The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

by Bryan Ward-Perkins

  Map by Giovanni Maggi, Biblioteca Nazionale di Roma.

  Fig. 5.3 Map showing the diffusion of pottery manufactured in the third and fourth centuries near modern Oxford.

  Based on D. P. S. Peacock, Pottery in the Roman World (Longman, London and New York, 1982), fig. 56. After C. J. Young, The Roman Pottery Industry of the Oxford Region (British Archaeological Reports 43; Oxford, 1977), fig. 45.

  Fig. 5.4 Map showing the diffusion of the Roman fine-ware manufactured at la Graufesenque (southern France).

  Based on C. Bémont and J.-P. Jacob, La Terre sigillée gallo-romaine: Lieux de production du Haut-Empire: implantations, produits, relations (Documents d’archéologie française 6; Paris, 1986), 102. © Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris.

  Fig. 5.5 A refuse pit during excavation at the pottery-production site of la Graufesenque.

  From a set of slides illustrating the la Graufesenque potteries; CDDP, Aveyron.

  Fig. 5.6 A Roman shipwreck, loaded with amphorae, off Giens on the south coast of France.

  CNRS-CCJ, photo by G. Réveillac.

  Fig. 5.7 Sixth- and seventh-century pottery from the Anglo-Saxon site of Yeavering (Northumberland).

  From B. Hope-Taylor, Yeavering, an Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria (HMSO, London, 1977), fig. 81; © Crown Copyright.

  Fig. 5.8 Alternative reconstructions of a seventh-century house excavated at Cowdery’s Down (Hampshire).

  From M. Millett and S. James, ‘Excavations at Cowdery’s Down’, The Archaeological Journal, 140, 1983, 246, fig. 71.

  Fig. 5.9 Numbers of newly minted copper coins from five different sites in the Mediterranean.

  The information is from the following sources: A. Bertino, ‘Monete’, in A. Frova (ed.), Scavi di Luni (Rome, 1973), 837–82, and in A. Frova (ed.), Scavi di Luni II (Rome, 1977), 679–707; M. Thompson, The Athenian Agora: Volume II, the Coins (Princeton, 1954); C. Foss, Ephesus after Antiquity: A Late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish City (Cambridge, 1979), 197, and interim reports on subsequent coin-finds by H. Vetters, published in Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophische-historische Klasse, Vols. 116–23 (1979–86); M. F. Hendy, ‘The Coins’, in R. M. Harrison, Excavations at Saraçhane in Istanbul, I (Princeton, 1986), 278–373; G. C. Miles, ‘Islamic Coins’, in F. O. Waagé (ed.), Antioch on the Orontes: Volume IV, Part 1, Ceramics and Islamic Coins (Princeton, 1948), and D. B. Waagé, Antioch on the Orontes: Volume IV, Part 2, Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Crusaders’ Coins (Princeton, 1952).

  Fig. 5.10 Shoulder-clasp and bottle from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial of around AD 625.

  British Museum, London; UK/www.bridgeman.co.uk (shoulder clasp); © British Museum (bottle).

  Chapter VI

  Fig. 6.1 Graphs to show changing levels of economic complexity, between AD 300 and 700, in five regions of the Roman world.

  Fig. 6.2 Reconstruction drawing of houses of the fourth to sixth centuries, in the Syrian village of Déhès.

  From J.-P. Sodini and others, ‘Déhès (Syrie du Nord): Campagnes I–III (1976–1978)’, Syria, LVII, 1980, fig. 243 (Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner).

  Fig. 6.3 Reconstruction drawing of the porticoed shops in Baysān (Israel), and drawing of the mosaic inscription recording their construction in 737/8.

  Drawing of the shops (by M. Drewes) from Y. Tsafrir and G. Foerster, ‘From Scythopolis to Baysan’, in G. R. D. King and Averil Cameron (ed.), The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East II, Land Use and Settlement Patterns (Princeton, 1994), fig. 16. Drawing of the inscription from E. Khamis, ‘Two Wall Inscriptions from the Umayyad Market Place in Bet Shean/Baysan’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 64.2, 2001, fig. 5.

  By kind permission of Yoram Tsafrir, Gideon Foerster, and Elias Khamis.

