi were messengers of great misfortune, also used to chant laments in funerals, and he
krstood that the dream symbolized the imminent threat to Thessalonica of the Avaro-Slavs (in 586).
'/
~ fact that the bishop sees in his dream that the tragodos is about to perform in the theatre suggests that
/?
/ 1
lurmances in the theatre did not belong to the distant past. From this story it may be inferred that
~ city's theatre was still functioning. On the other hand, from the change in the meaning of the word
:(1(/os it may be inferred that theatrical performances had ceased. 1769
Attacks against the Christian religion from the stage were certainly rare in the sixth century and it
unlikely that they were often motivated by pagan resistance. When John the Cappadocian forced the
l!\111 ,p of Philadelphia to go on stage with the priests and perform their ecclesiastical rites, he did so in
11.h'r to ridicule him. 1770 The old story of the conversion of a pagan actor at Heliopolis in Phoenice
hanensis, later St. Galasius, who was persecuted, still interests sixth-century historians. 1771 Moschus
'hides the story of a mime artist in Phoenice who spoke impiously about the Virgin at the theatre
, r<'t Ofoi:Qov ,:~v ay(av 0rni:6xov ~Aaacpriµ&v £0Eai:QL~Ev). Not heeding her warnings as commu-
in his dreams, he is punished with mutilation of his legs and arms. 1772 In the sixth century, the
FIG. 42. Fragments of a fresco with the representation of St. Michael from tn1hjt;cts of the shows, which were mainly mimes, were often satires of events of every day life and con-
the north room of the stage of the theatre of Aphrodisias. Wmporary social groups, such as monks and governors criticized for their abuses. Actors imitated
m, mks or ridiculed them on stage (µtµ~aaa0m ~ tµna~m). 1773 In defence of mimes, Choricius explained
they improved the citizens' life, since only they dared to reproach those in power, thanks to the
depict the archangels Michael (Figure 42) and probably Gabriel and date to the early sixth century.' Ifo,
h ,·n lorn of speech afforded by their profession. It was expected that the archons thus mocked and criticized
room may have been an oratory, and the iconography may have expressed Christians' thanks or vow',
the mimes, would restrain themselves from abuses.1774
The image of St. Michael may be seen as the Christian counterpart of Victory, many statues of whtt Ii
Mime performances attracted people from all social classes including ecclesiastics. Justinianic legis-
were found in the theatre. The Christian frescoes may have replaced inscriptions evoking Aphrnd11,
h111on forbade clerics to attend theatrical performances (Ev axrivfi xal. 0uµeAm£ nmyv(wv). 1775 Such per-
Ourania at the south end of the corridor on thescenae frons. 1766 In the Byzantine Dark Ages, the thca11,·
1, ,, mances were included in the festival at the end of the year in the palace attended by the emperor and
of Aphrodisias, together with the agora, was transformed into a fortress. The theatre at Salamis-Consta111 til
rnurt and lasted seven days. 1776 Traditions associated with the theatre varied from one city to another.
in Cyprus also appears to have been used for a short time by Christians. The auditorium and the st:w,· In <'aesarea Maritima, mime performances were part of an annual festival held outside the city and
building were destroyed by earthquakes in the middle of the fourth century. Parts of the walls and 111 111 lrnded by the governor, while a local tradition in Gaza forbade teachers to attend such shows. 1777
the architectural and sculptural ornaments were found in situ. At some later date, part of the thcaln In the past public spectacles were directly linked with urban patriotism and the generosity of public
was restored, a small stage built on the debris, and some of the front seats cleared, whilst others wt·1 lw11cfactors. John Chrysostom describes the honours given to the benefactor: he was applauded by
removed and used to rebuild the baths of the gymnasium located nearby. This small theatre did 11111 the people, named guardian and protector (xriocµ6va xal. JtQO<Ji:ai:riv) of the city, and was flattered
function for very long and the Christians who used it mutilated the statues, which had earlier fallrn rnmparisons of his generosity to the fertility provided by the rivers, especially the Nile, and by the
from the scenae frons. At the same time, poor wooden houses were built in the substructure of the caw .i On'.an. 1778 In the Life of St. Theda, the noble who financed public spectacles was honoured and
and some metal workshops were also installed, which were subsequently burnt during the Arab invasio11•, 11, daimed as city loving, generous and a friend of the people ( cptA6rtoAL£ aArJ0&£, xal. cptA6i:tµo£, xal.
of the seventh century. 1767 Finally, the inclusion of the theatres of Gaza and Neapolis in the Madaba map
may indicate that they were Christianized.
In Thessalonica the odeum/theatre on the east side of the agora was abandoned in the fifth cent11
1
ry and kilns and pottery workshops were established on the site. After the fifth century the theatre wm, lh'I Miracula S. Demetrii I, 146-147 (c. 132-134). See Mango, La vita, 254-255.
1170
transformed to collect the rainwater for the cistern in the agora's cryptoporticus. 1768 The Miracles of St John Lydus, De magistratibus 111.59. On the spectacles in Egypt see S. Daris, Lo spettacolo nei papiri greci, Aevum
WllilfllUm 1 (1988), 77-93.
Demetrius refer to Christian performances in the city's theatre, but the context is allegorical. It may also 1771
Malalas, 241-242; John of Nikiou, 77.78-81.
be that, as in other texts, here too the term "theatre" is not used for the theatre, but for another spectadc tm Moschus, 2901C-D.
1173 Novella 123.44 (a. 546) forbade such performances.

1174 Choricius, Or. VIII.119-121 (pp. 371-372).

1175
Ibid., c. 51 (p. 355). CJ 1.4.34 (a. 534); Novella 123.10 ( a. 546).
1766
R. Cormack, The wall-painting of St. Michael in the theatre,Aphrodisias Papers 2, 109-122; Roueche, Pe,formers, :rn im, Choricius, Or. VIII.58-59 (pp. 357-358).
1767 1177
Karageorghis, Sculptures I, 4-6; idem, Excavations at Salamis, 1963, RDAC 1963, 52. Ibid., c. 95 (pp. 365-366); c. 103-107 (pp. 368-369).
1768
See supra, p. 243. 1778 A.-M. Malingrey, Jean Chrysostome. Sur la vaine gloire et !'education des enfants (Paris 1972), c. 4.70-84 (pp. 76-78).
318 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 319

<:pLAOOY)µoc:;). 1779 Choricius praises the governor of Palaestina Prima, archon Stephanus, for restm II What survived from the mimes in the sixth century were the drolleries (nmyvC&m) and buffooner-
Gaza's summer theatre. 1780 While private euergetism declined, theatrical shows were increasinglv performed by jokers and jugglers, which in the past had been part of the theatrical shows. Such spec-
nanced by the state. Certain taxes were allocated to fund spectacles, and performers were bo1111d ·lcs were included in the program of the hippodrome, but also were often performed in the streets by
their obligation to perform, from which they tried to escape. Emperors, in order to secure the SfWd !nt·rant groups. John of Ephesus describes the experience of a pious couple wishing to acquire spiri-
cles for the cities, denied performers the freedom to move to other cities where they would have lw1' 1111 benefit while living the sinful life of actors. The man was dressed up as a mime-actor and his wife
better rewarded. Performers consequently became the employees of the factions. 1781 •• 11 courtesan and they were wandering in Amida, performing drolleries ( nmyvt&La) and buffooneries.
Some Christian emperors banned theatrical performances for religious or political reasons. Wt'. llmf: 'f'lwy were treated badly by the people who mocked at them, played with them and slapped them
a precedent in the practice of earlier Roman emperors, who banned dancers from Rome for cauMnl tu111md the head.1793 Performances by jokers and jugglers were so popular that they were included in
troubles and riots.1782 In 459 Leo forbade theatrical and musical performances on Sundays that w1·1t thr festival of the marriage of the emperor Maurice with Constantina, along with horse races. 1794 Since
declared holidays.1783 Pantomime performances at the festival of the Brytae led to riots. It is repor h'tl ttw public performances had diminished, groups of actors and musicians were increasingly engaged in
that in 501 about 3,000 persons were killed. 1784 In 502Anastasius banned wild animal hunts and thca111, thr service of aristocrats. 1795 In the sixth century the payments recorded on P. Oxy. 2482.43 by the Apions
cal performances. 1785 Procopius of Gaza praised Anastasius for his decision and concluded thal tl111t tnuy have been for a private service, rather than a civic obligation to support public spectacles. 1796 Later
blemish of the cities (oia OYJ ·nva XYJAI&a 'tWV unrix6wv) was cleaned away by the emperor's measu11''1, Ow Miracles of St. Artemius inform us that it was the aristocrats (archontes) who were entertained with
wisdom was restored and the cities were saved. 1786 However, such views did not find unanimous acrq1I pnformances by mimes. 1797
ance, for voices defending theatrical shows were also heard: John of Antioch regrets the ban on "beau Archaeology illustrates the fate undergone by theatres, their transformation for other uses, their
tiful dancing" (Tfjc:; xaAALCT'tY)<; OQXYJCTEwc:;) in the cities.1787 After the riots of the Blues in 522/3, Just111 t dcdine, dilapidation, the accumulation of debris, the blocking of the parodoi, the installation of poor
prohibited the spectacles and the dancers were exiled except from Alexandria. 1788 Justinian ba1111nl dw,.·llings, workshops and churches on their sites, and their final abandonment. 1798 A good example of
spectacles in Antioch after the riots in 529. However, one year later, when the theatre was destroynl
the rcutilization of a theatre for other uses comes from Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria. There a spectacle
by fire, it was restored with imperial funds.17 89 The restoration of the theatre at Sycae, a suburb ol
huilding, an odeum resembling a small theatre and attached to the public baths, was radically altered at
Constantinople in Galata, in 528, which was raised to the status of a city and renamed Justinianoupolii,. 111
lhl' end of the fifth or early in the sixth century for a new use by the Christians. The two parodoi were
a particular case, since the site was actually an extension of the capital. 1790 There is no doubt that theal,, 11
d1 ,scd, the auditorium walls were elongated, and some rows of seats and the scena were abolished. Two
were no longer a priority of imperial building policy. In the Buildings Procopius records only the restorat 1, ,11
r11l11mns were set up and the building was covered with a cupola. Crosses were inscribed on the capitals
of Antioch's theatres after the city's destruction by the Persians. 1791 More significantly, no theatn· 1'1
1111d other parts. The theatre, no longer connected by a direct entrance to the large public bath, was
mentioned as existing in Justiniana Prima, the imperial foundation at the emperor's birthplace.
,lln.:ssed from the so-called Theatre Street. Its earlier functions were transferred to the small rooms of
Later Justinian also banned the spectacles altogether and closed theatres, hippodromes and rn
the baths with steps for seats, converted into halls for meetings of various natures and perhaps teach-
cuses. Procopius claims that Justinian was motivated by fiscal concerns, since the treasury would 1111
111/'.· More than 60 inscriptions of the Greens dating to 610-612 were found on the theatre's seats and
longer support the expenses of public spectacles. The consequence of this decision for urban life is 111 ·
th,· bases of the columns. 1799
scribed in dramatic tones by the historian: "And there was both in private and in public sorrow and 1k
In some large provincial capitals, such as Alexandria, Antioch, 1800 and Aphrodisias, theatre build-
jection, as though still another affliction from Heaven had smitten them, and there was no laughte1 111
ings were maintained in the sixth century or part of this century, and were used for festivals, assemblies
life for anyone". 1792
nml shows. In the province of Palaestina Prima, the theatre of Neapolis (Nablus) was renovated in the

1779 Vita S. Theclae, c. 15.27-28 (p. 228).

°Choricius, Or. III.SS (p. 63.12-13).
178
1793
1781
Cameron, Circus Factions, 19; Roueche,Pe,fonners, 27-28. John of Ephesus, Lives, PO 19/2 (1926), 166-167.
1782 1794 Theophylact Simocatta 1.10.11-12: JtoAAol TE Twv 0auµawnmwv nav17µeQLOL TU£ acpwv auTwv E'llTQaJtEAlas TOi:£ cpt-
R. MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order. Treason, Unrest, and Alienation in the Empire (Cambridge 1966), 171
1783
Malalas, 293; John ofNikiou, 88.5 (p. 109). h,IJl'i(!LOCTLV E0Qtc'tµpEuov, OL TE EJtL CTX1']Vfi£ /1.0L◊OQOUµEVOL OL£ av E0EAOLEV µETU µql<JT1']£ a.µlAA.1']£ TU£ YEAWTOJtOLOU£ ◊Qaµa­
1784 John of Antioch, 101 (pp. 142-143); Malalas, frag. 36 and 39, Exce,pta de Insidiis, pp. 167-168; Marcellinus Comes,;,., H!llpylas ola JtEQL anouoalou TLVO£ ,:ov JtQctyµai:0£ EJtEOdxvuv,:o, tnmxol TE ETEA.oiJv,:o &.ywvE£ ... See also Mango, Daily
501; Theophanes, AM 5997. I 11<·, 349-352.
1785 Joshua the Stylite, c. 46 (p. 35). 1195 CTh XV.7.5 (a. 380); XV.7.10 (a. 385).
1786 Procopius of Gaza, Panegyricus Anastasii, c.16 (p. 18.7-9). On riots in theatres and on the emperors' response ;,, , 1796 Roueche, Pe,fonners, 28.
17'17 Miracula S. Artemii, mir. 17 (p. 108.17-18): a.VrJQ T0 yevet 'AAd;av◊QEU£, TEA.WV ax17vtxc't, OL£ µaALCTTa cptAoiJcrtv ot
Cameron, Circus Factions, 226-227, who concludes that it was the incorporation of the pantomimes in the factions that cau~nl
tensions and increased competition among factions, resulting in widespread riots. For a different view see Roucd11 1mxovtE£ EmtEQJtE<J0m.
1798 On the difficulty of evaluating the archaeological evidence for theatres falling out of use see J. R. Green, Theatre in
Pe,fonners, 30 ff.
1787 John of Antioch, 101 (p. 143.4). l11dmt Greek Society (London and New York 1994), 161-163.
1788 Malalas, 343-344. 1199 z. Kiss, Re marques sur la datation et les fonctions de l' edifice theatrale aK6m el-Dikka, in 50 years ofPolish Excavations
1789 Ibid., 376, 390-391, 393. 1111',t,.'Ypt and the Near East. Acts of the Symposium at the Warsaw University 1986 (Warsaw 1992), 171-178; idem, Les auditoria
1790 Ibid., 359. 111111ains tardifs de K6m el-Dikka (Alexandrie ),Acta AntiquaAcademiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 33 (1990-1992), 331-338.
1791 Procopius, De aedificiis II.10.22. 1800 The theatre at Daphne was restored after the earthquake of 341, and continued to be used until the reign of Tiberius
1792 II ('i78-582): D. N. Wilber, The Theatre at Daphne: Daphne-Harbie 20-N,Antioch II, 57-94.
Procopius, Historia arcana XXVI.8-10 (transl. Dewing).
320 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 321

late fifth or early sixth century: the orchestra was turned into a pool for nautical spectacles. 1801 In Elusa the \rab invasions of the seventh century. 1811 Invasion constituted another reason for the abandon-
in the Negev, the pavement of the theatre was renewed in 454, and it may have been used as an assem- ment of theatres. The theatre of Carthage, richly decorated with sculptures, was destroyed by the Vandals
bly and lecture hall. It ceased to function in the sixth century before the Islamic conquest. 1802 in It ceased to function as a theatre and crude houses and workshops appeared in the vaulted
But by the sixth century in most cities theatre buildings had fallen out of use. In the theatre of subi;trnctures o f t h e cavea. 1812
Scythopolis, the area of the west gate was occupied with private houses already in the fourth centurv The theatre of Phthiotic Thebes remained in use until the fourth century. The inhabitants of the
.' citv \vho moved gradually during Late Antiquity to the site of Nea Anchialos, found it unnecessary to
some of them with mosaic floors. In the fifth and sixth centuries part of the cavea was deteriorating. In
the sixth century it no longer functioned as a spectacle building and in the early Islamic period private build a new theatre in their new city. Presumably they were going back to the abandoned city of Phthiotic
1813
dwellings and a potter's workshop were installed on the site. 1803 In Caesarea Maritima, the theatre Thc'.,es to attend spectacles as long as the spectacles were held up to the fourth century. The theatre
ceased to function in the fourth century. In probably the early Islamic period it was incorporated into of Demetrias was deserted in the middle of the fourth century. 1814 It was dilapidated in the fifth century
the new wall and transformed into a fortress, where the monk Anastasius the Persian was imprisoned blocks from its cavea were used to build the synthronon of the Cemetery B as1·1·tea. 1815 Th et h eatre
by the Persians in 627. 1804 The north theatre of Gerasa also declined in the fifth to sixth century. Dilap- of ancient Epidaurus was dismantled and its stones were used in the construction of the early Byzantine
idation started in the early sixth century and the scaenae frons and part of the upper rows of seats col- of the city together with material from ancient temples. Around 230 seats of the theatre are visible
lapsed in the earthquake of the year 55 l. 1805 From this time on the theatre became a quarry for build- incorporated in the wall and some were found dispersed in the area. 1816 In Cyprus in the theatre of Kato
ing materials. In the seventh and eighth centuries a potter's complex was constructed on top of the col- many steps were removed to create a ramp where the blocks taken from its upper part could be
lapsed debris, and private occupation started within the crypta and outside the theatre to the south. moo pu,hed down. The theatre ceased to function around 400 and houses subsequently occupied ~he
In many cities, especially in small provincial ones, theatre buildings fell out of use gradually from 1817 The theatre of Diocaesarea (Sepphoris) was abandoned by the end of the early Byzantme
the end of the fourth century. Sometimes, after damage caused by an earthquake, the theatres, instead period. It was looted of its stones and broken seats were found accumulated in the east parodos, probably
1818
of being restored, were dilapidated and taken over by private constructions. The stage building of the to burnt for lime in a kiln established nearby, the site being used for agriculture. The theatre of
theatre of Corinth collapsed in the second half of the fourth century, probably in the earthquake of 375 Se haste (Samaria) fell into ruin in the late fourth or early fifth century and some of its granite columns
and was never restored. Around 396 dilapidation started. The building material was used to restore the 1819
removed to be used in the Church of St. John the Baptist.
city's walls before the invasion of the Visigoths, and consequently poor houses were built on the site. 1807 Several examples are known from the provinces of the Balkans. In Greece, on the site of the theatre
The despoliation of the theatre was complete. In the words of C. K. Williams "The final activity in the Messene a settlement developed in early Christian times, which continued up to the mediaeval
sequence of occupation east of the Theatre was the dismantling of the fabric of the Theatre itself. This 1s20 The theatre of Stobi ceased to function before the end of the fourth century. Immediately
was no mean labour, for the wall trench from which the stones of the cavea have been removed is about afterwards, soil and refuse began to accumulate on the site. By the early fifth century, houses were built
three meters wide and descends deeply below the road level used in the 4th century after Christ. The these deposits, while the upper part of the theatre was despoiled. The upper diazoma was completely
flanking walls at both sides of the vomitorium and the wall of the cavea now lack all but a rare block of removed and only 16 rows of seats were left under the rubble in the southern part. The seats that were
their original masonry; the buttress on the north side of the vomitorium and much of that on the south r,emoved were used in other structures, in the walls, restored before Theodosius I, into the Porta Sacra,
side also had their fabric almost completely removed". 1808 In the sixth century the theatre became a city Via Sacra, the Episcopal Basilica, the North Basilica and other buildings. The outer wall was demol-
dump. 1809 The theatre of Butrint in Epirus Vetus, today in southern Albania, probably collapsed in an i.hed to build the terrace on which was based the Episcopal Basilica. 1821 The theatre of Heraclea
earthquake in the 360s or in 375-382. Its statues from the scenae frons were found fallen in situ. The ter- :vncestis in the province of Macedonia (modern Bitola in F.Y.R.O.M.), ceased to function in the fifth
races above the theatre that supported the slope of the hill also collapsed and slowly the entire area was c~ntury, whereupon soil displaced by erosion began to fill it. Dilapidation began immediately and the
covered with soil that was carried by rainwater down from the hill of the acropolis. 1810 The earthquakes
of the mid-fourth century destroyed the theatre of Salamis-Constantia in Cyprus. It was restored and
small houses were built on the ruins of the cavea with timber and spolia. They were burnt down during rn11 See supra, p. 316; RDAC 1962, 14. Another example is the theatre of Pella: R.H. Smith et al., The 1980 Season at Pel-
of the Decapolis,BASOR 243 (1981), 17.
1812 K. E. Ros, The Roman Theater at Carthage,AJA 100 (1996), 449-489; G. Picard and M. B. Baillon, Le theatre romain

1801
I. Magen, Shechem-Neapolis, The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, ed. E. Stern Carthage, in Histoire et archeologie de l 'Afrique du Nord: Actes du V< Colloque int. reuni dans le cadre du 115' Congres national
(Jerusalem 1993), IV, 1356-1357. des Societes savantes (Avignon, 9-13 avril 1990) (Paris 1992), 13-16.
1802 18 13 Karagiorgou, Demetrias and Thebes, 185.
A Negev, The Greek Inscriptions from the Negev (Jerusalem 1981 ), 73-76; H. Goldfuss and P. Fabian, f:l.alu~a (Elusa),
ESI 111 (2000), 93-94. 181 4 M. Intzesiloglou,AD 42 (1987), Chr. Bl, 253.

1803
S. Applebaum, Beth-Shean, JEJ 10 (1960), 126-127; Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 132-133. 18 15 P. Marzolff, Das friihchristliche Demetrias,ACAC X ( 1980), II, 305.
1804 1816 Chr. Piteros,AD 50 (1995), Chr. Bl, 112.
A Frova et al., Scavi di Caesarea Maritima (Rome 1966), 57-159, 167-186; A Calderini et al., Scavi di Caesarea Maritima
(Rome 1966), 59-64; for the date: 184,242. 1817 s. Hadjisavvas, BCH 122 (1998), 694 and fig. 40; D. Wood Conroy, Textile artefacts and a fragment of cloth from
1805 Pafos, Cyprus,RDAC2000, 221-232. .
V. A Clark et al., The Jerash North Theatre. Architecture and Archaeology 1982-1983, in Zayadine,Jerash I, 205ff., 247.
1806
Zayadine,Jerash, 247. 1818 z. Weiss and E. Netzer, Zippori-1994-1995, ES! 18 (1998), 23, 25; J. F. Strange and Th. R. W. Longstaff, Sepphons

1807 (Sippori), 1986 (II),JEJ37 (1987), 280.

C. K. Williams, II, Corinth, 1986. Temple E and East of the Th eater, Hesperia 56 ( 1987), 31.
1808 18 19 Fulco and Zayadine, Coins, 197-199.
Corinth II, 140-141; C. K. Williams, II, Corinth, 1984: East of the Theater, Hesperia 54 (1985), 78.
1809 J. D. Mac Isaac, Corinth: Coins, 1925-1926. The Theater District and the Roman Villa, Hesperia 56 (1987), 101. 1820 P. Themelis,EAE 1998 (1999), 43.

1810
Bowden, Epints Vetus, 40. 1821 E. Gebhard, The Theatre at Stobi: A Summary, in Stobi III, 18-19; Mikulcik, Stobi, 81.
322 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE SPECTACLE BUILDINGS 323

PLAN 33. Early Byzantine houses built in the theatre at Heraclea Lyncestis. PLAN 34. The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens and the fifth-century Christian basilica built
in the east parodos.

stones were used in the construction of the Episcopal Basilica in the city centre and other structures.
Mainly the upper part of the theatre, especially the east and west wings, were despoiled. During the site for Christians. Finally, the skene was incorporated into a wall, an alteration indicating that it
period from the middle of the sixth century to the time of the city's abandonment the cavea was gradually had ceased to function as a spectacle building. 1824 The theatre at Priene was also deteriorating in the
covered with deposits. There during the reign of Justinian small houses of stone and mud were built (Plan 1urth century, when the upper rows of seats were dismantled. In the fifth century, it fell out of use and
33), arranged around two streets and a central structure. Large hand mills found along a wall of one of blocks from the orchestra were used to build the cathedral church to the south. Then in the fifth to sixth
them and one oven in another room indicate the agricultural character of the inhabitants' economy. century, a church was built in the east parodos by bishop Nanos. 1825 In one of the corridors of the the-
these houses late antique pottery and large amounts of coins dating from the reign of Justinian until the atre of Aizanoi (Kotyon) in Phrygia a small early Byzantine chapel was established. 1826
early years of Maurice (583/4) were found, when the area was invaded by the Avaro-Slavs. As in the The strong walls of some spectacle buildings were incorporated into Byzantine fortifications to de-
houses of the gymnasium of Anemurium, the finds in the houses in the theatre of Heraclea show that in k,nd the local communities during invasions. In Italy the amphitheatre of Spoleto was used as a fortress
' the Goths during the war with the Byzantines. 1827 The theatre of Sparta was incorporated into the city's
spite of the modesty of the dwellings, their inhabitants were well-to-do, rather than poor peasants. 1822
As in many amphitheatres and hippodromes, so in theatres, too, chapels were built after the theatres fortifications, probably at the end of the fourth century during Alaric's invasion. 1828 In the seventh century
ceased to function. At the end of the fifth century in the eastern parodos of the theatre of Dionysus at too, in some cities part of the theatre, because of its strong construction, was incorporated in the cities'
Athens, which was left outside the Herulian wall, an early Byzantine church was built and the orchestra fortifications. 1829 The theatres of Caesarea Maritima and of Miletus were turned into fortresses. 1830
was used as a courtyard (Plan 34). 1823 On the site of the theatre of Samos a Justinianic basilica was built,
whilst in the theatre of Side in Pamphylia, the Christianization of the site commemorated the persecution
1824 A. M. Mansel, Restaurationen und Umii.nderungen des Theaters von Side in byzantinischer Zeit, Byz. Congress XII
of seven Christians at the time of Diocletian. A church was built in the west and east side of the auditorium
r1961), III, 239-243; idem, Die Ruinen von Side (Berlin 1963), 11, 140.
in the fifth to sixth century. Crosses on the seats indicate the Christian presence and the significance of 1825 A. von Gerkan, Das Theater von Priene (Munich, Berlin, Leipzig 1921 ), 85; Wiegand, Priene, 478-479, 486.

1826 A. Hoffmann, Aizanoi 1987, Arbeiten im Stadion (zu den Grabungsarealen s. abb. 1), KST 10/2 (1988), 308.

1827
Procopius, De Bello Gothico VII.23.3.
1822 1828 G. B. Waywell and J. J. Wilkes. Excavations at the Ancient Theatre of Sparta 1992-4: Preliminary Report,ABSA 90
T. Janakievski,Heraclea Lynkestis.A Theatre (Bitola 1987). English summary: 146-151, esp. 150-151; eadem, L'architecture
post-justinienne aStobi etHeraclea,ACAC XIII (1994), II, 837-842; Popovic, Desintegration, 562. (1995),435-460,esp.445.
18?3 J T
-· . rav1os, 'A
J-\cVaoxmpm' ev
,
n.p- uLovumax<.p
A - 0 emgcp,
' .
PAE 1951, 41-45; idem, 'H rraAmoxgLonavLx~ ~aOLALX~ wD 1829 Des Courtils and Cavalier, Xanthos, 169: Ratte, New research, 139-140.

1830 Muller-Wiener, Von der Polis, 453-457.

iiwvumaxoD 0e<irgou,AE 1953-54, II, 301-316; idem, Pictorial Dictionary ofAncient Athens (London 1971 ), 537-551.
324 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

To sum up, the sites of the theatres were in decline in the early Byzantine period. Most of them
especially in smaller cities, fell out of use in the fourth century. In other cases the theatres were aban~
doned after they had been damaged by natural calamities. In the sixth century only a few theatres
throughout the empire, especially in major cities, were still functioning as spectacle buildings. Some
were used as assembly places for public speeches or for performances by Christians. The majority were
left to decay and their stones were recycled for other constructions. At all sites conversion for private
use is strikingly noticeable. In the substructures of the cavea or in the interior where soil gradually
accumulated private dwellings with workshops or agricultural installations were built. Parts of some CHAPTERll
theatres were taken over by small churches. Procopius, influenced by classical literary models, still con-
sidered theatres an adornment of a city and, together with other buildings, an index of its prosperity 1831
Outside the literary world of Procopius, however, theatres underwent attacks by clerics on moral and BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS
religious grounds, suffered from diminished interest on the part of municipalities and endured the
politically motivated imperial ban on shows.
On a Small Bath Revile not small things. Small things
possess chann. Cypris' son, Eros, was small too. 1832

Baths

Baths were an essential feature of urban life in the Roman empire. 1833 Various literary texts and
in,;criptions depict bathing as a personal and social experience of civilized life in cities. Orators
throughout the Roman world extol the ideal of bathing and praise the magnificent architecture of
b,il hs. People enjoyed bathing, for it provided pleasure and an aesthetically appealing setting. Consid-
erations of hygiene also played a role. Some baths at natural hot springs attracted bathers because of
th,~ir healing power. Many baths were associated with games and gymnasia and were thus the focus of
soda! life and cultural events. The large number of baths in individual Roman cities is indicative of how
uch the Romans appreciated bathing. Eleven large baths are recorded in Rome and 856 smaller
1834 In provincial cities in the East, there were also large numbers of baths. In the late Roman period

.561 baths are recorded in Alexandria, 1835 whilst in Antioch about 20 public baths are known, most of
ich were built by Roman emperors and are recorded by Malalas. Fourteen hot public baths have
been excavated at Kourion in Cyprus. 1836 Fourteen Roman and late Roman baths are known in Argos,
must of which are not published and it remains uncertain how many of them functioned at any one
1837
Construction of baths in cities was a matter of civic pride. Libanius praises the beauty of baths
Antioch, public and private, and refers to the efforts on the part of the city's tribes to compete among
liemselves in the construction of the most beautiful baths. 1838 Baths were a necessary facility even in
small towns. Arif, a sixth-century town in Lycia, with an estimated population of about 1,000, had two

1832
Paul Silentiarius, Elc; AOUTQOV µtxQov: M~ vEµfoa ~molov xaQtc; ~molmv OJtY]◊Ei:· / ~moc; xaL Ilaqil1']c; EnAETO xoilQoc;
l:gwc; (Anthologia Graeca IX.784).
1833 E. Bradner, Die romischen Thermen und das antike Badewesen (Darmstadt 1983); W. Heinz, Romische Thermen.

Padewesen und Badeluxus im Romischen Reich (Munich 1983); R. Ginouves, Balaneutike. Recherches sur le bain dans l'antiquite
::ecque (Paris 1962).
1834
Notitia Urbis Regionum XIV.
1835
Alston, The City, 160-161.
1836
D. Christou, Excavations at Kourion,ARDA 1992 (1998), 60.
1831
Procopius, De aedificiis II.10.22: oomc; ~ JtOAtc; xrnoµ'lj!eu,m, 0fo,Qa TE au,fi xaL ~aAaVELa (Antioch); De Bello Gothico 1837
A. Panayotopoulou, Pwµa"ixa xm uo,EQOQQWµa"ixa Aou,Qa orn AQyoc;, inA,gos, 377.
VIII.2.14: 0EaTQq> 61: xaL LJtJtO◊QOµq> EXUAAWJtltno. 1838
Libanius, Or. XI.244-245 (I, 523-524).
326 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 327

baths. 1839 Rural settlements, however, rarely had bathing facilities. In northern Syria, only eight small monastery of Cilicia built a bath over a spring, in spite of the hegoumenos' warnings. The spring im-
baths are recorded for a total of around 700 sites. Best preserved are the baths of Sergilla, architecturally mediately dried up and the water started to flow again only when the bath had been demolished. 1849
important since they mark the transition from the Roman bath to the early hamam. 1840 The importance However, bathing was an institution deeply rooted in the urban life of the Roman world and its tenac-
of baths in the sixth century is demonstrated in Justinianic legislation whereby baths are ranked next to even among the early Christians is indicated in various sources. 1850 Thus, for example, bishop Sissinius
works designed to provide security, such as walls and forts, works ensuring communication, such as ports, Constantinople used to take a bath twice a day, because he was not allowed to bathe three times a
1851 When Theodosius ordered that the baths in Antioch be closed, John Chrysostom notes that the
streets and bridges, food supply and aqueducts. 1841 The custom of bathing was also very attractive to some
absence of bathing was devastating, for it was an old and necessary custom. 1852 It is therefore not surpris-
of the barbarians who adopted it in imitation of the Byzantine way of life. 1842
that Church Fathers reached a compromise: moderate use of baths was safe for Christians and, indeed,
Baths were associated with paganism in various ways. Their decoration employed a repertoire of
as recommended. 1853 Christian writers employed various arguments in an attempt to justify the use
pagan themes in wall frescoes, mosaics, statues and epigrams. The gods particularly associated with
made by holy men of baths. For example, Dorotheus of Gaza, when he was studying with a sophistes, went
baths were Aphrodite, the Graces, Eros, the Nymphs, Dionysus, and Apollo. In Constantinople, the baths every day to revitalize his body after the exhaustion of hard study. 1854 Nevertheless, in
Baths of Zeuxippus contained a large collection of pagan statues representing ancient gods, mythical hristian texts the views expressed on bathing are often ambivalent. For example, St. Symeon Salos visited
heroes, philosophers, poets, orators, and historical figures, a range of statues which made a statement women's baths in Edessa as a spiritual exercise in order to resist the passions likely to arise in such an
of the cultural and political continuity of the new empire of Constantinople with ancient Greek and Roman ,'nvironment. In another episode, however, Symeon is accompanied to the baths by two angels and so
civilizations. 1843 Some baths with therapeutic powers were directly connected with temples, while other receives divine sanction for his bathing. 1855 Bathing was also associated with ancient religious rituals of
public baths were connected with the imperial cult. 1844 Religious rituals performed at the entrances of purification and ceremonies denoting acceptance into a social group. The new students of the Academy
the baths are attested as late as the fifth century and were a matter of serious concern to Christian Fathers. arriving at Athens participated in an institutionalized ceremony, which included bathing. They emerged
The association of baths with paganism and with the pagan ideal of life made them a target of the irom their bath as the equal of the students already initiated and thus were accepted into the group. 1856
Christian Fathers. The baths are an inappropriate place for Christians to frequent and Church Fathers Christianity invested bathing with spiritual significance through its use of baptism, while in theological
advise that they be avoided. 1845 Clement of Alexandria condemned bathing by women in mixed baths exts baths and bathing are used as metaphors for spiritual renewal and purification. 1857 The ritual of
on moral grounds and recommended bathing for women only for sanitary and hygienic reasons, and for miraculous healing by saints often included washing in a bath. 1858 In one of the Miracles of Saints Cyrus
men for hygienic reasons. Bathing for enjoyment was forbidden. 1846 In most early Christian texts, it :ind John at their shrine outside Alexandria, the baths by the church are considered to be as holy as the
the care of the body and the pleasures associated with it that render bathing incompatible with the church itself: the faithful would bathe, pray and receive a double blessing. 1859 Secular baths, too, could
Christian way of life. Such ideas were not totally new, since pagan intellectuals also condemned bathing qffer healing powers, thanks to miraculous intervention by saints. 1860
In the early Byzantine period, baths and bathing were also associated with superstitious beliefs. It
as an expression of a licentious lifestyle. 1847 Renunciation of bathing for pleasure is praised in hagio-
was widely believed by pagans and Christians alike that baths were dangerous, because they were
graphical sources as a virtue. In these texts, bathing is associated with the evils of urban life and it is
mhabited by evil spirits. Church Fathers wrote prayers to exorcize such demons. Protective inscriptions
mentioned alongside taverns and prostitutes. 1848 In an edifying story by Moschus, the monks of
and symbols were used to neutralize the power of the demons and protect the bathers from human
envy. 1861 In hagiographies, saints cure men struck by demons in baths, by making the sign of the cross
and spelling Christ's name. 1862 Sophronius, however, rationalized the demonic attacks in the baths by
explaining them as fainting ( oAL ywgta ), which often affected bathers. 1863
1839
R. M. Harrison and G. R. J. Lawson, An Early Byzantine Town at Arif in Lycia, Yayla 2 (1979), 17.
1840
G. Charpentier, Les bains de Sergilla, Syria 71 (1994), 113-142. See also idem, Les petits bains proto-byzantins de la
Syrie du nord, Topoi 5 (1995), 219-247. The origin of the Islamic baths may be traced back to the reduced scale of the earlv
1849
Byzantine baths: Kennedy, From Palis, 9-10. Moschus, 2937C-2940A.
1841 1850 Zellinger, Bad, 1-33; Berger, Das Bad, 34 ff.
CJ 1.4.26 ( a. 530).
1842 1851 Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica VI.22.4; Sozomenus, Histo,ia Ecclesiastica VIII.1.11.
Procopius, De Bello Vandalico IV.6.6; De Bello Gothico VIII.19.17; Joshua the Stylite, c. 75 (p. 60).
1843 1852 John Chrysostom, PG 49, 151-152: ouv~8aa ... xgovla ... xal avayxala. KalrnL TO flll 1couoao8m xa1crnov.
See R. Stupperich, Das Statuenprogramm in den Zeuxippos-Thermen. Oberlegungen zur Beschreibung durch
1853 Zellinger, Bad, 8-9, 47-67.
Christodoros von Koptos, JstMitt 32 (1982), 210-235; S. Guberti-Bassett, The Antiquities in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.
1854 Dorotheus of Gaza X. 105.10-12 (p. 338).
DOP 45 (1991), 87-96; idem, Historiae custos. Sculpture and Tradition in the Baths of Zeuxippos, AJA 100 (1996), 491-506:
1855 Vita S. Symeonis Sali, 82-83, 88.13-14; Vita S. Melaniae Jun., c. 18 (p. 162).
Saradi, Perceptions, 39-57.
1844 1850 Gregory the Theologian, PG 36, 516-517; Olympiodorus, fr. 28 ( ed. R. C. Blockley, II, p. 192).
See P. Aupert, Les thermes comme lieux de culte, in Les thennes romains. Actes de la table ronde organisee par !'Ecole
1857 See, for example, John Chrysostom, PG 49, 223 ff.
franqaise de Rome (Rome, 11-12 novembre 1988) (Rome 1991), 185-192; J. Scheid, Sanctuaires et thermes sous !'empire, ibid ..
1858 Miracitla S. Theclae, mir. 25.19-23 (p. 354), and pp. 68-69; Miracula SS. Cyri et lohannis, mir. 8.14 (p. 256), 9.11 (p. 259),
205-216.
1845
On Christian attitudes toward bathing see Yegiil, Baths, 315-318; Zellinger, Bad, 24-46; Berger, Das Bad, 34 ff. 38.7 (p. 334), 47.3-4 (p. 354), 52.3-4 (pp. 365-366).
1859 Ibid., mir. 52.5 (p. 366): xal TO AOUTQOV we; TOV VEWV ½aTEAaµ~avov, xal i!v6ov ElCTlOVTEt:; EAOUOVTO TE xal 11uxovrn,
184
°Clement of Alexandria, PG 8, 600-604, 617-620.
1847
Julian, Or. VI.186D: rnii xa8agEUELV TU ElOW m.ivrn. TU mgLnu xal ~ClEAUQU xal cpaii1ca n'jt:; n:oAEWt:; an:E1c171caxom. vEoJv a{no xal 1couTgov OQLtoftEvm, xal 6m1c11v hEL8Ev n1v Ev1coylav xagitouftEVOL
1860 Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 220 (pp. 189-190).
AOUTQU 617ft6ma xal xaftmrnmfo xal xan:171cEfo xal n:aVTa arrAciJt:; TU rnLai::•Ta. On criticism of bathing by pagans see Yegiil.
1801 K. M. D. Dunbabin, Baianim Grata Voluptas: Pleasures and Dangers of the Baths, PBSR 57 (1989), 35 ff.
Baths, 40-43.
1848 1802 Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 110 (p. 89); Vita S. Theodo,i Syceotis, c. 157.51-80 (pp. 131-132).
Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 6; Vita S. Matronae, c. 2 (p. 791B), c. 43 (p. 809E); Cyril of Scythopolis, 202.25 ff.:
1803
Moschus, 3036A; Apopthegmata Patntm, 324D; Anastasi us Sinaltes, PG 89, 1157A Sophronius, PG 87/3, 3624A.
328 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 329

In large cities, baths maintained the traditional features that served social life in the Roman style for basilicas suggests that they were ecclesiastical: two are located near Basilica A, two near Basilica
longer. While the large pool was reduced in size and replaced by individual bathtubs, ornamental pools c and one outside the walls about 100 m from the Basilica of Martyrios. 1876 One of the best-known
were added, as were halls for social meetings that replaced the function of the Roman communal frigi- ecdesiastical baths is that of Placcus in the central ecclesiastical complex at Gerasa (Plans VI, 35) near
darium. The baths at Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria were a large complex connected with the Odeum/the-
atre. When in the early sixth century the theatre was modified and the entrance to the baths was closed, a BATHS OF PLACCUS
PLAN
group of auditoria were constructed along the south and north portico of the baths. They were probably
used for recitation, delivery of speeches, as halls for social meetings and relaxation. The dry rooms of
Southwest Bath in the Athenian agora with benches placed against all the walls were probably used to
accommodate the audience for lectures by teachers. 1864 Texts in the sixth century still associate bathing
with public gatherings and testify to the preservation of an antique lifestyle at the baths by the members
of the upper class. In Antioch, the daily schedule of a typical male member of the upper class included
taking a bath at the third hour, lunch at the fourth hour, meeting friends after they had attended spectacles
and then taking care of his own affairs. 1865 A pagan scholastikos is presented in the Life of St. Symeon
Stylites in an ancient social environment: after bathing, he sits with two illustrii in one of Antioch's public
places, the so-called Diphoton, by the Winter Public Baths. 1866 As was the case in the Roman empire,
baths continued to be a place for lavish display of wealth and social status. 1867 Rich Antiochean women !;B\Tmooovr:

used to go to the baths taking with them silver water jars and vessels and were transported in public seated LJL,>.rf('

on thrones adorned with silver. 1868 The moderation in bathing expected of sixth-century bathers was
rarely in evidence on the part of the upper class: Theodora's licentious habit of spending many hours CJ
the bath was criticized by Procopius. 1869 Others, however, enjoyed bathing in a different context.
Antioch, a pious and wealthy jeweller used to visit the baths of the monks four times a week, and his wife
those of the women. 1870 Bathing could be enjoyed at any time, even in the late evening. 1871 During the reign
of Phocas, in Constantinople, members of the upper class used in particular to visit the baths after com-
munion. St. Theodore of Sykeon condemned this practice, which, in his view, was caused by wantonness
and which had no other end than bodily enjoyment (6ux <TtQi'jVO£ xat awµanx11v &noAavatv). 1872
Since the Church had accepted baths and moderate bathing on grounds of hygiene, throughout the
PLAN 35. The Baths of Placcus at Gerasa.
empire baths were built near ecclesiastical complexes, often near the bishop's palace. 1873 These are
much smaller than the earlier Roman public baths. A typical example is the small fifth-century bath by 1877
1.he temple of Artemis. An inscription indicates that bishop Placcus built the baths in 454/5. They
the Acheiropoietos in Thessalonica. 1874 The bathhouse adjacent to the Octagon in Philippi, however,
were modest and made with ample use of spolia. Another inscription records their renovation in the
was a large complex. 1875 In Thebes (Nea Anchialos) five baths are known and their proximity to Chris-
last quarter of the sixth century in terms that stress the pride of a civic benefactor in a manner resem-
bling the habits of earlier centuries (cptA6xnITT0£). 1878 Construction or renovation of bathing establish-
ments sponsored by bishops was usually part of their philanthropic program. Such baths served for-
186-l
On the baths of Korn el-Dikka see supra, p. 319. See also Yegiil, Baths, 329: T. L. Shear, Jr., The Athenian Agora:
eigners, the poor and sick, and otherwise needy. Bishop Theodore renovated baths for the lepers at
Excavations of 1968, Hesperia 38 ( 1969), 394-415; Frantz. The Athenian Agora, 32-33.
1865 Severus,Hom. 105, PO 25 (1943), 655. Scythopolis. 1879 Bishops also appear as builders of baths for the entire urban community. Bishop Marcian
1866 Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 224 (p. 195.24-26). of Gaza, in his capacity of a civic benefactor, opened a bath in the city. 1880 Baths in monastic institutions
1867 N. Zajac, The thennae: a policy of public health or personal legitimation?, Roman Baths and Bathing, 99-105, esp. 103- became necessary both for reasons of hygiene and relaxation and because they offered relief (naga-
105. See also Ammianus Marcellinus XXVIII.4.9. ~rn8(a) to the soul. 1881 Baths were built in the monastery of St. Theodore at Chora, rebuilt from the
1868 Severns, Hom. 100, PO 22 (1930), 247. On archaeological finds of silver vessels used for bathing see M. Mundell Mango,

Artemis, 263-282. In a more modest contexts, archaeological excavations reveal objects used at the baths at the time of Justinian,
such as clay bowls for the hot and cold water, glass unguentaria, candlesticks, oil lamps: BCH 117 (1993), 753.
1869 Procopius, Historia arcana XV.7.1. l87 6 Karagiorgou, Demetrias and Thebes, 193.
1870 Daniel ofScete, 371.7-9. 1877 Fisher, Buildings, 265-269; Welles, Inscriptions, no. 296 (p. 475).
1871 Moschus, 3061D. 1878 Ibid., no. 297 (a. 584, pp. 475-476).
1872 Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 137 (p. 109). 1879 M. Avi-Yonah, The Bath of the Lepers at Scythopolis,IEJ 13 (1963), 325-326.
1873 D. I. Pallas, Episkopion, Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst II, 335-371. For the ecclesiastical baths in Italy see Ward- lSSO Choricius, Or. VII.52 (p. 128.2-4): to tc AOUtQOV avEqixtm ◊La al:: tol£ OU rravrnxou t17£ Jt0AcW£ a6c6i£ (j)OltlXV

Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 135-141. buvaµEVOL£.

187-lAD 49 (1994), Chr. B2, 513. 1881 Gregory of N azianzus, PG 3 7, 220C; John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica I.15 (p. 18). See H. Hunger, Zurn Badewesen

1875 Gounaris, Valaneio. in byzantinischen Klostern, in Klosterliche Sachkultur des Spiitmittelalters (Vienna 1980), 353-364.
330 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 331

foundations by Justinian. 1882 Although archaeological evidence rarely reveals monastic baths of the
early Byzantine period, we have the baths inside the walls of the monastery of Martyrius just 10 km east
of Jerusalem, which were 13x9 m and included a caldarium, a frigidarium and apodyterium. 1883 By the
end of the sixth century, the Church had appropriated the institution of bathing, and inscriptions of the
sixth century record the involvement of the Church in the construction and restoration of baths. 1884
the late sixth century, small baths were attached to churches and monasteries in converted private
houses. Also baths built by emperors and members of the upper class were attached to pious associa-
tions, diakoniai, of the capital. 1885 Incorporation of baths in ecclesiastical complexes and initiatives
ecclesiastics in building baths is also attested in the West. 1886
The decoration of many baths in the sixth century remained pagan. In an ekphrasis John of Gaza
praises a mythological subject of the mural painting in the winter public baths at Gaza, or Antioch. Built
during the reign of Justinian, the bath included a Christian cross and about 60 allegorical figures. The
composition resembled the mosaic in Bath E at Antioch. 1887 In the restoration of Faustina's baths at
Miletus by Hesychius, a renowned citizen, lawyer, and the author of the Souda and the city Chronicles in
the early sixth century, ancient statues of muses and gods, including two Aphrodites, were kept, and have
been found in the modern excavations. 1888 The references to desire, naked Naiads, Aphrodite and the
Graces, Eros, and the Nymphs in several epigrams on baths of the Cycle of Agathias may allude to statues
still to be seen in baths. 1889 In many sites, however, Christians removed ancient pagan statues on the
grounds that they were offensive to Christian ethics. In the East Baths of Scythopolis, for example, the
statues of the frigidarium were discarded at some time during the sixth century. 1890
When the traditional classical themes ofbath decoration were abandoned, explicitly Christian subjects
were chosen for frescoes and mosaics to decorate public baths. They expressed the Christianization of the PLAN 36. Fresco with the representation of a jewelled cross in the tepidarium of the bath at Caesarea Maritima.
bathing environment and bathing ideology. Orthodox Christians commemorated the death of a heretic in
the baths of Helenianae in Constantinople, in an image representing the incident by the bathtub, where
the heretic had died. 1891 Marinus of Apamea, a chartulary, depicted Justin I in the public baths in a
narrative composition showing the emperor entering Constantinople from his native village in Illyricum
and the events that brought him to the throne. 1892 The tepidarium of a small public bath in the north suburb
of Caesarea Maritima dating probably to the end of the sixth or to the early seventh century, was decorated
with two frescoes in red, depicting the Tree of Life and a jewelled cross (Plan 36). 1893 A cross was painted
in a niche in the Western Baths of Scythopolis (Figure 43). In Salamis in Cyprus, the mosaics of the north

1882
Vita S. Theodori Chorensis, c. 22 (p. 10.3): ~aAavE1:ov ITQO£ avaJmu1cav n,Jv rrmEQWV.
1883
Y. Magen, The Monastery of Martyrius at Ma'ale Adummim (Jerusalem 1993), 45; V. Tzaferis, Early Monks and
Monasteries in the Holyland, DChAE 15 ( 1989-1990), 55-56.
1884
Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation, 155-156.
1885
Berger, Das Bad, 156; P. Magdalino, Church, Bath and Diakonia in Medieval Constantinople, in R. Morris (ed.),
Church and People in Byzantium. Twentieth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Manchester, 1986 (Birmingham 1990), 165-
188, esp. 183-184.
1886
Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 135-146.
1887
Friedlander, Kunstbeschreibungen, 135-213; G. Downey, John of Gaza and the Mosaic of Ge and Karpoi, inAntioch II,
205-212; A Cameron, On the Date of John of Gaza, CQ n.s. 43 (1993), 348-351.
1888
Milet I/9, 168-171.
1889
Anthologia Graeca IX nos. 619,620,623,625,626,627,633.
1890
See infra, p. 372.
1891
Theodore Anagnostes, Historia Ecclesiastica, ed. G. Chr. Hansen, Theodoros Anagnostes, Kirchengeschichte (Berlin
1995), fr. 52a (pp. 131-132). •
1892
Zachariah of Mytilene, Historia Ecclesiastica VIII.I (p. 18).
1893
Horton, Bath, 179 and fig. 2. FIG. 43. A cross painted in a niche in the Western Baths of Scythopolis.
 332 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 333

and south sudatorium were covered with a structure to conceal the pagan subjects of the composition. In of bodily pleasure arising from bathing is replaced by the bathers' enjoyment of the idyllic natu-
the apses of the central sudatorium, a fresco with a mythological scene was covered with plaster and over environment. Bathing ideology and experience were now marked by enjoyment in the privacy of
it a Christian inscription was painted in red of which only the word Kug(ou survives. 1894 Bathing ideology baths, in a family environment and in an idyllic natural setting. 1904
conveyed by inscriptions was also Christianized, while retaining several ancient concepts. The name The ideological changes brought about by Christianity, as well as new cultural preferences empha-
Hygeia also assumed a Christian meaning, when linked with Christ's miraculous cures. 1895 Fourth-century privacy that might have developed independently of the new religion, affected the architecture of
inscriptions of the baths at Kourion combine pagan vocabulary and Christian ideas: there is reference to bathing establishments from the fourth century on. The palaestra, which, together with the Greek ago-
Christ who protects the building and to the virtues of aidos and sophrosyne, although a reference to was the most important centre of social life, was removed. The frigidarium, the larger room and the
Phoebus in one inscription is striking. 1896 In sixth-century inscriptions, the ancient concept of &n6Aav- centre of social activity, decreased in size, whilst a new, smaller hall was used for reception, relaxation
CTL£1897 coexisted with Christian ideas. dressing. The large common pool for men and women was abandoned and subdivided into smaller
Baths and bathing were also the theme of some literary compositions in the sixth century. We have bathing units. 1905 The reduction in the size of the pool might have also been dictated by the need to
already mentioned the ekphrasis of the painting in the winter public baths at Gaza or Antioch by John conserve water. The large pool in the baths of Galerius in Thessalonica, for example, was removed and
of Gaza. Several epigrams of the Cycle of Agathias praised baths, their ancient statuary, and bathing. replaced by an apsidal fountain and the apse of a small room was converted into a pool, 1906 the trend
The healing power of water is also mentioned. 1898 While in most of these epigrams the poets' inspira- hc:ing generally to reduce the size of public baths. The difficulties faced by communities in covering the
tion derives from ancient mythology and ideals, contemporary trends are also to be discerned. Leontius expenses of large public baths might also have played a role in the reduction in the size of the baths.
Scholasticus praises the privacy enjoyed in a small bath built by the gate of the public bath in Constan- Building and restoration of large public baths had been a traditional imperial policy. The symbolic
tinople: "A citizen built me at the gate of the public bath for excellence, not for competition ( &gi:tfj; connection of the institution of bathing with urban life is made explicit in the decision of Constantine
dvrni:v, oux EQtc'>o£). Let that serve many; I supply water and scent and charm to an intimate few (xi:Tvo open the public baths of Zeuxippus on the 11th of May 330, the anniversary of the foundation of
µEAOL JtAEOVECTOLV' eyw 8' OALYOL£ t£ cpLAOt£ t£ EVtlJV(J) JtQOXO<l£ xat µuga xat X<XQlta£)". 1899 The pref- ·onstantinople. 1907 In Italy in the fourth and fifth centuries, the restoration of most of the baths was
erence of intellectuals for small baths is also found in Latin texts: Sidonius Apollinaris and his friends ordered and funded by the emperors and their delegates. There, among the utility buildings, the baths
after a meeting at a private house chose a small public bath that suited their sense of personal mod- nccupy the first place. They account for 29.2% of utility buildings, as opposed to spectacle buildings
esty.1900 The inscription in a sixth-century bath mosaic on Mount Ophel in Jerusalem reveals a shift .9%) and walls (7.9% ). 1908 Malalas praises the emperor Anastasius for building public baths in all the
from an open social life to the privacy of the family: that komes Eugenius, who restored the baths, may cities of the empire among his other construction projects. He specifically mentions the two public
bathe in health and enjoy his buildings with his family. 1901 Bathing is now presented as a family matter. i,aths in Daras, restored and promoted to the status of a city. Daras, a frontier city in Mesopotamia, was
rather than as a public activity. Such a shift from public to private life shows the early Byzantine period military post and the baths were obviously meant to serve the garrison stationed there. Their importance
to be a prelude to the Middle Ages. 1902 In some texts there is an emphasis on baths in the countryside. !or the city is suggested by the fact that they are mentioned first among the other public works undertaken
Byzantine sources praise baths on country estates for the idyllic scenery of the physical environment. there, namely churches, porticoes, storehouses and cisterns. 1909 Justin I is also praised for building
St. Melania the Younger owned a bath in an estate (xtfjµa) with sixty-two households (eno(xta), and baths at Antioch but in connection with the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. 1910 Restoration of
described by her in these words: "We had an extraordinary piece of property, and on it was a bath that baths was part of Justinianic building policy, but it was not a priority. The emperor restored or built new
surpassed any worldly splendour. On one side of it was the sea, and on the other, a forest with diverse baths in new imperial foundations to endow them with the prestige of a city. He also built them in large
vegetation in which wild boar, deer, gazelles, and other animals used to graze. From the pool, the cities, in cities with garrisons for the soldiers' enjoyment and hygiene, and in cities with hot springs, for
bathers could see boats sailing on one side and the animals in the wood on the other". 1903 The ancient rherapeutic purposes. Not one bath, however, was built or restored by Justinian in Greece. In other areas
to the north, baths are mentioned in Justiniana Prima, in the restored city of Ciberis in the Chersonese,
and near Anchialus on the Euxine at the site of warm springs where the new baths were fortified with a
189
-1 B. Karageorghis, 'A vaoxmpal l:aAa~tivoc;, 1964-1966, RDA C 1966, 13, 15. wall to protect them from the raids of barbarians. The baths mentioned in the provinces of the East and
1895
IGSyr IV, no. 1685 (Androna: EI-Anderin in Syria): T[ TO OVO~ta TOU AOUTQOU; 'Yyda. liLa rnun1c; ElCTEABOJV, 6 XQLCTTO; North Africa satisfied specific needs of the troops or were built in settlements promoted to cities. On
11vEq>~Ev 17r1Iv TO AOUTQOV Tfjc; [aouoc;. S. Mittmann, Die Inschriften des spatantiken Bades in Umm Qe;, ZDPV82 (1966), 71-73. the Mesopotamian limes, baths were built in Circesium and Zenobia, both military settlements. Procopius
1896
Mitford, Inscriptions, nos. 201-204 (pp. 352-359).
1897
For example, L. Stager and D. Esse, Ashkelon 1985-1986, !El 37 (1987), 72.
1898
Anthologia Graeca IX.631.
1899
Ibid., IX.624 (transl. Paton). 1904
On the social role of public baths in early Byzantium and ideological changes see also Mango, Daily Life, 337-341;
190
°Cannen XXIII.495-499: hinc ad balnea, non Neroniana / nee quae Agrippa dedit vel ille, cuius / bustum Dalmaticae A. Lumpe, Zur Kulturgeschichte des Bades in der byzantinischen Ara, ByzF 6 ( 1979), 151-166; Berger, Das Bad, 21 ff.
vident Salonae, / ad thermas tamen ire sed libebat / privato bene praebitas pudori. 1905
R. Ginouves, Sur un aspect de !'evolution des bains en Grece vers le Ive siecle de notre ere, BCH 79 ( 1955), 135-152;
1901
J. Crowfoot,PEFQ 1929, 16, pl. IV; M. Avi-Yonah, Mosaic Pavements in Palestine, QDAP 2 (1932), 175 (no. 146); L. Yegiil, Baths, 461; I. Nielsen, Thennae et Balnea: The Architecture and Cultural History of Roman Public Baths (Aarhus 1990),
Robert, Bulletin Epigraphique 1976, no. 751: au ~tE &vavewoac; 1Jn1cpibL xoort~oac;· ev uyd~ 1couoa~tevoc;, &1to1cauotac; TWv o6Jv I, 152; Berger, Das Bad, 90-93.
xnortaTwv, xugLe xori11 c; EuyEvLe, rii: Twv arnuTou. 1906
Ph. Athanasiou et al., Ta AOUTQ<l TWV avaxTogwv TOU foAeg[ou,AEMT 13 (1999), 191-206; Yegiil, Baths, 326.
1902
H . G . Sarad·I, A J[O' n1v xa 01l~lEQlVOT11Ta
' R t; avnvou' aQLCTTOXQaT11.
TOU JrQWTo,,u ' · B v.,,avr,vo
m r , XQ(lTOr;
, ,
xca XOlVCUVta. 1907
Malalas. 246.6-9.
LlJYXQOvcr; xauv0,Jvanr; n7r; i12wvar;, National Research Foundation (Athens 2003), 57-87. 190
8 Jouffroy, La constntction, 167-168, 319 ff., 331.
1903
Vita S. Melaniae fun., c. 18 (p. 162) (transl. E. A. Clark, The Life of Melania the Younger: Introduction, Translation and 1909
Malalas, 326-327, 335.62.
Commentary, New York 1984). 1910
Ibid., 351.52.
 334 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 335

explicitly refers to the emperor's concern to offer the soldiers in Circesium bathing amenities: "he In other cases, the restoration of baths was undertaken at the initiative of a distinguished citizen,
restored to the troops there [in Circesium] the enjoyment which they gained from the bath". He also re- but with funds provided by the emperor. The baths of Faustina in Miletus were renovated early in the
stored the baths of Palmyra, where a numerus of soldiers was stationed. In Asia Minor three new baths century at the initiative of Hesychius, and the work was commemorated in an epigram. We are
were built: one at Pythia (modern Y al ova) in Bithynia on the site of hot springs with therapeutic qualities, that no restoration work had been undertaken in the last one hundred years, and, to achieve this,
particularly popular among the inhabitants of Constantinople; another bath was built in Mocessus of Hewchius asked for an imperial donation. The epigram praises him for being an outstanding orator
Cappadocia, a fortress promoted to a metropolis, whilst a third was built in Helenopolis in Bithynia, "for returning to his dear fatherland the favour of having raised him (cp(A71t 8QEJtt~QLa JtCX1Q11L).
which was in decline, and another restored. Two other baths were refurbished, one in Nicaea in Bithynia Hesvchius set up a column with the emperor's statue and built a church. He also took the initiative in
at the lodgings of the couriers of the Public Post, and a second one in Nicomedia. The baths of Antioch prui~oting construction to protect the city from silting of the river Maeander. His contributions to
were also restored, while in Phoenicia a bath is mentioned at Curicum. Baths in North Africa are men- Miletus are recorded on the base of a statue that the citizens erected in his honour. 1920 Imperial legis-
tioned at Taphosiris by Alexandria, in Bernice in Libya, in Leptis Magna, and in the Maritime Agora of on the other hand draws a different picture, that of maladministration and corruption on the part
Carthage, named after the empress Theodorianae. 1911 of ~tate officers, and of neglect and greed on the part of the members of the upper class, which had con-
Maintenance of large bathing establishments was no longer possible for municipalities and sequences for the maintenance and function of the baths. We mentioned earlier such a scenario, de-
central government. Procopius expresses the reality of his time, when he states that the large bath called scribed in the Novel 160 regarding the funding of Aphrodisias' baths and Edict XIII regarding the funding
Antoninus in Nicomedia was not expected to be restored on account of its size (µoTQa yaQ ai'n:ou 11 the baths and other civic institutions of Alexandria. 1921
a~LOAoywtai:11 xai:mtEJt'tWXEL, µcyi8a WU EQYOU <XJtQ00Mx71to£ Ott()~ avmxofoµ71811oi::tm yi::y1:v11- Papyri attest the payment of contributions by individuals for the maintenance of public baths in the
~LEV7l).1912 In general, large Roman public bathhouses were not maintained, for they had become very second part of the sixth century. P.Oxy. XXXVI 2780 (a. 553) contains a receipt for the salary of the
expensive. The Commodium, a public bath in Antioch built by Commodus, became the praetorium ater-supplier (u◊QOXOO£) of the public baths, addressed to Flavia Gabrielia, who held the offices of
the governor of Syria. 1913 Neglect on the part of the civic administration in maintaining public baths is logistes,proedros and pater of the city. P.SB VI 9368 (a. 577/8) records the contribution (1. 2: UJtEQ µi-
illustrated in a decree of Honorius and Theodosius in 424, whereby the emperors took the initiative of of the wealthy landowner Anastasia to 514 pounds (180 kg) of lead for pipes and basins of a public
regulating the fundraising for maintenance of the baths of Constantinople. The income of the houses
bdth (1. 7: EL£ XQELav 1wv owA.~vwv xal, zaAxiwv), as it was contained in the list of the contributions and
and workshops erected in the porticoes of the baths of Zeuxippus was to be used for the construction
"'xpenses (1. 3: ,:wv Eyyi:ygaµµivwv EV 1aT£ ouv6'ljJwt). The large amount of lead suggests that it was
of new windows, repairs of the roofs and maintenance of the capital's baths. 1914
u"ed for the construction of the baths rather than for repairs, and this may have been the north bath
In the sixth century, the expense of the maintenance and heating of the baths was covered by civic,
Oxyrhynchus, mentioned in P.Oxy. XVI 2040. This papyrus dating to 596/7 contains a list of the
public or private funds. 1915 The annual cost of heating the baths of Alexandria was 492 gold coins. 1916
contributors from the entire city (naa11£ JtOAEW£) with the amount of their contribution in nomismata
the fifth and sixth centuries, governors were still maintaining baths in their provincial capitals. All the in-
nd carats to the fuel ( ovvo'ljJL£ i:wv Eyxauµa,:wv) of the new north public bath: 1. the endoxos oikos
scriptions of the West Baths of Scythopolis date to the fifth and sixth centuries and record restoration
( the Apion) (6 n. 19.75 c.: 25% ), 2. the Church (3 n. 6.25 c.: 12 % ), 3. the house of endoxotatos Kometos
works sponsored by governors. One inscription explains that in 535 the komes and consul Flavius Nysius
n. 8 c.: 16% ), 4. the heirs of endoxotatos Ptolemaios (2 n. 19.25 c.: 10% ), 5. the pagarchate (1 n. 10.5
Sergius built the baths' north portico "without touching public money". 1917 This was a private donation
5% ), 6. the endoxotatos Iustus and brothers (2 n. 16 c.: 10% ), 7. the pagarchate (1 n. 10.5 c.: 5% ), 8.
by the governor. Indeed, in the large cities of the empire members of the upper class still showed some
heirs of Valerius, komes (21.25 c.: 3% ), 9. the megaloprepestate Euphemia (1 n. 16.5 c.: 6% ), 10. the
interest in maintaining public baths. This certainly anticipates the preservation of the institution in the
heirs of Theodoulos (1 n. 14.25 c.: 6% ), 11. those from Eieme (1.75 c.: 0% ). 1922 It is significant that the
Middle Ages. An inscription from Epiphaneia in the province of Syria Secunda, probably from a statue,
commemorates the enlargement of the city's winter baths by the benefactor Elias, who had been Church, listed second after the glorious house of the Apion, had become a major contributor to the fi-
honoured by the emperor. The text of the inscription is written in Homeric language and dates to the nancing of the operation of public baths. Sources show a desire to keep the baths in operation by securing
sixth century. Elias has paid with his own money for the project and, moved by pity for the city's poor who lunds for their fuel. Calculations indicate that the fees charged in Roman baths would have covered the
worked for the construction, he has also paid their salaries. 1918 An inscription from Aphrodisias also cost of fuel and service. 1923 Although in reality additional funds were needed, it may also be that the
records a substantial donation for the maintenance of baths in the late fifth or in the sixth century. 1919 number of bathers was in decline and costs could no longer be covered, perhaps because of the
increasing preference for private baths.
Archaeological excavations give a picture of decline as regards most public baths in the empire.
1911
Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.23; IV.10.21; III.7.20-23; II.6.11-12; 8.25; Malalas, 354.17 (Palmyra); Procopius, De aedificiis Their size was reduced by successive alterations and ultimately most of them were abandoned, whilst
V.3.18; V.4.17; V.2.4; V.3.3; V.3.7; II.10.14 and 22; V.9.34; VI.1.13; 2.6; 4.11; 5.10. from the middle of the fifth century large baths were no longer built. In the majority of the sites, after a
1912
Procopius, De aedificiis V.3.7. natural disaster caused partial or total destruction of the baths, restoration works were either limited
1913
Malalas, 261.52-53.
to parts of them or were not undertaken at all by the communities. Then the baths were left to decay,
1914
CTh XV.1.52 = CJVIII.11.19.
1915
CJ I.4.26; X.30.4 (a. 530); Novella 160; Edict XIII.14-15.
1916
Edict XIII.15.
1917
Mazor, ES/ 6 (1987/88), 14-17. 1920 Miletl/9. nos. 341-343 (pp.168-170).
1918
/GSyr V, no. 1999: ... ETEU(;EV foic; XTE<XTECTCTl AOETQOV XELµEgtvov JtAmuvac;, m61cloc; b · EAEmQE JtEVY],ac;. ,Ezv17c; o'i ,a 1921
See supra, pp. 158, 161.
EXC((J'[C( ba~µovEc; &wpmEVOVTUl, EX ocpETEQY]c; JtUQEXWV '[C( TEAECT~(C('[C( ouo[ac; C(lJTO£. 19 22 Alston, The City, 315.
1919
Roueche,Aphrodisias, no. 74 (p. 115). 1923 P.H. Blyth, The consumption and cost of fuel in hypocaust baths, Roman Baths and Bathing, 87-98.
336 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 337

usually to be occupied by private structures. Twelve baths are known from the city of Corinth and its four semicircular apses facing each other. The two to the east have tubs covered with grey marble
suburbs, of which five remain unpublished. The baths of Corinth illustrate the trends of the time. The The walls of this phase are preserved up to 3.80 m. 1928 In the agora of Athens, several small baths,
Gymnasium Bath and the Baths of Eurykles fell out of use at the end of the fourth century. 1924 The modest in design and material, were built. They were located on the southwestern side of the agora,
Great Bath on the Lechaion road, a large monumental bath, was gradually abandoned in the early one. the most luxurious, being located in the Palace of the Giants. The largest of all, the Southwest
Byzantine period. In the fifth and sixth century debris accumulated over its court. In the late fifth to the had rooms for lectures (Plan XV). 1929 At Philippi, the baths of the Octagon to the north of the
early sixth century a lime pit was dug in the entrance impeding access to the bath from Lechaion Road. E,::natia were 28.30x28.30 m large and included many and various rooms (Plan 38). Changes occurred
Several alterations were introduced and the pool in room 1 was closed. In its courtyard a fairly luxurious in the baths in the middle of the sixth century. Some rooms were divided in two (the tepidarium and the
dwelling was built at the end of the fifth or early in the sixth century. 1925 latrine), and it was divided into two wings, one for women and the other for men. In the first half of the
The small bath in the South Stoa of the forum was abandoned in the second half of the sixth cen- seventh century the wing for women ceased to function. 1930
tury after the earthquake of 551. 1926 The preference for small baths is manifested here in a small rather
luxurious sixth-century bath built on the southeast side of the city's forum (Plan 37). It dates probably
to the second quarter or to the middle of the sixth century and its architecture and materials are char-
acteristic of the age. The walls of the entrance hall were covered with coloured marble and the pave-
ment made of marble slabs. The frigidarium had two small tubs, of interior diameter 1.4 m, with apsi-
dal walls and semi domes. The walls were covered with blue schisty marble, whilst the tepidarium was
barrel-vaulted and the walls covered with marble slabs. The caldarium was cruciform, with three small
rooms and a central main room. The north and south rooms had small tubs, decorated with schisty blue
marble revetment and covered with barrel vault. 1927 An early Byzantine bath in Thessalonica has a sim-
ilar architectural arrangement. It was built in the fifth century and at the end of the early Byzantine pe-
riod was levelled and a new bath, of which only the caldarium survives, was constructed on the site. This

I.

II.

---ell
PLAN 38. Plan of the baths of the Octagon at Philippi: I. Early phase. II. Later phase. The entrance is to the
PLAN 37. Plan of the sixth-century Panayia bath at Corinth at hypocaust level and at floor level. north from the decumanus maximus. 1 & 2. Frigidarium. 3 & 4. Tepidarium. 7, 8, 9. Caldarium. 11. Open air
space. 12 & 13. Latrines. 14. Natatio frigida. 15. Porter's room where the visitors paid the entrance fees.
16. Apodyterium. 17. Frigidarium. 18. Open courtyard surrounded by porticoes.

