THE DANUBE REGION IN LATE ANTIQUITY

Poii1r ( A. G. ) (ed.) The Transition to Late Antiquity. On the

Danube and Beyond. (Proceedings of the British Academy 141.)
Pp. xxx + 678, ills, maps, colour pls. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
for the British Academy, 2007. Cased, 65. ISBN: 978-0-19-726402-7.
doi:10.1017/S0009840X08002631
Following the publication of Der Limes an der unteren Donau von Diokletian bis
Herakleios (edd. G. von Blow and A. Milcheva [1999]), The Roman and Late Roman
City (edd. L. Slokoska, R. Ivanov and V. Dinchev [2002]) and The Lower Danube in
Antiquity (ed. L. Vagalinski [2007]), this is the fourth collection of essays on the
Lower Danube region in Late Antiquity in the last ten years or so. Growing out of a
symposium held at the British Academy in 2003, the essays in this volume look
beyond the strictly North Balkan environment, focus on cities and forts, and reassess
the role of the countryside in the transition to Late Antiquity in the region. The 25
chapters, varying in length between two and seventy pages, are grouped in six parts.
The quality is uneven. The scope of some papers is so narrow and the research for
others so slight as to suggest the rush to publish is the reason for their inclusion, but
many others make more substantial contributions to the eld.
Andrew Poulter introduces this volume with a question: Do fundamental
dierences divide the Roman Empire from Late Antiquity? His answer is simple: No
general conclusions can be drawn. Nor are they to be expected (p. 47). Those two
sentences are the last simple answer the Editor provides, for this collection of essays is,
above all else, an investigation of the state of current research. In the Introduction,
P. oers a thoughtful discussion of the methodological problems and possibilities
archaeologists face in studying the transition to Late Antiquity. To him the abstract
considerations favoured by some archaeologists are of no use to man nor beast,
further confuse historians and ultimately blur the distinction between unfounded
speculation and real archaeological evidence (p. 2). He claims that archaeology is
incapable of addressing political and ethnic issues (p. 1), but individual pieces are
often innocent of any desire to refrain from the political or ethnic interpretation of
the archaeological record. This is particularly true for chapters outlining the historical
context. Wolfgang Liebeschuetz bluntly arms that coin hoards found at Corinth,
Athens, and Olympia, bear witness to the fear instilled by Avar and Slavic raids
(p. 117). While Liebeschuetz concentrates on the historical evidence for the Lower
Danube region under pressure, he at times sees military conict where nothing proves
its existence. For example, there is simply no evidence of extensive raiding by
Sclavenes in the 520s and later 530s (p. 111), and no Huns sacked either Novae or
Anastasiopolis in 562 (p. 112). Michael Whitby deals with the Late Roman army and
the defence of the Balkans, while Peter Heather discusses the presence of the Goths in
the Roman Balkans, c. 350 to 500.
The essays in Part 2 consider the archaeological evidence resulting from the
Anglo-Bulgarian excavations at Nicopolis ad Istrum, which are briey described in
Ludmila Slokoskas chapter. Pavlina Vladkova reviews the evidence for the character
of the agora in Nicopolis during the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, while
Mark Beech examines the results of the bio-archaeological research, showing a
stronger emphasis on pork production, game and wildfowl during the sites last
century of existence. None the less, Beech concludes that some at least of the
The Classical Review vol. 59 no. 1 The Classical Association 2009; all rights reserved
228 1nr ci:ssi c:i rvi rv
inhabitants of Nicopolis had access to mackerel and marine molluscs from the Black
Sea coast.
The third part of the book focusses on the fort in Dichin, some twenty kilometres
to the west of Nicopolis. Vivien G. Swan shows that few imported red-slipped wares
and amphorae of the Palestinian type (LRA 5 and 7) were found in Dichin. Far from
being a simple mirror of local consumption, the ceramic evidence suggests a strong
correlation between the distribution of the annona militaris and the decreasing
number of coins (p. 265). Pam Grinter presents a review of the preliminary results of
the palaeobotanical study of Dichin showing that some buildings within the fort were
indeed used for storing cereals and pulses. Cluny Johnstones chapter shows that
during the last decades of its existence, the garrison (in Dichin) may have been
experiencing diculties obtaining good quality beef (p. 294). This may in turn be
substantiated by the relatively small number of sixth-century coins found on the site.
According to Peter Guest, coins struck for Emperor Zeno were also rare, but whether
this should be interpreted as a sign of a diminishing mint production or of the
destruction of Dichin remains unclear.
The fourth part of the book discusses urban centres. Jean-Pierre Sodini aptly
demonstrates how hard times were from the 580s to the 630s for cities in Macedonia
and Epirus. Bernard Bavant shows that more recent work at Caricin Grad (most likely
the city of Justiniana Prima founded by Emperor Justinian) dramatically changed our
view of the site. Despite the strong rural element present in the city from the very
beginning, nothing suggests that there had been an inux of refugees from the
countryside, eeing the invasions of Avars and Slavs (p. 370). Mark Whittow
advances the idea that the heirs of the sixth-century military aristocracy in the
Balkans, who lived in such backward and Balkan centres as Nicopolis were capable
of surviving as eighth-century servants of the Bulgar qagans (p. 387). There are
many problems with this idea. First and foremost, the heartland of the medieval state
of Bulgaria was not in the Lower Danube region, but in the Ludogorie Plateau.
