The Economic History of Byzantium From

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Part Two

The Sixth Century, Background

The Sixth-Century Economy

Ce´cile Morrisson and Jean-Pierre Sodini

The Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire in the sixth century remained a power that encompassed the whole Mediterranean basin following Justinian’s costly campaigns of reconquest. The barbarians nonetheless still held the Gallic territories and most of the Iberian peninsula, as well as Noricum and Pannonia. The Danubian limes, breached regularly from the fourth century on, ceased to offer any protection to the dioceses of Dacia and Thrace as of the 540s. The integration of Moesia II and of Scythia Minor into the Quaestura Exercitus represented Justinian’s desperate attempt to protect the northern flank of Constantinople and the Balkan peninsula.

To the east, the empire extended as far as Georgia (Iberia); to the southeast, it included Martyropolis (Majafarqin) and Anastasioupolis (Dara), Nisibis having been left to the Sasanians by Jovian in 363 after Julian’s disastrous eastern campaign. From the Euphrates to the Red Sea, limitanei established in the forts of the Via Nova Trajana and the Strata Diocletiana protected the provinces of Syria, Arabia, and Palestine, including the Sinai peninsula and the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aila.1 Toward the middle of the sixth century, menaced by the Persians, Justinian assembled his troops along the northern frontier and entrusted the defense of the remaining area to the Ghassanid phylarchs, without undermining its security or its economy, despite the halt of fortification building and the departure of (ill-)paid troops.2 The Nile was Byzantine as far south as Phile and the first cataract. Cyrenaica, a Byzantine territory that had been in decline since the halcyon days of Synesios, was revitalized by Justinian’s western dream, and harbors, walls, and churches in particular underwent a great renewal (in the cities of Cyrene, Apollonias, Ptolemais, El Atrun, Berenice/Benghazi). To the north, in Crimea, Cherson was a powerful Byzantine enclave,3 and in the Balkans, the Danube continued to serve as a frontier.

This chapter was translated by Charles Dibble.

1S. T. Parker, Romans and Saracens: A History of the Arabian Frontier (Winona Lake, Ind., 1986); idem, The Roman Frontier in Central Jordan: Interim Report on the Limes Arabicus Project (Oxford, 1987).

2P. J. Casey, “Justinian, the Limitanei, and Arab-Byzantine Relations in the 6th Century,” JRA 9 (1996): 214–22.

3See A. Bortoli and M. Kazanski, “Medieval Kherson and Its Region,” EHB.

172 MORRISSON AND SODINI

The reconquest of the western shores of the Mediterranean constituted the Great Idea of Justinian’s reign. The coasts of Tripolitania were quickly retaken, and cities such as Sabratha, Oea-Tripoli, and Leptis Magna restored. The ancient provinces of Byzacena, Africa Proconsularis, Numidia, and Mauritania Stifensis were wrested from the Vandals and made defensible once more through the efforts of Salomon the patrikios. The two coasts of the Strait of Gibraltar were Byzantine again as the result of the capture of Andalusian territories in 552.4 The Baleares, Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily were quickly brought back into the Byzantine fold. Doing so proved more difficult, however, with respect to Italy and Dalmatia: Belisarios and, later, Narses were forced to fight toe-to-toe against Theodoric and his successors between 534 and 552.5

Throughout these territories milled Romanized and Christianized populations, who recognized, in theory at least, the supremacy of the Byzantine emperor, received titles and gifts from him, and furnished him with contingents of foederati: Visigoths and Franks to the west, Absiles and Alans on the eastern flank of the Black Sea, Ghassanid Arabs on the Transjordanian and Syrian limes. No serious or lasting invasion took place in the former Pars Orientis of the Roman Empire after the third quarter of the fourth century. The Roman network of land and sea routes remained passable to a great extent, and the measures of John of Cappadocia regarding the cursus publicus had in the short run no influence on the maintenance of the roads.6 This state of affairs, which favored economic activity and exchange, lasted until the mid-sixth century. Moreover, as we shall see, the trade networks exceeded—and did so by a great margin—areas that were governed by political or diplomatic accords: Byzantine trade extended as far as England to the west and to the east, by way of the Red Sea, as far as India.