1924
C. K. Williams, II, Excavations at Corinth, 1968, Hesperia 38 (1969), 62-63.
1925
Corinth XVII; Corinth XVI, 16-21.
1926 1928 I. 0. Kanonidis,AD 49 (1994), Chr. B2, 493.
Corinth I/iv, 145-151, 153-154; Corinth XVI, 8.
1927 1929 Frantz, The Athenian Agora, 30-33, 107-108.
G. D.R. Sanders, A Late Roman Bath at Corinth. Excavations in the Panayia Field, 1995-1996, Hesperia 68 (1999),
1930 Gounaris, Valaneio, 32-34.
441-480.
338 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 339

Antioch was given numerous baths in the course of its history by Roman emperors: the baths
of Agrippa, Tiberius, Varius in the reign of Caligula, Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius
Commodus, Septimius Severns ( two baths), and Diocletian (five baths), Valens and Hellebichus. From'
archaeological excavations six baths are known. Bath F, located inside the Justinianic wall to the north
was restored in 538 after destruction by an earthquake, on smaller scale, some parts being left ruined.'
After a new destruction by fire in 540, it was abandoned. 1931 Bath C was also abandoned after its
destruction by earthquakes. The smaller Bath A was also destroyed and only its peristyle court was
restored in the late sixth century. 1932
In the civic centre of Scythopolis there were two baths, to the east and west of Palladius Street. The
East Baths underwent changes and fell out of use, having been converted to other functions in the early
sixth century. The pagan statues of the frigidarium, considered offensive to the Christians, were removed:
some were thrown in a pit, others were found scattered. In contrast, the West Baths of the city (Plan
39), built early in the fifth century, were remodelled and expanded to become one of the largest baths
known in Palestine (95x60 m). The water system of the baths was also used for the adjacent public
latrines. In the middle of the sixth century alterations were introduced and are characteristic of the
II
trends of the time. In the west portico an apsidal basilica (9x45 m) was built. The apse was covered ~II
a colourful glass mosaic and the hall with a mosaic. But the mosaic floor of the courtyard with a fine
geometric design was covered with a pavement of marble flagstones. Later a wall blocked the entrances
to the earlier exedrai opening to the west side of the basilica. In the middle of the complex, the pool west
of the pillared hall was filled in and converted into a peristyle. In the last stage of the baths, four I.
o--~,0==2~0--3om
rectangular pools were built at the two east ends of the porticoes. The baths functioned until the end
of the sixth to the early seventh century. 1933
Various late alterations to the baths of Bishop Placcus in Gerasa are marked by a similar process
(see supra, p. 329, Plan 35). The entrance to the bath, originally an open portico (B 34), was closed
the two ends, thus forming two rooms (B 37 and B 32). The original pool was subdivided in two units
(B 47 and B 43 ). A latrine was installed in a room next to the entrance (B 35), while in the earlier phase
the latrine was located away from the entrance at the extreme end of the complex (B 48). Before the
end of the sixth century, six of the eight columns of the atrium of the baths (A 52) were removed and
used in the staircase of the cathedral. 1934 The alterations are marked by a reduction in size of the larger
rooms, and by a closing up and reduction in the size of earlier open spaces. There is also a noticeable
lack of concern to maintain earlier standards of refined life, as can be observed in the establishment of ,,JF:::~ a.;] •.
the latrine by the entrance.
In Caesarea the magnificent and large bathhouse, built in the fourth century, fell out of use before
the end of the early Byzantine period and was robbed of its materials. Another bath, however, was built
1~
.J wm::::a • •
at the end of the sixth century or in the early seventh century in the city's affluent northeast suburbs
outside the walls (Plan 40). Some of its features, like the large rooms, especially the frigidarium, the
courtyard leading to the baths' entrance in front of the frigidarium, and the large outdoor pool next to
the tepidarium suggest that its function was public. Its size was approximately 525 m2. It had all the tra-
ditional features of Roman baths: a praefurnium, apodyterium, a small caldarium for only two bathers,
bt rrl Il [g
~
n

Mosa,c~

tepidarium, unctorium and a frigidarium with a large round pool and a bench. The tepidarium was dee- II. r--

PLAN 39. The West Baths at Scythopolis: I. The early phase. II. Plan of the baths with changes
1931
Antioch III, 8-9. that took place in the sixth century.
1932
Antioch I, 4-7 (Bath A), 19-31 (Bath C).
1933
Mazor,ESI 6 (1987/88), 10-18; idem, ES/7-8 (1988/89), 22-26; Bar-Nathan and Mazor, ES/ 11 (1992), 38-42; G. Mazor.
Public baths in Roman and Byzantine Nysa-Scythopolis (Bet Shean), in Roman Baths, 293-302.
1934
Fisher, Buildings, 265-269.
340 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 341

-: -
( ·~ ..
fun,:tions and the late alterations are marked by the poor quality of material and work. 1937 The baths of
\-:;;~~~~~;--:==¥-=s
- ---
._.. ___ , ,___ ~ __
, -
~ - -_- .,."_----n.
,.,..
,,/•. ,~~n,,·,.·.
·,....
~
el-Dikka in Alexandria fell out of use before the Arab invasion. 1938
Towards the end of the sixth century and during the seventh century, on the sites of most of the
·.. ., i
abandoned baths the earlier large rooms and peristyles were subdivided to accommodate workshops or
.,.~:-·'?'l "" d,, ellings of the poor. At some sites, this last stage of the baths dates to the period of invasions, when
~ ' .....
~ .,:,,

,.•.:eJ
peasants from the countryside fleeing the invaders settled in urban baths. At Justiniana Prima, the bath
I >-" ., ,c:s,

ou I side the urban fortifications was transformed into a small fortified settlement defended by a wall. 1939
Other baths were destroyed by the invaders. The destruction of the baths near the Octagon in Philippi
·; ha" been linked with the invaders. In Argos, a luxurious private bath was destroyed by the Avaro-Slavs
in he 580s and dwellings were established on the site. Numerous kitchen objects, lamps and glass found
in the excavations reveal the nature of occupation. 1940
The reasons of the decline of the public baths were financial and cultural. The diminishing finan-
resources of the cities made it increasingly difficult to keep up with the cost of maintenance. The
maintenance and gradual collapse of the Roman water supply system severely affected the oper-
1on of the baths, as it reduced the volume of water available. In some cases, the decline in mainte-
nance of public baths is directly associated with the abandonment of aqueducts. For example, during
reign of Justinian, the aqueduct of Constantinople was broken and the authorities did not repair it,
the result that very little water reached the city and all the baths were closed. 1941 The poor main-
h:nance of the aqueduct at Corinth brought about the decline of the city's baths. 1942 The huge Roman
b:,thhouse in the centre of Gortyn was reduced in size in the early Byzantine period and at the time of
J ustinian it finally ceased to function, probably because of the destruction of the water system. 1943 In
her baths, careless repairs display diminishing competence in engineering. In the suburban baths of
PLAN 40. Bath in the northeast suburb of Cesarea Maritima (late sixth to early seventh aesarea, built at the end of the sixth or in the early seventh century, poor drainage caused the earlier
century): A Apodyterium. C. Caldarium. P. Praefurnium. T. Tepidarium. drains to silt up in the last stage of the baths' life. When some repairs were made, new drains were
U. Unctorium. F. Frigidarium. placed above the floor, instead of beneath it, damaging a small step-pool, which was not removed. The
d_Jcial environment in which the baths now functioned had dramatically deteriorated. Since repairs did
solve the problem of poor drainage, new pipes, like the old ones, silted up after some time. 1944
orated with two frescoes with Christian repertoire in red depicting a Tree of Life and a jewelled cross urthermore, in periods of invasions, during the military operations, the destruction of aqueducts by
(see supra, p. 331, Plan 36). It is unusual to find in a late sixth century bath such a large, round pool as enemy affected the functioning of baths. 1945
that of the frigidarium, surrounded by benches and four rooms, a legacy of Roman baths. This might The archaeological record reveals a picture of gradual decline and abandonment of most public
reflect the attachment of the district's wealthy residents, who had probably sponsored the project, to baths, which were usually given or were taken over for use as dwellings and workshops. Some examples
ancient traditions. Also characteristic is the large pool (53 m2) at the northeastern corner of the complex. illustrate the trend. The large Roman bath CG north of the acropolis of Sardis and east of the Byzan-
which was either ornamental or was used to collect rainwater, or both. There was also a latrine at the 1946
1 ine wall was abandoned in the early seventh century when it was flooded. The central baths in Bostra
western edge of the complex, at a comfortable distance from the main halls of the bath. By the frigi- c·eased to function from the end of the fourth century, after which refuse thrown from a neighbouring
darium at the southeast corner was a small pool perhaps for footbaths. 1935 The bath was carefully built
relatively large for the period, with some of the traditional architectural features of Roman baths.
Members of the upper class in this prosperous provincial capital could maintain the ancient bathing 1937
Pella of the Decapolis 2, 18.
tradition for longer. 1938W. Kol;,itaj,Alexandrie VI. Imperial Baths at Korn el-Dikke (Warsaw 1992), 43-56, esp. 51.
One of the best-preserved baths in Asia Minor is the Roman bath east of the Lower Agora at 1939
Kondic and Popovic, Carici.n Grad, 130-135, 317 ff.
1940 P. Au pert, Objets de la vie quotidienne aArgos en 585 ap. J.-C., inEtudesArgiennes, BCH, Suppl. VI (Paris 1980), 395-457.
Sagalassos. After suffering damage from the earthquake of 518, it was restored, continuing to function
1941
on a smaller scale, until it finally collapsed in an earthquake in the middle of the seventh century.1 936 Procopius, Historia arcana XXVI.23.
1942
Lolos, Aqueduct, 297-298.
The baths at Pella continued to be used, although some of the rooms were converted to serve other 1943 Di Vita, Gortina V, LXI-LXII; M.A. Rizzo, II settore E: Gli ambienti orientali delle terme, Gortina Vl, 641-655.

1944
Horton, Bath, 183-184, 187-188.
1945
Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.19.27.
1935 1940
Horton, Bath, 177-189. J.C. Waldbaum and G. M.A. Hanfmann, The Roman Bath CG: Site, Plan, and Description, and idem, The Roman
1936
Sagalassos Vl, 336-362. Bath CG; Construction and Decoration, in Hanfmann and Waldbaum,A Survey of Sardis, 139, 165.
 342 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 343

workshop accumulated inside it. 1947 Some of the rooms of the Roman baths of Corfu, repaired in the furnishings. Most baths, after falling out of use, were given to private persons to be used as dwellings
fourth and fifth century, housed pottery and glass workshops and were probably destroyed by earthquakes workshops. Only in the large cities were some baths maintained, thanks to imperial patronage, the
1948
in 551. The small bath of the Church of Acheiropoietos in Thessalonica was converted into workshops interest of the governors, members of the upper class and the Church. The Christian religion and a
during the Byzantine Dark Ages. 1949 In Gortyn, families of peasant artisans settled in the small baths bv genuine change in people's taste had altered the ideology of bathing and brought about radical modifi-
the Basilica of St. Titus, while a cemetery with forty-six burials appeared in the immediate area. 1950 Ve~ cations to the plan of baths, thereby emphasizing privacy and modesty. 1957 The appropriation of the
few studies focus on late alterations to baths, the nature of the industries established there and the eco- i1,:;titution of bathing by the Church and the interest of the urban elites ensured its continuity into
nomic situation of the artisans. The finds in the houses built in the luxurious private bath of Argos have mediaeval Byzantium.
been mentioned. A good example of houses and workshops established in baths is found at Anemurium.
The encroachment on the large Roman public baths started in the middle of the fourth century. Work-
shops were installed in the rooms of the baths. In the adjacent palaestra poor houses were built, the finds Aqueducts
indicating that the owners were peasants, fishermen, a tailor, a leatherworker and a jeweller. The houses
The elaborate water supply systems that provided urban communities with running water by means
were solid, but of rural type, with beaten earth floors and poorly mortared walls. All the baths of
aqueducts was one of the greatest achievements of the Romans and a mark of civilized urban life.
Anemurium, damaged in an earthquake of ea. 580, were abandoned. The small bath in the northern
Dionysius of Halicarnassus praises aqueducts as one of the most magnificent works of Rome, which show
section of Anemurium, built in the second half of the fifth century, was also damaged by the earthquake
greatness of the empire(£~ wv µaAuna 1:0 1:fjt; 1hrµoviat; 1oµcpaivr1:m ~teyr0ot;) on account of their
of 580 and retail shops took over the site. 1951 The East Baths of Leptiminus in Tunisia were stripped of
usefulness (dt; 1:0 XQ~mµov 1:fjt; xmaoxrufjt;) and of the magnitude of the expenditure involved (dt; 1:11v
their material, tiles and marble and were modified with makeshift walls. Pottery kilns were installed inside avaAwµa1:wv JtoAll"CEAEtav). 1958 Cisterns and wells could provide urban communities with drinking
as were workshops for metalworking. Butchers also established themselves here and there is evidence of water, but only running water brought by aqueducts from distant sources into the cities could offer the
some bone working. 1952 In the troubled years of famine or invasion, social changes, combined with aesthetically attractive environment of fountains and the advantages of bathing. In the Antiochikos,
economic decline, undoubtedly affected the function of some baths. In 500/1, the Chronicle of Joshua the .ibanius elaborates on the importance of Antioch's water supply system with rhetorical emphasis: the
Stylite mentions the presence of temporary establishments between the columns of the porticoes of the Erace (charis) of the water, its purity and clarity, the enjoyment which one derives from bathing, and the
winter bath at Edessa, erected at the governor's initiative to accommodate peasants who moved from the ::'reatest pleasure of all, drinking. The description of Antioch's water supply system is remarkably lengthy
countryside into the city at the time of the famine. 1953 The Miracles of St. Demetrius report that during the md comprehends the springs of Daphne and the temple of the Nymphs, the aqueduct and water channels
first Slavic attack against Thessalonica, Slavs who sought refuge inside the city were allowed to settle bringing water to all houses and public fountains. 1959 The temple of the Nymphs is shown in the Yakto
baths that were not functioning. 1954 1
11osaic as a circular building with three steps surrounded by a portico and forming a pool in the middle of
Yet, while in the sixth century very few public baths were built with provincial or municipal funds. which floats a small boat. 1960 Malalas mentions the Hadrianic aqueduct of Antioch and the emperor's
or were financed by the emperor, baths were built or restored by the Church and small baths were buildings at the springs of Daphne. Hadrian constructed the so-called Theatre of the Springs of Daphne
added to private houses. 1955 Although from the last quarter of the same century in most provinces the and the temple of the Springs from which the water was flowing out from five streams. Inside the temple
communities and state officials lacked the interest and the funds to maintain the earlier public baths, the Springs was placed a seated statue of Zeus holding the celestial sphere as an expression of gratitude
private baths were still maintained. Papyri document the materials needed for specific repairs of baths ior having completed this tremendous work (1:0 rntourn cpo~EQOV EQyov). The new Hadrianic aqueduct
attached to large houses. 1956 that brought water into Antioch collected the water of streams flowing into a set of ravines named the
To conclude: bathing establishments gradually declined from the fourth century onwards. The 1\griai. Another aqueduct provided Daphne with water from some spring in the Agriai, which was also

large baths of the Roman type were transformed into smaller complexes and most of them were subse- known as Pallas. 1961 Full of admiration for the engineering work, Libanius describes Antioch's aqueduct
quently abandoned. There is a notable preference for smaller baths, more modest in design, materials in these words: "... contriving a covered road for the stream through the lower slopes of the mountain, in
some places hollowing out the slopes, in others building additions, and in some places carrying the way in
the air over bridges, where the cliffs make this necessary, men bring to the town the abundance from the
1947
J.-M. Dentzer, Fouilles franco-syriennes a !'est de !'arc nabateen (1985-1987): une nouvelle cathedrale a Bosra?. suburbs". 1962 Antioch surpassed all other cities in the abundance of its water supply. 1963
C01:5Rav 35 (1988), 34.
1948
AD 49 (1994), Chr. Bl, 413.
1949
E. Marki,AD 49 (1994), Chr. B2, 514. 1957
Mango, La vita, 244-246 considers the decline of the public baths a consequence of the lack of financial resources and
1950
Di Vita, Cortina I, 140-141. population decline, while for Berger, Das Bad, 34 the Church was the major factor in the decline of the baths from the late
1951
Russell, Urban Life, 146-148. For the houses in the palaestra see supra, pp. 307-308. sixth century.
1952
L. Stirling (with contributions by D. Mattingly and N. Ben Lazreg), The East Baths and their industrial re-use in late 1958
Dionysius of Halicarnassus III.67.5.
antiquity: 1992 excavations, in idem, Leptiminus (Lamta), Report No. 2. The East Baths, Cemeteries, Kilns, Venus Mosaic, Site 1959
Libanius, Or. XI.240-248.
Museum, and other Studies (Portsmouth, Rhode Island 2001 ), 29-73. 1960
Antioch I, 129-130, fig. 10.
1953
Joshua the Stylite, c. 43 (p. 32). 1961
Malalas, 209-210.
1954
Miracula S. Demetrii I, 191 n. 3, 196. 1962
Or. XI.243 (transl. Downey, p. 678).
1955
Sodini, L'habitat urbain, 386-387; A Kourenta-Raptaki,AD 49 (1994), Chr. BI, 109-111. 1963
c. 244: xal vuv qi ~l(l/1.LCTTU VlXUlflEV. rnu1:6 £01:LV, on xmaggurnc:; llfllV 17 rr611.1c:;. Kal rrgoc:; µi:v TO.A/I.a xav avawxuv1:17om
1956
See, for example, P.Oxy. VI 915 (lead and tin) and 1002 (lead, a. 572). nc;. EV 61: u6anov [LV17µ17 rrav-rec:; erxouCTL.
344 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 345

In the early sixth century, writers continued to value aqueducts on the grounds that they ensured pn,jects is spent and that the work is completed. State officers often demanded taxes from the cities for
prosperity for cities. The construction of an aqueduct in Heliopolis by Anastasius was an honour to the various works, including the cleaning of the water conduits or drains. The bishop and the leading citizens
city, wrote Procopius of Gaza (T~v TE yaQ noALv c'pou ◊Ei:v nµao0m Ta JtQErtovw). 1964 To provide the w,3 e not to give in to such demands. In order to impede the illegal actions of state agents, the emperor
cities with water for drinking and for bathing was considered by Procopius of Caesarea a basic service odered that the financial officer (logothetes) responsible for such civic works should be nominated by the
required in the foundation of a city ( otxLCTT~£ av autfit:; ◊Lxaiwt:; xaAoi:w ). 1965 Choricius elaborates on emperor. 1974 In the Justinianic Novels, the maintenance of aqueducts was the governors' responsibility
the value of the water supply for the cities when he refers to the competitive spirit of the cities in the am;mg the other public works, harbours, streets, bridges and walls. The funds required derived from special
construction of water fountains: a municipal officer, the astynomos, invented "a playful as well as ta,;es imposed on the population or from municipal revenues. Justinian attempted again to impede illegal
advantageous device to make the inhabitants compete with those cities which have pride in waters'' (t,u- e\action of taxes by the state officers on the pretext that they would be used for maintenance of aqueducts
CTLTEAE£ oµoil xat TEQJtVOV e~EUQE 61iµwu9.y1iµa xat ◊E◊WXE TOL£ eVOLXOUCTLV eo.itav JtQO£ TU£ &.yaA- other public amenities with new laws. 1975 In the Novel 128.16 of 545, the maintenance of water conduits
Aoµtvat:; u◊am noAat:;). 1966 An inscription from Elusa in the Negev records the invention of a hydraulic again mentioned immediately after the cities' corn supply. The emperor was concerned that fiscal
machine by the pater of the city. 1967 In the cities of Palestine, inscriptions show that the leaders of and wealthy citizens were retaining civic funds normally allocated for the corn supply and aque-
communities cared for the water supply system until the end of the sixth century. 1968 d 1cts. The perpetrators were to pay a penalty to the city of double the amount they had retained. Justinian
Roman cities relied on both aqueducts for their water supply, and on water fountains and cisterns concerned at the consequences that corruption of state officers and wealthy members of urban com-
inside urban centres, whilst aqueducts were also used to irrigate gardens and fields around cities m unities might have for the maintenance of the urban water network. The supervision of the maintenance
through smaller channels. Bostra, for example, had one central water fountain, one aqueduct, restored work by the bishop and the urban leaders, the nomination of the logothetes by the emperor, and the
by Justinian, and two large cisterns (the east cistern had capacity 99,120 m 3 and its size was 14,160 , p,?nalties with which the perpetrators were threatened were evidently hoped to bring the desired result.
the south cistern had capacity l,180/1,200 m 3 and its size was 20,800 m 2 ). The aqueduct brought water However, the laws repeatedly passed on this issue show that the situation was beyond control.
through channels to the gardens around the city. 1969 The aqueduct of Damascus supplied water to the Justinian included several new aqueducts in his building program. They were constructed in J ustiniana
city, to gardens and to fields as far as 40 km. Prima, Trebizond, Daras, Constantina, in Helenopolis in Bithynia, at Pythia in the same province where
In the past, the maintenance of water conduits and drains had been a munus imposed on corpora- 1here was a spring with healing waters and where he built a palace. 1976 Aqueducts and water conduits
tions or other social groups. Difficulties in financing maintenance of aqueducts and public drains with \\Cre restored in Antioch, Heraclea, Anastasioupolis in Rhodope, in Nicaea in Bithynia, in Ptolemais in
liturgies had forced the emperors to look to other alternative sources of funding. It was an old Roman tra- 'vrenaica, and in Cyprus. 1977 According to Malalas, Justinian restored the aqueduct of Constantinople,
dition that landowners were required to contribute to the maintenance of conduits that passed through n;nverted the central hall of the Basilica of Illas into a great cistern and restored the aqueduct of
their estates. 1970 A law of 330 orders that aqueducts be cleared of accumulated rubbish by the landowners \lexandria. 1978
over whose lands aqueducts passed and who were therefore to be exempt from extraordinary burdens. Inscriptions indicate that private persons rarely contributed to the maintenance of water conduits
they neglected their obligation, however, the fisc was to confiscate their land. 1971 Theodosius II relieved :md cisterns, although they did so in some cases together with the authorities. At Heliopolis (Baalbek),
the guilds of Alexandria and ordered that 400 solidi be paid from the dinummi tax. 1972 According to certain Sosibios paid for the restoration of a water conduit or of a wall to contain the water of a
Marcellinus Comes, the emperor Marcian issued decrees ordering those who become consuls to spend ,tream, and a fountain with the prayers of bishop Theodotus. 1979 At Bostra the water conduit was ren-
money on repairing the city's aqueduct, rather than disburse it to the people. 1973 In the sixth century. 0wated through the generosity (ex cpLAmtµiat:;) of Justinian, at the request (ex no.rn~dat:;) of the bishop
aqueducts were maintained on imperial initiative or through the governors' and bishops' care. In a series and with the care of a banker (argyroprates ). 1980 In Gortyn three individuals, Georgios, loannes and
of laws Justinian shows great interest in maintaining public amenities in the cities, including aqueducts. Helladios, are mentioned as having cooperated ( ouµnQa~ovTwv) over the renovation of a cistern and
Justinianic legislation of 530 mentions, among the civic works entrusted to bishops and leading members its floor (5 th -6 th c.). Georgios is also mentioned in another inscription in connection with some unspecified
of urban communities, water conduits, which are referred to immediately after measures for the provision work regarding the city's water supply system. Unfortunately the wording is vague and the nature of the
of food for the cities. Bishops and community leaders are to make sure that the money allocated for such work is not mentioned. 1981 Julian of Ascalon shows that the maintenance of the drainage system in the
cities was an obligation on the owners of the urban properties. 1982 Undoubtedly private interest without
the coordinated supervision of the state administration could not have been sufficient to sustain the
196
Procopius of Gaza, PanegyricusAnastasii, c. 18.
-1
1965
Procopius. De aedificiis II.5.11.
1966
Choricius, Or. V.34.
1967 1m CJ 1.4.26 (a. 530); X.30.4 (a. 530).
SEC 20 (1964), no. 482: xal rni'.m1v n1v n'jc:; t(l)V ul'>an,)V ~lExav11c; 6 t,a~mgornrnc:; rmn7g 'D.ag[wv EcpEiJQEV UQETl]V.
1968 1975 Novellae 17.4, 24.3, 25.4, 26.4 (a. 535), 30.8 (a. 536).
Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation, 156; idem, The water supply of Roman and Byzantine Palestine in literary and
1976 Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.21; III.7.1; II.3.24-25; II.2.5 ff.; II.5.10-11; V.2.3; V.3.19.
epigraphical sources, in D. Amit, J. Patrich and Y. Hirschfeld (eds.), The Aqueducts of Israel (IRA suppl. 46, Portsmouth,
1977 Ibid II.10.22; IV.9.14-16; IV.11.13; V.3.1; Vl.2.9-11; V.9.36.
Rhode Island 2002), 37-67.
1969 1978 Malalas, 364,372.
K. Mukdad, L'approvisionnement hydrique de la ville de Bosra, in CorsRav 35 (1988), 171-203.
197
°Frontinus, De aqueductu, 125. 1979 IGSyr VI, no. 2830.

1971 198 0 IGSyr XIII, no. 9134. Sodini, L'artisanat, 95 n. 219 suggests the reading agyugongarnu, rather than agyugoxonou or
CTh XV.2.1. See also supra, p. 196.
1972 agyugoJtOlOiJ (jeweller).
CTh XIV.27.2 (a. 436)=CJ XI.29.1. Libanius, Or. XLVl.21 (III, 389) mentions obligatory contributions for the
1981 Bandy, Inscriptions, nos. 32, 33.
maintenance of aqueducts.
1973 1982 Julian of Ascalon, c. 45 (p. 67).
Marcellinus Comes, s.a. 452.1.
346 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 347

cities' water supply and drainage system. Imperial funding was often available at the bishops' requestl 983 probably after 541/2, a new system of arches was constructed to carry water into the city. This was a
and bishops increasingly appear to take responsibility. 1984 Understandably, the cisterns or water project, and in the early seventh century one line that was still maintained supplied water to the
conduits built by bishops often served primarily monastic or ecclesiastical complexes and only some- main church and baptistery. Later, around 670 there were about forty fountains and two great
times communities at large. 1985 As we move into the early seventh century, the bishops' involvement in nymphaea. 1992 The water supply system of Stobi was destroyed during the invasion of the Goths or by
the maintenance of aqueducts becomes more visible: the construction of the aqueduct of Salamis earthquakes in the sixth century. The baths consequently ceased to function, with the exception of the
(Constantia) in Cyprus lasted more than ten years and it is recorded in seven dedicatory inscriptions baptistery of the Episcopal Basilica, which functioned with lead pipes well into the sixth century. 1993
( and one now illegible) of the early seventh century. Inscriptions state that archbishops Plutarch (619-625) Corinth had plenty of natural springs, for which the city was renowned in antiquity and which satisfied
and Arcadius (628) were in charge of the project. The emperor Heraclius only completed the last part civic needs except those of the baths for the function of which large amounts of water were carried
of the work, consisting of the seven arches from the hippodrome with imperial funds in 631. 1986 During into the city by means of the city's Hadrianic aqueduct. The poor quality of the construction of the
the reign of Heraclius, the bishop of the city of Germia in Galatia constructed a large cistern in aqueduct and the declining interest and financial means of the community caused it to fall out of use
city. 1987 In some cases, the wording of inscriptions referring to bishops' repairs or construction of water in the fifth century. 1994 The Roman city of Sagalassos in Pisidia had natural springs in the city
conduits misleadingly inflates the nature of the work. Thus what has been taken as the construction and six aqueducts that brought water into the city from distant springs. During the fourth and the
of an aqueduct by the bishop of Zenopolis in Isauria was probably a fountain decorating the atrium of fifth century the water system begun to decline. Water reservoirs were subsequently built at various lo-
a church. 1988 catitms in the city. One, probably fed by melted snow, was located by the Northwest Hernon, whence
Water conduits and cisterns required frequent care because debris accumulated over the years, wah:r was brought to the city centre. The water of the Antonine Nymphaeum in the Upper Agora was
reducing the flow of water. Cleaning of public cisterns is recorded in inscriptions. 1989 Choricius describes collected and brought to other locations. It is possible that earthquakes, in particular the earthquake of
the decline of Caesarea's aqueduct that caused water shortages. The gg8wtta of the administration led 5 had weakened Sagalassos' water network. In the sixth century there was an effort to collect water
to the neglect of the drains and caused the waters to flow sluggishly. Some springs consequently fell wh,~re it still flowed. For example, in the abandoned bouleuterion rainwater was collected with terra-
out of service, frustrating the large numbers of citizens attempting to get water from the remaining coua pipes into a structure on the western seats. The water of the Hellenistic Doric fountain was dis-
functioning fountains. In 526, the governor of Caesarea Stephanus sponsored the works needed to tributed to the city by means of three pipelines, an indication that the water supply of the city had been
repair the aqueduct. 1990 reduced. The earthquake in the middle of the seventh century destroyed the water network of Sagalas-
1995
Archaeological excavations and literary sources reveal that urban communities had difficulties in SO" and the site was abandoned. At Gadara in Palaestina Secunda in Jordan there are two water
keeping up the maintenance and restoration work of aqueducts. Evidence of the survival of Roman tunnels that cross the limestone hill. The second tunnel was not completed and the project was abandoned
aqueducts into the Middle Ages is rare. One exception is at Antioch, the aqueduct of which appears to in third century. Both tunnels run parallel following the contour of the hill, their length being 23 km.
have been maintained in later centuries. 1991 We can see the decline of the water supply system in A':l occurred at many other sites, tunnel A was silted up in the sixth century. 1996
Gortyn. The Roman network of water pipes, which provided all the districts of the city with water, was With the decline of aqueducts, the communities come to rely more on cisterns and wells, which
severely damaged by earthquakes. The water was then brought into the city from cisterns built near the multiply in this period. Cisterns had always been an important part of the water supply system of many
hills to the north, employing water pipes, which from the fifth century gradually diminished in number Roman cities in provinces where the water was limited. In some settlements private buildings included
as well as in the quality of materials used. The new pipes were made from small amphorae whose lower whilst peristyle courtyards had an underground cistern. In most cities, aqueducts were used to
parts were broken off and then inserted into each other. From the fifth to the seventh centuries, the earlier water mainly to public monuments, but there were larger urban centres in which aqueducts sup-
water supply system was gradually replaced by public water fountains. During the reign of Justinian, houses directly. Some cities combined public aqueducts with public and private cisterns. 1997 Justinian
built a large underground cistern in the Imperial Portico, because the water coming to the city in the
summer was insufficient. 1998 According to the Buildings of Procopius, the emperor constructed cisterns
1983
IGSyr XIIL no. 9134 (Bostra); V. Besevliev, Spatgriechische und spiitlateinische /nschriften aus Bulgarien (Berlin 1964), at Daras, Sisauranon, a fortified town (polisma) in Mesopotamia near Daras, Hemerium near the
no. 3 (p. 2; a. 580) (Serdica). Euphrates, Antioch, Thermopylae, and at Athyras near Rhegium. He also dug a fountain in the fort of
198
-l MAMA III, no. 106a (Olba in Isauria; a. 566-567). In Abila of the Decapolis in Phoinice Libanensis the building: of on the East frontier, and wells and cisterns in monasteries in Jerusalem. 1999 In the southwest
the upper Umm el Amad aqueduct was sponsored by the Church and completed in 568/9: AJA 96 (1992), 537-538. The three
underground aqueducts of the early Byzantine period are large with periodic engineering. In one an inscription records that
the tunnel was cleaned out at the time of the bishop in 568.
1985
A. di Vita, Gortina, Atti della Scuola,ASAtene 62 (1984), 1988, 221-240.
John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica II.41 (pp. 157-158); J. Kubinska, L'eveque Firminianos de Zenonopolis et son 3
'"' Hattersley-Smith, Public Architecture, 63.
aqueduc, Les Etudes classiques 62 (1994), 169-175; H. Delehaye, L'aqueduc de S. Socrate a Zenonopolis, AnBoll 30 (191 i), 1
' "1 Lolos, Aqueduct, 271-314, esp. 297-299.
316-320; L. Robert, Hellenica XI-XII, 579 n. 7; Feissel, L'eveque. 824 n. 104. F. Martens, Urban Water Management at Sagalassos. Studying Urban Development from an Hydrological Perspec-
1986
J.-P. Sodini. Les inscriptions de J'aqueduc de Kythrea a Salamine de Chypre, in Eupsychia II, 619-638. th,:. Demoen, The Greek City, 49-86, esp. 68-71.
1987
Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 161.5-7 (p. 138). )% S. Kerner et al., Water Management in Northern Jordan: The Example of Gadara Umm Qays, in Jordan VI, 265-270.
1988
See supra, n. 1985. 17
'' C. Mango, The water supply of Constantinople, in C. Mango and G. Dagron (eds.), Constantinople and its Hinterland.
1989
For example. H. C. Youtie. Ostraca from Sbeitah,AJA 40 (1936). 452-459. from the Twenty-seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993 (Aldershot 1995), 9-18; H. Schwartz,
199
° Choricius, Or. III.44-49 (pp. 60-62); Ph. Mayerson, Choricius of Gaza on the Watersupply System of Caesarea, /El 36 Pmt~rns of Public and Private Water Supply in North Africa, in Humphrey, Excavations at Carthage 1977, 50-54.
( 1986 ), 269-272. 'nx Procopius, De aedificiis I.11.10-15; Malalas, 364 and cisterns by the imperial palace: 400-401.
1991 9
Kennedy, Antioch, 194-195. '" Procopius, De aedificiis II.2.1, 4.13, 9.10, 10.14; IV.2.6; V.9.14-22; II.4.22-24.
348 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 349

section of Sergiopolis (Rusafa), a large cistern appeared in the middle of the sixth century and smaller During enemy invasions and sieges, aqueducts were cut off by the enemies in order to exercise pressure
ones date to the early seventh century. 2000 In Pella in the late sixth or early in the seventh century, a on I urban population. Urban inhabitants consequently turned to cisterns and wells for their water
huge reservoir was built with a capacity of 300,000 litres north of the West Church. Other, smaller cis- Thus, when Belisarius cut off the aqueduct of Naples during the siege of 535, this had no conse-
terns were built, suggesting that the public aqueduct was declining. In Petra the earthquake of 363 dam- quences for the besieged, because they had sufficient supply of water from the wells. In Rome, the Goths
aged the network of the water supply system and the repairs made were of poor quality. Furthermore, des1royed the fourteen aqueducts to deprive the inhabitants of drinking water, but they too relied on
the dam of the torrent Siq suffered damage and, as a result, the civic centre was no longer protected The baths, however, were totally closed, whilst Belisarius constructed a huge cistern at his residence
from the accumulation of material deposited there by the water. As a consequence of the deterioration 7). 2008 According to the Pragmatic Sanction 25, the Byzantines took care to repair the aqueducts in
of the water system, the citizens constructed more cisterns in their houses to collect rainwater. 200 i At Renne. but springs, cisterns and wells dug to get water from Roman drains were more reliable sources of
Anemurium the aqueduct was probably destroyed in the earthquake of 580 and was left unrepaired. watt;r. 2009 In Thessalonica, the cryptoporticus connecting the upper with the lower parts of the agora was
The city's inhabitants thereafter dug wells for their water supply. 2002 In general the impression given transformed into a cistern in the first half of the sixth century, as well as the south portico of the lower part
by the archaeological reports is that towards the end of the early Byzantine period aqueducts were of agora. These changes were probably introduced as a response to the invasions. 2010
neglected and cities increasingly relied on cisterns and wells for their water supply. The diminishing resources of the cities, the neglect of the authorities and enemy invasions caused
The impact of the reduction in running water delivered by aqueducts on the decline of the urban pop- the decline of the cities' water supply system. During Procopius' time, ancient Roman aqueducts attracted
ulation is disputed. Certainly, as Ward-Perkins pointed out, large cities existed before the introduction of admiration ( oxaov &~to8fornv ov1:a ), a statement that indicates how long ago such buildings
Roman aqueducts. 2003 On the other hand, archaeological evidence and literary sources indicate that the had been erected. Procopius did not conceal his admiration for Rome's fourteen aqueducts inside
neglect of aqueducts seriously affected several urban centres, since some Roman cities developed in sites a horseman could ride, while one of Belisarius' soldiers was curious to observe how Naples' aqueduct
that depended on water brought through aqueducts from a distance. The deterioration of the aqueduct wa, constructed and how it brought water into the city. 2011
of Sardis and its replacement by wells may have been the reason for the abandonment of the houses on
the acropolis slopes. 2004 By contrast, the aqueduct built by Justinian beside the Church of St. John in
Ephesus created the incentive for the development of a settlement on the site that later became the centre Concluding thoughts:
of mediaeval Ephesus. 2005 Procopius observed that urban communities, such as Heraclea and Ptolemais, cultural changes in their historical context
which had not been able to maintain their water supply network, suffered depopulation. He elaborates on
the causes of the destruction of Heraclea's aqueduct: " ... time, following its custom, had destroyed the The image of the sixth-century Byzantine city is that of a public space shrinking before the pressure
city's aqueduct, since it either failed to notice that its masonry had become enfeebled by age, or else was of private interests. Urban public space that in the past gave expression to the city ideology of the
leading the people of Heraclea to their own destruction ( EJtt 1:11v cp8ogav) through their neglect of it (n'f) Hellenistic and Roman periods was dissolved and given to private owners. Wealthy persons who
~01 tmµEAETo8m)". As a result, Heraclea became almost depopulated ( oA(yov 'tE &o(x11ws; bta rn\: 10 1 req ucsted ownership of vacant civic lots and buildings initiated the process of the privatization of public
'HgaxAELCX EAEAELJt'tO cTvm). Ptolemais was also depopulated because its inhabitants, suffering from land. Initially this was done under the auspices of the state and municipal authorities who extracted
thirst, had left the city long ago (1:wv yag olx111:6gow oJtOAU£ o~uAos; bhjJEL txo~tEvm noAA('f) E~mgooOi.-:v ren 1 from such transactions for the benefit of the imperial treasury or in order to address state and civic
tv8Ev◊E E~avao1:av1:Es; a.JtEXWQllCTCXV onn exaCT't(J) bvvma ytyovEv). Justinian brought back prosperity to needs. It was inevitable that powerful individuals should exercise their influence on the state adminis-
the city by restoring its aqueduct. 2006 In the Secret History, Procopius points to the emperor as respon~ible tra i to acquire public property cheaply, although the process was counter to the public interest.
for the neglect of Constantinople's aqueduct. When the capital's aqueduct was damaged, it was not repaired General population increase, movement of population from the countryside into the cities, sedenta-
nor was there any willingness to spend money on its repair (vJtEQEWQWV LE xat oub' cmouv aun'f) JtQOE- ion of nomads in new urban districts in some provinces and the prosperity of the artisan class all
o0m ~8EAov), with the result that very little water reached the city. The inhabitants suffered the incon- cre;1ted demand for more commercial and residential space. Administrative changes and the demise of
venience of getting water from public water fountains and were deprived of public baths, all of which were paganism created available lots and buildings and offered opportunities for their appropriation. Cultural
closed. Procopius criticizes the emperor for spending money on buildings overseas and new palaces in the shaped attitudes in which the dissolution of the public space was possible.
suburbs of Constantinople, while at the same time neglecting its aqueducts. 2007 Christianity dissociated itself from ancient civic space. It resisted any attempt to Christianize civic
imtitutions: its aim was to replace those institutions so deeply embedded in paganism. Together with
the institutions went the buildings that housed them. The Church created new centres in cities and new
2000
districts around parochial churches. While public civic space was allowed to decay, the areas around
W. Brinker, Zur Wasserversorgung von Resafa-Sergiupolis, DaM 5 ( 1991 ), 119-146.
2001
Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 221.
2002
Russell, Urban Life, 147-148.
2003 Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 121-122. Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.8.45; V.19.13, 28; VIII.12.21-27; De Bello Vandalico IV.1.2; H. Broise et al., Rome:
2004 C. H. Greenewalt, Jr., M. L. Rautman and N. D. Cahill, The Sardis Campaign of 1985, in W. E. Rast ( ed.), Preliminary Pi:1cio (Jardins de Lucullus), MEFRA 112/1 (2000), 449.
9
Reports ofASOR-Sponsored Excavations 1982-85 (RASOR Suppl. 25, Baltimore, MD 1988), 55-92, esp. 57, 60-61 and n. 4. · • ' CIC, app. II, VII; R. Coates-Stephens, The Water-supply of Early Medieval Rome, in C. Bruun and A. Saastamoinen
2005 (e:b. L Technology, Ideology, Water: From Frontinus to the Renaissance and Beyond. Papers from a conference at the Institutum
Foss, Ephesus, 92 and n. 96.
2006 Procopius, De aedificiis IV.9.14; VI.2.10. Ronwnum Finlandiae, May 19-20, 2000 (Rome 2003), 81-113.
2007 Historia arcana XXVI.23-24. For Saliou, Les Lois, 119-120. absence of political will or a choice on the part of the See supra, pp. 242-243.
11
governing class, rather than financial restrictions, were the reasons of the abandonment of aqueducts. ·. Procopius, De Bello Vandalico IV.1.2; De Bello Gothico V.19.13; V.9.11.
350 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY BATHS AND AQUEDUCTS 351

churches, sidewalks, and porticoes were taken care of, the best available materials, often removed from Vvith the collapse of the Roman administrative system, and the gradual dissociation of the upper
public buildings and porticoes, were used in construction and repairs, and every effort was made to upgrade class from the ideals of ancient culture, the administration's control over city planning was relaxed. The
the sites and beautify the surroundings of the churches. Archaeology reveals that in many cases com- imagery of the empire and imperial symbolism were abandoned when ancient culture declined. The
munity funds were directed towards constructing new churches or renovating old ones, while urban lir:ks with the past were cut and the sense of continuity in urban architecture was broken. The organi-
features serving practical needs, such as streets and porticoes, bridges and water supply systems, were zational patterns of the ancient world had to be replaced. It has often been stated that the adoption of
increasingly neglected and left to decay. We have shown how Christian ideology presented a set of new concepts of urbanism actually constituted a return to pre-Roman local traditions. This may hold
religious and moral accusations against ancient urban life in civic centres and attacked urban activities some' truth for the provinces with an ethnically and culturally diverse population. However, the disso-
that were connected with public civic space and paganism. There was a coordinated effort to Christianize lution of civic public space is a general phenomenon, found also in cities of Asia Minor and in Greece.
the ancient city, which involved rhetorical accusations against ancient forms of civic life 2012 and the It obvious, therefore, that the new concepts of urbanism were primarily dictated by the people's
promotion of Christian ideology and modes of social behaviour. The texts I have cited above anticipate pracl ical needs and their private interest, when the Greco-Roman model of administration ceased to
a partial answer to the problem of the change in urban public space. 2013 Christianity called for a revaluation the cities and the culture of the elites changed under the influence of Christianity.
of all values and traditions. New architectural forms and new aesthetic tastes consequently emerged in The cities gradually lost their ancient monumental appearance, their orderly planning and their
the cityscape. New needs were created and they were to be satisfied in the churches. Expressions of impn:ssive monuments, most of which were treasures of art and symbols of the vanishing ancient culture.
public life attended by extravagance in urban architecture and grandiose civic projects were condemned. The magnificent ancient buildings of the administration were left to decay, dilapidate, or were taken
The tendency created by Christian ideology was the antithesis of the ideals of the ancient pagan cities. over private persons and converted to other uses. The buildings for spectacles were also in decline
The Church valued humility, chastity, modesty and sanctity, a reversal of pagan urban values. The and the end of the early Byzantine period were abandoned, whilst inside or around them poor
impression made by Christian preaching on people's attitudes toward the concept and function of dwellings and artisans' installations were established. Only the hippodrome of Constantinople survived
urban space must have been considerable. After the fourth century there were increasingly fewer pagan and was possible, because spectacles had been incorporated into imperial ceremonies. Aqueducts, no
intellectuals who could defend the model of the ancient city. The world was changing radically in terms long,cr maintained, were replaced by cisterns and wells. Only the aqueduct of the capital, Constantinople,
of religion, ideological orientation, artistic perceptions, and social values, all of which dramatically surnved into the Middle Ages, but its function was interrupted during the Byzantine Dark Ages. 2016
affected the physical environment of the cities. Later in the eleventh century, in the collection of judicial The decline of aqueducts and the reduction in funds available seriously affected the function of the
decisions by the Byzantine judge Eustathios Rhomaios, the end of private munificence for the con- large public baths. Christian ideology also played a major role in the abandonment of public baths in
struction of buildings for public spectacles and baths and the organization of spectacles for the people's favnu r of small private ones and in the modelling of a new culture of the institution of bathing in accordance
enjoyment is explained as a consequence of the new religion: Christianity made its priority the salvation with Christian values. Bathing survived in the Middle Ages, for it had been accepted by the Church and
of the soul over the pleasures of the body. 2014 the 11pper class.
Hellenistic and Roman principles of urbanism were abandoned. Orthogonal city planning. the These changes suggest decline. 2017 The decline in public space obviously does not imply a decline
large avenues, porticoes and sidewalks that were symbols of urban prosperity and Roman imperial of city itself, nor of the urban socio-economic life, nor a reduction in population. 2018 Sauvaget rightly
power were slowly replaced by irregular planning, narrower streets, closed porticoes and the building contrasted the dissolution of urban planning with the population increase and expansion of the urban
up of earlier open public places. The disciplined order of urban public space expressed through archi- inhabited area during the early Byzantine period. 2019 While he regarded the neglect of the urban
tecture the prestige of the city and of the Roman state. In the words of W. MacDonald, authorities in maintaining the ancient urban planning as a symptom of decline, he realised the difficulties
im1 1 ived in this interpretation, given the population increase at exactly the same period. Other indications,
The cardinal themes of this empire imagery focused on the scenic unification of hm\ ever, point to a gradual material decline in the early Byzantine period: the deterioration in the quality
spaces and elevations. Highly mnemonic because they alluded to familiar composi- of constructions and repairs, so characteristic of the early Byzantine structures is manifested every-
2020 Engineering work applied to large-scale projects inherited from Rome gradually deteriorated.
tions of the past - colonnades, temple fronts, recessed volumes, and the like - they
recapitulated these older images in inventively articulated designs ... Strolling Roman ports, for example, deteriorated and were abandoned. After the end of the early Byzantine period,
down the Embolos at Ephesus, for example, from the civic buildings above to the the shipping of merchandise reverted to pre-Roman practices: in the absence of artificial harbours, since
huge agora below and then along the Arkadiane boulevard to the harbour, the ar- ships could not reach the coast, cargo was transported from the ship to the coast by means of small
chitecture of imperial imagery would have been seen again and again just as in While it would appear obvious that this was a consequence of the inability of the state to maintain
Rome - in fountains, temples, baths, memorials, a library, archways, peristyles, and the Roman level of engineering, it has been suggested that ideological reasons caused this change. The
column displays. 2015

Mango, Le developpement, 56-57.

Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 141: "We can call "decline' or "deterioration' the period in which the streets were narrowed
2012
I. Sandwell, Christian Self-Definition in the Fourth Century AD., in I. Sandwell and J. Huskinson, Culture and Society to public squares were invaded by encroachment of private buildings".
in Later Roman Antioch. Papers from a colloquium. London. 15th December 2001 (Oxford 2004). 43-50. Liebeschuetz. Decline, 29-30: the building up of public space has been "interpreted as a symptom of urban decline and
2013 Saradi-Mendelovici, Demise, 376-394. On the impact of Christianity on people's culture see Haldon, Byzantium, 32-+ ff. de1:10ralization, but in fact it may often represent simply a more 'laissez faire' attitude to the development of cities''.
201 -1 Peira 67.1. ,,; Sauvaget,Alep, 67.
2015 MacDonald,Architecture II, 219, 219-220. See also Alston, The City, 329. See infra, pp. 446-448.
352 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

early Byzantines preferred natural arrangements to the artificial monumentality of their Roman prede-
cessors. 2021 The decline of civic financial resources, of competitive private patronage and the weakened
state were of course major factors. The exception to this pattern of decline was churches, where the
resources of urban communities were directed collectively and at the level of private patronage. Cultural
transformation and the crisis in the upper class were the other causes of the decline of the civilization of
the polis, as we know it from the Roman period. The obvious signs of deterioration in material culture
mark the end of the early Byzantine period as an introduction to the Middle Ages.

PARTY

BETWEEN THE CITY OF THE PAST

AND THE CITY OF THE FUTURE

2021
S. A Kingsley, 'Decline' in the ports of Palestine in late antiquity, in Lavan, Recent Research, 69-87; J.-Y. Empereur,
BCH 109 (1985), 989: the port of Amanthous in Cyprus was reduced. On the technology used see R. L. Hohlfelder. Building
Harbours in the Early Byzantine Era: The Persistence of Roman Technology, ByzF 24 (1997), 367-378. In Constantinople in
the Dark Ages the harbour of Theodosius was abandoned and silted and the overall capacity of the ports of the capital for
commercial activites was reduced to about one fourth: Mango, Le developpement, 55-56.
354 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTER12

AT THE EDGE OF ANTIQUITY:

PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY

iv !:x6.arn (;r;oAEl) OE µEra TO ulxoc; aexiJ rofi

~j ~· !'
AOlJWl! awµaroc; lEQC1 xai VECp. 2022

~:~~\
:~,-! Early Byzantine cities developed in an environment replete with ancient monuments displaying
?~
sculptural and painted decoration that derived from pagan myths and heroes. The pagan past was present
everywhere in the urban landscape. It dominated civic buildings, civil basilicas, theatres, baths, gymnasia,
street porticoes and fountains. 2023 Above all, temples and statues remained the symbols of the ancient
In the years of dramatic confrontation of the Christian religion with paganism, new urban
was gradually developed in opposition to the pagan past. Urban topography was reshaped to convey
a Christian ideology. The pagan monuments were taken apart. Some were ruined and abandoned,
others were reutilized in new Christian complexes, yet behind the magnificent fac;;ade of others lurked
poor houses and workshops. The opposition of the Church to ancient spatial organization and urban
culture has been emphasized in our previous chapters above. In this chapter, we focus on the remnants
of pagan monuments so broadly dispersed in the cities, the new symbols and new aesthetics created,
and what they meant to the sixth-century Christians.

Pagan temples

Early Byzantine cities inherited an enormous number of pagan temples, most of which were prob-
private sanctuaries. In the SyriacNotitia UrbisAlexand,inae, which derives from a Greek original of the
century, about 2,478 temples are mentioned in the city of Alexandria: in quarters A to E, 308,
855, 800, and 405 temples are recorded respectively. 2024 The temples were the cities' landmarks,
conveying a powerful symbolism and linking citizens to a heroic past, ancient myths and religious festi-
Libanius praises the temples in connection with the cities: " ... the temples give fame to the cities,
are the cities' pride, they have to be maintained ... be zealous of their maintenance as part of the

FIG. 44. The Red Hall or Temple of the Egyptian Gods in the lower city of Pergamon, later converted
into a church dedicated to St. John. It was located next to the Roman forum crossed by the Holy 2022
Libanius, Or. XXX, c. 4 (III, 89.16-17).
Street leading to the famous Asclepieion to the West. The walls of the Red Hall stand up to about 2 23
'' Choricius, XXIX (Declamatio 8), 33 (p. 323.18-20): El µ/ov yag de; EUJIQEJTELCTV ayogac:; EY£YOVEL TO ayat-µa 17 AOVTQOU
20 m high (see H. Koester (ed.), Pergamon, Citadel of the Gods: Archaeological Record, Literary lj OXY]V17c:; eyxanwmoµa, oia JIOf,Aal X!'Xt17Vtal JIOAEtc:;.
Description and Religious Development, Harrisburg 1998, 77-110, esp. 99-103). 2024
P. M. Fraser, SyriacNotitia UrbisAlexandrinae,JEA 37 (1951), 104.
356 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 357

fabric of the cities" (f::v ,:cj) awµau ,:wv noAEo.JV). In vain did the pagan orator try to save them from of threat from paganism. Procopius, for example, states that in the forum of Rome, the temple of
destruction by the Christians by suggesting that they be used merely as buildings (mivnD~ be dmv oixo- Janus in front of the Senate, which the Romans opened only during times of war, had remained closed
6oµ~µma), even when they were not used as temples. The temples in the countryside, destroyed by the city's conversion to Christianity. In 537, during the siege of Rome by the Goths, the Romans
monks, were the "soul of the countryside", for they marked the beginning of settlements. 2025 There is at:empted to open its doors secretly, but, symbolically enough, the doors would not open fully. Some of
substantial evidence that in many cities temples were neglected from the third and fourth century on, the patricians in despair brought out the Sibylline oracles. However, they failed to interpret them
many because of declining funds. 2026 From the fourth century, temple property was confiscated by the correctly because, as Procopius explains, the oracles, since they were not recorded in order, were to be
fisc. The emperors occasionally gave part of the confiscated properties to the Church, or the Church herself understood only after the events had occurred. 2035 Paganism belonged to the past.
directly appropriated temple property. Sozomenus, when referring to the closing of temples by the The sixth century marks the end of pagan antiquity. The last remnants of paganism were eradicat-
Christian emperors, states that pagan temples were transferred to churches that needed either the sites ed Justinianic measures. Justinian began the persecutions of the pagans immediately upon his ascent
or the materials of the temples. 2027 Until the end of the early Byzantine period, temples, if they had not to throne, in 528/9 and they were repeated in 545/6 and in 562. In large cities, the remaining pagans
been transferred to private individuals or to the Church, were regarded as state property: during the wen: members of the upper class. They held high offices in the state administration and Justinianic
reign of Phocas, Pope Boniface IV asked the emperor for the property title to the Pantheon of Rome. 202s measures were directed at them. Procopius considered that the religious persecutions of the aristocrats
The anti-pagan measures of Theodosius were decisive in suppressing paganism. The temples were and rhe confiscations of their properties satisfied the emperor's greed. 2036 Justinian, engaged in a struggle
ordered to close and pagan cults forbidden, whilst bishops and monks often attacked and destroyed wit the established aristocracy, 2037 was willing to lift his measures against them, if they adopted
temples. In the fifth century, sources recognize that even the gods to which temples were dedicated had Onhodoxy. 2038 The closing of the Academy at Athens by Justinian was a final blow to the intellectual
long been forgotten. 2029 In the sources of the sixth-century, temples are mentioned as having been power of paganism, while at other sites temples were dismantled and conversion achieved by force. 2039
abandoned or destroyed long ago. 2030 Severns emphatically states that by then the pagan oracular centres, Traces of paganism are mentioned in the countryside of Asia Minor. John of Ephesus was sent on a mis-
such as those at Dodone, Delphi, Olympia, Nemea, Epidaurus, Isthmus, Daphne and Heliopolis (Baalbck), sionary expedition to the provinces of Caria, Phrygia and Lydia to convert the remaining pagans in the
were silent and closed. Temples had been destroyed to their foundations and their idols overturnect. 2031 countryside. He destroyed temples and erected ninety-nine new churches and twelve monasteries. 2040
By the time of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius, the site of the temple of Senouth in Menouthis Pai1.ans were also converted in Pentapolis in North Africa during the rule of Justinian, and their presence
in Egypt had been covered by sand from the sea, the cult having long ago been completely forgotten, is attested in Palestine. The temple of Pan in Banias (Caesarea Philippi) in Israel was probably destroyed
whilst the proasteia and numerous bathing installations flanking the street leading to the famous temple in late sixth or early seventh century and pieces of cult statue~, statuettes and votive offerings removed
at Canopus had been entirely destroyed. 2032 The sites of ancient temples, if they had not been sanctified and gathered in a room near the temple. 2041 In Egypt, the Blemyes were still pagans and Narses, acting
by the erection of churches, were places to be avoided. In other cases, they were regarded as unclean on orders of the emperor, dismantled their temples, placed the priests in confinement and transported
and so could be assigned sordid new functions. For example, on the outskirts of Alexandria criminals the statues to Constantinople. 2042 The two pagan cities Augila in Libya with shrines dedicated to Ammon
were executed by the demolished temple of Cronos. 2033 After the destruction of the Serapeum, the and to Alexander, were also Christianized by Justinian. Persecutions continued in the reign of Tiberius
Tycheion, the most prominent temple in Alexandria's agora, dedicated to the Tyche of the city, was pagans were discovered in Heliopolis and Antioch, most of whom were high-ranking officials.
transformed into a wine shop. 2034 Sine.\; similar accusations were brought against some ecclesiastics, the objectiveness of these accusations
Although in the sixth century, the pagan temples were deserted and stripped of cult statues and mm be questionable. Some isolated cases are also mentioned at the time of Maurice. 2043 A small pagan
their treasures, the memory of the days when they still functioned and symbolized ancient culbre is
preserved in the literary works of the period. Such references, however, are no longer marked by fear

Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.24.28-37.

°CJ 1.5.12.4 ff.; I.10.2; I.11.9 and 10. See also Chuvin, Chronique, 135-152; Malalas, 377.42 (a. 529), 424.136 (a. 559);
1
• ·
2025 Libanius, Or. XXX.42, 9 (III, 110.16; 92.13-15). Pn ,upius, Historia arcana Xl.31-33.
2026 See, for example, Corinth: Rothaus, Con·nth, 32-63. The temples were already neglected in the third and fourth centuries Ibid., XI.31; J. Irmscher, Heidnische Kontinuitiit im justinianischen Staat, Byz. Congress XVI/ (1986), 17-30.
when they were damaged by earthquakes. At the end of the fourth century and in the fifth most of them were razed to the Theophanes, I, 180 (a.m. 6022).
ground by Christians and their stones were used in other constructions.
On the closing of the Academy see supra, p. 80 & n. 412. D. J. Constantelos, Paganism and the State in the Age of Justinian,
2027 Sozomenus, HE IIl.17.3: Naouc:; ◊E wuc:; rcav,axfi xaµevouc:; EV IT0AECTL xal aygoi:c:; XEXAETo8m ITQOOErn1;av, mi•; OE
Tiu Catholic Historical Review 50 ( 1964/5), 372-380; J. Irmscher, Paganismus im Justinianischen Reich, Klio 63 ( 1981 ), 683-688.
rni:c:; i:xxA17olmc:; rrgooevaµav ~ ,6rrwv ~ uAwv rrgoo6wµevmc:;. Il.5.4: NEwv ◊E ot µEv 8ugwv, ot OE og6cpwv i:yu~tv(,J817om. o[
·. ,.iii John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica Il.44 (pp. 159-160); III.36 (pp. 230-232); M. Whitby, John of Ephesus and the
◊E xal aAArnc:; aµEAouµEVOL ~QELITOV,6 ,E xal ◊lEcp8ElQOVTO.
2028 Le Liber Pontificalis, L. Duchesne, 1 (Paris 1955), 317.
Pagan Survivals in the Sixth Century, in M. Salamon (ed.), Paganism in the Later Roman Empire and in Byzantium
2029
(Crn~ow 1991), 111-131; K. W. Harl, Sacrifice and Pagan Belief in Fifth and Sixth Century Byzantium, Past and Present 128
V. Procli, c. 32 (pp. 88-89).
2030 References to abandoned temples are found already in the fourth century, as for example, John Chrysostom, PG 50, 7-27; F. R. Trombley, Paganism in the Greek World at the End of Antiquity: The Case of Rural Anatolia and Greece,
H7;, R 78 (1985), 327-352; idem, Hellenic Religion.
544; Jerome, Ep. 107.1: the temples of Rome were covered with soot and cobwebs and the people passed the ruined temples to
visit the tombs of the martyrs. On the process of Christianization in the early Byzantine period see Trombley, Hellenic Religion. Z. Ma'oz, Banias, Temple of Pan-1991/1992,ES/ 13 (1993), 3, 6; idem, Banias, Temple of Pan-1993,ES/ 15 (1996), 3.
1 2
2031 Severns, Hom. 50,PO 35 (1969), 363,365; Hom. 86,PO 23 (1932), 44, 48; Hom. 27,PO 36/4 (1974), 565. •.\ Procopius, De aedificiis VI.2.15-20; Historia arcana XI.26; De Bello Persico I.19.35-37.
143
2032 Sophronius, Laudes in SS. Cyrum et Johannem, PG 87/3, 3416B-C; Vita SS. Cyri et lohannis, PG 87/3, 3688C-D, 3696C. • I. Rochow, Die Heidenprozesse unter den Kaisern Tiberios II. Konstantinos und Maurikios, in H. Kopstein and F.
2033
Moschus, 2925A. W11kelmann (eds.), Studien zum 7. Jahrhundert in Byzanz (Berlin 1976), 120-130. Pagans in Antioch are mentioned also in the
2034
Anthologia Graeca IX.183.3-4. Vit,1 S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 78.16, 125.48, 141.5, 143.2, 158, 160-164, 184; John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica III.27-34
358 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 359

community still existed near Lake Mareotis by Alexandria until the time of John the Alms giver. 2044 Thus God's grace. In the past there had been "the grievous stench of cast-out quadrupeds worn with toil"
in the sixth century, there were some pockets of paganism surviving in the countryside and on the pe- JtOtE tEtQ~JtOOWV onoaa
µoyfovta oaµd11 £V8a.OE QLntoµivwv 66µ~ 0LEYELQ11to AllYQ~- Kat
riphery of the empire, while in the large cities the cases were isolated and are to be seen in the context of JrV01l£ n68ov flQSE xaxooµi11v aAEdvwv). 2051 From Ezra, in Syria an inscription recording the trans-
imperial antagonism against the aristocracy. Justinian, however, apart from persecuting pagans, also formation of a pagan temple into a Church of St. Sergius is probably dated to the sixth century. The
persecuted heretics and homosexuals. His rule became gradually more autocratic, intolerant and tone of the first lines of the text is triumphalistic, which refer to the destruction of idols by God's power,
oppressive. His policy had a long-lasting effect on urban culture, for it delivered a final blow to the ancient the "sculptural gods" (to JtQLV yAvmwv omµovwv) and the polluted stones of the temple ( <XXQLCTtoL£
identity of the upper class, which for centuries had been based on classical education and its values. Thus /)iWL OE6µ11~tEVO£), evoking the famous passage of Theodoret. 2052 Another inscription from Ezra (a.
the Christian literature of the time is triumphalistic in its celebration of the victory of Christianity. AD.) commemorates the establishment of a church dedicated to the Martyr George in a pagan
temple (0rnu yiyovEv o1xo£ to tfuv omµovwv xmaywywv) and the deposition of relics inside. It is
Homily of Jacob of Serugh On the Fall of the Idols celebrates the defeat of paganism, the destruction of
the pagan statues and the establishment of the cult of saints and churches on their sites. A similar spirit
ov
~tated that the martyr appeared in a vision ( xa8' unvov aAAa cpaVEQW£) to the proteuon Johannes,
ho employed his own money to construct the church. 2053
informs the homilies ofLeontius and the hymns of Rornanus Melodus. 2045
Unfortunately, the archaeological evidence cannot always provide accurate dates, but in general
Construction of churches on the sites of pagan temples is attested in literary sources as early as
transformation of most of the temples into Christian churches appears to have occurred later.
fourth century. In Jerusalem, Constantine built the church of the Holy Sepulchre on the site of a temple
,\round three hundred pagan temples all over the Mediterranean world were turned into churches.
of Aphrodite. 2046 After the measures of Theodosius against paganism, bishops in the East set about
in eighty-three cases were churches established in the cella, whilst the remainder were constructed
demolishing pagan temples and constructing Christian churches on their sites. A famous example is
outside the sacred area. 2054 In the temple of Bel in Palmyra, a church was constructed inside the
that of the Marneion in Gaza. Here the temple, whose destruction by Porphyry is described in his Life,
sanctuary and part of a fresco depicting saints was found on the wall of the cella. Another Christian
was demolished and on its site a church was built by the empress Eudocia. The violent destruction of
the temple and the construction of a church on its site are presented as a triumph of the Church and an basilica was established in the temple court. 2055 Sometimes a basilica was built in the temple court and
example of pressure on the pagans to convert to Christianity. 2047 Theological interpretations of the baptistery in the cella. 2056 In most cases, the temples were already abandoned or ruined, and any further,
transformation of temples into churches were also proposed. It was a necessary step to purify the temples. \ duntary destruction by Christians before the temples' abandonment does not appear to have been
Theodoret of Cyrus explains that the materials of the pagan temples were sanctified by the erection of \ay extensive, especially in Greece (seep. 360, Figure 45). In numerous other cases, the Christians
martyrs' churches. He admits, however, that Christians hesitated to dedicate to Christ stones that had a\oided sacred pagan sites, which according to popular belief were inhabited by pagan demons. The
belonged to the pagan gods. 2048 In Greece, bishop Iovianos recorded in an inscription on the lintel of architectural form of the temples might also have created difficulties in the process of converting them
the door of the basilica of Palaiopolis in Corfu the destruction of a pagan temple and the construction of a churches. On the other hand, construction of churches on the sites of temples sent a strong message
basilica on the site. The mosaics of the basilica are dated to the fifth or probably the sixth century. 2049 In the victory to remaining pagans, leaving them not much choice but to convert. 2057
reign of Justinian, probably in 538, the Hadrianeion of Caesarea Maritima was transformed into a Practical factors of early Byzantine urbanism may also have dictated the erection of churches on
church and the event commemorated in an inscription in the church. 2050 In Gerasa, an inscription from site of pagan temples: churches concealed ruinous temples and adorned central and prestigious
the Church of St. Theodore, dated to the fifth-sixth century and placed on the lintel of the central west civic sites. This aspect is to be observed in the cities of the East that had strong tradition of urbanism
door of the atrium, commemorates the erection of the church on the site of a "refuse tip for dead ani- where the pride in the city's beauty was still alive. 2058
mals". The text refers to the pollution of the site ( axoo~tLr](; ... vicpo£, A~µ11£), which was dissolved
21151 Welles, Inscriptions, 476-477.
2052 Cl. Mondesert, Inscriptions et objets chretiens de Syrie et de Palestine, Syria 37 (1960), 125-130; Theodoret of Cyrus,
(pp. 209-225). For the persistence of paganism in Syria see Bowersock, Hellenism, 29-40; John of Nikiou, 98.1-13; Theophylact
I i erapeutike VIIl.68-69.
1
Simocatta, 1.11.3 ff.; Michael the Syrian, X.24. See also S. Brock, A Syriac Collection of Prophecies of the Pagan Philosophers.
2053 CIG IV, 8627; F. W. Deichmann, Friihchristliche Kirchen in antiken Heiligtiimern,Jd/ 54 ( 1939), 105; Lassus, Sanctuaires,
Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 14 (1983), 203-246, esp. p. 233 (c. 26).
2044 l ,0-142.
E. Wipszycka, La christianisation de l'Egypte, Aegyptus 68 ( 1988), 157-158.
2054
2045 R. P. C. Hanson, The Transformation of Pagan Temples into Churches in the Early Christian Centuries, Journal of
A. Martin, Discours de Jacques de Saroug sur la chute des idoles, Zeitschrift der deutschen Morgenlandischen
Gesellschaft 29 (1875), 107-147; Leontius, Hom. 11. 130 ( Ol]fLEQOV 6 'En1iv1oµoc; bm:;rv[oOri); Hom. 12.32 ff.; Roman us Melodus, 'ocmitic Studies 23 (1978), 257-267. For Syria, Lassus, Sanctuaires, 245-249; P. M. Milojevic, Retrofit Ecclesia: a Non-Con-
c. 33.17 (p. 265). lrming Building Type, ByzF 24 ( 1997), 343-366. In Italy also from the sixth century churches are apparently built on the sites
2046
Eusebius, Vita Constantini III.25-40. See also Trombley, Hellenic Religion I, 112 ff. temples, while earlier they were built in other civic buildings, such as baths, cisterns, porticoes, civic basilicas, theatres, cir-
2047
R. Van Dam, From Paganism to Christianity at Late Antique Gaza, Viator 16 (1985), 1-20; Trombley, Hellenic Reli- ,uses: Vaes, "Nova construere", 299-321; idem, Christliche Wiederverwendung, 326 ff.
2055 D. Schlumberger, Etudes sur Palmyre: I. Le developpement urbain de Palmyre, Be,ytus 2 (1935), 161; Lassus,
gion I, 187-282; K. G. Hoium, In the Blinking of an Eye: The Christianizing of Classical Cities in the Levant, in A. Berlin ( ed.),
1
Religion and Politics in the Ancient Near East (Bethesda, MD 1996), 131-150. unctuaires, 246.
2056 N. Duval, P.-A. Fevrier and J. Lassus, Groupes episcopaux de Syrie et d'Afrique du Nord, inApamee ( 1972), 230-233.
2048
Theodoret of Cyrus, Therapeutike VIIl.68: at oi:: TOUTWV uAm xa0wouD0Y)oav tote; TWV µagTugwv orixoic;, and p. 69.
2057
Saradi-Mendelovici, Christian Attitudes, 54-55. J.-M. Spieser, La christianisation des sanctuaires pa1ens en Grece, in U. Jantzen (ed.), Neue Forschungen in griechis-
2049
J.C. Papadimitriou, 'O 'Io~1avoc; n'jc; ~am1c1,o'jc; n'jc; Ila1cmorr61cewc; Kegxugac;,AE (1942-44), suppl., 39-48; J.-P. Sodini, chen Heiligtiimern, Symposion in Olympia 10. -12. Oktober 1974, Anlassich der Hunde11jah,feier der Abteilung A then (Tiibingen
Mosa1ques paleochretiennes de Grece, BCH 94 (1970), 729-731. i 'J76 ), 309-320; L. Foschia, La reutilisation des sanctuaires pa"iens par les chretiens en Grece continentale (IVe-vnc s. ), REG
2050
W. J. Moulton, Gleanings in Archaeology and Epigraphy. 4. A Caesarean Inscription,MSOR 1 (1919-1920), 86-90; l 3 (2000), 413-434; Gregory, Paganism, 237; Trombley, Hellenic Religion I, 108-122.
2058 B. Ward-Perkins, Reconfiguring Sacred Space: From Pagan Shrines to Christian Churches, in Brands and Severin,
G. Downey, Caesarea and the Christian Church, in Ch. T. Fritsch (ed.), The Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima. I. Studies
in the History of Caesarea Maritima (Missoula, Montana 1975), 37-38. .':welt, 285-290, esp. 288-290.
 360 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 361

FIG. 45. The so-called "Panagia sten Petra" on the River Ilissos, Athens. It was built inside a temple
of Artemis in the early Byzantine period or the seventh century.
FIG. 46. The Tetraconch in Athens. In the fifth century, part of the Library of Hadrian
was transformed into a church with four conches opening onto a central square space.
In the city of Athens, paganism and pagan temples survived longer. There the pagan tradition had It was lavishly decorated with mosaic pavements and marble revetments.
deep roots in the city's history. Furthermore, the intellectuals of the Academy helped maintain the
vigour of paganism. The first Christian church in the ancient civic centre was probably establish~d in
the Library of Hadrian in the first half of the fifth century (Figure 46 ). 2059 Forms of the cult of Asclepius half of the sixth century, probably as a result of Justinian's measures against pagan higher education.
survived until the violent destruction of the Asclepieion by Christians around 485. The first Christian nymphaeum of the house was transformed into a pool; the mosaic floor was removed and replaced
basilica on the site is dated from the last years of the fifth century. The cult of the healing god continued a mosaic depicting a red cross. The state of some pieces of statues indicate that they had been
in the Christian church, however, dedicated to St. Andrew, a healing saint, while the incubation stoa, violently destroyed by Christians, while a bust of Athena was placed upside down so as to function as a
the sacred spring and the katagogeion were maintained. 2060 The Parthenon may already have been block. 2062 Certainly, however, this was not a general pattern in the sixth century. Christian hostility
transformed into a church as early as the second half of the fifth century, while the Erechtheion and the tos.vard pagan monuments as symbols of paganism depended on local circumstances and the leading
Hephaisteion appear to have been converted into churches later, from the end of the sixth century. 2061 individuals involved. Establishment of churches on pagan sites in Asia Minor is particularly attested
The transformation of the southeast part of House C on the Areopagus into a baptistery is dated to the the fifth century, after the temples had been abandoned and destroyed. 2063 In contrast to the sit-
in Greece, episcopal churches in Asia Minor were often built on the sites of temples. Most famous
lhe Church of the Virgin in Ephesus, adjacent to the Hadrianic Olympieion. In the sixth century,
2059
A Karivieri, The So-Called Library of Hadrian and the Tetraconch Church in Athens, in Castren, Post-Hentlian
Athens, 89-113.
2060 21162
Gregory, Paganism, 238-239; A Karivieri, The Christianization of an Ancient Pilgrimage Site: A Case Study of the Frantz, The Athenian Agora, 88-90; P. Castren, Paganism and Christianity in Athens and Vicinity during the Fourth to
Athenian Asklepieion, A CA C XII ( 1991), II, 898-905. Centuries AD., in Brogiolo and Ward-Perkins, The Idea, 211-223; N. Gkioles, H A0ryva awvc; nQdrwvc; XQWTLavixoi3c;
2061
C. Mango, The Conversion of the Parthenon into a Church: The Tiibingen Theosophy, DChAE 18 (1995), 201-203; r:u me;. lloAwboµixij d;iAi!:,17 (Athens 2005).
Trombley, Hellenic Religion I, 342-344; A Frantz, From Paganism to Christianity in the Temples of Athens, DOP 19 (1965), 2063
G. Grassi, Scultura architettonica e spolia marmoree della Panaghla di Antalya nel quadro della produzione artistica
187-205. ck 'l'Asia Min ore meridionale in epoca paleobizantina, in Milian (Rome 1990), 108 with bibliographical references.
362 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 363

Procopius records the conversion of the temples of Artemis and Iphigenia at Golden Comana in temples had become mere symbols of the evil. In the later part of the early Byzantine period,
Cappadocia, which according to ancient tradition were built by Orestes. 2064 John of Ephesus, during his was no violent confrontation with pagans, the saints destroyed already abandoned pagan temples,
missionary work in Asia Minor, built a church on the site of a temple at the village of Derira in the district utilized them to settle in and to Christianize them. Later, in the seventh century, the situation had
of Tralleis.2065 From Egypt, we have an account of the destruction of a pagan temple and the erection crystallized irrevocably in favour of the Christians. St. Gregory of Acragas, who flourished around 700,
of a martyrium on its site in the panegyric of St. Claudius by Severns of Antioch. Severns had fled to although his vita anachronistically contains events from the sixth century, builds a church on a pagan
Egypt, seeking safety away from his enemies. In a vision, St. Claudius revealed to him that his body was on the outskirts of the city of Acragas. When he settles in the temple, he erects an altar and rais-
buried near a pagan temple in a village of the province of Asyut, and ordered Severns to construct a es cross. His prayers force the demons dwelling into the idols of Eber and Rhaps to leave. Then he
martyrium on the site. With the help of a local monk, the site of the burial of St. Claudius was discovered. erects a church on the site dedicated to Peter and Paul. 2072 In this account, the demons have lost all
On the monk's advice, the notables of the village purified the temple and built a church on the site. All power of resistance and leave quietly. A personal confrontation of the saint with the pagan demons is
the villagers participated in the destruction of the temple with their animals and tools, and the temple no longer necessary to expel them from the temple. The temple is cleansed of the pagan spirits and
site was purified by Severns. The villagers contributed gold for the construction of the church, while the Christianized by means of a religious ritual. Such accounts reflect the confidence of the Christians at
duke of the province donated furmture,. . 1·1zed workers. 2066
woo d , an d specia the end of the early Byzantine period. It is no longer the saints who chase the demons from their sites.
The process of the Christianization of pagan sites is also illustrated in hagiographical texts. In earlier Instead, the latter try to force out of temples the saints already established there. By the sixth century,
2067 the temples belonged to the past. The remnants of active pagan communities, very few at the time in
Lives of saints, episodes are recorded of violent destruction of temples by bishops-saints. The most
famous cases are the destruction of the Marneion by Porphyry, bishop of Gaza (395-420), and of the border areas and in the countryside or isolated individuals in cities, were converted or defeated. Thus,
temple of Zeus by Marcellus, bishop of Apamea during the reign of Theodosius. In the Life of Porphyry vis-it-vis pagan temples, assertive Christianity could affirm its superiority at a moral level and in a spir-
the destruction of the Marneion and the construction of a church on the site are described in great detail: more dignified manner.
the deliberations about how to proceed, the method of destruction and its symbolic significance. The In the sixth-century, the physical condition of temples varied from one city to another. Some temples
treasures of the temples were appropriated by the Christian mob and bishops: St. Epiphanius, bishop were razed to the ground and their building materials were used in other constructions, including
of Salamis-Constantia in Cyprus ( + 403) found much gold in a pagan temple, sealed by the pagans. and churches. Others remained standing, but vacant, stripped of their treasures and cult statues, and puri-
was able to relieve his flock from famine; Porphyry felt obliged to pronounce the anathema on those with crosses to avert the pagan demons. In some of them, churches were built in the cella, in the
2068 forecourt or on the ground near by. The sight of such temples abandoned, dilapidated or taken over by
Christians who removed precious objects from the destroyed temples of Gaza.
From the later fifth century, violent destruction of temples is not recorded in Greek hagiographical churches must have been very powerfui. 2073 It was mentioned above that one church was built inside the
texts. Temples are presented as abandoned, but still standing and inhabited by pagan demons. Those in celia of the temple of Bel and another in the court. The famous temple of Artemis in Gerasa was
the countryside provided refuge for saints and an opportunity to fight demons on their own ground. St. surrounded by Christian churches. The so-called Propylaea Church occupied the Propylaea of the temple.
Daniel the Stylite ( + 493) settles in a temple at Anaplous on the Bosporus after fighting against the Next to the temple itself stood the Cathedral, resting on a dismantled temple. 2074 Behind the Cathedral
demons for three days, as if he were a soldier fighting against barbarians. 2069 The holy man Thalelaeus sto,,d the church of St. Theodore, then the triple church dedicated to Saints Cosmas, Damian and
attempts to settle in an ancient temple, 7 km outside the coastal city of Gabala south of Antioch. There Gcz irge, and a little further away the Church of Bishop Genesius and the Synagogue Church (Plan VI).
he fights against the demons and manages to direct their fury against the trees, more than five hundred In \phrodisias, the temple of Aphrodite behind the forum was converted into a church during or after
of which are uprooted. In vain the demons try to terrify him by wailing and displaying torches at night. the reign of Leo I (457-4 74), which was rendered much larger than the ancient temple by the removal
2070
He demolished the temple with the help of converted locals and builds a church on the site. the of columns of the temple of the short sides and their addition to the long sides to form the colon-
Life of St. Matrona, Matrona settles in a pagan temple near Berytus in hiding from her husband. But nades of the basilica. The walls of the cella were taken down and the stones used in the walls of the
the temple is still a profane place (~E~YJAO£) and the demons of the temple attempt to force her !cave church. An atrium was added to the west, surrounded with porticoes. 2075 The relocation of the columns
by singing immoral songs. She protects herself as with a wall with the sign of the cross and by uttering required much work and complex engineering. Even when the pagan temples were still standing, the
epitimia she forces them to flee to the mountains. In this text the saint's victory over the demons is pre- appearance of churches on their sites made it obvious to everyone that the break with the past was radical
sented as a spiritual fight of moral nature. 2071 Paganism had been defeated long ago. The demons of the and irrevocable.
The fac;ade, the propylon and the colonnades of many temples remained standing for centuries,
their interior was destroyed, desecrated and used for other purposes. Obviously temple exteriors
2064 Procopius, De Bello Persico I.17.18. were preserved to adorn the centre of cities. At Scythopolis at the point where the two central avenues
20 65John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica III.36 (p. 230). converge facing the acropolis, stood a small elegant temple, probably dedicated to Dionysus, mythical
2066 Panegyricus S. Claudii, 495-503.
1h th
2067 H. Saradi, The Christianization of Pagan Temples from the Greek Hagiographical Texts (4 -6 c.) (forthcoming);

Trombley, Hellenic Religion I, 123-129, 187 ff.