Moreover, despite his claims to the contrary, there is nothing late antique about the
ninth-century Bulgar inscriptions. Looking east, Sabine Ladsttter and Andreas Plz
trace the history of Ephesus after the earthquakes of the third and fourth centuries.
Jim Crow oers an interesting comparison between Tropaeum Traiani (Adamclisi,
Romania) and Amida (Diyarbekir, Turkey).
The fth part of the book focusses on forts and fortications. Gerda von Blow
presents a survey of the forty-odd years of archaeological excavations in Iatrus.
Vencislav Dinchev analyses the archaeological evidence of forts and fortresses from
the dioceses of Thrace and Dacia in what is perhaps the best chapter of this volume.
However, he too engages in an ethnic interpretation of that evidence, especially when
attributing the poorer standards of house-building from the end of the fth to sixth
centuries to barbarians (p. 514). Neil Christie focusses on the inner fortications of
fourth-century Pannonia, as well as on the installation of the Claustra Alpium
Iuliarum.
The book concludes with two studies of survey evidence: that of Hannelore
Vanhaverbeke and her colleagues on Sagalassos, and John Bintlis overview of the
contribution of regional surveys to understanding of the transition to Late
Antiquity. Against the Editors well-placed criticism of such views, Bintli
apparently shares the widespread myth about potsherds in the past being added to
piles of manure and spread across elds to increase soil fertility (p. 670).
Ultimately, the volume is most interesting as a commentary on the archaeology of
Nicopolis and Dichin. The essays here are not coherent in approach or subject matter,
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and so each works as a critique of its neighbours, raising through proximity some
fruitful questions about evidence and methodology and the proper limits of analytic
claims. There is occasional geographic confusion (Butrint and Stobi are not in Greece,
pp. 20 and 26), slipshod editing (stone facing-stones must originally have existed,
p. 321), typos (basiica, instead of basilica, p. 532), misuse of diacritics (Ni instead
of Ni, pp. 33740) and place names (Grab, instead of aak, p. 499), but these
minor complaints should not detract from the books original contribution to the
archaeology and history of the Balkans in Late Antiquity. Andrew Poulter is to be
congratulated for forcing us to re-examine our ideas of what constitutes the
transition to Late Antiquity.
University of Florida FLORIN CURTA
fcurta@history.u.edu
PALESTINE
Si v:N ( H. ) Palestine in Late Antiquity. Pp. xx + 429, maps. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2008. Cased. 65. ISBN 978-0-19-928417-7.
doi:10.1017/S0009840X08002643
This highly readable and attractive book could very protably be used as an
introduction to the complex culture, or rather cultures, of Late Roman Palestine, for
readers coming from several dierent angles: for Classicists wanting to venture into a
(partly) Jewish world; for students of Judaism prepared for a demonstration of how
the cradle of rabbinic Judaism was a collection of co-existing communities, within
which there were few, if any, areas where Judaism enjoyed dominance; and for
patristic scholars wishing to see the primary setting of Christian pilgrimage in its
physical and social context as revealed by modern archaeology and epigraphy.
The author, Hagith Sivan, has the advantage of being a native Hebrew speaker,
who teaches in the U.S., and has written widely on Christian Late Antiquity. She is
therefore able to bring into her text the results of excavation reports in Hebrew, and of
Hebrew discussions of rabbinic texts.
It should be made clear that this book is an evocative and well-informed essay, or
rather a series of linked essays, not a handbook covering the history and evolving
structure of Palestine. No such thing exists, indeed, and it would be of great value:
there is the expanding provincial structure, in the fth century producing three
Palestines, with their capitals at Caesarea, Scythopolis and Petra; the Roman military
occupation and tax-gathering system; urbanism and settlement patterns, set out most
fully in C. Dauphins three-volume La Palestine byzantine of 1998; the history of the
Church, and the acquisition for Jerusalem of a Patriarchate covering the three
Palestines; the monasteries of the Judaean Desert, whose history is brilliantly
narrated by Cyril of Scythopolis, writing in the sixth century (whose work plays a
relatively small part in this book); the communal histories of both Jews and
Samaritans; and, fatefully, the presence of Arabs or, as they were normally called by
contemporaries, Saracens, whether as organised groups or as dispersed elements in
the countryside.
Nor, if a strictly social and economic history of the area in the fourth to sixth
centuries is possible, is it to be found here. What S. presents is cultural and religious
history, or, to be more precise, a portrayal of co-existence, marked by occasional overt
The Classical Review vol. 59 no. 1 The Classical Association 2009; all rights reserved
230 1nr ci:ssi c:i rvi rv