Transformation of Cities

13

The Transformation of Cities in LateAntiquity within the Provinces of

Macedonia and Epirus

J.-P. SODINIThe Sorbonne, Paris

Summary. The provinces of Epirus and Macedonia, although divided into dis-tinct regions by their mountains, were important for the Empire, particularlybecause they were crossed by the via Egnatia which snaked its way eastwards,serving as the vital link between Rome and Constantinople at a time when inse-curity was increasing along the Danubian frontier. From the middle of the thirdcentury, cities in this part of the Empire were under threat and their forticationswere reinforced in the fth (Thessalonika) and sixth centuries (Byllis underJustininian). There was prosperity in the fourth century and beginning of the fth(wealthy households, luxurious facilities such as baths, thriving urban centres andcathedrals with episcopal residences and other churches). During the fth cen-tury, the houses of Philippi were partly transformed into workshops. The sixthcentury was difcult and the second half was especially bleak. However, coins andpottery show that contacts between east and west were still maintained, as well aslocal production. But, from 54050, invasions and plague worsened the generalsituation. Graves appeared inside the city walls. Archaeology (Slav pottery andbulae) and texts (Miracula Sancti Demetrii) all demonstrate how hard timeswere from the 580s to the 630s. Contacts were few and highly regionalized. Wehave to wait for the ninth century to see the beginning of a takeover by peoplesfrom the Balkans and Greece.

The geographical background (Figs C and E)

THE PROVINCES OF MACEDONIA AND Epirus together roughly correspond to the areaassigned to the Roman senatorial province of Macedonia, which was subdivided byDiocletian into three, each with its own provincial capital: Macedonia (Thessalonika),

Proceedings of the British Academy 141, 311336. The British Academy 2007.

Copyright British Academy 2007 all rights reserved

312 J.-P. Sodini

Epirus Nova (Dyrrachium, present-day Durres), and Thessaly (Larissa). The regionincludes both sides of the Dinaric Alps which form the mountainous spine of both thecentral Balkans and the Greek peninsula and dictate the direction taken by its rivers:west into the Adriatic (Drilon (now Drin), Skhumbi, Kordaikos (the present-daySeman), and Aoos (the Vjosa)); or east to the Aegean (Axios, Haliakmon). The dif-culties of communication across the central massif are reected both by the importanceof the sea route from Thessalonika to Athens and the overland road heading south pastPydna, Dion and on to Thebes in Thessaly and Athens. Despite the consequent prob-lem of communication, the via Egnatia, which led from Rome to Constantinople,crossed the southern Balkans from Dyrrhachium to Philippi and represented onewest/east route which did help to link the two main parts of this region. It was a roadwhich was vital when it was difcult to use the great northern highway which followedthe valleys of the Maritsa and Morava (Haldon 1999, 536; McCormick 2001, 6971;Avramea 2002, 6872). The via Egnatia also had a secondary branch road whichstarted from Apollonia and Aulon (Vlora) and then joined the main road at Clodiana(Hammond 1974; Amore et al. 2001). This route continued up the valley of theSkhumbi (Scampae), past the lakes of Ocrhid and Prespaa difcult sectionthrough the urban centres of Lychnidus and Heraclea Lyncestis, then snaked its waybetween the mountains to reach Aegae, Pella, and Thessalonika. Beyond Thessalonika,as it headed for Constantinople, the road passed the north-east corner of theChalcidice peninsula, before following the coast, passing Amphipolis, Philippi, andNeapolis (Kavala): all cities still within Macedonia (Papazoglou 1988). The southerncoast of Epirus had a number of safe anchorages and ports such as Onchesmos(Saranda), Buthroton (Butrint), and Aulon, all linked by a coastal road which camedown from Salona towards Nicopolis, the equivalent of the other north/south routewhich linked Thessalonika with Athens. Other towns were located in the highlands,some along the Aoos and its tributaries such as Amantia, Byllis, and Antigoneia, oth-ers occupying defensive locations such as Phoinike. The valley routes allowed trafc topenetrate inland, linking the via Egnatia with other road networks further north. TheBlack Drin connected the cities around the lakes of Ochrid and Prespa with the routeUlciniumSkhodraUlpiana, down to Nassus. The valley of the Axios allowed pas-sage north to Nassus via Stobi and Scupi. Equally strategic positions were occupied bySandanski on the middle reaches of the Strymon, and by Amphipolis where the north/south road reached the Aegean. Finally, the Haliakmon connected Celetrum and Beroea.

The barbarian invasions in Epirus and Macedonia

These limitations to communication were alleviated in part by the via Egnatia whichremained of strategic and political importance because of the part it played duringthose troubled times when the region was affected by a series of invasions, often last-


ing several years, and often bringing destruction to the Balkan peninsula. The Gothsappeared as raiders towards the middle of the third century. In the aftermath of thebattle of Adrianople (378), they retreated into Thrace and pillaged that province as wellas Macedonia and Greece. Sandanski, for example, was burnt to the ground (Milcheva2002, 294). Having settled in Moesia II, they rose in revolt in 388 and 395. Under theleadership of Alaric, they devastated Greece, capturing Athens, and reached as farsouth as the Peloponnese before returning to Epirus in 397. Alaric, declared magistermilitum per Illyricum, took control of the region until moving on to Italy after Gainaswas overthrown in Constantinople (Heather 1996; Kazanski 1999a). The next danger-ous confederation of peoples was the Huns, who were at rst welcomed by the imperialauthorities, but who then established themselves as a political power in Pannonia andposed a dangerous threat after Attila assumed supreme command in 434 (Bon 2002).Each year the Huns crossed the Danube to pillage the Balkan provinces. In 447, theyraided Macedonia and Thessaly as far as Thermopylae. Only the death of Attila in 453signalled the end of the Hunnic threat. However, the Goths, settled in Pannonia asfoederati, and, now freed from Hunnic control, proceeded to attack Illyricum in 457and to capture Dyrrachium in 459. The Goths again caused trouble in 473, carrying outraids in Macedonia and attacking Thessalonika. Under the command of Theodoric,they continued to raid Macedonia, sacking Stobi and Heraclea Lyncestis, as well asthreatening Thessalonika. In 479, Theodoric took over Dyrrachium, then again raidedMacedonia and Thessaly, capturing Larissa in the process, before himself moving on toItaly in 488.

Towards the end of the fth century, the Bulgarians started raiding south of theDanube; in 517, along with some Slav conscripts, they attacked Macedonia and thenThessaly. Cotrigurs invaded both the Chalcidice, getting as far as Constantinople, andGreece, as far as the isthmus of Corinth. In 550, Slavs were in Macedonia and threat-ened Thessalonika and, in 551, they pillaged Illyricum. They had also attacked Byllisin 548 (when coin-loss ceased) unless the attackers were the Goths who attacked bothAnchiasmos and Nicopolis in 551. In 559, Slavs and Cotrigurs plundered Macedoniaand Greece as far as Thermopylae (Rosser 2001).

Avars and Slavs continued their invasions. Between 580 and 5878, they settled inMacedonia and Greece (including the Peloponnese), besieging Thessalonika in 586. Bythe seventh century, Slav settlement in the Balkan peninsula was continuing on a mas-sive scale (Lemerle 1954; Popovic 1975, 1978; Koder 1978; Malingoudis 1988; Metcalf1991; Avramea 1997; Kazanski 1999b; Vida and Vlling 2000; Curta 2001; Morrisson,Popovic and Ivanisevic 2006, 7593).

