Revision:Ancient Cities

TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Revision Notes > History > Ancient Cities

---

DEFINITION OF ANCIENT CITY

• Physical: temples, colonnaded streets, theatres differing different regions
• Political and cultural contexts:

  institutions, entertainments, arts, festivals self-governed by the

  curiale classes Roman cities relied on for culture, government,

  fiscality (Cameron) tiny percentage total population. Dependent on rural hinterland for

  wealth agrarian base
•  

 

WHEN?

• 6^th 7^th century ending of political characteristics no evidence curiale activity after 590
• Balkans: Stobbi, Nicopolis no sings of urban life

  at all, but more common is a fortification of a much contracted city area

  Rome and Constantinople
• Cameron significant change before 6^th

  century local factors but also deep-seated social and economic change (Luni

  Italy declines as marble resources run out)
• Major Cities Asia Minor (Ephesus, Sardis) still

  enjoy late antique civil life until Persian invasions Whittow cites

  silver at Edessa 6^th century as sign prosperity

 

WHY?

EVENTS

• 6^th century plagues, invasions,

  wars, locusts and earthquakes Mango cites plague 542 severe

  demographic effects
• Famine: poor infrastructure meant only

  temporary shortages sustained, could no move surpluses around Edessa 180

  a day die of starvation Mango: rising price of wheat main reason urban

  to rural migration
• Sacking and Invasion: Sirmium never

  recovered after Hunnic sack and deserted after Avar invasion 582 Balkan

  towns especially contraction city around walls Sparta for example
• Accelerate Trends of 3^rd Century:

  depopulation countryside, -

  invasions don’t lead to abandonment but failure to reoccupy or rebuild

  Need for security leads to walls and citadels
• NOT PRIMARY REASONS FOR FALL OF THE CITY, MAY HAVE HASTENED FALL IN INDIVIDUAL CASES

 

RURALIZATION OF POWERFUL ELITES

·       Role of Curiales: until 4^th century

at least honour to part of curiale class self-administer city wealthy compete

for status with public munificence: temples, theatres etc. Cameron decline as

power provincial governor increases. Peak munificence 3^rd century

·       Burden on Curiales: Burden of collecting tax for

imperial regime increasing as war campaigning and bureaucracy increased loss

of one third personal income. Financial

pressure became too much curiale members into clergy, ascetic life, enlarged

imperial administration (tax immunity).

New curiales less well off and ale to maintain and create public

munificence. Liebeschetze links right

back to Diocletian, Curiales become

more oligarchic Whittow curiales merely an institutional arrangement, underlying

strength of rural elites masks more structural changes

·       Decline of Education: 726 contemporary source

extinction of schools”, by end 6^th century higher education v. few

cities

·       Move to Countryside: city not survive without

richest and most educated citizens spent time villas by 5^th

century can fortify land (Edicius 471 Visigoths) evidence artisans moving

away due to collegia tax.

·       Evidence for Ruralization: little empirical

evidence increase rural population, increase church building 5^th and

6^th centuries implies elite in cities.

·       Rural-Civic Dynamic: Dynamic city and

surrounding countryside changed Liebveschetz argues decline Roman tax system

and fact that army recruited increasingly from peasantry suggests that

integration city and surrounding countryside finished L sees this

relationship as principle character ancient city in East still have

agricultural markets. As civic

territories split up villages become centres of administration monasteries

in countryside, also rural forts, strengthen economic position of the villages.

·       Age of Disasters: - 549 plagues, wars,

internecine wars, invasion, city council diminish stability restored by

Carolingians in West and Leo III in East admin no longer based in

administrative units, urban centres no longer survived as centres for rural

civic territory. End of the Ancient City involved the emancipation of the

countryside

 

ECONOMIC

• Taxes in kind, supplies to army, if traders no longer dealing in goods then decline of city inevitable
• Survival Full Urbanism linked to continuation of money economy and trade survival cities Aquitaine paralleled by coinage
• Increasing risk of long distance trade lessens trading as way of life

 

CHRISTIANISATION

• Church Building: Cultural landscape had

  changed which in turn changes the physical landscape rich benefactors

  cajoled into donating for monasteries and churches not temples and

  theatres. Move from secular to

  religious civil pride Selukia uses Christian (saint) identity. Cameron Thessaloniki 7^th

  century urban life no less vital.
• Church Administration: Bishop and clergy

  took on role of administering the city, in some cases acting as social

  security system. Liebeschuetze

  sees focus on single bishop as leader as a positive development for

  cities.
• The Church and Classical Features Urban City

  church views with suspicion classic features ancient city theatre,

  hippodrome, aversion to public entertainment theological phenomenon or

  attempt to get church attendance increased. Greaco-Roman feature of unity survives in guise of

  ecclesiastical leader.

 

ISLAMICISATION

• Mosques as political / social centre: linked in with educational and legal features
• Nature of Islam: emphasis on family, private

  space. Public space dependent on

  civic authority to maintain it Islamic state more minimalist than Roman

  one encroachment
• Commerce: Islamic culture views commerce

  more meritorious than governmental work see development retail alleys,

  suqs, expense colonnaded streets
• CULTURAL CHANGES HAD FIRECT PHYSICAL EFFECTS

 

CHANGE NOT DECLINE?

• Decline: Historians see decline from

  classical ideal of ancient city to urban squalor of the islamicised city

  vaue judgements. What about

  vibrant Islamic cities of Aleppo and Damascus.
• THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIES, NOT THE DELCINE,

  WHILST ENDING GREAT CLASSICAL TRADITION WAS REGENERATIVE AS WELL AS

  DESTRUCTIVE

 

HISTORIANS’ INTERPRETATIONS

• Cameron: By late 6^th century

  cities experiencing fundamental changes impact of the church, not in

  decline or being broken up
• Hodges and Whitehouse: Trade, cities, rural

  settlement, population levels collapse in 5^th century West

  Barbarians, 6^th 7^th East wars of Justinians entropy

  of social and economic life autarkic settlements but isn’t ancient

  city more about culturae and politics, decline secular administrative

  elites?
• Ward-Perkins: As state declines so does role of administration continuity of location but not of function.
• Whittow: Argues for continuation cities, especially in the East coinage, change cultural attitudes
• Kennedy Political chaos and economic decline

  effectively destroy classical citiesm elite into rural areas, villas,

  monasteries then castles continuity location in east but physical

  appearance changes.

</div>

Comments