1 For an excellent short discussion of the role of the Bedouin, see M. Whittow, The Making of Byzantium 600–1025 (London, 1996), 32–6. At more length D. F. Graf, “Rome and the Saracens: Reassessing the nomadic menace,” in T. Fahd (ed.), L'Arabie préislamique et son environnement historique et culturel (Leiden, 1989), 341–400. 2 For recent discussion of the north Syrian evidence, see C. Foss, “Syria in transition, AD 550–750,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 51 (1997), 189–269, and C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), 443–59. 3 H. C. Butler, Early Churches in Syria. Fourth to Seventh Centuries (Princeton, 1929, repr. Amsterdam, 1969), 17–19, Church of Umm idj-Djimal, AD 345; other dated churches of southern Syria in 366/7 and 368, pp. 25–6; earliest dated church at Fafirtin 372, pp. 33–4, northern Syria, church at Bankusa, c.350. For a recent survey of the epigraphic evidence see F. R. Trombley, “Christian demography in the territorium of Antioch (4th–5th c.): Observations on the epigraphy,” in I. Sandwell and J. Huskinson (eds.), Culture and Society in Later Roman Antioch (Oxford, 2004), 59–85. 4 M. Whittow, The Making of Byzantium 600–1025, 63–8. 5J.-P. Sodini, “Déhès (Syrie du Nord). Campagnes I–III (1976–8): recherches sur l'habitat rural,” Syrie 57 (1980), 1–304. 6 K. Butcher, Roman Syria (London, 2003), 153–7. 7 K. A. Yener et al., “The Amuq valley regional project 1995–98,” AJA 104 (2000), 163–220; J. Casana, “The archaeological landscape of late Roman Antioch,” in I. Sandwell and J. Huskinson (eds.), Culture and Society in Later Roman Antioch (Oxford, 2004), 102–25. 8 The phrase was coined by a western pilgrim from Piacenza, who passed through the city at this period, J. Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims (Warminster, 1977), 89. 9 G. Foerster and Y. Tsafir, in A. Hoffmann and S. Kerner (eds.), Gadara-Gerasa und die Dekapolis (Antike Welt Sonderband, Mainz, 2002), 83–5; and “Urbanism at Scythopolis – Beth Shean, fourth to seventh centuries,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 51 (1997), 85–146. 10 W. Liebeschuetz, “Late late antiquity in the cities of the Roman Near East,” Mediterraneo Antico (economie società culture) 3 (2000), 43–75 at 48–9. 11 A. Hoffmann and S. Kerner (eds.), Gadara-Gerasa und die Dekapolis; W. Liebeschuetz, Mediterraneo Antico 3 (2000), 55–6. 12 H. M. Cotton, W. E. H. Cockle, and F. G. B. Millar, “The papyrology of the Roman Near East: A survey,” JRS 85 (1995), 214–35 list the Nessana papyri at 233–5. 13 Y. Hirschfeld, “Social aspects of the late-antique village of Shivta (Negev),” JRA 16 (2003), 395–408. See also Y. Hirschfeld, The Palestinian Dwelling in the Roman-Byzantine Period (Jerusalem, 1995), rev. M. Fischer et al., JRA 11 (1998), 670–8. 14 C. A. M. Glucker, The City of Gaza in the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Oxford, 1987). 15 B. Ward-Perkins, CAH 14, 371–4. 16 Hugh Kennedy, “From polis to madina,” Past and Present 106 (1985), 3–27. For the debate about decline, see pp. 486–91. 17 S. Mitchell, “Festivals, games and city life in Roman Asia Minor,” JRS 80 (1990), 183–93. 18 S. Mitchell, Anatolia II (Oxford, 1993), 81–4; for the whole topic see Peter Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350–550 AD (Princeton, 2012), chapters 3 and 4. 19 G. Fowden, “Bishops and temples in the eastern empire,” JTS 29 (1978), 53–78; J. Vaes, Ancient Society 15–17 (1984–6), 305–443. 20 C. Foss and P. Magdalino, Rome and Byzantium (London, 1977), 74–5; C. Foss, Ephesus after Antiquity. A Late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish City (Cambridge Mass., 1979). 21 Information from the unpublished PhD thesis of P. Talloen, Cult in Pisidia. Religious Practice in Southwestern Asia Minor from the Hellenistic to the Early Byzantine Period (2002). 22 R. Cormack, “The classical tradition in the Byzantine provincial city: The evidence of Thessalonike and Aphrodisias,” Byzantium and the Classical Tradition (1981), 103–18; R. Cormack, “The temple as cathedral,” in C. Roueché and K. Erim (eds.), Aphrodisias Papers: Recent Work on Architecture and Sculpture (Ann Arbor, 1990), 75–88. 