URBAN CHANGE AND THE LATE ANTIQUE COUNTRYSIDEdozen churches. The ‘dead cities’ of the limestone massif were also in fact
large villages, though with urban features.
At Aïn Djelloula, north west of Kairouan in modern Tunisia, a Latin verse
inscription records building work of the prefect Solomon (534–56 and 539–
44), which included censura, status, cives, ius, moenia, fastus (‘[fi scal and municipal]
authority, [civic] order, citizens, law, public buildings and fasti [a legal calendar
and list of magistrates])’; the city added the name of the Empress Theodora
to its own name and became Cululis Theodoriana; yet of this town Proco-
pius says merely that it was given ‘very strong walls’ by Justinian. Building
and fortifi cation continued in North Africa, and an inscription from Henchir
Sguidan to the north east reveals fortifi cations carried out by the prefect Tho-
mas in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius (578–82) and the naming of the fort
as Anastasiana, after Tiberius’ wife; the same Thomas had also carried out
fortifi cations in the reign of Justin II and Sophia (565–78), when Iunci seems
to have been renamed Sofi ana Iunci, and is known from the Latin epic of
Corippus.^30 North Africa is a special case; having been recovered from Vandal
rule, the province needed organization, investment and defence from Berber
attack. The same defences were, however, of little avail against the later Arab
expeditions, and this prompts a re-examination of their nature and purpose,
including their geographical locations.^31
In the Balkans, urban life had been sharply interrupted by the Hunnic and
Ostrogothic invasions, and Anastasius’ and Justinian’s programmes of res-
toration and fortifi cation were mainly palliative. Despite Procopius’ claims,
it seems that there was little secular urban life in these settlements by the
sixth century, and building and signs of culture begin to dry up together. This
is the picture at late antique Nicopolis and Philippopolis in Bulgaria.^32 Mili-
tary needs and provision for an increased local role for bishops now took
Figure 7.1 Serjilla, one of the ‘dead’ cities in north-west Syria (Photo: James Pettifer)