Justinian, Roman Progress, and the Death of the Western Roman Empire

2021 ◽  
pp. 118-134
Author(s):  
Edward J. Watts
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
The West ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
End Stage ◽  
Eastern Half

Roman control of Italy persisted after the loss of much of the West. Italian fortunes recovered under the leadership of the non-Roman sovereigns Odoacer and Theoderic, both of whom presented their regimes as continuations of the Western Roman state. The eastern half of the Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople, continued to thrive. Under the emperor Justinian, some people believed it had ultimately realized the end stage of creating a Christian, Roman empire. Following on that achievement, Justinian began a campaign to reconquer the Roman territories of the West and reintegrate them into this more perfect Roman state. This effort led to a claim, originating in the East with Marcellinus Comes and echoed by Procopius, that the Western Roman Empire had fallen and required restoration. Justinian then mounted military campaigns that began with the reconquest of North Africa, but soon were directed against Italy.

Epilogue

2019 ◽  
pp. 211-225
Author(s):  
Taco Terpstra
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
Peripheral Areas ◽  
Western Half ◽  
Eastern Half

This epilogue addresses the weakening of the Roman state. In the third century CE, the Roman Empire began having trouble maintaining its geographical integrity, a problem that would grow noticeably worse thereafter. The split between an eastern and western half in 395 CE was the most dramatic manifestation of that decreasing ability. After the empire split in two, especially the west in the course of the fifth century saw the abandonment of peripheral areas, although signs of declining state power appeared in the east as well. However, as the western half eventually disintegrated, the eastern half recovered. In the sixth century, it managed to extend its rule over parts of the west, including the Italian heartland. But even with this westward expansion—and even allowing for healthy economic activity in some eastern regions—as a military and economic organization, the Roman Empire was nothing like the mighty state it once had been. The chapter then considers the effects of the empire's disintegration on human welfare.

Church and State, Religion and Power in Late Antique and Byzantine Scholarship of the Last Five Decades

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 447-467
Author(s):  
Claudia Rapp
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The West ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Eastern Half

Tackling issues of church and state is a tall order under any circumstances. Taking the metahistorical view and summarizing the scholarship on church and state makes it positively daunting, especially when the half-century under consideration spans the entire lifetime of the author. This task is made even more challenging when the societies and cultures under investigation are late antiquity and medieval Byzantium, the former (c.300–c.800, encompassing the entire Mediterranean) a paradigmatic period of religious change, the latter (330–1453, focusing on the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman empire and its subsequent history) emblematic of ‘otherness’ when compared to the Christian tradition in the West that has shaped our worldview to the present day.

Imperialism, Power, and Identity

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Mattingly
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Postcolonial Studies ◽  
Sexual Relations ◽  
Roman Imperialism ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Despite what history has taught us about imperialism's destructive effects on colonial societies, many classicists continue to emphasize disproportionately the civilizing and assimilative nature of the Roman Empire and to hold a generally favorable view of Rome's impact on its subject peoples. This book boldly challenges this view using insights from postcolonial studies of modern empires to offer a more nuanced understanding of Roman imperialism. Rejecting outdated notions about Romanization, the book focuses instead on the concept of identity to reveal a Roman society made up of far-flung populations whose experience of empire varied enormously. It examines the nature of power in Rome and the means by which the Roman state exploited the natural, mercantile, and human resources within its frontiers. The book draws on the author's own archaeological work in Britain, Jordan, and North Africa and covers a broad range of topics, including sexual relations and violence; census-taking and taxation; mining and pollution; land and labor; and art and iconography. The book shows how the lives of those under Rome's dominion were challenged, enhanced, or destroyed by the empire's power, and in doing so he redefines the meaning and significance of Rome in today's debates about globalization, power, and empire. This book advances a new agenda for classical studies, one that views Roman rule from the perspective of the ruled and not just the rulers. A new preface reflects on some of the reactions prompted by the initial publication of the book.

The Olive Grove of Rome

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 111-135
Author(s):  
Jessica Biddlestone
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Olive Grove ◽  
Material Development ◽  
Central Tunisia

In 1892, the French resident general in Tunisia launched the first state-sponsored colonization effort in the Tunisian protectorate. Based on Paul Bourde’s study of ancient Roman agriculture, the colonization plan explicitly sought to remake Roman prosperity in central Tunisia by fostering the cultivation of olives. Examining Bourde’s study of the ancient past and his work as director of agriculture in Tunisia, this article explores the connections between the study of the Roman Empire and the development of colonialism in North Africa. In tracing this history, this article highlights how the study and use of Roman ruins in French Tunisia inspired an appreciation for the role that technology and material development played in supporting the spread of Roman civilization and culture.

