The Fall of Roman Constantinople and the End of Roman Renewal

2021 ◽  
pp. 192-202
Author(s):  
Edward J. Watts
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
The City ◽  
Of Greece

The Roman Empire that Michael Palaeologus again centered on Constantinople lost significant territory across the fourteenth century to rivals like the Serbian kingdom and the rising Ottoman sultanate. A long Ottoman blockage of the capital that began in 1394 prompted the emperor Manuel II Palaeologus to travel to the West to seek help for the faltering empire. The empire was saved by Tamerlane’s defeat of the Ottomans in 1402 and Manuel then spearheaded a restoration of Roman control over parts of Greece that contemporaries celebrated in terms that evoked past Roman greatness. But the restoration was short lived and Constantinople fell to the Ottomans and their sultan Mehmet II in 1453. As the city fell, the populace waited for divine deliverance that would again spark a Roman recovery—an idea that authors like Ducas persisted in believing even after the city fell.

Corinth

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish
Keyword(s):  
Olympic Games ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Easy Access ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
The City ◽  
Southern Greece ◽  
Of Greece

No city in the ancient world both benefited and suffered from its location more than Corinth. Situated on the main north-south route between northern and southern Greece, and with two good ports that linked it to Italy on the west and Asia Minor on the east, Corinth quickly became a center for commerce. But the location of Corinth also had its downside. The city often found itself caught in the middle between hostile neighbors, Athens to the north and Sparta to the south. Armies crisscrossed its streets as often as merchants, and more than once the city had to arise from ashes and rubble. Today only Athens attracts more interest in Greece for its historic antiquities than Corinth. It ranks as a must-see location for every traveler to Greece. Ancient Corinth is located less than two hours south of Athens. Tours run often from local hotels. Likewise, a rental automobile gives easy access and makes it possible to see nearby sites of interest not on the usual tours. The great city of Corinth prospered for many reasons. In addition to its prominence as a center for trade and commerce, agriculture also flourished in the area. The soil around the city was thin and rocky, but just to the west, along the Nemean River, a rich plain produced heavy harvests of grain and other crops. Raisins were first developed there, and the word currant is a medieval corruption of Corinth. Tourism was another important source of income. The famous Isthmian Games, second only to the Olympic Games and more prestigious than those held in Delphi and Nemea, brought thousands of tourists to Corinth every two years and further added to its fame and fortune. During its early period Corinth also attracted many travelers to its famous (or notorious) Temple of Aphrodite atop the Acrocorinth (“high Corinth,” or upper Corinth, the portion of the city atop the 1,900-foot mountain to the southeast of the city). Additionally, according to Plutarch, these multiple sources of wealth caused Corinth to become one of the three great banking centers of Greece, along with Athens and Patrae.

Zaitún's Five Centuries of Sino-foreign Trade

1958 ◽  
Vol 90 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 165-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Howard Smith
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern City ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
The City ◽  
European Markets

The modern city of Ch'üan-Chou, in the Province of Fukien, China, and Situated Near to Amoy on the Formosa Strait, was from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries the chief port for the ocean-going trade between China and the West, particularly during the Sung (A.D. 960–1280) and the Yüan (A.D. 1280–1368) dynasties. An extensive and lucrative trade was carried on with Java, Sumatra, India, and the Persian Gulf. Through Arabic, Persian, and Syriac speaking intermediaries precious products of China found their way on to the European markets. In the thirteenth century the city of Zaitún, as it was known in the West, excited the admiration and wonder of the Polos, the early Franciscan missionaries, and Muslim travellers by the size and wealth of its commercial undertakings. With the fall of the Mongol (Yüan) dynasty about the middle of the fourteenth century the city fell on evil times from which it never fully recovered, for though some considerable trade was carried on during the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, Ch'üan-chou as an international port declined, and its great rival, Canton, grew from the time that Portuguese traders were allowed to establish themselves at Macao.

The Zughba at Tripoli, 429H (1037–8 A.D.)