In addition to all these invasions, there was an outbreak of plague in 542 which con-tinued sporadically thereafter (McCormick 2001, 3941). Although our literary sourcesfor the Balkans do not mention it, the regional impact of plague should perhaps bereassessed in view of what we could now learn both from anthropology and from thenumerous late Roman cemeteries in the Balkans. Also, earthquakes proved devastating,

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIES 313


314 J.-P. Sodini

like those of 51820 which hit Macedonia, especially Thessalonika and its hinterland,and those of 524 (Corinth) and 551 in central Greece (Sanders 2004, 1702). Thepicture is bleak for the diocese of Macedonia in the sixth century, especially in thesecond half.

Defence of territory

The organization of defensive measures across the provinces of Epirus, Praevalitana,and Macedonia deserves special consideration but involves a more detailed discussionthan is possible here. However, such a study could demonstrate how networks of forti-cations were established to protect cities such as Byllis, Dyrrachium, Scampae,Scodra, Zaradishte, Scupi, Heraclea (Milkucic 1986b), and Thessalonika. Majoradvances, recording all types of fortications and identifying their functions, have beenmade over the last few decades by colleagues in Albania, Serbia, Macedonia (formerYugoslavia), and Greece. But there remains the task of drawing up a common typologywhich describes the defensive arrangements and methods of construction. As far aspossible, dating needs to be improved if we are to differentiate between various pro-grammes of fortication and distinguish between imperial and local initiatives. Thisneeds to be done before this kind of information can be used to explain why differentkinds of defences were built. As we are still waiting for this research to be done, all thatcan be attempted here is to examine individual case studies and identify groups ofdifferent fortications. Even so, the approach must remain tentative because allinterpretations are based on insecure foundations.

Texts and inscriptions relating to urban defences

The terminology used in the literary sources, especially in the Anonymous Byzantinus(sixth century) and in George of Pisidia makes hardly any distinction between impor-tant sites and simple forts: all are described as towns (poleis) (Dunn 1998). Procopiusin De Aediciis (4.4) does not provide a detailed description of urban defences forEpirus Nova and Praevalitana. He is rather more forthcoming about Macedonia andThessaly but he was at pains to describe the defences at Thermopylae (Gregory 2000).He provides a separate list of forts (phrouria) built or restored in different provinceswith the notable exception of Praevalitana. For Epirus Nova, he lists 26 forts whichwere restored and 32 newly built ones, in Macedonia 46 rebuilt, and seven restored inThessaly. These lists are not easy to interpret. Some mix-ups in the provincial lists areeasy to spot: the city of Scydros must be Scodra (Skhodra) in Praevalitana; Byllis,which, as we know epigraphically, was rebuilt under Justinian, is perhaps mistakenlycalled Boulibas ( Boulidas?), a site assigned to Epirus Vetus. In the case of this last


example, it could quite probably be simply a mistake, or else the rebuilding took placeafter the text had been completed (Feissel 1988, 1436). The cities, some which musthave had several thousands of inhabitants, such as Dyrrachium, and smaller ones, suchas Amantia, Kionina, and Alistron, are listed along with simple fortlets. Many of thesesites are poorly transcribed; Antipragai for Antipatria, modern Berat, or possiblyAntibaris in modern Montenegro. This makes it difcult to locate all the sites and espe-cially difcult to understand the defensive strategy involved. Apart from Procopius, andespecially his De Aediciis, the historical sources for the region do not provide a coher-ent account. The same applies to inscriptions, apart from the ne ones from Bylliswhich refer to Victorinos, who was perhaps the chief military engineer in the Balkansrather than soldier or praetorian prefect of Illyricum (Feissel 1988) and who is alsoknown to have refortied the isthmus of Corinth (Gregory 1993, 803, 138, 144).While, from Constantinople, a recent epigraphic nd enables us to rene the dating ofthe Land Walls (Kalkan and Sahin 1994), the walls of Thessalonika (which could haveserved as a regional model) provide only fragments of epigraphic information. There isstill uncertainty as to the identity of two men, Hormisdas and Theodosius, recorded oninscriptions associated with the refortication of Thessalonika. Consequently, theexact date of the early Christian walls cannot be determined epigraphically. Lastly,stamped bricks have come from the walls of Thessalonika (Vickers 1973; Theocharidou1994, 311, pl. 180), and from Louloudies (Poulter 1998, 494500) where have beenfound bricks with cruciform monograms which started to be used c.52030 and withmonograms with a vertical stem, common in the seventh century, although they rstappear in the second half of the sixth century. Stamped tiles have been found atDyrrachium (Zheku 1972; Miraj 1980; Gutteridge, Hoti, and Hurst 2001, 397), Scodra(Hoxha 2003, 166, pls 47and 48) and Elbasan (ancient Ad Quintum) (Karaiskaj 1972,149). They all belong to different types of stamping and their dating is not establishedon a rm basis. However, some of these bricks present similar monograms, such asthose from Dyrrachium (Zheku 1972, 38, g. 5, 41, gs 10 and 11, and 43, g. 16 repro-duced in Miraj 1980) and Scodra (Hoxha 2003, 166, pl. 48, 1) and may well date to thereign of either Anastasius or Justinian.

Differences in the development of cities

One of the major consequences of the revival which took place in the fourth, and espe-cially in the fth century, was a change in the character of occupation, although therewere marked differences between one city and another. The reorganization of theregions in the fourth century, connected with the building of the new capital, encour-aged a growth of activity in the ports and the towns on the main highways and createda demand for increased agricultural resources. This was the case in the plains aroundPhilippi and Thessalonika, even though the marshland close to these cities limited the



316 J.-P. Sodini

amount of productive land. Thessalonika during the fourth century developed into amajor regional centre of considerable importance. This was promoted by the construc-tion of an imperial palace, and then by the transfer of the Praetorian Prefecture afterthe Goths captured Sirmium in 441. Whereas there was clear development along the viaEgnatia and along the coast, other centres, still active in the fourth century, declined inthe following century, allowing some cities to prot from this change in fortunes. Suchseems to be true of the diocese of Apollonia which still included both Apollonia itselfand Byllis in 431 but, probably from 451, and certainly by 458, Byllis had acquired itsown bishop (Muaj 2002, 659). On the other hand, it does not seem that atThessalonika there was any diminution in the urban population during the second halfof the sixth century. Lemerle (197981, 7981), describing the rst attacks of theSclavenes between 586 and 610, argued that the city found itself in a very different sit-uation from the rest of the Balkans. Cut off from the interior of Macedonia, then occu-pied by the Sclavenes, the city still maintained an almost normal existence thanks toits port. At all events, there are no obvious signs of decline which, for example, wouldbe apparent if the fortied area was reduced. But this never happened during the sec-ond half of the sixth century, nor even at the beginning of the seventh century duringthe years 61820 which represented some of the worst moments in the history ofthe Balkans (Spieser 1984b and 1999; Theocharidou 1994; Velenis 1998). Even so, theactual size of the urban population remains impossible to estimate. It may havedeclined and this could have resulted in the abandonment of parts of the city, and some areas may perhaps have been used for burials, as happened at Constantinople, inRome and in cities mentioned in the following account as demonstrated by excavations.Philippi (Provost 2001) seems to enjoy the same demographic stability: there was noreduction in the citys defended area, perhaps because the site was considered of strate-gic importance, commanding the land route along the coast between Constantinopleand Thessalonika. The signs of activity at Philippi in this period are surprising whencompared with the dramatic reduction in the defensive circuit around the neighbouringcity of Amphipolis (Bakirtzis 1996).