23 See the comments of R. R. R. Smith, “Late antique portraits in a public context: Honorific statuary at Aphrodisias in Caria,” JRS 89 (1999), 156–9. 24 L. Robert, Epigrammes du Bas-Empire, Hellenica IV (1948). 25 C. Roueché, Performers and Partisans at Aphrodisias in the Roman and Late Roman Periods (JRS Monograph no. 6, London, 1993). 26 For Ephesus, see C. Foss, Ephesus after Antiquity (Cambridge Mass., 1979). 27 S. Mitchell and M. Waelkens, Pisidian Antioch. The Site and its Monuments (Wales and London, 1998), 106–10. 28 C. Foss, “The Lycian coast in the Byzantine age,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 48 (1994), 1–52, also reprinted in Cities, Fortresses and Villages of Byzantine Asia Minor (Aldershot, 1996). 29 B. Leadbetter, “Diocletian and the purple mile of Aperlae,” Epigraphica Anatolica 36 (2003), 127–36. The milestone is, alas, made from limestone, not porphyry. 30 C. Foss, “Cities and villages of Lycia in the Life of St Nicholas of Holy Zion,” Greek Orthodox Theological Review 36 (1991), 303–39, also reprinted in Cities, Fortresses and Villages of Byzantine Asia Minor (Aldershot, 1996). 31 F. Trombley, “Korykos in Kilikia Trachis: The economy of a small coastal city in late antiquity (Saec. V–VI),” The Ancient History Bulletin 1 (1987), 16–23. 32 For the archaeology of this region see Guyer and Herzfeld, MAMA II, 90–194 (Korykos); J. Keil and A. Wilhelm, MAMA III (especially for the epigraphy). F. Hild and H. Hellenkemper, Tabula Imperii Byzantini V. 1. Kilikien und Isaurien (Vienna, 1990), 108–27 (economy), and 320–5 (Corycus). 33 S. Mitchell, “Olive cultivation in the economy of Roman Asia Minor,” in S. Mitchell and C. Katsari (eds.), Patterns in the Economy of Roman Asia Minor (Wales, 2005), 83–113, especially 101–3. 34 See Ine Jacobs “A tale of prosperity. Asia Minor in the Theodosian period,” Byzantion 82 (2012), 113–64. 35 See B. Shaw, “Bandits in the Roman Empire,” Past and Present 105 (1984), 3–52; “Bandit highlands and lowland peace: the mountains of Isauria-Cilicia,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 33 (1990), 199–233, 237–70. 36 Ammianus Marcellinus XIV.2; XIX.13; XXVII.19; Zosimus IV.20; for the fortifications see Peregrinatio Aetheriae XXIII.4, (St Thekla, before AD 384); C. P. Jones, Phoenix 26 (1972), 396–9 (Anemurium, AD 382); ILS 740 (Antiochia in Isauria, AD 359); AE 1974, 644 (Irenopolis, AD 355–8). 37 Sozomen HE VIII.25.1; Zosimus V.25. 38 For Aphrodisias, see Aphrodisias in Late Antiquity inscr. 19 (AD 355–60); for Sagalassus, see L. Loots et al., “The city fortifications of Sagalassos from the Hellenistic to the late Roman period,” in M. Waelkens and Loots (eds.), Sagalassos V (Leuven, 2000), 595–634, and http://www.sagalassos.be/monuments_sites/urban_area/fortifications/late_antique (accessed March 3, 2014), dating the walls to the Isaurian threats of AD 404–6. 39 D. Feissel and I. Kaygusuz, “Un mandement impériale du VIe siècle,” Travaux et Mémoires 9 (1985), 397–419; reprinted with one important revision in D. Feissel, Documents, droit, diplomatique de l'Empire romain tardif (Paris, 2010), 223–50; AE 1985, 816; SEG XXXV 1360. 40 M. Konrad, “Research on the Roman and early Byzantine frontier in North Syria,” JRA 12 (1999), 392–410. 41 Fergus Millar, The Roman Near East 31 BC–AD 337 (Harvard, 1993), 174–89; K. Butcher, Roman Syria (London, 2003), 417, fig. 191. 42 See Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (London, 2003), 415–21. 43 P. Sarris, Empires of Faith (Oxford, 2011), 143. 44 See B. Croke and J. Crow, “Procopius and Dara,” JRS 63 (1983), 159. 45 J. D. Howard-Johnson, “Procopius, Roman defences north of the Taurus and the new fortress at Citharizon,” in D. H. French and C. S. Lightfoot (eds.), The Eastern Frontier of the Roman Empire I (Oxford, 1989), 290–4. 46 M. Whittow, The Making of Byzantium 600–1025 (London, 1996), 200. 47 E. K. Fowden, The Barbarian Plain. Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran (Berkeley, 1999), 45–59. 