20 68 Vita S. Epiphanii,PG 41, 89C-92B; Vita S. Porphyrii, c. 65 (pp. 51-52), 69 (pp. 55-56). Vita S. GregoriiAgrigentini, 265-266 (c. 100) and pp. 395-399.
20 69 Vita S. Danielis Stylitae, c. 14-18 (pp. 14-18, and 96, 111-112). :r,n See also A. Wharton, Refiguring the Post Classical City: Dura Europos, Jerash, Jerusalem and Ravenna (Cambridge
2070 Theodoret of Cyrus, Historia Philoth. XXVIII.1-2 (II, 224-226, 230). . , 1%5 J, 94-100.
2071 Vita S. Matronae, c. 14-15 (p. 798A-C), p. 799F: 'WU£ EV TQ) vaiiJ 6alµovas; ~ JtOAmla au-ri'js; ~ ayyEALX~ xal ~
74
a'(VElUri "'J B. Brenk, C. Jaggi and H. R. Meier, Gerasa, Cathedral,AJA 101 (1997), 523-524.

Aa~tJtQU µnavao-ras; xal qrnya6as; XUTEOTY]OEV. :<J 75 R. Cormack, The temple as the cathedral, inAphrodisias Papers 1, 75-88; Smith and Ratte,AJA 104 (2000), 227-230.
364 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 365

founder of the city, whose nurse Nyse was buried there (Plan V). While the interior of the temple was site temple E in Corinth shows that after the temple collapsed in the earthquake of 365 AD., its
destroyed and an early Byzantine aqueduct passed through it, its fa~ade remained standing, adorning stones were recut in situ to be used in other buildings. 2084 In Gerasa a mason's establishment functioned
the city centre until the middle of the eighth century when it collapsed in an earthquake. If the temple betvveen the Fountain Court of the cathedral and the temple of Artemis: two columns were found cut
was indeed dedicated to Dionysus, it may have been maintained also for its connection with the city's in ices to produce marble slabs for pavement or wall revetment, and some were left half-sawn. 2085
foundation myth. 2076 Similar examples can be found in the West. The fa~ade of the temple of the Bath Cat Antioch was totally dilapidated at the time of Justinian: bricks, marble floor, wall revetment
Dioscuri at Naples, in which the Church of San Paolo Maggiore was built, was kept and only the images and masonry from the walls were all taken in operations whose trenches survive, showing the method
of the two gods were destroyed. Early in the fifth century the cathedral of Trieste was built in the used The excavator describes the deplorable state in which the building was left: "There was such a
Capitolium, the pronaos of which was preserved. 2077 of material in this and other buildings, that the wreckers never wasted time, but carelessly pried
The urban learned elites, albeit in decreasing numbers, continued to express their appreciation of out material, breaking many of the bricks, the fragments of which were found scattered all through
the artistic value of the temples. They admired them for their great size, architectural beauty, and as the lower stratum of debris, together with such stones from the core of the walls as had been dislodged
symbols of the ancient culture. 2078 Aeneas of Gaza refers to the attraction that intellectuals felt for the and discarded, and many pieces of roof tiles". 2086 Next to the stadium of Messene a funerary monument
monuments of Athens. 2079 was dismantled in the early Byzantine period for its metal: 1400 architectural members were found
around the podium lacking their metal joints. The members bore traces of the instruments used to
break the stone and remove the metal. 2087 Some early Byzantine buildings were built almost entirely of
Despoliation spolia. For example, 2000 reused blocks have been counted incorporated in the group of churches of
Katapoliani in Paros in the fifth to the sixth century. Eleven seats of the proedria of the theatre were
In early Byzantine cities despoliation of abandoned temples and civic buildings and reuse of their for the synthronon of the fifth-century basilica and the Justinianic basilica. 2088 The churches of
material in new constructions was widely practiced. 2080 The emperor Julian obliged those who had built Gern"a were also built with spolia: most remarkable is that of bishop Marianos by the hippodrome,
their houses with stones from dilapidated temples to pay for them. Columns taken from temples were built. 570 entirely of spolia and using a small column as altar. 2089 In Pella in the Civic Complex Church
returned by ships or wagons. 2081 Imperial legislation encouraged the despoliation of temples for the next the theatre, the twenty columns were all of different styles and taken from Roman buildings.2090
construction of bridges, aqueducts and walls, while slabs of marble were removed, even from tombs, to In theatre/odeum at Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria all the slabs were re-used and they were of various
be used as adornments even for banqueting halls and porticoes, which was considered a disgraceful form" and materials. 2091 The method employed in recycling old building material in new constructions
practice. 2082 The Fathers of the Church reacted to the widespread despoliation of tombs, and Gregory is to observed in the finds at various archaeological sites. For example, at Sagalassos the slabs of the
of Nazianzus emphasized the issue in eighty epigrams, one of which is entitled To those who build east all of the Christian Basilica El were marked with two numbers on the upper part to identify their
churches out of stones taken from tombs. 2083 This trend began in the fourth century when public buildings exact position in the wall, the one of the layer and the other one of the position of each block. 2092 In an
were abandoned and it subsequently accelerated. Archaeology vividly illustrates the process of dilapidation from later centuries, after the baths of Korn el-Dikka were destroyed by an earthquake in 792,
of ancient buildings and the recycling of their material. The large amount of marble chips found the they were dismantled and architectural material, consisting of pillars, columns from the colonnaded
counvard, and various architectural ornaments, was gathered for reuse. Traces of incisions indicate
where columns and bases were to be cut for the new use. 2093 At the end of the early Byzantine period,
when the economic conditions of communities were deteriorating, after destruction caused by natural
207
°Foerster and Tsafrir, ES! 6 (1987/8), 27; idem, Urbanism, 111. disa~ters, the new churches were often built with spolia from the earlier destroyed basilicas. 2094 At
2077
R. Strandberg, II tempio dei Dioscuri a Napoli. Un disegno inedito di Andrea Palladio nel Museo Nagionale di Stoccolma,
Palladio 11 (1961), 31-40; Vaes, "Nova construere", 303-304.
2078
Chronicle, ed. Chabot, vol. II, pp. 262-263 (the temple of Zeus Helios at Baalbek). See also Panegyricus S. Claudii. 499
(the temples of Egypt). Williams, Temple E, 336.
2079
Enea di Gaza, M. E. Colonna (Napoli 1958), 3.15-16. Crowfoot, Christian Churches, 185.
2080
On the use of spolia in early Byzantine buildings for convenience and their function in creating new aesthetic trends Antioch I, 20.
see F. W. Deichmann, Die Spolien in der spiitantiken Architektur (Munich 1975); idem, II materiale di spoglio nell'architettura
A Cooper, Scamilli impares and the Hernon at Messene, in L. Haselberger (ed.),Appearance and Essence. Refine-
tardoantica, CorsiRav XXIII (1976), 131-146; Cantino Wataghin, Ut haec aedes, 673-749; A Cutler, Reuse or use? Theoret-
mem•. ,;fClassicalArchitecture: Curvature (Philadelphia 1999), 185-197.
ical and practical attitudes toward objects in the early Middle Ages, ibid., 1055-1079. For the West see Ward-Perkins. From
= BCH 107 (1983), 811-812; 108 (1984), 818-820.
Classical Antiquity, 212-218; idem, Re-Using, 225-244; J. Alchermes, Spolia in Roman Cities of the Late Empire: Legislative
• Gawlikowski and Musa, The Church, 141.
Rationales and Architectural Reuse, DOP 48 (1994), 167-178; I. H. Forsyth, Art with History: The Role of Spolia in the
Cumulative Work of Art, in C. Moss and K. Kiefer (eds.), Byzantine East, Latin West, Art-Historical Studies in Honor o('Kurt Smith and McNicoll, Pella, 104.
Weitzmann (Prince ton 1995), 153-162; D. Kinney, Rape or Restitution of the Past? Interpreting Spolia, in S. C. Scott (ed.). Papers B. Tkaczow, Topography ofAncient Alexandria (An Archaeological Map) (Warsaw 1993), 86.
in Art History from The Pennsylvania State University IX (1995), 52-67; H. Saradi, The Use of Ancient Spolia in Byzantine M. Waelkens, in Sagalassos I, 101.
Monuments: The Archaeological and Literary Evidence, International Journal of the Classical Tradition 3 ( 1997), 395-423; W. Kol?taj, Les fouilles polonaises a Korn el-Dikka (Alexandrie) en 1968 et 1969, ET 6 (1972), 165 and fig. 22; on
L. de Lachenal, Spolia. Uso e reimpiego dell'antico dal III al XIV secolo (Milan 1995). reu st d architectural parts in Korn el-Dikka see B. Tkaczow, Observations preliminaires sur Jes fragments de decoration
2081
Libanius, Or. XVIII.126 (II, 290.2-6). arch:tcctonique a Korn el-Dikka (Alexandrie), ET 16 (1992), 225-256.
2082
CTh XV.1.36; XVI.10.16; IX.17.4 and 5. For example, Ch. Bakirtzis, Avcwxa(JJ~ rraAmOXQLonavLx~c:; ~amALx~c:; oTa K17ma Tou ITayya[ou,AEMT 2 (1988),
2083 Anthologia Graeca VIII.173. On the use of funerary monuments in new structures see Coates-Stephens, Spolia, 350-352.
435; Apamea, the Atrium Church: Foss, Syria, 213-214.
366 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 367

many sites, broken fragments of sculpture were found inside and around kilns to be burnt for lime.2095 cemury. 2105 A relief of Artemis and Cybele was incorporated face down into the forecourt of the
Lime was a cheap material and was widely used in the early Byzantine period for the construction Synagogue at Sardis. 2106 At Melos, during excavations in the Baptistery, statues with their limbs broken
and plastering of walls and floors, for moulded plaster window frames, benches, 2096 and stucco de- were found around a tomb, probably Christian. Some were buried in the foundation wall near the
coration. 2097 Baptistery. The statue of Isis had a cross carved on its back. 2107
There is no doubt that the desire for convenience played a major role in the despoliation of ancient Everywhere new buildings, secular and Christian, were constructed from a wide variety of recycled
buildings and the reuse of their material. 2098 A decline in the art and production of large sculptural mataial. 2108 The creation of new architectural units from such diverse components was not always an
units is also certain. 2099 This created a need for ready architectural ornaments and statues. The preference easy rask. Detailed and difficult planning was often required to match columns of different height, various
for new material in buildings sponsored by court patrons suggests that only upper class members could capitals and bases. 2109 The asymmetrical arrangement of diverse sculptured pieces exemplified the new
afford to use new materials. Also careful study of spolia in major monuments shows that some of them fashion in architecture, varietas, in contrast to the symmetrical order of classical art. I have already
are better worked than others in the same structure, suggesting that the work was financed by various mentioned in earlier chapters that the architecture and urban planning of this period was gradually
sponsors of differing financial capabilities. 2100 On the other hand there is no doubt that the use of spolia breaking free from tradition. The new style emphasized variety, a feature that was also appreciated in
in new buildings was often intentional. Spolia could convey a political or cultural message, as did the literature, 2110 and asymmetry: in the same buildings stood alternating columns and capitals of various
spolia used by Constantine in his triumphal apse in Rome: they underlined Constantine's legitimate styles. colours and sizes, or there might be columns alternating with piers; 2111 the same pavements were
claims to power and his assumption of the legacy of the great Roman emperors. The concerns of decorated partly in mosaic and partly in marble slabs; 2112 spolia in walls and pavements were obviously
Theodoric as presented in the Letters of Cassiodorus appear to have been similar. 2101 Spolia in Christian pan of the new ornamental style. Such decoration must have created the impression of embroidery. In
churches were to be understood as a declaration of victory over paganism and so glorified the Church. the words of H.P. L'Orange:
Several Christian writers interpreted the display of statues in Constantinople and in other cities as sym-
bolizing pagan deceit and as a means of ridiculing paganism. 2102 The Life of Porphyry is explicit: since The eye is no longer fixed upon the separate building parts. This is the reason why
the decision was taken to build a church on the site of the Marneion at Gaza, the bishop gave orders the flood of antique spolia, i.e., building parts taken from earlier monuments, are
that the church's forecourt be paved with slabs of marble from the most sacred part of the temple, in order admitted into the architecture of Late Arltiquity, where they may be reemployed for
that people and animals would then step on them. 2103 In the central church of Priene, adjacent to the essentially different architectural purposes ... Characteristically abstract, peculiarly
Roman gymnasium, the numerous marble spolia and inscriptions from the temple of Athena were far-seeing and therefore summary, the glance skips over detail and articulation in
probably intended to convey the same message. 2104 At Sardis, the Hellenistic statue of Zeus was broken order to rest with mass and dimension. 2113
up and fragments of the head were built into the apse of Church M during the reign of Justinian. At
Sardis, too, pieces of a small archaic kore were used to repair the floor of a chapel in the fifth to sixth Ancient art was deconstructed and disguised in new structures in the Christian cities. Upon seeing
examples of this new approach, urban residents may have immediately recognized some pieces, especially
pieces of sculpture, others may have been reinterpreted, but with the passage of time the original meaning
of of them was certainly lost.
2095
For example, Foss. Ephesus, 86-87: despoliation of the temple of Artemis in Ephesus and installation of a lime kiln 5 Walls of early Byzantine cities incorporate numerous spolia. The early Byzantine wall at Athens,
m in diameter and crude huts of the lime-burners. For Pergamon: W. Radt,AnatSt 37 ( 1987), 213. one the best-known examples, was filled with reused material from buildings destroyed by the Heru-
2096
E. Herscher, Archaeology in Cyprus, AJA 102 ( 1998), 350; M. C. McClellan and M. L. Rautman, The 1990 Field
lian". whilst the outer blocks were also reused (Figures 47a, 47b ). Apart from the practical considera-
Season at Kalavasos-Kopetra, RDAC 1991, 231-235; M. Hadjicosti, Excavations at Pyla-Koutsopetria,ARDA 1993 (1998),
tion, that favoured the use of spolia, the builders were clearly concerned to produce an attractive
70-72.
2097
For example. N. Cambi, L'age de Justinien en Dalmatie et en Istrie,ACAC XIII ( 1994), II, 952-953.
appearance. 2114 The fourth-century wall of Aphrodisias, which incorporates the stadium, was built with
2098
I. Leggio, Valenza de! reimpiego: ii caso di Efeso, LAA 1 (2003), 359-381.
2099
B. Kiilerich, Sculpture in the Round in the Early Byzantine Period: Constantinople and the East, in Aspects o(Late
Antiquity, 85-97. G. M.A. Hanfmann and N. H. Ramage, Sculpture from Sardis: The Finds through 1975 (Cambridge, Massachusetts and
2100
Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 214-217. C. Th. Raptis, Ilagan1g17arn; rn[ ogwµtvwv c\oµmtbv aTOLXELOJV Tll£ Lons 1on 1978), 39.
Axagorrou7Tou,AEMT 13 (1999), 226-229. For observations in monuments of Aphrodisias see supra, pp. 236-237. Hanfmann, Sardis, 176.
2101
B. Brenk, Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne: Aesthetics versus Ideology, DOP 41 (1987), 103-106; Coates- D. MacKenzie, Excavations of the British School at Melos. The Site of the 'Three Churches',JHS 17 (1897), 122-133.
Stephens, Spolia, 355. For a general description of the spoils used in early Byzantine buildings in Ephesus see Scherrer, Ephesos, 15-22. For
2102
Eusebius, Vita Constantini III.54; Socrates, Historia Ecclesiastica V.16; John Chrysostom, PG 50, 561, 572; Theodoret Gcrn,a. see M. Alaner,Architectural reuse at Jerash: a case study in transformation of the urban fabric, 100 B. C.-750 A.D. (PhD
of Cyrus, Therapeutike X.58; see also Saradi-Mendelovici, Christian Attitudes, 50. Dis,. Ann Arbor 1995); for Rome see D. Manacorda, Roma. I monumenti cadono in rovina, in Storia di Roma Ill/2, 93-104.
2103 Vita s. Porphyrii, c. 76 (p. 61.1-11 ): ... Ta UJtOAELcp8tvrn axu~aAa n'jc; µagµagwacwc; TOU MagvElou, UJtEQ E/,Eyov lEQ<X See the observations of Bar-Nathan and Mazor, ES/ 11 (1992), 42.
Elvm xai h TOJH.[) a~aTC.p TU'fXUVELV, µaAWTa yuvml;lv, rniirn oi'iv EXEAEUCTEV 6 omoc:; forr[axorroc; JtQO TOU vaou el;w e1; n1v •u See supra, pp. 67-68.
JtAaTElav JtAaxw8ijvm. tva xaTaJtaT(1)VTaL OU µ6vov urro C(V()Q(J)V, aUa xai yuvmx6JV xai XUV(J)V xai xolgwv xai xvwc\ahov. '1 See supra, pp. 228, 236-237, 264, 269-270, 277-278.
Tourn b/o JtAEOV EAUJtllCTEV Touc:; £l{)(l)A0AUTQac:; Tfjc; xaUCTEOJC; TOU vaou. "08£V o[ JtAELouc; UUT(J)V, µaAWTa a[ yuvai:xec;. oux See supra, p. 277.
Em~a[voum rni:c; µag~tUQOL<; foxElvOLc:; £toe; Toii vuv. H.P. L.'Orange,Art Forms and Civic Life in the Late Roman Empire (Princeton, New Jersey 1965), 14-15.
2104 14
Wiegand, Priene, 481-485. T. Gregory, The Fortified Cities of Byzantine Greece,Archaeology 35 (1982), 17-18.
368 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 369

,r:.:
~
, ./;,::.

FIG. 47a. Section of the post-Herulian wall in Athens constructed from spolia. FIG. ,,is. The so-called Gate of Persecution in Ephesus. This is the main gate in the south side of the wall enclos-
:he Basilica of St. John and the hill of Ayasoluk. The gate is flanked by two square towers built from spolia.
The gate itself is adorned with a sarcophagus relief depicting cupids gathering grapes. Other sarcophagus slabs
with mythological scenes are now at W oburn Abbey in England.

rubble masonry and entirely covered on the outside with spolia. 2115 Often the spolia were used only in
the foundation of walls, or are placed in prominent positions in city gates obviously for their ornamen-
tal value (Figure 48), 2116 or in the lower part of the city walls to protect them from battering rams or
crowbars, 2117 or as doorjambs and at the corners of towers to strengthen them. 2118 In some early Byzan-
tine walls, the arrangement of spolia was certainly ornamental, the ornamental design reserved for the
outtr face of the wall. In the wall at Sparta, it has been suggested that slabs and column drums form a
combination imitating metopes and triglyphs. 2119 The use of spolia in a section of the post-Herulian
wall in Athens stretching from the Stoa of Attalos to the Library of Hadrian created a uniform visual

Ratte, New research, 125-126.

For example, S. Kerner and A. Hoffmann, Gadara-Umm Qeis, Preliminary Report on the 1991 and 1992 Seasons,
AD.1127 (1993), 360.
7
: J. J. Wilkes, Civil defence in third-century Achaia, in S. Walker and A. Cameron (eds.), The Greek Renaissance in the

Roman Empire: Papers from the Tenth British Museum Classical Colloquium (BICS suppl. 55, London 1989), 187-192.
Bowden, £pints Vetus, 99-101.
9
' D. Pringle, The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest (BAR Int. Series 99, Oxford 1981, repr.

200 l 1. 133 ff. and pl. LXXVIIb (Tignica); Gregory, Fortification, 56-57; Th. Stefanidou-Tiveriou, ~[ov: fJ oxugwm1 T11c;
agxm<'rn]Tac;,AEMT 4 (1990), 197; C. Foss, Sites and Strongholds of Northern Lydia,AnatSt 37 (1987), 84. See also
FIG. 47b. Another section of the post-Herulian wall displaying ample use of spolia. ireenhalgh, Spolia in fortifications: Turkey, Syria and North Africa, in Ideologie e pratiche, 785-932.
370 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 371

effect blending the wall with the fac,;ade of the Roman building. 2120 The marble statue of a lion incor- a pagan site (ev -r6m!,) xmELDwAcp ), had it re-worked by artists and used it as altar in his new church. 2122
porated in the southeast end of the wall of the acropolis of Sardis slightly projecting outwards2121 may In Colophon, near Ephesus, an inscription records that a bishop ordered the construction of an ambo,
have had an apotropaic significance. the stoas and various other parts of a church from material from the temple of Apollo Klarios. 2123 Perhaps
Slabs sculptured with pagan scenes, altars, sarcophagi and other smaller ornaments of an explicit the most explicit use of spolia displaying pagan imagery is found in Basilica El at Sagalassos, built in
pagan character were often used in early Christian churches in conspicuous places. Now deprived of the fifth or early sixth century on the site of a small temple of Dionysus. The church was constructed
any pagan association, they were obviously used merely as ornaments. From the Life of St. Parthenius, from numerous spolia, especially architrave-blocks. On the upper part of the northeast wall of the apse,
who lived in the reign of Constantine, we learn that bishop Parthenius found a precious (·dµwv) slab at a frieze is incorporated with five masks on the one side, and dancing satyrs on the other (Figure 49). 2124
It be that many churches incorporated slabs with explicit pagan sculptures, but they have left no
trace because the walls of churches have not survived to a high enough point. Observations on the use
of in the basilicas of Nicopolis in Greece suggest that their display was more deliberate in earli-
er churches, at a time when there was still a need for the Church to demonstrate its power, a need that
had lessened by the time later basilicas were built. In particular, the ambo of Basilica B, a relief statue
bas,:. was cut and part of it was smoothened and covered by a mosaic representing Christ and Virgin
flanked by saints and angels. The greater part of the piece, however, was conspicuously preserved in its
original form (Figures 50a, 50b ). 2125 Altars were also broken and reused for burning incense or as lamp
2126 In some churches, various ancient pieces are found reused as basins for holy water. Exam-
ple" are known from various sites, as a pagan altar placed upside down and hollowed out, an ancient

a. b.

FIG. 49. Frieze with five masks on the northeast wall of the apse of Basilica El at Sagalassos. FIG. 50a. Base of the ambo of Basilica B (Basilica of Alkison) in Nicopolis from a statue base,
displaying an amazonomachy.
FIG. 50b. The same base has been covered partly with a Christian mosaic.

122
~ Vita S. Parthenii, PG 114, 1352D.
Th. Macridy. Antiquites de Notion II,JOAI 15 (1912). 37-40, 55-56.
L. Vandeput, The Re-Use of Hadrianic Architectural Elements in Basilica El at Sagalassos, in Sagalassos, I, 93-109.
2120 125
J. Knithakis et al.,AD 44 (1989), Chr. Bl, 15. Bowden,Epirus Vetus, 191-192.
2121 126
C. H. Greenewalt, Jr. et al., The Sardis Campaign of 1984, BASOR suppl. 25 (1982-85), 46. ~ L. Di Segni, Horrath Hesheq: The Inscriptions, in Christian Archaeology in the Holy Land, 385-387 (sixth century).
372 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 373

lustral sprinkler, or a capital with busts of rams. 2127 The jambs of the central door of the Petra Church
display figures of pagan gods. 2128 These and many other objects with pagan decoration were used for
their ornamental value. Antiquity was present everywhere, it was enduring, but was now depaganized
and adapted to the Christian environment.

Statues

Like temples, some pagan statues were targeted by the Church because they were regarded as the
embodiment of paganism, while others were preserved in public and private spheres, appreciated as
objects of art. Cult statues were subject to violent destruction by imperial officers and Christians. de-
pending upon local circumstances, and the attitudes of individual bishops. In fact, imperial legislation
forbade only the worship of cult statues and the offering of sacrifices. However, it decreed that they be
preserved because of their artistic value. Indeed inscriptions from Italy and North Africa record that cult
statues were removed by imperial officers from temples to decorate public places and baths. 2129 Pagan
statues in a secular environment often became the target of Christians, because, in addition to being
considered a threat to the new religion, they were regarded as offensive to Christian morality. For
example, the statues in the East Bath at Scythopolis were decapitated or defaced at the end of the fifth
or early in the sixth century. Before the building was restored in 515/6, they were removed, smashed,
and buried, while others were burnt for lime. 2130 In Corinth, in the second half of the sixth century or FIG. 51. Statues in the east stoa of the palaestra of the bath-gymnasium of Salamis-Constantia in
early in the seventh, fragments of statues were thrown together in drains, in what appears to have been Cyprus. Some of the statues decorating the Roman palaestra were left in situ by the Christians.
a ritual, since some have been purified with crosses. 2131 The gymnasium of Salamis-Constantia in The photograph shows the statues displayed around the swimming pool at the north end of the
Cyprus displays a well-known example of such treatment of statues. Damaged by the earthquakes of palaestra's east stoa.
332 and 342, it was abandoned and only the baths of the gymnasium were restored by Christians in the
fifth century and were adorned with many pagan statues from its previous period of use (Figure 5 On
one of the columns in the south stoa, a Christian inscription included a supplication to the Virgin to legi;lation gave the signal for waves of destruction are notorious. 2135 Archaeology testifies to the de-
protect the komes Constantine, son of the hypatos, who was probably responsible for the restoration. struction of cult statues by the agents of Maternus Cynegius, Prefect of the Orient, in 385/6, following
Some of the naked parts of the statues were mutilated, to conform to Christian morality. Some. how- the anti-pagan measures of Theodosius. In Palmyra, in a small temple of Allat-Athena, the cult statue
ever, were placed on new bases, while others were thrown in drains or built into walls. 2132 Since most of of goddess and the altar were found inside the temple, destroyed by imperial agents. The cult statue
them were found without heads, one may wonder whether the final phase of destruction was caused by had been struck at the back of the head and knocked down, the nose, cheeks and mouth were also
Christians, sometimes in the sixth century, when Christianity was firmly established and there was an cru>,hed, the neck was broken, whilst the lower part of the legs, the shoulders and arms were heavily
intolerance of ancient culture, as was the case with the statues of the baths of Scythopolis. A group of damaged. 2136 Major ecclesiastical events, such as Church councils, were also the occasion for massive
statues of the Ptolemaic period decorated an exedra at the Serapeum of Memphis depicting Homer sur- pwpagandistic destruction of statues. 2137 Burying cult statues in the foundations of churches and
rounded by ten poets and philosophers. They were knocked off their bases, probably in the course of incorporating them into their walls symbolically declared the victory of the new religion over paganism.
the confrontations between pagans and Christians. Later they were again set up on their bases. 2133 The temples were completely destroyed by the Christians, so that no statues were recovered in the
statues of the gods Heracles and Hermes, protectors of the gymnasium of Messene, were smashed by excavations. 2138
the Christians. 2134 The attacks by civil officers and bishops in the reign of Theodosius whose anti-pagan In the Life of Severns by Zachariah Scholasticus, we find a detailed description of the discovery
and destruction of cult statues during the reign of Zeno and a description of the atmosphere in which

2127
Dyggve, Salonitan Christianity, 9-lO;AD 50 ( 1995), Chr. Bl, 111; BCH 118 (1994), 823.
2128
Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 219. Saradi-Mendelovici, Christian Attitudes, 47-50.
2129
C. Lepelley, Le musee des statues divines. La volonte de sauvegarder le patrimoine artistique pa1en a J'epoque '·
16
B. G(lssowska, Matern us Cynegius, Praefectus Praetorio Orientis and the Destruction of the Allat Temple in Palmyra,
theodosienne, CahArch 42 (1994), 5-15. Aruwologia (Poland) 33 (1982), 107-123, esp. 114-117.
2130
Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 128-130. On the destruction of pagan statues in Scythopolis see Y. Tsafrir. The For example, at Serdica near the east section of the city's wall a temple was destroyed down to its foundations and
Christianization of Bet Shean (Scythopolis) and its Social-Cultural Influence on the City, in Brands and Severin, Stadt, 283-284. mc1n.: statues and votive reliefs were broken into small pieces. The destruction apparently took place before the Council of
2131
Rothaus, Corinth, 105-125, esp. 119-125. Scrdica: M. Stanceva, Serdica au.x confins de deux epoques ([Ve-Vie sii!cle), Academie bulgare des sciences. lnstitut d'Histoire
2132
A H. S. Megaw, Archaeology in Cyprus,JHS 76 (1956), suppl., 44; 77 (1957), 28; Karageorghis, Sculptures I, 4. Etudes historiques 8 (1978), 111-112.
2133
J.-Ph. Lauer and Ch. Picard, Les statues ptolemai'ques du Sarapieion de Memphis (Paris 1955), 6-7. 'Us For example, the temple of Aphrodite at Argos (G. Daux, BCH 93 (1969), 1009, 1012), or the temple of Helios at
2134
P. Themelis, Meoa~vl'J, EAE 1995 (1996), 35; BCH 120 (1996), 1159. Ba:,lbek (F. Ragette, Baalbek, London 1980, 71), which according to the tradition was consumed by fire thrown by God.
374 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 375

such events took place. 2139 When it became obvious that Christianity had prevailed, the cult statues ed the episode of the destruction of the statue, which he had found in a book. Only when Theodore's Life
from the temple of Isis at Memphis were transported into a house at Menouthis and hidden behind a was read in church on the festival of St. Spyridon, was the connection made between the episode retailed
double wall. The Christians found evidence that sacrifice had been performed there and threw the in Theodore's Life and the event depicted in the fresco. 2147
wooden statues into fire. The remaining statues of bronze and marble, and any with artistic value were Learned members of the upper class appreciated the artistic value of the statues and tried to pre-
recorded in a list, which was sent to Patriarch Peter in Alexandria. The statues were temporarily stored sen c them in collections, especially from the reign of Theodosius on, when his measures against pagan-
in one of the rooms of the local church. Following the orders of the Patriarch, the house where the statues ism provoked waves of destruction. Early in the fifth century, the private collection in the palace of
had been found was demolished. In Alexandria, at the celebration of Easter, the Patriarch read to his Lausus included famous works of art such as the chryselephantine statue of Zeus from Olympia by Pheidias,
flock the list of the statues found at Menouthis, inciting anger in the Christians who gathered up all of the Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles, the Samian Hera of Lysippus, Eros, Cronos (or Kairos) and
the statues found in the baths and houses and threw them into a fire. The statues from Menouthis were Boupalos. 2148 According to the Life of St. Melania the Younger, when in 404 she and her husband Valerius
transported to Alexandria on twenty camels and brought into the centre of the city. There, at the invi- Pinianus decided to devote themselves to ascetic life, they donated their statues to the empress Serena,
tation of the Patriarch, a public interrogation of the pagan priest was held in front of the Tycheion in of emperor Honorius. 2149 The views of collectors toward classical art are expressed in an epigram by
the presence of the Prefect of Egypt and the city's notables. The Christian mob mocked the cult statues Palladas on the collection of ancient statues by Marine, daughter of the emperor Arcadius. Such initiatives
breaking their feet and hands, and consigning them to the fire. A few meters south of the Via Canopica' Christianized the statues and thus saved them from being melted for the bronze by the Christians. The
excavations have revealed a group of cult objects, religious inscriptions, idols probably of Isis and Serapis col lcction had apparently survived into the middle Byzantine period and it was part of the decoration of
which have been heavily damaged by fire and which may have been the remains of this destruction.2140 the bath restored by Leo VI. 2150 The collection of statues in the baths of Zeuxippus in Constantinople,
From Egypt we also have inscriptions commemorating the destruction of statues. 2141 Mutilated and were destroyed in a fire in 532, included about eighty pieces. 2151 Rich peristyle houses at the end
defaced statues are found everywhere, giving evidence of a practice common in all parts of the empire. of I. he fourth century and in the early fifth contained important collections of statues. A villa in Antioch,
In Aphrodisias, after the conversion of the temple of Aphrodite into a church, pagan statues were defaced built at that time and destroyed during the Persian invasion in 540 or by the Arabs in 637, contained
and pagan names erased. Only the images directly related to pagan practice were destroyed. Aphrodite imp,crial portraits, copies of statues of gods, heroes and other mythological subjects. The House of
from the western pediment of the Tetrapylon and scenes of sacrifice in the Sebasteion suffered destruction, Mz:nander at Daphne near Antioch, destroyed in the late fifth or early sixth century, contained another
but mythological scenes, including scenes of Erotes were not targeted. 2142 colkction of small statues. 2152 Another example is the so-called Theodosian Palace or House of Parthenius
In the sixth century pagan idols were hung in the streets of Antioch, intended to be objects of in Stobi, also built in the second half of the fourth century or in the early fifth. 2153 For intellectuals and
ridicule as part of the efforts by the governor to suppress paganism in the city. 2143 St. Abramius destroved the remaining pagans, ancient statues, in addition to possessing artistic value, were also profoundly
pagan idols in a pagan village near Lampsacus on the Hellespont after building a church there. 214 -+ Im- symbolic in cultural and religious terms. According to the Life of Proclus by Marinus, when it was decided
ages of pagan gods are rarely mentioned in the sixth century in a polemical spirit. In the reign of Justin- thar the Parthenon be converted into a church, the goddess Athena appeared to him in his dreams, and
ian, during the persecution of pagans in Heliopolis, Edessa and Antioch, the governor and procurator of asked him to take her statue to his house. 2154 When House Con the Areopagus in Athens was abandoned,
Edessa, Anatolius, was caught in his house with an icon, one side of which showed Apollo and the other, probably during Justinian's measures against the pagans and the closing of the Academy, statues were
Christ, an object designed to conceal the paganism of the owner. 2145 Mosaics depicting pagan themes carefully deposited in a well and sealed, the purpose of the owners probably being to retrieve them upon
were still kept in rich houses, until the function of the houses was so radically altered, that such mosaics return. In a house in a northern district of Athens, the famous copy of Athena Varvakeios was also
could no longer be tolerated. We are told that in a Christian house in Amaseia a wall mosaic depicting concealed with two other pieces of sculpture. 2155
Aphrodite was demolished only when the owner decided to convert the house into a monastery. By
the seventh century, stories of the destruction of pagan statues are presented as belonging to a remote
past and they no longer concern people. One example will serve to illustrate this. St. Spyridon was de- ··
47
P. Van den Ven, La legende de S. Spyridon, eveque de Trimithonte (Louvain 1953), c. 20 (pp. 81-91) and p. 81 *, 87*.
picted destroying a pagan statue in Alexandria in a fresco situated above the central door of his church C. Mango, M. Vickers and E. D. Francis, The Palace of Lausus at Constantinople and its Collection of Ancient Statues,
at Trimithous, where the relics of the saint lay. The event, however, had eventually been forgotten the 101 mal of the History of Collections 4/1 ( 1992), 89-98.
.rr-1 9 Vita S. Melania Jun., c. 14 (p. 156).
middle of the seventh century, when Theodore of Paphos came to write the Life of Spyridon and includ-
.·r 5uAnthologia Graeca IX.528. See C. M. Bowra, Palladas and the Converted Olympians, BZ 53 (1960), 1-7; C. Mango,
Th,1 Palace of Marina, the Poet Palladas and the Bath of Leo VI, in Euphrosynon, 321-331.
1151
See supra p. 326 and n. 1843.
2139 11 2
Vita Severi, PO 2/1 (1907), 27-35. ' D. M. Brinkerhoff, A Collection of Sculpture in Classical and Early Christian Antioch (New York 1970); Antioch III,
21
-1° M. Rodziewicz, Remains of a Chryselephantine Statue in Alexandria, Bulletin de la Societe archeologique d'Alexambie ] l'l•l20.
44 (1991), 119-130. 2153
Wiseman, Stobi, 45-46; Mikulcik', Stobi, 175. For Ephesus see C. Lang-Auinger (ed.), Hanghaus I in Ephesos. Funde
2141
J. Jarry, Inscriptions commemoratives de destruction d'idoles a Akoris, Bulletin de la Societe d'archeologie cop1e 34 w1d Ausstattung (Vienna 2003), Ephesos VIIl/4, 153 ff.
(1995), 29-31. 115
• V Procli, c. 30, II. 736-742 (pp. 86-87): ompti)c:; bi; XC(l aun1110eoc:; ECHlf,CDOEV, ~vlxa TO ayaAµa CtUTfjc:; TO EV IIag0EVWVL
2142
Ratte, New research, 133. On the earlier Roman tradition of mutilation and destruction of statues see P. Stewart The [bgu~u\vov VITO TWV XCtl Ta axlvrirn XLVOUVTCDV ~tETECf)EQETO. 'EMXEL yag Tl[l (j)LAOOO(j)ql ovag Cf)OLTCTV rrag' C('lJTOV
Destruction of Statues in Late Antiquity, in Miles, Constn1cting Identities, 159-189. F\' s;nj~tCDV TLc:; yuv11 XCtl arrayyEAELV we; XQ~ TUXLOTCt n1v oixlav ITQOITC1QC10XEUatnv· «~ yag xugla 'A0rivatc:;» E(f)Y] «:n:aga OOl
21 3
• Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c. 161.24-25 (p. 144). fli "tv i':0EAEL». N. Papachatzis, 'H 'A0riva"tx~ IlOALac:; 'A0~va xal o[ xoLvEc:; JtEQLJtETELEc:; Tf]c:; µE T~v i':mbvuµ~ n1c; ITOAY],AD 47-
2144
MSS Martii XVI, vol. II, 933 (c. 8). 1992-93), 27.
2145
John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica IIl.29 (p. 214). 2155
Frantz, The AthenianAgora, 41, 87-88; L. Jones Roccos, Athena from a House on the Areopagus, Hesperia 60 (1991),
2146
Vita S. Eutychii, p. 48 (1465-1476). 3'/7 A 10; K. Lange, Die Athena Parthenos, MDAI!M 5 (1880), 370-372; A. Karivieri, The 'House of Proclus' on the Southern
376 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 377

Statues were retrieved and placed as ornaments in public buildings and plazas. In Athens, the statues historiography, the ancient monuments also played a symbolic role: most of them were considered worthy
of the Giants were removed in the fifth century from the Odeum of Agrippa and placed on the north of mention because they were connected with the Trojan war, and provided a historical justification of
fa<;ade of the governor's palace. Several architectural parts of the palace also imitated earlier buildings Justinian's reconquest of ltaly. 2165 The statues are also reinvented and invested with mystery. Procopius
of the Athenian agora. 2156 In the sixth century, two statues were removed from their original location mentions some statues, works of Greek sculptors, adorning the Roman Forum of Peace, because they
and transported to decorate the two corners of a plaza in Caesarea Maritima. The one of porphvrv were connected with prophecies about future events:
mutilated, probably depicted Hadrian and may have been taken from the Hadrianeum. The other ~n~'
of white marble, was cut in half for transportation. In spite of their condition, they were still considered' This Roman said that once, during the time when Atalaric the grandson of Theoderic
of sufficient ornamental value to be displayed in public. A statue of Tyche raising the bust of the em- ruled Italy, a herd of cattle came into Rome in the late evening from the country
peror on her right hand, perhaps from the city's Tycheion, was set up in the sixth century on the west through the forum which the Romans call the Forum of Peace; for in that place has
side of a peristyle court. 2157 Justinian ordered Narses to demolish the temples at Philae and send the been situated from ancient times the temple of Peace, which was struck by lightning.
statues to Constantinople. 2158 Later two horses from the temple of Artemis at Ephesus were transported And there is a certain ancient fountain before this forum, and a bronze bull stands
to the capital. 2159 When Justinian removed the four hundred and twenty-seven statues, of which only by it, the work, I think, of Pheidias the Athenian or of Lysippus. For there are many
eight were Christian, collected by Constantine the Great on the site of St. Sophia, he did not dispose of them. statues in this quarter which are the works of these two men. Here, for example, is
According to the Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai he transferred them to other places of Constantinople.2160 another statue, which is certainly the work of Pheidias, for the inscription on the
Justinian also constructed a colonnaded court in the Baths of Arcadius in Constantinople and adorned statue says this. There too is the calf of Myron. For the ancient Romans took great
it with ancient statues. 2161 pains to make all the finest things of Greece adornments of Rome. And he said that
The opposition between pagan and Christian on the matter of ancient monuments is not, however, one of the cattle then passing by- a steer - left the herd and mounting this fountain
reflected in the literature of the sixth century. The intellectuals all shared the same cultural tradition, but stood over the brazen bull. And by some chance a certain man of Tuscan birth was
each one of them responded to the ancient monuments in his own style and according to his personal un- passing by, one who appeared to be a very rustic fellow, and he understood the
derstanding. Procopius of Gaza describes a set of paintings in a public building at Gaza, including a rep- scene which was being enacted and said (for the Tuscans even down to my day are
resentation of the myths of Phaedra and Hippolytus, Ariadne and Theseus, Aphrodite and scenes from gifted with prophecy) that one day a eunuch would undo the ruler of Rome. And
the Iliad. He also wrote a poetic ekphrasis of a mechanical clock at Gaza with animated mythological then indeed that Tuscan and the words he uttered earned only laughter. For before
figures, which included Heracles performing his twelve labours, the sun moving around on a circle, Pan actual experience comes men are ever wont to mock at prophecies, whilst proof
and Diomedes playing the trumpet. John of Gaza in a poetic ekphrasis described a painting in the winter does not upset them, because the events have not come about and the tale of them
baths of Gaza. 2162 In the Wars of Procopius, the ancient monuments are mentioned and admired. for is not credible, but seems akin to some ridiculous myth. But now all men, yielding to
they represent a glorious, powerful, past. This is expressed in the words of Belisarius, in his efforts to save the arguments of actual events, marvel at this sign. 2166
the monuments of Rome from destruction by the Goths. 2163 However, neither hesitation nor remorse
appears in the lines of the passage relating the destruction of statues in Rome for the purpose of defence. It is this function, the mystic, prophetic power of the ancient monuments that dominates the liter-
The Byzantines broke the marble statues of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, of wonderful workmanship an works of the sixth century. Our authors are attracted by the antiquity of the monuments and by their
(aycxAµma ... 8auµcxma o1a), and hurled them against the Goths ascending the wall. 2164 In Procopius' supernatural power to predict the future. The Patria that survive from the Chronicle of Hesychius focus
on the monuments of the capital and the legends woven around them. John of Antioch in hisArchaeology
includes references to ancient monuments and a Christian reinterpretation of some myths and etymologies.
Slope of the Acropolis: A Contribution. in Castren, Post-HemlianAthens. 137-138. On Byzantine collections of art objem see
Statues occupy a prominent position in Malalas' Chronicle. They constituted material for the praises of
M. Mundell-Mango, ''Art Collecting" in Byzantium, Etudes Balkaniques, Cahiers Pierre Belon 2 ( 1995), 137-160. an emperor and were intimately connected with urban tradition. They commemorated historical events
2156
See supra, p. 257. were credited with prophylactic and prophetic power, but we rarely get a clear statement of appre-
2157
See supra, pp. 269-270; R. Gersht, The Tyche of Caesarea Maritima, PEQ 116 ( 1984), 110-114; L. E. Toombs. The of the ancient statues in Malalas' Chronicle. When their function was ornamental, they are
Stratigraphy of Caesarea Maritima, in R. Moorey and P. Parr (eds.), Archaeology in the Levant: Essays for Kathleen Kenyon considered worthy of viewing (,ml, ai'n:cx dmv i:wv 8rnµcxi:wv) and their loss is recorded with regret.
(Warminster, England 1978), 225-227; Hoium, The Christianizing, 158-159 and pl. 63.
2158
is the case regarding the pillage of statues in the palace of Rome by the Vandals. 2167 But when they
Procopius, De Bello Persico 1.19.37; see Saradi-Mendelovici, Christian Attitudes, 51.
2159
Patria II, c. 28 (pp. 165-166). an: connected with pagan worship, Christian religious prejudices prevail. This is the underlying message
2160
Parastaseis, c. 11 (pp. 70-72). of ·vtalalas in his account of the destruction of pagan idols and books during the Justinianic persecu-
2161
See supra, pp. 270-271. On the decoration of the capital with antique statuary at the time of Justinian see Bassett The 2168 In connection with the monetary reform of John of Paphlagonia, statues on Constantinople's
Urban Image, 121-136.
2162
See supra, p. 232, H. Die ls, Uber die von Prokop beschriebene Kunstuhr von Gaza mit einem Anhang enthaltend Text
und Ubersetzung der "Ex<pgaou:; wgo,,oylou des Prokopios von Gaza,Abhandlungen der koniglich preussischenAkademie der
Wissenschaften, 1917, Philos.-hist. Klasse, 7 (Berlin 1917). On the painting in the baths see supra, p. 330. ::r,s See supra, p. 87.
2163 2166
See supra, pp. 86-87. Procopius, De Bello Gothico VIII.21.11-18.
216 167
+ Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.22.23 (a. 537). During the siege of Caesarea Maritima by the Arabs in 633/34-64()141 : Malalas, 289.43-44, 288.11-12.
the inhabitants piled up statues to block the south gate of the city: Patrich, Urban Space, 80. 1118
: Ibid., 424.10-11 (xal dx6vEc:; TWV µuoEQWV 0EWV aui:GJV xal ayaAµai:a); Michael the Syrian IX.33.
378 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 379

central avenue, considered to be extremely beautiful (W£ xaAAtoi:cuov,:a) and collected by Constantine The prophetic power of statues in particular becomes more prominent in a wide variety of texts in the
to decorate ( EL£ x60µ17mv) the capital, were melted down. From the metal a new enormous new statue century. It is clear that there is a pronounced need to create etiological myths and urban mirabilia in
of Theodosius was made and was set up on a column in the Forum of Taurus. 2169 Malalas often insists to explain contemporary events and future catastrophes. The collapse of a statue was regarded as
that ancient monuments still existed in his day, although his expression "to the present day" may sim- an omen, a sign of forthcoming misfortunes. Procopius of Gaza in his monody on St. Sophia includes the
ply echo references from earlier sources. 2170 collapse of statues among various calamities, 2177 whilst Malalas also considered collapsing statues a sign
Numerous epigrams from the Cycle of Agathias praise pagan statues, a theme known from earlier of imminent misfortune. 2178 We have already mentioned how Procopius refers to a prophecy connected
literature, and the audience would have recognized the persistence of this cultural tradition. These epi- the statue of Myron's brazen bull in Rome when a herd of cattle went into the Forum of Peace. 2179 In
grams create the impression of concrete realities. They convey powerfully the desire on the part of the Parastaseis and the Patria the statues of Constantinople are animated and capable of foretelling future
intellectuals to turn away from a radically changing world to an idealized classical past, in reaction to caiastrophes. In the time of Anastasius, the statue of the reclining Heracles by Lysippus in the hippo-
Justinian's measures against paganism and classical paideia. By contrast, the historiographical work of dwme of Constantinople was thought to predict future disasters. 2180 A statue of Aphrodite at the Zeugma
Agathias, from which themes symbolic or fictional in nature are absent, reverses the image of the ancient in Constantinople had the power to reveal maidens who had lost their virginity and adulterous women.
statues and gives the historical reality. Agathias mentions the statue of Chaeremon located on the outskirts The emperor Maurice ordered the bronze statue of an ox to be thrown into the harbour of Neorion, be-
of Tralleis, who according to the tradition went to Rome and asked Augustus to restore and repopulate cause according to a tradition it bellowed once a year and disasters subsequently occurred on the same
the city, which had been devastated in an earthquake. Agathias saw, however, only the base of the statue, Maurice also ordered the destruction of the statue of the Tyche of Constantinople, Anthousa,
which was of great antiquity, while the statue itself was no longer there. He also read the dedicatory bn,ught to the capital from Rome by Constantine the Great and various other statues by the Exakion-
inscription. 2171 ion.2181 John Lydus insists that weeping and sweating statues forecast civil wars. 2182 It is important to note
that belief in the prophetic power of statues also applied to Christian statues. Joshua the Stylite relates
that during a pagan festival at Edessa in 495/6, the cross belonging to the statue of Constantine fell, re-
Pagan monuments and superstition into the ground about a cubit, and came back upon its position only on Sunday. 2183 According to
John of Ephesus, Justin II ordered that two bronze statues of himself and of the empress Sophia be set up.
were later overturned by a strong storm and were found with their heads in the ground, clearly a sign
The most pronounced interest in ancient statues is expressed in tales regarding their supernatural
of !uture misfortune. 2184 Theophylact Simocatta relates that the most prominent of the statues of the
powers. Superstitious beliefs associated with statues become increasingly important in the literary
Tycheion of Alexandria moved at night and predicted to a passing kalligraphos the execution of Maurice
sources of the sixth century. The belief that statues were inhabited by demons and so possessed super-
by Phocas. The execution was confirmed two days later (a. 602). 2185
natural power was current in ancient Greece and Rome. Given that such beliefs are attested in all social
Finally, belief in the protective power of statues over cities remained strong in spite of the Chris-
milieus, including educated circles, their existence in Byzantine times does not imply a detachment from,
tia nization of the empire. The telesmata histamena of Apollonius of Tyana were maintained as talis-
and misunderstanding of, ancient culture. 2172 In the Life of Severns, written by Zachariah Scholasticus,
mans by the cities and Malalas gives a lengthy account of them, their prophylactic power and the tales
both pagans and Christians of Menouthis fear the power of the pagan gods, whose cult statues have been
wo\ en around them. They had become part of the urban traditions. Anastasius Sinai:tes informs us that
discovered by Christians. The local priest pronounces a prayer alluding to the words of Cor. I.x.19 and
telesmata histamena of the magician Apollonius were still practiced, some for their power of fending
encourages the Christians to guard the idols at night without fear. 2173 In the Life of the Patriarch Eutychius
off animals and birds that could do harm, others for diverting the stream of rivers flowing irregularly,
a demon, residing in the mosaic image of Aphrodite at a private residence in Amaseia, hits the hand of
others were regarded as capable of averting destruction (apotropaia) and harm to men". 2186 In the
the mosaicist who demolished it. 2174 Later the Patriarch of Jerusalem Sophronius refers to the statue in
Leontius of Neapolis, biographer of St. John the Almsgiver, states that almost up to his time, the
the pagan temple of Menouthis, which had been animated by demons, before it was purified by means
inhabitants of Tyana took pride in Apollonius. 2187 Stories of ancient statues, unfolding in narratives in
of the erection of a church. 2175 In another passage, however, evoking the Psalms, Sophronius attempts to
deprive these beliefs of their power by asserting that idols do not have senses. 2176

'!7? Procopius of Gaza, Movqibla de; 1'.l]V ay[av Locp[av rrrnouoav arro OELOµov, PG 87/3, 2840A.
178
Malalas, 416.18-20, 419.59. See Moffatt, Buildings, 100.
1169 179
Malalas, 328.80-88. ' See supra, p. 377.
2170 Jeffreys, Malalas' sources, 200-201, 206-207; Moffatt, Buildings, 98-101. 1811
' Parastaseis, c. 65 (p. l46);Patria II, c. 83 (pp. 193-194).
2171 Agathias II.17.6-8. 181
' Patria II, c. 65 (pp. 185-187); II, c. 88 (p. 196); II, c. 54 (pp. 180-181); III, c. 131 (p. 257).
2172
For the views that these superstitious beliefs suggest a detachment from the classical tradition see C. Mango. Antique liol John Lydus, De ostentis, proem, 8 (p. 1611. 14-16).
Statuary and the Byzantine Beholder, DOP 17 ( 1963 ), 55-75; for a different approach see Saradi-Mendelovici, Christian Attitudes, :;s3 Joshua the Stylite, c. 27 (p. 18-19).
56-58; L. James, Pray not to Fall into Temptation and Be on your Guard: Pagan Statues in Christian Constantinople, Ge1w 35 :;x4 John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica III.24 (pp. 204-205).
(1996), 12-20; Saradi, Perceptions. 57-66. 185
' Theophylact Simocatta VIII.13.7-15.
2173
Vita Severi, PO 2/1 (1907), 31. =186 Anastasius SinaHes, PG 89, 525B; see also George Monachos, ed. de Boor II, pp. 444-446; Dagron, Constantinople,
2174
Vita S. Eutychii, pp. 48-49 (1474-1479). JiJ:"-106.
2175
Sophronius, De SS. Cyro et Johanne, PG 87/3, 3688D, 3693C; also Severns, Hom. 108, PO 25 (1943), 673: animated =187 Vita s.
lohannis Eleemosyn., c. 56.1-3 (p. 403): EL ya.g Tuavwv Ol J1UQOLXOL flEXQl TOU vuv oxEMv eva~guovrm
statues of idols have been brought down by Christ. O!!!VUVO[lEVOL Ola TOV OflOJ10ALTllV U1JTO)V 'ArroAAUJVLOV TOV <XOE~fo-rmov Tuavfo, i':yxauxo)~lEVOL i':rrl ,:o1:c; AUOJ1AUVOLc:;
2176
Miraczda SS. Cyri et /ohannis, mir. 32.6 (p. 310). CJ,•,ou 0eorr[oµaoLv.
380 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 381

the Christian literature were decreasingly pointing to their artistic value and cultural message. The statues' from pagan antiquity, but in the early Byzantine period such superstitions blossomed under the in-
primary function was becoming to reveal the unknown. Because this practical use of statues as prophetic fluence of Neoplatonic philosophy. At the same time antiquity, in the shape of its monuments, was inte-
symbols strengthened superstitious beliefs, it also diminished their significance as symbols of the grated into the urban space by means of the gradual Christianizing of the pagan stones, myths and symbols.
ancient culture. first and most obvious manifestation of this process is the marking of the sign of the cross on statues,
Byzantine texts insist on symbolic interpretations of pagan figures, gods and heroes, in sculpture, stones, inscriptions and temples. Such examples are found everywhere in all the cities of the empire.
mosaics and paintings. Allegorical interpretation of the characteristics of ancient statues was an ancient the sign of the cross, pagan monuments were purified and sanctified, their demons neutralized and
tradition. Porphyry, the Neoplatonic philosopher of the third century, wrote a treatise on this theme malevolent powers defeated. A constitution of the year 435 promulgated by Theodosius II that
(II1cei dyaJµarwv). It was believed that the invisible power of the gods was marked on their images, deals with the destruction of temples requires that the sign of the cross be used for their purification, thus
and some wise persons could read them, as if the statues were books. Such allegorical interpretations making them safe for Christians and incorporating them into the Christian environment. 2194
provided rationalization of ancient myths. Artificial etymological interpretations of myths combined Another aspect of the process of Christianization of the ancient past was the depaganization of pagan
with philosophical concepts and vocabulary, known already in antiquity, were very popular in early and symbols and their Christian reinterpretation. Scenes of pagan mythology and pagan symbols
Byzantine literature. 2188 John Lydus refers to such interpretations, 2189 and John of Antioch wrote the continue to appear well into the sixth century and beyond on sculpture, and some examples from different
½exawAoy{a '/wavvov ½vnoxswc;- l!xovaa xai 6wa6rp17mv TWV µv0rnoµsvwv in which he offers were given above. We have also mentioned that in the private sphere too, pagan sculpture long
Christian interpretations of various myths. Names of cities are also explained on etymological grounds. remained an important element of decoration. Moreover, mosaics with pagan mythological scenes
The name of Iconium was believed to have derived from an image ( Elxcvv) of the Gorgon Medusa set were reinterpreted to bear a philosophical or Christian allegorization or were used by pagans to subvert
up there by Perseus. 2190 Christian teaching or to project the qualities of their wealthy owners. 2195 One example will illustrate
Ancient monuments, dismantled and recycled, preserved or assigned a new use, were present in thi'i tendency. Marin us Scholasticus explains that the representation of Eros garlanded does not depict
one or another form in both the urban landscape and private sphere. Because they were expressions of the son of vulgar Cypris nor did Eros spring from the earth. Rather, he symbolizes love for learning:
the culture of a bygone age, they had become detached from the life of the common people. They satisfied I am he who lights the torch of learning in the pure minds of mortals, and leads the soul up to
only the antiquarian taste of a learned elite, for whom they were permanent reminders of ancient glory. he,1ven. From the four Virtues I weave garlands, and carrying these, one of each, I crown myself with
As object of superstitious beliefs and supposedly endowed with the prophetic power to reveal the future, the first, the crown of Wisdom" .2196 In the sixth-century manuscript illumination of the Vienna Dioscorides
they acquired a utilitarian function in people's life. Interest in antiquities was expanding, as was interest fol. (w, in the medallion bearing the image of Juliana Anicia, in front of her is shown an Eros holding
in the reading and copying of inscriptions. The epigrams in the hippodrome of Constantinople were an open book. An inscription identifies him as n68oi; cptAoxt(arov. Other Erotes are engaged in crafts
copied in the sixth century. 2191 Procopius mentions several inscriptions, and Malalas records twenty-one in 1 border scenes. To the left of the medallion appears the inscription n68oi; 1"11£ aocpiai;. 2197 Sometimes
of them, the majority referring to Antioch. It seems, however, that most, if not all of them, were copied on mosaics in houses pagan scenes are combined with Christian symbols. On the mosaic pavement of a
from literary sources and not directly from monuments. 2192 Agathias also might have copied an inscription house in Madaba, dated to the fifth century, there appears a naked Satyr with a Maenad and a kantharos
from Tralleis from the Patria Tralleon. 2193

The Christianization of pagan monuments CTh XVI.10.25. 0. Hjort, Augustus Christianus-Livia Christiana: Sphragis and Roman Portrait Sculpture, in Ryden
and Rosenquist,Aspects of Late Antiquity, 99-112; C. A Marinescu, Transformations: Classical Objects and Their Re-Use during
The destruction and abandonment of the pagan monuments marks a radical break with the ancient Lai., Antiquity, in Mathisen and Sivan, Shifting Frontiers, 285-298; A Delivorrias, Interpretatio Christiana: About the
past. In the cities the ancient monuments survived, albeit now broken down into spolia everywhere or as Buundaries of the Pagan and Christian Worlds, in Euphrosynon, 107-122; R.R. R. Smith, The Statue Monument of Oecumenius:
A Portrait of a Late Antique Governor from Aphrodisias,JRS 92 (2002), 134-156, esp. 150 ff.: Christian inscriptions were
beautiful fa<;ades of empty buildings or as parts of new Christian or military structures. Around them
imcribed on the top of the heads of statues, therefore invisible from the ground.
were woven superstitious tales which were universally believed. It is true that such attitudes were inher- 1195
Apart from the references on pagan sculpture cited above pp. 377-380, see also J. Elsner, Art and Architecture, 337-425,
m . Cameron and P. Garnsey, The Cambridge Ancient History, XIII. The Late Empire, A.D. 337-425 (Cambridge 1998), 742-761;
K Vv eitzmann, The Survival of Mythological Representations in Early Christian and Byzantine Art and their Impact on Christian
lcunography, DOP 14 ( 1960), 45-68; J. Huskinson, Some Pagan Mythological Figures and their Significance in Early Christian
2188
On the allegorical interpretations of myths see P. Leveque, Aurea catena Homeri. Une etude sur l'allegorie grecque Arr. PBSR 42 (1974), 68-97. Sometimes Christian themes were reversed by the pagans and used to project pagan ideas: Sodini,
(Paris 1959). On the statues· symbolism see V. Fazzo, La giustificazione delle immagini religiose dalla tarda antichita al Social Structures, 37-38; W. A Daszewski, Le Mysterieux message des mosa1ques de Paphos, Le Monde de la Bible 112 (1998).
Cristianesimo, I: La tarda antichita (con unAppendice sull'/conoclasmo bizantino) (Naples 1977), 195 ff. Allegorical interpre- 30 ':i; J. Baity and J.-C. Baity, Julien et Apamee, Dialogues d'histoire ancienne l (1974), 267-278; idem, Un programme
tations based on etymology are found in the 'O.uYJQtxa nQo/3A1,uara of Heraclitus in the first century AD.: F. Buffiere, Hera elite. pl: 'osophique sous la cathedrale d'Apamee: L'ensemble neo-platonicien de J'empereur Julien, in Texte et image. Actes du
1

Allegories d'Homere (Paris 1962). See also Liebeschuetz, Pagan Mythology; Saradi, Perceptions, 49-50. C/loque int. de Chantilly ( 13 au 15 octobre 1982) (Paris 1984), 167-176; J. Baity, Notes d'iconographie dionysiaque: la mosa1que
2189
John Lydus, De mensibus IV.I, 51, 76 (pp. 63-64, 107, 129). dt Sarrin (Osrhoene), in Religion, mythologie, iconographie, Rome, mai 1989,MEFRA 103 (1991), 19-33; Liebeschuetz, Pagan
2190
Nonnus, Dionysiaca XIII.517; Mai alas, 26.68-70. See also Sartre, La construction, 94-97. :hology; P. Baumann, Mythological Heroes in the Service of Private Representation: A Case Study on Some Late Antique
2191
Cameron, Porphyrius, 109-116. tvk,aics in the Holy Land, in Rutgers, Tf'hat Athens, 69-85; D. Parrish, Dionysos and his Circle in Mosaics of Late Antiquity, in
2192
R. E. G. Downey, References to Inscriptions in the Chronicle of Malalas, TAPhA 66 (1935), 55-72; Jeffreys, Malalas' Balmelle et al., Melanges d'antiquite tardive, 75-84.
sources, 200-201. 1196
Anthologia Graeca XVI.201.
2193 1197
Dagron, Constantinople, 151 n. 94. K. Kitzinger, Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination (New York 1977), 60, pl. 15.
 382 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY PAGAN MONUMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN CITY 383

with pagan images. 2200 Several examples of pottery2201 and silver objects 2202 are known to have been
adorned with pagan motifs, while the majority display Christian symbols. In Athens the production of
lamps with Athena Promachos continued well into the early seventh century, 2203 whilst Gorgo-Medusa
was used as an apotropaic symbol side by side with Christian symbols. 2204
Most striking are pagan images in churches. A few examples have already been mentioned, name-
ly: jambs of the central door of the Church of Petra decorated with images of pagan gods; the friezes
with the sculptures of dancing satyrs and masks in Basilica El at Sagalassos; the temple of Zeus Hyp-
sisto<; in a segment of the mosaic of the Church of St. Stephanus at Umm al-Rasas in Jordan repre-
sentmg the city of Neapolis; the representations of Pan, Tri ton, and of the river gods Geon, Phison, Eu-
phrates, Tigris and the Castalia on the mosaic of the Justinianic church at Qasr-el-Lebia in Libya. 2205
Other mythological scenes in churches are also known. The calendar of months with the personifica-
tion:; of the twelve months and those of Helios and Selene in the centre in the sixth-century monastery
of Virgin at Scythopolis2206 and the Centaurs and Amazons on the mosaic floor of the Basilica D in
the lower city of Justiniana Prima, 2207 while the representation of the Dioscuri in Basilica A at Nicopo-
lis have been a Christian reinterpretation. 2208
One further step was also made in Christianizing the pagan monuments. They were expressions of
antiquity, which Christians regarded as part of the divine plan for the salvation of the world. The idea
that ancient culture, in particular ancient philosophers, had prepared the world to receive the message
of Christianity appeared early on in Christian literature. Ancient wisdom, far from being rejected, was
incorporated in the Christian world. This idea is found also expanded to the ancient monuments. Thus
Zachariah of Mytilene gives an allegoric reinterpretation of three very large stones joined together in
the pagan temple of Helios at Heliopolis. They symbolized the holy Trinity and "the calling of the nations
by preaching of the Gospel tidings". The temple, struck by lightning, collapsed to the ground, but
the three stones miraculously continued to remain intact. On the site was built a church dedicated to