The Population

The Decline of Italian Cities, the Stability of African Cities, and the Varying Prosperity of Cities in the Pars Orientis (Fig. 1)

The long reconquest of Italy had led to irreparable damage. The population of Rome, which at the beginning of the fourth century still numbered 600,000 to 700,000 inhabitants according to Bernard Bavant (Jean Durliat puts the number at 800,000), fell to 200,000 (Bavant; Durliat: 350,000) after the raid of 410, and barely totaled 100,000 around the year 500. Immediately following Narses’ reconquest of Rome, the population level tumbled to its demographic nadir: the city’s population in the seventh century barely tipped 25,000 to 30,000 (Bavant; Durliat and Richard Krautheimer: 90,000). Having lost its aristocracy and a great number of its artisans and merchants,

4E. Stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1948), 2:560–64; R. Collins, Early Medieval Spain (London, 1983), 38; S. J. Keay, Roman Spain (Berkeley–London, 1988), 208.

5Stein, Bas-Empire, 2:564–622; N. Christie and A. Rushworth, “Urban Fortification and Defensive Strategy in Fifth and Sixth Century Italy: The Case of Terracina,” JRA 1 (1988): 73–88. The authors date these walls to 440 or thereabouts, rather than 535 to 553.

6See A. Avramea, “Land and Sea Communications, Fourth–Fifteenth Centuries,” EHB 57.

Rome became home to country folk and assumed a decidedly rustic character.7 All the Italian cities were affected, with the possible exception of Ravenna, which had not been captured and whose evolution, while similar, was differentiated to some extent by virtue of its function as a regional capital and the importance of its ties to the East. The cities of Liguria maintained contacts with Constantinople, as they did with Rome. As of 568, however, the Lombard invasion began to tear Italy apart once again.8

To some extent, Africa got a better start. The reconquest was effected rapidly, without harming the territory, and the Byzantine administration took steps to invest in it. An entire program of fortification was completed with vigor and skill. Carthage was the object of privileged treatment. The Wall of Theodosios was rebuilt and its moats relaid. The great columned basilica at Byrsa, built by Antoninus Pius, was reconstructed as a fortified monastery—a sign of the times. The Antonine baths, which had lain decrepit during the fifth century, were rebuilt in the sixth. A portico graced the circular harbor and sheltered artisans who specialized in textile work (the remains of what is thought to have been the imperial gynaeceum have been found).9 Certain houses seem to have been rebuilt during this period. The process of transformation took place in other cities as well. At Timgad, at Djemila (Cuicul), and at Bulla Regia, new centers were created, albeit on a less monumental scale. Baths were maintained at Setif and, reconstructed in more modest form, lasted until the year 600. But these efforts came to a sudden end. Private residences and shops sprang up in a number of fora. Agricultural presses began to appear within towns.10 A progressive slowdown in activity and in exchange, accompanied by demographic stagnation, developed during the seventh century.

Cities inside Thrace and Moesia fell into decline beginning in the second half of the fifth century, in spite of imperial support. No more than a few hundred inhabitants populated Caricˇin Grad/Justiniana Prima, Illyricum’s aborted capital. The early Byzantine surrounding wall at Nikopolis ad Istrum left little room for inhabitants, who

7R. Krautheimer, Rome: Profile of a City, 312–1308 (Princeton, N.J., 1980); B. Bavant, “Cadre de vie et habitat urbain en Italie centrale byzantine (VIe–VIIIe s.),” Me´lRome Moyen-Age 101 (1989): 465– 532; J. Durliat, De la ville antique `a la ville byzantine: Le proble`me des subsistances (Rome, 1990), 110–17, 159–60; R. Menegnini and R. Santangeli Valenzani, “Episode di trasformazione del paesaggio urbano nella Roma altomedievale,” Archeologie medievale 23 (1996): 53–99.

8T. S. Brown and N. Christie, “Was There a Byzantine Model of Settlement in Italy?” Me´lRome Moyen-Age 101 (1989): 377–99; S. Gelichi, “Ravenna ascesa e declino di una capitale,” in G. Ripoll and J. M. Gurt, eds., Sedes regiae (ann. 400–800) (Barcelona, 2000), 109–34; G. P. Brogiolo, “Capitali e residenze regie nell’Italia longobarda,” in Sedes regiae, 135–62; G. P. Brogiolo and S. Gelichi, La citta` nell’alto medioevo italiano (Rome, 1998).

9H. R. Hurst, Excavations at Carthage: The British Mission, vol. 2.1, The Circular Harbour, North Site

(Oxford, 1994), 53–98.