48 See G. Greatrex's commentary on Ps-Zachariah, Chron. 7.6 a-g, and further literature cited on p. 162, n. 73. 49 Important details of the foundation of Dara are also found in the ecclesiastical history of Ps-Zachariah 7.6. See B. Croke and J. Crow, JRS 63 (1983), 143–59; Michael Whitby, “Procopius and the development of Roman defences in upper Mesopotamia,” in P. Freeman and D. Kennedy, The Defence of the Roman and Byzantine East (Oxford, 1986), 717–35, and “Procopius' description of Dara (Buildings 2.1–3),” in The Defence of the Roman and Byzantine East, 737–83. 50 C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), 22–5, 65–6; R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993), 15–44: “The Nile was not only worshiped as a divinity, but monitored like a patient in intensive care” (Bagnall p.16). 51 R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993), 321 n. 20. 52 See W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford, 2001), 170. 53 See the map in W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 261, fig. 16. 54 A. K. Bowman, The Town Councils of Roman Egypt(Toronto, 1971); for the pre-history of municipal organization, see A. K. Bowman and D. Rathbone, “Cities and administration in Roman Egypt,” JRS 82 (1992), 107–27. 55 A. K. Bowman, “Landholding in the Hermopolite nome in the fourth century AD,” JRS 75 (1985), 137–63; R. Bagnall, “Landholding in late Roman Egypt: The distribution of wealth,” JRS 82 (1992), 128–49 suggests that 25–30 percent of the landed property in the nome of Hermopolis was owned by city dwellers. 56 R. Bagnall, “Religious conversion and onomastic change,” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 19 (1982), 105–24 (demographic evidence from papyri); R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton, 1993), 278–89; E. Wipsycka, “La christianisation de l'Égypte aux Ie–Ve siècles. Aspects sociaux et ethniques,” Aegyptus 68 (1988), 117–65 (especially for the literary evidence). 57 R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity, 310–25. 58 R. Alston, The City in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (London, 2002). 59 Alan Cameron, “Wandering poets: A literary movement in Byzantine Egypt,” Historia 14 (1965), 470–509. 60 J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity. Gold, Labour and Aristocratic Dominance(Oxford, 2001), 39–88. 61 W. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford, 2001), 169–202; J. Keenan, CAH XIV, 625–33. 62 P. Sarris, Economy and Society in the Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2006), 29–95, especially the summary pp. 86–9. 63 J. Banaji, Agrarian Change in Late Antiquity: Gold, labour and aristocratic domination (Oxford, 2001). 64 P. Sarris, Economy and Society (Cambridge, 2006), 17–24. 65 P. Sarris, Economy and Society (Cambridge, 2006), 96–114; L. MacCoull, Disocorus of Aphrodito: His work and his world (Berkeley, 1988). 66 J. Gascou, “Les grandes domaines, la cité et l'état en Égypte byzantine,” Travaux et Mémoires 9 (1985), 1–90. The theory is widely discussed and contested; see P. Sarris, Economy and Society (Cambridge, 2006), 131–48, and W. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford, 2001), 181–202. 67 For recent work on late antiquity in Africa see N. Duval, Revue des Études Anciennes 92 (1990), 349–87; 95 (1993), 583–640; D. J. Mattingly and R. Hitchner, “Roman Africa: An archaeological survey,” JRS 85 (1995), 209–13. 68 J.-M. Lassère, Ubique Populus. Peuplement et Mouvements de population dans l'Afrique Romaine de la chute de Carthage à la fin de la dynastie des Sévères (Paris, 1977); D. J. Mattingly and R. Hitchner, JRS 85 (1995), 171–4. 69 P. Salama, Bornes milliaires de l'Afrique Proconsulaire. Un panorama historique du Bas Empire romain (Paris, 1987); references at D. J. Mattingly and R. Hitchener, JRS 85 (1995), 179 n. 154. 70 C. Lepelley, La cité de l'Afrique romaine au Bas-Empire (2 vols., Paris, 1979–80). 71 D. J. Mattingly and R. Hitchner, JRS 85 (1995), 210. 72 CJust. 