FIG. 52. Mosaic pavement of a house in Madaba (late fifth century), combining pagan and Christian
themes: a Satyr and a Maenad, a kantharos with vine branches flanked by peacocks and stags.
Radziewicz, Reliefs figures, 326-330.
1
P. M. Watson, Jerash Bowls: Study of a Provincial Group of Byzantine Decorated Fine Ware, Syria 66 (1989), 223-261,
esp . .:'.15-249. Pagan motifs included Pan and satyr, Achilles and Paris, part of a Tyche, etc. (from the late first quarter of the
sixth century until the late seventh century).
with vine branches flanked by peacocks and stags (Figure 52). Of course, the use of classical motits and M. Mundell Mango and A. Bennett, The Sevso Treasure I (Ann Arbor, MI 1994); J.M. C. Toynbee and K. S. Painter,
iconography in the private sphere displays the claims of the owner to be intimate with upper class culture Sih n Picture Plates of Late Antiquity: AD. 300 to 700, Archaeologia 108 ( 1986), 15-65: silver plates with stamps of the seventh
and so to belong to the urban elite without having, however, real cultural affinities with the classical century decorated with mythological and Dionysiac subjects.
education and culture. Thus the use of classical iconography may not always indicate real and profound Frantz, The AthenianAgora, fig. in p. II.
attachment to classical culture. 2198 A bronze head of Medusa 5 cm diameter perhaps above the door of a building at Caricin Grad was probably used as
apoilopaic: Kondic and Popovic, Cari an Grad, pl. III, 3, 187, 387-388; Guyon and Cardi, L'eglise B, 1 and fig. 6 (p. 7). From an
Furthermore, ancient objects of art with pagan decoration were preserved for a long time in the
anc1c:1t villa at Lechaion in Corinthia, a slab of a screen dating to the sixth century, now in the Byzantine Museum of Athens,
private environment. Two examples from the private sphere show how diverse both the pagan objects wa: decorated with Medusa's head on the one side and with a cross and vegetal ornaments on the other: M. Sklavou-Mavro1di,
and their environment were: in P.Lond. 1007.5-6 (a. 558) Dionysus and Ariadne decorated a pen-case Ilw,•<iutaori rrgoowrrE(ou OE ~utavnva y1"uma, DChAE 13 (1985-1986), 175-180. The Chalke gate was also decorated with gor-
or pen-holder (xaAaµagLOv). A group of Dionysus and a Satyr, found in a latrine of the Byzantine gon•:ia from the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Christianized by Justinian with the sign of the cross above them: Mango, The
shops in Sardis, may have been placed there to be ridiculed, 2199 or may still have been regarded as Bra:,·n House, 100; Bassett, The Urban Image, 125-127.
alluding to the animal forces of nature. Objects of the minor arts decorated with pagan figures were still See supra, pp. 372,371, 130, 139.
.. :% Fitzgerald, Monastery, 7 and fig. of the frontispiece and pl. VII, VIII.
produced. The carved bones and ivory found in House D at Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria are adorned
Dj. Mano-Zisi, Iskopavanje na Caricin Gradu 1949-1952 Godine (Les fouilles de Caricin Grad en 1949-1952), Starinar
(Bc:!l'rade) n.s.111-IV (1952-1953), 144-153, figs. 39, 40 (pp. 150-151); Ch. Picard, A. Caricin Grad: Jes mosaiques du naos de
la h1,ilique Sud, Revue archeologique 47 (Paris 1956), 231-232; Kondic and Popovic, Cari an Grad, 346; R. E. Kolarik, The
Fbor Mosaics of Eastern Illyricum. The Northern Regions,ACAC X (1980), I, 445-479, esp. 477-478.
Fr. Baratte, Culture et images dans le domaine prive ala fin de l'antiquite: du reve ala realite ?,AntTard 9 (2001 ), 275-283.
2198
~:,ix Kitzinger, Mosaics at Nikopolis, 108-122; A. Grabar, L 'a,t de la fin de l'Antiquite et du Mayen Age (Paris 1968), II, 782-
2199
G. M.A. Hanfmann, Excavations at Sardis, 1959, BA SOR 157 ( 1960), 34-35; idem, Sardis, 192. Also in the latrines of 78, See also P. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Ta rra1"mozgwnavLxa 11n1cpLbwi:a bamba mu Avmohxou D).ugLxou,ACAC X
the Gymnasium of Salamis in Cyprus a torso of a Pan was found: Karageorghis, Sculptures II, 2. I, 402-403, 439.
384 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

the Virgin Mary. 2209 Malalas mentions the tradition regarding the famous temple at Cyzicus. Built by
the Argonauts, it was converted into a church dedicated to the Virgin during the reign of Leo I or Zeno,
in accordance with an ancient oracle found inscribed on a large stone on the site. 2210 The Argonauts
consulted the oracle of Apollo at Pythias Therma, modern Yalova, and received the following answer:
"Do all that leads to virtue and honour. I proclaim only a triune, high-ruling God, whose imperishable
Word will be conceived in an innocent girl. He, like a fiery arrow coursing through the midst of the
whole world, will make it captive and bring it as a gift to his father. This will be her house and her name
will be Mary". The oracle was inscribed on the lintel of the temple and was dedicated to Rhea. According CHAPTER13
to the Greek Theosophy, a similar prophecy was found carved on a stone in Athens by the left side of
the temple of Athena. Phoebus Apollo, whom the citizens had consulted, prophesied that the temple
would be converted to a Church of the Virgin. Malalas also mentions that in the Capitolium of Rome CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE
there was an altar dedicated by Augustus with a messianic inscription. The inscription "This is the altar
of the first-born god" contained an oracle by Pythia foretelling the advent of Christ. 2211 Moschus
records a tradition according to which in the Tetra pylon of Alexandria Alexander the Great had buried 176El ya(! we; a[ µi:v aAAat (flAOTlµiat µovryv d,-
the relics of the prophet Jeremy. For this reason the site of the Tetrapylon was very much respected by :T(!E:Tclav rfi JTOAEl :TE(!l:TOlOl!OlV, YJ ()E TWV cxva-
Alexandria's inhabitants (no.vu oc~aoµwt:;). 2212 Cosmas Indicopleustes describes at great length a seat XTO(!WV xaraaxrn17 µera roD xaAAovc; xai ()O~av
OOlOVJTOc; aVVElaaycl. 2214
( b(cpgot:;) of marble placed by Ptolemaios, son of Ptolemaios and Arsinoe, in the coastal city of Adoule
in Ethiopia, all inscribed with a lengthy inscription recording the exploits of Ptolemaios and the parts
of his kingdom. Behind the seat stood a large image, broken at the time of the author, and most of its
lower part was lost. The inscription was inscribed on the seat and the image and only a small part was Churches: the cities' landmark
broken, the rest was still intact and perfectly legible. Cosmas was asked by the local ruler to record the
inscription for him. On the back of the seat were sculptured the images of Hercules and Hermes, Construction of churches endowed the topography of the early Byzantine cities with the prestige
interpreted by another merchant as symbols of power and wealth each. But Cosmas recalled a reference and authority of the new religion. Roman architectural tradition and new religious practices forged the
from the Acts of the Apostles (XIV .12), and identified Hermes as the symbol of reason ( ovµ~oAov f,oyou ). mac:nificent Christian monumental complexes. At a time when ancient buildings were abandoned and
As with other ancient monuments, the site of this Hellenistic monument was considered polluted the decaying, Christian religious architecture lent the cities a totally new tone and dominated the urban
locals at the time, since criminals were executed there. 2213 landscape. The architecture of the early Christian basilicas and their appendages, baptisteries, chapels,
In the visual world of the sixth-century cities, ancient monuments were present, but decaying, de- bi:,,hops' palaces and ecclesiastical baths, houses for the clergy, hostels, hospitals and houses for the
feated by the age, the attacks of the Christians, and the indifference of the contemporaries for whom their prn , and related ecclesiastical institutions, remained for long the major focus of archaeological inves-
significance was slipping away. The dominant impression conveyed by archaeology is that of a profound ion of this period. 2215
break with a past made visible by these monuments. At the same time most of our sources indicate that ir- Church architecture focused on the interior space where the act of worship took place. In ecclesi-
rationality had increased and the monuments thus became vehicles of superstition, both feared and need- aslical complexes, the propylaea and atria surrounded by porticoes were designed to lead the worship-
ed at the same time, because they could foretell future events. There was also a drive to comprehend the per, to the church nave. Symbolically, church architecture and decoration, which favours ornament,
past in Christian terms and to absorb the pagan remains into the dominant ideology of Christianity. Ide- promoted the concept of the sublime, in contrast to the classical concept of beauty and order. Colour-
ological analogies with paganism were found regarding moral issues. The striking effort to appropriate ful columns, capitals and marble revetments, arches, domes and semi domes, wall paintings and
the legacy of the past in the form of its monuments and artistic themes was more likely to endure among sparkling mosaics created a theocratic dimension and elevated the soul. Procopius of Caesarea de-
the learned upper class, the intellectual climate of which nourished idealization of the past. scribes the religious experience that Christians felt upon entering the Church of St. Sophia in Constan-
tinople. The church revealed a metaphysical dimension of the world; Christians were uplifted and ele-
vahcd to a spiritual sphere: "Arid whenever anyone enters this church to pray, he understands at once
that it is not by any human power or skill, but by the influence of God, that this work has been so finely
turned. Arid so his mind is lifted up toward God and exalted, feeling that He cannot be far away, but
mu~t especially love to dwell in this place which He has chosen". 2216

2209
Zachariah of Mytilene, Historia Ecclesiastica VIII.4 (pp. 204-205); T. Wiegand (ed.), Baalbek, Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen
und Untersuchungen in den Jahren 1898 bis 1905 II (Berlin and Leipzig 1923), 129-144.
2210 H. Erbe, Fragmente griechischer Theosophien (Hamburg 1941 ), 167 ff.; Malalas. 54-55.
Choricius, Or. I.30 (p. 10.16-19).
2211 Malalas, 38 (transl. Jeffreys, p. 38); 176.
See G. Bovini, Gli studi di archeologia cristiana dalle origini alla meta de! secolo XIX (Bologna 1968); F. W. Deichmann,
2212 Moschus, 2932A.
Ei1n ihnmg in die christliche Archiiologie (Darmstadt 1983).
2213 Cosmas Indicopleustes, 72-76.
Procopius, De aedificiis I.1.61 ( transl. Dewing).
386 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 387

Several enkomia of churches are known from the sixth century. Three were written for St. Sophia, century. Also are mentioned the Church of St. George, near the New Gate, of St. Sophia, of Mary
one by Paul Silentiarius, another by Procopius of Gaza, and a description by Procopius of Caesarea in Magdalene, and the Corner Church of the Temple Mount dedicated to the memory of James. The
his Buildings. Two enkomia of the churches of Saints Sergius and Stephanus at Gaza were incorporat- Church of Jerusalem was granted economic privileges, and after the council of Chalcedon it was ranked
ed in Choricius' Orations for bishop Marcian. They describe the architectural features of the churches, a~; the first church of Palestine. Pilgrimage flourished, becoming a major factor in the city's economic
their splendid internal decoration, the majestic beauty and spirituality of the interior. These texts, written vitality. 2218 Pilgrims in general and in about 570 the anonymous Piacenza pilgrim, describe Jerusalem's
in a classicizing vocabulary and articulated in conformity with the rules of rhetoric, stress the churches' Christian monuments and their participation in processions through Jerusalem's Holy Sites. 2219 Justinian
celestial grandeur. In the fourth and fifth centuries, the aesthetic and architectural principles of church the Nea Church, dedicated to the Theotokos, the city's largest church (a. 543). The Nea Church
construction and their symbolism of celestial analogies and heavenly spirituality were firmly established. was situated in a prominent position, in the middle of the way leading from Constantine's churches to
By the sixth century the churches, integrated in the urban topography, dominated the urban landscape the· Church of the Apostles on Mount Sion. Its construction started before his reign, but the emperor
at the time when the secular utilitarian buildings of the Roman imperial period were collapsing. Only adopted the project and financed it. Procopius describes at length the difficulties the engineers faced in
churches and urban fortifications survived the transition to the Middle Ages. Churches had become the constructing the Nea Church, because of the steepness of the hill, the solution adopted being to support
principal symbols of the new culture and defined spiritual experience. Christianity was gradually giving of the church on a vaulted substructure. The huge stones were carried from a great distance on
a new coherence to urban topography. It redirected society's economic forces from secular buildings to specially made wagons, by means of passages cut through the hills. Cedars of enormous height were cut
construction of churches and related buildings. It centred daily activities in and around churches. It became from a dense forest to construct the roof, whilst stones for the columns were miraculously found near
a new urban force, both symbolically and practically. It replaced the vitality of the Roman imperial the city. Procopius emphasizes the great number and size of the columns of the Nea Church:
cities with a new Christian urban model. The various enkomia of churches that had sprung up the
sixth century reflect this change at the time when the Church was firmly established and had taken over So the church is supported on all sides by a great number of huge columns from that
the urban space. place, which in colour resemble flames of fire, some standing below and some above
The new focus on churches and articulation of the urban space around them can be seen in and others in the stoas which surround the whole church except on the side facing
Jerusalem, the Christian city par excellence (Plan XIII). Jerusalem's urban development in the early the east. Two of these columns stand before the door of the church, exceptionally
Byzantine period was determined by the city's significance for Christians. Its holy sites, places of pil- large and probably second to no column in the whole world. Here is added another
grimage, attracted funds from emperors and aristocrats to build churches, monasteries and charitable colonnaded stoa which is called the narthex, I suppose because it is not broad.
institutions, bringing long-lasting changes to the city's topography and a major boost to the socio-eco- Beyond this is a court with similar columns standing on the four sides. 2220
nomic life of the city. Jerusalem's churches are known from literary sources, and nine are depicted on
the Madaba mosaic map of which, so far only five have been uncovered. 2217 Most prominent were the monastery with a library, a hostel for pilgrims and a hospital was attached to the church. An
churches built by Constantine and Helen on the Holy Sepulchre and the Eleona Church on the Mount inscription commemorates the building of a large subterranean cistern by Justinian under the supervision
of Olives. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on an enormous scale and possessed a complex of hegoumenos. 2221 Justinianic restoration extended the magnificent colonnaded cardo to the south
architectural design. Beyond the outer atrium stood the basilica or martyrium, then the inner atrium to reach the Nea Church, connecting the city centre with the Mount Sion. 2222
and the rotunda around the Anastasis, and next a second inner atrium leading to a circular domed the Balkans, Justiniana Prima (Plan I) represents the type of sixth-century city promoted by the
building. In the course of the fourth and fifth centuries, other churches, monasteries and charit;:ble in- The imperial foundation commemorating Justinian's birthplace was granted an elevated status,
stitutions were built in Jerusalem by benefactors from the East and the West. The Ascension Church bee, 1ming the seat of a metropolitan and of the Prefect of Illyricum. 2223 Since the latter actually resided
was sponsored by the Roman aristocratic woman Poimenia. Athenais-Eudocia who visited the on in Tlicssalonica, only the metropolitan lived at J ustiniana Prima. Procopius refers to the city's churches in
a pilgrimage in 438/9 and settled there in exile from around 443 to 460 was a major benefactor. She a vague statement, "for to enumerate the churches is not easy". 2224 Archaeological investigation gives
financed monasteries and charitable institutions and constructed the Church of the Virgin at Siloam us much more concrete picture of the city's Christian character. During the first phase of construction
where Jesus healed the blind man. This church became an important pilgrimage site visited by the sick. (530-540) the buildings on the acropolis were built: Basilica A, the baptistery, the so-called consignatorium,
Eudocia may also have built a church dedicated to St. Anna, also known as the Church of the Paralytic, and 1he bishop's palace. At this first stage, Basilica F in the upper city was also built. During the next
built over the Probatike or Bethesda pool. This church commemorated the birth of the Virgin and the it was decided to build a defensive wall to fortify the acropolis containing the cathedral complex
healing of the paralytic on the site of a pagan temple to Asclepius. Eudocia also bttilt the Church of St.
Stephanus. Melania the Younger, another Roman aristocratic woman who chose the monastic life. also
made many endowments to Jerusalem's churches. The Church of the Apostles on Mount Sion was built :· "E. D. Hunt,Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire, AD 312-460 (Oxford 1982), 19-22, 128-154.
1
at the site where according to the tradition the Last Supper took place. The Praetorium where Pontius ') J. Wilkinson, Christian Pilgrims in Jerusalem during the Byzantine Period, PEQ l 08 ( 1976), 75-101; N. Avigad, Discovering

fem:uiun (Nashville, Tenn. 1983), 205-246.

Pilatus held the trial of Jesus was actually located in the Tower of David, but in the early Byzantine period
Procopius, De aedificiis V.6.22-23 (transl. Dewing).
it was thought to have been in the Tyropean Valley, where a church was built in the middle of the fifth
Ibid., V.6; N. Avigad, A Building Inscription of the Emperor Justinian and the Nea in Jerusalem, JEJ 27 (1977), 145-
151 the Nea Church see Y. Tsafrir, Procopius and the Nea Church in Jerusalem,AntTard 8 (2000), 149-164.
See supra, p. 274.
2217 A. Ovadiah, The Churches of Jerusalem on the Madaba Mosaic Map, in Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba Mosaic - Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.24-25; Novellae 11 ( a. 535), 131.3 ( a. 545).
Map, 252-254. Procopius, De aedificiis IV.1.23.
388 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 389

and the bishop's palace. In the upper city three churches were built: Basilica C, the cruciform Basilica B
in between the gate of the upper city and the circular place, and Basilica F opposite Basilica B, although
further to the west at the foot of the acropolis. All these churches have approximately the same length --==~=:::~·--JCQJ ~~
....ic== (l '.: ' " " ~

and width. In the lower city Basilica G or the Double Basilica, and Basilica D were built, the latter being -----
the second largest church after the cathedral, 45 m long. Outside the walls of the lower city stood Basilica
E to the east, and Basilica J further away to the southwest. Justiniana Prima had eight churches, all large
basilicas, and all constructed as part of the same project. 2225 The location of most of the churches along
the central avenue leading from the gate to the circular place and to the acropolis emphasizes their
eminence in urban topography and their role in the city's culture and socio-economic structure. has
been suggested, albeit with reservations, that their location might have been dictated by the needs of pro-
cessional and stationary liturgy, similar to that performed in Jerusalem. 2226 In addition, in sixth-century
cities, Christian festivals involved processions from one church to another. 2227 In Justiniana Prima. the
churches' central location may have been dictated by practical reasons, i.e. the topography and the need
to make them easily accessible to people. It also expressed the Church's importance as an institution in
the city's life: the most prominent position in the city, the acropolis on the hilltop, was reserved for the
episcopal church and the bishop's palace, while the headquarters for the military and civil administration
were assigned second place in the lower part of the city, the Church thereby conveying a powerful
ideological message. Furthermore, in the sixth-century city traditional urban features, such as street
colonnades, become subordinate to churches and were to enhance the churches' architectural authority.
D
Thus the portico of the central avenue in front of Basilica B lost its function as a street portico and was
0
substantially modified to function as an entrance to the church. Instead of pillars, it possessed columns,
and its width was reduced by a staircase, built facing the street. 2228 In the same church particular effort
was made to enhance the fac;ade with the monumental entrance. The staircase was impressive and the J f;
......fn---·,: G
size of the fac;ade was larger than the rest of the church. Thus the position of the cathedral on the acropolis, t 0
l :
the location of several churches along the central avenue, and the architectural design of the second qH

largest church, Basilica B, made powerful statements regarding the dominance of the Church the
city's topography and life.
The recently excavated site of Louloudies near Katerini, in northern Greece, a station midway between
~
Thessalonica to Dion, probably the mansio or mutatio Anamon, is another example of a small early a .

Byzantine city with similar topographical characteristics and administrative and socio-economic structure.
Under the Tetrarchs, it became a centre serving local administrative and taxation needs that arose, in
particular, from the presence of the saltpans in the area. When in 479 the Goths were allowed to settle n -~f[Po -- 0,0JO 'l-0

in Pydna, among other cities, in order to end the siege of Thessalonica, the bishopric was transferred
from Pydna 8 km to the south, to the site of Louloudies (Plan 41 ). The new site, 80x90 m, was fortified
PLAN 41. The Bishop's complex at Louloudies, near Pydna in Greece: I. Wine press. II. Oil press.
with towers at the four corners. It included a fifth-century basilica, the bishop's residence, porticoes
with piers, and barracks for the garrison. Although the Goths withdrew from the area in 485, the eccle-
siastical centre in Louloudies was maintained. During the reign of Justinian the bishop's complex lost arti~ans' workshops and commercial shops. In the same period, a larger basilica was built and the bishop's
its fortified character and expanded, acquiring storerooms, industrial-sized wine presses, an olive press, palace extended west and northeast with new structures, kitchens and a courtyard. At some point after
the middle of the sixth century an earthquake destroyed the bishop's palace and the basilica. Only the
cemral nave was restored and a cemetery appeared around it. It was possibly then that the bishop
2225 N. Duval, L'architecture religieuse de Tsaritchin Grad dans le cadre de l'Illyricum oriental au Vie siecle, in Vi//es et moved to the city of Pydna. The settlement, however, continued its economic activities, which in fact
peuplement, 399-480. intensified. New storage rooms were built and the old ones were restored, and after a new destruction
2226
V. Popovic, La signification historique de !'architecture religieuse de Tsaritchin Grad, CorsiRav XXVI (1979), 308-309.
2227
in new earthquake they were restored and the soil was raised. In the seventh century, another earthquake
Choricius, Or. I.93 (p. 26.1-4); Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 101.36-42 (p. 81). See J. F. Baldovin, The Urban Character
de,troyed the complex and it was consequently abandoned. Workshops were then established on the
of Christian Worship. The Origins, Development, and Meaning of Stational Liturgy (Rome 1987); A. Papaconstantinou. La
liturgie stationnale a Oxyrhynchos dans la premiere moitie du 6e siecle. Reedition et commentaire de POXYXI 1357, REB 54 for production of bricks, pottery, glass objects, and various tools for smiths and masons. All the
(1996), 135-159. annexes north of the basilica and all the areas of the bishop's residence were dilapidated. Poor workshops
2228
See supra, p. 276. were also built outside the south and west wall during the Byzantine Dark Ages. Finally, for unknown
390 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 391

reasons, the inhabitants abandoned the settlement. 2229 A similar model for the small early Byzantine
city is found near the ancient Greco-Roman city of Panemoteichos in Pisidia. Only 1.5 km west of
Panemoteichos at Oren Tepe in a small Hellenistic garrison fort a large basilica (36x14.20 m) was built
dating to the fourth or fifth century (Plan 42). This was probably the seat of the bishop of Panemoteichos.223~
In these settlements, there are one or more churches, in combination with facilities for a garrison, while at
>~~
the same time the Church appears to have controlled major economic activities in the area.
In cities of large and medium size, churches gradually occupied the urban centre. They are found
flanking central avenues, at major crossroads, on the site of earlier buildings or vacant lots, in residential
·.':.~' ---- /
0
~
ro
·;;;
ro
districts or ancient civic centres. There are many examples of city centres occupied by churches. In the
Balkans, at Tropaeum Traiani three central basilicas were built at the crossroads of the via principalis ~ I
00
o:l
vi
~
with the cardo: the Basilica Simple, the Basilica with Transept and the Basilica Forensis (supra, p. 292, ro
Plan 30). In the civic centre of Heraclea Lyncestis stood two basilicas, aligned on the same axis so that -1 a"'
ro
one stood in front of the other, thereby forming a large complex, together with the bishop's palace and o:l
~
baths (Plan 43). Basilica C occupies a prominent position, being larger, located opposite the theatre CJi
...c::
~
o:l
C<)
0
,: .g
~ ...0
i.
Cl-. ci
c--i ro
...v ~
·;;;
~ ro
ll.l o:l
...c::
..... 00
ll.l
...c::
f-, ~
,-<
~
>
r-:
~ v
u
ro
ci oil
ci 0..

I ~
~
·"'0..
0
...c::
.s VJ
ro ~
0.....
.. ~ '°
'
/N
/' ,~
·r··"
...i::
"u
ll.l

I 5
0

\ I I VJ
\ ! I
I ½ ·.oVJ
I
\ ll.l
u
i::
\
' \ ~
\ ro
\~. - j \ ll.l
uro
...
' ' ~~-----
"--....____- ---~------- ll.l
::r:
PLAN 42. Oren Tepe near Panemoteichos in Pisidia. ) ~
I
\
i
I
C<)
"tj"

z
j
Cl-.
- (
I

2229
E. Marki, Aou1couc>Lec; l 997,AEMT 11 ( 1997), 289-293: idem, KiTQoc;. Mta n61c1yxaoTQO n7c; ~utavnv~c; JTEQlCj {Qctac;.
AQXUL0Aoytx17 xm LOTOQLX~ JTQOOEYYLOll (Thessalonica 2001), 14-23.
2230 S. Aydal and S. Mitchell et al., The Pisidian Survey 1995: Panemoteichos and Oren Tepe. S. Mitchell: Oren Tepe,

AnatSt47 (1997), 170-172.

 CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 393
392 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

and attached to the bishop's residence. It was built in the late fifth century. The other one, Basilica A is Much more impressive and constructed on a majestic scale are the churches and their annexes in
smaller and built in the sixth century. In Byllis, in the province of Epirus Nova, in modern Albania, five the centre of Philippi in Greece (Plan XIX). The basilicas arranged around the forum create a powerful
basilicas are dispersed in different districts of the city. Of the three located in the upper city, one is built imposing Christian centre. Philippi was a site of pilgrimage for Christians, because of St. Paul's visit to
inside the stoa of the agora (Plan 44). 2231 the city, his imprisonment there, and the letters he wrote to the local Christian community. Again, both
the location of the churches at the heart of the city and their great size create the impression of an assertive
and powerful Church. The Roman forum, however, was not occupied by Christian buildings, as these
de,doped primarily to the east of the forum. Southeast of the forum the Octagon, or Basilica D, was
built by bishop Porphyrius in 340, between the Egnatia (decumanus maximus) to the north and the street
pa"s;ing through the forum to the south (Plan 45). 2232 This area, the site of the flogging of Paul and Silas,
wa" dedicated to St. Paul, and became the site of the city's cathedral. It was attached to a Hellenistic

• • • • •• • • • •
..........~-~
• I
•
3
6

b 7

-~~.. ~~t:.::1_-_·_-._-::~1=-10
0

'..JL ';,J l)U

•
..__...._________.A
- C I ff

.• i.~~+++++..-+-+-+~--<

PLAN 45. The Octagon complex at Philippi: 1. The Octagon. 2. The narthex. 3. Aithrion-three
como'ernents ?001 et nun'ensat1on 2001
aisled portico. 4. Roman baths. 5. The bishop's palace. 6. Storage rooms and workshops or pilgrims'
M. 1/V. K. 7001
hostel. 7. Aithrion of the Octagon or courtyard of the pilgrims' hostel. 8. Monumental entrance.
9. The Hellenistic heroon. 10. Diakonikon with a table or cenotaph with martyr's relics. 11. Basin
to collect the water flowing through the sarcophagus. 12. Baptistery.
PLAN 44. Plan of Byllis in Albania.

2231 S. Mm;aj, Dy monumente te antikitetit te vone ne Bylis (Deux monuments de la Basse Antiquite a Byllis), /liria 16/1

(1986), 321-327; idem, Bazilika A e Bylisit (La basilique A de Bylis), Iliria 17/1 (1987), 167-202; Saradi, Albania, 92-93.
2232 S. Pelekanides, 'Avaoxacp11 <l>t1'.lrrrrwv, PAE l 975 [1977], 101.
394 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 395

Heroon and stood on earlier buildings. The Hellenistic Heroon, in the form of a temple with an under- 135:(45 m and Basilica B 115x75 m (Plan 46). The implantation of the Christian churches in the city's
ground Hellenistic tomb, functioned as a Christian cult centre until the destruction of the Octagon in fabric caused encroachment onto streets and the forum, a phenomenon known also from other cities of
the late sixth to the early seventh century. East of the heroon a narrow passage has been identified as a the empire. The bishop's palace and the propylon of the Octagon expanded on the Egnatia and the wall
diaconicon with a marble table, or probably a sarcophagus with relics through which water flowed from o:ct Octagon on the south street. Earlier monuments were demolished to build Basilica B, closing two
the adjacent baths and collected in a basin in the adjacent room. This table or sarcophagus was a replica streets and part of the Roman macellum. Basilica B, however, was never finished. At some point the
of the martyr's tomb in the underground burial chamber. A similar arrangement of a tomb under- dorne collapsed, the work was interrupted, and the community had no means with which to finance its
ground and another above ground occurs in the Church of St. Demetrius in Thessalonica. Perhaps the restoration. 2237
Philippi tomb was believed to contain relics of St. Paul. The Hellenistic Heroon may have been reused
for the burial of a Christian martyr or for holding relics. It was rebuilt in the late fourth or early fifth
century, and later in the first half of the sixth century in the form of an octagon in which it survives.2233
To the north attached to it was the baptistery. The Octagon was part of a large episcopal complex with
the bishop's palace and other attached buildings occupying three insulae. The Octagon was accessed
from the Egnatia by means of a long portico, with three aisles functioning as an atrium. Its monumental
propylon with the three doors encroached on the street running through the forum, thereby reducing I
its width. To the west of the narthex and the atrium-portico of the Octagon from the Egnatia to the
north as far as to the south decumanus, which was a commercial street, stand a complex of rooms and
\
a large courtyard. The courtyard directly in front of the Octagon flanked by porticoes on both sides. north
,, Prison " de saint Paul
and south, and a large phiale on the west possessed a monumental entrance onto the south decumanus.
It has been suggested that the courtyard was the aithrion of the Octagon and the complex of rooms was Ech. 1/2000
the centre of various economic activities, storerooms and workshops, or that these rooms were guest- Basilique A
house for pilgrims with the courtyard. 2234
Basilica A, whose cistern stood on the site of the prison of Paul and Silas, stood north of the Via
Egnatia, facing the forum and was built around 500. At the end of the sixth century, after the Basilica
A was destroyed by an earthquake, Basilica B was built. It stood south of the forum and was attached
to the palaestra of the Roman gymnasium and abutted on part of the forum and on two streets. This
was the site of the miracle involving the prophesying girl and of the capture of the Apostle. Basilica C
(previously known as Basilica E or Basilica of the Museum), west of Basilica A on the foot of the hill of
the acropolis, was smaller than Basilica A and Band the Octagon. It became the Episcopal Church, in
the sixth century, when the bishop's palace was transferred there from the Octagon, which by then had
become a major centre of pilgrimage and needed the space occupied by the bishop's palace. 2235 There
Basilique 8 Octogone
was also another basilica, previously called Basilica D, 200 m west of the forum and south of the Via
Egnatia at the northern corner of the Byzantine market (supra, p. 225, Plan 13). 2236 The visit by St. Paul to
Philippi and the tradition that arose from it lie behind the impressive Christian development of the civic
centre. By the end of the early Byzantine period the entire area of the ancient civic centre on both sides
of the Egnatia, organized on terraces on the slope of the hill, was occupied by churches commemorat-
ing the events of St. Paul's visit. Moreover, the churches of Philippi are very large. Basilica A measures

2233
S. Pelekanides, Kultprobleme in Apostel-Paulus-Oktagon von Philippi im Zusammenhang mit einem aclteren
Heroenkult,ACAC IX ( 1975), II, 393-397; E. Pelekanidou and A Mentzos, O,miyrnvo <l>LA[mov. Ilgo.n:a auµrrngaaµarn itna Sasilique C Basilique extra-muros
nc; VE0TEQEc; EQEUvEc;, in Mv17µ17 .d. AataQ[o17. ll6},tc; xw xcuQa an7v aQxaia Maxsoov[a xw @Qax17. llQaxnxaAQxwo1.oyt-
xoii l:vvsoQ[ou, Ka/3u.Aa 9-11 Matin, 1986 (Thessalonica 1990), 596-607; Gounaris, Valaneio, 32, 39-54, 55-57 (the heroon);
Bakirtzis and Koester, Philippi, 42-48 (the heroon). PLAN 46. Plans of churches of Philippi.
2234 S. Pelekanides, 'Avaaxmpal <l>LA[rrmov, PAE 1969 [1971 ], 43-51; G. Gounaris et al., 'Avaaxmp1) 'Oxrnywvou <Pti.Li:-

mov, PAE 1981/1 [1983], 14-17; Gounaris, Valaneio; Bakirtzis and Koester, Philippi, 40.
2235 E. Kourkoutidou-Nikola1dou, To Emaxom[o TOJV <l>LA[rrrrrnv a-rov 60 m., Mv17,ur; Mav6Ar; AvoQovixov (Thessalonica

1997), 115-125.
2236 2237 Lemerle, Philippes, 421-427; Lavas, Poleis, 592-595.
Provost and Boyd, Philippes, 460-469.
396 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 397

Several annexes serving various activities organized by the Church were attached to the basilicas of
Thessalian Thebes (Nea Anchialos) (Plan 47). Near Basilica A (or Basilica of St. Demetrius) and Basilica
C (or Basilica of bishop Peter), only 200 m apart from each other, are numerous annexes, two baptis- Basilica C
6lhc.
teries, two baths, the Bishop's palace, and various artisans' installations, such as a pottery workshop, an
area for cooking and lavatories (Plan 48). Among the finds are included lamps, clay seals with the in-
scription 0HB, probably «'Exx),:r1o[a 017~wv». A storeroom with eight large pithoi has been excavat-
ed. During the reign of Justinian the south stoa of the atrium was converted into a room by closing off
the area between the columns. On the basis of a mosaic floor with an owl in the centre and an inscrip- "/ll. Basihca H
tion referring to a teacher from Pergamon, it has been suggested that in the post-Justinianic period a 4th c.

school operated in this room. 2238 The cemeterial Basilica D outside the walls also had annexes for
which various dates have been proposed.

' os\~'Z_{ }~~ ~~' ,s

xv
'%'bo~,., ~~ ,.~

,'"pJ
'?,.~

"'
"" x.,,,,.----,, '
. fh-··
\ . Rooms VL VIL
Vlll. X, XI & )(]';
I Bishop's Palace r··
\
;

Baptistery
B
B I
(-!the ) §

PLAN 48. Basilica C in Thebes (Nea Anchialos) and annexes.

PAGASETIC GL.:LF

I
The basilica of Campanopetra at Salamis in Cyprus was a magnificent complex and renowned pilgrims'
cemre. To the west of the church were two colonnaded atria opening onto each other. Behind the portico
I of he atrium nearest the church were rooms for pilgrims. A third atrium with a canopy extended to the
ea,t of the church. Annexes to the west of the church included latrines and an apsidal room with niches,
PLAN 47. Plan of Thebes (Nea Anchialos). to receive the pilgrims' offerings or for archives. Northeast of the east atrium was a bath. 2239
Several churches and cult places are known in Ephesus (Plan III). The largest are the basilica in the
Gynrnasium of the East Bath by the Magnesian Gate, and the Cathedral dedicated to the Virgin, built

2238
G. A. Soteriou, 'Avaaxaqial Nfor:; 'AyxuiAou, PAE 1929, 66-67; P. Lazaridis, 'Avaaxaqi~ Nfor:; 'AyxuiAou, PAE 1979,
58; Soteriou, Thebes, 40 ff., 45, 103, 128-132; idem, 'A vaoxaqial sv Ni\x 'AyxuiAqi, PAE 1940, 19-21. "c 39 G. Roux, Salamine de Chypre XV. La basilique de la Campanopetra (Paris 1998).
398 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 399

in a central location in the Market Basilica which stood behind the Gymnasium of Verulanus and which terrace was the Church of St. Theodore and on the fourth were located baths and ecclesiastical resi-
was destroyed by fire in the third century. On the hill of Ayasoluk, to which the city withdrew during the dences in the area between the Church of St. Theodore and the court of the temple of Artemis (Plan
Byzantine Dark Ages, stood the Church of St. John the Theologian, built by Justinian in the middle of 49). The length of the ecclesiastical complex from east to west was 163 m. The cathedral church, 35 .5x20
the sixth century. It was 130 m long with an atrium 34x7 m and a baptistery. Other churches and other m. was built around 365 on the site of a temple of Dionysus south east of the temple of Artemis. 2246
cult sites are scattered throughout the city. Some were built at the site of temples, of the Serapeum and Those ascending the stairs from the cardo would first see a small shrine built against the east wall of the
the Artemision, others in palaistrae and in other civic buildings. 2240 Cci I hedral, dedicated to the Virgin. It had the form of a niche whose upper part forms a shell and which

In Apamea, the city centre was also dominated by churches (Plan XX). The Rotunda Church is flanked by small pilasters. Beneath the shell an inscription in red identified the painted figures as
occupying a double block, was built at the intersection of the decumanus with the cardo. Nearby opposite' Michael, Mary and Gabriel, whilst a lamp hung in the centre. The feature was enclosed by a metal
stands the Atrium Church. The Rotunda Church contains a large rotunda, 25 m in diameter, probably

l,1 '. ,~- -r jGr

dating to the reign of Justinian. 2241 The Atrium Church, lavishly decorated with marble revetment and
mosaics, and apparently also Justinianic, replaced an early fifth-century church built over a synagogue.
The nave was flanked by reliquary chapels and a baptistery. 2242 The Cathedral Church of Apamea was
built 500 m east of the intersection of the cardo and the decumanus, opposite the Pilaster House and
the Console House near the city's east gate. 2243 Its monumental staircase was built over the colonnade
-,--,- -r
of the avenue, a phenomenon also observed in Basilica B of Justiniana Prima. Its forecourt is large, I Ii
40x40 m, with porticoes and mosaics on all sides. Inscriptions identify the bishop as Paul, who spon-
sored the construction and decoration of the church in the early years of Justinian's reign. 2244 If this
church was the cathedral, it therefore contained a relic of the Holy Cross, brought here by St. Helen and
.ii
!('
~
Q
ii

~
ii
il
mentioned in accounts of the Persian invasion of 540. In addition, the church held coffers containing I I!!
the relics of Saints Jude, Callinicus, John, and the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia, and another not identified I ii

by inscription. Holy oil poured over the relics was directed through a channel in the wall and collected
outside the church. 2245 In addition to the main building, the impressive cathedral complex consisted of

or
I
numerous other buildings: a funerary chapel to the north, various rooms around a court, another
chapel to the south, a baptistery also containing reliquaries, and a second baptistery south of it adjacent !a.
to a room for banquets for the catechumens. To the west of the cathedral was the so-called Triclinos
House, which was also connected with the cathedral and has been identified as the bishop's palace. Between
the bishop's palace and the cathedral were two colonnaded courts surrounded by rooms and leading
to a bath. In the sixth century the whole area from the east gate and south of the decumanus up to the
intersection with the cardo where the Rotunda Church and the Atrium Church were situated had become
a large and majestic Christian centre. Another basilica was located to the north along the cardo towards
the north gate.
Gerasa also had a vast monumental Christian centre (Plan VI). Of the nineteen churches known,
ten were built in the area around the temple of Artemis in the very centre of the city. The central ec-
clesiastical complex was built next to the temple of Artemis on four terraces which rose at the rear as
high as 18 m above street level. On the first terrace stood a monumental portico leading to a long stair- 0

case, on the second stood the cathedral containing an atrium and a miraculous fountain, on the third
0

~
2240
R. Pillinger, Die Christlichen Denkmaler von Ephesos: Eine Bestandsaufnahme als Riick-und Vorschau, Mitteilungen
zur Christlichen Archiiologie 2 (1996), 39-70; H. Thur, Das spatantike Ephesos. Aspekte zur Frage der Christianisierung des :,: '"'
"' 0
;:: 3
Stadtbildes, in Brands and Severin, Stadt, 259-273.
2241 rtJ • lfJ II! • 111 ar III oo Iii
Apamee (1969), 39. Cardo
2242 Napoleone-Lemaire and Baity, L 'eglise a atrium, 27-75.

2243 Apamee (1972), 187-205; Baity, Guide d'Apamee, 106-115.

PLAN 49. The Cathedral and the Church of St. Theodore at Gerasa.
2244 J. Ch. Baity, L'eveque Paul et le programme architectural et decoratif de la cathedrale d'Apamee, Melanges d'histoire

ancienne et d'archeologie offerts a Paul Collart (Lausanne 1976), 31-46.

2245 F. Mayence, La quatrieme campagne de fouilles a Apamee,Antiquite Classique 4 (1935), 201-202. For a survey of the
2246 The Church of St. Theodore was also built on a pagan site: supra, pp. 358-359.
churches of Apamea see also Foss, Syria, 211-217.
 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 401
400

screen. For the visitors from the cardo the atrium stood at the back of the cathedral where the miracu- Artemis is located the so-called Synagogue Church built by bishop Paul in 530/1 on the site of a syna-
lous fountain was located (Figure 53). Interestingly, more attention was paid to the east portico of the gogue. Northeast of the temple, on a terrace by the city's second theatre the Church of Bishop Isaiah was
atrium, where beautiful Corinthian capitals of uniform appearance were used, because this portico was in 559. The Propylaea Church was built inside the colonnaded square, which formed a monumental
closer to the church, while in the other porticoes the capitals were of various styles and the drums and en ranee to the temple of Artemis across the cardo to the east. Built in 565, after an earthquake destroyed
bases of the Ionic columns are of various sizes. When the Church of St. Theodore was built in 494-496 the bridge and the colonnaded square, it actually blocked the way to the bridge, 2249 leaving only one
behind the cathedral, two of the columns on the north and south sides of the atrium were removed. bridge to lead to the eastern part of the city over the River Chrysorrhoas. As in other urban centres, in the
Three other columns on the south side were also removed to build the forecourt of the chapel at the seeond half of the sixth century the city's priorities had been limited to the churches. Another Byzantine
southwest corner of the cathedral. Finally, only six columns were left on the north side and three on the church was built closer to the temple on the terrace of the altar. In the southwest corner of the city by the
south side of the atrium. 2247 In the area between the Church of St. Theodore and the court of the temple stood the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, built around 540, and fifteen meters to the south a small
of Artemis, potters' workshops were established, whilst in the sixth century a house for the choristers of funerary church, built around the end of the sixth century. In the part of the city east of the river are three
the Church of St. Theodore was built, as recorded in a mosaic inscription of the pavement.
2248 churches, one whose dedicand is unidentified, whilst the other is the Procopius Church, and the third one
Two hundred and fifty meters northwest of the Church of St. Theodore and oriented on the same is chapel of Elias, Maria and Soreg. To the northeast of the river inside the walls stood a church ded-
axis, three adjacent churches were built in the early sixth century (529-533). They were dedicated to icmed to the Prophets, the Apostles and Martyrs (464/5), whilst another lay outside the wall by the north
Saints Cosmas and Damian, St. George and St. John the Baptist. They shared a common atrium and on the road to Birketein. 2250 To the south, two churches were built in the front portico of the court of
communicated via internal doors. Behind the three churches, fifty meters to the west, is the Church of the temple of Zeus, and outside the city walls the Church of Bishop Marianas by the hippodrome ( a. 570).
Bishop Genesius, the last church built in the city, in 611. Further to the north and behind the temple of In Gerasa the temple of Artemis in the city centre was, unusually, surrounded on all sides by
churches. The temple itself may have been used as a church for some time, as suggested by an inscrip-
tion in red over some of its columns. 2251 Most of these churches date to the sixth century when the pagan
buildings had long ceased to function and the Christianization of the city was complete. The ecclesias-
tical complex with the cathedral, the shrine of the Virgin, the Church of St. Theodore, the Baths of bishop
Plaecus between this church and the temenos, and the shops with businesses serving the Christian visitors
created a vast and impressive architectural complex in the heart of the city and gave a new orientation to
the areas' economic and social activities.
In Caesarea Maritima, an octagonal martyrium was built in 480-500, on the so-called Temple Platform
(Plan XVIII), the site of the temple of Rome and Augustus. The pagan temple had been demolished
sometime between the end of the fourth and the early fifth century and another building, as yet uniden-
tifkd, was constructed on the site. The octagonal martyrium was then built over this. The location of
the martyrium at the centre of Caesarea, 12-13 m above the city, was prominent, and the staircase con-
necting it with the harbour suggests that there was a significant traffic in pilgrims arriving by sea. 2252
The small city of Madaba in Jordan, in the province of Arabia and under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction
of Bostra, flourished in the sixth and seventh centuries thanks to trade, the proximity of the city to the
famous pilgrimage site of Mount Nebo and other reasons particular to the area. 2253 The construction
of churches was undertaken at the initiative of various energetic bishops and reveals the city's prosper-
ity Plan 50). Justinian renovated a large cistern (30x20 m) north of the church containing the famous
mo,;aic map, the only other similar renovation being attested in Jerusalem. The most famous of all the
churches of Ma dab a is that containing the mosaic map, laid after 542, with representations of cities and
sites of the Holy Land. Dated by their inscriptions, the churches of Madaba were built in the sixth century,
renovations were carried out in the second half of the sixth century and in the seventh century by
the bishops John, Sergius and Leontius. Bishop Sergius (576-late sixth century) built the cathedral at
FIG. 53. The Fountain Court of the Cathedral of Gerasa. The miraculous fountain is located in the centre of
the atrium. The stairs on the left lead to the Church of St. Theodore.
In the background in the centre is the Serapion Passage leading to the temple of Artemis. See supra, p. 281.
On the other churches of Gerasa see Crowfoot, Christian Churches, 227-262. On the Christianization and the churches
of GlJrasa in the sixth century see B. Brenk, Zur Christianisierung der spatromischen Stadt im ostlichen Mittelmeerraum, in
BralJds and Severin, Stadt, 85-95, esp. 86-91.
2247
C. S. Fisher, The Temple of Artemis, in Kraeling, Gerasa, 138, and Welles, Inscriptions, no. 337 (p. 487).
Crowfoot, Christian Churches, 208-211.
2248 Fisher, Buildings, 285; Welles, Inscriptions, no. 303 (p. 478): XagLfo-mt6c:; d~u t6noc:; tal;Ew<; ◊Euti::gac:; ur1voi.c1'/0JV Hoium, The Christianizing, 161-164.
See supra, p. 38.
CI.V◊QWV.
402 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 403

very centre of the cities, thus making it clear that by then the Church was firmly established in urban
centres. 2257 During the sixth century, the Church appropriated the agora/forum of the cities, areas
din:;ctly related to the history and culture of ancient urban life. Developments in the West followed a
similar path. For example, in Rome, churches were built in the forum from the sixth century on. 2258
Evt:rywhere the vacuum created by decaying civic monuments was filled by private construction and
ecclesiastical buildings. The implantation of churches in pre-existing city plans was not always smooth.
In ,;ome cities in the later part of the early Byzantine period, churches were inserted in the urban fabric by
disrupting the earlier layout of streets and buildings. In peripheral areas of the empire this trend appears
earlier. For example, in the fourth century, in Poree the cathedral expanded on a cardo leading to the
north city gate with the construction of a narthex with an exedra over the cardo. In order to reach the
gate, people had to by-pass the narthex. 2259 However, the construction of most churches, laid out
when cities had not yet started to disintegrate, respected earlier city blocks.
Churches were also scattered in different sections of the cities, thereby creating new socio-eco-
nomic centres. Sardis offers a good example. There, during the reign of Constantine or of his sons, a
new Christian district was developed around Church EA between the river Pactolus and the city wall,
on the west part of the city (Plan 51). In the past, there had been only a water tank and some burials. The
PLAN 50. The churches along the Roman cardo of Madaba: 1. The Church of St. George with
the mosaic of the Madaba Map. 2. The Church of the Virgin. 3. The Church of the Prophet Elias.
4. The Church of the Sunna' Family. 5. The Church of the Holy Martyrs. 6. The Burnt Palace.

the end of the sixth century, whilst across the street from the Church of the Virgin, he built the Church
of the Prophet Elias. In 595/6 bishop Sergius built a crypt of St. Aelianos below street level and deco-
rated it with a mosaic. In 578/9 he built the Church of the Holy Apostles. Two of the inscriptions in the
Church of the Prophet Elias, one of which dates to 608, employ the adjective i:amw6£ to qualify the city
(i:4> rnJtELVQ> cwi:fot wi'.mp, and •ii£ rnnELVi'j£ n611.EW£ i:aui:11£). 2254 Humility, a fundamental Christian
value, gives the city a Christian tone and contrasts with the pronounced pride of the spirit of the ancient
city. The building activity of bishop Sergius extended to the town of Umm al-Rasas, in the churches of
Bishop Sergius, of the Priest Wa' il, of the Lions, and the Church of St. Sergius. He also completed the
mosaic of the baptistery chapel at the Memorial of Moses on Mount Nebo. 2255
Churches were built on available vacant lots and on a wide variety of earlier buildings, such as pri- 0 100 500
vate houses donated to the Church, pagan temples and synagogues, abandoned civic buildings, porti- METERS
coes, baths, theatres, hippodromes, in the centre of the cities or scattered in neighbourhoods and some-
times attached to city walls, or extra muros. 2256 In many cases, however, the nature of the buildings that
the churches replaced remains unclear. The establishment of churches in more central locations in ancient
cities was gradual and it followed the progress of Christianity and the increasing control of the Church
in the cities and the disintegration of civic buildings. In the sixth century most churches were built in the
NECROPOLIS

-.+
ARTEMIS TEMPLE

CHURCH M

PLAN 51. Plan of Sardis.

2254 M. Piccirillo, Chiese e mosaici di Madaba (Milan 1989); idem, Mosaics, 49 ff.;IGSyr XXI/2, nos. 145, 146 ( a. 607-608).
7
2255 Piccirillo, Mosaics, 205 ff.; idem, Madaba: One Hundred Years from the Discovery, in Piccirillo and Alliata, The Madaba ~' H.-G. Severin, Aspekte der Positionierung der Kirchen in ostromischen Stadten, in Brands and Severin, Stadt, 249-
Mosaic Map, 18. 25i< A. Provost, A Theoretical Model Concerning Early Christian Topography, in Rutgers, What Athens, 333-347.
2256 For a general survey see J. Vaes, Christliche Wiederverwendung, 305-443, but without chronological specifications. 2
'K L. Reekmans, L'implantation monumentale chretienne dans le paysage urbain de Rome de 300 a 850, ACAC XI

On the various patterns of implantation of churches in cities of the Illyricum see N. Duval and V. Popovic, Urbanisme et 861-915, esp. 876-877. In Italy in most cases churches were implanted in urban centres in the fifth and sixth centuries:
topographie chretienne dans les provinces septentrionales de l'Illyricum,ACAC X (1980), 541-579; Lavas, Po leis; Spieser. La P. ,cstini, G. Cantino Wataghin and L. Pani Ermini, La cattedrale in Italia, ibid., 5-229. For the progressive proliferation of
ville, 331-332; T. Marasovic, Ristrutturazione delle citta sulla costa orientale adriatica nell'epoca paleocristiana,ACAC XI churches dictated by imperial policy see R. Krautheimer, Three Christian Capitals. Topography and Politics (Berkeley, Los Angeles,
(1986), 327-344; M. Milojevic, Forming and Transforming Proto-Byzantine Urban Public Space, in Allen and Jeffreys. The London 1983).
Sixth Century, 256-259; Cantino Wataghin, Ut haec aedes, 673-749; A. Michel, L'eglise dans la ville: la christianisation de l'espace :_o 9 I. Matejcic, Du cardo au 'narthex' de la cathedrale: contribution a l'etude du developpement du groupe episcopal de
urbain dans la Jordanie byzantine, in Balmelle et al., Melanges d'antiquite tardive, 175-190. Poree. in Balmelle et al., Melanges d'antiquite tardive, 149-164.
404 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 405

GYMNAS[

AMPl!IT!i£ATR£

EXPEDITIO HEADQUA TERS

rJ!EATAE

THrnM£S

CHAPEL.LE.
0

P'"';.~~u~ >-----.......
1914

\
TEMPL[ [)[ "z~us"

a.c..
'\.._
P<ICTCl.JJS
RIVERBED

~
0 100 200 300 400 500m
- -·
"""'N < PLAN 53. The plan of Salamis-Constantia.
SCALE ~

0 IQ 20 40 6C !!C

church bringing about the formation of a new residential area around it (Plan 53). 2262 From the end of
sixth century, a decentralizing tendency, which takes the form of the development of districts
PLAN 52. The Byzantine community to the northwest of the temple of Artemis and Church M at Sardis.
an mnd parish churches, becomes evident and continues to the eighth century, at which point cities decline
dramatically and ancient city centres are abandoned.
During the fifth and the sixth century increasing numbers of churches were constructed in the
new Christian district developed perhaps because a cemetery with a martyr's tomb was located in this throughout the empire. No precise figures exist, admittedly, as the number is constantly increas-
area. Further to the south, a small church, Church M, was built by the southeastern corner of the temple thanks to new discoveries and the dating of many churches resting, as it does, on stylistic grounds
of Artemis, thus sanctifying the pagan site and serving as a cemetery for the area (Plans 51, 52). North is insecure. In Constantinople, during the reign of Heraclius many churches, chapels and monas-
of the temple a community developed in Byzantine times. 2260 The city centre of Stobi in the fourth century teries are mentioned. 2263 In provincial cities the number of churches known varies. From Thessalian
appears to have been on the east side where the Small Bath is located and the so-called "Casino" (Plan
XVII). But in the fifth century, when the Episcopal Basilica was built, the area around the Via Sacra
and the Episcopal Basilica was reorganized, and the city centre was transferred there. 2261 The basilica 2262
Argoud et al., L 'huilerie, 49.
2263
of Campanopetra in Salamis-Constantia in Cyprus offers another example of the construction of a J. Konidaris, Die Novellen des Kaisers Herakleios, in D. Simon (ed.),Fontes Minores 5 (Frankfurt am Main 1982), 68
(J; )3-94), 74 (11. 20-21: EV 11 TOOO'IJT(J)V ayLWTUT(J)V EXXAf)OLWV TE xal E'IJXTf)QLWV OLX(J)V xaL rtg6c:; YE E1Jetywv µovetOTf)QLWV EOTl
In the city and suburbs of Rome, too, the number of churches, chapels and monasteries increased. By the sixth century,
ei~ :ty-three churches are recorded in the city, and together with the suburbs the estimated number is approximately one
22 60 Hanfmann, Sardis, 194-195. hu :dred and thirty: F. Guidobaldi, Spagio urbano e organizzazione ecclesiastica a Roma nel VI e VII secolo, ACAC XIII
2 261 Mikulcik', Stobi, 109. II, 29-54, and tab. in p. 44.
406 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 407

Thebes (Nea Anchialos) nine basilica! churches are known, four intra muros and five extra muros. At
Argos six are recorded, and at Stobi three intra muros and three extra muros. 2264 In Salona nine churches
and two oratoria in the Roman amphitheatre are known (Plan XVI). In kastra of the Danubian limes the
number of churches was obviously smaller, but there were exceptions. In Novae in the lower Danube five ()
churches are recorded. 2265 Churches in the cities of the East are more numerous. In Madaba alone over
ten churches are known, from Gerasa nineteen, and from Caesarea at least ten. 2266 In smaller towns in
the East, too, the churches multiplied, an increase that may be linked to other commercial and social
changes in the area. In the Trans-Jordan area, changing trade routes and the sedentarization of Arab
foederati were the main reasons for the development of the area. 2267 Umm el-Jimal in Jordan had fifteen
churches, most of them chapels, whilst only one is dated ( a. 556), the so-called Cathedral, so named
I
because of its central position (Plan 54). The town of Rihab, 26 km east of Gerasa, had ten churches
dating from 533-635. 2268 Khirbat al-Samra, located between Bostra and Philadelphia, a large village
(200x200 m) on the road Via Nova Traiana, connecting the port of Aila on the Red Sea with Bostra, had
eight churches, all built between 550-650 (Plan 55). 2269 Umm al-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa) had three
I
ecclesiastical complexes and perhaps a fourth to the southwest, presumably because it was a religious
centre for the Arab foederati. The largest complex, that of St. Stephanus, had four churches with annexes
all enclosed within a wall (Plan 56). 2270 The most important churches, containing mosaic pavement, are
the Church of Bishop Sergius, which possesses an adjoining baptistery, and the Church of St. Stephan us.
A similar pattern is observed in some cities in Asia Minor. For example, the number of churches in
Kyaneai in central Lycia is six, of which three were large (Plan 57). 2271 On the other hand, papyri offer
figures that may be misleadingly inflated: in Ptolemais Evergetis fourteen churches and ten monasteries
are recorded, in Oxyrhynchus forty-three churches, in Aphrodito and its territory over twenty-five
churches and thirty-three monasteries are mentioned and in Hermoupolis thirty-nine churches and
forty-two monasteries. It is true that the papyri record churches that may not have existed simultaneous-
ly, thus producing a misleading impression. Nevertheless, the papyri, with their large figures, create a truer
picture of the situation than the necessarily patchy archaeological record. 2272

Private churches

Private churches were more numerous by far than parish churches built on the initiative of the Q
bishop and under his supervision. Sources tell us that such private churches were built everywhere on
country estates and in cities. Construction of churches was an expression of piety. They were also in- Ufvf/vf EL - JlfvfAL
dicative of the shift in emphasis from public to private life, which marks the transition to mediaeval 0 0" ARCHITECT·BERf 0£YR1£S. t-fARCH
0 SO 100
1978
ISO~

Byzantium. Christian Fathers repeatedly urge Christians to avoid public places and stay home in the
BARRACKS '0 HAIN WATER CHA"INEL 19 KlA/JOIANOS CHURCH

" SOUTH WEST CHURCH 20 "J/JUANOS" CHURCH

",,
GATE OF COMHODUS BARIUCKS CHAP!L }I NORfH CHURCH
WEST GATE NUMERIANOS CHURCH }} NORTH £AST CHURCH
SOUTH WEST GATE CATHEDRAi. 2J £AST CHURCH
£AST GAit " DOUBLE CHURCH CHURCH

"",."
}-l
NORTH £AST GATE t-fASECHOS CHURCH lS. /J} HOUSING COHPLEX£5
~NABMAEAN TEHPL£~ SOUTH EAST CHURCH 131, 11-l 8AOLY RUINED II-ISULAE
,-,AIN RESERVOIR WEST CHURCH 1-XX HOUS[S ~PPED BY
2264
Karagiorgou, Demetrias and Thebes, 187-191, 193-194; Abadie-Reyna!, Argos, 399; Mikulcik', Stobi, 143. H C BUTtER

2265
K. Dimitrov, Novae on the Lower Danube as an Early Christian Centre,ACAC XII (1991), II, 700-704.
2266
Hoium, The Christianizing, 151-164. PLAN 54. Plan of Umm el-Jimal. 1. Later castellum. 2. Praetorium. 3. Gate of Commodus. 4. West Gate. 5. South
2267
See supra, pp. 34, 38. est Gate. 6. East Gate. 7. North East Gate. 8. Nabataean Temple. 9. Main Reservoir. 10. Main Water Channel.
2268
Piccirillo, Chiese, 54-60; idem, Mosaics, 310-313. 1 . South West Church. 12. Barracks Chapel. 13. Numerianos Church. 14. Cathedral. 15. Double Church.
2269
J.-B. Humbert and A Desreumaux, Huit campagnes de fouilles au Khirbet es-Samra (1981-1989), Revue Biblique 97/2
Masechos Church. 17. South East Church. 18. West Church. 19. Klaudianos Church. 20. Julianos Church.
( 1990), 258-265.
2270 Piccirillo, Mosaics, 205-243; idem, Les eglises paleo-chretiennes d'Umm Er-Rasas (Jordanie): Cinq campagnes de
North Church. 22. North East Church. 23. East Church. 24. Church. 25-132. Housing Complexes. 133, 134.
ruined insulae. I-XX. Houses mapped by H. C. Butler.
fouilles, CRAI 1991, 273-294.
2271 Fr. Kolb, Bericht iiber Feldforschungen in Kyaneai und Umgebung im Sommer 1990,AST 9 (1991 ), 21-45.
2272 Alston, The City, 293-301. See also E. Wipszycka, Le monachisme egyptien et Jes villes, TM 12 (1994), 1-44.
408 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 409

PLAN 55. Plan of Khirbat al-Samra located between Bostra and Philadelphia with eight churches.

PLAN 56. Plan of the complex of St. Stephan us containing four

churches at Umm al-Rasas.
410 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 411

tranquillity of the family environment. For the Christian, his oikos resembled a monastery. 2273 Severns
Antioch advised his flock to avoid the noise of public places, to stay home and live there as in a sane-
tu ary of philosophy, keeping themselves busy with domestic work and focusing on their spiritual life. 2274
the fourth century, the Church Fathers strongly encouraged the erection of private churches on country
e,tates to serve the religious needs of the landlords' Christian peasants and to aid the conversion of pagans.
era chapel described by Gregory of Nyssa built immediately in front of a villa in Cappadocia, is one of
,.. many such examples. 2275 In the sixth century, private churches multiplied throughout the countryside
are mentioned in the Lives of saints. Hagiographical sources also mention private chapels in urban
dwellings. 2276 St. Martha maintained her privacy (a))..' l'.o-ra,:o U'luitouoa) even during the Sunday
liwrgy. 2277 The need for privacy during prayer was satisfied by the construction of eukteria, chapels,
e\ en in episcopal residences for the celebration of the liturgy in solitude during weekdays. 2278 The
various chapels, whose plan suggests they were Justinianic, attached to the church of the monastery of
SL Catherine in Sinai may have been employed for the celebration of the liturgy on weekdays. Chapels
attached to larger churches were also used for other purposes. Many had funerary function, being either
inlcnded for the burial of privileged Christians or to serve as martyria. 2279 Justinianic legislation legitimized
Church's authority over private churches and eukteria, recognizing the need for private oikoi for
prayer, while maintaining principles of Roman law establishing the incompatibility of sacral sites with
private ownership. 2280 Sixth-century papyri mention private churches and other religious foundations
cities and in estates, thereby throwing light on the regulations and function of private foundations,
rights of founders, details of administration and the endowment and financial support by the
founders. 2281
Usually, texts distinguish between private churches and eukteria on the one hand and episcopal
churches and other parochial churches or katholikai ekklesiai on the other. The small size of some
c,cavated eukteria suggests that they were private. The distinction, however, is not always clear, since
churches are occasionally designated in inscriptions as eukteria, and in papyri even monasteries
identified by the same term. 2282 Written sources inform us that private churches were often built
to the founder's dwelling or that the entire residence was transformed by the addition of an apse
to a church, or that a chapel was occasionally included in a large residence. 2283 The identification of
possible chapels in large residential complexes is not easy, since chapels are identified principally by the
and so cannot often be easily distinguished from triklinia.
The proliferation of private churches, most of which often escaped the bishops' control, alarmed
Church. The celebration of the liturgy in private houses became a growing concern and the Council of
halcedon set out the principles for regulating private churches. By placing them under the control of

2273
St. Basil, PG 31, 925A-928B; Gregory of Nazianzus, PG 36, 225A. See also supra, pp. 218-219.
2
m Severns, Hom. 87, PO 23/1 (1932), 90.
2275
John Chrysostom, PG 60, 146-147; P. Maraval, Gregoire de Nysse. Lettres (Paris 1990), Ep. 20.8.
2276
Vita S. Theodori Chorensis, c.19 (p. 8); Vita S. Sirin, c. 27-28 (pp. 130-131); Moschus, 2944C;Vita S. Marthae, c. 2.3 (p.
tv Tfi xm' olxov 1:xx1,11olc;i oxoAal:;ouoa); Daniel of Scete, 371.23-24; Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 107.21-23 (p. 85).
2277
Vita S. Marthae, c. 3.14 (p. 255).
2278
Vita S. Iohannis Eleemosyn., c. 25.14-15 (p. 376); 41.6 (p. 393).
2279
G. Babic, Les chapelles annexes des eglises byzantines: Fonction liturgique et programmes iconographiques (Paris 1969).
PLAN 57. Plan ofKyaneai in Lycia. 22811
Inst. II.1.7-8; III.23.5; Dig. XVIII.1.73; 1.8.6.3.
2281
Thomas, Private Religious Foundations, 59-110; Wipszycka, Les ressources, 26-27.
2282
J. Gascou, Un codex fiscal hermopolite (P. Sorb. II 69) (Atlanta, Georgia 1994), 71-72, regarding the use of these terms
a fiscal point of view; Wipszycka, Les ressources, 27 and n. 1.
2283
Cyril of Scythopolis, 147.10-13; Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 107.21-23 (p. 85).
412 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 413

the local bishops, the Church ensured that only bishops could grant permission for the construction of were granted assistance, they were cured and received various favours. He asked his flock to contribute
private chapels and monasteries. Imperial legislation, sanctioning the official position of the Church to cover the cupola over the altar of the church of the martyr Drosis)n Antioch. The concern was
was concerned with four issues: to ensure bishops' control over the private foundations, a means also' not merely aesthetic. The donations would also be a manifestation of respect ( oi:fpa£). He addresses his
of preventing the construction of churches by heretics; to forbid the use of private churches by heretics; request particularly to pious women and stressed that their rewards will be primarily worldly. Their children
to forbid the celebration of the liturgy in eukte,ioi oikoi and to designate them merely as places for enjoy good health and academic ability and all other fine things that parents rejoice to see in their
prayer ( EVXii£ be xal µ6vri£ XUQLV ... W£ EV LEQOL£ cuxw8m); and lastly, to ensure the completion of children. Their husbands will receive financial gains, their house and their possessions will be blessed,
construction work and to secure funds provided by the founders for the functioning of private churches in after death they will be rewarded with a place in God's kingdom. 2288 In this text, the worldly rewards
the future. 2284 There is also growing concern in the sources regarding the decline of many of these private occupy the major part of the discourse. Of interest also is the emphasis on the blessing of the donor's
churches not long after they had been established. The passage of time was a major factor in the neglect, family, missing in John Chrysostom's arguments. There the reward is personal, closer to the ancient
while poor management of their finances led to loss of their assets. 2285 Justinian's Novel 67 (a. 538) explains trndition of civic euergetism, while in Severns' Homily it has shifted to being of benefit to the family.
that, although patrons were eager to build churches for their reputation, they neglected to grant them Sponsorship of construction work associated with pagan temples for the benefit of the sponsor's family
an annuity that would assure their maintenance, lighting, and the salaries of the priests. Thus thanks to ffiL:mbers is also known from pagan dedicatory inscriptions, but it was in the ecclesiastical literature that
lack of resources many churches came close to collapsing over the passage of time. In the future. the the idea became firmly established. 2289 At the same time, Christian munificence was perceived as a public
founders of new churches were to inform bishops of the funds they intended to donate to their churches. acL The Patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, observed that the manifold donations for the construction
If the funds were not sufficient, they were to be invested in the restoration of existing churches. Con- lavish adornment of churches primarily intended to honour the saints were publicized and the acts
struction of new monasteries, churches and chapels (euktenoi oikoi) were to be undertaken under the of cuergetism were announced in various triumphalist ways (noAuµEQW£ afrtwv ta£ CJWQECX£ 8gtaµ-
direct supervision of the bishops: they were to sanction their construction, and celebrate publicly the pti•ovtE£, xal ta£ EllEQYECTLa£ JtOAUtQ0JtW£ %YJQUttovtE£). The public character of church construction
ceremony of the foundation by implanting a cross. 2286 wa" described in the vocabulary of ancient civic euergetism. We have now moved away from the simple
mnral message of the fourth-century Fathers. Sophronius employs this vocabulary to specify the forms
of this euergetism: the erection of lofty churches, their adornment with various marbles and with mosaic
Christian munificence compositions shining as if they were made of gold, bright paintings, gold and silver objects and silk fabrics.
donors compete for the honour of the martyrs (&no t~v twv µagtugwv ttµ~v aµtAao8woav) de-
Church Fathers and bishops urged Christians to construct churches. The construction of churches pending on their financial situation and the intensity of their desire. Each one wishes to be superior to
constituted a demonstration of sincere religious feelings, whilst also strengthening the position of the th,; others, thus demonstrating his love for the martyrs and hoping to receive spiritual ornaments and
Church. Spiritual rewards, the worldly expectations of the founders, and social services offered to the eternal rewards. Even when in a text like this the emphasis is on the donors' spiritual benefits, the language
weak were the anticipated benefits arising from church construction. John Chrysostom explains the used to describe Christian munificence is worldly and panegyrical.
ideology promoted by the Church. He urges landlords to erect churches on their estates, instead of sec- Thus, with time, the official Church adopted a more secular view, as it were, in regard to the spon-
ular buildings, markets and baths. To the argument that the return of the investment in church con- S(,rship of church buildings, together with a more panegyrical language to describe Christian munifi-
struction was small by comparison to the expense, John Chrysostom replies that its reward was in social cence, although the issue of funds directed towards ecclesiastical constructions, instead of towards re-
and spiritual terms. The landlord is to regard the church as a wife or a daughter to whom he has given lhxing the poor and the sick, still raised questions. 2290 Sources of the sixth century referring to Christian
a dowry. The annuity that provided the church's future function was only a small part of his revenue and munificence also allow us to make another observation. Texts promoted either the ancient ideal of mu-
it should be regarded as a gift to God. In return, the memory of the church founder would be perpetu- nilicence or Christian spiritual concerns, depending on the ideology projected in these texts or on the
ally commemorated by the worshippers. The fields of the founder would be blessed with increased pro- attitudes of the social groups addressed. Thus, for example, Justinianic legislation maintained an ancient
ductivity, and he would be protected from all misfortunes. Next to the worldly benefits were spiritual pc rception of Christian munificence, stressing the founders' reputation ( ov6µato£ £VE%EV) and the
benefits: the construction of a church was a spiritual work, for the church is a place for prayer; the sponsor pn:servation of their memory forever(~ bu1vrn~£ wu tEAEm~oavto£ µv11µri, bL' ~v xal to avvaAtov
of a church would receive a long-lasting reward on the Day of the Judgement. 2287 10C -ro xataAEAOLJtEv). 2291
1

In the course of the early Byzantine period, the official Church increasingly stressed secular concerns Bishops, above all, were involved in the construction of churches and various ecclesiastical institu-
and worldly rewards for the founders of churches and ecclesiastical institutions. Severns explains that They personally coordinated funding efforts for the construction and decoration of churches and
congregations attended churches in order to pray. They presented the saints with their requests and supervised the works. Inscriptions commemorating their involvement in such works were usually
placed in the most prominent position in churches, while those commemorating secular benefactors

2284
Novellae 131.7-8, 10 (a. 545), 58 (a. 537), 67.1-2 (a. 538); CJ 1.2.15 (a. 474-491); 1.3.45.1 (a. 530). On the Justinianic
2288
legislation and other sources regarding regulations concerning private religious foundations see Thomas, Private Religious Severns, Hom. 100, PO 22/2 (1930), 246-248. See also Wipszycka, Les ressources, 29-32 for the Egyptian sources.
Foundations, 37-58. /
2289
For example, IGSyr IV, no. 1259 (urtEQ ... TOU au-rfjc; av6Q6c; ... UJtEQ TEXV(J)V autfjc;); Vita s. /ohannis Eleemosyn., c.
2285 Choricius, Or. II, c. 19-20 (p. 33); Anastasius Sinaites, PG 89, 464A. 1p. 376).
2286 Novellae 67.2, 131.7 (a. 545). 2290
Anastasius Sinaites, PG 89, 464A-B.
2287 John Chrysostom, PG 60, 146-148. 2291
Novella 67, proem and 2; CJI.3.45.10.
414 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 415

are displayed in places of secondary importance. 2292 In early monuments, bishops displayed the pride Sixth-century inscriptions still express the pride on the part of bishops in their construction of
of the ancient benefactors in whose tradition they still stood, employing a vocabulary of worldly glory, churches, and the competition with other bishops. The wording of some inscriptions gives the impres-
rather than that of Christian humility, which might have been expected. A funerary inscription from a that they had adopted the spirit of ancient euergetism and replaced the secular benefactors. In the
sarcophagus from Laodicea in Asia Minor, dated to about 340 AD., contains a bishop's autobiography farnous mosaic inscription of Thyrsos from Tegea, dated probably to the sixth century, the bishop, perhaps
and praise for the construction of a church. He was a member of the boule, served as soldier in the office eighteenth in the ecclesiastical order of southern Greece, is praised for having overshadowed all the
of the governor in the province of Pisidia, and was married to the daughter of a Roman senator. He bishops of southern Greece with his qualities, as the edifices and the mosaic decoration testified
resisted pressure to sacrifice to the pagan gods, and he was finally ordained bishop. He constructed a (cqicpo'tEQWV EXQU'l(Jcv ltQOOYJYOQlU£ namv fo0A.o1:£). 2300 In an inscription from the Church of St. John
church with all its embellishments of stoas, tetrastoa, wall paintings, mosaics, a fountain and a vestibule, the Baptist in Gerasa it is stated that those who saw the church would praise the bishop who supervised
and ornamental stonework. He accordingly had these achievements engraved on his sarcophagus to the construction work (IIavA.ou OtxaLw£ wu aocpou 'toiJ nmµivo£ al.voum .~v ayav JtQo0uµLav) and
adorn the church and his family ( EL£ xoaµov 'tfi£ EXXAY]Ola£ xal, wu yivou£ µou ). 2293 Christian authors the donation made by the builder (xal, wu x.Laavw£ .~v XOQY]y(av). 2301 In one of the most elaborate
criticize the excessive construction activities of some bishops and complain of the loss of resources, dedicatory inscriptions by benefactor bishops to survive, in Basilica A at Nicopolis, dating to the middle
which could have been used to help the poor and sick. The obsession of the bishop of Alexandria of sixth century, there is a preference for the values of Christian spirituality and morality. Bishop
Theophilus with building construction (At0oµavLa) became legendary. Palladius relates the story of a Dometius built a church to glorify God (E>c0u XUQLV), while he himself is renowned on account of his
wealthy widow who donated 1,000 gold coins to a priest to buy clothes for Alexandria's poor women, he is celebrated (JtcQW'tUO"to£), is most virtuous (navaQLITTO£), and is a great light of all the fatherland
and instructed him not to inform bishop Theophilus, for the bishop, she feared, would spend the money
na'tQYJ£ µiya cpiyyo£). 2302 The glory and honour deriving from the erection or renovation of
on building. Palladius comments that many bishops showed real passion (na0o£) for building, and they
churches was increasingly assigned to God and to the saints: EL£ oo~av xal, uµ11v wu E>c0u xai aw'tfi-
did injustice to the poor by vainly spending much money on lavish constructions. They believed that by 2303
QO::: i1µwv 'Iriaou XQLOWiJ xal, wu ayLou JtQWwµaQ't1JQO£ Lwcpavou. An inscription from the cathe-
sponsoring the erection of raised courtyards in churches, raised pools, baths, etc., they would appear
dral of Madaba, dated to 603, refers to the gentle and benign character of the bishop's constructions ('to
virtuous (XQYJO'tOC) and painstaking (cpLAOJtOVOL ), and would thus be honoured. 2294
JtQO.ov 0avµatE .wv xuaµa.wv), to the virtue of his works (.wv novwv .~v O.Qf't~v), and to the beau-
Rhetorical works and inscriptions combine the traditional terminology of ancient urban benefaction
ty v,ith which he endowed the site (.qi 'tOJtq:> 't~v JtEQLXaAA.fi 'tE0Y]XEV cuxoaµ(av). 2304 The Life of St.
with Christian ideology to describe Christian munificence. For Choricius, the purpose of erecting
John the Almsgiver shows the bishops' changing attitude to the construction of churches. The hagiog-
churches was to preserve and renew the memory of pious acts of holy men, 2295 and, in contrast to the
draws on ancient civic vocabulary to describe the desire of the Patriarch of Jerusalem to rebuild
construction of other buildings, which adorned the city, the construction of churches added beauty to
the churches destroyed by the Persians ( cpLAOVLXcT), obviously to contrast it with the modesty of John
the urban environment and also glorified God. 2296 Churches built by bishop Marcian showed his piety
the AJmsgiver, who chose not to inscribe his name as a benefactor on restored churches. Instead, he
and respect for the saints. 2297 Worldly glory of the sort deriving from ancient euergetism continued to
preferred that Christ write his name "where the registration of names is truly blessed". The hagiographer
be valued, being placed immediately after the Christian concept of piety: the restoration of the Church
concludes that with the construction of hostels, shelters for the elderly and monasteries, St. John the
of the Holy Apostles at Gaza gave glory (EUXA.aav) to the bishop. 2298 Choricius also shows that the ancient
Alrnsgiver acquired a memorial commemorating his righteousness ( aA.11xwv OV'tW£ 6txmoavvri£
competitive spirit whereby each individual city aimed to create the most splendid civic buildings had
1tt.1 EL£ alwva£ fomqi l:n:tallQEmt) through good deeds. 2305
shifted to competition to construct the most splendid church. When the Church of St. Stephan us was
The benefactor par excellence was, of course, the emperor (Figure 54 ). Priscian, in his Panegyric to
built in Gaza by bishop Marcian and the archon Stephanus, the other cities were compelled to c1dmit
Anastasius, praises the emperor for his piety in building and restoring churches. 2306 In the ekphrasis of
their defeat (~nav). 2299 St Sophia by Paul Silentiarius, the lengthy iambic introduction (vv. 1-80) is a praise in honour of
Justinian. Church construction by the emperor was invested with such profound symbolism that
mention was made of it in ecclesiastical hymns. 2307 During the reign of Justinian there seems to have
been competition between the emperor and the aristocrats for the glory to be derived from church con-
2292
B. Hamarneh, Evergetismo ecclesiastico e laico nella Giordania bizantina ed ommayade nel V-VIII secolo. Tcstimo-
strnction. Justinian's legendary statement that the magnificence of the Church of St. Sophia surpassed
nianze epigrafiche, Vetera Christianorum (Bari) 33 (1996), 57-75, esp. 75.
2293 G. J. Johnson, Early-Christian Epitaphs from Anatolia (Atlanta, Georgia 1995), 88-91.
the temple of Solomon may have indirectly alluded to the Church of St. Polyeuctus built by Juliana
2294 Palladius, Dialogue sur la Vie de Jean Chrysostome, ed. A.-M. Malingrey, I (Paris 1988), VI.58-64 (p. 132): h001w.v[a

yag rn; cdn:ov cpagawvwc; EXEL de; oixo60µ11µma. (OV ou6aµwc; XQlltEL 11 EXXAY]O[a ... XIII.96-98 (p. 268): xal OTllt-a; V1J'l]/.(!)V
oixo60µ1waTWV r:ydgavw:;, \'.va EX TOUT(JJV MsavTEc; XQllOTOL xal cplAOITOVOl cpa[vrn8m ... XIII.105-109 (p. 270): Ol' Ul'fl:-tE- ;,o Feissel and Philippides-Braat, Inventaires, 296-297 (no. 38). On the much discussed meaning of the word Evvrnxmc\i-
QLAaµpavwv wuc; EUAOywc; xal 6L' avayx17v XTltovrnc; 17 6Log8ouµivouc; TU n'jc; hxt.170[ac;, at.Au ()LU wuc; TU TWV J[T(IJ)'.(~)V de; xm . '; of the inscription see G. Velenis, H Emygacp~ rnu 0uguou CTTYJV TEyfo we; rrriy~ ITAYJQOcpogLwv, SBMA T 24, 2004, 20-21.
XQEµaowuc; ITEQLP6t.ouc; xal <XEQL(IJV v6aT(IJV 6EsaµEvuc; EV TQl(IJQO(f)Oli; xal <XITQEITll av6goyuvwv AOUTQU EV arroxgt•q otc; Welles, Inscriptions, no. 305 (pp. 479-480).
xaTavat.luxovTac;. Kitzinger, Mosaics at Nikopolis, 87.
2295
Choricius, Or. I, c. 11 (p. 5). W. Bliimel, Die Inschriften van Mylasa I (Bonn 1987), no. 621 (sixth century).
2296 Ibid., c. 30 (p. 10.16-19): at µi:v &Um rptt.onµlm µ6v17v EUITQEITELav Tfi rroAEL mgmoLoiJuLv, 11 61: Twv avmm'igow
IGSyr XXI/2, no. 140 (a. 603).
XUTUUXEU~ ~lETU TOU xaUouc; xal 66sav 6m6n7wc; UUVEWO.YEL. Vita S. Iohannis Eleemosyn., c. 18 (p. 366), 57.39-44 (p. 404).
2297 Ibid., II, c. 77 (p. 47.14-15): yvw~tY]c; ELOLV EUUEPouc; xal Tl~lll TO)V oo[wv. · ;or, Priscian, Panegyricus Anastasii, vv. 268-269: Temp la novans renovansque Deo fulgentia semper / lucraque vera putans
2298 Ibid., c. 18 (p. 33.1). aurnm consumere iuste.
2299 Ibid., c. 58 (p. 42.19). Romanus Melodus, c. 54.23.1-9.
416 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 417

evidence points to an increasing interest on the part of emperors in ecclesiastical patronage and in
of fortification, instead of secular public buildings. 2310
The most famous private church benefactor of the sixth century was Juliana Anicia. Epigram I.10
of .he Greek Anthology stresses the generosity displayed by Juliana in her erection of the Church of St.
Pciveuctus (between 524-527), which stood on the site of an earlier church built by empress Eudoxia,
Jul!ana's grandmother. The central theme of the lengthy epigram is the glorification of Juliana's ancestors,
of herself and the descendents of her family. Her works "are eternally remembered. For the works of
are not hidden; oblivion doth not quench the labours of beneficent virtue" (vv. 27-29).

