URBAN CHANGE AND THE LATE ANTIQUE COUNTRYSIDElaunched from Syracuse in Sicily, and his visits to Rome, Calabria and Sar-
dinia. Evidence from the reign of the same emperor and later also shows that
Byzantium continued to hope for continued control of parts of North Africa.
But there are signs that a new western Mediterranean system was beginning
to emerge.
In the east, the picture inevitably looked somewhat different. Antioch, the
second city of the eastern empire, was hard hit in the mid-sixth century by
fi re (525), plague, earthquake (526 and 528) and sack by the Persians (540),
followed by the deportation of many of its citizens to Persia; however, Pro-
copius describes a substantial urban rebuilding, imperially fi nanced, after the
540 disaster.^39 But the rebuilt city was on a smaller scale, and the city’s cathe-
dral, fi nally destroyed in the earthquake of 588, was not restored.^40 Accord-
ing to John of Ephesus, the patriarchate of Antioch was the scene of lurid
campaigns against alleged paganism, which reached as far as two bishops,
Rufi nus and Gregory. The case was referred to the emperor, but the colourful
patriarch Gregory returned from his acquittal in Constantinople with permis-
sion to build a new circus;^41 however, the Persian attack in 611 followed by
the Arab invasions curbed urban renewal in Antioch. In other eastern cities,
such as Laodicea and Damascus, earlier views about the encroachment over
the colonnaded streets of late antiquity by little shops or artisanal buildings
as characteristic of a transition to the medieval souks of the medieval period
have been questioned.^42 There were more complex changes going on than
straightforward economic impoverishment, and indeed the government tried
to control the subdivision of public buildings and ensure their maintenance.
Invasions and natural disasters were certainly factors which caused damage to
cities in late antiquity, but they were not the only reasons for change, nor have
they always left much trace in the archaeological record.^43
Interpreting urban changeAs argued above, archaeological evidence is often diffi cult to interpret and, in
particular, diffi cult to link directly with historical events. But in some cases, as
in that of street building at Caesarea in Palestine, there was still considerable
activity going on in the later sixth century, and Justinian’s building programme
included some spectacular achievements, such as the great Nea church at Je-
rusalem, which is shown on the sixth-century mosaic map of the city from
Madaba in Jordan. In this case, excavation dramatically and unexpectedly
confi rmed the accuracy of Procopius’ description.^44 Major building work also
took place in a number of Near Eastern cities after the middle of the sixth
century, among them Gerasa (Jerash) in Transjordan, and some magnifi cent
fl oor mosaics from churches in the area date from the seventh and even the
eighth centuries.^45 Striking and lavish mosaics continue to be revealed from
synagogues in the Near East, most recently and spectacularly from Seppho-
ris. Many of these synagogue mosaics contain motifs and iconography clearly
recognizable from pagan contexts and drew without self-consciousness on a