1974 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 41-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brett
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Ibn Khaldun ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The City

Speaking of Tripoli, the fourteenth-century writer al-Tijāni says: ‘when the Zughba killed Sacīd ibn Khazrūn in the year 429’. Sacīd was the Zanāta lord of the city, and al-Tijānī is explaining that the venerable faqīh Ibn Munammar was driven into exile because, when Sacīd was killed, he opened the gates to a cousin of the dead man who was promptly expelled by a brother. The reference to the Zughba is thus contained within an account of the dynasty of the Banū Khazrūn which is itself contained within a biographical notice of the jurist Ibn Munammar. There is no further explanation of the killing, and no mention of it by any other writer apart from Ibn Khaldūn, who has borrowed the story from Al-Tijānī, and repeats it twice. This presents a problem. The Zughba were Arabs, a branch of the Banū Hilāl. In that case they should not have been at Tripoli at all, as Ibn Khaldūn observes, because the Banū Hilāl did not enter Ifrīqiya until they were sent from Egypt to punish the Zīrīd sultan al-Mucizz ibn Bādīs for breaking his allegiance to the Fāṭimid caliph in Cairo, and recognising the cAbbāsid caliph in Baghdad. That would have been some time after 1048, more specifically, after 1050, when the man who is usually held responsible for the invasion, al-Yāzūrī, became the Fāṭimid wazīr. The story of the invasion at the behest of al-Yāzūrī is accepted by the principal modern authority, Hady Roger Idris, who tries to explain the reference to the Zughba at Tripoli in 1037–8 by suggesting that a fraction of the tribe may have accompanied their relatives the Banū Qurra, a people settled to the west of Alexandria, when these were sent by Cairo to support an attack upon the Zīrīds of Ifrīqiya by an Ifrīqiyan pretender, Yaḥyā ibn cAlī ibn Hamdūn, in 1001–2. The Banū Qurra had helped Ya…yā to attack Tripoli, but had then returned to Egypt. Idris wonders if this hypothetical fraction of the Zughba had not stayed behind in the neighbourhood of the city.

Imported West Anatolian Pottery at Gordion

1992 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 151-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald P. Schaus
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Large Group ◽  
The City ◽  
Of Greece

Beginning in the early sixth century a large-scale rebuilding programme was undertaken by the Phrygians on the City Mound at Gordion, probably with the approval of their overlords, the Lydians. This renewed activity was no doubt one factor in the appearance at this time of several new imported fine wares at Gordion. These supplement the small number of imports finding their way to Gordion during the seventh century. One large group consists of Lydian pottery belonging to several fabrics including black-on-red, bichrome, marbled ware, and black-on-buff. Detailed study of this pottery has yet to be carried out. Work here will depend heavily on the study and classification of pottery from excavations at Sardis. Another, smaller body of imported pottery came from the cities of Greece. Study of this material, mainly from Corinth, Athens, and East Greece, is being conducted by K. DeVries and is now well advanced. A third small body of pottery, originating from areas to the west and south of Gordion, is presented here. The different wares of this group are very poorly known from other West Anatolian sites, so that the Gordion material adds considerably to our understanding of each of them.

Concealment and Revelation: The Pola Casket and the Visuality of Early Christian Relics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaś Elsner
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
The West ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multiple Processes ◽  
Archaeological Artefact ◽  
The City

The archaeological artefact is typically unearthed. It comes to us marked by the depredations of time, tarnished by burial, reclaimed from loss. Yet the perspective of excavation, according to which all objects are disinterred and salvaged for the collection or the museum, with more or less of a contextual history arising from their unearthing, may risk simplifying or ignoring the conditions of their original interment. The differences between the kinds of burial, between the multiple processes at stake in the loss of objects to the earth in the past—insofar as they can be reconstructed—are interesting. For example, the amazingly well-preserved statue of Flavius Palmatus, Consular Governor of Caria and acting Vicar of Asiana at some point before 536 CE, was discovered toppled beside its inscribed base at the west colonnade of the square adjoining the theater of the city of Aphrodisias in Asia Minor, in the mid-twentieth century. It fell in the course of time, we have no idea when—probably as the result of an earthquake—in a city virtually abandoned after the seventh century and was subsequently covered by debris and soil until its excavation in modernity. By contrast, the Meroe head, an over-life-size bronze head of Augustus, which was excavated by the British in Sudan in the teens of the twentieth century, was probably cut from the statue of which it was part and buried by barbarian tribesmen beneath steps leading to the native temple of Victory in the Kushite capital of Meroe in the Sudan. Far from falling where it stood, it was the victim of deliberate iconoclasm and burial by the enemies of the Roman empire, probably shortly after its erection when the Kushites invaded Roman Egypt in 25 BCE. In its buried form it lay as a hidden trophy permanently trampled by the Kushites—a sign of independence from Rome, autonomy, and hatred of the Roman emperor even when the tribesmen had forgotten that it was hidden there. Other kinds of deliberate burial, however, were made by those who owned the objects interred, rather than thieves or rampagers.