Following by her good works all the footsteps of her parents she made the fame
of her race immortal, always walking in the whole path of piety. Therefore, all ye
servants of the Heavenly King to whom she gave gifts or built temples, preserve her
gladly with her son and his daughters, and may the immeasurable glory of the most
beneficent family survive as long as the Sun drives his burning chariot (vv. 34-41).

It is only in the last three lines of the inscription at the entrance of the church outside the narthex,

l
( ~
, •
..
.• -
-· .
--.,I:
thm Juliana's munificence is viewed from a purely Christian perspective, namely in relation to spiritual
re\\ ard after death:

~-- Such is the labour that Juliana, after a countless swarm of labours, accomplished for
the souls of her parents, and for her own life, and for that of those who are and shall
be (vv. 74-76). 2311

----
,__
'-"--
;,.,__.,_:;~.
Worldly glory, which the aristocrat benefactor could expect to gain by erecting churches, was a
recognized motivation for Christian munificence in the sixth century. The epigram on the construction
of Church of St. Polyeuctus makes clear that Juliana's act of euergetism was intended to emphasize
her royal lineage and her political ambitions for her son. In the Vienna manuscript of Dioscorides (fol.
6v. Juliana Anicia is presented in ancient imagery and is assigned ancient virtues: she is depicted seated
bet\, een the personifications of Prudence ( cpgovrimc;), who holds a codex and Magnanimity (µc:ya1co'ljJu-
x1u · who holds gold coins in her lap. To the lower left side, the personification of the Gratitude of the
FIG. 54. Columns of the Church of St. John in Ephesus, built by Justinian, Art , (c:uxagtoTia TEXVWV) kneels at her feet, and the personification of Desire for Devotion to Building
displaying the monogram of the imperial couple. (:;i:o!ioc_; Tfj<; cptAOXTLCTTOu) holds an open book on which Juliana drops gold coins. Verse 30 of the in-
scription of GreekAnthology I.10, which mentions Juliana's benevolent hand, corresponds to the gesture
of figure in the manuscript illumination. The outer spaces of the border formed by the eight-pointed
Anicia. 2308 Justinian wished to monopolize the construction of churches, as is implied in a statement of star inscribed in a circle contain images of carpenters and masons. According to the dedication, this
Procopius that "it was not possible, during the reign of this Emperor, for any church either to be built manuscript was a present of the inhabitants of a suburb of Constantinople where she built a church (a.
for the first time or to be restored when it had fallen into disrepair except with imperial funds, not alone 512 Similar to the vocabulary of the epigram on St. Polyeuctus' church is that of other epigrams
in Byzantium, but in every part of the Roman empire". 2309 In reality, Novel 67 indicates that private in- comrnemorating the adornment of the Church of St. Euphemia of Olybrius, built by Eudoxia, restored
dividuals continued to display their munificence through church construction. Overall, however. the by daughter Placidia, and further adorned by Juliana. The purpose of Juliana's munificence was to
hon\lur the memory (vni::g µv11µYJ<;) of her parents and of her grandmother. Thanks to her action in
res!f,ring the church, however, she has surpassed the glory of her ancestors. 2312 Imperial munificence is
prai·,ed in similar terms: in the Metaphrastic Life of St. Sampson, the saint asks Justinian to finance a
230s Anthologia Graeca 1.10-48-49; Corippus, In laudem Iustini IV.283 (p. 81 ), and pp. 204-205. See also Romanus Melodus,

c. 54.21 referring to St. Sophia. R. M. Harrison, Excavations at Sara<;hane in Istanbul (Princeton 1986), I, 417, 418-420: idem,
A Temple for Byzantium: The Discovery and Excavation of Anicia Juliana's Palace-Church in Istanbul (London 1989). 36· :•
4
137-139. On the political message of the church: G. Fowden, Constantine, Silvester and the Church of S. Polyeuctus Ill
Constantinople,JRA 7 (1994), 274-284. 'See supra, p. 181.
23o9 Procopius, De aedificiis 1.8.5: ou ya.g olov TE ~v btl -rou-rou ~aOLAEuov-roc:; /c:xx1c17olav nva. 17 ylvrn8m ngw-rov .. ij xc:ra~: i Trans!. W. R. Paton.
2
nov11 xu1:av /c:rravog8ouo8m, on µ11 /ox xg17µc'muv ~aOLALxwv, oux /c:v Bu~av-rlcp µ6vov, &.Ua. xal rravrnx68t -rijc:;'Pw~taWJV ctQX1l::o· Anthologia Graeca 1.12.7-10, 1.17.
418 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 419

hospital in Constantinople, an act that will commemorate his name for ever and bring him heavenly ~tandard: oii or wv E>coi; oic\cv or ytyvwoxa 1:0 ovoµa or ,:a 6v6µma. Many inscriptions contain this
rewards (tofrto yag CTOL ao(tnµov ovoµa 8~CTEL XUl JtQO~EV~CTEL µLCT80V avacpatQEtoV). 2313 formula. 2321 The trend coincides with the disappearance of family names from funerary inscriptions
Other epigrams commemorating donations of wealthy donors show that intense secular concerns Jrom the end of the sixth century. This may be a manifestation of Christian modesty or it may be evidence
motivated aristocratic munificence. 2314 In some of them it is stated that the reasons for church construction the trend by which only the Christian name was used, thus making it impossible to identify the person
included honouring God, spiritual benefit, the hope that worldly needs will be answered through prayer, question. The assumption was, of course, that the deceased was known to God alone, and that nothing
and aesthetic satisfaction, all notions familiar from earlier texts: more was necessary. Individual donors, especially those of the middle and low classes, often sponsored
of the construction or renovation work on churches. Some inscriptions mention the amount paid
Honouring the King of Kings, Christ, with his works, Justinian built this glorious a specified part of the church decoration and the donor's vows. 2322
temple to Peter and Paul, for by giving honour to His servants a man offereth great By the sixth century, the expressions of munificence on the part of benefactors in most of the
glory to the King Himself. Here is profit for the soul and for the eyes. Let each get inscriptions had assumed a purely Christian character. They stress the spiritual benefits to be expected
what he bath need ofby his prayers, and take joy in looking at the beauty and splendour
from financing the construction of churches, salvation of the donors' souls and of the members of their
of the house. 2315
families; they acknowledge that a wish has been granted and in recognition of gratitude they sponsor
nmstruction or renovation work on churches. 2323 Christian munificence contrasts radically with earlier
Some inscriptions repeat the wording of prayers from the liturgy, as, for example, "for the salvation
ancient civic euergetism. While the pagans' concern was solely temporal glory, and expectation of material
of and in the hope of long life for the masters" (urtEQ owuig(ai; xat µaxg01iµEQEUCTEwi; 1:wv c\rn;ro-
rewards for a donation, the Christians' principal aim was to receive salvation for themselves and their
1:wv). 2316 A number of inscriptions from the sixth-century monastery, founded by the aristocrat Maria,
parents; while pagan munificence was usually exclusively personal, the Christians insisted on benefit to the
by the walls of Scythopolis are rich in elaborate formulations regarding the spiritual and worldly ex-
family. Once again it becomes evident that Christianity had shifted people's interests and concerns from
pectations of the upper class donors. In one, the benefaction (rcgoocpoga) is said to commemorate
~ecular building, and the temporal glory associated with it, to religious constructions and spiritual rewards
(urtEQ µv~~n1i;) Zosimus, illustrius, and to ensure his perfect rest in Christ (xat 1:EActai; Ev Xgtm:([l
after death. Indeed, church construction was increasingly replacing ancient public building. After the
avarcauocwi;) and the salvation and succour (xat ow1:ytgtai; xat avnA~'ljJcwi;) of John, the most glorious
reign of Justinian, inscriptions from the provinces of Palaestina and Arabia (today's southern Syria, Israel
ex-prefect, and of komes Peter and komes Anastasius and of their blessed house ( oixoi;), through the
and Jordan), which have provided more inscriptions than any other province, indicate that almost all
prayers of the saints. In another inscription the donor asks for God's protection for the ex-prefect John
construction projects undertaken were ecclesiastical. For secular construction the evidence is either
and his blessed oikos (oxErtyt xat av1:tAyt'ljJti; ycvou), through the prayers of the saints. In another, mercy is
asked for Maria and her son Maximus and rest for their parents. 2317 rnconclusive or indicates that only restoration work was carried out. 2324 Of major importance is the
evidence showing that contributions by the Apions were directed to churches in areas where they possessed
Most of the inscriptions in the sixth century commemorating donations to churches present Christian
b:nd and were more numerous than those allocated to city institutions. 2325
euergetism in predominantly Christian terms, and in many ways they contrast with ancient civic euer-
Aristocratic benefactors who in the past were commemorated in statuary in public places, such as
getism.2318 They also show an evolution from the fourth to the sixth century in the vocabulary expressing
norticoes, markets and baths were now commemorated in churches. 2326 They are represented together
the benefactors' attitudes. A major significant change is to be observed in the use of the term cptAon~t(a,
which lost its ancient meaning of love of honour, so that in the Byzantine inscriptions it simply indicates
a donation. 2319 Some inscriptions mention forgiveness of sins (urctg ouyxwg~ocwi; aµagnwv, {J;reg
acpfocwi; 1:WV a~taQTLWV, or ouyxwgytoov nxi; aµag,:[ai;), and salvation (urtEQ (J(J)l:llQLai;) of benefactors 2321
Phil. 4.3: tiJv Ta 6vc\wrn EV BiBt.1.p t1.,n1;; Vita S. Theodori Chorensis, c. 25 (p. 11.23); Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae Jun., c.
and their children, and of their deceased parents (urtEQ avanauocwi;). 2320 Another formulation is ',i i;-10 (p. 10); 109.5-8 (p. 89); 124.6 (p. 106); Cyril of Scythopolis, 99.28-29; Dagron and Feissel, Inscriptions, 116 n. 7;
\,emakopoulou-Atzaka, Dorites, 245; P. Donceel-Voute. Les pavements des eglises byzantines de Syrie et du Liban. Decor,
µv110811n or urtEQ µv~µyti;, or no[ytaov EA.mi;. Most of the formulas projecting such ideas draw on Jev,:ish
urcheologie et liturgie (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgique 1988), 474 suggests that the expressions employing the verb ,w91wcpo9Ew
concepts rather than on the ancient euergetic tradition. But the most striking difference from ancient rder to funds from the community extracted as contributions by the Church, rather than to donations by anonymous individ-
euergetism is that many Christian donors in the sixth century wished to remain anonymous, probably made for the purpose of contributing to or renovating the Church. See, however, L. Di Segni, Khirbet El-Beiyudat: The
because it was believed that their names were anyway written in the Book of Life. The formulation is ln,criptions, in Christian Archaeology in the Holy Land, 265-273, esp. 268-271: in some inscriptions the reference to personal
nds donated for church construction is accompanied by the term xag:n:ocpogfoi. The frequent appearance of the same verb
inscriptions is perhaps to be explained from its use in the most popular liturgy of the Holy Land, that of St. James.
2322
Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Dorites, 241-242.
2313 2323
PG 115, 289A. JGSyr IV, no. 1684; XXl/2, nos. 145, 146.
2314 2324
Anthologia Graeca 1.35, 36. For Italy see Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 73 ff. Di Segni, Epigraphic documentation. 159, 164.
2315 Anthologia Graeca 1.8 (transl. W.R. Paton). 2325 Alston, The City, 313-314.
2316 2326
IGSyr XXI/2, no. 43 (6th c.); see also no. 54. B. Hamarneh, Ritratti e immagini di donatori nei mosaici della Giordania,ACAC XIII (1994), II, 411-422; L.-A. Hunt,
2317
Fitzgerald, Monastery, 13-14. Byzantine Mosaics of Jordan in Context: Remarks on Imagery, Donors and Mosaicists, PEQ 126 ( 1994), 106-126; P. Baumann,
2318
For the West see J.-P. Caillet, L 'eve,getisme monumental chretien en Italie et ases ma,ges d 'apres l'epigraphie des pavements Sniitantike Stifter im Heiligen Land. Darstellungen und Inschriften auf Bodenmosaiken in Kirchen, Synagogen und Privathiiusern
de mosaique {IV<-V/1' s.) (Rome 1993). 450 and passim; Duval, Loca Sancton1m, 592-593. i Wiesbaden 1999). For the representation of donors in the chapel of the amphitheatre of Dyrrachium in Albania see N. Thierry,
2319
See also Novella 147.2 (a. 553). ne mosa1que a Dyrrachium, CaMrch 18 (1968), 227-229; J. Reynis-Jando, La mosa1que murale dans la chapelle de
2320
This formula is particularly frequent in inscriptions from Syria and Palestine: K. Weitzmann and I. Sevcenko. The !amphitheatre de Dyrrachium, /liria 13 (1983), 225-232; I. Nikolajevic, Images votives de Salone et de Dyrrachium, Zbornik
Moses Cross at Sinai, DOP 17 (1963), 394-395; D. Feissel, Notes d'epigraphie chretienne, BCH 100 (1976), 277-281. Radova 19 (1980), 59-70 dates the mosaic in the sixth century. Contrary, for a later date: M. Andaloro, I mosaici parietali
420 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 421

with images of Christ, the Virgin and saints. 2327 Literary sources also describe depictions of donors in cupola of the altar of the Church of St. Drosis in Antioch with silver. He urged the wealthy members of
churches. Choricius refers to the portrait of archon Stephanus who, together with bishop Marcian, his flock to contribute one pound of silver each. The amount was insignificant for each one of them, but
sponsored the construction of the Church of St. Sergius in Gaza. A mosaic in the central apse depicted put together, he states, these contributions could finance the completion of the work. Severns points to
the Virgin and Child, flanked by various figures, and Stephanus standing by the saint asking him to accept the tremendous wealth of some Christians, those who recline on elevated beds and take their meals
his gift. The saint was shown consenting and raising his hand to his shoulder, as if about to mediate with lrom silver plates served by numerous servants. He also appeals to wealthy women who go to the baths
the Virgin and Christ on behalf of the benefactor. The construction of the church is viewed as a means with silver objects weighing many pounds of silver and who are carried in public on thrones covered
of seeking the saint's mediation for salvation. In the Church of St. Stephanus, bishop Marcian was depicted with silver to such a degree that even the bridle of the horses were covered with silver. 2332 Any one of
holding a model of the church opposite St. John the Baptist. 2328 The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and Johannes them alone has enough silver to pay attention to the needs of the church, he states. In Edessa, bishop
record another case. The apo eparchon Nemesion, who practiced astrology, was chosen by the saints to Cyrus exhorted the citizens to make a small silver litter (AExi:[xwv) for eucharistic vessels. All citizens
play a role in a miracle performed by them on a poor blind man. Nemesion consequently adorned part contributed depending on their means, while one wealthy man donated a hundred "dinars" of his own
of the wall of the saints' martyrium with marbles and an image depicting Christ, St. John the Baptist St. 2333
property. The amount contributed by common people, however, for mosaics is recorded in only a
Cyrus and himself proclaiming the blessing. 2329 This trend towards depicting the donors on mosaics or kw sixth-century inscriptions from Greece. The donations of one solidus or half a solidus attested in
frescoes contrasts with the modesty of the language of the inscriptions and anonymity that was so often these inscriptions could apparently finance the work for some days for a small-size mosaic. 2334
preferred by the donors. The inscriptions express a prayer for the donors drawn from the liturgy and so Dedications to churches were regarded a secure investment, for it was assumed that divine protection
function as a memorial, thus adding a liturgical function to the text and to the image of the benefactors. would be offered to treasures deposited in churches. According to Gregory of Tours, Juliana Anicia
The process of the development was slow. Christianity, with its emphasis on spiritual rewards and placed her wealth in the Church of St. Polyeuctus to impede Justinian from appropriating it. This
anonymity, created the conditions and the ideological foundation for a reorientation of the aristocrat- 2335
became a trend. Dedications to churches were various in nature: gold and silver, garments and
ic munificence from the public towards the private, from temporal glory in the urban context towards ,-laves, cattle and fields. Prefect Phocas endowed a church in Galatia with an annual subsidy of 80 solidi
spiritual concerns and anonymity. While members of the upper class, including bishops, maintained the the priests and the personnel, and Ellanus donated 20 pounds of gold. 2336 In Egypt papyri offer
ancient vocabulary of temporal glory longer, the change of ideas and of language was completed during more details. Donations included land, houses, workshops, ships, silver, dresses, vases, furniture,
the course of the sixth century, both in the inscriptions and in the representations of donors. The members heat, wine, oil, raisin, animals, even (from the eighth century) children and the donors themselves.
of the upper class had by then given up their traditional role in the urban communities. They no longer Donations were made by middle and lower class Christians, while the very wealthy, such as the Apions,
had any interest in funding displays of secular building activities, in return for secular glory. Their ho built private churches for their peasants, donated agricultural products and money, but no
spiritual concerns, as expressed in church inscriptions, were in agreement with the message of the 2337
1::nd. Procopius describes the wealth of the churches of heretics:
Church. Both in terms of urban topography and in terms of the socio-economics behind it, the aristocracy
was increasingly identified with the Church. Members of the upper class constructed private chapels Now the shrines of these heretics as they are called and particularly those who
and churches on their estates and in their houses. Members of the clergy and bishops were recruited practised the Arian belief, contained wealth unheard-of. For neither the entire
from the urban elite. 2330 There was a relationship between the architecture and decoration of upper- Senate nor any other major group of the Roman State could be compared with
class dwellings and churches. 2331 The new urban elite, which by the sixth century had been profoundly these sanctuaries in point of wealth. For they had treasures of gold and of silver and
Christianized and, most importantly, had become part of the ecclesiastical establishment, no longer ornaments set with precious stones, beyond telling or counting, houses and villages
had affinities with ancient civic life and had no reason to continue maintaining ancient civic buildings. in great numbers, and a large amount of land in all parts of the world, and every other
Rather, the new urban elite expressed a new culture and ideology, which had altered urban architecture, form of wealth which exists and has a name among all mankind, since no man who
the function of buildings, and the priorities of the individuals and of urban communities. had ever reigned previously had ever disturbed them. 2338
Sources offer accounts of how the funds for construction, restoration and furnishing of churches
were collected and who contributed. Severns delivered his 100th Homily to raise funds to plate the We get glimpses of the wealth of such donations from several precious objects that came to light.
rural sites reveal numerous silver dedications to rural churches. 2339

di Durazzo o dell'origine costantinopolitana del tema iconografico di Maria regina, in 0. Feld and U. Peschlow (eds.). Studi-
2332
en zur spatantiken und byzantinischen Kunst (Bonn 1986), vol. 3, 103-112. Severns, Hom. 100, PO 22/2 (1930), 247.
2327 2333
R. Cormack, Writing in Gold. Byzantine Society and its Icons (London 1985), 50-94; Ward-Perkins, From Clac1sical Joshua the Stylite, c. 28 (p. 19, a. 496-497).
2334
Antiquity, 81-84. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Dorites, 260.
2328 2335
Choricius, Or. I.30, 31 (p. 10), II.38 (p. 38). Gregory of Tours, De Gloria Martynim, c. 103 and 97, PL 71, coll. 793-795, 790 referring to the church of St. Sergi us in
2329
NEµrnlwv 61: Taxa µ~ ~Aa~dc; EX TOU 0auµmoc;, µtgrn; n TOU wlxou rr;\.17olov TOU flV17µawc; ftaQµcigmc; EXOO[tl]OEV: S.cgiopolis.
XgtoTov l:v TauTmc; xai 'lwcivv17v Tov Bamwn7v TE xai rrg66goµov xai KDgov rnmboac; Tov ~tcigrnga, xai Ea'UTOV Tip• b:t 2336
John Lydus, De magistratibus III.74.
TOUTqJ xcigtv x1wunovw: Miracitla SS. Cyri et Iohannis, mir. 28.12 (p. 297). 2337
Wipszycka, Les ressources, 29, 64-92.
2330 2338
See supra, p. 168. Procopius, Historia arcana XI.16-18. Other references to the wealth of churches: Procopius, De Bello Persico II.11.24
2331 Sodini, L'habitat urbain, 388-389; S. Curcic, House or House of God? Planning Ambiguities in Byzantine Architecture,
( \ramea), II.20.7 (Sergiopolis), II.9.15 (Antioch).
inSBMAT24, 2004, 24-25. 2339
M. Mundell Mango, Silver from Early Byzantium: The Kaper Koraon and Related Treasures (Baltimore, Md. 1986); idem,
422 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 423

According to John of Ephesus, the construction expenses of churches and monasteries in newly churches, as, for example,~ 9uµ171:iii; ayio.i; f½XA.Y]CTLO.£, aµcpo6oi; •ii~ ayio.~ Eucp17µio.~, Mo~ toU ayiou
converted villages, where private donations were not possible, were met partly by imperial funding and ern6WQOU, •ii£ 1JJt£Qo.yio.i; 0ro.6xou. 2348 The only ancient urban institution that survived in the
partly by taxes. 2340 The construction of private churches and monasteries also promoted a community Middle Ages, the baths, was frequently built adjacent to churches, so as to serve the poor, the sick and
spirit, because it was accomplished through the cooperative efforts of the community. John Chrysostom strangers. 2349 Merchants established their booths outside churches and sold products to worship-
advised the landlords to build at least one small church or to begin the construction of one, so that others p, rs. 2350 Archaeology confirms the information of the written sources: the marks of postholes on the
wishing to compete (a~uAAo.v nm17ao.a8r tou JtQayµmoi;), would complete the construction by adding' p11\·ement of the forum of Iol Caesarea and in Philippi in Greece, point to the location of merchants'
stoas and various other appendages. 2341 Other texts show how people, monks and artisans contributed temporary booths associated with churches. 2351 Often plazas and exedrai with permanent markets were
with voluntary work, in some cases after they had been miraculously cured from diseases by local fo·med in front of churches. 2352 Around early Byzantine churches, new centres of economic and social
saints. 2342 Justinian stipulated that if the heirs of a deceased donor did not continue the construction activities were created. In many sites shops are found next to churches and they were either owned by
work of the sponsored church, and if the bishops showed neglect, then the metropolitan or the arch- Church or served the Christians who visited them. The connection of churches with the production
bishop should complete the work and any citizen who wished could contribute. Since the work of piety distribution of goods through shops and workshops continues a pagan tradition. Pagan temples op-
was a matter that affected the whole community, its completion was also a responsibility of the com- erated workshops to produce goods to serve the temples' needs or those of the worshippers. 2353 The
munity. 2343 Here obligation toward private religious foundations is not justified in legal terms. Rather, sources, particularly papyri, show, however, that in the Christian era the economic activities of the
it is conveyed in terms of the social functions of private churches. Private and public blur both in terms Church increased greatly and were widespread in comparison with those of pagan temples. Besides,
of religious function and status, 2344 and in terms of financial sponsorship. Religious confraternities charitable institutions attached to churches included space for various economic activities, especially
(philiakon, spoudaioi, philoponoi) were also involved. 2345 Finally, the universal function of the churches shires where wheat, oil, wine and other products for distribution to the poor were kept .2354 Archaeol-
may have played a role in the creation of this spirit of community obligation in relation to church con- illustrates the economic activities of churches, and those organized around them. For example,
struction. In contrast to the public and exclusive character of the ancient urban temples - exclusive there was a large building, probably the bishop's palace, with a basement and two storeys adjoining the
since the majority of peasants and strangers were excluded- the role of the Christian churches was private Basilica Chrysopolitissa in Paphos, Cyprus. The basement was used as a store for mosaic tesserae, pot-
and universal. Architecturally, too, the churches in smaller towns did not resemble public buildings, being and olives. 2355 A glass shop and a large pottery shop were established near Basilica Bin Thessalian
distinguished from private houses only by the red tiles of their roofs. 2346 The universal character the Thebes (Nea Anchialos) at the end of the fifth century. The buildings attached to Basilica C located at
churches is also apparent in some dedicatory inscriptions, where the vow for mercy and salvation extends th, city's northwest corner, were centres of production and trade or charitable institutions. 2356 Also at
to "all the people". 2347 Philippi the bishop's complex, with numerous adjoining buildings, was a centre of economic activi-
tic:,,.2357 Inscribed sets of scales identifying ownership of churches have often been found and suggest

Churches: the new urban foci economic activities connected with churches. Furthermore, amphorae have been found with inscriptions
indicating that they belonged to the Church and that the content was produced on Church estates. 2358 At
Churches marked the urban landscape as major architectural units and became points of reference Ch.Tasa, in the centre of the courtyard of the temple of Artemis, next to the central ecclesiastical complex
in urban topography. The ancient names of streets were abandoned and replaced with the names of local of the cathedral, shops were built in the fifth to sixth century to the northeast, between the cardo and the
nv mumental staircase, and to the east. Lamps and lamp moulds with Christian decoration were found in
tlk pottery shop in the court of the temple of Artemis dating to the end of the fifth century, and were ob-
The Origins of the Syrian Ecclesiastical Silver Treasures of the Sixth-Seventh Centuries, in F. Baratte (ed.) Argenterie romaine vi, usly being sold to Christians visiting the adjacent cathedral. North of the cathedral and the Fountain
1

et byzantine. Actes de la Table Ronde, Paris 11-13 octobre 1983 (Paris 1988). 163- 184; S. A. Boyd and M. Mundell Mango Court, installations for glass production date to after the sixth century. In the area between the atrium of
Ecclesiastical Silver Plate in Sixth-Century Byzantium. Papers of the Symposium Held May 16-18, 1986 at The Walters A11 Galle1y,
Baltimore and Dumba,ton Oaks, Washington. D. C. (Washington, D. C. 1992): Procopius, De aedificiis 1.1.65 estimates the original
sanctuary furnishing of St. Sophia at 40.000 pounds of silver: Friedlander. Kunstbeschreibungen, Paul Silentiarius, Ekphrasis of 348
' P.Cair.Masp. III 67314.8 (p. 98); P.Oxy. VII 1038.22-23 (p. 568).
St. Sophia, vv. 720-754 states that the altar was of gold with gold columns and a ciborium of silver. 2349
See supra, pp. 328-330, 343.
rno F. Nau. Analyse de la seconde partie inedite de l'Histoire ecclesiastique de Jean d'Asie. ROC 2 ( 1897), 482. 03511
2341 PG 60, 148. Vita S. Symeonis Sali, 80.3 (,a wBt,[a nllv rr,,axouvwg[wv); Miracula SS. Cyri et lohannis, mir. 28.9 (p. 297) (,ac; 6rroJ-
23 -1 2 For example, Vita S. HJ,patii, c. 12.13 (p. 120); Cyril of Scythopolis, 205.15-19; Vita S. Symeonis Stylitae fun.. c. 108 (p. 88: gu: rrgo toil veco ... trrbgaoxr). See also infra, pp. 427-429.
2351
a monk worked the sculptured capitals of the columns of the church of St. Symeon), 96 (pp. 74-75). See C. Mango, !saurian See supra, p. 192.
2352
Builders, in P. Wirth ( ed.), Polychronion: Festschrift Franz Dolger zum 75. Geburtstag (Heidelberg 1966), 358-365. P.-L. Gatier See supra, p. 214.
2353
and F. Villeneuve, Nouvelles mosa1ques inscrites de Jordanie, Syria 70 ( 1993), 4-5 (no. 1): the villagers provided the salaries of See supra, pp. 214-216.
: 35 -1 Wipszycka, Les ressources, 57-63, 112.
the artisans and workers.
2355
23 -1 3 XOLVOil yag ovtoc; toil n7c; EUOEBclac; ,,oyou xmvac; rrgo017xa xal ,ac; orroubac; n7c; tolJTOU xa8rnn\.vm J[/cllQ(!JOEWc;: BCH 112 (1988), 841.
2356
CJ I.3.45.6 ( a. 530). P. Lazarides, PAE 1960, 60-66, 1985, 51-54; Soteriou, Thebes, 103.
2357
2344
G. Dagron, Constantinople. Les sanctuaires et !'organisation de la vie religieuse. Topographie chretienne,ACACXl S. Pelekanides, 'Avaoxmpal <l>t}farrwv, PAE 1969, 43-48; G. Gounaris et al., 'Avaoxmp~ 'Oxwywvou <l>LA.lmrwv, PAE
(1986), II, 1069-1085, esp. 1080 ff. 1/1,14-17.
2358
23 -15 J. Russell, The Mosaic Inscriptions of Anemurium (Vienna 1987), no. 11 (p. 61-64), late fifth or sixth century. For example, a balance from the church of St. Sergius at Daphne, now in the museum of Antioch, with the inscription:
23 -16 Patlagean. Pauvrete, 200; B. de Vries, Jordan's Churches. Their Urban Context in Late Antiquity, BibArch 51 ( 1988 ). 225. roD ay[ou LEQylou de; n7v ,globov (IGSyr III/2, no. 1074); on a pithos: Soteriou, Thebes, 103; amphorae with the inscription
2347
Piccirillo, Chiese, 86 ( i':M17oov rrav,oc; rnu xoo~tou: church of the Virgin in Rihab; 533). f); JU XUQLc; XEQ?lO£: SEG 42 (1992), 666-670, 672-673, 678-679, 1508-1514.
424 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 425

the Church of St. Theodore and the temple of Artemis, House V belonged to a potter or lamp-maker, as Churches located in the countryside in villages or at some distance from settlements were also
did house II (supra, p. 286, Plan 29). 2359 Similar arrangements also appear in small towns of the East. At attached to presses. For example, a room with an olive press was attached to the atrium of the Church of
Samra, in the Negev, located between Philadelphia and Bostra (50 km northeast of Amman), two of the Bacchus in the countryside near Kh. Sheikh 'Ali Malikina in Jordan (identified as Betomelgezis, in the
churches, built only 15 m apart, had adjacent shops and other structures. It has been observed that area of Diospolis and depicted on the Madaba map) and operated in the Byzantine and Umayyad
once churches were established at Samra, they organized various economic activities in their immediate' p,:riods. 2366 Monasteries in urban centres were also equipped with installations for processing agricultural
vicinity. 2360 The impact of Christianity on the economy of the Negev cities was major, and it has been products, mills and presses. For example, a hospice for pilgrims included a cistern and an oil press inside
suggested that the development of monastic communities in the desert and the construction of urban Justinianic wall, at Tiberias, on top of Mount Berenice. At Shivta (Esbeita) in the Negev, buildings
churches account for the flourishing of these urban centres. 2361 The sponsorship of economic activities by :th agricultural structures were attached to the North Church, which was probably a monastery. 2367
the Church was a general phenomenon in the East and in the West, where part of the empire's production J\lonastic communities, both in the countryside and in cities, had all the fittings and supplies of a micro-
centres for pottery, glass and bricks were connected with churches. 2362 e,_-onomy, which offered the community self-sufficiency and alleviation from external concerns. 2368 In ad-
Storage rooms for agricultural produce and installations for processing agricultural products, such dition, the urban population relied on the food supplies of monasteries, especially during periods of
as oil and wine presses, were also operated by the Church. Examples are known from various cities, famine and enemy invasions. During the Persian attack on Amaseia, the inhabitants of the surrounding
although archaeological reports do not always offer precise dating, and some appear to have been ar;.;as and cities sought refuge inside the walls. The hagiographer of the Life of St. Eutychius explains that
established in the period of profound urban crisis during the invasions. Among such finds are storage did not rely so much on the city's fortifications as on the saint's prayers, a statement whose meaning
rooms in the bishop's complex of the Octagon at Philippi and wine presses, a wine press in a room made clear by the reference to supplies in the monastery of the saint, capable of feeding many people.
adjoining the atrium of the basilica of Dion outside the walls dating to the middle of the sixth century, In recent studies, attention has been paid to the agricultural activities in which churches and monas-
wine and olive presses by the wall of Louloudies to the northwest of the bishop's palace, and large oil
were involved. The scope of these activities included feeding their own members and those in need
and wine presses in the bishop's complex at Salona. Furthermore, in the large Gymnasium of Samos
through philanthropic institutions and exporting foodstuffs. 2369 In North African cities in Tunisia and
two early Byzantine basilicas were built. One, dating to the reign of Justinian, was part of a large monastic
ripolitania, oil presses appear in the urban centres during the Vandal and Byzantine periods. Only five
complex with a basilica, atrium, baptistery, a banqueting-hall, a cemetery, and rooms. There were also
pr;.;sses are dated, and they belong to the sixth to seventh centuries. These were attached to churches and
oil and wine presses, storage rooms containing amphorae for processing grain, and a kiln for the production
v,c:re located in various sites of the cities, in the forum, in residential districts and on the city periphery.
of lime. Observations of the type of amphorae used for storage suggest that they may have been used
Church was clearly the major force in organizing production activities during this period. 2370
to supply the army. 2363 The famous Huilerie in Salamis-Constantia in Cyprus, close to the basilica of
Churches were more than places for prayer and opportunities for business, or centres for the pro-
Campanopetra, was a two-storey luxury palace. It became the bishop's administrative centre with an
di ction or distribution of goods. Announcements of interest to the community were also made at them,
audience hall, a chapel in the basement, and shops on the southern side. An inscription on the northern
portico of the court 'l!JWµ(ou ALTQa refers to the grain tax due. After its abandonment, an oil press was from the fifth century imperial decrees were announced to the public in churches. Imperial decrees
established in the palace. At Peyia-Agios Georgios in Cyprus, an olive press operated in the annexes of \\c:re inscribed in the churches of the Virgin and of St. John in Ephesus, 2371 whilst festivals and cele-
Basilica C. 2364 Similarly, just south of the temple of Aphrodisias, which had been converted into a brations of other joyful public events were organized in churches. Some administrative functions of civil
church, the building, that has been identified with some reservations as the bishop's palace, was later officers were also held in churches. The governor of Edessa, Alexander, sat regularly every Friday in
turned into a centre for the production of wine and olive oil. Numerous pithoi and wine and olive presses Church of St. John the Baptist and St. Addai the Apostle, to judge legal cases free of charge. This
were found there. An oil press was established in a cave at Gerasa, west of the atrium of the Church of iliative gave him popular support, since it encouraged the poor and socially weak to take their cases
St. Theodore probably after the construction of the church in the end of the fifth century. 2365 to the governor. 2372 Indeed, the church was the ideal location from which to establish social justice. The
Patriarch of Alexandria, John the Almsgiver, sat before the church every Wednesday and Friday, assisted
pair of men of virtue, and, holding the holy Gospels in his hands, he would settle disputes, so helping
2359 C. S. Fisher, The Temple of Artemis, in Kraeling, Gerasa, 125-138; Crowfoot, Christian Churches, 217; Fisher, Buildings, those who suffered injustice. 2373 In periods of crisis, efforts to bring relief to the population were coor-
284, 286-287.
2360 J.-B. Humbert, Khirbet es-Samra 1981-82, Syria 60 (1983), 312.

2361 P. Mayerson, Palestina Tertia Pilgrims and Urbanization, Cathedra 45 (1987), 19-40 [in Hebrew].
2366
2362 R. Martorelli, Riflessioni sulle attivita produttive nell'eta tardoantica e altomedievale: esiste un artigianato .. ecclesi- Dahari, Betomelgezis, 248.
2367
astico"?, Rivista di Archeologia Cristiana 75 ( 1999), 571-596. Y. Hirschfeld, Tiberias, ES! 16 (1997), 36; idem, The Anchor Church at the Summit of Mt. Berenice, Tiberias, BibArch
2363 S. Pelekanides, PAE 1967, 74; Soteriou, Thebes, 103; A. Mentzos, H xo1rni-r1791ax17 f3ao11c1x17 mu L-.[ou. Ta ;-cgouxtl- 5~, l 994), 126; idem, The Judean Dese11 Monasteries in the Byzantine Period (New Haven, Conn. and London 1992), 106-111;
Uftata,AEMT 6 (1992), 240; E. Marki, LWtrrEgauµata arro rn; avaoxaq;Et; tilt; 91i; Ecpogda; Butavnvwv Agxmonjnr)V OTT] A Segal, The Byzantine City of Shivta (Esbeita), Negev Desert, Israel (BAR Int. Series 179, Oxford 1983), 156; B. Brenk, Monas-
f36gELa fILEg[a, AEMT JO (1996), 240; Dyggve, Salonitan Christianity, 29-30; E. Marin, in Salona. Recherches archeologiques as Rural Settlements: Patron-Dependence or Self-Sufficiency?, LAA 2 (2004), 447-476.
franco-croates aSalone. Catalogue de la sculpture architecturale paleochretienne de Salone, eds. N. Duval, E. Marin and C. Metzger
0368
Vita s. Theodosii coen., 34.10-14: ... ta rravtoi:a tCJ)V tEXVWV r9yaon791a tqi XOLV("iJ n7; UelEAq;6t17to::; ta JtQOt:; n1v
(Rome-Split 1994), I, p. XXI: "Mais, ces pressoirs temoignent egalement d'une certaine fa<;on de la ruralisation de la villc. s'ils U.', c,txa[av evbov rraQEXOVta xgdav xai tGJv E~(J)8£v xag1v toutou EAEU8Egouvta ;-cEgwrraoµwv.
sont bien du Vle s. et non du debut du vne s."; W. Martini and C. Steckner, Das Gymnasium von Samas. Das fruhbyzantinische
2369
Kingsley and Decker, Exchange, 10-11 with examples from various sites.
370
Klostergut (Bonn 1993, Samas XVII), XIII-XV, 143-166. 189-194; C. Steckner, Les amphores LR 1 et LR 2 en relation avec le ' Leone, Topographies, 264-269, 275,277.
2371
pressoir du complexe ecclesiastique des thermes de Samos, in Deroche and Spieser, Ceramique, 57-71. Lavan, Political Topography, 324.
2364 Argoud et al., L 'huilerie, 39 ( the inscription); Ch. Bakirtzis, Peyia-Agios Georgios, BCH 120 ( 1996 ), 1094. 'm Joshua the Stylite, c. 34 (p. 24); c. 31 (p. 22); c. 29 (p. 20) (a. 496-497).
2365 2373
Erim,Aphrodisias, 64; Fisher, Buildings, 292, 294. Vita S. Johannis Eleemosyn., c. 4 (p. 349).
426 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 427

dinated in the churches. The inhabitants of Edessa collected money in their church to ransom the citi- invented to commemorate the events of Christ's life, and introduced in large cities. The increasing
zens of Antioch taken captives by Chosroes. 2374 number of festivals was also related to the construction of new churches. To the Christian holidays cel-
The churches played an increasingly major role in promoting imperial and aristocratic ideology. ebrated by all Christians were added a number of local Christian holidays, associated mostly with the
Representations of emperors in churches emphasized imperial authority, as is the case with the famous miraculous power of saints' relics. 2383 P.Oxy. XI 1357, dated to the early sixth century, contains the
mosaic of San Vitale, or the Church of St. Sergius at Gaza, as described by Choricius. 2375 The narthex Oxyrhynchus calendar of festivals. The list is incomplete with fifty-five festivals taking up one hundred
of the Church of St. John at Ephesus depicted Theodore illustrius, magister officiorum under Justin II forty-four days of the year. If one takes into account the lacuna in the papyrus, there were probably sixty-
and Tiberius, receiving the insignia of the office of proconsul of Asia from an Archangel. 2376 As a result festivals in total. In its surviving form, the calendar lists twenty-five churches, whilst the original fig-
of the decline of ancient buildings serving the municipal administration, the churches begun to play may have been about forty. 2384 Ecclesiastical processions from one church to another commemo-
greater role in storing private archives for security, as was the case with the Petra church. 2377 Standards rated events related to these churches. The density of churches in the centre of the city of Philippi is to
of measures and weights were also often controlled by churches and kept in them. St. John the Almsgiver explained by the procession held by Christians through the sites where the events of the life of St.
issued a decree and posted it in each neighbourhood, imposing uniformity of measures in the city of took place. These are the prison at the site of Basilica A, the place of Paul's flogging at the podium
Alexandria. 2378 So much did civic life come to centre on churches that it has been suggested that the the Macedonian heroon where the Octagon was built, and the palaestra at the site of Basilica B,
role played by the atria of churches, where so many social activities took place, may have contributed to where a miracle was performed and Paul arrested. In Thessalonica, the procession departed from the
the decline of ancient civic centres. 2379 Philanthropic institutions became increasingly important. Cdthedral and followed the itinerary of St. Demetrius from his capture at the Kataphygi, his meeting
Choricius declares that he admires bishop Marcian primarily for having built charitable dwellings ith the emperor Galerius in the Church of the Acheiropoietos, to his capture at the basement of the
(cpLAav8QCOJtoU£ xa-w11.uoa£), houses for the elderly and poor, old age and poverty being the worst baths where the crypt of the Church of St. Demetrius later stood. 2385 Special litanies were also held in
nx
things in life ( ~tEyLo-ta i:wv xaxcov ). 2380 Precious gifts to churches by wealthy individuals were invested e',ceptional circumstances. In 560 St. James, metropolitan of Edessa, purified Amida from the doctrine
in houses for poor foreigners and hospitals. 2381 The changes in the urban landscape that these philan- Chalcedon by means of a special ritual. He entered the city and went into the church; he brought in-
thropic institutions brought about, were only a small part of the story. A major change was gradually c,:nse and set it before the altar; he then gave the order for the people to carry it over to the streets and
occurring at a social level, a shift of emphasis on the part of the established urban elites to the poor 2382 houses and all round on the walls. The same purification ritual was repeated in other cities. 2386 Christian
who were ignored by the upper class of the ancient cities. processions through the cities were organized on various occasions. The inhabitants of the city of Pessinus
Galatia Salutaris asked St. Theodore of Sykeon to save them from drought, meeting the saint outside
walls and returning with him in procession. The next day a liturgy was held in the cathedral Church
Christianization of urban time the Holy Wisdom and a litany procession then reached the Church of the Holy Angels outside the
There they read the Gospel and, singing psalms, returned in a procession to the Church of the
It was not only urban space, but also urban time that underwent Christianization. By the sixth century Wisdom. The saint, while celebrating the communion, asked God to bring rain and the ceremony
the urban calendar was full of Christian festivals. Severns tells us that new festivals had been recently concluded with a feast. 2387 Other festivals were organized to commemorate special political or military
en:nts and acquired a religious tone. In Alexandria a victory of Theodosius I, following a miraculous
11 1crvention of Saints Cyrus and John, was commemorated in an annual festival, termed dxovwv, after

237
Procopius. De Bello Persico II.13.3.
-l
image of the emperor set up to celebrate his victory. 2388 Through festivals and processions, the power
2375Choricius. Or. I.30 (p. ]()); Procopius, De aedificiis V.1.4-6. the Church and of the emperor was thus promoted and strengthened.
2376 Gregoire, Recueil. no. I00bis;Anthologia Graeca 1.36. The Christian festivals of the liturgical year became opportunities for public celebrations, ritual
2377 See supra, p. 249.
prncessions, public speeches and various social and economic activities. People gathered from neigh-
2378 Vita S. Iohannis Eleemosyn., c. 2 (p. 348).
2379
bouring towns and villages and people came from afar to attend the panegyris of saints who were popular
Lavan, Political Topography. 325.
in districts larger than that of a single city. 2389 Choricius draws a vivid picture of the festivals of Gaza,
°
238 Choricius, Or. I.78 (p. 22); Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita S. Sabae, c. 112 (p. 217): several houses were transformed inw resi-

dences for wayfarers. Houses for strangers and hospitals were built by St. John the Almsgiver, a hostel for the monks, and for the
still manifested overtones of pagan tradition. The mood of the festivities, the joyousness of the
poor (Vita S. lohannis Eleemosyn., c. 6, p. 350, c. 23, p. 375, c. 27, p. 378); charitable institutions were attached to the monastery of participants, the intense commercial activities, the colourful tents of merchants and the crowds from
St. Theodosius coenobiarches and a house for elders and a hospital in Jericho through the donation of a woman (Vita S. Theodosii
coen.. 34-35, 41 ); St. Sabas, the founder of the Lavra, bought a guest house at Jericho with the funds he inherited from his mother
and built a guest-house in his Lavra (Cyril of Scythopolis, 109) and St. Theodore of Chora built a hospital next to the monastery 3
·,s Severns, Hom. 125, PO 29 ( 1960), 247-249. See also Joshua the Stylite, c. 32 (p. 23); Choricius, Or. II.73 (pp. 45-46).
at Chora in Constantinople (Vita S. Theodori Chorensis, c. 29, p. 12). Imperial largesse for philanthropic institutions took various 1\1. 'lalzman, The Christianization of sacred time and sacred space. in Harris, Urbs Roma, 123-134 concludes that Christian festivals
forms: two hospices were built by Justinian in Jerusalem, one for the visiting strangers, the other for the sick poor (Procopius. De an1.: ,mniversaries were established by the end of the fifth century, before the city's centre was Christianized.
aedificiis V.6.25) and houses for the poor in other cities (ibid., V.9.34-38), the xenon of Sampson in Constantinople was rebuilt :.iK-l Alston, The City, 302.
and enlarged by the emperor after its destruction during the Nika revolt (ibid., 1.2.14-16), two hostels were built in the palaces of A Mentzos, ITgooxuviitlc; xm rcgooxuv17~mta on1 E>rnoat.ov[x11 xm rnuc:; <l>Lt,[rcrcouc; on1v rcgu)to~u~avnv17 JCEQ[o-
Isidore and Arcadius (ibid., 1.2.17), and another one restored near the church of St. Panteleemon (ibid., 1.9.12-13). oo SBMAT20 (2000), 55-56.
2381 Severns, Hom. 27, PO 36/4 (1974). 569. On Byzantine philanthropic institutions see D. J. Constantelos, Byzantine 2
;% John of Ephesus, Lives, PO 19/2 (1926), 260-261.
Philanthropy and Social Welfare (New Brunswick, N.J. 1963), 158-170. 263-264; K. Mentzou-Meimari, 'ErcagxLaxc'i. Et'.cxyfj :.;s 7 Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 1()1 (pp. 80-82), 107 (pp. 85-86).
lClQU~Lma ~tEXQL mu tO.ouc; tfjc:; dxovormx[ac;, Byzantina 11 (1982), 243-308. ·sss Sophronius, PG 87/3, 3688B.
2382 9
See P. Brown, Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire (Hanover and London 2002). '·" Miracula S. Theclae, mir. 29 (p. 368).
428 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 429

the neighbouring cities give a special character to these festivals. The program includes public speeches, was Christian. At the festival in honour of St. Sergius, a Christian would have enjoyed "the church, the
singing and musical performances. The bishop provides feasts for all ( i::uwxim nay611µm, JtQO£ cnpo- joyfulness of the market, and thirdly the autumn season, the season loved most by all". 2397 Three ele-
cpayiav xat noAui:EAELav 6£invwv), while the most prominent citizens entertain high-ranking visitors ments emerge from Choricius' description: the church, the market, and the enjoyment of the festive
from other cities at public expense. All social groups participate in a relaxed spirit, including married tone. No other urban feature was important for the Christian festival, and in spite of the orator's classical
women and maidens who uncover their faces to enjoy the festival. Christian festivals maintain the open \ ncabulary and allusions to ancient literary themes, a new type of the urban festival was gradually being
and joyful aspects of earlier pagan ones. Tents made of colourful fabrics are set up garlanded with laurel shaped. Although business transactions during ecclesiastical festivals were condemned by some Church
branches, and a wide range of products was displayed for sale, including wares, gold and silver objects. Fathers, in practice, the Church sanctioned them and included them in Christian festivals, through the
The festivities extend into the night when glass vessels provide light and business is evidently thriving. .,• .. tablishment of temporary markets with booths for merchandise. 2398
During the religious part of the festival the bishop leads the procession through all of the churches of
the city. 2390
Choricius employs a variety of terms and themes to underline the joy and pleasure of the festival. Proliferation of Christian symbolism
The festival in honour of St. Sergius was a time for enjoyment, 2391 a 611µoi:£A~£ EUcpQoouv11. 2392 In the
festival in honour of St. Stephanus the orator employs allusions to classical texts to describe the festive The Christianization of urban space is visible both in the Christian churches and in various Christian
character of the city: "our city has become easygoing and comfortable, and the whole year is for us. so s, mbols that marked urban structures in all cities. As early as the fourth century it had become an
to speak, full of festivities (xat nav EW£ 1)µ1v JtAi'jQE£ d.l£ dni::1v nav11YUQ£wv), for, since the festivals c,tablished tradition to mark objects, houses and public buildings with the cross. Crosses were engraved
increase with the addition of the new churches, and since the interval between is always short, the memory lintels of doors of houses accompanied by prophylactic or apotropaic inscriptions, or they were
of the festival had just ended and the expectation is of the one soon to occur". Festivals offer people a of bronze. 2399 Shop doors were also marked with crosses. The governor of Edessa Alexander ordered
break from life's difficulties. Choricius' words evoke an established literary tradition. 2393 Gaza's reli- artisans hang crosses with five lightened lamps attached to them over their shops on the eve of
gious festivals were very close to the ancient prototype of public amusement and joy at civic festivals. Sunday. 2400 At Rome icons of St. Symeon Stylites were hung on the entrance of all workshops giving
On the other hand, the Christian content of the festival is stressed through the description of the them protection and safety, and in Antioch the icon of St. Symeon Stylites the Y ounger. 2401 Nymphaea,
churches, the praise of the bishop, and through references to Christian virtues and spirituality. In his ilumn capitals and architraves of colonnades in major avenues, walls and pavements and public
First Oration to bishop Marcian, Choricius uses a theme familiar from enkomia to saints and hagio- in,criptions were decorated with crosses and other Christian symbols. Names of pagan gods were
graphical texts. People benefit spiritually from the festival, for the feast brings to mind the pious deeds erased from inscriptions, images of gods were defaced or torn down and were replaced with the sign of
of saints, while at the same time festival participants enjoy themselves. 2394 Archon Stephanus is praised cross. An inscription records that in the early fifth century, at the intersection of the main street of
for giving the festival on the inauguration of the Church of St. Stephanus a most appropriate tone of phesus, the magistrate Demeas destroyed a statue of Artemis and replaced it with a large cross. 2402
piety, combined with joyousness. 2395 The orator points to a substantial difference between Christian
During the reign of Justinian, in the middle of the Arcadiane at Ephesus a tetrapylon was erected with
festivals and earlier pagan ones, however: Christian festivals on account of their joyousness - but inter-
statues of the four Evangelists. 2403 In public warehouses and granaries (horrea ), the pagan tradition
estingly not because of their Christian spirit - bring people together, while pagan festivals are marked
religious symbols was replaced with Christian iconography. In Caesarea Maritima, frescoes with jew-
by a competitive spirit that creates animosity. The Christian festival has nothing in common with pagan
elled cross, displaying Christian abbreviations JC XC A Q, and representations of saints decorated the
festivals marked by contest and Dionysiac vulgarity. 2396 It is clear that the emerging new civic solidarity
;dis of warehouses, although a eucharistic bread stamp and ampoules of St. Menas may suggest that the
,mplex was operated by the Church. 2404 Pagan monuments everywhere were purified with the sign of the

23 9o Choricius. Or. I,proem, c. 3 (pp. 1-2), 83-93 (pp. 23-26); Or. 11.59-75 (pp. 42-47). Feasts for all the urban inhabitants
are mentioned after litanies and processions: Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 101.45 (p.81 ), 112.7 (p. 88), 161.241 (p. 145). On the
2397
festivals of Gaza see F. K. Litsas, Choricius of Gaza and his Descriptions of Festivals at Gaza,JOB 32/3 (1982), 427-436. Choricius, Or. 11.70 (p. 45.13-15): aQXEL yag de; EUCfQOOuv11v TO TE~IEVO<; xal Ti'jc:; ayogac; 11 (fm6g6n1c; xal TQLTOV 6
2 3 91 Choricius, Or. I, proem c. 1: 'E:rr£Lb11 xal :rraltav n Mbwmv 6 xmg6c;. :rrav17YUQLc; ya.Q xal flla ClLU. :rravToJV 11bov1j Tf zal 11 (f)lt,Tan1 :rramv 6m;)QU. See also Friedlander, Kunstbeschreibungen, Paul Silentiarius, "Exq;gamc; mu aft~wvoc;,
Eu0U[llU q;orr(i. cpEQE. :rrgoc; TU. i'oµa xal ClUTOc; WQU°LOO[tm :rtmellXct. v. 9-10: Cl.At-a TOU VE()) XUQlV / 8EUTQOV £OWL xal :rtUVllYUQlc:; :rta/,lV. V. 18: EUOE~EL<; :rrav11yugE1c;. V. 19: 0£~1v11v Eu8urtlav. Ibid.,
2 3 92 Jbid., c. 3 (p. 3.9). See also c. 87 (p. 24.12-15): Ttc; OUTOJ oxmoc; xal ytwov aygmx[ac;. ov OU (f)mbgov xal yEy1106rn ;TOlEt; Silentiarius, Ekphrasis of St. Sophia, vv. 119-120: oux av :rrg011WEv de; Tooaun1v 11 :rr6:>.tc; / £uOur1lav TE xal TQucp11v
OU VEOTllc; [IETU. XUQLTOJV a0ugouoa :rravrnxou; UUTOV JtQEO~un1v 11 :rtOAlU. (IOVOV fAEYXEl TOU OW[WTOc; aurnu OCf,QlYtiiVTO: l'(f. F i;((LflOVU.
2398
116ov17c;. Nicetas Serronius. PG 36, 980D; St. Basil, PG 31, 1020B-1021A; John Chrysostom, PG 48, 749; Miracida S. Theclae.
23 93 Trans!. Litsas, Choricius, 151; Choricius, Or. II. 73 (p. 46.1 ), 74 (p. 46.16-17) (lsocrates, Or. 4.46; Thucydides B.38). . 42.20-21 (p. 400); Vita S. Symeonis Sali, 80.1-2.s
2399
2394 Choricius, Or.1.11 (p. 5.18-19): ~tETa rn[vuv n7c; tbcpEt,Elac; xal :rr:>.Eion1v 11r1Iv ouvELOCf,EQOUOLV EuOurtlav. John Chrysostom, PG 48, 826. See E. Dauterman Maguire, H.P. Maguire and M. J. Duncan-Flowers,Art and Holy Pow-
2395 Ibid .. 111.65 (p. 65.14-18): OU bi: TOU ~IEV n1v axmgov OE~tv6n1rn xarnyvouc;. TOU 6£ TO JtEQlTTWc; a~gob[mrnv (((HElO- cr• m the Early Christian House (Urbana and Chicago 1989), 18 ff. See also supra, p. 220. In Stobi a bronze cross was found in the

ouv11v nva oq1v6n1n OUVEXEQaoac; awfoTEQU H[l XUlQ(jl ow1~alvoVTa JtQUTTO)V TOU (IEV oolou Ti'jc; EOQTJ]c; TO oqtvov ~Ol'i.o- •,ris on the lintel of a house that had fallen from the wooden door where it was hung: Wiseman, The City, fig. 16 in p. 311.
24011
(IEVOU. Tou bi: :>.armgou xal (f)mbgov n :rrgocra:rrmrnuvrnc;. Joshua the Stylite, c. 29 (p. 20) (a. 496-497).
24111
2396 Jbid., Or. 11.69 (p. 45.11-13): an· 11r1Tv EX:rtobwv /:,uoEQlelEC:: aOt,Ol xal Clll~l(J)()ELc; cpwval xal XOQELU nc; a:rtELQOXU/,(): zal Theodoret of Cyrus, Historia Philoth ., XXVI.11 (II, p. 182). See also supra, p. 220.
24 2
:rrgfoouoa rni:c; llLovuoou ox11vai:c;. See also Theodoret of Cyrus, Therapeutike VII.l 1-14 (p. 299), VIII.69 (p. 335): xal civTl u Gregoire, Recueil, no. 104; Foss, Ephesus, 32, and on crosses carved on various monuments: pp. 69-70.
24113
n7c; :rtaAm Jl:0(1:rtELUc; xal aioxgougy[ac; xal atOXQOQll~lOOUVllc; 0(0(/,QOVEc; EOQTatovi:m :rtUVl1YUQE1c;. OU ~1e011v i!xouow xc,l See supra, p. 220.
2404
XW[lOV xal yEAOJTU, an· u~1vouc; 8Elouc; xal LEQWV Aoylwv Cl.XQOUOIV xal JtQOOEUXllV al;Lrnalvmc; XOOflOWlEVllV baxguOL;. J. Patrich, Warehouses and Granaries in Caesarea Maritima, in Raban and Hoium, Caesarea Maritima, 146-172.
430 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 431

cross. 2405 On the cella wall of the temple of Artemis in Sardis, twenty-five crosses were carved along with locavit tarn cito tarn stabilem Pallas vix conderet arcem". 2410 Arlastasius had bronze crosses set up
the inscription <PQI: ZQH. They were placed on the wall exactly opposite the small early Christian church above the gates of Constantinople, when the city was threatened by the army of Vitalianus. 2411 At
'
built next to the temple. 2406 On the steps of the great temple of Athena at Priene, crosses and graffiti were Philippi in Macedonia, the pagan reliefs carved on the rocks on the acropolis were purified by the sign
carved combining terms of pagan and Christian origin (a~t~Qomc;, avaammc;). 2407 Pagan scenes were often of the cross. On the gate of Krenides a cross was carved, whilst on the east gate an inscription to Isis was
covered over with the sign of the cross in red paint, symbolizing Christ's blood. 2408 Pagan statues of deities purified with a cross and a dove. A copy of the letter of Abgar, king of Osrhoene, to Christ and Christ's
' response to him was carved, assuring Abgar that the city would be impregnable (the inscription dates
which in the past offered their protection to cities, were replaced by the Christian symbol of salvation.
statue of Artemis in Ephesus that was replaced by a cross has already been mentioned. Pagan civic symbols to the fifth to sixth century); on the gate of Neapolis a prophylactic inscription was inscribed, invoking
were also Christianized by means of the sign of the cross, as, for example, was the case with an engraved Christ and asking him to protect the city. 2412 In Edessa, the letter of Christ inscribed on the city's gates
depiction of the city's Tyche and a footprint on a block of the pavement of the Marble Street of Ephesus, was considered a palladium. 2413 Procopius concludes that the closing phrase of the letter promising
both symbols of good luck (Figure 55). 2409 Christ's protection over the city ( we; ou6l ~ n6At<; no1:l ~aQ~aQOL<; aAwmµoc; fom1) was a later addition,
Prophylactic inscriptions and crosses were also marked on city walls. The tradition is rightly illus- since it is not mentioned in earlier sources. The inhabitants of Edessa, however, claimed that they
trated in an inscription from the walls of Constantinople set up by Theodosius II where Pallas' protec- found it with the letter and so inscribed it on the gates of their city in place of any other defence (xat
tion is still invoked: "Theodosii iussis gemino nee mense peracto Constantinus ovans haec moenia firma (XVayQamov OU'tW 't~V EJtLCT'tOA~V av1:' aAAOlJ 'tOlJ Cf)lJAO.X'tYJQLOlJ EV 1:a.Tc; rfi<; JtOAEW<; JtEJtOlllV't<ll JtU-
1.mc;).2414 Inscriptions evoking the protection of Christ or saints are found on the walls of several cities,
as, for example, Smyrna, Cos, Miletus, Attaleia, Arltioch and Theodoroupolis (Arlasartha in Syria, 60
km southeast of Alep ), 2415 and in smaller settlements. 2416 An inscription from Isthmus, in the Pelopon-
nese, invokes Christ's protection over the emperor Justinian, his devoted servant Victorinus, and over
the inhabitants of Hellas, whilst a second inscription from Corinth invokes the Virgin's protection over
Justinian, Victorinus, and the inhabitants of Corinth. 2417 The restoration of a city offered the opportu-
nity for engraving inscriptions invoking divine protection. 2418 On the gate of Theodoroupolis in Syria,
the city's benefactors were recorded, namely, Christ, the emperors, probably Maurice and his son
Theodosius, a local phylarch, the prefects, the bishop and the architect. To commemorate them further,
their statues were also erected (a. 595). 2419 The map of Madaba depicts T-shaped symbols on the wall
uf Jerusalem between St. Stephen's gate and the southeast end of the city. They were probably Christian
symbols, crucifixes or angels as described in Arltiochus Strategos' account of Jerusalem's sack, preserved
. Georgian. 2420 On the same map, the kastron Mefaa is represented together with a column and a cross
nn top of it standing just outside the city gate. In Hierapolis, in the province of Euphratesia, four in-
scriptions were carved on each side of a block on public display commemorating the signing of the peace
treaty with the Persians in 532. Justinian and the general Rufinus are mentioned on one side. On the other

2410
C/L III, no. 734.
2411
John of Antioch 103 (p. 143.32-33).
2412
Lemerle, Philippes, 84-91; Feissel, Inscriptions de Macedoine, nos. 222, 223 (p. 185-191); the prophylactic inscription
· m the gate of Neapolis, no. 223, pp. 189-190: KugtE 'hiaou XgtoTE yi:vv118dc:; h tfjc:; IIag8Evou Maglac:; ornugwOdc; bt · 17µ/'ic:;.
:\01\8£1 Tll JfOAEl Tal!Tll CTTfjvm de; arravta XQOVOV xal cput.a1;ov rnuc:; EV CTOL 'XC(TOL'XOUVTac:; de; b61;av 001!.
2413
Joshua the Stylite, c. 5 (pp. 5-6), 58 (p. 47), 60-62 (pp. 51-54).
FIG. 55. Crosses carved over the figure of the Tyche and a footprint 2414
Procopius, De Bello Persico Il.12.26.
engraved on a block of the pavement of the Marble Street at Ephesus. 2415
Gregoire, Recueil, no. 219: + aytoc:; 6 E>i:oc:; aytoc:; tozugoc; aytoc:; &8avarnc; E/,EllCTOV !]~tac; ... (Miletus, a. 538); no. 221:
ri.ytE cpu1.a1;ov T~v rr61.1v M11.1ialwv xal rravtac; rnuc:; xmmxouvrnc; ( on the exterior wall of the theatre transformed in a fort);
no. 328: cpwc; twij. 'h1oouc; Kug1oc; Xgtotoc:; v1-x(i (Termessos); IGSyr II, no. 281 (a. 684); IIl/1, no. 785.
2416
IGSyr IV, nos. 1811 ( a. 551 ), 1812 ( a. 578), 1813, 1814, 1815 ( a. 573/74), 1726 ( a. 563), 1598 ( a. 546-547).
2417
Feissel and Philippidis-Braat, Inventaires, nos. 16, 17 (pp. 279-281 ).
2405 See supra, pp. 362-363, 381.
2418
V. Parvan, Contributii epigrafice la istoria crestinismului daco-romana (Bucharest 1911), 63: + KugtE 6 0Eoc; ~01\81
2406 Foss, Byzantine Cities, 95. :tof,LV &vavrnuµEv11v 'A~njv.
2419
2407 Wiegand, Priene, 478. IGSyr II, no. 288 (late sixth to early seventh century).
2408 Roman us Melodus, c. 23.11.5-6 (p. 176): ta yga~t~tarn / ext.aµrrovrn zagrn rrogcpuglbrn; mu a\'.µmoc;. °
242
F. Conybeare, Antiochus Strategos' Account of the Sack of Jerusalem in AD 614, English Historical Review 25 (1910),
2409 /nschr. Ephesos II, no. 580; see K. M. D. Dunbabin, lpsa deae vestigia ... Footprints divine and human on Graeco-Roman 502-516. The archangel was depicted on gates ofltalian city walls: J. Gardner, An Introduction to the Iconography of the Medieval
monuments,JRA 3 (1990), 85-109, esp. 105. [talian City Gate, DOP 41 (1987), 202-203.
432 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 433

side it is stated that the treaty was signed with the will of Christ and that the city was protected by the of many ancient cities. 2430 In ancient Messene in the Peloponnese, several monumental tombs of heroes
Apostles Peter and Paul (rtagacpuAaxfj -rfj~ rt6AEW~ ~µwv Ile-rgou xal, IlauAou -rwv &ytwv arcoo-r6Aow). and of local families are located intra muros, in the civic centre and by the stadium-gymnasium. 2431 In
On the third side of the block it is stated that the power of the cross averts the disasters of the war, whilst '-,ome cities that included many uninhabited areas inside the walls, burials of all periods are to be found
on the fourth side payment to the Persians is recorded. 2421 Various Christian symbols, namely crosses, scattered within the line of walls. 2432 Local tradition among the Hellenized populations in southwestern
olive branches and dolphins, were engraved on the walls of Dyrrachium and other cities in Albania. 242 2 \sia Minor, in Lycia and Pisidia, dictated close proximity of funerary structures and monumental
Christian symbolism has been recognized in the proportions of the parts of crosses engraved on gates and wmbs to public monuments of cities and towns or near houses. 2433 Christianity gradually introduced
walls, which served to invoke divine protection. 2423 The location of churches by city gates also appears radical ideological changes concerning death. Death, having been defeated by Christ, was now to be
to have been intended to secure protection. In Thessalonica, the Octagon near the Porta Aurea was regarded differently. No longer feared, it now led to eternal life. 2434 For Christians death is not thanatos
perhaps dedicated to St. Nestor, probably place of his martyrium, while at the other end, near the Porta but koimesis, for the body will be resurrected. 2435 Theological arguments were presented against the
Cassandreotika, the Rotunda was located. Furthermore, chapels were built into the towers of walls. 2424 belief in the pollution of the dead. 2436 However, the ancient tradition of placing cemeteries outside the
The Church claimed responsibility for the provision of divine protection over entire urban com- urban gates was respected by Christians for a long time. 2437 A sense of disgust for corpses is expressed
munities, and this assertion is made clear in church inscriptions: an inscription from the Church of St. several passages of the Church Fathers, who refer to the need for burials extra muros. 2438 The first
Theodore at Gerasa, dating to 496, asserts that the saint will avert misfortune and protect the city Christian burials in the cities occur in churches, a practice that appears before the end of the fourth
(EQXO~ UAESLXUXOV 'tEA£0EL xay11gaov rgµa UCT'tEL xal, vae-rnn xat ECTCTO~tEVOLCTt JtOAL'tat~). 2425 Severns ,cntury. On the grounds that burials were forbidden in cities by ancient tradition, John Chrysostom
of Antioch gives a rationalizing account of protection offered by saints over cities. Saints particularly t:l,mplains that burials in churches should not be allowed. In fact, since Christ dwells in churches and
protect the cities where they suffered martyrdom. They have a desire to fight for the faith, for which ,mce the Holy Spirit operates there and the mysteries are performed there, churches are the last place
they won crowns and triumphs, and especially for the places of their martyrdom. They resemble ath- where burials should be permitted. 2439 Ephraem the Syrian stipulated in his testament that he should
letes who, after they have won a victory, feel attracted to the place where they successfully compet- be buried in the sanctuary of a church, nor in any other place of the church, for it is not appropriate
ed. 2426 The belief that Constantinople was protected by the Theotokos was particularly developed in that a decomposed body be deposited in a holy site (hagiasma) of God. 2440 A law of Theodosius in 381
the sixth century. 2427 Sometimes Christian inscriptions on urban monuments invoked divine protection :ntempted to prevent burials in churches. In Constantinople, burials above ground are to be transferred
over the city through the use of magic symbols and language. An inscription, dating to the fifth or sixth cutside the walls, while burials in churches are prohibited. 2441 In the capital, however, the expansion of
century, built into the exterior wall of the theatre of Miletus, which was later transformed into a fort. in- city brought about burial within the city walls, because land previously lying outside was now included in
cludes a line of seven magic signs and a line of vowels. Below each sign, seven vowels in an oval repre-
inhabited area. The forum of Constantine was built on the site of ancient cemeteries, while cemeteries
sent the seven archangels, and are followed by an invocation to a saint to protect Miletus and its inhab-
itants. 2428 Once again pagan and Christian elements are found side by side.