  Chapter VII

  Fig. 7.1 Two maps showing rural settlements north of Rome, in around AD 100, and in the fifth to eighth centuries.

  Based on T. W. Potter, The Changing Landscape of South Etruria (Paul Elek, London, 1979), figs. 35 and 41.

  Fig. 7.2 The ancient village of Bamuqqa in Syria, and the cultivable land around it.

  From G. Tchalenko, Villages antiques de la Syrie du Nord (Paris, 1953), ii, fig. xcii. (Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris).

  Fig. 7.3 Diagram showing the changing size of cattle from iron-age to early medieval times.

  Fig. 7.4 The ground-plans, drawn to the same scale, of some fourth-to ninth-century churches in Italy.

  Fig. 7.5 The Sevso (or Seuso) silver treasure, hidden probably in the fifth century AD

  By courtesy of The Trustee of the Marquess of Northampton 1987 Settlement.

  Fig. 7.6 Drawing of some of the brothel-graffiti from Pompeii.

  From Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. 4, fig. xxxvi.

  Fig. 7.7 Drawing of a Roman tile from Calleva (Silchester, in Hampshire), with the word ‘SATIS (enough)’ written on it.

  From R. G. Collingwood and R. P. Wright, The Roman Inscriptions of Britain, vol. II fascicule 5 (Sutton Publishing Ltd, Stroud, 1993), no. 2491.159.

  Fig. 7.8 A papyrus tax receipt from Roman Egypt.

  Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (Ms Gr. Class. G.27 (P)).

  Fig. 7.9 Graffito from la Graufesenque recording a kiln-load of pottery, and a reconstruction drawing of one of the site’s kilns during firing.

  Reconstruction drawing from A. Vernhet, ‘Un four de la Graufesenque (Aveyron)’, Gallia, 39, 1981, fig. 10; (CNRS Editions).

  Fig. 7.10 Fresco of a Pompeian couple, with stylus, wax tablets, and papyrus roll.

  Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy; www.bridgeman.co.uk.

  Fig. 7.11 Graffito of the pilgrim Turo at the shrine of S. Michele sul Gargano (southern Italy).

  From C. Carletti and G. Otranto (eds.), Il Santuario di S. Michele sul Gargano dal VI al IX secolo (Edipuglia, Bari, 1980), 86, no. 79.

  Chapter VIII

  Fig. 8.1 The baptism of Clovis, as painted in 1877 by Joseph Paul Blanc (1846–1904) in the Panthéon of Paris.

  Lauros / Giraudon/www.bridgeman.co.uk.

  Appendix

  Fig. A.1 Graph showing the origin of the different wines that reached Ostia, Rome’s port-city.

  Based on C. Panella and A. Tchernia, ‘Produits agricoles transportés en amphores. L’huile et surtout le vin’, in L’Italie d’Auguste à Dioclétien (Collection de l’École française de Rome 198; Rome, 1994), 156, graphique 3.

  Fig. A.2 Map showing the diffusion of mixing-bowls made in Colchester in the second century AD

  Based on D. P. S. Peacock, Pottery in the Roman World (Longman, London and New York, 1982), fig. 51. After K. F. Hartley, ‘The Marketing and Distribution of Mortaria’, in A. Detsicas (ed.), Current Research in Romano-British Coarse Pottery (Council for British Archaeology, London, 1973), 50, fig. 7.

  INDEX

  (Numbers in italics refer, by page-number, to illustrations, maps, and diagrams.)

  A

  ‘abatement’ 117

  ‘acts of God’ 134

  Adrianopole, see Hadrianopolis

  Aegean region:

  coinage 113

  decline 122, 124–6, 129–30, 171

  prosperity 122, 124, 129

  wine and oil 108

  Aetius 55, 59

  Africa and its Roman provinces:

  amphorae 92, 107

  grain 103, 131

  invaded by Vandals 2, 13, 14, 22–3, 43, 64

  pottery production and distribution 89, 103, 106, 107, 131

  prosperity and decline 42, 122, 124, 128–32

  Agde (church council in 506) 76

  agricultural production 142–6, 147–8

  Agilulf 213 n.34

  Aistulf 113

  Alamans 19–20, 37

  Alans:

