When And Why Does The ancient City

When And Why Does The ?ancient City? Come To An End Essay, Research Paper

The Ancient City was more than a

cluster of classical buildings.? If we

were to define an Ancient City we would undoubtedly mention the public

buildings, the civic monuments, the theatres, the temples and the colonnaded

streets.? However the term Ancient City

has a deeper meaning.? In our definition

we must also state that the classical cities were run by the curiale classes on

councils, and that ancient cities were essentially self-governed. Historians see

the Ancient City in its political and cultural context as well as its

aesthetic-architectural one.? As

Liebeschetz states, it was the political institutions, the entertainments, the

arts and the festivals that helped unite social groups within these cities.? So, when analysing the ending of Ancient

Cities we must look at the physical changes, but also the political, social and

cultural ones.There are a number of problems

that we encounter when dating the ending of the Ancient City.? Ancient Cities developed where the Roman

Empire developed and it would be overly simplistic to think that the Roman

cities in the Eastern Provinces and those in the Western provinces ended at the

same time.? More fundamentally we must

ask what we mean by the ending of an Ancient City. Different definitions will

certainly bring differing dates. The remains of Ancient Cities co-existed with

the new forms of cities for centuries.?

Indeed many buildings from the Ancient City were converted or simply

abandoned.? It is wiser therefore to

talk of the ending of the political and cultural characteristics.? Clearly no precise date will fit all cities,

but by the end of the 6th century, and certainly at the start of 7th

century, we can say that most Ancient Cities had ended.? By this point many cities in the Balkans,

such as Stobbi, Nicpolis and Phillioopopolis had few signs of urban life at

all.? A more common consequence seems to

be the fortification of a much contracted city area. This is seen to some

extent in Rome and Constantinople.? Most

importantly, and perhaps most consistently, we see that very few curiales, or

councils, survived into the 7th century.? There is evidence of curiale activity in 590, but this was by no

means the norm.? These dates are

necessarily vague.? The geographical

range of cities and the less than easy to measure criteria make it impossible

to give a more precise date, but we can say that by this period very few cities

could be labelled as ?Ancient?.Traditionally a large amount of

blame for the ending of the Ancient Cities has been apportioned on a series of

damaging events.? Many of these events

occurred in 6th century. Serious outbreaks of plague, invasions,

wars, swarms of locusts and earthquakes afflicted many Ancient Cities, but

especially those in the East.? According

to C. Mango the plague of 542 had severe demographic consequences.? He cites the facts that the plague mainly

affected the young and that it recurred roughly every fifteen years.??? Famine was also common in this

period.? A temporary food shortage was

bearable, but any prolonged shortage was disastrous.? Poor infrastructure meant that agricultural surpluses from

elsewhere could not be imported to alleviate the shortages.? At the peak of the famine in Edessa it is

thought that 180 people a day died of starvation.? Mango believes that the increased price of wheat and the ensuing

inflation that followed famines were a major reasons for urban to rural

migration.? The effect of sacking and

invasions seems even more pronounced.?

Sirmium, once an imperial capital never recovered after a Hunnic sack,

and was completely deserted after an Avar invasion in 582.? It would be overly simplistic to suggest

that these were primary reasons for the ending of ancient cities.? Yes, these factors may have hastened the

fall of the ancient cities, but as we shall see more structural changes had

been transforming cities well before the 6th century. The curial led

self-administration of ancient cities was a central Graeco-Roman

characteristic.? Curiales, or decursions,

were usually landowners who were given the responsibility of administering the

city.? In the first three centuries this

civic responsibility was seen as an honour.?

Curiales competed for status within the city by donating money for civic

buildings and decoration, and on a higher level a city?s status was highlighted

by the quantity and quality of its civil buildings.? However, the responsibilities of curiales became increasingly

burdensome.? As early as the 4th

century we see curiales bemoaning the pressures placed on them from the

imperial authorities.? The burden of

collecting tax was increased as the imperial government requested more and more

revenue for its enlarged bureaucracy and continued war campaigning.? The curiale classes were not only forced to

collect more revenue, but on a personal level it has been suggested that they

had to relinquish up to one third of their income.? For most the financial pressures became too much.? Many escaped into the increasingly large

imperial service.? The imperial service

had many advantageous perks including virtual tax immunity.? A large number joined the clergy as a way of

evading their duties.? Some even turned

to an ascetic life and renounced their property.? Curial positions were taken by the less well off. ?They lacked the resources to maintain

existing civic buildings let alone create new ones.? The weakening of the education system also damaged the curial

order.? The education system was

severely damaged by the imperial and local persecution of Pagans.? Mango suggests that by the end of the 6th

century higher education survived only in Constantinople, Alexandria and

Berytus.? Indeed by 726 a contemporary

source noted the ?extinction of schools?. This is hardly reflective of a

continuing literary tradition. Many of the landowning elite

moved away to the countryside.? The

ruralization of the powerful elites is often cited as a reason for the end of

the Ancient City.? A classical city

could hardly survive without its richest and most educated citizens.? Late Roman aristocrats certainly spent time

in their villas and by the 5th century landowners were able to

fortify their lands.? The case of

Ecdicius using his army to resist the Visogths in 471 is a case in point. The

decline in the literary tradition of the cities will have aided this move to

the countryside.? Similarly the

imposition of the collegia, or tax on craftsmen, may have caused a migration of