John Cassian and Sulpicius Severus

1965 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-380
Author(s):  
James Harper
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The West ◽  
Ascetic Ideal ◽  
John Cassian ◽  
The City ◽  
The Sacrifice ◽  
Social Leadership

It was Marc Bloch, I believe, who once posed the question whether there may not have been schools of asceticism, whether different groups of men at different times might have viewed the holy life in different ways and even have formed rival schools. The popular idea of what makes a saint has varied from time to time. The earliest Christians, suffering under the persecutions of the Roman Empire, reserved their admiration and their cult for those who suffered martyrdom. Albert Marignan has traced the transformation of this ideal after the end of the persecutions. When Christians no longer suffered death for their beliefs, they hoped to gain a similar crown by a living death, by the sacrifice of all earthly joys and the mortification of the flesh. The monastic ascetic ideal was born. But the monk, at least in the West, did not retain a lasting and exclusive hold on the affections of the Christian populace. He was ousted from his place by the hero bishop, the protector of the city, who combined ascetic practices with social leadership. Yet was the change a simple evolution in time, or were there really rival schools of sainthood through which the transformation took place?

Dis-integration, 400–600

The Great Sea ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Abulafia
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The West ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Old Order ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

Ever since Edward Gibbon wrote his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire the question why, when and indeed whether this great Roman Empire fell has been vigorously pursued by historians. It has been observed that at least 210 explanations have been offered, some frankly ridiculous (‘Semitization’, homosexuality, decline in manliness). The argument that it was the barbarian invasions that destroyed Rome – both the city and its empire – lost favour and has returned to favour. Some historians have insisted that the whole concept of the ‘fall of Rome’ is a misconception, and have emphasized the continuity of the Roman inheritance. Yet from a Mediterranean perspective, it is abundantly clear that the unity of the Great Sea had been shattered by 800. That leaves several centuries in which to place the process of disintegration, and several suspects: the Germanic barbarians in the fifth century and after, the Arab conquerors in the seventh century, Charlemagne and his Frankish armies in the eighth century, not to mention internal strife as Roman generals competed for power, either seeking regional dominions or the crown of the empire itself. Evidently there was no single ‘cause’ for the decline of Rome, and it was precisely the accumulation of dozens of problems that brought the old order to an end, rupturing the ‘Second Mediterranean’. During the long period from 400 to 800, the Mediterranean split apart economically and also politically: the Roman emperors saw that the task of governing the Mediterranean lands and vast tracts of Europe west of the Rhine and south of the Danube exceeded the capacity of one man. Diocletian, ruling from 284 onwards, based himself in the east at Nikomedeia, and entrusted the government of the empire to a team of co-emperors, first another ‘Augustus’ in the west, and then, from 293 to 305, two deputies or ‘Caesars’ as well, a system known as the Tetrarchy.

Beroea

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clyde E. Fant ◽  
Mitchell G. Reddish
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Round Trip ◽  
Apostle Paul ◽  
The West ◽  
West Side ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Christian Missionary ◽  
The City