  in Africa 51

  in Gaul 2, 14–15, 50, 51, 54–6, 55, 188

  in Spain 15, 51, 57, 63, 188

  Alaric 22, 42, 44, 45, 46, 188

&nbs
p; Alaric II 76

  Alexandria 101, 120

  Ammianus Marcellinus 37, 38, 50

  Amory, Patrick 201 n.18

  amphorae 88, 94, 100, 101, 158, 185

  from Africa 92, 107

  from the eastern Mediterranean 107–8, 144

  from Spain 91–2, 91

  Anastasius 69

  Anglo-Saxons:

  in historical writing 5–7, 170, 172

  as invaders 5–7, 14, 22, 34, 68, 130, 188

  their jewellery 118, 119

  as prisoners 24

  as rulers in Britain 68, 70, 190

  see also Britain

  Antioch 115, 120, 133, 190

  Antonius, Lucius 157–8

  Aphrodisias 126

  Apollinaris 75–6

  Aquileia 23–4, 102–3, 189

  Aquitaine 14, 16, 54–5, 188

  Arab invasions and their impact 81–2, 129, 130, 190

  Arbogastes 80–1

  Arianism 31, 68–9, 75, 76, 131

  aristocracy of the Roman empire:

  continue wealthy 67–8

  foster literary culture 79–81, 151, 162

  lose land 56, 63–6, 131

  become militarized 48–9, 71, 75

  work with new rulers 56, 63, 66–71, 75–6

  Arles 14, 56, 57

  Armenia 61

  Armorica 44

  army (Roman):

  defeats 37–8, 50, 58–9, 188

  equipment and training 34–7, 36, 41, 102–3, 156

  fortifications 34–5, 35

  frontier defences 18–19, 39–40, 135

  recruitment of slaves 39, 43

  reinforced or replaced by Germanic troops 5–10, 20, 24, 27, 38–9

  reliance on taxation 16, 41–3, 132, 158

  replaced by self-help 19, 48–9, 135

  size 41

  spending power 103–4, 132, 135

  superiority over Germanic enemies 34–40

  supply 102–3, 158, 186, 187

  use of writing 156–8, 166

  see also sea power

  Arthur 4

  Asia Minor 48, 60–2, 129, 130, 190

  Asturis 19

  Athens 114, 124, 190

  Attalus 44

  Attila 7, 22, 23, 25, 59, 189

  Augustine of Hippo 29

  Austalis 156

  Avars 129, 130, 190

  B

  Bacaudae 14, 15, 45–6, 48, 54

  Baetica 21, 91

  Balkans, invasions of 1, 37–8, 50, 58–60, 61, 129, 188–90

  Bamuqqa 143

  barbarians, see Germanic peoples

  Basque country 15, 49

  Batavis 19, 20, 135

  Baysān 126, 127

  Bazas 46, 50–1

  Belgica Secunda 81

  Belisarius 65

  Berbers 14, 130–1

  Bessas 72

  Biscop, Benedict 108

  Blanc, Joseph Paul 177 (with 229)

