268 Grey
period between the second half of the 5th century and the second half of the
6th century was, on the whole, characterized by stability or a slight increase in
the number of identifiable rural sites.
In Apulia, for example, recent work has identified something of a settle-
ment boom over this period,16 and a comparable boom appears to have been
underway on the Campanian plain when it was momentarily interrupted by
the eruption of Vesuvius in 472.17 In Emilia Romagna and the area around
Venice we observe some decline in numbers of rural sites in the period, but
also significantly a reorganization in the distribution of those sites and corre-
sponding changes to the character of settlement and exploitation in the region.
Likewise in Tuscany the ceramic evidence appears to document a small but
nevertheless noticeable redistribution in the number, distribution, and size of
rural sites in the period, largely in favour of agglomerations that we may term
villages—although, as elsewhere, whether this redistribution entailed changes
in population numbers is difficult to determine.18
In proposing these processes, scholars have become increasingly aware of
the implications of changing proportions of imported African Red Slip ware
and local wares, for these changes may be interpreted as reflecting interrup-
tions or perturbations of long-distance trade and a corresponding florescence
of local production and distribution networks.19 Moreover, in recent scholar-
ship the ongoing connections between the rural sites of Tuscany at least and
the urban centres that continued to draw upon their produce and function as
nodes for both the purchase and sale of goods have been stressed.20 Certainly,
we should not assume that any imagined or actual expansion in the rural pop-
ulation was necessarily matched by a precipitous decline in the populations or
wealth of the cities of Ostrogothic Italy.
When we turn to clear indications of Ostrogothic presence in rural contexts,
the evidence is sparse and unevenly distributed.21 Depending on how we wish
16 Volpe, “Paesaggi e insediamenti rurali dell’Apulia”.
17 Albore Livadie et al. “Eruzioni pliniane del Somma-Vesuvio”; Di Vito et al., “Human colo-
nization and human activity”; Mastrolorenzo et al., “The 472 ad Pollena Eruption”.
18 Vaccaro, “Four River Basins”; Cantini, “Aree rurali e centri urbani”. For explicit discus-
sions of depopulation, Lafferty, Law and Society, pp. 217–8 (arguing in favor); Christie,
Constantine to Charlemagne, pp. 492–6 (suspending judgement); Cheyette, “Climatic
Anomaly”, 137–8 (offering broader geographical and methodological perspectives on the
problem).
19 Loseby, “Mediterranean Economy”, pp. 608–17 provides an elegant, synthetic discussion
of the problem. Also Marazzi, “Destinies”, pp. 136–41.
20 Cantini, “Aree rurali e centri urbani”.
21 Christie, Constantine to Charlemagne, p. 451; Moorhead, Theoderic, pp. 67–9.