2430
Scherrer, Topography, 77 & fig. 3-10; in the area of the Athenian agora: R. S. Young, Sepulturae intra urbem, Hesperia
Relics and Christian burial sites
(1951), 110-130; G. V. Lalonde, A Hero Shrine in the Athenian Agora, Hesperia 49 (1980), 97-105. For the association of
!L:roa with civic centres see R. Martin, Recherches sur l'agora grecque (Paris 1951 ), 194 ff.
According to the pagan tradition consequently sanctioned by Roman law, ancient cemeteries were 2431
P. G. Themelis, "Hemc; xai riewa ariJ Mwa1v11 (Athens 2000), 88 ff.
located outside the city walls. The place of the dead was to be completely separate from inhabited urban 2432
C. K. Williams II, The City of Corinth and its Domestic Religion, Hesperia 50 (1981), 409.
space, the dead being considered a source of pollution. 2429 However, the rule was not absolute and 2433
M. Waelkers et al., The 1994 and 1995 Surveys on the Territory of Sagalassos, in Sagalassos IV, 23; S. H. Cormack, The
exceptions were allowed for heroes' tombs in the civic centres. In Ephesus, along the Embolos, there R, man-Period Necropolis of Ariassos, Pisidia,AnatSt 46 (1996), 1-25, esp. 24; G. E. Been, Lycian Turkey (London 1978), 54 fig.
~7 fig. lOJ, 93 fig. 1 lE, etc.
were several honorific grave monuments of benefactors, political figures or men of letters, and in the 2434
A. Rush, Death and Burial in Christian Antiquity (Washington, D.C. 1941), esp. 1-22 (death as sleep), 44-71, (death as
Upper Agora stood the tomb of C. Memmius, grandson of Sulla. Tombs of heroes are found in the agora
m:gratio ad Dominum), 72-87 (death as a birth); P. Aries, The Hour of Our Death, transl. H. Weaver (New York, 1982), esp.
2UJ2; Duval,Aupres des saints corps, esp. 23-47; B. Kotting, Der friihchristliche Reliquienkult und die Bestattung im Kirchengebiiude
( Kiiln and Opladen 1965); H. Brandenburg, Coemeterium. Der Wandel des Bestattungswesens als Zeichen des Kulturumbruchs
2421 P. Roussel, Un monument d'Hierapolis-Bambyke relatif a Ja paix '·perpetuelle" de 532 AP. J.-C., in Melanges .1yriens Spiitantike, Lavema V (1994), 206-232.
2435
offerts amonsieur Rene Dussaud I (Paris 1939), 367-372. John Chrysostom, PG 49,393; PG 50,550. For the sixth century, see Choricius, Or. 11.27 (p. 35.11): 8avmov yag ou
2422 A Bac;e, Fortifikimet e antikitetit te vone ne vendin tone (Fortifications de Ja Basse Antiquite en Albanie ), Monwncntet (); dl; drrei:v; Romanus Melodus, c. 2.18.1 (urrvov M voµwov elvm T0V 8avmov ftOv); 14.6.4 (o AVTQOJT~c; XOlflllCTLV Eim n7v
11 (1976), 45-74. rron\); 14.6.2-3; 14.6.7 (rnuc; vsxgou; Mywv xsxmµrnuivovc;); 14.7.1-2, etc. For the use of the word in the papyri see J.
2423 H. Kalaya, The Architectural Inf01mation Through Symmetry (Amman 1988), 61-69. Kramer, Was bedeutet xmµ11-rtjgtov in den Papyri?, ZPE 80 (1990), 269-272. The word xmµ11-rtjgLov is also very common in
2424 E. Marki, "Evac:; ayv(J)ornc:; 6xrnyo1vLxoc; vaoc; on18rnoa1'.ov[x11, Makedonika 23 (1983), 117-133; Feissel, Inscriptions in"criptions: lvison, Burial, 107.
2436
de Macedoine, no. 95 (pp. 94-95). See also Vaes, Christliche Wiedervewendung, 324-325. See, for example, Clement of Alexandria, PG 1, 988-992; Epiphanius, Panarion, PG 41, 228C ff.
2437
2425 Welles, Inscriptions, no. 300 (p. 478). John Chrysostom, PG 63,811; PG 61,560; PG 55, 68.
2438
2426 Severns, Hom. 97, PO 25 (1943), 137. See, for example, John Chrysostom,PG 55, 68: buowb(a, mirreMva, ~be1'.uyµ(a; PG 58, 676; Gregory ofNyssa,PG 46, 737.
2439
2427 Av. Cameron, The Theotokos in Sixth-Century Constantinople,Joumal of Theological Studies 29 (1978), 79-108. John Chrysostom, PG 58, 676.
2440
2428 Gregoire, Recueil, no. 221. J. S. Assemani, Opera omnia quae extant graece, syriace, latine in sex tomos distributa, vol. 2 (Rome 1743), 232.
2429 2441
Cicero, De legibus 11.58; Dig. 47.12.3.5; CJ 3.44.12 (a. 290). CTh IX.17.6.
434 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 435

outside the Constantinian walls were included in the city territory when Theodosius built his new line in the Church of the Holy Apostles, next to their relics. 2445 Such initiatives were criticized and ridiculed
of fortifications. 2442 by pagans2446 and often led to confrontation. In the Life of Porphyry, the decision by the Christians to
The traditional view is that Christian cemeteries emerged around early Christian martyrial churches the body of the deacon Barochas into the city provoked a strong reaction on the part of the
in the suburbs of cities and were later transferred to the inhabited area. 2443 Christian basilicas were often pagans. 2447 In the writings of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, the power of the relics lay in their physical
built in cemeteries above pre-existing tombs, and Christian burials continued under the church floor or proximity to the worshippers, whose imagination would set off and work miracles. Despite his belief in
clustered around the church itself. The number of burials in churches was sometimes considerable. For the pollution (µuaoµa) of corpses, in one of his Homilies, John Chrysostom insisted that exceptions
example, under the Cemetery Basilica of Stobi forty-six tombs have been found (Plan 58). 2444 Initially, should be made for the bodies of the martyrs. Saints' tombs inspire zeal in the souls of the Christians
the bodies of martyrs and saints were buried in churches, whilst near them were deposited the bodies visit them. The impression is produced in the worshippers that the saint is in the larnax, present
of socially distinguished Christians. It was Constantine the Great who set the trend by planning his burial. visible. The Christians visiting the martyrs' tombs frequently have visions ( cpav-mo(a ), in which the
whose remains lie in the larnax, appears to be standing in front of them or calling to them from
the entrance of the church. Many sick people remain by the saints' tombs until they are cured. Often
the view of a martyr's dress, or the memory of a word, arouses the Christians' soul and revives fading
memories (<'h~yEtQE ,:~v 'ljJux~v xat ,:~v µv~~tr]V &.vfonJoE ◊LaJtLmouoav). The pagans, to whom the
Homily was addressed, would have accepted this line of argument, so close, as it is, to Neoplatonic
ideas. Chrysostom further explains why the relics of saints were not a source of pollution, 2448 whilst similar
0
ideas are found in other texts. The appropriation of a relic was expected to reinforce the memory of the
in the minds of the faithful and offer protection. 2449 In the effort to justify martyr worship, Christians
recalled the veneration of the tombs of pagan heroes in the very heart of their cities. Thus the belief in
pollution from the proximity of tombs had no grounds and was merely a consequence of foolishness and
ignorance (&.voLa£ yag i:alita xat &.µa8La£ foxai:ri£). 2450 Relics of martyrs in churches surrounded the
like walls and defended them. 2451 The bodies of the martyrs were distributed to cities and komai.
Considered saviours of souls and bodies, they were honoured as protectors and guardians of cities (W£
.•• ;ro1.t0uxou£ nµwot xal cpuAaXa£). They also acted as intermediaries toward God and divine grace was
0

i3 conveyed through them. 2452 The translation and deposition of relics inside the cities was conducted
Room 1
Room 10 with great ceremony and many people from all social classes followed the ceremonial processions. 2453
In the early sixth century, Severns of Antioch elaborated on the power of relics and their significance
to Christians. He repeated the idea known from the early Church Fathers that Christ's death and res-
urrection had defeated the pollution of the tombs. 2454 Churches were sanctified with bones or sacred parts
of martyrs' bodies, or with the dust that remained, which had the power to heal all kinds of diseases
and chase demons away. Severns reminds his flock that the relics of St. Babylas were capable of striking
the idol of Apollo in Daphne. The demonstrable strength of saints' relics constituted a powerful

C. Mango, Constantine's Mausoleum and the Translation of Relics, BZ 83/1 (1990), 51-61.
1
" Eusebius, Vita Constantini, c. XI (p. 224.15-18); Julian,Against the Galilaeans, Loeb vol. 3, 335B-340A; idem, Ep. 56.
Vita S. Porphyrii, c. 23-25 (pp. 20-22).
PLAN 58. The Cemetery Basilica at Stobi with burials. John Chrysostom, PG 50, 527-534, 551, 555 ff. Gregory of Nyssa, PG 46, 740A-B describes the physical proximity of
Chri,tians to the relics in similar terms. P. Brown, Society and the Holy, 16-17, although recognizes the importance of proximity
of with the community, stresses more the ceremonial aspects of the martyrs' feast: the reading of the Fassio would reveal
the tension between "clean" and "dirty" power. This, however, may have been a stronger element in the Church in the West.
Vita S. Theodosii coen., 97.15-16 (µv17µ11c; TE E~mUQEUfta xal &acpat,dac; oxugw~ta) .
2442
Dagron, Le christianisme, 13 ff., esp. 15 ff. . ,q Theodoret of Cyrus, Therapeutike VIII.29-32.
2443
E. Dyggve, The Origin of Urban Churchyard, Classica et Mediaevalia 13 (1952), 147-158 and the questions raised by 1
• " John Chrysostom, PG 49,393: xal yag tft rnil E>rnil xagm fs
exaan1c; :tAEUQ<Xt:; 17 ITO Ale; 17µIv toit:; /,El'l!JUVOlc; TOJV ay[wv
Snively, Intramural Burial, 493-494; idem, Cemetery Churches of the Early Byzantine Period in Eastern Illyricum: Location tELjl,~nm.

and Martyrs, Greek Orthodox Theological Review 29 (1984), 117-124; N. E. Emmanouelides, To oixaw rryc; raq;~c; aw BP[;iivrw Theodoret of Cyrus, Therapeutike VIII.10. See also idem, Histo,ia Philoth. X.8 (I, p. 450); XVI.4 (II, p. 32); XVII.10
(Athens 1989), 176-186; U. M. Fasola and V. F. Nicolai, Le necropoli durante la formazione della citta cristiana,ACAC XI (II. 46-48); XXI.9 (II, p.82): competition among cities and villages to secure the relics of saints.
(1986), 1153-1205. John Chrysostom, PG 63, 467-472, 473-478.
2444 Snively, Churches, 62-65. Severns, Hom. 70, PO 12/1 (1919), 46.
436 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 437

statement against paganism: "The pagan demons fly away when the martyrs are near. They disappear like for the burial. The saint, however, appears to the workers digging the grave in the church floor, and stops
flame, they cry, they admit their defeat, they call the martyrs' name and they ask them not to pursue ,hem. She also appears to the bishop at night urging him not to allow the pollution (ouawo(a) caused by
them". From hagiographical sources we learn that saints were buried in holy places, namely churches, tombs to be brought into churches. Tombs and churches have nothing in common (µ~tE yaQ Elva[ tL
although sometimes, on account of their humility, they chose a modest location for their burial. 2455 xoLvov tacpmi; xal, EUXt'Y]QLOLi; oixoti;) except for those who, although are dead, are considered still to be
In the middle of the sixth century, however, Christians were still expressing a disgust for saints' ;dive, such as holy bishops. 2463 From the second half of the fifth century, references to the disgust felt
relics. Someone experiencing revulsion at approaching the corpse of St. Martha in a vision is punished 1owards the corpses begin to diminish in the texts, and in the sixth century the evolution was completed.
with a severe disease. St. Symeon recommends that the man be taken to the corpse of St. Martha, where Burials ad sanctos offered the hope that the saints would mediate with Christ for the salvation of the
he was miraculously cured. 2456 Other hagiographical texts of the sixth century refer to attempts by deceased, while it offered a feeling of relief to the relatives. Although Justinianic legislation repeats earlier
Christians to appropriate relics. The remains of St. Euthymius, founder of the Lavra east of Jerusalem, laws forbidding burials in churches, other laws sanction burial inside the line of the Theodosian walls in
were securely closed in a tomb "so that no one could open the tomb and carry off the remains". 2457 Because Constantinople. 2464 Burials on the ground of monastic communities also reinforced the trend. St. Matrona
St. Sirin ( + 558/9) predicted that conflict ( cplAOVELx(a) would arise among Christians over her body, she designated the first floor of her monastery outside Constantinople, for the ossuaries of deceased nuns
had asked under oath those who were close to her, to give her body to a certain pious Bateos, who built koimeterion oikon ), while the second floor became an winter eukte,ion and the third floor another one for
an eukterion oikon for it to be deposited. 2458 The Life of St. Anastasi us Perses ( + 628) contains a lengthy summer. 2465 The privileged burials of the members of the Church and of the upper class ad sanctos are
account, in which a bishop and a monk are the main protagonists, of the secret efforts to recover the documented at all archaeological sites. 2466 In the sixth century, burials were arranged underneath the
saint's relics from Persia and deposit them in his monastery in Jerusalem. The saint's relics were venerated floor of urban churches in all cities. Private funerary chapels were also attached to many churches, while
in every city they were carried through. 2459 They were given to individuals for healing purposes and ,,mall funerary churches were constructed near or above family tombs. 2467
were placed in private eukteria. In this text there is no discussion regarding pollution by the corpses nor, Christian cemeteries were increasingly incorporated into the urban fabric within the walls, although
indeed, any expression of disgust. The relics are cut into pieces and distributed to bishops, urban com- most of the cities continued to use the old extra mural cemeteries. 2468 While Christian ideology was the
munities and private individuals. They are placed on the body of the sick, usually around the neck. or rnajor factor responsible for the incorporation of cemeteries in the urban environment, 2469 other reasons
their myron is given to the sick to drink or to be anointed with (apomyrisma). Itinerant monks carried a !so played a role. First, because of the impressive increase in the size of urban centres from the fourth
relics with them from one city to another. The monk who possessed the relics of St. Anastasius went the middle of the sixth century in all the areas of the empire (with the exception of the northern
through Palestine, Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia to the capital, Abydos and Ascalon, and everywhere Balkans), ancient cemeteries which previously lay outside the walls were included in the newly developed
miracles were performed. In other sixth-century hagiographical texts, contact of people with saints' r,:sidential districts. In some cases such cemeteries had ceased to function as burial places and so were
corpses becomes more emotional and intimate. People jostled each other to kiss the corpse of St. Alypius ~ubsequently covered by dwellings. In other cases, when the city expanded, funerary monuments were
Stylites ( + during the reign of Heraclius ). 2460 Instead of feeling disgust for the corpses, Christians now untouched, houses being built around them, so that tombs were incorporated in residential districts.
felt intimate veneration for the saints' relics. In the second half of the sixth century, the ideological Such arrangements were not unknown in the ancient world. In Rome, for example, along the Via Appia,
change regarding death was complete, so that for Agathias, the Persian belief in the pollution caused which was lined with tombs, houses and villas later appeared, intermingled with the tombs. At Gerasa,
by death was an alien custom. 2461 the area between the Church of St. Theodore and the temple of Artemis, was a cemetery, abandoned
Burials in churches were considered a privilege, on account of the proximity to saints' relics and when the city plan was established in the middle of the first century A.D. 2470 Outside the Magnesian
were so reserved for ecclesiastics and members of the upper class. Ecclesiastical and lay elites gradual- rate of Ephesus an early Byzantine residential district expanded among funerary monuments on the
ly created a nobility of holiness, thus instituting a means of self-promotion in social and political terms, of a necropolis. 2471 It has been mentioned above that when Constantinople was enlarged with the
to enhance their power and authority in the urban communities. 2462 The early stage of the introduction
of privileged burials into churches is described in the Miracles of St. Theda. A leading person of the local
community, an officer of the imperial administration, wishes to be buried in the church of the saint. for 2463
Vita S. Theclae, 70-71, mir. 30 (pp. 370-372).
he considers this to be the greatest possible honour (µdtova M xal, JtEQtcpavwteQav aAArJV oux i'cyivno 2464
CJ I.2.2 (a. 381 ); I.2.18; Novella 59.5. The earlier legislation on pollution of tombs was formally abolished by the Novella
tautrii; tL~n1v), on account of the proximity to the saint's relics. Bishop Maximus grants the permission of Leo VI.
2465
Vita S. Matronae, c. 46 (810 F).
2466
See J.-P. Sodini, "Les tombes privilegiees" dans !'Orient chretien (a !'exception du Diocese d'Egypte ), in Y. Duval and
J ~Ch. Picard (eds.), L 'inhumation privilegiee du JV, au VIII- siecle en Occident. Actes du colloque tenu a Creteil les 16-18 mars
2-15 5
Vita S. Marthae, c. 24-25 (pp. 271-272) and c. 31 (p. 276); Moschus, 2949C-2952A; Cyril of Scythopolis, 64.22. J J84 (Paris 1986), 233-242 with a list of burials ad sanctos from the eastern provinces; J.-P. Sodini and K. Kolokotsas,Aliki, II:
2456 Vita S. Marthae, c. 35-36 (pp. 279-280). basilique double (Athens, Paris 1984), 219-227 with particular attention to the Balkans; Duval, Aupres des saints co,ps;
2457 Cyril of Scythopolis, c. 25.30 (transl. R. M. Price, 58). Loca sanctontm; Snively, Intramural Burial, 494-495.
2458 2 67
Vita S. Silin, c. 27-28 (pp. 130-131). -1 idem, Churches, 65-67.
2459 Flusin, SaintAnastase, Translatio reliquiantm, p. 99 ff. 2468
Claude, Stadt, 97-99.
2460 Vita S. Alypii Stylitae, c. 25 (p. 168.23-30). 2469
See recently G. Cantino Wataghin, The Ideology of Urban Burials, in Brogiolo and Ward-Perkins, The Idea, 147-163.
2461
Agathias II.23.7. °
247
Fisher, Buildings, 293.
2471
2462 A Samellas, Death in the Eastem Mediterranean (50-600 A.D.). The Christianization of the East: An Inte,pretation Foss, Ephesus, 83-84. Other examples: Pessinus: J. Devreker, Pessinus (Pessinonte) 1987, KST 10/2 (1988), 321. In
(Tiibingen 2002), 178-256. kmsalem the Justinianic walls included the third-century cemetery. At Caesarea, the cemetery outside the walls was filled
438 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY CHURCHES IN URBAN SPACE AND LIFE 439

construction of the new wall of Theodosius, ancient cemeteries were included inside the new line of for- At a later stage, burials appeared scattered inside the urban space, in abandoned ancient buildings,
tifications. In Stobi, poor houses in the area that expanded to the southwest outside the walls were built abandoned churches, and large decaying houses. This process of the final disintegration of urban space
directly over the earlier tombs. Presumably this district developed in response to the housing needs of usually dated to the era of invasions and will be examined in this context in the next chapter.
the local population that sought refuge near the walls during the Gothic invasions. 2472
It has been suggested that abandoned urban buildings where burials appeared may sometimes The sixth century marks the end of the ancient city. In urban space and culture, paganism was a fact
have belonged to the Church. 2473 If this were the case, the spread of burials in the cities would have the past. Pagan monuments, now abandoned, were dilapidated or adapted for new uses in a Christian
been sanctioned and coordinated by the Church. The pattern of Christian burials in Corinth has been context. Cities were profoundly and permanently Christianized. A new Christian articulation of urban
studied in a comprehensive study. In the fourth century no burials are attested inside the city's sacred space was created and a new unification of urban identity achieved. At the same time, the Church's control
boundary (pomerium ). In the fifth century martyria and cemetery basilicas over tombs of saints in the over most urban socio-economic activities caused a shift in interest from secular to ecclesiastical concerns
old extramural cemeteries appear. Earlier pagan tombs are destroyed or buried by the new construc- ,md gave the cities mediaeval characteristics. The transformation and crisis of the upper class and its
tions, and their stones removed. Within the basilica near the Kenchreai Gate at Kraneion, dating to the identification with the ecclesiastical establishment enhanced the power of the Church. In its early
late fifth or early sixth century, stood 31 tombs inside and around, many with multiple burials. The stages, the disintegration of the ancient cities, the abandonment of the traditional ancient civic structures
Martyrium Basilica dedicated to St. Kordatos, on the site of the north cemetery, had 55 burials. The and institutions and the introduction of agricultural installations and burials, was directly connected
construction of the new shorter wall in the early fifth century reduced the city's pomerium. Thus burials v-.ith, and coordinated, by the Church.
appeared outside the new walls in districts which were previously inhabited and located inside the old
walls: 2474 the Christian Cemetery of Lema Hollow (fourth to sixth centuries) on the site of the sanctuary
of Asclepius, the Shrine of the Spring of Lema, and the Gymnasium. By the mid-sixth century or most
likely in the later part of the century, burials appeared in the forum, especially in the shops and bath behind
the south stoa, in the central shops, in the court of the Peirene Spring, and in the southwest corner of
the bema between the upper and lower agora (supra, p. 241, Plan 18). The area of the ancient forum
was left outside the early Byzantine walls and was gradually abandoned. It is possible that on the site of
the south basilica a Christian church was built, which may explain the appearance of burials on the
south side of the forum. 2475 The ideological change that occurred by the sixth century may be seen in
the change of the meaning of the word cemetery (xoL~lllTllQLOv-cemeterium ), whilst at the beginning it
indicated a single burial or a holy burial, from the early sixth century the term indicated in Christian
theology entire Christian cemeteries. 2476

with soil in the early fourth century and the upper part of the tombs that were still visible above the new fill were dismantled:
Y. Porat, Caesarea - 1994-1999, ES/ 112 (2000), 37. The western gate of Gadara and the wall was built in the early fourth
century in a cemetery: S. Kerner and A Hoffmann, Gadara- Umm Qeis, Preliminary Report on the 1991 and 1992 Saeasons,
ADAJ 37 (1993), 363,378 ph. 1 and 2. In the Balkans, when in the fourth century a new residential district was extended outside
the walls of Philippopolis, the cemetery was transferred, but in Diocletianopolis. when the city expanded to the north. the
south and the east, some of the earlier cemeteries were included in the new districts (fourth century): J. Valeva, Les necropoles
paleochretiennes de Bulgarie et Jes tombes peintes, ACAC XI (1986), II, 1245-1246. When early Byzantine Thessalonica
expanded, earlier burials were included inside the Byzantine walls: F. Petsas.AD 22 (1967), Chr. B2, 396-398. Early Byzantine
Delphi was expanding to the west, partly on the site of the Roman cemetery: Petridis, Delphes, 687.
2472
Mikulcik, Stobi, 103.
2473
R. Meneghini and R. Santangeli Valenzani, Sepolture intramuranee a Roma tra Ve VII secolo D.C.-Aggiornamenti
e considerazioni,Archeologia Medievale 22 (1995), 283-290.
2474
Another example is found at Thasos, where to the south-east of the theatre a Christian cemetery appeared in connection
with the destruction of the city wall: BCH 119 (1995), 671-672.
2475
Ivison, Burial, 103-104, 111-112; Sanders, Problems, 179 and fig. 6.3 (p. 180) on the early Byzantine wall of Cllrinth
leaving out the forum, and pp. 180-184 on burials in the forum. For a late date of the burials in the Roman forum of Corinth
(late sixth or early seventh century) see K. W. Slane and G. D. R. Sanders, Corinth: Late Roman Horizons, Hesperia 74
(2005), 243-297. For the introduction of burials in the cities of Greece, see N. Laskaris, ITa,,mozgwnavLxa xm ~utavnva
rn<pxa ~1v11~1Ela ,11c; EUaboc;. ~Lamo,woELc; xm rrgo~1c11rima, Byzantiaka 16 (1996), 295-350; Bowden, Epi111s Verus,
170-172.
2476
E. Rebillard, Koiµ1rr1QtoV et coemeterium: tombe, tombe sainte, necropole, MEFRA 105 (1993), 975-1001.
440 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CHAPTER14

THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY

One can say of cities, 'Tell me how their space is

distributed and I will tell you who governs or owns
them'. 2477

By the end of the sixth century, two models of city had developed in the Byzantine empire. One was
1ormed in the course of the early Byzantine period through a process of the evolution of the ancient city
within the new socio-economic and political circumstances and a new cultural environment. The other
rnodel constituted a new form of city, created on the initiative of the state or of local communities in re-
sponse to the invasions. The form of both, however, crystallized over the sixth century. The first model
belonged to the past, although it continued to evolve in the early Byzantine period, albeit profoundly
transformed, reaching the seventh century as a relic of antiquity still surviving in the early Middle Ages.
was shaped by demographic, socio-economic and cultural dynamics, which altered the cities' ancient
physical appearance. The forces informing the new model of the city were different and primarily mil-
and Christian, which led to an emphasis on fortifications, naturally defensible locations and
churches, and thus to an urban legacy quite different from that bequeathed by the earlier model. 2478

The twilight of the ancient city

Earlier, in particular in Parts III and IV of this book, we described in detail the transformation of
FIG. 56. The ruins of the Church of St. John in Ephesus and in the background the hill of Ayasoluk with the
ncient civic space from the fourth century onwards and its final form at the end of the early Byzantine
Byzantine citadel.
pl2riod. Civic centres had ceased to be used as administrative and social centres for urban communities.
commercial centre of major cities had long been dissociated from the administrative centre and
transferred to other parts of the city. In early Byzantine cities, markets were located along the streets,
Hellenistic and Roman urban arrangement, and a Roman type of market, the macellum, continued
function. At the same time, new markets developed around churches. The concentration of pagan
monuments, heroa and temples were tied to the cities' ancient tradition and pagan religion, and the de-
in autonomous civic administration made the forum/agora obsolete. Buildings serving the admin-
i~ 1ration were abandoned or were taken over by powerful individuals or persons of the lower classes,
h~ing sold or leased for other uses. They were subdivided and used for industrial and artisan activities

2477
L. Martines, Power and Imagination. City-States in Renaissance Italy (New York 1979), 241.
2 78
-1 See recently Zanini, The Urban Ideal.
442 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 443

by corporations of artisans, or as dwelling places, or they were sold to private owners. Their exterior was size of settlements during the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., the presence of the poor in the ruins of
maintained in its ancient form but their interior was occupied by crude private structures. With time the ancient civic buildings may indeed point to a real increase in their numbers, a proletarization of the ancient
once glorious Hellenistic and Roman buildings of ancient civic centres, when they collapsed in earth- city. In the West the trend was more rapid than in the East and it was complicated by invasions. There
quakes, were not restored, or were left to decay or were dilapidated and exploited for their building ma- t 11e movement of artisans was twofold, although it is difficult to explore the precise dynamics of the phe-
terials, their architectural decoration being used on other structures or being burnt for lime. Churches nomenon. In many cities urban centres and public places were occupied by poor houses and workshops,
or monasteries also appeared at many sites of ancient agorai. The fate of pagan temples was similar. creating the appearance of a proletarized city. 2479 On the other hand, from the last quarter of the fourth
Some were destroyed by Christians, while others remained standing after their treasures and cult statues century and especially in the fifth, members of corporations left cities and sought the protection of the
had been removed or Christian churches were erected on their site. great landlords in the countryside. 2480 Although in cities of the West the upper class was in rapid decline,
Streets and monumental avenues were also changing. Their once straight lines now curved, with a even in small cities of the Byzantine empire there was still apparently a market among the upper and
preference for colonnaded exedrai with shops at the rear. Circular plazas of monumental appearance middle class for products of artisans.
and commercial character were favoured at the intersections of major streets. Nymphaea along streets In early Byzantine cities, abandoned public buildings and porticoes were increasingly occupied by
were also typical of the early Byzantine period. Their pagan decoration was often discarded and re- ¾hops and workshops. Some of the better-studied sites are the small community established in the theatre
placed by Christian ornamentation or the decoration was Christianized by means of Christian symbols. Heraclea Lyncestis and in the palaestra and Roman baths of Anemurium, mentioned earlier in the
In the early Byzantine period, the monumental appearance of avenues with the large colonnades con- hook. 2481 In these two cases, the construction of the houses was modest. The upper part of the walls of
taining mosaic pavements and honorific statues and housing shops at their rear began to change. Areas the houses in the theatre of Heraclea Lyncestis are constructed in pise, whilst the houses in the palaestra in
within the space occupied by colonnades were gradually taken over by poor dwellings and artisans' l\nemurium had beaten earth floors and poorly mortared walls. The finds in the houses of both sites
workshops, and encroachment later narrowed the streets, which thus slowly acquired the appearance <how that their residents were engaged in agricultural activities and in a variety of trades, and enjoyed
of narrow, winding oriental, mediaeval streets, thereby rendering colonnaded avenues, once symbols of ,ome degree of economic prosperity. We have also seen that imperial legislation indicates that urban
0

Roman imperialism, architecturally irrelevant. These changes were intensified over the sixth and the public space was taken over primarily by wealthy persons, whether legally or otherwise. 2482 In many cases,
seventh centuries. Monumental Roman colonnaded avenues were preserved longer in the provincial an early stage of this development, vacant public buildings and urban lots were given by the emperors
capitals, while in smaller cities signs of neglect appear earlier. decurions and corporations, to secure their contributions to the municipalities. The density with
From the fourth century, public buildings designed to host spectacles began to decay. Some theatres which shops and workshops appear in urban public space and the variety of specializations revealed in
were used for Christian shows and public speeches, while in large cities spectacles of the ancient type archaeological excavations indicate a remarkable increase of artisan production and commercial activities,
were performed well into the early part of the sixth century. In some of them, delapidation and occu- hus creating the appearance of prosperous small-scale private industry. 2483 Indeed, imperial legislation
pation of the interior by dwellings and workshops began early. Hippodromes were maintained the ;md inscriptions reveal the prosperity of the class of artisans and merchants in the fourth and fifth
provincial capitals longer, but their condition gradually deteriorated and parts of them, usually the
centuries. 2484 Furthermore, some shops and workshops were owned by members of the upper class or
upper rows of seats, suffered delapidation. In some hippodromes, only a section of the arena func-
ecclesiastical institutions, which exploited them financially as real estate holdings or ran their eco-
tioned, while the remainder of the building was taken over by industrial or residential installations. At
nomic activities. 2485 Excavation shows that early Byzantine shops and workshops erected in urban public
the end of the early Byzantine period only the hippodrome of the capital Constantinople was functioning,
:,pace accommodated small local industry. These establishments were bakeries, dyeing workshops, glass
and it was the need to serve imperial ceremonies that ensured its functioning into the Byzantine Middle
factories, smiths' and fullers' workshops, potters' kilns, workshops using plaster for sculptures or stucco,
Ages. Nor were the large public baths maintained, being replaced by private ones. Private baths served
ovens for lime production, and oil installations. Their proliferation, which is directly connected with
the public too, while baths in rich private houses increased. Everywhere in the empire, when large Roman
he dissolution of the cities' ancient public sp·ace, has usually been regarded as a sign of decline, 2486 par-
baths stood in need of repair, either because of earthquake or simply the passage of time, they were
restored on a much smaller scale, since bathing had lost its public social function and was carried out in
private. Endorsed by the Church, however, it was the only ancient urban institution maintained in the
Middle Ages. 2479
Noye, Villes, 703 ff.
2480 Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 762; Noye, Villes, 705.
The visitor to an early Byzantine city would have been struck by the transformation of the ancient
2481 See supra, pp. 321-322, 307-308, 342.
urban landscape. The change was profound, with many ancient buildings lying in ruins and others adapt-
2482
See supra, pp. 194, 203-206.
ed to new uses. The architectural aesthetics of the early Byzantine period, as manifested in architectur- 2483 Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 141; Sodini, L'artisanat, 118; idem, Social Structures, 42-45, 50. The inscriptions from
al ornamentation and urban planning, were profoundly different from those of the ancient city, leading Korykos in Cilicia reveal the variety of professions in a small early Byzantine town: F. R. Trombley. Korykos in Cilicia Trachis:
in the sixth century to startling contrasts of style and construction. Perhaps most notable were the poor Economy of a Small Coastal City in Late Antiquity (saec. V-VI)-A Precis, The American History Bulletin 1.1 (1987), 16-23.
early Byzantine structures set among or in formerly prestigious ancient buildings and sites and so visible also L. Jones Hall, The Case of Late Antique Berytus: Urban Wealth and Rural Sustenance - A Different Economic
throughout the city, standing in lowly contrast to the monumentality of ancient civic architecture. Dynamic, in Burns and Eadie, Urban Centers, 63-76.
2484
The proliferation of workshops in vacant urban spaces is a phenomenon characteristic of all cities See supra, p. 204.
2485
See supra, pp. 194, 203-206.
all over the Mediterranean. Admittedly, all that archaeology may have done is make visible the pres- 2 86
-+ There are some objections, as Leone, Topographies, 275-277, 282 who argues that the various shops and workshops,
ence of the poor who were always to be found in the ancient and Byzantine city and who now inhabit pottery kilns and olive presses that appear in the urban public space before the final disintegration of the cities indicate a
the ruins of imposing ancient buildings. On the other hand, together with the increase in numbers and dvnamic increase of the privatization of public space for various economic activities, rather than urban decay.
444 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 445

ticularly since the establishment of industries producing smoke and odour in city centres and in residential the production of lime appear everywhere in abandoned ancient monumental complexes and entire
quarters has been considered as evidence for the degradation of urban life. Such installations, however, cities. They give the ancient urban centres a tone of desolation and are testimony of small rural com-
were occasionally found in earlier cities. Inside Hellenistic cities, for example, dye industrjes could munities surviving among the ruins of a bygone age. 2496
found. 2487 In Tyre the odours produced by the purple workshops made residence in the city extremely The complex aspects of civilized life in early Byzantine cities were slowly disintegrating and this
unpleasant (buabuxywyov). 2488 In contrast, in Antioch, the fullers' district was on the other side of trend is manifested in the decline of the ancient monumentality of the cities. The decay of aqueducts,
river, in the suburbs, to keep away the odours produced by the industry from residential areas. 2489 and consequently the reduction in the supply of running water, is another sign of the decline of urban
According to Roman law, however, such industries had to be established outside of the urban centres communities. When restoration work was undertaken, it was of poor quality. By the end of the early
and at a certain distance from the houses. Nevertheless, the indications are that laws protecting city Byzantine period, most of the aqueducts had been neglected, and, as with other urban structures, when
inhabitants from the effects of industry were no longer adhered to. Julian of Ascalon indicates that in damaged by earthquakes, were not restored. City dwellers increasingly relied on wells, which also offered
his time these regulations were not absolutely obeyed. The old installations are not to be expelled, and them a stable supply of water when under siege by enemies.
the law is to apply only to the new ones. In the literary sources and the archaeological record, glass Churches became part of the urban landscape first on the cities' periphery, and later in ancient
workshops, foundries and smiths are attested in residential areas. 2490 Pottery and tile production con- civic centres. They were established on vacant lots and on the site of various buildings. Upon the aban-
stitute a different case, however, in that the nature of the industry demanded that kilns be established donment of the ancient agora as centre of administrative and social life, churches became the new urban
where clay was available on the site, but outside cities. Julian of Ascalon in caput 3 mentions the exis- foci. The new administrative centre was transferred to the governors' palace in the provincial capitals,
tence of pottery ovens only in villages. Many settlements with pottery ovens producing the famous Gaza nr to ecclesiastical buildings. Communities now organized their life around churches, both in topo-
amphorae are found between Gaza and Ascalon north of the city and in the surrounding area. In graphical and socio-economic terms. New neighbourhoods developed around churches, and were
Eleutherna in Crete the potters' quarter is located a few km outside the city, where the odours pro- ,1ften located away from the ancient civic centres. Churches absorbed the declining resources of urban
duced would have been blown away by winds from the sea. About thirty pottery workshops were locat- residents. When catastrophes struck and repairs were needed, the interest and funds of the communi-
ed near Alexandria, many of which are found along the shore of Lake Mareotis. 2491 In Delphi in the late 1ies were directed toward restoring churches, while other urban buildings were neglected. Once the
fourth century potters were established in the area of the gymnasium, where they could use water from churches had become the new centres of religious and social life, markets developed around them to
the Castalia spring. Their location on the periphery of the settlement conforms to the rules of ancient c,erve the worshippers or were organized by the Church. Agricultural installations, in the form of olive
urbanism. 2492 A striking parallel is afforded by the agora of Thessalonica, where kilns were built as early presses and oil presses, located in urban space appear to have been connected with churches and
as the fifth century, when the site lost its civic functions, to extract the fine quality clay. 2493 Because of monasteries. At an early stage, even before the invasions, there is evidence suggesting that such agri-
the nature of this industry, traditionally appropriate for suburbs and rural areas, pottery kilns found inside ;ultural installations point to an organization of the production by the Church. The Church was be-
urban space in the early Byzantine period gave cities an air of rusticity. Potters established in urban sites :·oming a major economic power in the cities and one of the factors that brought agricultural installa-
continue to remain at the bottom of the social scale, as they did in the village and urban suburbs. 2494 1ions in the urban fabric. The process of the introduction of burials in the cities appears to have been
Likewise, kilns for brick production were usually, but not always, located outside communities. Now, ;imilar: after the martyrs' tombs, the burials of bishops and of leading community figures were placed
however, they appear in central urban space. 2495 When the invasions strike, ovens for cooking and for churches, and cemeteries appeared around them. 2497
From the middle, and especially in the last quarter of the sixth century, signs of stagnation and then
recession are obvious everywhere. The interest in maintaining the public secular urban space disap-
L. C. Bowkett, The Hellenistic Dye-work5. Well Built Mycenae. The Helleno-British Excavations within the citadel at Mycenae,
2 487 pears, intrusion of crude structures into vacant urban buildings, porticoes and streets intensifies, new
1959-1969, Fasc. 36 (Oxford 1995); P. Faklaris and V. Stamatopoulou, BEgy[va. Avuoxaq:11 axg6rro1,11c; 1997. Yq;avTOl'\l'/ElU construction is limited to churches and fortifications alone, while the quality of repairs in terms of work
xm ~aq;Eia,AEMT 11 (1997), 121-125. ,: nd materials dramatically deteriorates. Moreover, with only a few exceptions, the size of new churches is
2488 Strabo XVI.2.23.
\ ery much reduced. This trend, which continues into the following centuries, and characterizes the
248 9 D. Feissel, Deux listes de quartiers d'Antioche astreints au creusement d'un canal (73-74 apres J.-C.), Syria 62 (

77-103.
cross-in-square type of church, has been regarded primarily as evidence of economic crisis and of the
2490
Saliou, Les lois, 268-270; Julian of Ascalon, 94-98, 130-131 and n. 365. reduction in the size of settlements. Indeed, archaeological excavations show that, in the later part of
L. E. Stager, Ashkelon: Wine Emporium of the Holy Land, AJA 97 (1993), 334; Y. Israel, Survey of Pottery Work-
2491
sixth and in the seventh centuries, when urban communities were struck by disaster such as earth-
shops, Nahal Lakhish-Nahal Besor, ES! 13 (1993), 106-107; Ph. Gouin and Ch. Vogt, Quarrymen and Potters in Ancient quakes or enemy invasions, early Byzantine basilicas were either abandoned or restored on a much
Eleutherna, in P. G. Themelis (ed.), llqwwf3v~avnv17 E},s110c:qva, 1/2 (Rethymno 2000), 2002-2003; J.-Y. Empereur and M.
"maller scale. In the Byzantine Dark Ages the reduction in the size of churches is also very probably re-
Picon, Les ateliers d"amphores du Lac Mari out, in J.-Y. Empereur, (ed.), Commerce et artisanat clans l'Alexandrie helleniitique
et romaine. Actes du Colloque d'Athenes organise par le CNRS, le Laboratoire de ceramologique de Lyon et !'Ecole franraise lated to the reduction in the size of settlements and to population decline. Changing attitudes to places
1 worship and the more intensely felt need for privacy during prayer and the liturgy also played a role
d'Athenes, 11-12 decembre 1998 (BCH suppl. 33, 1998), 75-91.
24 92 P. Petridis, Les ateliers de potiers a Delphes a l'epoque paleochretienne, Topoi 8/2 (1998), 703-710.
2493
See supra, p. 243.
2• 9•
P. Mayerson, The Economic Status of Potters in P.Oxy. L 3595-3597 & XVI 1911, 1913, BASP 37 (2000), 97-100.
2495 For example, in Athens the area of Plateia Kotzia was no longer used after the Herulian attack as a cemetery. Instead, 2496
G. Argoud, Fours apain et fours a chaux byzantins de Salamine, in Sa/amine de Chypre. Histoire et archeologie. Etat des
a large brick complex was established on the site: 0. Zachariadou and D. Kyriakou,AD 43 (1988), Chr. Bl, 27-28. For evidence ~f r, cherches. Colloques Intemationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, no. 578, Lyon 13-17 mars 1978 (Paris 1980),
brick production within the urban space see K. Theocharidou, LUft~o1,,11 on1 ftEAE'rll n1c; rragaywy11c; otxobo[HXOJV XEQUfUXOJV '29-339.
2497
JTQ0°L0VT(l)V OT(,( ~utavnva xaqtETU~utavnva XQ0VlU, DChAE 13 (1985-86 ), 97-111; Corinth XI, 7-25. Restoration of churches after catastrophes: supra, pp. 243,250,251,281,284,291; 385 ff
446 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 447

in the proliferation of private churches and chapels and in the decline in their size. Furthermore, new Unbaked bricks interspersed with layers of wooden beams at various levels to strengthen the walls,
aesthetic values may have been a significant factor in the construction of smaller churches. Monastic were also widely used and are mentioned in the written sources. 2505 For cities in some provinces in the
architecture may also have influenced this development. Changes in the architectural plan and in the Balkans, it has been suggested that pre-Hellenistic construction techniques returned, although some of
liturgy might have also played a role. The open design of churches was lost and the sanctuary was iso- these techniques were used in Greco-Roman times, particularly in rural areas. The existing walls be-
lated from the nave in the middle Byzantine period. The processional character of the early liturgy was longing to "poor early Byzantine structures" may have been only the lower part of walls supporting su-
replaced by a ceremonial type of liturgy, performed in isolation from the worshippers, with a shift perstructures in pise consisting of a wooden frame and filled with mud and straw. The upper parts of
towards an emphasis on display rather than participation. 2498 1hese walls, if such existed, have disappeared, because pise perishes easily. 2506 Walls in pise were wide-
An obvious element that marks the early Byzantine urban environment is the deterioration of used by the Romans, which strengthens the possibility that the Byzantines used them as well, and they
building techniques and materials used for construction. Neatly cut and perfectly fitting ashlar con- are known from archaeological evidence from different sites of the Roman period and from the liter-
struction was abandoned. Examples of such works were admired by the cultured, as representing the ary sources. Those found in buildings on Carthage's Circular Harbour contained clay, sand and pot-
lost standards of the past. 2499 Instead, layers of bricks were increasingly used to alternate with layers of ~herds, and date to the first and second century A.D. Construction in pise was more economical, since
stones. 2500 The increasing use of brick in place of stone is usually interpreted, probably rightly, in eco- the clay required was provided on the site and pise is easy to construct. Of course, the appearance of
nomic and practical terms. It was becoming more difficult to produce ashlars for construction, and pise lacks the prestigious impression made by other Roman building techniques. 2507 What is notable
brick also offered more stability and strength in earthquakes. In describing the total destruction of the about the early Byzantine period is that such walls became widespread in new structures inside ancient
city of Cos caused by an earthquake, Agathias remarked that, while all the buildings collapsed, only public buildings and rich houses, on sidewalks and streets, while ancient formal construction tech-
those built in the rural style with unbaked bricks and mud remained standing: niques were abandoned.
In the passage on the destruction of the city of Cos by earthquake cited above, Agathias considers
Practically the whole city [Cos] was reduced to a gigantic heap of rubble, littered the houses of Cos built in unbaked brick or mud to be of rural type. Dry bricks or mud were the build-
with stones and fragments of broken pillars and beams, and the air was murky with ing materials of the countryside in all provinces of the empire, except those where stone was available
thick clouds of dust, so that one could barely surmise the existence of what had once situ. In Egypt, for example, dry bricks or mud, continued to be used throughout the Roman period,
been streets from a few vague hints of their presence. A mere handful of houses while the Romans introduced baked bricks and mortar in the cities. 2508 Widespread rural construction
stood intact and they were not the ones that had been built with stones and mortar techniques in the early Byzantine cities, together with the abandonment of the principles of the Greco-
or some such seemingly more solid and durable substance, but only those made in Roman urbanism in the articulation of the city planning and public monumentality, are visual proof of
severe degradation of urban space, and have been rightly interpreted as a return to local rural tradi-
peasant style out of unbaked bricks or mud (µova DE i:a rx rrALv0ou &.rri::cp0ou xat
2501 . ions or a consequence of the invasions. The proliferation of indigenous rural construction techniques
rtY]AOii &.yQotXOTEQOV rtErrOll]~lEVCX).
and architecture in the West during the period of invasions from the third century on is traditionally in-
terpreted as evidence of "deromanization". 2509 This type of construction, suggesting poor economic
The mortar courses gradually increased in thickness, and were strengthened with the addition of
conditions, shows that the urban communities were breaking yet another tie with the urban building
crushed brick, tile and pottery. 2502 The addition of broken tile and pottery to mortar increased the
tradition of the Greco-Roman world. Such urban planning and architecture and such techniques and
draulic properties of the lime and added strength to the structures. 2503 From the middle of the
materials as are archaeologically visible to us no longer expressed the style and economic level of the
century the numbers of buildings executed in mortared brick began to decline, whilst in new construcdon
Greco-Roman aristocracy and state. In the cases where the last stage of the cities can be traced in the
the thickness of courses of mortar gradually increased. Stone rubble with bricks or reuseg tiles, with or
:ffchaeological record, it is to be observed that the buildings of the period of the invasions were con-
without mortar, became widely used, in a fashion reminiscent of rural building techniques. The stones
,;tructed in mud, some incorporating broken bricks and stones, or were wooden huts. Considered as being
were usually left unworked and many spolia were incorporated in the walls. This habit seems to have
,erected by invaders they reveal a rural, uncivilized life style. For example, in Stobi, after the city's
been caused by a crisis in the production of bricks and mortar. 2504 Such construction is typical in all areas
destruction by the Huns in the middle of the fifth century, the poor houses that appeared on the site
of the empire.

2505 John Chrysostom, PG 54,666 (,ml y&.g exeivoL rr1.lv8ouc; ftEAt,ovtEc; otxoboftETv, fa&. to tfjc; ut,11c; oa0gov ~u,,ou:; µaxgoic;
2498 V. Ruggieri, Byzantine Religious Architecture (582-867): Its History and Stntctural Elements (Rome 1991), 135 ff.; Mango,
Architecture, l 97; Ward-Perkins, From Classical Antiquity, 59-6 l. o.:roocp[yyoum n1v oixo8ort~v, xal ou6i:: DLa rronou toDto rroLoDm toD i'>Laon7rwtoc;, &.n&. bL' 61,[you, 1'.va tfi rruxv6n1n twv
2499 See supra, pp. 85,290, and Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.14.7-11 (the Appian way). c:r'/,())V t01Jt(JJV &.oq;aAEOtEgav n7v ouv817x11v t(J)V JtA[v0rnv egyaornvtm); 56, 44; 62,354; 63, 696 (twv ~Uf,(J)V at L[WVtWOEl(;);
2500 See, for example, Gounaris, Valaneio, 34-35. Procopius of Gaza, PG 87, 369.
2501 Agathias II.16.5 (p. 62) (transl. Frendo, 49).
2506
G. Cvetkovic-Tomasevic, Etude comparative des couches et vestiges de batiments superposes a Heraklea Lynkestis,
2502 J. Bardill, Brickstamps of Constantinople, I: Text (Oxford 2004), 53. I. lpiana et Singidunum,ACAC XI (1986), III, 2463-2478.
2507
2503 N. Davey, Examination of the Materials of Construction from the Park Street Villa, in H. E. O'Neil, The Roman Villa Hurst and Gibson, Building Materials, 54-55.
2508
at Park Street, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire: Report on the Excavations of 1943-45, The Archaeological Journal 102 (1945), M. Radziewicz, Remarks to the Peristyle House in Alexandria and Mareotis, Papers of the Twelfth lnt. Congress for
( iassical Archaeology in Athens (Athens 1983 ), 178.
105-106.
2509 J.-M. Carrie, Antiquite tardive et "democratisation de la culture": un paradigme a geometrie variable, AntTard 9
2504 W. A. R. Bowden, Town and Country in Late-Antique £pints Vetus (Ph.D. Diss. Univ. of East Anglia 2000), I, 204-208;
t 2001), 43.
idem, £pints Vetus, 166-170.
448 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 449

employed rural techniques, some being simply huts. Their walls were constructed of stones bonded land register from Aphrodito in the nome of Antaeopolis in Egypt dated to ea. 525/6 shows that 70% of
with mud, and the upper part of unbaked brick. The low cultural level of the inhabitants can be seen in the landowners were citizens of a city or state officers. 2517 The complexity of the urban economy contrasts
the fact that they did not clean away accumulated rubbish from their workshops and kitchens. 2510 with the lack of diversity in the rural economy. Of course, artisan production is attested in villages, but
Sirmium, such structures were introduced from the fifth century, when the city was lost to the Gepids shops are not recorded there. The variety of artisan production in the cities is also evident in the number
and Ostrogoths. 2511 In Nicopolis ad !strum, the houses of the foederati outside the walls, to the south of of different types of urban crafts attested in Egypt. 2518
the city, were not built in the traditional Roman way with a substructure of stones and mortar supporting Although agriculture was an essential component of the urban economy, and a large part of the
a superstructure in pise. Instead, the lower part of the walls was constructed in rough stones bonded urban population was directly or indirectly involved in it, very few agricultural installations are attested
with earth, and the upper part in mud brick. Curiously, although the construction techniques of the inside ancient Greco-Roman cities. Procopius mentions mills established from ancient times on the
foederati were not influenced by Roman tradition, and the pottery types also change with the appearance Janiculum hill, by the bank of Tiber and inside the Aurelian wall of Rome. 2519 Stables and storage
of the so-called foederati pottery of black wares, the metalwork used was Roman/Byzantine, 2512 which rooms for agricultural produce were obviously quite common in the cities, and mills for grinding wheat
suggests various levels of interaction between invaders and Byzantines. Finally, in some towns in are very often found in urban houses to support the household economy, but not for a large-scale pro-
northern Balkans the appearance of small crude structures indicates a Byzantine military presence, duction. However, installations for agricultural production were usually located outside the limits of
whilst in Italy Ennodius confirms the construction of poor huts by soldiers in abandoned large rich ancient cities, in the suburbs. Oil presses are rarely attested in Egyptian cities, where the papyrological
houses. 2513 documentation offers secure information by contrast to the uncertainty of dating using archaeological
In the later part of the sixth century, urban space disintegrated rapidly. There are signs showing material. 2520 A lengthy topographical description of a district of Panopolis in Egypt, dated to the fourth
that the earlier clear distinction between city and countryside was becoming more blurred both at the century, contains a list of houses on the same street, workshops, and nine temples. The workshops for
level of topography and at the level of life style in the cities. Agricultural installations and isolated buri- various specializations include two olive presses and a mill, 2521 while only one house is identified as a
als, one of the striking characteristics of the end of the early Byzantine period, are found dispersed in rural house. 2522 In general, the Greco-Roman city was distinguished from the village not only through
urban public areas and residential districts. Ovens, mills, oil and wine presses appear everywhere its buildings serving urban administrative and social life, but also with the almost complete absence of
the cities, in empty urban lots, abandoned public and private buildings, porticoes and streets. They are agricultural installations, traditionally reserved for villages and small towns. For example, in the irregularly
a prelude to the mediaeval Byzantine city, in striking contrast to its Roman predecessor. At the end planned small town of I:Iorbat Castra in Israel, just 1,5 km from the sea, fourteen wine presses and
of the early Byzantine period, when the cities suffered profound disintegration during and after the twelve oil presses have been found on the periphery of the town or scattered through the inhabited area
period of invasions, sections of the urban space were transformed into agricultural land for market (Plan 59). 2523 Furthermore, agricultural installations are more likely to be found within the limits of
gardening. cities without a strong tradition of Greco-Roman urbanism. Thus, for example, the large Roman mansion
At this point, some clarifications must be made regarding the differences between urban commu- on the acropolis of Diocaesarea (Sepphoris ), built in the second to the early third century and probably
nities and rural ones at the level of economy and topography. Ancient and mediaeval cities depended owned by a rabbi, included shops, workshops and an olive press. 2524 On the other hand, the principles
on their rural territory for subsistence, and in socio-economic terms the relation and interaction be- of Roman urbanism spread through in new towns, even in peripheral provinces of the empire that
tween city and countryside was direct. Thus, for example, in all cities, a large section of the urban pop- developed through Roman initiative. In I:Iorbat Kasif in southern Israel, which developed from a Roman
ulation owned fields in the countryside and was engaged in agriculture. 2514 Historiographical sources road station into a large early Byzantine town, farmyards and agricultural areas appear only on the
contain accounts of urban inhabitants going out of their city to the countryside for agricultural work. 15 1:dges of the inhabited area. 2525
The income of the city dwellers derived either solely from agriculture or from a combination of agricul- The archaeological record has revealed plenty of evidence of ruralization of cities dating towards
ture and trade or labour. Calculations employing data from cities in the Middle East have led to the con- the end of the early Byzantine period and to the seventh century. Again, the crucial question is that of
clusion that only about 25% of the residents of Neapolis (today Nablus in Palestine) were not engaged
in agriculture, and that most of the city's dwellers possessed agricultural plots. The figures for revenue
deriving from agriculture for other cities vary: from 80% (Scythopolis) to 50% (Diocesarea). 2516 The 2517
J. Gascou and L. MacCoull, Le cadastre d' Aphrodite, TM 10 ( 1987), 103-158; R. S. Bagnall, Landholding in Late Roman
Egypt: The Distribution of Wealth, IRS 82 (1992), 136-137.
2518
R. Alston, Trade and the City in Roman Egypt, in H. Parkins and C. Smith ( eds.), Trade, Traders and the Ancient City
1London 1998), 168-202, esp. 183-184 (90 different types of urban crafts mentioned, the 28% of the male population of
2510 See supra, p. 24. Also for Apamea, see Foss, Syria, 225. Similar observations were made for the level of civilization of Oxyrhynchus registered tradesmen); Bagnall, Egypt, 86 (calculations based on evidence from papyrological texts lead to the
the new inhabitants of barbarian origin in rich houses in Italy, who threw their garbage into the empty rooms of the houses: A. ,·onclusion that 15-20% of the heads of households were engaged in industrial production in Egypt's late antique cities).
2519
M. Small and R. J. Buck, The excavations of San Giovanni di Ruori (Toronto 1994), 4-5. Procopius, De Bello Gothico V.19.8-9.
2511 2520
See supra, pp. 291, 304-305. P. Adam-Veleni, IIfrQE£ <l>AWQLvai:;: l\dJbExa XQ0VLa avaaxacp17i:;,AEMT 10 A (1996), 7 and n. 42; Bagnall, Egypt, 79
2512 and n. 205.
Poulter, One City's Contribution, 203-213.
2513
Curta, Peasants, 200-201, 203, and supra, p. 173 n. 905. 2521
Z. Borkowski, Une description topographique des immeubles aPanopolis (Warsaw 1975), 49.15, 52.16, 67.4 (olive presses),
2514 +9.29 (mill).
Patlagean, Pauvrete, 266; Claude, Stadt, 179-180.
2515 2522
Joshua the Stylite, c. 52 (p. 41); Miracula S. Demetrii I, 137.12-13. It was very common for city dwellers to work in their Ibid., 56.16: UAAY] [oix[a] EV 1\m8foEL bmuAEuii:; xal 0QVL8wvoi:;.
2523
fields outside the walls, and so Mango's conclusion in Byzantium, 71, on the basis of this text that "the inhabitants [ofThessalonica] Z. Yeivin and G. Finkielsztejn, f.lorbat Castra -1993-1997, ES/ 109 (1999), 23-27.
2524
were reduced to a semi-rural existence", would not appear well founded. Weiss and Netzer, Sepphoris, 122, 126.
2516 2525
Safrai, Economy, 373-376. Y. Israel and Y. Schuster, f.lorbat Kasif, ES/ 111 (2000), 92-93.
450 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 451

perhaps have been transformed into a monastery. At the end of the sixth century or more probably in
seventh, the olive presses of the Palace and of the Metroon were reused (Figure 57). 2529 In Delos, a

U SU
'-'-----====m

PLAN 59. The town of I:Iorbat Castra, with oil and wine presses.

chronology. Archaeologists usually date agricultural installations from the period of the invasions,
when the ancient structure of most cities disintegrated. Indeed, very few rural installations in cities can
be dated with certainty to the sixth century before the invasions. In Messene in the Peloponncse, a
monumental fountain between the theatre and the north portico of the agora, with a pool 40 m long and
an exedra adorned with bronze statues, was severely damaged by an earthquake in 360-370. The eastern
part that remained standing was used as a water mill in the first half of the sixth century. 2526 Again and FIG. 57. Ancient Agora of Athens: Central Mill, mill room, third quarter of the fifth century.
again we observe that it is after major catastrophes, during which the ancient buildings were destroyed,
that the new articulation of urban space can be discerned in the archaeological record. Indeed, we have ine press was established in one of the city's most important streets of the district of the theatre. Bearing
already stated that after earthquakes, the previous structure and assigned function of urban space not Christian inscription, it dates to the fifth to sixth century. 2530 In Argos, agricultural installations multiply
sustained. Thus, for example, the west side of Hanghaus 2 at Ephesus collapsed in an earthquake be- from the middle of the sixth century. 2531
tween 612-616, and a series of mills appeared on the site, using the power of the water flowing down the We have already looked at the role of the Church in establishing installations for agricultural pro-
hill. 2527 Although the installation of agricultural structures on the site of agorai/fora and streets a duction in urban space by incorporating them in monastic complexes or attaching them to churches. 2532
dramatic air to urban decline and disintegration, the agora, of course, had long ceased to function as urban owards the end of the early Byzantine period and in the period of transition to the Middle Ages, the
centre. In Athens, a flourmill with a water wheel is located in the southeast corner of the agora, dating Church took over the organization of substantial sectors of the urban economy. At the same time, at
to ea. 450-580 and finally destroyed by fire. Thompson and Wycherley concluded: "Whether these level of ideology and urban culture, the Church took up position against traditional urban values
modest establishments served the needs of the Gymnasium or of the townspeople, their very existence and detached itself from the ancient urban tradition, centred on institutions such as the agora/forum and
in this place strikes a rustic note in startling contrast with the sophisticated atmosphere of the ancient public spectacles. The Church played a major role in "declassicizing" urban life. In combination with
Agora". 2528 Olive presses are also found in or near the Palace of the Giants and the Metroon. the decline of the urban upper class in the sixth century, the Church also reinforced the trend of the period
Palace an olive press was used for private production before the late sixth century, but the Palace may towards the vulgarization of culture by socially and spiritually promoting and validating the lower

2526 2529
Themelis, Messene, 27-28, 35. Frantz, The Athenian Agora, 121-122.
H. Vetters, Ephesos. Vorliiufiger Grabungsbericht 1983,Anz. 121 (1984), 224. The issue of the date of the Houses of
2527 2530
Ph. Bruneau and Ph. Fraisse, Un pressoir a vin a Delos, BCH 105 ( 1981 ), 127-153; idem, Pressoirs de liens. BCH 108
the Slope on the Embolos is not settled: H. Thiir, in Ratte, New Research, 144 and n. 91. < !84), 713-730.
2528 H. A. Thompson and R. E. Wycherley, The Athenian Agora. XIV: The Agora ofAthens. The History, Shape and Uies of 2531
Abadie-Reyna!, Argos, 400.
2532
an Ancient City Centre (Princeton 1972), 214. See supra, pp. 424-425.
 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY
THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 453
452

classes. 2533 The assertion of the status of the lower classes had historical and social implications at the land~ords continued to live in cities. 2542 In all the provinces of the empire the sources speak of ktetores,
level of urban life: in the loss of the quality of the urban architecture and organization of life, in the re- that 1s, landowners, dwelling in the cities. In contrast with the West, where, with the collapse of Roman
gression of the established urban order and values, and in a blurring of the traditional differences be- rule, the great landlords withdrew to their villas around which settlements developed, in Byzantium the
tween city and village. 2534 Clearly, the Church had a share in the early stage of the ruralization of cities. upper class retained a profound affinity for urban life and civilization. Even after the end of the early
The decline of the urban upper class, as manifested in the disintegration of aristocratic houses, =' 35
2 Byzantine period, Byzantine aristocrats preferred cities. 2543 In contrast, in the West, in a letter to king
was another major factor in this process of ruralization. It was the upper class that for centuries had Athalaric, Cassiodorus explains the advantages of urban life, in the hope of persuading the landlords of
preserved ancient urban culture, with its adherence to the Greekpaideia, its economic strength and re- Brutium to return to their city. There education was available, meetings with nobles were a source of
fined way of life, all of which created a sharp contrast between urban and rural life. By the sixth century, pleasure, visits to the forum were enjoyable, and one could socialize through various activities, such as
visits to the baths, dinners or playing dice. 2544
all this had changed. The substantial signs of a progressive decline in long distance trade and large-scale
. t h e b egmmng
. . o f t h.is b oo k .2536 Th.1s economic In the early Byzantine period the proasteion, the suburban residence of a landlord, where he could
artisan and agricultural production have been stated m
stay while visiting his estate, was a favoured aristocratic residence. In the suburban estates peasants
regression obviously had a major impact on the urban upper class, whereby the old elites were trans-
formed culturally and economically. The cities' proteuontes no longer aspired to maintain their ancient (yuoQyo(), gardeners, land guards ( &.yQocpuAaxc~) worked as did other specialized artisans, such as
urban culture and life style and to identify themselves with the old model of urban aristocrat. Most of smiths, potters, brick makers, etc. 2545 The proasteion named Koparia in Constantinople inside the gate
them were still living in old aristocratic houses of the peristyle type. These houses, however, had been of the wall of Sycae, attested in Novel 159 (a. 555), included praetoria, harbours, houses and shops for
radically transformed, with most of the open areas now closed and subdivided, some rooms subdivided rent, inside and outside the gate, a bath, gardens inside and outside the wall, a "hippodrome" (proba-
and given to the lower classes to reside in or to use as workshops. In the sixth century their economic bly a place to raise horses), and inside the hippodrome a garden and a cistern. 2546 The preference of
situation was not as prosperous as that of the urban wealthy of the fourth century. Life in the cities was ;;ome great landlords for proasteia is also documented in the papyri. Outside the walls of Oxyrhynchus,
the Apion family owned a palatial residence with vineyards and other cultivated land. 2547 From the area
changing culturally and economically.
To reach a better understanding of how the fortunes of the urban upper class affected the articu- ,)f Caesarea Maritima comes a remarkable example of a suburban villa without any agricultural func-
lation of urban space and contributed to the ruralization of the city, we need to stress a few points re- tion, dated to the middle of the sixth century, in the years after the Samaritan revolt in 529, and locat-
garding their position vis-a-vis the countryside in the early Byzantine period. Up until the end of the ed 6 km from the city, on a hilltop: it was an impressive complex of around 3000 m 2 with courtyards and
early Byzantine period and afterwards, the wealthy members of the urban communities, who were also colonnades. The building material was reused, but most of the marble revetments and other ornaments
were removed after it was abandoned. Fragments of its surviving ornamental elements indicate that it
owners of large estates, usually dwelt in the cities. In Antioch, the bouleutai remained in the city as
as they were involved in the civic administration and only upon their retirement from public life did was luxurious and that the owners were Christians. The building was perhaps the suburban villa of the
they withdraw to their estates. 2537 Furthermore, those who attempted to escape their curial obligations :2overnor of Caesarea. 2548 Although in this case the transfer of the governor's residence to the suburbs
moved to their estates, 2538 and in areas less urbanized, such as Cappadocia, decurions were ready to retreat may have been dictated by local circumstances, i.e. the Samaritan revolt, it also coincides with the pro-
to their fortified villas, if they were pressured by the governor. 2539 However, the attachment of the nounced preference of aristocrats for proasteia. Inside the city of Caesarea, however, to the south, palatial
members of the upper class to the city is shown in the words of Theodoret of Cyrus: someone who retires residences were maintained until the Muslim occupation of the city, when the members of the upper
to his estate ( &.yQ6~) lacks love for or hates the city ( acpLAOV 11 µtooJWALv).
2540
The typology of rural dass fled, abandoning their luxurious dwellings. 2549
houses in most areas indicates that in heavily urbanized areas of the empire rich landlords dwelt the From the fourth century, great aristocratic houses of the Roman peristyle type, owned by the urban
cities. 2541 Papyri also show beyond any doubt that in Egypt in the sixth and in the seventh centuries the \Veal thy, underwent profound changes, and in their final stage are marked by signs of disintegration and
. · 2550 D unng
ura l1zatlon. · t h e first
· stages, large luxurious houses were subdivided to accommodate more
people, either sold to new, poorer owners, or rented by the original owners to members of the lower
classes. By the sixth century, the architecture of the Roman type of large house had radically altered.
253 3 See mainly the theories of S. Mazzarino as analyzed in A. Marcone (ed.), Rostovtzeff e /'Italia (Naples 1999), 117-129,
or those of R. MacMullen, in the collective volume Changes in the Roman Empire (Princeton 1990), 250-276 (The historical
I'he intercolumniation of the peristyle was closed, rooms, including triclinia, were subdivided to create
role of the masses in Late Antiquity), 117-129 (Distrust of the mind), 142-155 (What difference did Christianity make?): J .-M. new living space for more residents. In some cases, archaeological evidence reveals that the aristocrats
7
Salami to, Aspects aristocratiques et aspects populaires de l'etre-chretien aux rne et rve siecles, Ant Tard 9 (2001 ), I 65-1 8,
esp.171-174.
25 34 Wilson, Urban Economies, esp. 39-41 with emphasis on the role of the Church.
2542
Bagnall, Egypt, 71; Haas,Alexandria, 55-56.
2535 See supra, pp. 168-173. 2543
Kaplan, Les hommes, 220-221.
2536 See supra, pp. 41-44.
25 -1 4 Cassiodorus, Variae VIII.31.
2537 Petit, Libanius, 334-335: one does not find any trace of a rural atmosphere in Antioch's upper class in the fourth century
2545
P.Cairo 10106 (ea. 555?).
("aucune trace d'esprit rural"); Liebeschuetz,Antioch, 42 and n. 2. 2546
Novella 159, proem, p. 738.6-12.
2538 CTh XII.18.1-2 (a. 367,396). 2547 G. Husson, Recherches sur lessens du mot rrgoamLov dans le grec d'Egypt, Recherches de Papyrologie 4 (1967), 192-196.
2539 St. Basil, Ep. 88, PG 32, 469B: EV aygoi:s; yag /,on TO JtOAU TWV EV TEAEL, ws; OUOE auTO£ ayvoEL£. 2548 Y. Porath, Tel 'Afar, ESI7-8 (1989), 1-3.
2540
Theodoret of Cyrus, Ep. xxxiv, p. 99.23. 2549 Hoium, Bouleutic Class, 626-627; flight of aristocrats from Carthage: Humphrey, Vandal and Byzantine Carthage,
J.-P. Sodini and G. Tate, Maisons d'epoque romaine et byzantine (Ile-vre siecles) du Massif Calcaire de Syrie du
25 41
17-118.
Nord. Etude typologique, inApamee (1980), 377-446; J. Ch. Baity, Notes sur !'habitat romain, byzantin et arabe d'Apamee. 2550
See also the remarks of Noye, Villes, 709.
Rapport de synthese, ibid., 492-497; Tate, Campagnes, 257-267.
454 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 455

were still living in part of the subdivided house, while in other sections workshops were functioning. 255 1 rocky cliffs and pasture land enclosed within the long wall of Caesarea in Cappadocia, making the city's
The living conditions of the urban upper class were clearly deteriorating. The last stage of the aristocratic defence difficult. 2555 But this was undoubtedly an exception, and it is recorded as such by Procopius,
houses, dating from the middle of the sixth century, was one of profound decline. The peristyle type of with the obvious implications for the city's defence. Julian of Ascalon clearly defines the "urban agri-
house was abandoned forever and no more such houses were built. The old houses, then abandoned by culture" that was allowed in urban areas: trees, vines and vegetables, all of which do not require culti-
their rich owners, were taken over by peasants and artisans. vation(µ~ yt:wgyta£ em◊EoµEva ... µ~ yt:wgyovµEva). 2556
At the end of the early Byzantine period changes in domestic architecture lead to the mediaeval But the impact of the invasions on urban centres brought about a fundamental realignment in urban
model, which consists of rural components. The ground floor was used for stables and storerooms, structure. In the Balkans in the second half of the sixth century, most cities were transformed into small,
while the family reception room and living quarter were located on the upper floor. The radical dis- fortified communities, agricultural in character. 2557 Fortifications, a natural response to the invasions,
continuity with the Roman and late ancient domus is clear. In early mediaeval Rome such houses were inside which the residential areas shrunk, drastically reduced the size of cities. The new urban centres
organized in complexes and included gardens, orchards and barns. They are attested in the texts as cunes, resembled large fortified villages, in terms of size and economic activities. The old distinction between
a term deriving from the rural environment and suggesting the spread of rural architecture and life in city and kome or village shifted to that between fortified city or kome and unfortified village. City and
the city. This type of house derives either from the rural house that existed in Italy during the Roman fortified kome are closer than ever before. From the seventh century the term kastron is applied to both
empire or from that used by the foreign invaders, or from both. It was introduced to the cities because lortified cities and large komai. 2558 In the. archaeological record, in early Byzantine urban centres, the
of the insecurity of the period, the agricultural character of cities, which created a need for agricultural c,igns of ruralization are discerned in the numerous installations for agricultural production in public
2552 ~pace and in residential areas inside the earlier large rich houses, and also in the transformation of sections
activities in the ground floor, and the decline of the water supply and drainage system. Later. in
mediaeval Byzantium, aristocratic houses in the cities, including Constantinople, had various installations ·if earlier urban areas into gardens and fields. V. Popovic examined the evidence from some urban
for agricultural production. For example, the house of Michael Attaleiates in Constantinople included communities of the northern Balkan peninsula: Sirmium, Dinogetia, Histria, Justiniana Prima (Caricin
a chapel and a donkey-driven mill on the ground floor. 2553 Grad), Stobi and Heraclea Lyncestis. 2559 While the earlier public buildings and rich private houses
In most of the urban centres, the next step towards ruralization occurred on the eve of the inva- were abandoned, poor structures built in the rural style proliferate everywhere. In some cases, the in-
sions and undoubtedly afterwards, too. At this point agricultural installations, mills, and olive and wine habitants of these structures were from the countryside, and had moved into the cities for security. At
presses multiply everywhere in the urban space, in public and private buildings, in streets and empty he same time the presence of barbaric inhabitants is clearly attested in many of the cities in the northern
lots. Moreover, plots used for cultivation appear inside the cities. A passage from the Funeral Oration Balkans. Justiniana Prima (Caricin Grad) offers spectacular evidence of the city's changing conditions
to Julian by Libanius makes some very interesting observations: in the fourth century, agricultural land the course of the sixth century, since it had a life of less than a century. Built by Justinian, it was
and rural work inside the city walls were incompatible with urban life, and, when they occurred. they destroyed and abandoned in the early seventh century. The process of the disintegration of its urban
were the consequence of the war: •,pace began in the last decades of the sixth century, after the reign of Justin II, when, during the Avaro-
Slavic invasions, population from the suburbs and from the countryside moved into the city. Poor
Those cities that escaped the sack by the strength of their walls had no land save for dwellings and shops were built in open urban areas, in porticoes, around churches and in subdivided
a very small area: their folk were ravaged by famine and had recourse to anything h1ildings, thus making the socio-economic changes in the city clear. 2560 In the city itself numerous artisans'
that could serve for food, until the inhabitants were so reduced in number that the 1ols have been found. While the poor constructions of this phase are no longer attributed to the Slavs,
cities themselves formed both city and farmland and the uninhabited spaces inside h'2cause they are not typically Slavic, some objects identified with certainty as Slavic but found in Byzantine
the defences provided land enough for farming (Em£ cl£ 1:0oou1:0v ow~tcnwv xa- "Lrata show that by the end of the sixth century Slavs had been allowed to settle in the city. 2561 The con-
tfot170av cq;n0µov (J)O,:£ tO.£ JtOAH£ auto.£ ayQ01l£ tE dvm xaL JtOAH£ xaL to EtOW
twv rrEQL~o\wv ao[x111:0v agxouoav yt:wgyLav). Yes, oxen were yoked, furrows
drawn, the seed set, and the corn grew, was reaped and threshed, all inside the city
2555
gates (xat yag ~OU£ etcvyvmo xat O.QOtQOV EL/1.XETO xat omigµa XatE~Ct/1./1.£1:0 xat Procopius, De aedificiis V.4.10-12: I1Eb[a TE yag rroHa ½al x17rrouc; ETELXlomo, xal oxo::i:E\ouc; TE xal 8QWftaTwv
, , otaxu£,
avncL , xm' 0 EQLOt11£
' xm' a11,W£,
"'\ xm' navta
, -
tauta "
aow '\ - ) .2554
Jtu11,wv
>ttcic;. "Ev8a 6~ oubi: XQOV(!l UOTEQOV otxoboru\oao8a[ Tl o[ TftbE av8gwrrot l:'yvwoav, an· E<:p' oiimg i'jv ox11~1moc; EflElVEV.
bi: ;i:ou xal otxla TETUXT]XEV ELVUL, TUUTU 611 ayElrnva xma ft6vac; OVTU ◊tayEyovamv Ee; TO◊E toD XQOVOU.
2556
Julian of Ascalon, c. 50.6, and p. 93.
Of course, gardens and sometimes fields were found in ancient cities, but mainly in those areas 2557
Popovic, Desintegration; Bavant, La ville, 287.
without strong ties with the Greco-Roman urban tradition. Procopius mentions open fields and gardens, 2558
Dagron, Entre village, 44 and supra, pp. 38-39, 99-100.
2559
Popovic, Desintegration, and his conclusion of p. 565.
°
256
Kondic and Popovic, Caricin Grad, 372 ff.; Caricin Grad II, 297 ff. Since the suburbs have not been yet excavated, it is
n, ,t known whether the population that moved inside the urban fortifications seeking protection came from these residential
2551
See supra, pp. 168-173. di<ricts or from the countryside. See also Bavant, La ville, 285.
2561
R. S. Valenzani, Residential Building in Early Medieval Rome, in Smith, Early Medieval Rome, 101-112; B. Po lei. Some
2552 Kondic and Popovic, Caricin Grad, 563-564; Bavant, La ville, 285; V. Popovic, Un etui de peigne en os de type
1•.erovingien'' et Jes objets d'origine ethnique etrangere aCaricin Grad, in Caricin Grad I, 160-178. In numerous sites Avaroslavic
9
Aspects of the Transformation of the Roman Domus between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, LAA 1 (2003). ,79- l ~ ·
2553 P. Gautier, La diataxis de Michel Attaliate, REE 39 (1981), 29.79 (rnD Tgmarnu xou~ou½t,Elov rnD l:'xovrn; xu.t(!J TOV finds are found together with Byzantine artefacts suggesting a close contact of the new settlers with the Byzantine population:
Baratte, Les temoignages archeologiques de la presence slave au sud du Danube, in Villes et peuplement, 165-166; Gregory,
6v6~tuAov).
255 -1 Libanius, Or. XVIII.35 (transl. Norman). khmia, 159.
456 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 457

struction materials and techniques of these late structures can be easily distinguished from those of the houses without any concern for order and who employed any available material. Mangers and at-
the earlier phase. Stones and spolia, bounded with clay, or wood covered with bricks were used. 25 62 tachments for animals are found everywhere. An upper floor was preserved, where the inhabitants lived
However, the appearance of artisans specialized in metalworking, leather, and woodworking at the end while cooking in the court. The accumulated rubbish suggests a low cultural level. 2568
of the sixth century together with the presence of scales and coins suggests that there was still significant Finally, during the invasions and in the period following, some sections of cities were transformed
economic activity in the city until its abandonment. 2563 After the city's destruction in the early seventh into agricultural land for market gardening. The reasons for this radical change are twofold. First, the
century, archaeological evidence reveals that the few inhabitants of the site were the invaders. Wooden urban dwellers were forced to cultivate empty lots to survive during sieges, and second, the old order
huts of the Slavic type appeared in the abandoned city, and some of the pottery was made without and the old upper class having collapsed, the lower classes had no interest in preserving the old forms
use of wheel. 2564 In all the cities of the northern Balkans exposed to invasions, agricultural installations of urban space. Furthermore, the new inhabitants, who came from rural sites or were of culturally dif-
are found in their poor dwellings. Similar observations have been made for the provinces of Epirus ferent origin, had no affinities with urban culture and introduced elements of rural life and economy
Nova and Praevalis. There towards the end of the early Byzantine period, more elements of an agrarian into the cities. From the cities of Greece, the archaeological evidence of fields within the cities is still
economy are found in urban centres. Rural dwellings multiply, and in the cemeteries by the settlements rare. In Nemea from the sixth century the area of the pagan temple was turned over to agricultural use,
numerous agricultural tools are found even in sites on the coast that were densely urbanized. 2565 which employed irrigation channels. 2569 In the provinces of the East, only a few examples are recorded
Agricultural installations in some rich urban houses are known from Roman cities as early as in recent archaeological reports, from Sagalassos, Caesarea Maritima, Scythopolis and Diocaesarea
the early Roman empire, indicating the extension of some rural activities into the urban sphere. 2566 By (Sepphoris ). In Sagalassos, the trend towards employing earlier urban plots of land for agricultural ac-
contrast, agricultural installations dating to the end of the early Byzantine period appear as spontaneous tivities dates to before the middle of the seventh century, when the city collapsed and was abandoned.
installations implanted into urban districts or large houses that had lost their earlier function. In the late There the suburbs of the city, which in the past were used as residential districts, were given over to agri-
poor subdivisions of the large rich houses, one finds artisans' installations, ovens, mills, olive presses, and culture. In the area of the baths there is evidence of cultivation of walnuts and possibly of cereals. In the
installations to house and feed animals. Archaeological reports do not date this last stage of the rich seventh century the public lavatory of the baths, built after the earthquake in the early sixth century,
houses with absolute certainty, because the remains inside the poor subdivisions do not offer datable was used to produce fertiliser from human waste mixed with lime. Also in the same century the only
material. Thus, for example, at Salamis in Cyprus the so-called Huilerie was originally the residence a large aristocratic mansion on the site was turned into stables or an area for the storage of dry dung.
wealthy family and transformed into an agricultural dwelling in the seventh century. 2567 In Apamea. the Butchers dumped cattle bones in the elegant street fountain adorning the monumental approach to the
many magnificent houses, most of which are located in the centre of the city- the Triclinos House, the Lower Agora with six busts of gods on either side. 2570 The theatre of Diocaesarea was used for agricul-
Pilaster House, the Console House, the House of Console Capitals, the House of the Deer, the House ture.2571 In the two other cities of Israel, Caesarea Maritima and Scythopolis, the Arab conquest in 640
of the Doric Peristyle, the House of the Aqueduct, the House of Trilobe Columns and the House of the appears to have been the major catalyst for the new organization of urban space. In Caesarea, after the
Bilobe Columns - show signs of remodelling and reconstruction during the reign of Justinian, either Arab conquest, residences to the south along the coast near the amphitheatre, among which was the
because of destruction by earthquakes or because of cultural changes. Some were destroyed by fire in the praetorium of the proconsul of Palestine, were abandoned and turned into agricultural plots. The site
later part of the sixth century, probably by the Persians in 573. The last stage of transformation is hard to was levelled with city refuse, and remodelled into a series of terraces with walls and stone irrigation
date, but it is associated with the Persian invasion in 573, the Persian war in 602, and the occupation of channels. In another location, north and west of the bathhouse, buildings, already in decline from the
the city in 611. Apamea was reoccupied by the army of Heraclius in 630, and there are some signs of late sixth century, were levelled and turned into gardens with an irrigation system employing water
reconstruction and reoccupation of the rich houses by the wealthy owners who probably had returned. from a well, perhaps by a landowner or the civic authorities. It is possible that the initiative was taken
Six years later, however, the city was occupied by Arabs, at which point the city's ruralization was complete. while the city was under siege by the Arabs. 2572 In Scythopolis, in the area of Palladius Street, alluvial
The rich owners abandoned the city and their rich residences were occupied by peasants who subdivided 'ioil was gathered and terraces were constructed, probably for agricultural use, utilizing drums from the
2573
north portico. In the early Islamic period, the ancient city of Scythopolis assumed an agricultural
character. In the words of Y. Tsafrir and R. Foerster:
2562
Popovic, Les temoins archeologiques, 500-502; idem, Desintegration, 545-566; Spieser, La ville, 324-326; Sodini,
L'habitat urbain, 370-373.
2563
During the final years of urban life in the Balkans, while cities became ruralized and fortified and living conditions de-
teriorated, the artisans continued to work in the established tradition: Bavant, La ville, 287. 2568
Foss, Syria, 217-226, 262.
2564 2569
L. Bjelajac, La ceramique et les lamps, in Caricin Grad II, 185. S. G. Miller, Excavations at Nemea, 1975,Hesperia 45 (1976), 174-202; Nemea I, D. E. Birge et al., Excavations at Nemea.
2565
S. Anamali, Arkeologjia dhe bujgesia (Tirana 1980), 55-63; idem, Le probleme de la formation du peuple albanais ii la Topographical and Architectural Studies: The Sacred Square, the Xenon, and the Bath (Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford 1992), 1,
lumiere des donnees archeologiques, Iliria 12/2 (1982), 52-53; idem, Des Illyriens aux Albanais (les nouvelles donnee, de 19-20, 70, and passim; S. G. Miller et al.,Nemea. A Guide to the Site and Museum (Athens 2004), 106-107 and fig. 74 (p.108);
l'archeologie), Iliria 15/1 (1985), 220. ,\. Avramea, <l>umxo ltEQt~anov xai &v0QciJmvl'J rraQEµ~a017: 'A VttAtj'ljJH£ xai dxovE£ &rro ,o &onxo rnrr{o, Kathemerine zoe,
2566
Ph. Leveau, P. Sillieres and J.-P. Vallat, Campagnes de la Mediterranee romaine: Occident (Paris 1993), 45-46, 150-152, h92 and photo in p. 693; idem, Peloponnese, 115.
225-226. 2570
Vanhaverbeke et al., Sagalassos, 269,270.
2567 2571
Argoud et al., L 'huilerie, 51-53. Another example is the great mansion at Nea Paphos, abandoned in the sixth century. J. F. Strange and Th. R. W. Longstaff, Sepphoris (~ippori), 1986 (II), /El 37 (1987), 280.
Poor inhabitants settled in the south part of the aristocratic residence and caused much damage to its mosaics and statues by 2572
Y. Porath, A Raban and J. Patrich, The Caesarea Excavation Project- March 1992-June 1994, ES/17 (1998), 40;AJA
setting up their ovens and stables for their animals: W. A Daszewski, A preliminary report on the excavations of the Polish ar- 98 (1994), 508; J. Patrich, The Urban Ruralization in Provincia Palaestina: The Demise of the Byzantine Praetorium at Caesarea,
chaeological mission at Kato (Nea) Paphos in 1966 and 1967, RDAC 1968, 39; idem, Polish excavations at Kato (Nea) Paphos Twenty-Fourth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference. Abstracts of Papers. 5-8 November 1998, University of Kentucky, 41.
in 1970 and 1971, RDAC 1972, 220-221; idem, Nea Paphos, ET7 (1973), 291,294. 2573
Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, 138.
458 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 459