There was a signicant change in the settlements of this area, as in the rest of theBalkans, and more generally in southern Europe and the eastern half of the Empire.Urban defences were reduced and sites were sometimes abandoned altogether in favourof more defensible locations. There were different reasons which explain why this hap-pened. There were earthquakes, like the one which so severely affected Apollonia in345, barbarian invasions, as described above, or, less commonly, topographical changessuch as the alteration in the course of a river, as happened with the Aoos. This riverchanged its course close to the rivermouth, towards the end of the third century, andthen began owing out into the sea further to the south, consequently reducing thecitys importance as a port, a change which conversely accounts for the rise in impor-


tance of the port at Avlon. In other cases, we know that there was a change of site:Diocletianoupolis was abandoned in favour of Kastoria under Justinian (Procopius,De Aediciis 4.3 16; Papazoglou 1988, 2389). But the effect of change was mostacutely felt in the interior where new settlements or fortlets were established on highground, commanding the passes along ancient routes which were partly brought backinto use. Ancient fortications, dating back to the Hellenistic period, were reoccupied,as at Antigoneia, and, in the Mallakastra district, sites like Margelli and Gurzezereceived new walls and churches (Muaj 1990).

Totally new urban foundations could still be created, or at least this would seem tobe the case even though this has not been tested by extensive excavations. This appearsto apply to the site of Louloudies where a quadriburgium (80 90 m.) was built on theprobable site of the Battle of Pydna. Poulter (1998) also identied a large fortiedenclosure (34 ha in size), 150 m to the south of the quadriburgium, on the banks of theriver Sourvala. The rst site contained a residence and a large church with baptistry, inplan very similar to the Acheiropoietos in Thessalonika. It might have been a postingstation on the road from Thessalonika to Dion, built close to a fortied small town,protected by the substantially larger fortication (Poulter 1998). However, thequadriburgium may have been an episcopal centre built c.480 to protect the inhabitantsof Pydna who were being harassed by the Goths, as Marki (1997) believes, basing herargument on the text of Jordanes (Histoire des Goths, 56.287, tr. O. Devillers, Paris,1995, 112):

[The patrician Hilarianus] concluded a treaty with the Goths and then immediately gave themlands to occupy: Cyrrhos, Pella, Europos, Mediana (Methone), Petina (Pydna), Beroeaand . . . Dium.

Possibly the inhabitants of Pydna returned to their city after the departure of the Gothsin 485. While leaving the location of the church and palace unchanged, during the rstquarter of the sixth century. the church was rebuilt and the palace was enlarged andprovided with agricultural machinery (an oil press, a vat for pressing grapes). Shortlyafter the middle of the sixth century, the site was destroyed by an earthquake. Thechurch was again rebuilt but only the central aisle was used and it served as a basilicacoemeterialis. The bishop abandoned his palace which, its decline precipitated by a sec-ond earthquake, was then used for industrial workshops (a pottery kiln, three glasskilns, a forge). The church and the palace were robbed of materials which were partiallyreused in new buildings. Walls of stone bonded with earth were built during the seventhcentury and later quernstones and pottery prove that a settlement still existed at thetime. The neighbouring fortied site was abandoned. Perhaps, the quadriburgium hadbeen built on a pre-existing site: late Roman baths were identied beneath the episcopalpalace (road station or perhaps a villa, according to Marki (2001, 267, pl. 3)).



318 J.-P. Sodini

The continued upkeep of fortications

It is clear that cities protected themselves with fortications, as elsewhere in theBalkans. From the Tetrarchic period, defences were built and maintained, often reusingthe foundations of Hellenistic walls. The best example of this practice in the southernBalkans is Thessalonika where hasty rebuilding was carried out on the Hellenistic (?)circuit at about the middle of the third century and external reinforcement of the wallswas added at the beginning of the fourth. Then the walls were totally rebuilt during therst half of the fth century using very different defensive methods (Spieser 1984a and1999; Theocharidou 1994; Velenis 1998).). At Philippi, following the line of pre-existing, perhaps Hellenistic walls, a new curtain was provided, built with brick-coursesve-tiles thick, at the end of the third or beginning of the fourth century. Towards theend of the fth or some time in the sixth century, a proteichisma was added tostrengthen the defences of the lower part of the city, as also happened at Thessalonika(Provost 2001). At Stobi, oods and the encroachment of the river Erigon had under-mined the Roman walls so they were replaced by new defences, built at the beginningof the fth century (Wiseman 1984, 3012).

At Buthroton, excavations on the site of the Triconch Palace with its triconch tri-clinium provided a late fth-century date (?) for the walls which were erected alongsidethe building (Bowden et al. 2002, 2089; Hodges et al. 2004, 12832). This new forti-cation, which defended the city on the side fronting the Vivari channel, completed theenclosure of the whole peninsula upon which the city was built.

At Dyrrachium, recent work has improved our understanding of the course anddate of various fortications. The main circuit is well-preserved on the south-west sidewhere it dates to the late Roman period. Its distinctive construction uses only brickswhich are 5 cm thick, some of which are stamped, between very thick layers of mortar,7 cm thick. Tower D, in its upper construction, was provided with a series of arcades,pierced by windows and was decorated with crosses (Rey 1925, 39, g. 10). Another for-tication wall, running east-west, cut off the south-eastern extension of the city andbutted up against an internal citadel, the southern face of which reused towers G andF along with the intermediary section of curtain-wall which also formed the continua-tion of the surviving main city defences. Both the cross-wall and the walls of the citadelwere built with a rubble core faced with rectangular stone blocks, their external facesshowing numerous repairs carried out in the medieval period (twelfth to thirteenth cen-turies?) although these fortications may well have followed the course of a late Romancircuit. Further north, there was another line of defences, a section of which was dis-covered in 2001 and, since it had a similar brick construction to the main forticationwall, was presumably contemporary. So it seems that this city had similar defences tothose of Caricin Grad which had three defensive circuits (see Chapter 14, Bavant). John


of Antioch c.610 noted that Anastasius surrounded Dyrrachium with a triple line ofdefences (Muller, 1851, 621) and this may explain these different sections of curtainalthough such a tentative interpretation must await conrmation by future research.Some specialists prefer an early date for the defences, about the middle of the fth cen-tury, closer to the time when the walls of Thessalonika were built because atThessalonika the western curtain also had brick constructionalthough the bricksthere are used as simple facing courses or to form thick arcading (unlike tower D atDurres) and to pick out numerous cross designs (Crow 2001, 946, g. 45). However,this line of argument has little chronological value and I would personally prefer tobelieve that the walls were built by Anastasius since the historical sources record howhe embellished his native city (Gutteridge et al. 2001). The circular macellum which iscurrently being excavated in the centre of the ancient city may well have been decoratedwith imported Proconnesian marble, as its sculptural decoration suggests, and may dateto this period of Anastasian reconstruction. A section of early Byzantine wall of morecommon form, using rows of small facing stones separated by tile courses, no doubtconnected the city with its northern port (Porto Romano), 7 km away. The importantdiscovery that the south-eastern line of fortications had at least one earlier period,ascribed to the second century, shows that the city did not wait until the reign ofAnastasius to take measures for its own protection and it is very likely that the cross-wall separating off the south-eastern quarter and the northern curtain followed one ormore earlier lines of defence (Gutteridge and Hoti 2003).

The recent publication on the city of Scodra (Hoxha 2003, 30, gs 2223), the bestknown of the cities in Praevalitana (the other cities being Lissus, Olcinium, andDoclea), has proved that the defences belong to two different periods, one dating to theend of the fourth century and the other to the sixth and the reign of Justinian. Houseshave also been excavated. Ceramic and coin-nds suggest that the site was fully occu-pied down to the middle or third quarter of the sixth century after which there was adecline, although the site survived as late as the reign of Constans II (64268).

