THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYrecent publications provide overall or regional surveys of archaeological
evidence; these are noted at suitable points below, especially in Chapters 7
and 8.
Main themesA major issue in the period is that of unity and diversity. In what sense is it
still possible to think of a ‘Roman’ world after the fifth century? Some would
say that there was already a major downturn in prosperity, especially in the
west, and with it the disappearance of the traditional Roman elite lifestyle.
There is evidence to support such a view, especially from Britain, which
Rome ceased to regard as a province in 410. Bryan Ward-Perkins has memo-
rably described what happened as ‘the disappearance of comfort’.^21 A major
programme of building under Anastasius (491–518) and especially Justinian
(527–65) partly explains the survival of sixth-century basilicas (and fortifica-
tions) at many sites in the Balkans, but by the end of the century new threats,
combined with economic decline, were leading to a retreat in many places to
more secure hilltop fortifications. The important city of Thessalonica suf-
fered particularly badly from Slav attacks in the seventh century, and Con-
stantinople was threatened by Huns in 559 and besieged by Avars and Per-
sians in 626. Justinian’s fortifications did not protect the Peloponnese, and a
general economic downturn is posited by c. 700 by Michael McCormick (see
also Conclusion).^22
On the other hand, a wealth of evidence shows that the eastern prov-
inces, and especially the Near East, continued to prosper. While the Persian
wars of the sixth century and Persian invasion of the early seventh century
brought major damage to some urban centres, such as Antioch and Sardis,
other cities, such as Scythopolis (Bet Shean in Israel), show little sign of
decline until the eighth century, while the Arab conquests hardly show in
the archaeology of the Near East.^23 The state of these provinces on the eve
of Islam and the degree of continuity and change that can be traced in the
Umayyad period is one of the liveliest issues in current scholarship, and recent
work suggests that there was considerable local variation; a micro approach
is needed. The question of whether the development of Islam does indeed
belong in the context of late antiquity, as argued by a growing number of
late antique scholars, is also being challenged by some Islamicists;^24 it is also
noticeable that important developments under the Umayyads in the east, in
Iraq and the former Persian empire, are not usually central in the scholar-
ship on late antiquity, though they too are part of the story of continuity and
change. Perhaps the days of grand generalizations about the end of antiquity
are over.
The title of this book also evokes a current debate: in what sense can or
should we talk of a ‘Mediterranean’ society, and indeed, if this is permissible,
how is that affected by this apparently increasing divergence between west
and east? I will return to these questions in the Conclusion. Meanwhile it will