Baysan reveals itself as a medium-sized town of rather rural character situated within From a different perspective, changes in pottery types also reveal ruralization. With the progres-
the frame of magnificent Roman architecture. If a traveller in Baysan's streets sive slowdown of long distance trade and the closing of international markets, facilities producing high
raised his eyes, he could still see a skyline composed of impressive colonnades, quality pottery could not continue to function. Pottery production gradually became local and served
porticoes, the remains of the scaenae frons of the theatre, the upper story of the local communities and those of the surrounding area. The decline of fine pottery and the appearance
nymphaeum, and even the remains of the pronaos of the temple in the city centre. of handmade pottery is a rural element in urban households and reveals the degradation of the living
If he lowered his eyes he would see how the lower parts of these monuments were conditions of the urban dwellers. At the same time there was an increasing preference for non-ceramic
concealed by ordinary residential buildings, shops, and workshops that were inserted containers and, perhaps a little later, for woodenware. 2583 The presence of hand made pottery in urban
into porticoes of the streets and leaned against monumental fac;ades. 2574 areas is also associated with the conditions created inside the cities in the period of invasions, when
peasants from the countryside fled into the cities, while the members of the upper class left for more secure
In Antioch the gardens and empty space mentioned in the Islamic period were probably a develop- places in other provinces. In Justiniana Prima, the pottery made without a wheel dates to the period before
ment dating to before the Islamic invasion in the middle of the seventh century. 2575 Even in the capital, the city's destruction, 2584 when professional potters were no longer active, either because the upper
Constantinople, a rural appearance often characterized the public space of the mediaeval period: texts class was in decline or because the rural population inside the city was increasing. The material life of
refer to the flocks of pigs and sheep that were led to the city's central market, 2576 and rich houses, like the urban dwellers was becoming increasingly poorer and was taking on rural characteristics.
that of Michael Attaleiates, mentioned above, possessed agricultural installations. In the West the phe- Christian burials scattered inside the cities' residential areas and in abandoned public and private
nomenon is better illustrated because it was more acute on account of the rapid disintegration of ancient buildings mark the last stage of Christianization and degradation of the urban space. We have
cities. At the time of Atalaric, the grandson of Theoderic, herds of cattle passed through the Forum seen how Christianity changed people's perception of death and how burials were first introduced into the
Peace. 2577 In the Palatine in Rome there is evidence of agricultural soil and agricultural activities in the cities with the martyrs' relics and privileged burials in and around churches. From the second half of the
second half of the fifth and in the early sixth century. 2578 Ruralization of the large luxurious houses and sixth century and in the seventh, however, the proliferation of burials in the context of deep urban degra-
of the entire urban space is evident in Italian cities from the sixth century: gardens and vineyards and areas dation is usually to be connected with the invasions. Burials mark the decline of the ancient urban centres,
for animal breeding are found even in provincial capitals. In the middle of the sixth century the cities the point at which continuity with the ancient city is totally lost. Again scholars encounter difficulties in
suffered severe depopulation and the contrast between city and countryside had diminished and in most dating burials, for early Christian burials do not contain coins or other datable material. Instead, they are
cases had disappeared. Cassiodorus praises his natal city Scolacium,prima urbium Bruttiorum, for being dated from the context and stratigraphy, which do not always provide the desired accuracy. In most cases,
open to the fields from which it was separated with a wall, although it had agricultural lots inside. 2579 burials in urban areas in a state of abandonment and disintegration appear in the sixth century, but it is
the forum of Iol Caesarea, abundant cereal seeds and barley may have come from cultivated fields in difficult to determine whether they should be dated to before or during the period of invasions. 2585 From
city and date to the seventh century. 2580 In the West agricultural land, used for market gardening inside evidence derived from all areas of the empire, it is clear that changes in the articulation of urban space and
cities, is recognized by the so-called layer of black soil, with which archaeologists are familiar. 2581 the relocation of the city centres to other sites created a vacuum and precipitated the appearance of
Together with installations for agricultural production in the cities, kilns appeared everywhere, Christian burials in urban districts. It has been suggested that urban sections and buildings where burials
in or near abandoned ancient buildings and temples, for burning the slabs of marble and architectural appeared may have belonged to the Church, while the reduction of the area defended by the early
ornaments to produce lime. Kilns in ancient public areas and in residential quarters lend the urban Byzantine walls may explain the appearance of burials in old urban districts. Another factor that precipi-
landscape an air of urban decline and desolation. They appear in urban areas that had lost their earlier tated the intra muros burials were epidemics or famines with a great number ofvictims. 2586
function and were abandoned. They too, show the total break with the ancient urban architecture and In the turmoil of the invasions the old urban order was shaken, emergencies dictated the use of
the legacy of the past. abandoned buildings and civic land for burial, as did the insecurity outside the walls and the need to
prevent the desecration of tombs by the enemy. At the same time the decline in population due to the
plague in combination with invasions created much vacant land in the cities for burials. This phenom-
257
Ibid., 136-137.
-1
enon is to be observed in areas that suffered from invasions in the fifth century. In Sirmium around the
2575
Foss, Syria, 195: Later sources mention gardens and open space within the walls, a situation that probably prevailed church in the city centre, a cemetery had developed before the city was occupied by the Huns in 441. In
already by the mid-seventh century. the course of the fifth century, scattered burials and small groups of tombs appear in residential districts
2576
Mango, Le developpement, 57. inside the walls, and belong to the Romanized population of the city, while the tombs of the Ostrogoths
2577
Procopius, De Bello Gothico VIIl.21.11. foederati lay outside the walls. 2587 In Carthage, the Vandal invasion probably caused burials to appear
2578
P. Amould and Y. Thebert, Rome: le Palatin (Vigna Barberini), MEFRA 107/1 (1995), 490-491; H. Broise and Y.
in the fifth century throughout the city, especially in abandoned buildings. They are arranged along the
Thebert, Rome: le Palatin (Vigna Barberini), MEFRA 108/1 (1996), 450; B. Bavant, Cadre de vie et habitat urbain en Italie
centrale byzantine (VIe-VIIIe s.), MEFR/MA 101 (1989), 465-532; R. Menegnini and R. Santangeli Valenzani, Episode di
trasformazione de! paesaggio urbano nella Roma altomedievale,Archeologie medievale 23 (1996), 53-99.
2579 2583
Cassiodorus, Variae XII.IS. See supra, pp. 42-44.
2580 2584
Potter, lo! Caesarea, 61; Kolendo and Kotula, Quelques problemes, 175-184, esp. 181 ff. Caricin Grad I, 337.
2581 2585 H. R. Hurst and S. P. Roskams, Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission. I, 1. The Avenue of President Habib Bourguiba,
Lewit,Agricultural Production, 61-63; A. Carandini, L'ultima civilta sepolta ode! massimo oggetto desueto, secondo
un archeologo, in Storia di Roma III/2, 11-38. Salammbo: The Site and Finds other than Pottery (Sheffield 1984), 46-47.
2582 2586
Even in recent studies it is admitted that the phenomenon is not fully understood, as, for example, in Morrisson and Joshua the Stylite, c. 43 (p. 33); Procopius, De Bello Persico II.23.9-11.
Sodini, Economy, 203: "but we are not able to fathom the reasons for this phenomenon". 2587 Bavant, La ville, 254, 262-263; Popovic, Desintegration, 550.
460 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 461

Theodosian wall inside and outside the line of the walls. The levelling of buildings in the vicinity of the late. 2595 The weakness of communities in the seventh century is clearly documented in the archaeological
wall apparently created available lots for burials. 2588 In the cities where the invaders settled, they intro- record. After destruction by earthquakes, instead of being restored, urban centres were broken up into
duced burials in the residential areas. 2589 At the same time burials inside the urban space, together with small settlements, which suggests that the invasions merely precipitated a trend that had begun earlier.
the agricultural installations, gave the cities an additional tone of rusticity, since burials near houses A few other examples from some of the best-excavated sites tend to confirm this development. Sardis
were a rural tradition. 2590 in the seventh century dissolved into several small rural settlements, with the castle on the acropolis,
Finally, archaeology reveals a further type of disintegration of urban space, consisting of a slow and its population was reduced perhaps as much as 90%. 2596 Carthage in the middle of the seventh
process of fragmentation of the old urban residential area into nuclei of agricultural character around century disintegrated into poor communities around churches. 2597 The ruralization and disintegration
churches, while ancient civic centres were abandoned and agricultural installations and burials appeared of Petra into small settlements dates to the seventh century. 2598 After the earthquake of 670 early
in public areas and residential quarters. This last stage of the early Byzantine cities, also connected with Arab invasions prevented reconstruction of Gortyn, which consequently broke up in small agricultural
the decline of population, is not dated with certainty. Archaeological reports place it in the context of the communities. 2599 Eleutherna evolved in a similar fashion during the same period. 2600
invasions, and indeed there is plenty of evidence to show that urban life disintegrated when cities suf- Earthquakes were a major factor in weakening cities at the end of the early Byzantine period and
fered from invasion. The phenomenon is better documented in peripheral provinces of the empire. For are often considered an essential cause of their decline. 2601 Cities that suffered severe damage from
example, in the fifth century, when Sirmium was occupied by the Huns, the Ostrogoths and the Gepids, earthquakes were normally restored on the initiative of and with funds from the imperial government.
the inhabited area retracted and nuclei of dwellings set at a distance from each other evolved. In the sixth Salamis in Cyprus was destroyed by earthquakes in 332 and 342 and reconstructed by Constantius II
century only the south part of the city was inhabited. 2591 In North Africa a shift to the periphery of the (337-361), the inhabitants expressing their gratitude to the emperor by giving their new city the name
cities is attested from the fourth century due to wars, and the Vandal and Byzantine conquests. 2592 Constantia. We have seen how Justinian restored Arltioch after it had been struck by an earthquake.
Dating this development is of paramount importance: did the decline and breakdown of cities into Agathias reminded his readers that in the past, cities ruined by earthquakes were restored:
smaller communities occur before the invasions and would it have happened regardless of any stimulus
provided by the invasions? Although more studies from various sites are needed to trace the process of To be moved to pity by tragedies such as these seems only human, but to declare
urban disintegration in the decades before the wars, there is some evidence indicating that the phe- oneself utterly baffled and astonished would be to betray one's ignorance of past
nomenon was not always related to the invasions. During the first stage of a potential process of disin- history and of the fact that this world of ours is by its very nature continually exposed
tegration, the new articulation of the urban space, the irrelevance by the sixth century of ancient civic to a variety of calamities and misfortunes. Indeed frequently in the past whole cities
centres and the creation of new ones around churches were major factors in the loss of the previous urban have been destroyed by earthquakes, losing all their original population and even-
unity of space and community. As time passed, and historical circumstances changed, economic stagnation tually being repeopled, as new cities rise on their ruins. 2602
and recurring outbreaks of plague weakened the urban populations. 2593 Ephesus appears to have suf-
fered some population decrease in the inhabited area outside the Byzantine walls before the Persian The role of the state in such major restoration projects was essential. When the central government
invasion of the seventh century. In the fifth and sixth centuries the centre of Ephesus moved to the showed no interest and took no initiative in restoring cities damaged by earthquakes, they never recov-
Church of St. Mary and the bishop's and the governor's palaces. This area was surrounded by a wa!L ered. For example, in Cyprus, Idalion, Golgoi, Throi and Knidos were reduced to small rural commu-
dated to the fifth or early sixth century, 2594 and it included the Arcadiane and the area from the harbour nities by earthquakes in the fourth century, whilst Paphos was also severely affected. When Arltipatris
to the theatre (Plan III). The new line of fortifications left out the area of the Embolos and the Upper in the Byzantine province of Palaestina Prima (today Israel), was destroyed by an earthquake in 419, it
Agora, the old administrative centre, which was apparently no longer in use in the early Byzantine disintegrated into several small communities in the surrounding territory, whose economic activity re-
The other part of the city lay on the fortified hill of Ayasuluk. By 600, ancient Ephesus seems to have placed that of the city. 2603 Obviously, since the city did not serve any political or military purpose, there
comprised only isolated pockets of habitation and of commercial activity, while large areas stood deso- was no interest on the part of the authorities or the local upper class in restoring it, and it was aban-

S. Stevens, Sepultures tardives intra muros a Carthage, in Monuments funeraires. Institutions autochtones enAfrique du
2588 2595
Rautman, The Decline, 285.
Nord antique et medievale. 6''"' colloque int. de l'histoire et de l'archeologie de l'Afrique du nord (Carthage 1995), 207-218; idem. 2596 C. Foss and G. M. A Hanfmann, Regional Setting and Urban Development, in Hanfmann and Waldbaum,A Survey
Transitional Neighborhoods and Suburban Frontiers in Late- and Post-Roman Carthage, in Mathisen and Sivan, Shifting of Sardis, 32-33.
Frontiers, 199; S. P. Ellis and J. H. Humphrey, Interpretation and Analysis of the Cemetery, in Humphrey, The Circus, 325-336. 2597 L. Ennabli, Carthage. Une metropole chretienne du W.ii la fin du Vlfesiecle (Paris 1997), 155.

2589 2598 Fiema, Late-antique Petra, 241.

In the Palatine in Rome, for example, the few tombs with finds, date to the first half of the sixth century and belong to
2599 A Di Vita, I recenti scavi della SA.I.A. a Gortina. Un contributo alla conoscenza di Creta tardo-antica e protobizan-
the Ostrogoths: Fr. Villedieu, Rome: le Palatin (Vigna Barberini), MEFRA 106 (1994), 433.
2590
Lassus, Sanctuaires, 230. tina, XXXVIII CorsiRav 38 (1991), 170-171; idem, Gortina II, 109; idem, Gortyne, Dossiers d'archeologie 256 (2000), 29. On
2591
Bavant, La ville, 263. the break up of cities in clasters of dwellings see Haldon, The Idea, 15-16.
2592 2600
S. Roskams, Urban Transition in North Africa: Roman and Medieval Towns of the Maghreb, in Christie and Lose by, Y angaki, Eleuthema, 311-313.
Towns in Transition, 163-164. 2601
See supra, pp. 40-41.
2593 2602 Agathias II.16.7 (transl. Frendo, 50).
On the plague as one of the causes of urban decline see supra, p. 40.
2594 Karwiese, Gross ist die Artemis, 138-141; idem, The Church of Mary and the Temple of Hadrian Olympius, in H. 2603 M. Fischer, An Early Byzantine Settlement at Kh. Zikrin (Israel). A Contribution to the Archaeology of Pilgrimage in

Koester, Ephesos, Metropolis ofAsia (Valley Forge, Pa. 1995), 311-319. the Holy Land,ACAC XI (1986), II, 1787-1807.
462 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 463

doned. Sagalassos was struck by earthquakes in 518 and 528 after which it never recovered. Its aque-
duct was damaged, which had a negative effect on the life of the city. 2604 In Greece, Thasos and Philippi
were destroyed by earthquakes in the early seventh century, in a period when they no longer had the
resources to recover. 2605 The archaeological record shows that in the latter part of the sixth century and
in the seventh, cities struck by earthquakes were unable to recover. The efforts that the local commu-
nities and the state put into restoring the devastated city were very small in comparison to the efforts of
earlier years. The scale of reconstruction was limited, the materials used and the techniques employed
indicate the cities' financial difficulties. In many cases, especially in the Balkans, the invasions that fol-
lowed immediately afterwards gave the cities the final blow. But even had the invasions not taken place,
still after such natural disasters in the late sixth and in the seventh century, the restored cities would
have been very different, presumably smaller and poorer. The inhabitants would have responded by
levelling off ruins from foundations for new buildings or abandoning the site altogether. Such a reac-
tion is illustrated by Scythopolis, a vivid example of an early mediaeval city that continued to live on
site in very much reduced circumstances after a devastating earthquake in 749. The restoration of the
ancient remains by Israeli archaeologists allows the modern visitor to visualize the city in different
torical periods. The Roman and early Byzantine city may be seen in the area of Palladius Street, and
effects of an earthquake may be surmised from the ruins from the earthquake in the section from the
Roman temple and the nymphaeum to Sylvanus Street. Today the visitor may see the collapsed
columns and the raised level above the ruins, over which the new dwellings were constructed. Parts of
the collapsed columns that projected above the new level of habitation were cut to bring them to the
floor level of the Islamic dwellings (Figures, 58a, 58b, 58c ).
FIG. 58b. Column of the Roman Temple of Scythopolis that collapsed in the earthquake of 749.

FIG. 58a. Muslim walls built with spolia among the ruins of Scythopolis after the earthquake of 749.

FIG. 58c. After the destruction caused by the earthquake of 749, the Muslim residents of
2604
See supra, pp. 224-226, 237,347. Scythopolis built their houses above the level of destruction. In the photo, part of
2605 See supra, p. 25.
a protruding capital was cut to level off the floor of a new house.
464 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 465

The new model of the city steep hilltops, of strong fortifications to defend the cities, and relocating many cities to new naturally de-
fended locations. 2609 In his Buildings, Procopius illustrates this policy with examples from all the provinces
The new model of the city was formed in response to the invasions. New historical conditions of of the empire. One example will suffice. In a district between Amida and Daras, villages lying at the foot
this magnitude brought about a new view of reality and a radical change in the perception and function of the mountain were not fortified. Justinian therefore built a fort on the top of the mountain, so that the
of the city. Large urban centres informed by the Greco-Roman legacy of architecture and urban tradi- villagers could store their valuables there and also seek refuge in case of enemy attacks. 2610 In the Balkans,
tion, with their magnificently adorned centres, spacious colonnaded avenues, residential quarters and such forts multiplied in the sixth century. In the cities, new early Byzantine walls were constructed on a
luxurious mansions, suffered from the failure of imperial defense policy and so could no longer survive much smaller scale than that of the Hellenistic and Roman walls. In some cases the trend had started al-
in the same form. The new model for the Byzantine city emerged in historical circumstances different ready in the third century, to protect the urban centres against the Gothic incursions. In some cities the
from those in which its predecessor evolved. It responded to new conditions of life, which emphasized new line of fortifications enclosed only part of the lower city, and in others it took in both the acropolis
defensive considerations. This change informs transformation of the whole structure of the city. the and part of the lower city. The ancient civic centres were left out, because they were in decline and had
perception of the new function of the city and a profound overturning of the earlier social order. ceased to be centres of urban life. The reduced size of the early Byzantine walls does not indicate reduc-
It is important to emphasize that the new type of Byzantine city first appeared before the sixth cen- tion of the size of the cities, but merely that a small part was defended where people could seek protec-
tury in the areas of the Balkans that were exposed to the invasions. Urban life in the Balkans was af- tion. 2611 One can imagine that in the atmosphere of the years of invasions in the Balkans, and with the in-
fected both by passing waves of invaders and by the constant infiltration of groups of barbarians. Im- creasing militarization of the empire a new consciousness developed of what a city should be and the func-
perial policy had opened the way to this development before the sixth century, when such groups were tions that it was expected to fulfill. 2612 On the eastern frontier, the situation deteriorated later. In the areas
entrusted with the defence of the frontier zones of the empire and were allowed to settle inside the threatened by the Persians, the frontier of Mesopotamia and Armenia was strengthened with massive
frontier. Others were given permission to settle in different areas of the empire as part of a settlement fortifications, while the limes arabicus in Syria south of the Euphrates and in the areas of southern Jordan
concluded after invasions. Barbarian infiltration may have actually been favoured by landowners who entrusted to the Arab foederati, most of the Diocletianic system of forts was abandoned. It is unneces-
found in the barbarians a source of manpower for their estates. During the Avaro-Slavic attack against sary to restate Procopius' blame of Justinian for weakening the frontier of the East with his policy. 2613
Thessalonica in 586, the city's inhabitants received Slavs inside the walls and accommodated them in The real threat of invasions and state policy dictated the relocation of cities to new sites, naturally de-
the public baths, which were not in operation at the time. 2606 They certainly did not consider the Slavs
fended for strategic reasons, such as steep hilltops and river promontories with deep precipitous slopes.
they protected inside their city to be enemies. Such groups brought with them new rural building tech-
The Arlonymous' Strategikon describes the preferred locations for the construction of new cities: on
niques and new elements of material life. They were a factor in the ruralization of the cities in a period
high ground with steep slopes, with rivers flowing around, on promontories in the sea or in large rivers
when the social and economic forces of the cities were weakened. Of course, the role of the cities as
connected with the mainland by narrow stretches of land. 2614 In some cases, sources assure us that the
places of refuge during enemy invasions is known from all historical periods. 2607 In the later part of the
initiative was taken by the state, as is attested in Procopius' Buildings. In other instances, however, one
sixth century in the Balkans, however, the invasions precipitated and intensified trends that had already
can imagine that it was the urban dwellers, under the leadership of local magnates and, above all, the
appeared in the cities. In Justiniana Prima (Caricin Grad), the changes in urban space occurring the
bishop, who transferred their city to nearby fortified sites. 2615 Since the invasions in the northern provinces
last decades of the sixth century during the Avaro-Slavic invasions are very well illustrated, since the
of the Balkans had already begun in the fourth century, and continued to recur and be followed by the
city was abandoned after it was destroyed in a new attack in the early seventh century. Excavations have
revealed the crowded conditions in the last decades of the sixth century inside the urban space caused
by the influx of people from the countryside or the suburbs for security. Everywhere small workshops
and poor houses appear, occupying public and private buildings. Although artisan production contin- fl0178elrn:;, xal Tate; ava~1tvmc; TOJV rr6t.Ewv Tl]V ano n,1v OTQaTLWTC•JV i\rrt817xE 1cuµ17v. i'>L' 17v 1icn7 JTAELOTm yEy6vamv EQllflOL.
;ml rnvc; OTQUTll;JTrn:; i\xb6vrnc; EaUTOVc; 0ECXTQOLc; xal TQUcpaTc; i\µaACXXLOE, xal cmt.GJc; ELJtElV Tfjc; OXQL TOU()E T(IJV rrgayµanov
ued and transactions were conducted by coin, indicating that the city still maintained a substantial level
(tJl:WAELac; auToc; n1v agx11v xal TU OITEQflaTa bt/'JwxE.
of economic activity, the conditions in the city were very different than before. Public space had shrunk 2609
R. MacMullen, Soldier and Civilian in the Later Roman Empire ( Cambridge, Mass., London, England 1963 ), 14-22. and
now, occupied by modest dense habitations and workshops. Moreover, there are signs of rusticity the the classical work of E. N. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire from the First Centwy A.D. to the Third (Baltimore,
urban space, typical in all cities in this period. Maryland 1976); T. E. Gregory, Kastro and Diateichisma as Responses to Early Byzantine Frontier Collapse, Byzantion 62
Sources blame Constantine for causing the weakness of the state in defending its frontiers, its ( 1992), 235-253; Zanini, The Urban Ideal, 201 ff.
2610 Procopius, De aedificiis II.4.15-18.
inability to keep the barbarians out, since he removed most of the troops from the limes and stationed
2611 T. E. Gregory, The Late Roman Wall at Corinth, Hesperia 48 ( 1979), 278: idem, Fortification, 50-53.
them in cities. 2608 As a consequence, the state responded to the invasions by the construction of forts on 2612 Bowden, £pints Vetus, 102-103.
2613 Procopius, Historia arcana XXIV.12. See also B. Isaac, The Limits of Empire: The Roman A1my in the East (Oxford,

revised ed. 1992); Freeman and Kennedy, The Defence; D. H. French and C. S. Lightfoot (eds.), The Eastern Frontier ofthe Roman
2606 Miracula S. Demetrii I, 150-151: xaL noUovc; auTwv ngm:gonaic; TE xaL unoaxfoem neleav Tfi JTOAEL ngoaxwgclv. (he; Empire. Proceedings of a colloquium held at Ankara in September 1988, I-II (BAR lnt. Series, Oxford 1989); W. Liebeschuetz,
µeµwTCoa0m TUµ~ XQT]µmltoVTa ◊T]µ6ma ~aAaveia Twv h Tfjc; ~ag~agLxfjc; JTAT]0voc; µnaxwgouvTwv, xavTEii0Ev :c1.dor 11v The Defences of Syria in the Sixth Century, Studien zu den Militi:irgrenzen Rams II (Cologne 1977), 487-499; Z. T. Fiema, Military
rnic; Tfjc; n61cewc; xagµov~v xaL 0agaoc; i\yylvw0m. Architecture and the Defense "System" of Roman-Byzantine Southern Jordan - A Critical Appraisal of Current Interpretations,
2607 For example, Themistius, Or. 34.14; John of Ephesus, Lives, PO 17 (1923), 19-20; Anonymous' Strategikon, c. 12.31-36 in Jordan V, 261-269.
2614
(p. 34). See supra, pp. 100-101.
2608 Zosimus II.34.2: KaL Ta1JT17v 6~ T~v aacpa1cnav ◊Lacp0Elgwv 6 KwvaTavT1:voc; Twv OTQaTLWTwv TO rroAv µtgoc: n 7iv 2615
Dunn, The transition, favours the role of the state in this development. See also Zanini. The Urban Ideal, 220; Bowden,
foxanwv C(JTOCTTT]Orn:; Talc; OU 6rnµtvmc; ~ori0Elac; JtOAWLV i\yxmECTTTJOE, xaL Touc; i\vox1couµtvouc; {mo ~ag~agwv i\yD[!YltJCTE £pints Vetus, 189-190 emphasizes the role of the bishop as was the case in the West.
466 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 467

permanent settlement of ethnically varied peoples, the changes made in urban space became permanent of the Goths asfoederati in the area in 347/8 and later in 378. They were entrusted with the supply of the
and the cities could never recover their old form. Some cities in the northern provinces of the Balkans army on the Danube, which had been a responsibility of the city in the past. In 448 the city was totally
that suffered from invasion were already showing signs of decline and ruralization in the fifth century. It burnt and abandoned to the Huns. When they departed in 451, it was reoccupied by the Byzantines.
was in these historical circumstances in the fifth century that the new type of city emerged in the Balka- The invasions devastated the countryside and its economy collapsed. Under these new socio-econom-
ns with the characteristics of the mediaeval city. Cities of this type consist of settlements smaller in size, ic conditions, life in the city changed radically. In the second half of the fifth century a new small city
with strong fortifications and housing ecclesiastical authorities and a military garrison. The activities of was built adjacent to the southeast side of the Roman city, using the southeastern wall of Roman
the inhabitants were artisan and agricultural. 2616 They differ above all from the earlier cities in the ab- Nicopolis. The size of the new city was 5.74 ha - almost a quarter of the area of the Roman city- and
sence of an urban upper class and public buildings essential in the Greco-Roman cities. was surrounded by massive walls with towers and three gates. The city planning, however, was totally
Nicopolis ad !strum offers one of the best examples of the withdrawal of the ancient Roman city in different from that of Roman Nicopolis. There was no agora, no orthogonal planning, and no public
the fifth century to a smaller, better-defended site (Plan 60). Nicopolis was affected by the settlement buildings except for two churches and two-storey buildings functioning as barracks and for storage.
There were also some small workshops. The churches are unpretentiously constructed from modest
materials. One, which was large and located on high ground, was probably the episcopal basilica. It was
built from reused material, the floor being paved with bricks, and wood being used for the furnishing.
The city had become merely an ecclesiastical and military centre, without a civilian population, since
there is very little evidence of civilian housing. Some modest structures were identified outside the wall
of the new city in abandoned Roman Nicopolis. The economy of the area, infiltrated by barbarians, was
broken down, and consequently pottery was imported, in contrast to the locally produced pottery of the
past. From the middle of the fifth century the fine ware declines, but there is an increase in amphorae
imported from Africa, the Aegean and Gaza that contained goods clearly intended to supply the army.
Large-scale crop cultivation and grain production was abandoned in the new city, in favour of a market
garden economy, combining crops sown in the spring and a variety of pulses and legumes. The settle-
ment of barbarians in the area interrupted the contacts with, and supply from, the city's hinterland.
Obviously cultivation of crops outside the walls was not secure, and so the inhabitants were forced to
raise them near the walls and inside the town. Rather than being a population centre now, the new city
was a military and ecclesiastical centre, designed by the central government. It was abandoned in the
late sixth century or early in the seventh century, when it was destroyed by fire during the new wave of
invasions. The latest coin found is of Tiberius II (578-582). 2617
Scupi in the province of Dardania also appears to have been deserted by its inhabitants who moved
to nearby forts for protection from invaders at some time before the sixth century. The city was plundered,
and the inhabitants transferred their city to one of the refuges of the area, southeast of Roman Scupi on
the rock Markovi Kuli, apparently before the earthquake that destroyed it in 518. The new town (Plan 61)
was small, 400 m long with three lines of fortifications- also a feature of Justiniana Prima- and two large
cisterns on the upper city. 2618 Further to the south, in northern Greece, the establishment of the Ostro-
goths in Macedonia in the fifth century forced the inhabitants of Pydna to transfer their bishopric to the
site of Louloudies (see supra, p. 389, Plan 41). The form of the new city was a tetrapyrgion with four towers

kftl Site of British Excavations

at the four corners, protecting the bishop's palace inside with workshops and agricultural installations.
Although it seems that many of the inhabitants of Pydna returned to their city after the Ostrogoths left the
area, the new city at Louloudies continued to shelter the bishopric and the artisan and agricultural activ-
0 100 300 ities connected with the Church. It is obvious that Louloudies met the needs of the time better than the
Metres old city at Pydna. Thus during the reign of Justinian it was restored and strengthened. 2619 Outside the city

PLAN 60. Nicopolis ad !strum.

2617
Poulter. Nicopolis. 21-25, 43-48; idem, One City's Contribution, 212-213.
2618 I. Mikulcic, From the topography of Scupi, Archaeologia Jugoslavica 14 (1973), 29-35; idem, Skopje und umgebende
Festungen in der Antike und dem Mittelalter (Skopje 1982); idem, Nordmakedonien, 190-192.
2616 Bavant, La ville, 272; Curta, Peasants, 200; Dunn, The transition. 2619
See supra, pp. 388-389.
468 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY THE TWO MODELS OF THE EARLY BYZANTINE CITY 469

new houses were built in the northern part of the city where the ground was higher, the quality of the
work and the material used indicating the decline of the city. The coins end in 557/8, indicating the date
of the destruction of the city, to reappear in the second year of the reign of Justin II (565-578) and con-
tinue until Maurice (591/2). 2623 When in the early sixth century the Avars attacked Salona on the Adri-
atic coast, the city was abandoned and its inhabitants fled to the nearby islands and to the palace of Dio-
cletian at Aspalathos, Spalatum (Spalato, Split), which then became a city. Many of them left for Italy.
The city of Diocletianoupolis in Thessaly, built on a large, flat plain by Diocletian near the river
Aliakmon, has been identified on the site of Armenochori ea. 4 km from the lake of Castoria. It was de-
serted after the invasion of the Goths in 473-483. Justinian transferred the city to a new location on an
island in the lake of Castoria. The location was secure since access to the island was possible only
through a narrow strip of land fifteen feet wide. 2624 Demetrias was probably destroyed by the Ostro-
goths in 482 and its administrative and ecclesiastical centre was gradually relocated to the fortified hill
of ancient Iolkos. The latter had apparently been inhabited previously and its walls were probably re-
PLAN 61. Early Byzantine Scupi at the site of Markovi Kuli, southeast of Roman Scupi. · · 7625 I n Cappadoc1a,
. the phrowion Mocessus was located on level ground, but lay in
store d b y Justm1an.~
a ruinous state. Justinian relocated it to the west of the old fort above a very steep slope, thus making it
inaccessible to attacks. There the emperor built churches, hospices and baths, and promoted the new
foundation to the rank of metropolis and capital of Cappadocia Tertia. 2626
lies the fortified residential district, not yet excavated. South of the tetrapyrgion by the bank of the river
In the sixth century, the new function of the city as an ecclesiastical and military centre, 2627 without
Sourvala, 8 km from Pydna, a new fortification is located, larger and dating to the second half of the sixth
the defining features of ancient urbanism, namely the agora/forum, colonnaded avenues, spectacle
century. Its size of 5 ha is a little smaller than that of the new fortified city of Nicopolis in the sixth
buildings and other public monuments, obsolete by then, was promoted by the state even in areas where
century. The walls are very strong and the houses inside are densely packed. The settlement had a basilica
the threat of enemy invasions was not obvious. Thus the city type known from various areas of the
constructed from high quality materials, whilst a mosaic pavement decorated a major building. The
Balkans, is also found in Asia Minor. Sagalassos in Pisidia was struck by an earthquake in 518 and suf-
geographical position of the new settlement met the needs that arose during the troubled years of the
fered major destruction. There was some reconstruction work but of lower quality than before, and ac-
second half of the sixth century. It was located on the edge of a plateau above the river that at the time
companied by a great deal of encroachment on the city's public space. The earthquake caused severe
flowed below, thus providing contact with the sea. The new fortified city, at a naturally defended
damage to the six water channels bringing water to the city, which may have been the reason for the re-
location, could give shelter to the inhabitants of the area and offered secure storage for the agricultural
location of the city to nearby Aglasun, which has many early Byzantine remains. During a major earth-
produce. 2620
quake in the middle of the seventh century, the city of Sagalassos collapsed and was abandoned
Justiniana Prima (Caricin Grad in Serbia), an imperial foundation at the birthplace of Justinian,
forever. 2628 In Lycia also, the evolution to the new type of settlement on higher sites, the natural for-
best represents the new model of Byzantine city (Plan I). It was built on a naturally defended site on
mation of which offered security from invasions, appears in the same period. In Late Antiquity, cities
a promontory, surrounded on the two sides by small rivers. It is over 500 m long and at its widest points
like Xanthos, Pinara, Kadyanda, Sidyma and Telmessos, shrank to the acropolis of the Hellenistic and
is 250 m. Its three parts, the acropolis with the bishop's palace, the upper city, with a central circular
Roman periods. Arykanda, built on a plateau 800 m high, was transferred to the new site of Arif, 2 km
plaza, churches and the military headquarters, and the lower city, are surrounded by walls. The separation
away, on a promontory around which a river flows. Arif is a small, fortified settlement 100x250 m (2 1/2
of the city into two or three parts, the upper and lower cities, usually each of them fortified, is typical of
ha), densely built with two-storey houses, a market-plaza, trapezoidal in shape, and at least three
the city-kastron. Such a disposition is also attested in the provinces of the East. For example, in the
churches (Plan 62). Its site, naturally defended by the formation of the land, offered more security to
Church of the Lions at Umm al-Rasas, Kastron Mefaa is shown with the upper town fortified, originally the
its inhabitants. Ovacik and Alakilise are other new, small settlements of the area. The fortress of
Roman castrum, and the lower town also surrounded by a wall (see supra, p. 129, Fig. 12). The existence of
Ovacik, on a steep hilltop, probably replaced a small, late Roman settlement in the valley. Alakilise was
this form of the town is confirmed by archaeological surveys and excavations. 2621 In the seventh century. this
a new settlement of the sixth century in a secluded valley, with 30 two-storey houses furnished with wine
model of an urban centre becomes common, being attested in the literary sources. 2622
For many cities in the sixth century the impact of the invasions was dramatic. For example, most of
the town of Dinogetia in Scythia Minor was destroyed by the Kotrigours in 559. Later the Byzantines
restored part of the town, but in a much more modest and poorer fashion: the ruins were leveled and 2623 I. Barnea, L'incendie de la cite de Dinogetia au vie siecle, Dacia 10 (1966), 237-259.
2624 Procopius, De aedificiis IV.3.1-4. Th. Papazotos, Avaoxacp11 L'.Lox1>.17navoun:6AEW<;. OL rrgl,nE<; Exnµ110EL<;, AD 43A
(1988), 195-218.
2620 2625
A. G. Poulter, Field Survey at Louloudies: A New Late Roman Fortification in Pieria.ABSA 93 (1998), 463-511. Procopius, De aedificiis IV.3.5; Karagiorgou, Demetrias and Thebes, 214-215.
2621 2626
Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 37 and pl. XXI (p. 36), pl. 337; idem, Mosaicists, 397-398 and pl. 10; Piccirillo and Alliata, Umm Procopius, De aedificiis V.4.15-18.
2627
al-Rasas, pl. 1, p. 12. Brandes, Byzantine Cities, 25-31.
2622 Vita S. Theodori Syceotis, c. 160.65-66 (p. 138): ot ,rji; ,:oi} raAOU xoigai; ,:oi} TE avw8Ev xal ,:oi} xa,w8EV 011~wu. 2628
M. Waelkens, Sagalassos. History and Archaeology, in Sagalassos I, 48-49.
470 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

CONCLUSIONS

We have focused here on the various aspects of the city in the sixth century A.D., as presented in
the literary and historical sources and in the archaeological record. Such a focus, however, naturally re-
quires coverage of what went before and we have therefore extended our survey to sources of the fourth
and fifth centuries A.D. For the greater part of the book, we have employed the perspective of a histo-
rian who attempts to relate the considerable archaeological material available to the written sources.
The city as presented here changes slowly but constantly. This transformation occurs in the context
of two major phenomena, namely the great urban development and population increase over the
fourth and fifth centuries and, secondly, the celebration of the city in the majority of the literary texts
of the time. These two factors, taken together, produce an image of urban prosperity, at odds with the
picture that arises from consideration of imperial legislation and of the archaeological record itself.
The idea of the city is one of the dominant concepts in the literature of the period and is to be
found in all texts, in the majority of which it is celebrated and praised. Yet the city is not celebrated in
the same manner in all texts. Most of our sources employ an antique rhetorical vocabulary to formulate

-------
------- their image of the city, whilst purely Christian sources promote a Christian model of urban life. Never-
theless, through the variety of images employed, the often-contradictory urban motifs and the classical
rhetorical cliches, one may discern change and the emergence in the sixth century of a new type of city.
PLAN 62. Arif in Lycia.
The public space of cities, shaped as it was by splendid ancient monuments, gradually lost its rele-
vance for urban life. The changes wrought by Christianity made obsolete the institutions, such as spec-
tacles, with which the buildings and surrounding urban space were associated. Thus ancient urban
buildings were neglected, abandoned, despoiled or encroached upon by private individuals, whilst own-
presses. 2629 The ecclesiastical and military functions of the Greco-Roman city of Panemoteichos in Pisidia ership of ancient public buildings passed to the Church or to private owners, often in the latter case by
were transferred to a new fort at the site of Oren Tepe, about 1.5 km away (supra, p. 390, Plan 42). The illegal means. Despite the fluidity that characterizes the period, the trend towards the decline of public
new fort had a basilica church. Since no early Christian remains have been found in Panemoteichos. it space was strong and universal.
is plausible that the new town became the seat of the local bishop and of a garrison. 2630 Thus the visual aspect of cities changed radically over this period, as they shed their ancient, Greco-
To sum up: the ancient city, no longer supported by institutional traditions, and economic prosperity Roman appearance. The change in urban life and consequently the articulation of urban space over
and an affluent upper class, succumbed to a slow material decline. At the end of the period examined, the sixth century A.D., brought about by the decay of ancient culture and its institutions, was swift and
urban society had begun to be overwhelmingly agrarian. The worldly splendour of the late antique cities complete.
gave way to a modest city with a Christian religious dimension and a strong military identity (see supra, Two other factors, in addition to Christianity, were responsible for this change. One is the eco-
p. 390, plan 42. The new military type of city, the city-kastron, was born as a result of a coordinated state nomic stagnation, evident from the sixth century A.D., caused by the decline of long-distance trade
policy that shaped and gave birth to the mediaeval form of city. throughout the Mediterranean, consequent upon the collapse of the Western Roman empire. The other,
related, factor is the economic decline of the urban upper classes. Both factors will have dramatically
affected the quality of urban life and both merit further investigation, with input from new discoveries
offered by archaeological research. The period of invasions accelerated the process of decline, precip-
itating latent tendencies to ruralization in general and the habit of inhumation within the city in partic-
ular, changes that were encouraged by the Church.
The new, mediaeval city, the kastron, whose architecture emphasized fortification, emerged as a
response on the part of the state to invasion. Indeed, the defensive role of the new type of city was the
2629
major factor that shaped this new urban model.
W. W. Wurster, Survey antiker Stadte in Lykien, in Actes du colloque sur la Lycie antique (Paris 1980), 29-36; R. M.
The general factors behind the urban transformation of the period were cultural, administrative
Harrison, Upland Settlements in Early Medieval Lycia, ibid .. 109-118; idem. Lycie. 232-234; Brandes. Stiidte, 118 ff. Another
example offers the small city of Alakisla in Caria: V. Ruggieri and F. Giordano, Una citta bizantina sul sito cario di Alaki\da. and socio-economic. When seen as part of a broad, slow evolution, their interconnectedness becomes
Rapporto preliminare, OCP 62 (1996), 53-88. clear and they can be understood as part of a broad and complex sequence of historical events.
2630
See supra, p. 390.
 ABBREVIATIONS

I.JOURNALS

M: Anatolian Archaeology
AM:AQXCTtoAoytxaAvaAEXW c£A017vwv
AMS: Les Annales archeologiques arabes syriennes
MSOR: Annual of the American School of Oriental Research
ABSA: The Annual of the British School at Athens
AD: Jtexm0Aoy1xov Llddov
ADAJ: Annual of the Department ofAntiquities of Jordan
AE: ilQXatoAoytxiJ 'Ecp1JflEQ£r;
AEMT: To aQxmoAoytxo EQYO OTJJ MaxdJov£a xm fJQ6.x17
AJA: American Journal ofArchaeology
AnatArch: Anatolian Archaeology
AnatSt: Anatolian Studies
AnBoll: Analecta Bollandiana
AntTard: Antiquite Tardive
Anz.: Anzeiger der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Phil. -Hist. Klasse
APF:Archiv fur Papyntsforschung
APG:Archiv fur Papyntsforschung und ve,wandte Gebiete
ARDA:Annual Report of the Director of the Department ofAntiquities (Cypnts) (until 1979),Annual Re-
port of the Department ofAntiquities ( 1980-)
ASAtene: Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente
AST: Ara§tinna Sonuc;lari Toplantisi
BAR Int. Series: British Archaeological Reports, International Series
BAS OR: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
BASP: Bulletin of the Ame,ican Society of Papyrologists
Bbulg: Byzantinobulgarica
BCH: Bulletin de correspondance hellenique
BEO: Bulletin d'etudes orientates
BibArch: Biblical Archaeologist
BIFAO: Bulletin de l 'Institut franc;ais d 'archeologie orientale
BMGS: Byzantine and Modem Greek Studies
ByzF: Byzantinische Forschungen
ByzSl: Byzantinoslavica
CaMrch: Cahiers archeologiques fin de l'antiquite et moyen age
CorsiRav: Corsi di cultura sull'arte ravennate e bizantina
CQ: The Classical Quarterly
CRAJ: Comptes rendus des seances de l'Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres
474 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ABBREVIATIONS 475

DaM: Damaszener Mitteilungen ZPE: Zeitschrift fiir Papyrologie und Epigraphik

DCME: L'.lt:Jriov rfjc; XQtaTtavtxfjc; 'AQxawJoytxfjc; 'ErntQdac; ZRVI: Zbornik radova Vizantoloskog Instituta
DOP: Dumbarton Oaks Papers ZSSRom: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung fiir Rechtsgeschichte, Romanistische Abteilung
EAE: To "EQyov rfjc; 'A(}XCTlOAOytxfjc; 'ErntQEiac;
EEBS: 'EnETYJQic; 'ErntQdac; Bv,avnvwv l:nov6wv
ESI: Excavations and Surveys in Israel/}fadashot Arkeologiyot II. PRIMARY SOURCES
ET: Etudes et Travaux (Warsaw)
FelRav: Felix Ravenna AASS:Acta Sanctontm.
GRBS: Greek Roman and Byzantine Studies Aelius Aristides: B. Keil (ed. ),AeliiAristidis smyrnaei quae supersunt omnia, 2 vols. (Orationes XVII-LI-
HSCP: Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 11) (Berolini 1898, repr. 1958); C. A. Behr (ed.), P. AeliiAristidis Opera quae exstant omnia (Ora-
HThR: Harvard Theological Review tiones I-XVI) (Lugduni Batavorum 1976-1980).
IEJ: Israel Exploration Journal Aeneas ofGaza,Ep.: L. Massa Positano (ed.),Enea di Gaza, £pistole (Naples 1962).
IstMitt: Istanbuler Mitteilungen Agathias: R. Keydell (ed.), Agathiae Myrinaei Historiantm libri quinque (Berlin 1967); English transla-
JbA Chr: Jahrbuch fiir Antike und Christen tum tion: J. D. Frendo,Agathias: The Histories (Berlin, New York 1975).
Jdl: Jahrbuch des deutschen archaologischen Instituts - , Epigrams: G. Viansino, Epigrammi (Milan 1967); English translation W. R. Paton, ed. Loeb.
JEA: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology Ammianus Marcellinus: W. Seyfarth (ed.), Rentm gestantm lib,i qui supersunt, 2 vols. (Leipzig 1978).
IFA: Journal of Field Archaeology Anonymous' Strategikon: G. T. Dennis, Three Byzantine Military Treatises. Text, Translation, and Notes
JHS: The Journal of Hellenic Studies (Washington, D.C. 1985), 1-136.
JJP: Journal of Juristic Papyrology Anthologia Graeca: H. Beckby ( ed.),Anthologia Graeca, 4 vols. (Munich 1965); English translation: W.
JOA/: Jahreshefte des Oste1,eichischen archiiologischen Instituts R. Paton, ed. Loeb.
JOB: Jahrbuch der Oste1,eichischen Byzantinistik/Jahrbuch der Oste1,eichischen byzantinischen Gesellschaft Apophthegmata Patntm: Apophthegmata Patntm, PG 65, 71-440.
IRA: Journal of Roman Archaeology Asdracha, Inscriptions: C. Asdracha, Inscriptions chretiennes et protobyzantines de la Thrace orien-
IRS: The Journal of Roman Studies tale et de l'ile d'Imbros (Ille-VIie siecles ). Presentation et commentaire historique, AD 49-50
KST: Kazi Sonw;lari Toplantisi ( 1994-1995), 279-356.
LAA: Late Antique Archaeology 1: L. Lavan and W. Bowden (eds.), Theory and Practice in Late Antique Bandy, Inscriptions: A. C. Bandy, The Greek Christian Inscriptions of Crete (Athens 1970).
Archaeology (Leiden, Boston 2003); 2: W. Bowden, L. Lavan and C. Machado (eds.), Recent Borkowski, Inscriptions: Z. Borkowski, Inscriptions des factions a Alexandrie. Alexandrie II (Warsaw
Research on the Late Antique Countryside (Leiden, Boston 2004) 1981).
MDAI/AA: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts. Athenische Abteilung Cassiodorus, Variae: Th. Mommsen, Cassiodori senatoris Variae (Berlin 1894); A. J. Fridh and J. W.
MDAIJRA: Mitteilungen des Deutsch en Archaeologischen Instituts. Romische Abteilung Halporn, Corpus Ch,istianontm, s. latina 95 (Lund 1973).
MEFRA: Melanges de !'Ecole franc,;aise de Rome. Antiquite Choricius: R. Foerster and E. Richtsteig (eds.), Choricii Gazaei Opera (Leipzig 1929). Or./: 'Eyxwµwv
MEFR/MA: Melanges de !'Ecole franc;aise de Rome. MoyenAge a:
de; Maexwvov in{axo::rov ra,ryc;. A6yoc; 1-26. Or. II: 'Eyxwµwv EL£ MagxLavov EJtlCTXOJtOV
OCP: Orientalia Christiana Periodica fa~ll£- A6yo£ ~,, 26-4 7. Or. III: Elc; 'Aeanov 6oiJxa xai l:dq;avov aexovrn, 48-69; English trans-
PAE: llQaxnxa 'AQXatoJoytxfjc;'ErntQdac; lation by Litsas, Choricius: F. K. Litsas, Choricius of Gaza: An Approach to His Work (Introduction,
PBSR: Papers of the Britisch School at Rome Translation, Commentmy) (PhD Diss., University of Chicago 1980).
PEFQ: Palestine Exploration Fund. Quarterly Statement (until 1936) CIG: Corpus inscriptionum graecantm.
PEQ: Palestine Exploration Qua,terly (1937 - ) CIL: Corpus inscriptionum latinantm.
QDAP: Quarterly of the Department ofAntiquities in Palestine CJ: Codex Justinianus, CIC, vol. 2.
RDA C: Report of the Department ofAntiquities, Cypnts CIC: Corpus Juris Civilis I, Institutiones, ed. P. Kruger; Digesta, ed. Th. Mommsen; II, Codexlustinianus,
REB: Revue des etudes byzantines ed. P. Kruger; III, Novellae, eds. R. Scholl and W. Kroll (Berlin 1892-1895; repr. 1945-1963).
REG: Revue des etudes grecques Corippus, In laudem Iustini: Av. Cameron, Flavius Cresconius Corippus. In laudem Iustini Augusti mi-
ROC: Revue de !'Orient chretien noris Lib,i W (London 1976).
Settimane: Settimane di studio del Centro Italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo (Spoleto) Cosmas Indicopleustes: W. Wolska-Conus, Cosmas Indicopleustes. Topographie chretienne. Introduc-
TAPM: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association tion, texte critique, illustration, traduction et notes, 3 vols. (Paris 1968-1973).
TM: Travaux et memoires CTh: T. Mommsen, P. M. Meyer, Theodosiani libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis (Berlin
VV: Vizantijskij vremennik 1905, repr. Dublin, Zurich 1970-1971); English translation: C. Pharr, The Theodosian Code and
ZDPV: Zeitschrift des Deutschen Paliistina-Vereins Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions (Princeton 1952, repr. 1970).
476 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ABB RE VIATI ONS 477

Cyril of Scythopolis: E. Schwartz, Kyrillos von Skythopolis (Leipzig 1939); English translation: R. M. John Lydus, De magistratibus: A. C. Bandy, Ioannes Lydus, On Powers or the Magistracies of the Roman
Price, Cyril of Scythopolis: The Lives of the Monks of Palestine (Kalamazoo, Michigan 1991). State. Introduction, Critical Text, Translation, Commentary, and Indices (Philadelphia 1983).
Dagron and Feissel, Inscriptions: G. Dagron and D. Feissel, Inscriptions de Cilicie (Paris 1987). - , De mensibus: R. Wuensch, Liber De mensibus (Leipzig 1898).
Daniel of Scete: M. L. Clugnet, Vie et recits de !'Abbe Daniel, de Scete (VIe siecle), ROChr 5 (1900). - , De ostentis: R. Wachsmuth, De ostentis (Leipzig 1897).
49-73, 254- 261, 370-391. John of Antioch: C. de Boor, Excerpta de Insidiis, Excerpta histmica iussu imp. Constantini Porphyro-
De scientia politica: C. M. Mazzucchi, Menae patricii cum Thoma referendario De scientia politica dialo- geniti, vol. III (Berlin 1905), 58-150.
gus (Milan 1982). John of Ephesus, Historia Ecclesiastica: E.W. Brooks, Iohannis Ephesini Historiae Ecclesiasticae Pars
Dig.: Digesta, CIC, vol. 1. Tertia, 2 vols. (Paris 1936, repr. Louvain 1952).
Dioscorus: J.-L. Fournet, Hellenisme dans l'Egypte du VJ, siecle. La bibliotheque et l'ceuvre de Dioscore - , Lives: John of Ephesus, Lives of the Eastern Saints, Sy,iac Text edited and translated by E.W. Brooks,
d'Aphrodite, 2 vols. (Le Caire 1999). PO 17 (1923), 1-307; 18/4 (1924), 513-698; 19/2 (1926), 153-285.
Dorotheus of Gaza: L. Regnault and J. de Preville, Dorothee de Gaza, Oeuvres spirituelles. Introduction, John of Nikiou: R. H. Charles, The Chronicle of John (c. 690 A.D. ), Coptic Bishop of Nikiu, translated
texte grec, traduction et notes (Paris 1963). from Zotenberg's Edition of the Ethiopic Version (Oxford 1916).
Eunapius: Eunapii Vitae Sophistarum, ed. J. Giangrande (Rome 1956). Joshua the Stylite: The Chronicle ofJoshua the Stylite, composed in SyriacA.D. 507, with a Translation into
Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica: E. Schwartz, Eusebius Werke, II. Die Kirchengeschichte (Leipzig 1903- English and Notes by W. Wright (Cambridge 1882); German translation: A. Luther, Die sy,ische
1909). Chronik des Josua Stylites (Berlin-New York 1997).
- , Vita Constantini: I. A. Heikel, Eusebius Werke. Uber das Leben Konstantins (Leipzig 1902). Julian: Julian, Works, ed. W. C. Wright, 3 vols., ed. Loeb.
Evagrius, Historia Ecclesiastica: J. Bidez and L. Parmentier, The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius (London Julian of Ascalon: C. Saliou, Le traite d'urbanisme de Julien d'Ascalon. Droit et architecture en Palestine
1898, repr. Amsterdam 1964); English translation: M. Whitby, The Ecclesiastical History of EvagJius au V/< siecle (Paris 1996).
Scholasticus (Liverpool 2000). Lefebvre, Recueil: M. G. Lefebvre, Recueil des insc,iptions grecques-chretiennes d'Egypte (Le Caire 1907).
Feissel, Inscriptions de Macedoine: D. Feissel, Recueil des inscriptions chretiennes de Macedoine du Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions: C. M. Lehmann and K. G. Holum, The Greek and Latin Inscriptions
au V/c siecle, BCH, Suppl. VIII (Athens 1983). of Caesarea Maritima (Boston, MA 1999).
Feissel and Kaygusuz, Un mandement: D. Feissel and I. Kaygusuz, Un mandement imperial du Leontius, Homiliae: C. Datema and P. Allen, Leontii presbyteri Constantinopolitani Homiliae (Turnhout,
siecle dans une inscription d'Hadrianoupolis d'Honoriade, TM9 (1985), 397-419. Leuven 1987).
Feissel and Philippidis-Braat, Inventaires: D. Feissel and A. Philippidis-Braat, Inventaires en vue d'tm Libanius: R. Foerster (ed.), Opera, 12 vols. (Leipzig 1903-1927, repr. Hildesheim 1963); G. Fatouros,
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Mistra), TM9 (1985), 267-395. Selected Works, 3 vols., ed. Loeb; G. Downey, Libanius' Oration in Praise of Antioch (Oration
Flusin, Saint Anastase: B. Flusin, Saint Anastase le Perse et l'histoire de la Palestine au debut du Vile siecle. XI), Translated with Introduction and Commentary, Proceedings of the American Philos. Society
I. Les textes; II. Commentaire (Les moines de Jerusalem et !'invasion perse) (Paris 1992). 103 (1959), 652-686.
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beschreibungen justinianischer Zeit (Leipzig, Berlin 1912). REG 70 (1957), 118-132.
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Hermogenes: H. Rabe, Hermogenis opera (Leipzig 1913). Jeffreys and R. Scott, The Chronicle of John Malalas: A Translation (Melbourne 1986).
Himerius: A. Colonna, Himerii declamationes et orationes (Rome 1951 ). Maleh us: R. C. Blockley, The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire: Eunapius,
Historia Lausiaca: C. Butler, The Lausiac Histo,y, 2 vols. in 1 (Cambridge 1898-1904, repr. Hildesheim Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus (Liverpool 1983), II, 402-462.
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IGSyr: L. Jalabert, R. Mouterde, C. Mondesert, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie; vol. I: Com- Marcellinus Comes: T. Mommsen, Chronica minora, III, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores
magene et Cyrrhestique (Paris 1929); vol. II: Chalcidique etAntiochene (Paris 1939); vol. IIl/1: Region Antiquissimi XI (1894), 37-108.
de l'Amanus, Antioche (Paris 1950); vol. III/2: Antioche (suite). Antiochene (Paris 1953); vol. IV: Menander Protector: R. C. Blockley, The History of Menander the Guardsman. Introductory Essay, Text,
Laodicee. Apamene (Paris 1955); vol. V: Emesene (Paris 1959); vol. XIIl/1: M. Sartre, Bostra Translation, and Historiographical Notes (Liverpool 1985).
(Paris 1982); XXl/2: Inscriptions de la Jordanie. Region Centrale (Amman-Hesban-Madaba-Main- Menander Rhetor: D. A. Russell and N. G. Wilson, Menander Rheto,~ edited with Translation and Com-
Dhiban) (Paris 1986); XXl/4: M. Sartre, Petra et la Nabatene meridionale du wadi al-Hasa au golfe mentary (Oxford 1981) = L. Spengel, Rhetores Graeci, vol. III (Leipzig 1856).
deAqaba (Paris 1993). Michael the Syrian: J. -B. Chabot, Chronique de Michel le Syrien, patriarche jacobite d 'Antioche (1166-
Inschr. Ephesos: H. Wankel et al., Die Inschriften von Ephesos, vols. I-VIII (Bonn 1979-1984). 1199), 4 vols. (Paris 1899-1910, repr. Brussels 1960 with French translation).
Inscriptiones Creticae: M. Guarducci, lnscriptiones creticae, IV, Tituli Gortynii (Rome 1950). Miracula S. Artemii: V. S. Crisafulli and J. W. Nesbitt, The Miracles of St. Artemios. A Collection of Miracle
Inst.: Institutiones, CIC, vol. 1. Stories by an Anonymous Author of Seventh-Century Byzantium (Leiden 1997).
Jacob of Serugh: C. Moss, Jacob of Serugh's Homilies on the Spectacles of the Theatre, Le Museon. Revue Miracula S. Demetrii: P. Lemerle, Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de Saint Demetrius et la penetra-
d'etudes orientates 48 (1935), 87-112. tion des Slaves dans les Balkans. I. Le texte, II. Commentaire (Paris 1979, 1981).
478 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ABBREVIATIONS 479

Miracula SS. Cyri et Johannis: S. N. F. Marcos, Los Thaumata de Sofronio. Contribucion al estudio de la Theodoret of Cyrus, Ep.: Y. Azema, Theodoret de Cyr, Correspondance, 3 vols. (Paris 1955-1965).
Incubatio cristiana (Madrid 1975). - , Historia Ecclesiastica: L. Parmentier, Theodoret. Kirchengeschichte (Leipzig 1911, revised F.
Mitford, Inscriptions: T. B. Mitford, The Inscriptions of Kourion (Philadelphia 1971 ). Scheidweiler, Berlin 1954).
Moschus:Anµwv, PG 87/3, 2852-3112. - , Historia Philoth.: P. Canivet and A. Leroy-Molinghen, Theodoret de Cyr, Histoire des moines de Syrie:
Nonnus, Dionysiaca: F. Vian et al. (eds.), Nonnos de Panopolis, Les Dionysiaques (Paris 1976 -); English "Histoire philothee", 2 vols. (Paris 1977, 1979).
translation: W. H. D. Rouse, Dionysiaca, 3 vols., ed. Loeb. - , Therapeutike: P. Canivet, Theodoret de Cyr. Therapeutique des maladies helleniques, 2 vols. (Paris
Novellae: Novellae, CJC, vol. 3. 1958).
Panegyricus S. Claudii: G. Gordon, Textes coptes relatifs a Saint Claude d'Antioche, PO 35/4 (1970), Theophanes: Theophanis Chronographia, ed. C. de Boor, 2 vols. (Leipzig 1883, 1885, repr. Hildesheim
486-507. 1963).
Parastaseis: Av. Cameron and J. Herrin, Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century: the Parastaseis Theophylact Simocatta: Theophylacti Simocattae Historiae, ed. C. de Boor, revised P. Wirth (Stuttgart
Syntomoi Chronikai. Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Leiden 1984). 1972); English translation: L. M. and M. Whitby, The History of Theophylact Simocatta. An English
Patria: T. Preger, Sc,iptores originum constantinopolitanarum, 2 vols. (Leipzig 1901-1907, repr. New Translation with Introduction and Notes (Oxford 1986).
York 1975). - , Ep.: Theophylacti Simocatae Epistulae, ed. I. Zanetto (Leipzig 1985).
PG: J.-P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, Series graeca (Paris 1857-1866). Vita Procli: R. Masullo, Vita di Proclo, teste critico, introduzione, traduzione e commentario (Naples
PO: R. Graffin and F. Nau, Patrologia Orientalis, vols. 1- (Paris 1904 -). 1985).
Priscian, Panegyricus Anastasii: A. Chauvot, Procope de Gaza, Priscien de Cesaree: panegyriques de l'em- Vita S. Alypii Stylitae: H. Delehaye, Les Saints stylites (Brussels 1923), 148-169.
pereur Anastase fer (Bonn 1986). Vita S. Antonii: Athanase d'Alexandrie, Vie d'Antoine, ed. G. J.M. Bartelink, Sources Chretiennes 400
Procopius, De aedificiis: IlEQl xr:wµ6:rwv, Procopii Caesariensis opera omnia, vol. IV, ed. J. Haury, re- (Paris 1994).
vised by G. Wirth (Leipzig 1964); English translation: H. B. Dewing, ed. Loeb, vol. VII. Vita S. Danielis Stylitae: H. Delehaye, Les Saints Stylites (Brussels, Paris 1923 ), 1-147.
- , De Bello Gallico; De Bello Persico; De Bello Vandalico: '.½"TEQ r:wv :rwUµwv, Opera omnia, De Bellis Vita S. David: V. Rose, Leben des heiligen David von Thessalonike (Berlin 1887), 3-15.
Libri I-IV, ed. J. Haury, revised G. Wirth, 2 vols. (Leipzig 1962-1964); English translation: H. Vita S. Eutychii: C. Laga, Eustratii presbyteri Vita Eutychii Patriarchae Constantinopolitani (Turnhout,
Dewing, ed. Loeb, vols. I-V. Leuven 1992).
, Historia arcana: Procopius, ½vix6orn, Opera omnia, vol. III, ed. J. Haury, revised G. Wirth Vita S. Golindouch: A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, ½vaAExrn 'IEQOOoAvµmxij<; L-rnxvo,1.oyia<; IV (St.
(Leipzig 1963); English translation: H. B. Dewing, ed. Loeb, vol. VI. Petersbourg 1897), 149-174.
Procopius of Gaza, Ekphrasis: "ExcpgaOL£ dx6vo£ EV tfi rroAEL twv rata(wv xaµtv17£, P. Friedlander, Vita S. Gregentii: A. A. Vasiliev, Zitie sv. Grigentija, episkopa Omiritskogo, W14 (1907, 1909), 23-67.
Spiitantiker Gemiildezyklus in Gaza des Prokopios von Gaza "Exq;r:am<; Elx6voc; (Vatican 1939). Vita S. GregoriiAgrigentini: Leontios Presbyteros von Rom. Das Leben des heiligen Gregorios vonAgrigent.
- , Ep.: A. Garzya and R.-J. Loenertz, Procopii Gazaei epistolae et declamationes (Ettal 1963). Kritische Ausgabe, Ubersetzung und Kommentar vonAlbrecht Berger (Berlin 1995).
- , Panegyricus Anastasii: A. Chauvot, Procope de Gaza, Priscien de Cesaree: panegyriques de l'empereur Vita S. Hypatii: G. J. M. Bartelink, Callinicos, Vie d'Hypatios, Introduction, texte critique, traduction et
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lettres d'un metropolite de Phrygie au xe
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494 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY ABBREVIATIONS 495

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496 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

Wiegand, Priene: Th. Wiegand et al., Priene. Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen und Untersuchungen in den
Jahren 1895-1898 (Berlin 1904).
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2005).
Yegiil, Baths: F. Yegiil, Baths and Bathing in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London
1992).
APPENDIX I
Zanini, The Urban Ideal: E. Zanini, The Urban Ideal and Urban Planning in Byzantine New Cities
the Sixth Century AD, LAA l (2003), 196-223.
TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS
Zayadine, Jerash: F. Zayadine (ed.), Jerash Archaeological Project. I. 1981-1983 (Amman 1986); II.
1984-1988 (Paris 1989).
OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES
Zellinger, Bad: J. Zellinger, Bad und Bader in der altch,istlichen Kirchen (Munich 1928).
498 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 499

t G
'1
_:.:. - 11"1
\I N
,,
\I

,,//
I
6

2/ \
. )c,,,J I ,, ,

~>A,\
\
\

0
- ~-=-~ 1 t
::-::::==~-
A B C E G

II. Golemanovo Kale.

0 50 100 200
EH3::EA:Cl:H3::===:::E=======31 Metres

I. Justiniana Prima. 1. Bishop's Church/Basilica A. 2. Baptistery. 3. "Consignatorium". 4. Street on the Acropolis.

5. Bishop's Palace. 6. Acropolis Gate. 7. Plaza and commercial centre. 8. East Gate of the upper city. 9. Basilica C.
10. Shops along the main street (or barracks?). 11. Basilica B. 12. Basilica F. 13. Villa urbana. 14. Principia. 15. South
Gate of the upper city. 16. Baths. 17. Basilica G. 18. Basilica D. 19. Cisterns. 20. Baths or Church. 21. Basilica E.
500 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 501

-
j

'._,~ (

'~

Ill

IIL Ephesus, 3, Koressian Harbour, 4, Temples of Zeus and Meter, 5, Aqueduct of Aristion. 6. Archaic City Walls Hellenistic Monopteros and Tomb of Dionysius Rhetor. 55. Library of Celsus. 61. Lower or Tetragonos Agora.
of Koressos. 7. Stoa of Damianus. 8. Seven Sleepers Grotto, 9. Armenian Chapel, 10, Magnesian Gate. 11. Hel- 65. West Street. 66. Gate of Medusa, 67. Temple of Serapis. 70, Round Tomb. 71. Grotto of St. Paul, 72. Theatre
lenistic City Walls. 12, East Gymnasium, 13. Basilica at East Gymnasium. 14, Fountain House of Aristion near Square with Fountain. 75. Theatre with Hellenistic Fountain House. 76. Palace above the theatre, 77. Byzantine city
South Street. 15. Tomb of Luke. 16. Upper Gymnasium (Gymnasium of the Youth). 17. Surge Tanks of Mamas walls. 78, Plateia in Koressos. 79, Theatre Gymnasium. 80. Apsidal Building. 81. Byzantine Palace. 83. Arcadiane.
Aqueduct. 18. Upper Agora or State Agora. 19. Gate to State Agora. 20. Temple of Caesar and Roma. 21. Stoa- 84. Monument of the Four Evangelists. 85. Church near Arcadian e. 86. Exedra. 87. Harbour Gate of Arcadiane. 88.
Basilica. 22. Bouleuterion and Temenos of Augustus and Prytaneion. 30. Flavian Temple of the Emperors. 31. Southern Harbour Gate, 89. Northern Harbour Gate. 90. Warehouses. 91. Atrium Thermarum. 92. Harbour
Domitian's Square with Domitian's Fountain and Pollio Monument. 32. Monument of Memmius. 33. Hydreion. 34. Baths. 93. Harbour Gymnasium. 94. Xystoi (Porticoes of Verulanus). 95. Church of Mary. 96. Baptisterium.
Hellenistic Round Monument. 35. Heracles Gate, 36, Kuretes Street (Embolos) with Fountain built by Aristion. 39. 97, Bishop's Palace. 98, Olympieion (Temple of Hadrian), 100. Macellum. 101. Byzantine Fountain House.
Baths Lane. 41. Baths of Vari us rebuilt by Scholasticia and Temple of Hadrian, 42. Lane of the Academy, 43, La- 102. Hellenistic Fortress and Byzantine Peristyle House. 103. Crevice Temple. 104. Stadium. 105. Church in Stadi-
trines and private house, 50. Terrace House 1 with the Stoa of Alytarches. 51. Terrace House 2 and in front of the um's North Gate. 106. Gymnasium of Vedius. 107. Byzantine Gate in City Wall. 110. South Street. 115. Modern
Embolos the Gate of Hadrian, Heroon, Octagon and Nymphaea, 52. Monumental Altar and in front Late upper entrance to the site. 116. Modern lower entrance to the site.
502 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 503

\25
\
70

~-~\:
• .,_.._
- · .69
,.. _..-'\ \

·:~
l 68
c ~;·, 57
' - .
. ' \
h. !,II
•'"66 '

·-.:·, .

ti2
'.I
' t..
/1.l'l!l n~"Tf.1/1. 65

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- p.'<r-rol'O
p."f\C\15

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0 SOrn.