In Macedonia, several urban fortications have recently been studied. In the case ofthe extensive fortications of Dion (43 ha), its eastern curtain was carefully constructedin opus mixtum as it followed the course of the river Vaphyras, whereas its other wallswere of very different construction. As to the dates of these two different sections ofwall, there are widely differing opinions. Stephanidou-Tiveriou (1988) suggested thatthe ancient walls were rebuilt in the years 25468 but Mentzos (2002) offers soundreasons why the rebuilding of the fortications should date to the middle of the fthcentury. Tsouris (2002, 4207) has studied the forts and fortications on the frontierbetween Macedonia and Thrace. Amongst the walled cities he attributes to the third to the sixth century are: Anastasioupolis, Topiros, Didymoteichos, Drama,Anaktoroupolis, Maronea, and Serres.



320 J.-P. Sodini

The reduction of the defended circuit

Shrinkage in the defended area happened in the Balkans, Asia Minor, and even inSyria, as, for example, at Palmyra. In the case of Amphipolis, the reduction in the areaformerly protected by the Hellenistic defences coincided with the establishment of theChristian city (Bakirtzis 1996). In addition, the city was also divided in two by anotherwall which cut across Basilica A and limited access between the upper and lower partsof the city to just one gate (Tsouris 2002). At Dion, the walls protected a much morerestricted area of 16 ha. However, the date of this reduction remains a matter of con-troversy. Stephanidou-Tiveriou (1988) assigns the new walls to the last decades of thefourth century and its ensuing destruction to the rst half of the fth. Mentzos (2002)ascribes the reduction in the fortied area to the end of the seventh century. The samereduction occurred at Nicopolis, even though a letter of Gregory the Great (Pietri 1984,54) describes it as the third most important city in Illyricum (after Thessalonika andDyrrachium). However, the traditional view that this happened under Justinian hasbeen disputed and a consensus prefers a date towards the end of the fth century, per-haps during the reign of Zeno or Anastasius (Gregory 1987; Hellenkemper 1987).Mikulcic (1986a, 2347) claims that a late fortication protected the central part ofHeraclea Lyncestis and the episcopal complex, cutting them off from the eastern partof the city. The fortications of Onchesmos (Lako 1984) perhaps represent a reductionin the size of the defended area but the evidence there remains inconclusive.

In the case of Byllis, where the reduction in size of walled area is important, it isdifcult to say whether the part of the city which was protected by the late Romandefences was the only part of the city which was still occupied. It remains to be estab-lished whether the rest of the area between the late Roman and earlier fortications wasstill inhabited. The same question applies to the sites just quoted above.

Methods of defence

Both forts and towns used the same types of defences, whether in Epirus, Praevalitana,in Dardania, or in Macedonia. Amongst the characteristic methods of constructionemployed are triangular and pentagonal towers and proteichismata (Philippi,Thessalonika (Bace 1976; Karaiskaj 1998; Crow 2001)). The Balkans may have beenused as a kind of testing ground for various types of fortication and the lessons thenapplied in Antalolia during the seventh century (Dunn 1998; Crow 2001). There were afew simple methods. The most common involved the use of a core made of mortar andstones with stone-facing and brick-courses, three to ve bricks thick (Thessalonika, theeastern defences, Fig. 1) But some have walls built just in bricks without a central coreof mortared stone. The best example of this type is Dyrrachium, but the same tech-nique was also used at Perinthos, at Serdica, and at Salmydessos (modern Midye: Crow


2001, 103, g. 9). Lastly, there are also walls with both sides built from stone blocks andwithout brick-courses. This was the case at Byllis, built by Victorinos (Figs 2 and 3),Onchesmos, where there were walls also using alternate brick and stone-courses (Fig. 4), in a series of fortications which have been studied or listed by Hoxha (2003,323), including Scodra and Doclea, and some walls at Philippi (Provost 2001, g. 5:the wall south of the Neapolis gate). Putlog holes for supporting wooden scaffoldingare commonly used in this kind of wall, as they are in walls built with brick-courses andstone block-facing (for example, at Nicopolis: Hellenkemper 1987, pls 5005). But atScodra, Hoxha (2003, g. 5) discovered that they had been used to hold wooden brac-ing beams with timbers passing along the axis of the wall and linked to beams laidacross the width of the curtain. This discovery upsets the traditional view that thesecavities were all simply putlog holes used to support scaffolding during the construc-tion process. Could it be that these holes then served a double function? At Byllis, S.Muaj (1990) did not nd any traces of such horizontal timbers within its walls. On theother hand, clearly visible in section are the courses of mortared rubble of the core, sostone facing-stones must originally have existed. We need more studies to determine thetrue function of the holes. Even so, these differences in construction technique do notnecessarily mean that the fortications were built at different times or by other types of


Figure 1. Thessalonika, the eastern curtain-wall (J.-P. Sodini).


322 J.-P. Sodini

builders. Philippi has opus mixtum and curtain-walls faced with stone blocks. The sameapplies to Onchesmos. Nevertheless, it seems that in these cases the entire circuit wasbuilt at the same time. However, at Dion, there are signicant differences in construc-tion: in some sectors stone is reused, in others there are new blocks. In some places, reg-ular brick-courses are used and in others bricks are displayed in an erratic way. Somesections of wall use limestone mortar, others use simple earth-bonding. The use of var-ious methods most probably reects differences in technical but also nancial resources.Consequently, these differences are so strong that they could imply many phases thathave to be recognized and dated.

The street-grids

Because large-scale excavation has been generally limited, we know less about cities inMacedonia and Epirus than we do about cities in the northern Balkans. Nevertheless,there are two exceptions: Stobi and Philippi. In the rst of these (Wiseman 1984), thestreet-grid which dates in its nal form to the end of the fourth century, is irregular: itstwo main axial routescalled by the excavators the via principalis superior, with its

Figure 2. Byllis, inside face of the walls at tower Y (J.-P. Sodini).


extension the via sacra, and the via principalis inferiorregularly changed direction,closely following the natural topography. The via sacra was anked, at least on its east-ern side, by colonnades. Halfway along its course, it passed on its east side the cathe-drals atrium, then opened onto a semi-circular square, fronted on its internal side by aportico, and by shops on its exterior side which formed a kind of macellum (afterMikulcic 1999, 337, g. 211). A good parallel for such a square has been discovered atBeisan-Scythopolis, built in 506/7 and called Sigma (Tsafrir and Foerster 1997, 117). Bythe beginning of the fth century, this square was directly linked to the cathedralsalmost triangular atrium so it must then have functioned as a place of assembly for thefaithful. Along these roads there were both houses, like the house of the Fuller, andshops. A public fountain was found, backing onto the north wall of the house ofPeristeria.

Philippi had a more regular layout, determined by the orientation of two roadswhich converged from the west towards the eastern gate and the route to Neapolis(Kavala), as was also the case at Constantinople and at Zenobia (Halabiye) on theEuphrates. The northern road was anked by a colonnade on its southern side whichfronted onto the agora and the most important buildings. Both roads had been


Figure 3. Byllis, exterior face of the walls, between towers P and Q. Note the collapsed external facing (J.-P. Sodini).