  Boethius 66

  Bordeaux 14, 56, 70

  Bosphorus in the defence of the East 59–62, 130

  Bradley Hill 112, 139

  Brescia, church of S. Salvatore 149

  Breviarium of Alaric 76

  brick, see tile

  Britain 39

  availability of coins 112, 124

  disappearance of building techniques 108, 110–11, 117, 124, 139

  invaders 5–7, 22–3, 64, 130, 188

  iron-age 118

  post-Roman decline 122–4, 122, 128, 129–30, 137, 138

  post-Roman pottery 104, 105, 117, 118, 119, 124

  revolts and usurpations 43, 44, 188

  Roman pottery 93, 97, 99, 186, 187

  continuing sophistication 117–18

  west Britain 49, 117, 130

  writing 154–7, 164

  Britons 5–7, 49, 64, 67, 70–1, 170

  Brittany and Britons in Gaul 14, 49, 64

  Brown, Peter 3–4

  building techniques 108–9, 111, 117, 148–51

  Burgundians 14–15, 54, 55, 189

  Bury, J.B. 199 n.44

  Byzantine empire, see eastern empire

  C

  Caesarius, bishop of Arles 76

  Calleva (now Silchester) 156, 157

  Campobasso 95

  captives 16, 17, 19, 23–4, 31

  Carmen de Providentia Dei, see Poem on the Providence of God

  Carthage 14, 17, 62, 103, 189, 190

  Cassiodorus 70–1, 72, 74

  Castelseprio, church of S. Maria foris Portas 149

  Catalaunian Fields (battle in 451) 40, 59, 189

  ‘Caspian Gates’ 61

  cattle 145

  Caucasus mountains 61

  Celts 215 n.14

  chance and the fall of the western empire 57–8

  Charlemagne 167, 174, 175, 191

  Charles Martel 191

  Chilperic 80, 166

  Christian responses to invasion 13, 21, 23–4, 28–31, 63, 64

  Christianity as a possible cause of Roman weakness 40–1

  ‘Chronicler of 452’ 31

  churches, size of 108–9, 148–50, 149

  circuses 80

  civil wars and social unrest (within the Roman empire) 33–4, 39, 43–8, 52, 61

  ‘civilization’ 1–5, 87, 167–8, 173, 178–9, 182

  the ‘Classics’ and their changing status 176–8

  Claudian 39

  Clermont 14, 48, 56

  clothing, see textiles, clothing, and shoes

  Clovis 74, 81, 175–6, 177, 189

  coins:

  devaluation in third century 33

  of Germanic kingdoms 69, 73, 112–13, 117–18

  post-Roman availability 112–17, 114–15, 123–6

  Roman availability 110–11, 132–3

  Colchester 186, 187

  Comagenis 20

  Concordia 103

  Constantine III 43, 44, 45, 188

  Constantinople:

  coin use 115, 126

  column of Arcadius 48, 60

  defensive strength 35, 59–60

  pottery 126

  supply 102

  threatened 35, 48, 58, 129, 130, 190

  Constantius (Roman general) 57

  Corinth 124

  Cornwell, Bernard 4

  countryside:

  rural insecurity and devastation 16, 19, 22–3, 30

  density of settlement 41, 138–42

  see also agricultural production

  Courcelle, Pierre 173–4, 195 n.31

  Cowdery’s Down 111

  cows, see cattle

  Cremona 103

  cultural choice 150–1

  Cunigast 66

  Cyprianus 71, 72, 79

  Cypriot pottery 108, 124

  Cyrila 21

  D

  Damascus 129

  Danube 39, 135

  crossed by Goths (in 376) 1, 188

  Roman frontier defences 18–19

  Dardanelles, see Bosphorus

  ‘Dark Ages’ 2, 4, 87, 146, 172, 178, 181

  Dawson, Christopher 172

  Decius (Roman emperor) 196 n.9

  Déhès 125, 126

  Delacroix, Eugène 7

  Demandt, Alexander 195 n.1

  Demetrius, saint (of Thessalonica) 130

  Didymus 197 n.27

  Dopsch, Alfons 192 n.12

  Doré, Gustave viii

  Dracontius 198 n.33

  Droctulf 78

  E

  eastern empire:

  economic decline 124–6, 129

  prosperity and complexity 41–2, 58, 60–2, 107–8, 113, 128–9, 170–1

  reasons for survival 46–8, 58–62

  requires western help to combat Goths 38, 59

  stability 46–8, 61

  ‘economic history’ 179–80

  Edessa 147–8

  Einhard 166–7

  Egypt:

  its granite 3, 147

  prosperity and security 61, 116, 124, 126,
129, 147, 171

  written records 158–9, 159

  Ennodius 79

  Ephesus 114, 126

  Epiphanius 75

  ethnic difference and eventual assimilation 72–82

  ‘ethnogenesis’ 77–8, 198 n.29

  Eudoxius 197 n. 23

  Eugenius, bishop of Carthage 69

  Eugenius, western imperial ‘usurper’ 24

  Eugippius 18, 20

  Euric 75

  Europe and the Germanic invasions 7, 172–6

  Evagrius 133–4

  F

  fabricae (imperial manufactories) 36, 102–3, 132

  famine, starvation, and cannibalism 14, 16, 17, 130, 134, 147–8

  Faulkner, Neil 211 n.7

  Favianis 19

  Fiesole (battle in 406) 25, 188

  Florence, church of S. Reparata 149