THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYrevolutionary, even in the last years of Phocas. Rather, they were normally
contained at an acceptable level, and Evelyne Patlagean has suggested that
these public manifestations, ranging from the shouting of acclamations to
full-fl edged urban violence, in fact occupied a structural role in the overall
consensus between government and governed, part of an uneasy but accepted
balance whereby the authorities, on the one hand, supplied the people with
both the essentials of life and the setting for the expression of opinion, and,
on the other, came down with an iron grip when necessary, a collusion in the
face of which the church sometimes took an independent role, but was more
often a collaborator.^82 This consensus was fragile at best and broke down, in
the west under pressure of external circumstances and in the east for more
complex reasons, including the changes in the balance of urban leadership.
A fi nal factor which needs to be emphasized is the vital role played by the
government in the food-supply of major cities, especially Rome and Constan-
tinople (Chapter 4), which reinforced the dependency of the population on
the authorities, while at the same time encouraging and maintaining numbers
of citizens at a large and potentially dangerous level. The system was highly
organized, and left little scope for private contractors. The cost to the govern-
ment of maintaining it was very great. In addition, it ensured that political fac-
tors continued to play a major role in the stability of the larger cities; it placed
the government and the population of the capital in an artifi cial position of al-
ternate confrontation and dependence, which could lead all too often to pub-
lic disturbance. Furthermore, it rendered the capital highly vulnerable to any
breakdown in supply. It was eventually external circumstances which brought
about this breakdown, and with it a great reduction in the population at both
Rome and Constantinople. Chris Wickham in particular has emphasized the
huge impact on the general economy of the eastern Mediterranean as well as
on Constantinople of the cessation of the annona in the early seventh century,
and this was compounded for the capital by the damage done to the Aqueduct
of Valens, not repaired until the next century, during the great siege of 626.
At Rome, the distribution was continued after 476 by the church, though on
a smaller scale, while at Constantinople, the fatal change came with the loss of
Egypt, the main supplier of grain, to the Persians in the early seventh century,
after which population contraction was rapid.^83 It is a useful corrective, when
considering urban change in the period, to remember the high level of public
investment in certain aspects of urban life, whether through the annona or
through building programmes, which should warn us in turn that urban pros-
perity is not in itself a good indicator of the general prosperity or otherwise
of the empire.
ConclusionLate antique and early Byzantine towns constitute a vibrant and exciting fi eld
of research and all generalizations run the risk of subsequent falsifi cation. How
far one can usefully discuss western and eastern Mediterranean together after