324 J.-P. Sodini

originally 9 m but had been reduced in the fourth century to 5.4 m. Based on these twomain roads, there were two separate street-grids, one occupying the northern triangu-lar area between the two axial routes and a second grid, taking its orientation from thesouthern road and occupying the lower, rectangular part of the city. Both grids weredivided into rectangular insulae, apart from the area close to the junction of the two

Figure 4. Onchesmos, south wall (J.-P. Sodini).


converging main roads. This urban plan dates to the second century and was still in useduring the late Roman period. But, in the later period, two churches occupied thenorthern part of the city (Basilicas A and C) and the forum was, in effect, taken overby the cathedral, anked as it was by the episcopal complex to the east and by BasilicaB to the south. Another church, which was identied by Provost and Boyd (2002) andthe Ephorate, lies west of the square and, though it is some way away, still adds to theimpression that the forum was used in late antiquity as a connecting space betweenthree churches. No church has yet been recognized in the rectangular area on the south-ern side of the city. The churches and their associated buildings more or less respectedthe layout of the pre-existing insulae as, for example, in the case of the episcopalcomplex which took up three adjacent blocks.

In the case of Thessalonika, we know a lot about some important excavationsalthough these are separated by areas about which we know nothing at all. The widecolonnaded street, the cardo maximus of the city, is well known and proves that, by thesecond half of the second century, the Roman city had a regular grid-network ofstreets. The construction of the Tetrarchic palace and the temple (or mausoleum) onthe other side of the cardo maximus represent, along with the arch of Galerius, agrandiose embellishment of the citys main streets.

Urban quarters and public buildings

Thessalonika has a rectangular agora, similar in form to that at Philippi. It covered anarea of 2 ha, the equivalent of three-and-a-half insulae in the centre of the city andclearly represented a major feature in the urban plan (Adam-Veleni 2001). The pavedcourt was 146 m in length. This was anked on three sides by double stoas withCorinthian columns which provided access to rooms around the sides of the complex.On the southern side, the top of a double cryptoporticus was built to the same level asthe agora and supported porticoes which fronted the open court. A road, 2 m wide and paved with marble, provided access to shops to the south of the agora and hadreplaced, on the south-east side, a set of Roman baths. Thirteen shops which openedonto the southern road were repaired and remained in use into the sixth century,indeed longer than the agora itself. However, it was during this late period that the cryp-toporticus was converted into cisterns. To the east, a buleuterion, which had been builtin the rst century, was replaced in the second by an odeion, seating 200 peopleitscapacity increased to 400 in the last quarter of the third century. In the second quarterof the fourth century, work began on a major enlargement of the cavea but the projectwas abandoned after construction had already started. Apparently, a room south of theodeion was used to store the city archives because it was built with shelves clearlyintended for that purpose. North of the theatre, there was a mint which operated fromthe reign of Licinius and may have continued to function until the end of the fourth



326 J.-P. Sodini

century. At the beginning of the fth, the agora went out of use and the area was usedfor pottery production and then, still later, for burial. The abandonment of the agoraat this early date is worrying. One would have expected that this would have happenedmuch later, perhaps at the beginning of the seventh century. This problem could beresolved if a sixth-century agora were to be found. This might have been in the areabetween the gate of Cassandra and St Sophia. Relevant here is the fact, noted above,that the circular macellum, probably built under Anastasius at Durres, is the only evi-dence for late Roman urban construction in this city, apart, of course, from the urbanfortications. At Nea Anchialos, in the old agora, various workshops and pottery kilnswere in use although these late structures are poorly dated. At Sandanski, betweenBasilicas 1 and 2, one or more buildings were built and have been interpreted asforming part of an administrative centre (Milcheva 2002).

Baths are amongst the best known public buildings. They have been found inThessalonika (here of particular interest since they are associated with the cult of StDemetrius), at Stobi (Wiseman 1973, 2930 : Little Bath), at Scupi (Mikulcic 1986a,234), at Heraclea Lyncestis (Mikulcic 1986a, 235), at Byllis (repaired in the sixth century:Feissel 2000, 92, n.20), at Durres (third-century, but still in use in late antiquity), atVlora (ano 1991), at Elbasan which has the same history as the baths at Durres (Cekaand Papajani 1972), and at Butrint (channel side, Martin 2004, 95). Although the timewhen they were in use remains uncertain, baths would seem also to have been identiedby geophysical survey at Philippi (Boyd and Provost 2001, 5079).

Churches should be included in this study because they were a major feature of thelate Roman urban landscape. Philippi and Stobi have already been described above.Here it is important to stress the signicance of the episcopal complexes (Byllis,Philippi, Stobi, Heraclea Lyncestis, Bargala (Mikulcic 1999, 343, g. 219)). These werethe buildings around which the life of the city developed a new focus in the earlyByzantine period. At Onchesmos, the church was built on the site of a synagogue dat-ing to the fourth century. The same happened at Stobi and so there must have beenJewish communities here which survived at least until their places of worship weretaken over by the Church (Nallbani 2003). Other Jewish communities are attested in Macedonia, especially in Thessalonika and Thebes in Thessaly (Karagiorgou 2001, 213).

Of no less interest are the residential quarters. Numerous examples existed at Stobi,and in Philippi. Although there are fewer such houses, they also existed at Butrintwhere a private domus of the fourth century was extended in a Triconch Palace at thevery beginning of the fth. The main feature was a triconch dining-room with amasonry stibadium in the central apse, but its construction may have been curtailedabruptly (c.420?) (Bowden et al. 2002; Gilkes and Lako, 2004, 15175). Although hisname is unknown, we know the owner had the rank of clarissimus. When the structurewas no longer used as a residence, building materials were robbed, although masonrywalls and, later, simple walls bonded with earth were added and the site was used for


activities involving the preparation of sh and shellsh, later still for burials. Nicopolis(Sodini 1984) and Thasos (Sodini 1995 and 1997, 4612) have also several ne exam-ples of private houses. Rescue excavations carried out in Thessalonika are now startingto bear fruit: a dozen or so houses, with apsidal-ended triclinia, have been found, as wellas atria equipped with peristyles (Karudas 1996 and 1999). One very carefully exca-vated example proved to have had two luxurious periods of use, the rst dating to theend of the fourth century, and the second at the beginning of the fth century. Duringthe second half of the sixth, there were signs of impoverishment: the marble ooringwas replaced with bricks and earth-bonded walls were built. Towards 630, an earth-quake destroyed the house. The rooms were cleared of debris but no repairs were car-ried out. In the eighth century, the house was abandoned, stones robbed and the sitecovered with a thick layer of rubble into which a grave was dug (Karudas 1995). Asargued above, this sequence, no less than others from the same city, demonstrates adecline in the provision of elegant housing from the middle of the sixth century andthen, in the eighth century, a shrinking in the extent of occupation when previouslydomestic areas were used for burial: regular cemeteries have been identied at nineteenlocations inside the city, a circumstance which reects the process of general decline inurban standards as will be described below.

Apart from these urban residences, there were more modest, smaller houses with-out atria. Nicopolis and Amphipolis have provided good examples although poorerhousing has not yet been widely published with the exception of Nea Anchialos andStobi, both of which have produced a few such buildings. Even so, these structureswould seem to be relatively late in date, perhaps sixth century. It is particularly inter-esting for our purpose to trace the development of housing at Philippi, which is possi-ble thanks to the excellent studies by Gounaris and Velenis (see additional bibliographyin Sodini 1997, 460, n.107; Gounaris and Velenis 1996). In the two large insulae whichhave been excavated and the phases of development fully published, it is clear that,from the fth century, the houses merely served as workshops. There is also a thirdinsula within the other street-grid in the southern part of the city (Gounaris19952000). Built originally in the second century, it was probably in the third centurythat one house was furnished with a mosaic which depicted hippodrome races. After itwas abandoned in the second half of the fourth century, it was used, by the early fthcentury, as a glass workshop with a large furnace for smelting glass and other facilitiesfor making glass vessels. Thereafter, this building suffered the same fate as the otherexcavated examples. The appearance of workshops within houses, for which we havenumerous examples, especially at Delphi, happens alongside the ruralization of citiesand the appearance of mills, oil, and grape-pressing facilities within the fortied areaand especially in private houses. As a last example from Philippi, there is a building inthe south-west part of the city which the rst excavator (M. Feyel) believed to have beena baths complex. Subsequently, it was interpreted as a schola or farmers club by thesecond excavator (P. Aupert). It has also been the object of more recent excavations by



328 J.-P. Sodini

Provost (2002, 51218). The interpretation of this building is complicated by the dis-covery of a bath, evidently of signicance, since it occupied a complete wing of thecomplex. The excavator called it the House of the Cat and believed the wing oppositethe baths to have been the main apsidal-ended dining room (triclinium), opening ontoa peristyle court. The building lost its original function after a destruction whichoccurred towards the end of the fourth century, an event perhaps associated with theGothic invasions. Thereafter, during the rst half of the fth century, the rooms weresubdivided and used as workshops and for lime-burning. Its cistern collapsed in the sixth century and its sides were used as a foundation for a modest house, also in thesixth. The discovery of a coin of Phocas and Slav pottery suggests that occupationcontinued until the beginning of the seventh century.