11.63.1; J. Percival, in B. Levick (ed.), An Ancient Historian and his Materials (presented to C. E. Stevens) (Farnborough, 1975), 213–27; D. Mattingly, “Olive cultivation and the Albertini tablets,” in L'Africa Romana 6.1 (1989), 403–15. 73 A. Carandini, “Pottery and the African economy,” in P. Garnsey et al. (eds.), Trade in the Ancient Economy (Cambridge, 1983), 145–62; C. Wickham, “Marx, Sherlock Holmes and late Roman commerce,” JRS 78 (1988), 183–93 at 190–3. For olives see D. Mattingly, “Oil for export? A comparison of Libyan, Spanish and Tunisian olive oil production in the Roman empire,” JRA 1 (1988), 33–56. 74 Y. Modéran, “L'établissment territorial des Vandales en Afrique,” Ant. Tard. 10 (2002), 87–122 with map on p. 89. 75 See A. H. Merrills and R. Miles, The Vandals (Oxford, 2010), covering political, economic, and cultural aspects of the Vandal occupation of Africa, and the essays in A. H. Merrills (ed.), Vandals, Romans and Berbers. New perspectives on late antique North Africa (London, 2004). 76 D. Pringle, The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest (2 vols., Oxford, 1981); W. Liebeschuetz, The City in Late Antiquity (2002), 100–1. 77 J. Durliat, Les dédicaces d'ouvrages de défence dans l'Afrique Byzantine (Rome, 1981), 93–8. 78 See the excellent overview of Averil Cameron, CAH 14, 552–69. 79 W. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford, 2001), 377–8. 80 See Mark Handley, “Disputing the end of African Christianity,” in A. H. Merrills (ed.), Vandals, Romans and Berbers (London, 2004), 291–310. 81 R. Agache, La Somme préromaine et romaine d'après les prospections aériennes à basse altitude (Amiens, 1978). 82 For Rheinzabern see E. Künzl, Die Alamannenbeute aus dem Rhein bei Neupotz. Plünderungsgut aus dem römischen Gallien (Monographien Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, 4 vols., Mainz, 1993). 83 H. Schöneberger, “The Roman frontier in Germany: An archaeological survey,” JRS 59 (1969), 144–97 at 177–87. 84 N. Christie, “Towns and peoples on the middle Danube in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages,” in N. Christie and S. T. Loseby (eds.), Towns in Transition (Aldershot, 1996), 71–98 at 77. 85 D. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay (London, 2004), 502–3. 86 O. and C. Nicholson, “Lactantius, Hermes Trismegistus and Constantinian obelisks,” JHS 109 (1989), 200. 87 S. Loseby, “Arles in late antiquity: Gallula Roma Arelate and Urbs Genesii,” in N. Christie and S. T. Loseby, Towns in Transition, 45–70. 88 M. Meijmanns, “La topographie de la ville d'Arles durant l'antiquité tardive,” JRA 12 (1999), 143–67; W. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City (Oxford, 2001), 84. 89 P. van Ossel and P. Ouzoulias, “Rural settlement economy in Northern Gaul in the late empire: an overview and assessment,” JRA 13 (2000), 151–3. 90 P. Van Ossel and P. Ouzoulias, JRA 13 (2000), 149–50. 91 See C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), 178–84, for a balanced assessment. 92 W. Liebeschuetz, The Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 86; for Metz see B. S. Bachrach, “Fifth-century Metz. Late Roman Christian urbs or ghost town?” Ant. Tard. 10 (2002), 363–81, who argues that the town continued to flourish in the fifth century. The Franks built a large palace south of the cathedral in view of the amphitheater which was inside the defensive walls. See further, C. Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome (London, 2009), 111–29. 93 G. Halsall, “Towns, societies and ideas: The not-so-strange case of late Roman and early Carolingian Metz,” in N. Christie and S. T. Loseby, Towns in Transition, 235–61. 94 C. Wickham, “Un pas vers le Moyen Âge. Permanences et mutations,” in P. Ouzoulias et al., Les campagnes de la Gaule à la fin de l'Antiquité (Colloque Montpellier 1998, publ. Antibes, 2001), 555–67. 95 C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), quotations at p. 306 and p. 333. 96 C. E. Stevens, Sidonius Apollinaris and his Age (Oxford, 1934); J. Harries, Sidonius Apollinaris and the Fall of Rome (Oxford, 1994). 