10S. Roskams, “Urban Transition in North Africa: Roman and Medieval Towns of the Maghreb,” in Towns in Transition: Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, ed. N. Christie and S. T. Loseby (Aldershot, 1996), 159–83; F. Ghedini, “L’Africa Pronconsulare,” in Storia di Roma, ed. A. Carandini, L. Cracco Ruggini, and A. Giardina, vol. 3.2 (Turin, 1993), 309–26; H. Hurst, “Cartagine, la nuova Alessandria,” ibid., 327–38; L. Bacchielli, “La Tripolitania,” ibid., 339–50; E. Fentress, “La Numidia,” ibid., 351–62.

174 MORRISSON AND SODINI

may have occupied the outskirts of the city.11 It was the cities on the shore of the Black Sea that endured, such as Istria (whose perimeter narrowed, a fact that does not necessarily imply a drop in the population) and Tomis; both maintained a very active trade with Asia Minor. Cherson seems to have witnessed an expansion at the end of the sixth century and the beginning of the seventh.12

Within Asia Minor and Syria-Palestine—the more populated and dynamic regions of the empire—cities continued to prosper, at least until the middle of the sixth century. The population of Constantinople at the start of the sixth century numbered 400,000 (or slightly more).13 We may reckon that of Antioch at approximately 200,000 prior to the earthquake of 526 (which killed 250,000 according to Malalas, 300,000 according to Prokopios), a second quake in 528, and the deportation of its inhabitants by the Persians in 540.14 Apameia supported a population of around 100,000, if not somewhat more. Adarmanes, at the sack of the city in 573, with his 6,000 armored horsemen and Lakhmid Arab auxiliary forces, withdrew with 200,000 captives.15 We may estimate the population of Alexandria at no fewer than 100,000; so too for Thessalonike. The population of Ephesos is not ascertainable, but must have been lower by only a small margin.16 Caesarea in Palestine, Jerusalem, and Sardis17 would have had between 50,000 and 100,000 inhabitants. Gerasa, despite its fifteen churches, may have suffered a demographic decline relative to the Roman period. A provincial capital such as Nikopolis must have numbered from 30,000 to 35,000, as did Gortyna and, possibly, BeisanScythopolis, where excavators posit a population of 30,000 to 40,000; the latter city witnessed a significant program to rebuild public infrastructures, while private houses and shops were restored.18 One may estimate the population of the city of Hermopolis

11A. Poulter, “The Use and Abuse of Urbanism in the Danubian Provinces during the Later Roman Empire,” in The City in Late Antiquity, ed. J. Rich (London–New York, 1992), 99–135; idem, Nicopolis ad Istrum, A Roman, Late Roman, and Early Byzantine City: Excavations, 1985–1992 (London, 1995), 43–47; idem, “The Roman to Byzantine Transition in the Balkans: Preliminary Results on Nicopolis and Its Hinterland,” JRA 13 (2000): 346–58.

12See Bortoli and Kazanski, “Kherson.”

13C. Mango, Le de´veloppement urbain de Constantinople, IVe–VIIe sie`cles (Paris, 1985), 51; D. Jacoby, “La population de Constantinople `a l’e´poque byzantine: Un proble`me de de´mographie urbaine,”

Byzantion 31 (1961): 81–109 ( Socie´te´ et de´mographie `a Byzance et en Romanie latine [London, 1975], art. 1).

14J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Antioch: City and Imperial Administration in the Later Roman Empire (Oxford, 1972), 92–100.

15J.-C. Balty, “Apame´e au VIe sie`cle: Te´moignages arche´ologiques de la richesse d’une ville,” in

Hommes et richesses dans l’Empire byzantin, 2 vols. (Paris, 1989–91), 1:81–96.

16C. Foss, Ephesus after Antiquity: A Late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish City (Cambridge, 1979), 96–97.

17J. Russell, “Transformations in Early Byzantine Urban Life: The Contribution and Limitations of Archaeological Evidence,” The 17th International Byzantine Congress, Major Papers (New Rochelle, N.Y., 1986), 139: at least 100,000 for Sardis. Russell refers to G. M. A. Hanfmann and J. C. Waldbaum, A Survey of Sardis and the Major Monuments outside the City Walls (Cambridge, Mass., 1975), 6, 22–23.

18Y. Tsafrir and G. Foerster, “From Scythopolis to Baysan: Changing Concepts of Urbanism,” in

The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East, vol. 2, Land Use and Settlement Patterns, ed. G. R. D. King and A. Cameron (Princeton, N.J., 1994), 106.