The impoverishment of urban institutions follows a similar course in all cities, as iswell described by Popovic (1982) in his study on Sirmium. During the periods ofrestructuring and christianization of urban areas, episcopal quarters and churches werebuilt in prominent locations. This was probably the case at Nea Anchialos although thestreet-grid has not yet been established; at Byllis, where the layout of the Hellenisticinsulae has been identied and which seems still to have been respected in the lateRoman period; and especially at Philippi where the episcopal quarter encompassedmore than three insulae, and where Basilica B occupied two, Basilica A probably three,and the basilica by the modern museum probably another two. The abandonment ofstreets during these huge building projects reects the prestige which ecclesiasticalauthority acquired at this time but it did not really amount to a disruption of the civicorder. This happened later, when imsy houses were built in places formerly of civicimportance but which no longer served their original function, such as the theatres atStobi and Heraclea Lyncestis. It became a general feature of cities that the inhabitantswere reduced to living in small houses with earth-bonded walls; Heraclea Lyncestis,Stobi, and Butrint (Hodges et al. 1997, 223; Gilkes and Lako 2004, 170); or ones builtwith sun-dried brick, again at Butrint (Hodges et al. 1997, 231: end of the sixth tobeginning of the seventh century). The roads were often covered by earth and becamemeandering lanes. Then burials appear within the city itself as happened in Sirmium(Popovic 1982), and perhaps in Corinth. Unlike Ivison (1996), Sanders (2004) has ques-tioned the presence of graves inside the late walls which have been claimed for Nea Anchialos (Karagiorgou 2001), Durres (especially in the ampitheatre: Bowes andHoti 2003), Butrint (Bowden et al. 2002, 2078: after 550, in the ruins of the TriconchPalace), and at Byllis (S. Muaj pers. com.).

Ceramics as an economic indicator

Pottery could be of considerable help in understanding the economic conditions andtrade in these provinces. But, while pottery is regularly discussed in preliminary reports,


there is an unfortunate lack of full analysis. The only full publication is that on Stobi(Anderson-Stojanovic 1992), which is relevant to the eastern part of the via Egnatia.This has been helpfully amplied by the very recent publication of small-scale excava-tions at Scodra, close to the Adriatic coast (and the port of Olcinum), to which the cityis well connected by road, as well as by boat down the river Buna. There are also pre-liminary reports published by P. Reynolds (Bowden et al. 2002, 2217) which deal withsome excavations carried out inside the city of Butrint and elsewhere in the vicinity, towhich must be added the recent publication, of mainly sixth-century important assem-blages from the Triconch Palace (Reynolds 2004, 22469). But, even for these threesites, the quantity of pottery involved is quite limited because the excavations werethemselves on a small scale. What is more, there is still a lot of work to be done on sitessuch as Onchesmos, Byllis, Dyrrachium, and Lissus, on the main settlements along thevia Egnatia, and especially in Thessalonika. Still, Stobi is a particularly interesting case.Amongst the imported ne wares, this city exemplies an almost total dominance(Sodini 2000, 18791) of north-African imports (30.4 per cent of the total amount ofne ware) which peak at the end of the fourth century and beginning of the fth, butthen are totally lacking during the fth centurywhen the gap in imports is made upfor by Phocaean Fine Ware (forms 2 and 3)before again becoming dominant withthe arrival of late forms of African Red Slip Ware (ARS 107 and 108) and spatheia(Anderson-Stojanovic 1992, 97, nn. 7059, pl. 83), also of African origin. Just onesherd of Cypriot Red Slip (form 5) has been found, dating to the end of the fth/begin-ning of the sixth century. Although the workshops have not been located, this city wascertainly the place where Macedonian Grey Ware was produced. It constitutes 45.7per cent of all ne wares and was exported towards the Aegean coast, reachingThessalonika, Philippi, and Thasos, and sites to the north (Sandanski), to the west(Scodra: Hoxha 2003, 73, pl. 16, 1214; Zaradisht: Damko 1992) and to the south(Corinth). The types of amphorae found in houses and on the cathedral site includedLRA1 (a few), LRA2 and LRA3 (rare), LRA4 and spatheia which were quite common.The coarse wares are local, except for some forms of Aegean Cooking-Ware. Thepottery demonstrates a new prosperity in Stobi at the end of the fourth century whichcontinued until the beginning of the sixth century, with connections extending to theMediterranean but also involving contact with Moesia and Pannonia. This latterconnection is proved by the discovery of lead-glazed pottery. The site was completelyabandoned c.570.

At Scodra, Hoxha (2003) identied a similar abundance of African Fine Warebetween the end of the fourth century and the middle of the fth when it disappeareduntil the middle of the sixth century and was replaced by Phocaean Ware following thesame pattern established for Stobi. Only one sherd of Cypriot Fine Ware was found atScodra. Well attested from the end of the fourth century, Phocaean Ware becameincreasingly rare during the rst half of the fth before appearing again in large quan-tities from the middle of the fth until the middle of the sixth and continued to be



330 J.-P. Sodini

imported until the beginning of the seventh century. The north-African amphorae,found in fth-century contexts, represent 46 per cent of all amphorae in this period.LRA1 and LRA2 comprise, respectively, 9 per cent and 10 per cent of this total,although LRA4 types (3.9 per cent) and LRA3 (1.3 per cent) are poorly represented.The sixth century saw a relative decline in African imports (33 per cent) and theirreplacement by Cilician and Cypriote amphorae (LRA1, 14.28 per cent), others fromthe Aegean (LRA2, 14.28 per cent) and also Gaza amphorae (LRA4) which quicklyincreased to reach 13.26 per cent of all amphorae in this century, whereas imports ofamphorae from Asia Minor (LRA3) remained insignicant (2.04 per cent). Imports ofamphorae fall at the beginning of the seventh century, although the relative percentagesof different types show a revival of African imports (53.33 per cent), an increase inLRA1 (23.33 per cent), an unexpected fall off in imports of LRA2 (10 per cent), andan absence altogether of LRA4 amphorae. All of which points to a revival in links withAfrica and a reduction in contacts with the Near East, even though the amounts ofmaterial on which these conclusions are based are limited and therefore the gures forthe relative importance of the different amphorae should be treated with caution. Thesame trends for sigillata and amphorae seem to be true at Scampae (Cerova 2005).