97 W. Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles. The Making of a Christian Community in Late Antique Gaul (Cambridge, 1993); see also W. Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles: Life, Testament, Letters (Liverpool, 1994). 98 C. Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages (Oxford, 2005), 168–78. 99 W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 84–8; S. T. Loseby, “Marseilles: A late antique success story?” JRS 82 (1992), 169.100 S. T. Loseby, “Marseilles: A late antique success story?” JRS 82 (1992), 165–85.101 N. Christie, The Lombards (Oxford, 1995), 140.102 B. Ward-Perkins, CAH 14, 355.103 W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 379–80, 388–90.104 W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 382.105 S. J. B. Barnish, “Pigs, plebeians and potentes: Rome's economic hinterland c.350–600 AD,” Papers of the British School at Rome 55 (1987), 157–85.106 P. Arthur, “Some observations on the economy of Bruttium under the later Roman empire,” JRA 2 (1989), 133–42.107 For the view that we should not draw excessively pessimistic conclusions from the archaeological evidence, see C. Wickham, Early Medieval Italy. Central Power and Local Society 400–1000 (London, 1981), 99–118, contested by W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 395–9.108 N. Christie, The Lombards, 129–31, with figs. 21 and 22.109 See B. D. Shaw, “War and violence,” in G. W. Bowersock et al. (eds.), Late Antiquity (Cambridge Mass., 1999), 130–69.110 J. Kolendo, “L'aristocratie municipale dans les provinces rhénanes et danubiennes à l'époque du Haut-Empire,” JRA 4 (1991), 327–30, table on p. 329.111 R. Syme, “Roman senators from Dalmatia,” Danubian Papers (1971), 110–2.112 H. Wolff, “Administrative Einheiten in den Nordprovinzen und ihre Beziehungen zu römischen Funktionsträgern,” in W. Eck (ed.), Lokale Autonomie und römische Ordnunugsmacht in den kaiserzeitlichen provinzen vom 1. bis 3. Jht (Munich, 1999), 47–60.113 N. Christie, “Towns and peoples on the middle Danube in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages,” in N. Christie and S. T. Loseby, Towns in Transition, 71–98 at 75–7.114 B. Croke, “Hormisdas and the late Roman walls of Thessalonica,” GRBS 19 (1978), 251–8. Plan: CAH 14, 710, fig. 22.115 W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 284–5; see p. 445.116 Map in N. McLynn, Ambrose of Milan, 89.117 J. J. Wilkes, Diocletian's Palace, Split (1996), passim and 66–70 for Gamzigrad.118 See plans in CAH 14, 719, fig. 243, and 922, fig. 41.119 G. E. M. de Ste Croix, The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (London, 1983).120 N. Christie, “Towns and peoples on the middle Danube in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages,” in N. Christie and S. T. Loseby, Towns in Transition, 71–98 at 78.121 Michael Whitby, CAH 14, 704–12.122 The tomb and tower may even be identifiable with the excavated remains at Heligenstadt, see J. Haberl with Christopher Hawkes, “The last of Roman Noricum: St Severin on the Danube,” in C. F. C. and S. Hawkes (eds.), Greeks, Celts and Romans. Studies in Venture and Resistance (Towota, 1973), 97–149 at 143–4.123 A. G. Poulter, “The Lower Danubian frontier in Late Antiquity: Evolution and dramatic change in the frontier zone, c.296–600,” in P. Herz et al. (eds.), Zwischen Region und Reich: das Gebiet der oberen Donau im Imperium Romanum (Berlin, 2008), 11–42; see also A. G. Poulter, “The transition to late antiquity on the Lower Danube: an interim report (1996–98),” Antiquaries Journal 79 (1999), 145–85.124 W. Treadgold, Byzantium and its Army 282–1081 (Stanford, 1995), 50–2; J. F. Haldon, Byzantium in the Seventh Century (Cambridge, 1997), 251.125 O. Karagiorgiou, “LR2: A container for the military annona on the Danubian border?” in S. Kingsley and M. Decker, Economy and Exchange (Oxford, 2001), 129–66.126 See p. 425. Note also W. Liebeschuetz, Decline and Fall of the Roman City, 289, for the emergence of fortress cities at coastal sites in the sixth and seventh centuries.