scholarly journals Depression among end-stage renal disease patients undergoing hemodialysis: a cross-sectional study from Palestine

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samah W. Al-Jabi ◽  
Ansam Sous ◽  
Fatimah Jorf ◽  
Mahmoud Taqatqa ◽  
Mahdi Allan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renal Disease ◽  
Low Income ◽  
End Stage Renal Disease ◽  
West Bank ◽  
Psychological Status ◽  
The West ◽  
Depression Prevalence ◽  
Stage Renal Disease ◽  
End Stage ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background The impact of end-stage renal disease on the patient’s psychological status necessitates the value of increasing depression awareness. The current study aimed to assess the depression prevalence among Palestinian hemodialyzed patients and its association with patients’ characteristics. Methods A convenience clustered sampling technique was followed. Sample was collected from ten hemodialysis centers in the West Bank, Palestine, during 3 months in 2015. We used the Beck Depression Inventory-II scale (BDI-II) to evaluate depression among participants. All data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 16.0. Results Two hundred and eighty-six hemodialyzed patients were interviewed. The mean age (± standard deviation) of the patients was 52.0 ± 14.3 years, and most participants were males 172 (60.1%). Regarding the dialysis characteristics, the median of years of dialysis was 2 years (1–4). The prevalence of depression was 73.1%. Elderly patients (p = 0.001), female (p = 0.036), living in rural areas or camp (p = 0.032), low income (p = 0.041), unemployment (p = 0.001), not doing regular exercise (p = 0.001), and having multi comorbidities (p = 0.001) were significantly associated with more depression scores. The results of binary logistic regression showed that only patients who were living in camps, patients who were previously employed, and patients who were not practicing exercise remained significantly associated with a higher depression score. Conclusions This study is the first one confirmed about depression and its prevalence among hemodialyzed patients in the West Bank, Palestine. Compared to other communities, the study found a higher depression prevalence rate. There is a need to offer psychological interviews and non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions.

scholarly journals Productivity of Ospreys, Pandion haliaetus, Affected by Water Levels Near Loon Lake, Saskatchewan, 1975-2002

2010 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 219
Author(s):  
C. Stuart Houston ◽  
Frank Scott ◽  
Rob B. Tether
Keyword(s):  
Breeding Success ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Lake Levels ◽  
The West ◽  
Canadian Data ◽  
Human Use ◽  
The Town ◽  
Western Half ◽  
Eastern Half

Between 1975 and 2002, diminished breeding success of Ospreys was associated with drought and falling lake levels in the western half of our study area near the town of Loon Lake, west-central Saskatchewan. Only 46% of nest attempts were successful in the west compared to 72% in the east, producing 0.88 young per accessible nest in the west and 1.42 in the east. Breeding success was greater in the eastern half, where water levels were stable, in spite of increased human use of the resort lakes there. Our unique long-term Canadian data base results support Ogden's 1977 prediction that Osprey productivity may decrease when water levels drop and fish populations are reduced.

Assessment of soil and plant analysis laboratories in the West Asia‐North Africa Region

1999 ◽  
Vol 30 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 885-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Ryan ◽  
Sonia Garabet ◽  
Abdul Rashid ◽  
Mohamed El Gharous
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Plant Analysis ◽  
The West ◽  
Soil And Plant Analysis

Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Epitaphs

1990 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 74-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Meyer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Over Time

It is now notorious that the production of inscriptions in the Roman Empire was not constant over time, but rose over the first and second centuries A.D. and fell in the third. Ramsay MacMullen pointed this out more than five years ago, with conclusions more cautionary than explanatory: ‘history is not being written in the right way’, he said, for historians have deduced Rome's decline from evidence that–since it appears only epigraphically–has merely disappeared for its own reasons, or have sought general explanations of decline in theories political, economic, or even demographic in nature, none of which can, in turn, explain the disappearance of epigraphy itself. Why this epigraphic habit rose and fell MacMullen left open to question, although he did postulate control by a ‘sense of audience’. The purpose of this paper is to propose that this ‘sense of audience’ was not generalized or generic, but depended on a belief in the value of romanization, of which (as noted but not explained by MacMullen's article) the epigraphic habit is also a rough indicator. Epitaphs constitute the bulk of all provincial inscriptions and in form and number are (generally speaking) the consequence of a provincial imitation of characteristically Roman practices, an imitation that depended on the belief that Roman legal status and style were important, and that may indeed have ultimately depended, at least in North Africa, on the acquisition or prior possession of that status. Such status-based motivations for erecting an epitaph help to explain not only the chronological distribution of epitaphs but also the differences in the type and distribution of epitaphs in the western and eastern halves of the empire. They will be used here moreover to suggest an explanation for the epigraphic habit as a whole.

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