The rst stages of research at Butrint suggest a slightly different situation than atScodra. In sixth-century levels, which belong to the reoccupation of the TriconchPalace, the rarity of African Fine Ware after 550 is notable (although in use during thefth to sixth centuries). It gives way to Phocaean Fine Ware, forms 3H and 10.Connected with this late change is the importation of only small quantities of Africanamphorae which were replaced by LRA2, amphorae of the Samos cistern type, and bagamphorae from Palestine (Beth Shean type), whereas quantities of LRA1 decline andthere was only a trickle of Italian imports. Durres follows the same pattern (Shkodra2005). This decline in western contacts suggests that, during this period, Butrint wasmore closely connected with the Byzantine exchange network. In the excavations on thesite of the Triconch Palace, there is no clear seventh-century level even if the burials inlate seventh-century amphorae have been found here and there on the site. This easternlink disappears in the seventh to eighth centuries in those limited deposits which showevidence, both for burials and occupation in the city and on the nearby site of Diaporit.Pottery from these levels is similar to the ceramics found in the Crypta Balbi and inCalabria, and is found along with only a few eastern products. These nds suggest thatin this period supplies had declined and links centred on the Adriatic and the adjacentcoastline of Italy. By now, economic connections are very different from the Aegeanside of the Greek peninsula where links with Constantinople continue along theAegean coasts as well as with Crete and Cyprus. Slav pottery has been found on sev-eral sites in Epirus Nova, Dardania, Macedonia, and Thessaly, although the onlyassemblage which has been published is that from the necropolis at Olympia, the old-est types dating to the second quarter of the seventh century (Vida and Vlling 2000).The metal nds, particularly the Slav bow-bulae, on the other hand, are more


common and, despite some controversy, rather better attested (Popovic 1975 and 1978;Teodor 1984).

Conclusion

After a recovery at the beginning of the fourth century and during the rst half of thefth, important changes took place from the end of the fth century. There were stillsome building projects which were undertaken, such as the macellum of Anastasius atDurres and the small baths at Byllis. Private houses were still being lavishly decoratedwith mosaics and nymphaea. But it was the churches which provided the greatestdemonstration of economic development. Certainly, the building works, and especiallythe reconstruction of walls, contributed to increased activity under Anastasius andJustinian, but this often involved a reduction in the urban area. There are few traces ofthe houses belonging to the lower classes, no doubt because they had been displaced tothe suburbs. Only the small number of the possessores, the successors of curiales of thefourth to fth centuries, lived in the city centres where power was vested in the bishopand the defensor who exercised control over both the urban area and its territory(chora). Thereafter, the urban landscape degenerated still further: a disorganized mul-titude of craftsmen were involved in the production of pottery, glass, and metal objectsor were engaged in numerous other activities such as dyeing, some of which leave notrace in the archaeological record. The quality of buildings declined still further, asexemplied by the sixth-century houses excavated at Heraclea and at Stobi, especiallythose in the theatre. Burials appear in the intramural area during this nal phase ofoccupation (Snively 1998). There then followed a period of rapid decline. It can be seenin the complete abandonment of sitesor at least the abandonment of those areaswhich have been excavated. This happened inside Byllis and in the coastal sites such asOnchesmos. However, a few settlements on the coast, or those with easy access to thesea, continued to exist until the reign of Heraclius, and as late as the reign of ConstansII, as at Scodra, or even until the end of the seventh century in the case of Butrint.Here, the neighbouring site of Diaporit was still occupied at the end of the eighth cen-tury. At Durres, the latest coin of the seventh century (up to the time of the recent exca-vations) was a coin of Constantine IV (66883). The city was then abandoned forone-and-a-half centuries (Hoti and Myrto 1991). The cities in the interior, apart fromScupi which was destroyed by a massive earthquake as early as 518, had a very difculttime at the end of the sixth century, a fate shared by Lychnidus (Ohrid), HeracleaLyncestis (destroyed c.586), Bargala (burnt down in the same year), Stobi (Mikulcic1986a), and Sandanski (Milcheva 2002). Destruction overtook the castra and fortlets inthe same region (Mikulcic 1986b). The cities, close to the Aegean coast, experienced aless abrupt end to occupation and, like Thasos, survived until the reign of Heraclius. AtAmphipolis, life continued until the reign of Constans II. Despite the description of the



332 J.-P. Sodini

attacks on Thessalonika, described in the Miracula Sancti Demetrii, the city was nevercaptured by the Avars and Slavs. Trade links, though considerably reduced, did survivein some few centres which continued to exist, for example, in Epirus (Corfu, Nicopolis,Butrint) or in Macedonia (Thessalonika). Even so, the countryside lacked security andagricultural production was often in the hands of peoples who were commuting froma half-nomadic existence to a fully sedentary existence. The only other source of foodwas market-gardening carried out within the protection of the cities defences.Although the supply of foodstuffs was unpredictable, it would seem to have been suf-cient for what was, by then, a much-reduced urban population. It would be illuminat-ing to know the date of the inscription from Amphipolis which perhaps refers to theinvading stream of barbarians. The text beseeches God to save the city: Christ ourGod, save and relieve this city as well (Bakirtzis 1996). This lament recalls thebarbarian storm of the barbarian eets, in a mosaic inscription in the Church ofSt Demetrios at Thessalonika dating c.630 (Spieser 1973, 1556). Such sentiments are equally apparent at Sirmium (Brunsmid 1893) where inscriptions record how theinhabitants turned to God, seeking protection from the Avars c.5802.

Note. Translated from French by A. G. Poulter.

References

ADAM-VELENI, P. 2001: Aaia A Heaigy, Thessalonika.AMORE, M. G., BEJKO, L., CEROVA, Y. and GJIPALI, I. 2001: The Via Egnatia (Albania) Project

and the bridge at Topias, JRA 14, 3819.ANDERSON-STOJANOVIC, V. R. 1992: Stobi: the Hellenistic and Roman pottery, Princeton.ANDREWS, R., BOWDEN, W., GILKES, O. and MARTIN, S. 2004: Late antique and medieval

fortications, in Hodges et al. (eds), 12832.AVRAMEA, A. 1997: Le Ploponnse du IVe au VIIe sicle, Paris, Byzantina Sorbonensia 15.AVRAMEA, A. 2002: Land and sea communications, fourthfteenth centuries, in A. E. Laou (ed.),

The economic history of Byzantium, Dumbarton Oaks Series, Washington.BACE, A. 1976 : Fortikimet e antikitetit t von n vendin tone, Monumentet 11, 4574.BAKIRTZIS, Ch. 1996: aag agy exy, PraktAE, 22941.BONA, I. 2002: Les Huns. Le grand empire barbare dEurope, IVeVe sicles, Paris.BOWDEN, W., HODGES, R. and LAKO, K. 2002: Roman and late-antique Butrint: excavations and

survey 20002001, JRA 15, 199229.BOWES, K. and HOTI, A. 2003: The Durres amphitheatre and its afterlives, JRA 16, 38094.BOYD, M. and PROVOST, S. 2001: Application de la prospection gophysique la topographie

urbaine, BCH 125, 453521.BRUNSMID, J. 1893: Eine griechische Ziegelinschrift aus Sirmium, Eranos Vindobonensis, A. Hlder,

Vienna, 3313.ANO, I. 1991: Zbulime t reja n Rexhepaj t Vlors, Iliria 21, 25963.CEKA, N. and PAPAJANI L. 1972: Nymfeu dhe termet e stacionit Ad Quintum, Monumentet 4,

2957.


CEROVA, Y. 2005: Qeramik nga Castrum Scampis (shek. IIllimi I shek. VII), Candavia 2,147204.

CROW, J. 2001: Fortications and urbanism in late antiquity: Thessaloniki and other eastern cities:in L. Lavan (ed.), Recent research in late-antique urbanism, JRA Suppl. Ser. 42 , 89105.