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..
.

V. The centre ofScythopolis: 1. Theatre. 2. Portico. 3. Western Baths. 4. Propylaeum in Palladius Street. 5. Shops
IV. The agora ofThessalonica.
of the Roman period. 6. Palladius Street. 7. The exedra (sigma) on the site of the Roman odeum. 8. Roman
odeum. 9. Roman colonnades and reconstructed area of the Roman temenos.10. Dismantled Roman colonnades
with a Byzantine public building built above them. 11. Northern Street. 12. Propylaeum and stairway to the
acropolis. 13. Propylaeum between the temple esplanade and the acropolis. 14. Temple with the round cella.
15. Nymphaeum. 16. Monument of Antonius. 17. Valley Street. 18. Central Monument. 19. Roman basilica with
porticoes of the Byzantine agora above it. 20. Byzantine agora. 21. Umayyad pottery workshop. 22. Roman tem-
ple. 23. Roman cult structures. 24. Public latrines. 25. Eastern Baths. 26. Roman portico, later Silvanus Hall.
27. Roman decorative pool with Umayyad shops above it. 28. Silvanus Street. 29. Semicircular plaza.
 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 505
504

CENTRAL ARE.A
Nnflh Colonnadt.! SlrQet

ATH~NA
CHALJNITI~ !

- --- .
1-
.,
0:
I-
Synagogue Church
,;:°'"·n ,ie al NOllh Bridge

o~~eum
,,
"
~ Eall '
BalhsM ::
'
\I, 1
Modern City of J&r$stl

.I
--~-
:,
I•
I
.•1. ·\-___f JL::H__ _
.,_, 1' •

'.::===========;, .. ____,~ . . ----1.r·-- ....

- -----·sc~•~ ·occ~man~s
M:,::, Too,1 .,i
~r--- ,. ,,
:~
Aest aurant

t:t.._ South Colonnad:•s~ ()

l..._,JSS P~ter & Paul \.._.
C<"mP
M o rt u ary Churc:h .,, t h ll
O v~ 1

\
I

Va:IP)~ Garrten

P,vPI
'\
C1 u vsort~
\\

·--..

o....,....,____~100 M.
4=0=--==--=-::j-...

M ._.,..•.-e:....-:.'..
~=---"tpo
VIia. The forum of Corinth.

VI. Gerasa.
506
THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY
TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES
507

2 3

- - - - - - - - One Kilometer

C N
C

D
h C
0 .. ..
J(

E E

I lfathE
2 I lippodn,rn,
3 Bath B
4 Alriun1 Jlou'ie
5 Ralh ll
6BmhA
7 Halh C
M
8 Hy✓,1ntin" Sta<.Uum
0 9 Martyrion of St. llahyias (KaoussieJ
JO!lathF
I I flouse of ll-.., Calendar
N 12 !louse of ll-.., Dnu1kcn Dion_>,;<,s
,, !3 Chamnion (ru..:k-cut relict)
14 Thcater

0 IO 20 . .. ~-. r .. . . -
..... , -'

tllflUl,t•
l 5 Aniphitl-..,atcr
l 6 Nc.'Cmpolis of Mr-..,misyn,
(Uk.';ttlin. an.: .1pp111xirn11c. h:N.'C..1on U:vi l\.,._.7,
2 3 4 5
' ,-,1, I, l;. J'r-.:t::inli, J\U;HU\ IU\ p. I0.221
6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Vllb. Plan of the forum of Corinth in the early Byzantine period.

VIII. Plan of Antioch.
508 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 509

.-: .:·:::.:i
i::;;::;:,.,.,
l
Ii~ }:-Ll.Lli
....0 __: -s....·
' . --- : -.......i

X. Sagalassos in Pisidia.

I HOUSE ,1 . THEATER APHRODISIAS

2 TEMPLE OF APHROOITE 12. TETRASTOON
3 SCULTORS' WORKSHOP 13. THEATEA BATHS RESTORED PLAN OF CITY CENTER
4. HOUSE 14. GAUDlN'S FOUNTAIN
5,
6
7.
SOULETERtON ANO NORTH AGOAA
TETRAPYLON
HOUSE
15. GAUOIN'S GYMNASIUM
16. TETRAJ<JONION
17. 8ASIUCA
0 25
DRAWN 1:2000
100m
(I)
a. HOUSE 1a. HAORlANIC BATHS CONTOUR INTERVAL. TWO MmRS N
0. SEBASTEION 19. SOUTH.A.GORA
10 HOUSE 20. AGORA GATE
H. MAAK, 2000

IX. The civic centre of Aphrodisias.

 TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 511
510 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY

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Cl
Umayyad

◊ CISTERN
farmhous~ ASPAR

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Reservoir

Reservoir

SEA OF MARMARA

Hippodrome
oc:::=:::::::::500:i::::====1=0:i:oo::====1::isooc:::==:::2S-ooo Metres

XI. Plan of Bostra.

XII. Plan of Constantinople.
512 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 513

"Bud.s' Tomb" -o
MonMliruu and hus.picn

□□ D
St Si«phen'ii Church
o1nd Monaslirry
Cemetery

Cemelery
Ch.,pel
D (Arnwruan mosaic)

C"-'D
I01pheus mosa.icl

&thho., ..,:::)
Church
of Mary's Tomb0

Mount of Olivn,'
Chutchu ...,.
Temple Mount

(Rumsl

II
II
II
§, 11 City

I
II of David

a...i,ca
111 I
II
II
ol Holy Zion~ "Oawl', II
Tomb" .,.~;;;· II
11
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II
Church or st. Prter
in Gah:antu
\\~
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and Pool
..
_/
\\ Gat,('I)

,,
\\

D \

Valley of ttmnom Proclus(')

0 50 100

XIII. Plan of Jerusalem in the early Byzantine period. XIV. The Acropolis of Athens and the Post-Herulian wall.
514 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 515

AGOPA
5Tli CENTURY A.D.

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XVI. Plan of Salona.

50 100
M.

XV. The Athenian Agora in the fifth century AD.

 THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 517
516

LATE ANTIQUE CAESAR EA (6th century)

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XVII. Plan of Stobi in Macedonia Secunda: 1. North Basilica. 2. Civil Basilica. 3. Small Bath. 4. Central
.
-- -·-
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l
Basilica/Synagogue. 5. The House of Polycharmus. 6. Large Bath. 7. The House of Peristerias. 8-9. The
House of Parthenius. 10. Bath so-called Casino (6th c.). 11. Bishop's palace. 12. Domus Fullonica. 13. Exedra
with shops. 14. Via Principalis. 15. Episcopal Church. 16. Baptistery. 17. Theatre. 18. Southwestern Tower. XVIII. Plan of Caesarea Maritima.
19. Roman walls. 20. Cemetery. 21-22. The West wall. 23-24. The inner early Byzantine wall. 25. Bath.
26. House (Casa Romana). 27. Early imperial east wall. 29. North Tower.
 TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS OF EARLY BYZANTINE CITIES 519
THE BYZANTINE CITY IN THE SIXTH CENTURY
518

- : ~are
....,,.__,,___Nort I~ ,..__._-,oo'----'------''----soo_. .1
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b ~15
10

13
- 7111

XX. Plan of Apamea.

XIX. Philippi: 1. The line of Roman wall. la. The Neapolis Gate. lb. The acropolis. 2. The the-
atre. 3. Temple of Artemis. 4. Temple of Silvanus. 5. Temple of the Egyptian gods. 6. Basilica
A 7. Heroon. 8. Prison of St. Paul. 9. Roman forum. 10. Roman macellum. 11. Basilica B. 12. The
palaestra. 13. Roman baths. 14. The Octagon. 15. The Hellenistic heroon. 16. The bishop's
palace. 17. Roman baths. 18. Roman street. 19. Basilica E (or Basilica of the Museum, now
known as Basilica C).
APPENDIX II

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Map 4. Synekdemos of Hierocles: The provinces of the Middle East.

Map 3. Synekdemos of Hierocles: The provinces of Egypt.
 APPENDICES 527

37. photo by the author

38a-38b. Y. Tsafrir, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Archaeology, photos by G. Laron
39. photo by the author
40. photo by G. Koch, courtesy of Dumbarton Oaks
41. photo by the author
42. R. Cormack,Aphrodisias Papers 2, p. 109, fig. 1, courtesy of R.R.R. Smith
43. Beil She' an, Capital of the Decapolis, ed. Israel Antiquities Authority, 1996, p. 18
APPENDIX III 44. photo by the author
45. engraving by J. Stuart and N. Revett, 1751-1753
A. LIST OF FIGURES 46. photo by the author
47a-47b. photos by the author
48. photo by the author
The author wishes to express her gratitude to scholars and institutions for permission to reproduce the illustrations that 49. courtesy of Luke Lavan
follow. 50a-50b. M. B. Sakellariou (ed.), 'H:ru:t(!oi;. 4000 XQOVta dJ..17vtxfJi; taWQiai; xat :rr:oJ..maµov, Athens 1997,
figs. 103, 140
1. photo by the author 51. Karageorghis, Sculptures II, p. 5, fig. 3
2. photo by John Dean, after Kondoleon,Antioch, p. 8, fig. 6 52. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Dapeda, pl. 154, p. 139
3. K. Weitzmann, Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination, New York 1977, plate 24 53. Pictures of Record, Inc.
4. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Dapeda, p. 106, fig. 114 54. photo by the author
5. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Dapeda, p. 104, fig. 112 55. photo by the author
6. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Dapeda, p. 113, fig. 121a 56. photo by the author
7a-7b. photo by John Dean, after Kondoleon,Antioch, p. 114 and 148 57. Frantz, The Athenian Agora, plate 71a, courtesy D. Feeney, Princeton University
8a-8b. E. Weber, Tabula Peutingeriana, p. 17, fig. VIII 1, p. 18, fig. IX 4/5 58a-58c. photos by the author
9. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 273, fig. 504
10. Piccirillo, Mosaics In a few cases the author was unable to contact the copyright holders. An acknowledgement will be included in future editions, should the author be

11. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 83, fig. 63 notified.

12. Piccirillo-Alliata, Umm al-Rasas, p. 209, tav. II

13. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 201, figs. 308-310
14. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 219, fig. 345 B. LIST OF TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS IN THE TEXT
15. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 219, fig. 345
16. Piccirillo-Alliata, Umm al-Rasas, p. 210, pl. III 1. Mikulcic, Stobi, 190
17. Piccirillo-Alliata, Umm al-Rasas, p. 218, pl. XI 2. W. Jobst, Das "offentliche Freudenhaus" in Ephesos, JOA! 51, 1976-77, p. 84, fig. 24
18. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 51, fig. 3 3. A Badie, V. Deroche and Pl. Petridis, BCH 121/11, 1997, p. 755
19. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 57, fig. 10 4. Sauvaget, Laudicee, p. 100, fig. 8
20. Asemakopoulou-Atzaka, Dapeda, p. 106, fig. 115 5. Potter, fol Caesarea, p. 35, fig. 15
21. Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, p. 122, fig. 10 6. S. Stucchi, L 'agora di Cirene. I. I lati nord ed est delta platea inferiore, Rome 1965, p. 322, fig. 227
22. Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, pl. 11.1, 3, pl. 16.2, pl. 17.1 7. Di Vita, Cortina, V.1, pl. II
23. Alfoldi-Rosenbaum and Ward-Perkins, Pavements, pl. 16.1, pl. 5.1, 2, 3 8. Di Vita, Cortina V, pl. LX, fig. 35
24. photo by the author 9. Hanfrnann, Sardis, fig. 206
25. photo by the author 10. Wiseman, The City, p. 307, fig. 13
26. photo by the author 11. Sauvaget, Damas, Syria 26, 1949, p. 357
27. Foss, Syria, fig. 12 12. M. Martfn-Bueno, in Jordan IV, 317
28a-28b. photos by the author 13. Provost and Boyd, Philippes, p. 448, fig. 17
14. Mazor and Bar-Nathan, ES! 17, 1998, p. 17, fig. 16
29. photo by the author
15. Lassus,Antioch V, p. 4, pl. V
30. Pictures of Record, Inc.
16. Y. Tsafrir,AntTard 8, 2000, p. 151, fig. 2
31. P. Scherrer, Ephesus. The New Guide, 2000, p. 173
17. R. Bar Nathan and G. Mazor, ES! 11, 1992, p. 43, fig. 60
32. photo by the author
18. lvison, Burial, p. 100, fig. 5.1
33a-33b. photos by the author
19. M. Seve,AEMT lOB, 1996, p. 706, fig. 2, and p. 708, figs. 3 and 4
34. photo by the author
20. Themelis, Messene, p. 54, pl. 17
35. P. Scherrer, Ephesus. The New Guide, 2000, p. 127, fig. 1
21. Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, p. 99, fig. 8
36. photo by the author
528 APPENDICES APPENDICES 529

22. Hoium, in Humphrey, Near East l, p. 336, fig. 2 Vila. Corinth I, III, pl. 0
23. Hoium, in Humphrey, Near East l, p. 339, fig. 3 Vllb. Corinth XVI, pl. IV
24. Ephesos I, p. 132, fig. 59 VIII. Kondoleon,Antioch
25. Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, p. 83, fig. 6 IX. R. R. Smith and C. Ratte,JRA 104, 2000, pl. II by H. Mark
26. C. H. Greenewalt, Jr. and M. L. Rautman,AJA 102, 1998, p. 478, fig. 5 X. Sagalassos Vl, p. 391, fig. 219
27. C. S. Fisher in Kraeling, Gerasa, pl. XXIV XI. Foss, Syria, fig. D
28a-28b. C. Kanellopoulos,AJA 103, 1999, p. 509, figs . 21, 22 XII. Mango, Le developpement, pl. II and Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, p. 509
29. C. S. Fisher in Kraeling, Gerasa, pl. XLVI
XIII. The New Encyclopedia ofArchaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, ed. E. Stern, vol. 2, Jerusalem 1993,
30. A. Barnea et al., Tropaeum Traiani I, Bucharest 1979, p. 126, fig. 107 p. 769
31. Gawlikowski and Musa, The Church, p. 138, fig. 1
XIV. Frantz, TheAthenianAgora, pl. 5
32. J. Russell, Anemourion, in Economic History l, pl. 2
XV. Frantz, TheAthenianAgora, pl. 6
33. T. Janakievski , MacedoniaeActaArchaeologica 3, 1977, pl. 2
XVI. E . Marin, Salona Christiana, Split 1994, p. 22-23, pl. 1
34. J. Travlos, Pictorial Dictionary ofAthens, London 1971, p. 549, pl. 686
XVII. Mikulcic, Nordmakedonien, p. 427, pl. 337
35. C. S. Fisher in Kraeling, Gerasa, pl. XLIV
XVIII. Lehmann and Hoium, Inscriptions, p. 5, fig. 4
36. Horton, Bath, p. 180, fig. 2
XIX. Bakirtzis and Koester, Philippi, pl. V
37. G. D.R. Sanders, Hesperia 68, 1999, p. 447, fig. 4
XX. Foss, Syria, fig. C
38. Gounaris, Valaneio, pl. 2
39. G. Mazor, ES! 6, 1987-88, p. 12, fig. 8 and R. Bar-Nathan and G. Mazor, ES! 11, 1989-91, p. 39, fig. 56
40. Horton, Bath, p. 178, fig. 1
41. E . Marki, Mta ;,r:o).rJ-XO.<nQO irJ~ f3v,avnvfJ~ :n:EQL((JiQEta~, Thessalonica 2001, p. 25, pl. 2 D. LIST OF MAPS
42. S. Mitchell, Oren Tepe,AnatSt 47 (1997), p. 164, fig. 8
43. Mikulcic, Nordmakedonien, p. 265, fig. 157 1. The provinces of the Balkans, Synekdemos of Hierocles, courtesy of the Gennadeios Library, Athens
44. S. Muc;aj, BCH 126, 2002, p. 660, fig. 1 2. The provinces of Asia Minor and Cyprus, Synekdemos of Hierocles, courtesy of the Gennadeios Library,
45. Bakirtzis and Koester, Philippi, fig. 5 Athens
46. Provost and Boyd, Philippes, p. 466, fig. 33 3. The provinces of Egypt, Synekdemos of Hierocles, courtesy of the Gennadeios Library, Athens
47. Karagiorgou, Demetrias and Thebes, p. 186, fig. 2 4. The provinces of the Middle East, Synekdemos of Hierocles, courtesy of the Gennadeios Library, Athens
48. Karagiorgou, Demetrias and Thebes, p. 190, fig. 4
49. B. Brenk et al., ZDPVll2, 1996, p. 140, fig. 1
50. M. Piccirillo,ADAJ 30, 1986, p. 334, fig. 1
51. Hanfmann, Sardis, plan IV
52. Hanfmann, Sardis, fig. 88
53. Sa/amine de Chypre IX, p. VIII, fig. 2
54. B. De Vries, Umm el-Jimal l, Portsmouth, Rhode Island 1998, p. 14, fig. 6
55. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 304, pl. 594
56. Piccirillo, Mosaics, p. 233, pl. 364
57. Fr. Kolb,AST9, 1991, p. 31, fig. 2
58. Snively, Churches, p. 71, fig. 2
59. Z. Yeivin and G . Finkielsztejn, ESI 109, 1999, p. 33
60. Poulter, Nicopolis, 1995, p. 2, fig. 2
61. Mikulcic, Nordmakedonien, p. 192, fig. 85
62. Harrison, Lycie, p. 233, fig. 8

C. LIST OF TOPOGRAPHICAL PLANS IN APPENDIX

I. Caricin Grad I, pl. II and Liebeshuetz, Decline, p. 81, pl. 11

II. G. Bersu,Antiquity 12, 1938, 32
III. Scherrer, Topography, p. 65
IV. M. Vitti, 'H :n:o).wooµixiJ i~iA.l~rJ r-q~ ewaaA.OVlXrJ~, Athens 1996, pl. 7
V. Tsafrir and Foerster, Urbanism, fig. D
VI. I. Browning,Jerash and the Decapolis, London 1982, p. 83, map. 3 with additions from R. Khouri,Jerash.
A frontier city of the Roman East, London and New York 1986
 INDEX

Index compiled with the help of Marius Mendelovici

TERMS AND SUBJECTS

aesthetics, urban, 51, 65, 66, 67-8, 77, 87, 96, 119 ff., 194, 195, 469; see also Justiniana Prima
202,205,222,235,249,260,264,269-70,270-1,272,276- Theodora 92, 309
8,288-9,290,293,325,343,350,367,400,418,442,446- governors 59, 63-4, 82-3, 143, 158, 159, 160-5, 174-9, 180-1,
7 183,195,202-3,204,233,269,291,334,344,345;Alexander
agora 16, 74, 75, 76, 186, 192, 198, 201a, 205, 211 ff., 259 ff.; (Edessa) 271; Aratius (Palaestina Prima) 59, 63, 66, 177,
see also specific cities 178; Constantine (Salamis-Constantina) 372; Demosthen-
akontisma 97 es (Edessa) 271; Elias (Bostra) 178; Eugenius (Jerusalem)
amphitheatres 205, 212, 295-306, 309, 323, 406 332; Eulogius (Edessa) 181; Eutropius (Ephesus) 264,
Ananeosis (Renewal) 139, 143, 184 282-4; Flavius Nyssius Sergi us (Scythopolis) 176, 334;
ananeotes 162, 178 Flavius Orestes (Scythopolis) 280; Palladius Porphyrius
andron 59 (Scythopolis) 233, 279; Rometalkes (Scythopolis) 204;
annona 33, 39, 158, 233 Silvinus (Scythopolis) 235, 280; Stephanus (Palaestina
antikantharos 158 Prima) 63-4, 66, 177-8, 183, 318, 346, 414, 420; Summus
apotropaia 370, 379, 383, 429 (Palaestina Prima) 178-9, 180; Theosebius (Scythopolis)
aqueducts 73, 74, 75, 78, 85, 89, 92, 101, 105, 159, 177, 181, 235, 279-80; Vitianus (Caria) 315
182, 183, 196, 198, 238, 257, 285, 326, 341, 343-9, 351, other officers: Flavius Strategius (Caesarea Maritima)
364,445,462 158-9, 177, 270; Lampadius (Rome) 174; Modestus
archives buildings 242, 244, 245, 248-9, 253, 397, 426 (Antioch) 174; Phocas, Prefect, 421; Victorinus 82-3,
artisans 26, 28, 33, 164, 166, 168, 173, 188-92, 194, 195-6, 201, 431
205,220,223,236,251,271,284,285,290,302, 307-8, praise in inscriptions 82-3, 162, 236-7
342,349,351,389,396 441-2,443,449,453,454,455-6, praise of the city 59-65
464, 467; prosperity of 204; see also workshops private 163-5, 415-8
asty 94, 99 bishops, civic responsibilities, 156-60, 177, 181-4, 195,249;
see also benefactor
basilicas, civil, 75, 92, 177, 195, 204, 205, 206, 222, 223, 233, boule, bouleutes/curiales 151 ff., 202-6, 293, 443, 452
236,239-40, 245,249,277,278,345 bouleuterion 212, 236, 243, 347
baths50,51,59,64, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77,86,89,92, 105,106, buildings
107,110,116,120,148,151,158,159,161,164,177,180, architecture, 148-50
181,182,183,207,213,214,232, 252,288,307,325-343, Christian and pagan monuments 355-85
350, 351, 365, 372, 376, 423, 442; see also topographical Christianization of 380-4
index despoliation 174-5, 202, 364-72
benefaction, Christian 412-22 encroaching 186-207, 271 ff.
benefactor maintenance 151ff.
materials used 85, 173, 187-92, 195, 290, 351, 366-72,
bishops 61-4, 181-4, 413-5; Anastasius (Gerasa) 124;
446-8, 456, 467
Arcadius (Cyprus) 346; Daniel (Philae) 182; Eutropius
regulations 148ff., 195-7
(Diocaesarea) 182, 272; Justin (Panion) 183; Leontius
Roman imperial ideology 350-1
(Gerasa) 401; Marcian (Gaza), 59, 61-6, 182, 183, 271,
transferred to corporations 166, 198, 293, 441-2
329, 414, 420, 426; Nanos (Priene) 323; Paul (Apamea)
transferred to wealthy people 194-5, 197-8, 293, 441-2
398; Paul (Gerasa) 249,401; Plutarch (Cyprus) 346; Por- variety of materials and design see aesthetics
phyry (Gaza), 358,362, 366; Sergius (Gerasa) 401-2, 406; burials 41, 220, 240, 241, 249, 252, 302, 305, 342, 432-9, 445
Theodore (Scythopolis) 329 civil; Theodoret (Cyrus) 182; 448, 459-60
Theodotus (Heliopolis) 345; Theophilus (Alexandria)
414; Thomas (Amida) 183 choregia 151, 152
emperors 65, 179-81, 415-7; Anastasius 59-61, 65, 77, 85, chorion 31, 97, 99
92, 180, 181, 183, 207, 278, 301, 333, 344, 415; Justinian Christian ideology & urban space 216-222, 295-6, 301, 306,
71-9, 82-3, 92, 128, 139, 180-1, 207, 212, 214, 228, 233, 307, 309, 311-4, 315-6, 326-33, 358-65, 372-5, 380-4, 385-
245,252, 270-1,273-4, 276,280,301,308,309,318,333, 439, 441,442,459,470,471; see also churches & benefactor
344,345,347,348,376,387,398,401, 415-6, 417-8, 465, churches
532 INDEX INDEX 533

agricultural production 424-5, 451 earthquakes 18, 25, 28, 29, 30, 39, 40-1, 72, 91-2, 95 neglect for the civic buildings 72, 76, 78-9, 85, 87. 153, 161, saltus 97
archives 248-9, 426 economy, prosperity & decline of 3lff.; see also churches 174,175,202,335,348 shops 74, 75,120,166, 187-92, 197,204,213-6,220,223,224,
burials 433-8, 459 ekdikos see defensor civitatis negotiatores 204 233-5, 239-40, 266-9, 271, 279-80, 288, 342, 423-4, 443,
commercial activities around & connected with 213, 214, ekphrasis & enkomiastike ekphrasis 50 ff, 83, 116-7, 135,232, nymphaea 220,222,224, 237, 260-1, 264,274,347,429,442 449, 455, 458; see also artisans, workshops
226,252,423-4,427-9,441 271,330,376,415 sigma 233, 268
competition 62,414 embolos 176 ochyroma 98, 100 sitones 157, 160, 177, 182
construction of & contribution to 164, 178, 181, 183, emphyteusis 31 oikistes 162 souq 214,290
412-22 emporion 89, 99, 114 oikoi 166-73, 335 spectacles 60, 61, 80-1, 119, 151, 159, 177, 181, 295-324, 350,
economic prosperity 33, 35, 38, 181 enkomion 60, 62, 63,105,177,178,179,386,428 Olympic Games 222, 296, 302, 306, 309 442,471; see also
exedra 124, 128, 136, 223, 224, 233, 235, 236, 250, 268-9, 279, hippodromes, theatres
houses converted into churches 172
280,338,372,403,423,442,450 pagan monuments 355-84 spolia 30, 173, 186, 249, 270, 290, 364-72, 446, 456
in art 119 ff.
euergetism see benefactor panegyris 427 stadia 120, 242,297,301, 302, 304, 308-9, 367
in civic centres 192, 235, 240, 241, 242, 249-50, 301, 385 ff.
eukteria, eukterioi oikoi 412, 436, 437, 441 pantomime 295, 299, 305, 310-15, 318 stenopos 213
in literature 62, 65-8, 73, 92-3, 385, 386
pater poleos 93, 157, 158, 160, 176, 177, 182, 195, 222, 270, stenoryme 213
in urban topography 29, 281, 287, 289, 291, 293, 302, 319,
famine 29, 30, 31, 40,177,342,425,454,459 272,307,335,344 stratelateia 167
322-3,330,385-406,422-6,432,445,460-1
festivals 61-62, 65, 177-8, 179,188,212,216,217,218,219, pateria 166, 167 streets 213-4, 219-20, 230-3, 259-93
priority in urban constructions 24, 41, 71-8, 95,150,207,
295,299,309,314,315,318,319,388,426-9 peripatos 120, 271 syndikos 157
243,251,272,276,281,282,287,291, 349-50, 352,441,
personifications
445
governors 63-4, 174-9; see also benefactors in art 70, 119, 120, 125, 135-44 tabularium 243, 248, 253
private 406-12
gymnasia 74,211, 306-8 in literature 59-60, 61, 63, 107, 112, 175 tetrakionion 120, 261, 269, 274, 281,
temples converted into churches 92, 205, 222, 224, 239, tetrapylon, -a 223, 261, 264, 273, 281, 282, 284, 374, 384, 430
philoktistes (-os) 162, 178
358-63, 375, 384 theatres 51, 61, 64, 73, 74, 75, 80, 85, 159, 177,205, 211, 310-24;
hagiography, 102-17 phrourion 75, 77, 94, 97-100, 469
urban life 422-9 see also topographical index
hippodromes 51, 74, 80, 85, 148, 159, 295-306 phylakterion 98
cities tractus (klimata) 97
historiography 83-100 Pirenne thesis 17, 43
adjectives for 57-8 Tyche 88, 89-91, 109, 135-6, 139, 143, 232, 233-5, 280, 300,
plague 18, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 40, 43, 109, 110, 114, 302,
Christianized 102-17, 349-51 356,376,379,430
kastellion 99, 100 459,460
civic administration 148-85 plateia 213, 218-20, 261, 263
kastron 15, 96-100
civic funds & properties 80, 151-84, 187, 195, 198, 203, plazas 120,127, 148,-1.95, 213,214,216, 226-30, 264, 268-70, villa 30, 31-2, 119, 172, 288, 375, 411, 452-3
kleroi 97
204-5, 188-92, 206 273,276,277,281-2,285,290,376,423,442,468,469 villages 26, 29, 30, 31-9, 77, 85, 96-7, 105, 130,136,362,374,
kome 31, 32, 34, 77, 96-7, 99,435,455
competition, urban pride 54, 57-8, 61, 62, 64 polichnion, -e 75, 76, 97, 98, 99 406, 421, 425, 444, 449, 452, 455; see also kome
Kosmesis (Adornment) 139, 184
divine protection 73, 83, 181, 421, 430-2 polis 94, 96-100, 352 vindices 156, 160-1
ktema 97
foundation legends 50, 52, 54, 56, 60, 87, 88-91 ktetor 157, 164, 165, 182, 183,453 polisma 75, 94, 96, 98, 99, 347
image in literature 44, 71-101 politeuomenos 155, 157, 158 workshops 23, 25, 26, 120, 173, 186, 187-92, 194, 195-6, 197,
Ktisis (Foundation) 70, 139, 142, 184
in art 119-44 pools ornamental 148,270,328, 414 214-6, 220, 222-3, 238, 243, 248, 251-2, 267-8, 285, 288,
ktistes 162, 178
in hagiography 102-17 porticoes 188-96, 211 ff., 259 ff. 302,308,316,319,324,341-3,389-90,394,396,400,423-4,
praise of 49 ff., 148-50 ports 326, 351-2 442,443-4,454,458,467
limes arabicus 34, 282, 465
promotion to 75-7, 85, 88-90, 97 possessores 151, 181, 183 proliferation of 166, 204, 206, 235, 271, 288-9, 302; see
of the Danube 24, 406
terminology 96-100 pottery 24, 25, 32, 40-42, 43,161,214,239,267,285,444,448, also artisans, shops
of Mesopotamia 333
urban identity 64-5, 108 limitanei 34, 41 456,459,467
civic elites liturgies 151-6, 165, 166, 167, 192, 197, 205, 300, 344 praetorium 178, 181, 202-3, 222, 251, 252-8, 334, 457; see also
attitudes toward civic euergetism 152, 162-3 logisteia 166, 167 topographical index
culture & education 45, 52, 55, 58, 80-1, 83, 90,364, 375-6 logistes 335 pribaton 120
decline of 42, 80-1, 168-73 logothetes 159, 345 privatization 186-207
climatic changes 25, 29, 30, 38 proasteion 112, 453
colonnades/stoas 188-96, 259 ff. macellum 213, 222, 223, 395, 441 proedria 155, 166, 167
corporations 166, 198, 203-4 205, 206, 235, 252, 293, 344, makellarioi 166 proteichisma 101
442,443 markets 211-35; 266-8, 290, 305, 307, 423, 427-9, 441, 445 proteuon 157, 158, 165, 177,181,270,359,452
curator civitatis 93, 182 private, 207 protiktores 114, 167
merchants, prosperity of, 204, 443 protos 152, 156, 157, 165, 182, 184, 235, 280, 293
defensor civitatis 157, 158, 181 mimes 60, 108, 110, 298, 299, 305, 309, 310-19
demographic increase & decline 27, 28, 30ff. mirabilia 379 rhetoric 49-68
demosion (public bath) 120 munera 15lff., 166,174,344 ruralization 14, 17, 23, 24, 41, 135,185,207, 249-59, 274,461,
domus, decline of 168-73, 453-54 municipes 166 464,466
drought 18,40, 112,114,296,427 munificentia 179 ryme 213
534 INDEX INDEX 535

PIACENAMES villages of 35-6 Asia Minor 15, 26, 28, 31, 40, 42
walls of Justinian 302 baths 334, 340
Toponymes mentioned in the Synekdemos of Hierocles are indicated with a •. The reference to provinces follows the Syn-
water supply system 196-7, 343,345,346,347 churches in temples 361-2
ekdemos.
workshops 120, 188-192, 213,214,429,444 paganism 357
Abrittus • (Moesia Secunda), terminology 97 Anazarbus • (Cilicia Secunda) 55 Xystos 222 patterns of urbanism 185,282,289, 290-1, 334,351,406,
Abydos • (Hellespontus) 436 Anchialos in Bulgaria 23 Yakto mosaic 55, 119-120, 188,195,214,266,302,343 433,469
Acbas 96 Anchialus • (Haemimontum) 97, 333 Antipatris in Palaestina Prima 461 villages 36, 39
Acragas in Italy 363 Ancyra * (Galatia Prima) 114, 120 Apamea • (Syria Secunda) 26, 27, 45, 298 Asteria, island between Seleucia & Aphrodisias, 74
Adoule (Adoulis in Abyssinia) 384 Anemurium * (Isauria) 26, 27, 45 avenues 273-4 Asyut 362
Adrianople, battle of 24 houses in the palaestra of the baths 307-8, 322, 342, 443 churches 398 Athens 21, 25, 162, 165,364,383
Adrianople • (Honorias) 103-4, 182 water supply system 348 foundation myth 55, 89; agora 251 Academy 80, 327, 357, 360, 375
Aegissus • (Scythia) 97 Annoucas,phrourion on the Persian frontier, 77 hippodrome 103,301 Agora, monuments & decline, 235, 238-9, 251,450
Aenus • (Rhodope) 258 Antaeopolis in Egypt 449 houses 136, 456-7 baths in the agora 238, 328, 337
Aglasun, village near Sagalassos in Pisidia, 39, 469 Antigonia 89 shops 268 churches in ancient monuments 239, 360
Agrigentum 308 Antinaou (Egypt) 130 street porticoes 190, 232-3 Herulian wall 235, 367, 369-70
Aita on the Red Sea 406 Antinoopolis in Egypt of 58, 301 temple of Zeus 362 House C 360, 375
Alakilise in Lycia 469 Antioch * (Syria Prima) 17, 27, 72, 73, 74, 75, 85, 88, 108, tetrakionia 274 literary image 51, 54, 57
Albania 30, 82, 432 109,248,298,357,374,375,380,426,431,452 Aphrodisias • (Caria) 26, 45, 55, 58, 148, 162, 164,178,230, Metroon 238, 239, 248, 450-1
Alep 431 avenues 66, 188-92, 195, 213, 219-20, 259-60, 262, 266, 232,374 paintings of the Poikile Stoa 175
Alexandria in Egypt 26, 37, 182,248,318,358,374,425,426, 272-3, 289 agora & monuments 222-3, 232, 236-7 Palace of the Giants 238,239,249, 253,257,376, 450-1
427,444 basilicas 92, 222 baths 161, 222, 334, 335 Parthenon 360, 375, 384
aqueduct345 baths 120,222,325,327,328, 330,333,334,338,365 Fountain (Agora Gate) 260-1 temples in the agora 217
baths 158,325,327,328,334,335,341 bouleuterion 212 governor's palace/bishop's palace 222, 253, 258, 424 theatre of Dionysus & church 322
Church of Sts. Cyrus & John 327 churches92,93, 73,130,214,252,252,333,413,421 renamed Stauropolis 315 Athyras near Rhegium in Italy 347
colonnaded avenues 260, 263 circular plaza, 228 Sculptor's Workshop 222, 236 Attaleia • (Pamphylia) 431
guilds 344 cisterns 347 Sebasteion 222-3, 374 Augila in Libya 357
hippodromes 301 destruction by the Persians 96, 109, 135 stadium/amphitheatre 309 Auximus in Italy 85
in art 120, 124, 125, 130, 135, 139, 143, 136 (Tyche) Diphoton 328 temple of Aphrodite & church 363, 374
in literature 54-5, 58, 84, 112 Forum of Valens 222 tetrapylon 374 Baalbek see Heliopolis
nilometer 125 foundation legends 55, 89-90 theatre 310, 315-6, 319 Babylon(= old Cairo) in Egypt 125
Pharos 84, 61, 92 gates 89, 109, 222 Tyche 232; wall 309,316, 367-9 Bademagaci, site of relocation of Ariassos, 39
taxes 158 Haronion 91 Aphrodisias • (Hellespontus) 95 Balkans
temples 136, 355, 356, 374, 379 hippodromes 301, 302 Aphrodito • in Egypt 26, 449; churches 406 urban decline 22, 24-25, 26, 27, 28, 32, 33, 37, 39, 40, 97,
tetrapylon 384 hospital 252 Appiaria • (Moesia Secunda) 97 99,100,462
theatres 319, 365 house for strangers 253 Apsyrtus near Lazica 88 patterns of urbanism 289, 290-1, 304,321,387,390,447,
urban planning 287-9 houses 120 Arabia 38, 40, 56, 128, 183, 250 448,455,456,464,465-7
villa & chapel at Huwariya 172; see also Korn el-Dikka macellum 222 church construction 207, 401, 419 Banias (Caesarea Philippi in Israel) 357
Alishar Hiiyiik in Cappadocia 39 markets 74, 213, 233, 266-7 Arcadia 54 Baras, fort near the East frontier, 347
Alistrus • (Epirus Nova) 97 monuments 92, 96, 119-20 (in Yakto mosaic) Aquileia 120 Batnan 312
Amandra • (Lycaonia) 88 Olympic stadium 120,302,309 Aquis (Aques) * (Dacia Ripensis) 99 Belemous, modern Ma 'in (near Madaba), 128-30
Amantea • (Epirus Nova) 97 Palace of the Tetrarchs 302 Arabissus in Cappadocia 75 Beneventum in Italy 88
Amanthous • (Cyprus) 36, 248 Pandektes 296 Areopolis, modern Rabbah, 128, 130 Bernice in Libya 334
Amaseia • (Helenopontus) 374, 378, 425 Plethrion 222, 302 Argos 25, 42, 51 Berroia • (Syria Prima), modern Alep in Syria, 27, 289
Amida • (Mesopotamia) 110, 111-2, 183,319,427,465 praetorium 222, 253 baths 325, 341, 342 Berytus • (Phoenice) 27
Amman in Jordan 130, 250, 424 praise of 50, 59, 85, 86, 107 churches 406 hippodrome 301
Amorium • (Galatia Salutaris) 27, 114, 260 restoration by Justinian 72, 73, 74, 75, 252, 272-3 ruralization 451 in art 135, 143
Amphipolis 51 ruralization 458 Ariassos in Pisidia 39 in literature 52, 53, 54, 55, 56-7, 94-5
Anamon, mansio or mutatio, 388 spectacles 296, 301, 306, 313-4, 309, 318 Arif in Lycia 325-6, 469 pagan temple 103, 112, 362
Anaplous 214,362 street network 289 Ariminum in Italy 98 Betomelgezis in the area of Diospolis (modern Kh. Sheikh
Anastasioupolis (Galatia) 114, 115 talismans of Apollonius of Tyana 91 Arsinoe in Egypt 26, 384 'Ali Malikina) 143,425
Anastasioupolis in Thrace 60, 345 temples 93, 135 (Tycheion), 175, 198, 222,228,260 Arykanda • (Lycia) 469 Betylion • (Palaestina Prima) 106
Anatolia theatre 74,302,313, 318, 319 Ascalon 127, 128, 130, 155, 436, 444 Birosaba (Palaestina Tertia) in the Negev 34
urban crisis 27, 30, 40 Tyche 109, 135, 136, 296 Asemos/Asema in Moesia 99 Bithynia 73,174,334,345
rural 114 villa with statues 375 Asia 51, 56,217,230 Bononia 99
536 INDEX INDEX 537

Bostra • (Arabia), modern Bosra in Syria, 34, 128,178,401, decline 287,461 Golden Gate 268 Crete,32,201,257,444
406,424 harbour74,233,268,282,447 hippodrome & shows 195, 298, 300, 301, 306, 351, 379, Crimea 39
baths 341-2 Maritime Forum 74, 233, 268, 334 380,442 Ctesiphon 298
inscriptions 183, 269 restoration by Justinian 74, 233 hospices 309 Cumae 87, 94, 99
plaza 226 streets 282, 287 hospital 418 Cupi in the Balkans 75
urban planning 289 theatre 321 houses 172, 454 Curicum in Phoenicia 334
water supply system 344, 345 Carystos 66 Imperial Portico 347 Cynopolis in Egypt 130
Brutium 453 Castoria Lake 73, 469 in art 120, 143 Cyprus
Bulgaria 23, 33, 37 Catane 305 in literature 51, 55, 105 development & decline 36, 38, 40, 42, 43, 207
Byllis • (Epirus Nova) in Albania Chaeroneia 211 Mese 228 in art 143
churches 392 Chalcedon Milion 195 aqueduct345,346
walls 82-83 Council of 107, 111, 387, 411, 427 mimes 317 Cyrene in North Africa 143, 198,205,245
Butrint • (Epirus Vetus) in Albania, theatre 320 hippodrome 301, 309 monasteries 106, 113, 329-30, 437 Cyrus * (Euphratesia), fortress in Syria, 75-6
Byzantion, founded by Byzas, 55 Chalcis 27 monuments 92, 105 Cyzicus * (Hellespontus) 55, 92, 384
Charach Muba, modern al-Kerak, in art 127, 128, 130 Neorion 379
Caesarea * (Cappadocia Prima) 455 Chnum in Egypt 198, 290 obelisk of Theodosius 143 Dacia 33, 251
Caesarea Maritima * (Palaestina Prima) in Israel, 26, 63, Ciberis 95, 333 Olympic games 309 Damascus • (Phoenice Libanensis), modern Damas in Syria,
155,158,173,177,178,230,317 Cirencester 253 palaces 348, 375 27,56,217,280,344
aqueduct 177,346 Circesium baths 333-4 Palladion 88, 90 Daphne, suburb of Antioch, 64, 89, 93, 109, 143, 214, 296,
baths 64,330, 338-40, 341 Classis 125 Philadelphion 228 302,313,343,356,375,435
churches 358,401,406 Colonia (Armenia Prima) 105 proasteion Koparia 453 Yakto mosaic 55, 119-20
Esplanade 158-9, 177, 269-70, 376 Colophon • (Asia), 371 protected by the Theotokos 432 Daras 77, 85, 99, 113, 183, 333, 345, 347, 465
harbour 61, & pools 270 Comana * {Armenia Secunda) 362 ruralization 454, 458 Dardania 24, 467
Herod's Palace 253 Constantiana * (Scythia) 97 Senate House 207, 212, 228 Dehes, village in northern Syria, 26, 35-6, 39
hippodromes 297, 300, 301, 304 Constantina * (Osrhoene) 112, 345 stadium 309 Delos 285,451
horrea 430 Constantinople statues 91, 326, 357, 366, 375, 376, 377-8, 379 Delphi, encroachment 197,198,205,224,285,444
houses 453 archives 248 temples 93, 198 Demetrias 125, 321, 469
in art 130 aqueduct92,341,345,348,351 theatre at Sycae 318 Derira, village near Tralleis, 362
praise of 58, 64 Augustaeum 212, 228 Tyche 90-1, 143,379 Diblaton 130
Roman Praetorium 253-5 Basilica Cistern 207 Zeugma 379 Dinogetia (Scythia Minor) 455, 468
ruralization 457 basilicas 92, 206, 345 walls 197, 430-1, 434,437,438 Diocaesarea * (Cilicia Secunda), Byzantine Anazarvos, 89
streets 274-6 Basilike Stoa 228 Corinth 21, 82,431 Diocaesarea (Palaestina Secunda), Sepphoris or Sapphoris,
temples 269, 358, 376, 401 baths 92, 330, 332, 334 agora & monuments 192, 239-42, 245 125,182,272,280,321,448,449,457
theatre 320, 323 Baths of Arcadius {Arcadianae) & aule, 207, 270-1, 376 aqueduct341,347 Diocletianoupolis by the lake of Castoria, relocation 73, 469
Tyche 376 Baths of Zeuxippus 207, 228, 298, 326, 333, 334, 375 baths 205,336, 341 Dion 388, 424
villa 453 burials 433-4, 437-8 burials 240, 241-2, 438 Diospolis * (Palaestina Prima) 130, 143
Caesarea Philippi, modern Banias in Israel, 357 capital's ideology 64-5, 84, 87, 88, 90-1, 112,326 churches 240, 249 Dodone 248, 356
Callatis * (Scythia) 97 Capitolium 194 despoliation 320, 364-5 Dorylleon * {Phrygia Salutaris) 114
Callipolis * (Europa) 95 Chalke 92 divine protection 431 Dorostolos * (Moesia Secunda) 99
Campania 163 churches92,93, 198,214,415,417,418,435 hippodrome 301 Dyrrachium * (Epirus Nova), ancient Epidamnus, 97, 143
Canaan 127 churches, increase of 207, 405 Lechaion Road 285 amphitheatre & hippodrome 301
Canopus in Egypt 84, 124, 356 church of St. Polyeuctus 415,417,421 Peirene Fountain 241 in literature 59-60
Cappadocia, province, 74, 75, 177, 334, 362, 411, 436, 452, church of St. Sophia, praises of 65, 67, 73, 77, 92, 198, Roman Market 224 plaza 228
469 228,376,379,385,386,415 Semicircular Building 240 walls 432
Capua 85 circus factions 296, 299 South Basilica 245, 249
Caputvada in Lybia, founded by Justinian, 74, 75, 76, 212, cisterns 347 Southeast Building/bishop's palace 239, 248 Edessa * (Osrhoene) 111, 112, 219, 248, 271, 301, 315, 374,
233 colonnaded streets 260, 272 statues 372 379,421,425,426,427;
Caria 222, 315, 357 column of Constantine 90 temples 217, 240-1, 365 Antiphorus (market) 74
Caricin Grad see Justiniana Prima constructions by Justinian 92 theatre & street 285, 320 baths 327, 342
Carrhae • (Osrhoene) 112 domination over provincial cities 21, 31, 59, 64-5, 78, 84, Cilicia 27, 89,327, 436 hippodrome 301
Carthage 105, 113-4, 153,164,172,184 Corfu, Corcyra 60, 342, 358 peripatos & Gate of the Arches 271
aqueduct 85; encroachment 192-4, 202, 272 Corinthia 32 prophylactic inscriptions 431
baths Theodorianae 74, 334 Exakionion 379 Cos 69, 95, 431,446,447 reconstruction 181, 183
burials 459-60 fora 218, 228, 378, 433 Costanza 291 shops 220, 429
circus 305 foundation ritual 90-1 Crateia * (Honorias) 106 theatre 315
538 INDEX INDEX 539

Egypt, 21, 25, 30, 31, 36-7, 42, 81, 103, 108, 156, 157, 161, Gabala • (Syria Prima) 362 Praetorium 201, 253, 257-8, 285 Jeme (Medinet Habu) in Egypt 198,290
166-8, 182,183,248,300,307,357,362,374,421,447, Gadara • (Palaestina Secunda), Umm Qays in Jordan, 128 ruralization 461 Jericho 103
449, 452-3; in art 120, 125, 130, 136 (Gadoron), 304,347 streets 285 Jerusalem • (Palaestina Prima) 27, 91
patterns of urbanism 213, 288 Gadira on the Libyan shore of the Pillars of Hercules 73, 78 temple of Pythios Apollo 257 bath 332
'Ein et Tabigha 124 Galatia 114,346,421,427 water supply system 164, 285, 341, 345, 346-7 cardo 274,280
Eleutherna 444, 461 Galos 115 Greece 16, 30, 32, 37, 43, 81, 224, 238, 284, 291, 333, 351, Church of 387
Eleutheropolis • (Palaestina Prima), modern Beit Guvrin, Gamzigrad (Dacia Ripensis) 33 358,359,415,421,457 churches 125, 128,274,333,358,386-8
128,130,305 Gargano in Italy 135 Gregoria (city ?) 136 gates 127, 228
Elusa * (Palaestina Tertia) in the Negev 34, 320, 344 Gaza • (Palaestina Prima) in art 127, 128, 130, 232 in art 120, 127-8, 130
Emesa (Phoenice Libanensis) in Syria 27, 55, 106, 110-11 amphora production 444, 467 Haemimontum 97 in literature 102, 103, 104, 106, 107-8, 114
Ephesus 26, 45, 148, 460-1 baths329,330,332,376 Halicarnassus • (Caria) 135 monasteries 106, 330,347,436
Agora, Lower (Tetragonos Agora) 211, 214, 217, 224 Church of St. Sergius 65, 66, 214, 386, 420, 426 Harmatham, Biblical city, 115 plaza 228-30
Agora, Upper (State Agora) 205, 211, 235-6, 245, 432 Church of St. Stephan us 62, 65, 66-7, 178, 183, 386, 414, Hauran 136 urban planning 289
Arcadiane 220,261,274,284,430 420,428 Heledomon 115 wall 431
aqueduct 348 Church of the Holy Apostles 214,414 Helenopolis • (Bithynia) 73-74, 334, 345 water supply 347,401
avenues & monuments 261-4, 429,430 construction works by archon Stephanus 61, 64, 177-8, Heliopolis (Phoenice Libanensis), Baalbek in Lebanon, 55, Jordan 26, 34-5, 40, 125, 127, 230, 250, 304, 347, 383, 401,
Baths 205, 236, 264, 307, 397 183 406,419,425,465
92,317,344,345,356,357,374,383
Byzantine settlement 287, 348 enkomia 61-4, 175, 177-8, 183 Justiniana Prima, Caricin Grad in Serbia
Heliopolis (On), Biblical city in Egypt, 103
churches 397-8, 406 festival & market 219, 232, 427-9 aqueduct 345
Hemerium near Euphrates 347
Church of St. John 108, 214, 236,309,398,425,426 games 309 baths 333, 341
Heraclea • (Europa) 78, 164, 301, 345, 348
Church of the Virgin 361, 460 Marneion 358, 362, 366 bishop 184
Heraclea • (Honorias) 114
Embolos 190,220,230,236,261,264,266,277,282,350, mechanical clock 376 changes in urbanism 24, 268, 455-6, 459, 464
Heraclea Lyncestis • (Macedonia) in F.Y.R.O.M. 321-2,
432 porticoes 271-2 churches 276, 383, 387-8
390-2,443,455
encroachment 205, 282-4, 245 public painting 376 circular plaza 226-8
Heracleopolis, early name of Daphne in Antioch, 89
Eutropius Street 282-4 rhetorical school 67 excavations 21
f!Ieracleopolis in Egypt 51, 301
Gate of Hercules 264, 282 shows 317 imperial munificence 72, 74
Heraklion in Egypt 130
Gate Magnetian 397, 437 theatre 59, 61, 315, 316, 318 model of sixth-century city 75, 233, 251, 252, 276, 278,
Hermoupolis in Egypt 26, 55, 57, 167, 263, 301, 406
Gate of Persecution 369 Gerasa • (Arabia), Jerash in Jordan, 27, 38 318,387-8,467,468
Hierapolis • (Euphratensis) in Syria, 61, 125, 431-2
Gymnasium 205, 307, 398 Baths of Placcus 329, 338 shops 233, 268
Hierapolis (Phrygia) 235, 245, 260
Hanghaus I, II 264, 450 bridge on Chrysorrhoas 281, 287 workshops 268
Hisma in southern Jordan 127 Justinianoupolis 318
Hernon of Androclus 220, 261-2 cemetery 437
Holy Martyrs (of the) (Martyropolis) 113
Library of Celsus & plaza 226, 261, 263-4 churches 124, 125,277-8,281,363,365,398-401,424,432
Honorias 106, 114 Kadyanda 469
Marble Street 226, 263-4, 430 Church of Bishop Marianos 302, 365
nymphaea 261 Church of St. John the Baptist 124, 415 I:Iorbat Castra in Israel 449 Karnak in Egypt 198, 287
plazas 226 Church of St. Theodore 277, 285-7, 358-9, 363, 424, 432 I:Iorbat Kassif in Israel 449 Kasin in Egypt 130
Porticoes of Verulanus 205 cistern 164 Kastron Mefaa see Umm al-Rasas
shops 264 encroachment 280-2, 285-7 Iatrus 39 Katerini in Greece 388
stadium 309 grid-plan 289 lconium • (Lycaonia) 380 Ketis in lsauria 116
Stoa of Alytarches 264 hippodrome 297, 301, 302 Idalion in Cyprus 461 Khirbat al-Samra 128, 406
Stoa of Damianus 287 macellum 223, 269 Illyricum 21, 24-25, 82, 83, 112, 251, 257, 330, 387 Knidos in Cyprus 461
temples 214, 217, 236, 245, 264, 287, 361, 376, 398 plaza, circular 281-2 lol Caesarea, Cherchel in Algeria, 192, 250, 252, 458 Korn el-Dikka in Alexandria
tetrapylon with statues of the Four Evangelists 220, 262, plaza, oval 216,226, 280-1 Isauria 36, 116, 301, 346 baths 214, 288, 328, 341, 365
284,430 Propylaea Church 281,287,363 Israel26,34,39,40,305,357,419,449,457,461 odeum/theatre 319,365
Tyche 430 temple of Artemis 281,285,363,401, 423-4 Italy shops 267, 288, 382-3
walls 235 temple of Zeus 197, 216 construction activities 163-4, 179, 181, 333 urban planning 287-8, 289
Epidamnus see Dyrrachium theatre 320 decline of spectacles 305 Kopetra in the Vasilikos valley in Cyprus 38
Epidaurus 321, 356 workshops 423-4 decurions 155-6 Kotyon in Phrygia 323
Epiphaneia • (Syria Secunda), modern Hama in Syria, 164, Germia • (Galatia Salutaris) 114, 346 destruction of cities & praise of monuments 86-7 Kourion in Cyprus 325, 332
334 Gesthemani 106 dissolution of urban space 194-5, 198, 308, 323, 448, 454 Kyaneai • (Lycia) 36,406
Epirus Nova 82, 97, 392, 456 Golemanovo Kale near Sadowetz in Bulgaria 33, 37, 39 flight of aristocrats 168
Epirus Vetus 32,320 Golgoi in Cyprus 461 prosperity of the countryside 32 Lampsacus • (Hellespontus) 374
Esbounta, modern Hesban, 128, 130 Gortyn in Crete 88 reconquista 87, 88, 377 Laodicea • (Phrygia Pakatiane) 220,414
Es-Samra see Samra Basilica of St. Titus 342 restoration of buildings 333 Laodicea • (Syria Prima), Lattakia in northern Syria, 27, 55, 89
Euphratesia 74, 75, 76, 431 baths 341, 342 statues 372 hippodrome 301
Ezra in Syria 359 encroachment 201, 285 Ithaca 88 streets 280, 289
540 INDEX INDEX 541

Leptiminus in Tunisia 342 Nicaea * (Bithynia) 51, 55, 107, 120, 334, 345 Philadelphia* (Arabia), modem Amman, 27, 128,130,250, 195,201,207
Leptis Magna 76, 334 Nicomedia * (Bithynia) 50, 115, 120, 143,301,334 317,406,424 Palladion 88, 90
Libya 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 86, 136, 334, 357, 383 Nicopolis * (Epirus Vetus) 301, 371,383,415 Philae in Egypt 156, 182, 376 population decline 33
Limassol (Lemessos) in Cyprus 36 Nicopolis ad lstrum * (Moesia Secunda) 37, 39, 97,251,448, Philippoupolis * (Thracia) 99 ruralization 454, 458
Limbon, village,130 466-7, 468 Philippi 21, 25, 462 senatorial benefactors 163-4
Louloudies near Katerini and Pydna in northern Greece Nicopolis in the Middle East 128 agora 192, 243, 423 spectacles 295, 305, 318
388,424,467 North Africa 25-26, 81, 83, 176, 181, 198, 212, 245, 251, 333, baths 328, 337, 341 temple of Janus 357
Lycaonia 177 334,357,372,425,460,467 churches 243, 244,284,393-5,423,424,427 Sagalassos * (Pisidia) 26, 42, 45
Lycia 36, 39, 206, 325, 406, 433, 469 Novae * (Moesia Secunda) 75, 97, 406 encroachment 284 aqueducts 347,462,469
Lydia 56, 357 Nyssa 88 exedra 224, 268 baths 340
gates & prophylactic inscriptions 431 churches238,234,365,371,383
Macedonia 27,431,467 Oboda (Palaestina Tertia) in the Negev 34 market 224 civic centre & monuments 237-8
Macedonia Secunda 24, 25,214,250,268,270,321 Odroa 128 shops 284, 423 Lower Agora/Market 224
Madaba * (Arabia) in Jordan Odyssus * (Moesia Secunda) 97 Phocaea, pottery 40, 43 nymphaeum 347
churches 401-2, 406,415 Olympia 23, 306, 356, 375 Phrygia 55, 114,220,235, 260, 323, 357 relocation 39, 469
Hippolytus Hall 136 On (Heliopolis), Biblical city in Egypt, 103 Pillars of Hercules 73, 78 ruralization 457
house mosaic 381-2 Oren Tepe in Pisidia 390, 470 Pinara in Lycia 206, 469 Salamis-Constantia in Cyprus 143, 316, 320-1, 330-2, 346,
in art 130, 136 Ostia 213 Pinci on the Danube 75 362,372,397,404-5,424,456,461
map 125-8, 228, 263, 305,316,386,425,431 Ovacik in Lycia 469 Pisidia 39, 114, 177, 237, 347, 390, 414, 433, 469, 470 Salona 222, 245, 249-50, 301, 406, 424, 469
Ma 'in (ancient Belemous) 128-30 Oxyrhynchus * in Egypt 26, 58, 301, 335, 406, 427, 453 Pithom, Biblical city in Egypt, 103 Samnium 163
Maioumas (Palaestina Prima) 128 Pompey213 Samos 322, 424
Maipherqat 112 Palaestina Prima 177,178,180,253,287,305,318,319,461 Poree 403 Samra (es-Samra, Qasr al-Samra), village in the area of
Mampsis * (Palaestina Tertia) in the Negev 34, 290 Palaestina Secunda 125, 182, 279-80, 285, 304, 347 Praevalis 456 Gerasa in Jordan, 38, 424
Marcianopolis * (Moesia Secunda) 97, 99 Palaestina Tertia (Salutaris) 34, 127, 282; see also Negev Priene * (Asia) 245, 250,323,366,430 Saphas 108
Martyropolis (Mesopotamia Superior/Armenia IV), modem Palaiopolis in Corfu 358 Pseudostomon in Egypt 130 Sardica (Dacia Mediterranea) 251
Silvan in Turkey, 99; of the Holy Martyrs 113 Palaipaphos in Cyprus 38 Ptolemais Evergetis in Egypt 406 Sardis * (Lydia) 26, 45
Massilia 94 Palestine Ptolemais in Cyrenaica 274, 345, 348 aqueduct 348
Megalopolis 136 church construction 207, 406 Pydna 388, 389, 467, 468 Bath CG 341
Melitene * (Armenia Secunda) 113 urban prosperity & crisis 27, 33-5, 38-40, 41, 42, 162; 124, Pylae, emporion, 114 Baths-Gymnasium 214,307
Melos 367 127-8,338,344,357 Pyrassos, ancient port of Thebes, 23 Byzantine Shops 214, 267, 284, 382
Memphis * in Egypt 124, 125, 301, 372, 374 Palmyra* (Phoenice Libanensis) 91,226,264,288,334,359, Pythia (Bithynia) 334, 345, 384 churches 366-7, 403-4, 430
Menouthis in Egypt 124,356,374,378 373 destruction 18
Messene 245-8, 307, 321, 365,372,433, 450 Pamphylia 322 Qasr-el-Lebia (Theodorias) in North Africa see Theodorias encroachment 284, 287
Middle East Panaou in Egypt 130 House of the Bronzes 173
patterns of urbanism 280, 289, 290-1 Panemoteichos in Pisidia 390,470 Ramses, Biblical city in Egypt, 103 in literature 54, 56
population 448-9 Panion * (Europa) 164, 183 Ratiaria * (Dacia Ripensis) 99 Marble Road 276, 284
urban development & crisis 30, 33, 35, 36, 40 Pannonia Secunda 24 Ravenna 120, 125, 204 plaza 226, 277
Milan 176,198,202,203 Pannosa or Pannasa in northern Balkans 99 Rhegium 347 ruralization 461
Miletus * (Caria) 55, 245, 250, 260, 323, 330, 335, 431, 432 Panopeus 211 Rhodes 92 streets & porticoes 276-7
Mocessus • (Cappadocia Secunda) 73, 74, 75, 334, 469 Panopolis in Egypt 449 Rihab, village in the area of Gerasa, 38, 406 Synagogue 214,307,367
Moesia 37, 82, 83, 97, 99, 291 PaphosinCyprus 197,321,374,423,461 Rome wall 370
Myrina • (Asia) 94 Parma in Italy 306 agricultural installations 449 Sardovsko Kale in Bulgaria 39
Paros 365 aqueducts 343, 349 Scolacium in Italy 458
Nacle 55 Patras * (Hellas) 32 arch of Constantine 366 Scupi * (Dardania) 467
Naples 85, 86, 349, 364 Pella * (Palaestina Secunda) 26, 214, 250, 285, 340-1, 348, baths 325 Scythia 82, 83, 97, 468
Narnia in Tuscany 85 365 burials 437 Scythopolis • (Palaestina Secunda), Beit She 'an in Israel,
Nea Anchialos, early Byzantine Thebes, 23, 25, 321, 328, Pelusion * (Augustamnica Prima) 127, 130, 301 Capitolium 84, 356, 384 26,45
396,406,423 Pentapolis 357 churches 205, 301, 356, 403 amphitheatre 297, 304
Neapolis * (Palaestina Prima), modern Nablus in Palestine, Pergamon * (Asia) 211, 232, 250, 354, 396 Colosseum 305 Antonius Monument 226, 267, 278
127, 130,297,301,316,319-20,383,448 Persia 436 encroachment 197, 205 Basilica restored by Rometalkes 204
Neapolis in Greece 431 Pessinus * (Galatia Salutaris) 114,427 Forum of Trajan 223, 228, 268 Baths: of the lepers 329, East Baths 330, 338, 372, West
Negev 26, 34, 127, 230, 290, 320, 344, 424, 425 Petra* (Palaestina Tertia) in Jordan 26, 34, 38-9, 42, 45, 58, in art 120, 136, 143 Baths 330, 334, 338
Nemea 356, 457 104,127, 197-8,248,249,282,348,372,383,426,461 in literature 50, 51, 54, 107, 108,378 destruction 462
Neocaesarea in Euphratesia 76 Peyia-Agios Georgios in Cyprus 424 monuments: destruction & neglect 85-7, 149-50, 205, economy448
Nessana (Palaestina Tertia) in the Negev 34 Phoenicia 94,217,317,334 377, mystical power of 376, 379, 384, appropriation of encroachment 205, 278, 280, 320
542 INDEX INDEX 543

House of Kyrios Leontis 125 water supply 347 Tiberias * (Palaestina Secunda) 270, 425
markets 214, 226 Subeita in the Negev 230 Tiberiopolis 96, 99
monasteries 383, 418 Sura on the Euphrates 98 Tmolus56
Nymphaeum 226, 278 Sykeon in Galatia 114-5 Tralleis 55, 362, 378, 380
Roman Odeum & exedra 136, 176, 233-5, 268-9, 278-80 Synae 115 Trebizond * (Pontus Polemoniacus) 180, 345
Round Church/of St. Basilius 214 Syria 21 Trimithous in Cyprus 374
ruralization 457-8 Arab conquest (636) 39 Tripolis in Libya 108
shops/workshops 214, 233-5, 267, 278-80 baths 326 Tropaeum Traiani • (Scythia) 99, 291, 390
streets 278-80, 304, Palladius Street 136, 226, 233-5, 268, decline 27, 39, 40, 42 Troy 87, 88
278-9, Silvanus Street/Hall 269,270,277, 278, Valley Street inscriptions 162,419 Tyana in Asia Minor 91, 379
214,278 prosperity 26, 33-5, 38 Tyre * (Phoenicia) 27, 52-3, 64, 301, 444
Temple of Dionysus 226, 235, 363-4 Syria Prima 289
theatre 205, 320 Syria Secunda 164, 334 Umm el-Jimal in Jordan 34, 406
Tyche 136, 233, 280 Umm al-Rasas (Kastron Mefaa) in Jordan 34
Sebaste-Samaria * (Palaestina Prima) 130, 287, 321 Tamiathis in Egypt 130 churches 128,130,383,402,406,468
Sebasteia in Asia Minor 398 Taphosiris by Alexandria in Egypt 334 in art 128, 130, 230, 468
Sebastopolis in Lazica 75 Tarentum in Calabria 98
Seleucia * (Isauria), modern Silifke, 36, 74, 108, 116-7, 301 Tarsus* (Cilicia Prima) 54, 55, 116-7 Vellums, kome in Rhodope, 97
Seleucia • (Syria Prima) 55, 89, 109, 174 Tauresium, birthplace of Justinian, see Justiniana Prima Vrap in Albania 143
Selge * (Pamphylia) 250 Tegea 415
Septum, fortress at Gadira by the Pillars of Hercules, 73, 78 Telmessos * (Lycia) 469 Zaldapa/Zeldepa * (Scythia) 99
Sergilla in Syria 326 Thasos 25,285,462 Zenobia 276, 333
Sergiopolis (Euphratesia), Rusafa in northeastern Syria, 74, Thebaid 82, 156 Zenopolis in Isauria 346
348 Thebes in Egypt 82 Zeugma * (Euphratesia) 76
Sestos 95 Thebes in Thessaly (Nea Anchialos) 23, 25,321, 328;
Shivta, Esbeita or Sobata in the Negev, 34 churches 329, 396, 406, 423 Xanthos • (Lycia) 469
Side * (Pamphylia) 322-3 Thenesos in Egypt 130
Sidon • (Phoenicia) 27, 94, 125 Theodorias, Qasr-el-Lebia in Libya, East Church 136-43, Yakto mosaic see Antioch
Sidyma • (Lycia) 469 184,383
Sion (Lycia) 36,206 Theodoroupolis, Anasartha in Syria, 431
Sipontum in Italy 135 Theodosiopolis • (Osrhoene) 77
Sirmium * (Pannonia) 24, 99, 112, 205, 291, 301, 304-5, 448, Thermopylae 81, 347
455,459,460 Thescos 95
Sisauranon near Daras in Mesopotamia 347 Thessalonica 21, 251, 387, 388
Smyrna* (Asia) 93,431 baths 328, 333, 336-7, 342
Sobata (Palaestina Tertia) see Shivta bouleuterion/Odeum/theatre 243, 316
Soloi in Cyprus 287 churches 427: Acheiropoietos 328, 342, 427, Octagon
Sozopolis • (Pisidia) 114 432, 432, of St. George/Rotunda 120, 125, 432, of St.
Spalatum (Spalato, Split) 469 Nestor 301, of St. Demetrius 242, 243, 304, 394, of St.
Sparta 51, 60,323, 369 Sophia 304
Spoleto 195, 323 cisterns 349
Stobi • (Macedonia Secunda), today in F.Y.R.0.M., 21 Forum, monuments & decline 242-3, 444
baths 347 gates 432
burials 434 hagiasma 243
churches 406, 434, Episcopal Basilica 214,250,268,321, hippodrome 301,304,317
347,404, North Basilica 321 house 173
colonnades 278 in art 120
decline 24, 25 in literature 55, 107, 112-3, 116, 260, 317, 342, 464
encroachment 291-3 monasteries 112
exedra with shops 214, 250, 268 Palace of Galerius 242, 304
houses 172, 375 shops of the Commercial Street 213, 243, 268
plaza by the wall 270 stadium 301, 304, 317
ruralization 447-8, 455 street network 289
streets 268 Thrace 24, 27, 31, 32, 37, 39, 61, 82, 83, 177
theatre 321 Throi in Cyprus 461