THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYcity or even a single monastery.^58 Anti-Chalcedonianism certainly had local
manifestations and allegiances, but it cannot be maintained that it was a popu-
lar, ethnic or ‘national’ movement, and anti-Chalcedonian sentiment by no
means coincided with Syriac Christianity. Throughout the reigns of Justin and
Justinian the centres of the resistance were in Alexandria and Constantinople
as much as, or even more than, they were in the Syrian countryside. It is not
very surprising, however, if local interests started to turn the situation to their
own advantage and claim the movement as their own, and one can see a pow-
erful move in this direction in the energetic and extensive writing of men such
as John of Tella.^59 Christianity was also well established within the Sasanian
empire. The ‘Nestorian’ or dyophysite tradition identifi ed with the School of
Nisibis was strong, but by the sixth century it was not universal, as is demon-
strated by the activities of Ahudemmeh,^60 and the treatment of Christians in
Persia fi gured from time to time in Roman–Persian diplomacy in the late sixth
century as it had since the time of Constantine.^61 Christians in the Persian
empire also included Miaphysites, especially in western Mesopotamia,^62 and
Christian discussion crossed political boundaries and spanned the territory of
both empires. Public debates took place in Constantinople and Ctesiphon,
under the patronage of both Justinian and Chosroes I, and also involved
Manichaeans and Zoroastrians. East Syrian representatives were summoned
to Constantinople in the early days of Justinian, and Chosroes held debates
at his own court. Common themes were also debated in both places, such
as the question of the eternity of the world, disputed by Christians, and
debated also in sixth-century Alexandria, with Aristotelian logic as a shared
technique.^63
An enormous amount of documentation accompanied the councils and
other meetings that attempted to settle the main christological and other divi-
sions between Christians, and ranges from letters to individuals and dioceses
to the formal acts of ecumenical councils. These documents are an invaluable
source of information about the languages in use and the geographical spread
of allegiances. A series of powerful articles by Fergus Millar has underlined
the possibilities for the historian of this period in using this material.^64 It was
a requirement of formal church councils that those present should indicate
their assent to the decisions taken by signing a fi nal agreed statement, and
sanctions normally followed for those few who refused. The signatures are
an invaluable source in themselves and are very revealing about language, the
geographical range of bishoprics represented and (with caution) identity, and
it is only relatively recently that they are being fully exploited by historians of
late antiquity.
The meetings with anti-Chalcedonian easterners held in Constantinople in
532 (the so-called ‘Conversations with the Syrian Orthodox’)^65 were followed
by Justinian’s own initiative in the 540s to condemn the ‘Three Chapters’;
the fi fth ecumenical council in 553 was called in order to try to deal with the
resulting outcry (Chapter 5). Justinian’s successor Justin II and his wife Sophia
attempted again to bridge the divide between pro- and anti-Chalcedonians,