Virtually nothing remains from the ancient city of Beroea, once the second city of the Macedonian Empire. In the 1st century the Apostle Paul found Beroea hospitable to his message, and today the city contains the most notable individual monument in Greece to the Christian missionary. The ancient city of Beroea today is known as Veria, located 42 miles west of Thessaloniki and 9 miles northwest of Vergina. Public buses are available from Thessaloniki’s KTEL stations (be sure to use the west side stations). Check carefully for departing and returning times, as the frequency of connections varies. Fares are inexpensive, less than $10 round trip. It is possible, if desired or time is limited, to make a day trip from Thessaloniki to nearby Vergina, go on to Veria, and return. Beroea was first mentioned by Thucydides in his histories when he records that the Athenians failed to take the city by siege in 432 B.C.E., during the Peloponnesian War. Plutarch later tells of a successful siege of Beroea in 288 B.C.E., after which the city was occupied by Pyrrhus. The Gauls who later robbed the royal tombs at Vergina were unsuccessful in taking Beroea. The city became part of the Roman Empire in 148 B.C.E. and was the site of training for the armies of Pompey, who spent the winter of 49–48 B.C.E. in Beroea prior to the battle of Pharsalos (48 B.C.E.). In the 1st century C.E. Beroea found favor with several of the Roman emperors and became an international city of varied races and religions. The Apostle Paul visited the city in 50 C.E. Later Diocletian made Beroea one of the two capitals of Macedonia. The biblical account of Paul’s visit to Beroea, following his escape from the hostility at Thessalonica, is found in Acts 17:10–15: . . . That very night the believers sent Paul and Silas off to Beroea; and when they arrived, they went to the Jewish synagogue. These Jews were more receptive than those at Thessalonica, for they welcomed the message very eagerly and examined the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so. . . .

"Once Mistress of the World :" Rome, St. Peter, and female devotion in the early Middle Ages

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Autumn Dolan
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
The Political ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
The West ◽  
The World ◽  
Papal Authority ◽  
The City

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] I reassess the reception of Rome in the early medieval west from the historiographical background of women's history. Women's conception of Rome as a cult center, an intervening ally, and a devotional adviser between 300-900 CE proved crucial in a coming-of-age period for the papacy, whose spiritual authority had begun to resonate from the Mediterranean northward as the vicar of St. Peter. My consideration of women through the lens of Petrine devotion and Roman networks stands out from previous studies that cite papal legitimacy and Roman influence in the political and rhetorical debates among the pope, bishops, and rulers. Through examinations of women's devotional practices involving Rome, it is possible to see the significance of the city and its representatives in the devotional lives of western Christians along with women's vital part in maintaining and extending papal authority and Roman cults in the first millennium. This study draws from hagiographical, epistolary, and literary sources in addition to the use of material evidence such as inscriptions, devotional objects, and architecture. None of these sources are new to early medievalists, but when read for the Roman affiliations within female devotion, they bring us to expand our impressions of Rome's reception in the west and redefine our expectations of women's religious practices. In order to capture the breadth of early medieval women's associations with Rome, this study takes a broad geographic and social approach. The geographic focus for this study spans from Rome to include Francia and Anglo-Saxon England in order to emphasize the extent of Rome's appeal, and also to demonstrate women's involvement in the widespread travel networks that culminated at the city. Although elite women dominate sources for early medieval women, it is nevertheless possible to tease out from evaluations of cult worship the devotional trends of popular religion, and with them the deeds of the poor or middling ranks in society. This broad examination of devotion in terms of geography and social rank contributes to a dynamic image of the late antique and early medieval worlds, providing further caution against assumptions that the local predominated in the worldview of those living in the centuries following the political fall of Rome. As we continue to gradually reinsert Rome into the narrative of the early medieval west, women should figure in our discussions of the developments in papal authority, the success of the cults of Roman saints, and the facilitation of pilgrimage and exchange routes that extended from Rome through Francia and across the English Channel. The continuity of women's roles in domestic devotion between late antique and early medieval culture grounds the survey of Rome and its reception in the west, even as we struggle with the real changes in its political and economic structures. Although early medieval men and women witnessed a localization of thought and exchange following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire, they were no less aware of the enduring ties between their region and that of Rome, the city that was once “Mistress of the World.

Pausanias’ Arcadia between Conservatism and Innovation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Baleriaux
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
Of Greece

The vivid survival of traditional features in Arcadian religion under the early Roman Empire is striking. Despite the brutal conquest of Rome and the intrusiveness of its administration, cities were able to keep their most peculiar religious characteristics alive. This chapter investigates this seemingly uninterrupted religious continuity despite remarkable political change. In line with the studies of Alcock and more recently Spawforth, it aims to show that the attitude of Rome towards Hellenism, and in particular the antiquarian attitude to religion it promoted, triggered a cascade of changes in the human, social, economic, political, and religious landscape of Greece. The apparent conservatism of Arcadian religion during that period was not principally ‘resistance’—in the sense of asserting a distinct Greek identity through religion—but was rather largely promoted by the Romans themselves.

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