CURTA, F. 2001: The making of the Slavs. History and archaeology of the lower Danube region,c.500700, Cambridge.

DAMKO, P. 1992: Qeramika T.S. grise n Zaradisht, Iliria 22, 31318.DUNN, A. 1997: Stages in the transition from the late antique to the middle Byzantine urban center in

S. Macedonia and S. Thrace, in Aa N. G. L. Hammond, Thessalonika (eds) 13751.DUNN, A. 1998: Heraclius reconstruction of cities and their sixth-century Balkan antecedents; in N.

Cambi and E. Marin (eds), Acta XIII, CIAC Split-Porec 1994, Vatican-Split 2 795806.DUNN, A. 2002: Was there a militarisation of the southern Balkans during late antiquity?, in

P. Freeman, J. Bennett, S. T. Fiema and B. Hoffmann (eds), Limes Congress XVIII Amman,London, 2, 70511.

DUVAL, N. and POPOVIC, V. 1984: Urbanisme et topographie chrtienne dans les provinces sepen-trionales de lIllyricum, in Actes du Xe CIAC Thessalonique 1980, Citt del Vaticano-Thessalonique 1984, 54179.

FEISSEL, D. 1983: Recueil des inscriptions chrtiennes de Macdoine du IIIe au VIe sicle, BCH,Suppl. 8.

FEISSEL, D. 1988: Larchitecte Viktrinos et les fortications de Justinien dans les provinces balka-niques, BSNAF, 13646.

FEISSEL, D. 1995: Bulletin Epigraphique (inscriptions chrtiennes et Byzantines), REG 108, 5668,n.720.

FEISSEL, D. 2000: Les dices de Justinien au tmoignage de Procope et de lpigraphie, AntiquitTardive 8, 81104.

GILKES, O. and LAKO, K. 2004: Excavations at the Triconch Palace, in Hodges et al., 15175.GOUNARIS, G. I. 19952000: Paegag aaagx 19971999, Egnatia 5, 32356.GOUNARIS, G. I. and VELENIS G. 1996: Paglajg aaag x, 19981996,

AEMTh 10B, 715731.GREGORY, T. E. 1987: The early Byzantine fortications of Nikopolis in comparative perspective:

in E. Chrysos (ed.), Nicopolis I, Actes du Ier Congrs int. sur Nicopolis 1984, Prvza, 25361.GREGORY, T. E. 1993: Isthmia V: the hexamilion and the fortress, American School of Classical

Studies at Athens, Princeton.GREGORY, T. E. 2000: Procopius on Greece, Antiquit Tardive 8, 10514.GUTTERIDGE, A. and HOTI, A. 2003: The walled town of Dyrrachium (Durres) new light on the

early defences, JRA 16, 36779.GUTTERIDGE, A., HOTI, A. and HURST, H. 2001: The walled town of Dyrrachium (Durres): set-

tlements and dynamics, JRA 14, 390411.HALDON J. 1999: Warfare, state and society in the Byzantine World 5651204, London.HAMMOND, N. G. L 1974: Western part of the via Egnatia, JRS 64, 18594.HEATHER, P. 1996: The Goths, Oxford.HELLENKEMPER, H.1987: Die byzantinische Stadtmauer von Nikopolis in Epeiros. Ein kaiser-

licher Bauauftrag des 5. oder 6. Jahrhunderts?, in E. Chrysos (ed.), Nicopolis I, Actes du IerCongrs Int. sur Nicopolis 1984, Prvza, 243251.

HODGES, R, SARACI, G,. BOWDEN, W., CHILES, P., LAKO, K., LANE, A., MARTIN, S.,MITCHELL, J., MORELAND, J., OHARA, S., PLUCIENNIK, M. AND WATSON, L. 1997:Late-antique and Byzantine Butrint: interim report on the port and its hinterland, JRA 10,20734.



334 J.-P. Sodini

HODGES, R., BOWDEN W. and LAKO, K. 2004: Byzantine Butrint. Excavations and surveys199499, Oxford.

HOTI, A. and MYRTO, H. 1991: Monedha perandorake bizantine nga Durrsi, Iliria 21, 91117.HOXHA, G., 2003: Scodra dhe Praevalis n Antikitetin e Von, Shkder.IVISON, E. A. 1996: Burial and urbanism at late antique and early Byzantine Corinth (c.AD

400700), in N. Christie and S. T. Loseby (eds), Towns in Transition, Aldershot, 99125.KALKAN, H. and SAHIN, S. 1994: Epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Istanbul, Epigraphica Anatolica

23, 14455.KARAGIORGOU, O. 2001: Demetrias and Thebes: the fortunes and misfortunes of two Thessalian

port cities in late antiquity, in L. Lavan (ed.), Recent research in late-antique urbanism, JRA Suppl.Ser. 42, 183215.

KARAISKAJ, G. 1972: Te dhna tr reja pr datimin e kalas se Elbasanit, Monumentet 3,14757.

KARAISKAJ, G. 1998: Die militrische Architektur vom 6 Jh. bis zum Anfang des 7. Jh, in Albanien.Die Neuerungen des 6 Jh, N. Cambi and E. Marin (eds), Acta XIII CIAC Split-Porec 1994,Vatican-Split, 2, 86774.

KARUDAS, N. 1995: Aaaug e ed g d Acay Ray, 75.AEMTh 9, 25165KARUDAS, N. 1996: Paaaey ey e g Heag, AEMTh 10B,

57185.KARUDAS,N. 1999 : Aaauey d Ca, AEMTh 13, 24958.KAZANSKI, M. 1999a: Les Goths (IerVIIe aprs J.-C.), Paris.KAZANSKI, M. 1999b: Les Slaves. Les origines, Ier-VIIe sicle aprs J.-C, Paris.KODER, J. 1978: Zur Frage der slavischen Siedlungsgebiete im mittelalterlichen Griechenland, ByzZ

71, 31531.LAKO, K. 1984: Kshtjella e Onhezmit, Iliria 14, 155205.LEMERLE, P. 1954: Invasions et migrations dans les Balkans, Revue Historique 211, 265308, repris

in Essais sur le Monde byzantin, London.LEMERLE, P. 197981: Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de saint Dmtrius I (text), II (com-

mentary), Paris, CNRS.McCORMICK, M. 2001: Origins of the European Economy, Cambridge.MALINGOUDIS, Ph. 1988: Ra g Leaxg` Eada, Thessalonika, Bibliothque des Etudes

Slaves 1.MARKI, E. 1997: Reaaa a y amarjauey sgy 9gy Euoqeiay Btfamsimxm Rpotdxm,

AEMTh 10A, 239258.MARKI, E. 2001: Jisy, lia pokg jarsqo sgy bfagy peqiueqeiay, Herrakomijg.MARTIN, S. 2004: The topography of Butrint, in Hodges et al., Chapter 6.MENTZOS , A. 2002: A sketch of the history of late Roman Dion: in the roman and late roman city,

Int. Conference Veliko Turnovo 2630 July 2000, Soa, 33341.METCALF, D. M. 1991: Avar and Slav invasions into the Balkan peninsula (c.575625): the nature

of the numismatic evidence, JRA 4, 14048.MIKULCIC, I. 1974: ber die Grsse der sptantike Stdte in [S. R.] Makedonien, Ziva Antika 24,

191212.MIKULCIC, I. 1982: Der Untergang der Palste im sptantiken Stobi, in Palast und Htte,

Tagungsbeitrge eines Symposiums der A. von Humbolt-Stiftung, Berlin, 1979, 53544.MIKULCIC, I. 1986a: Frhchristlicher Kirchenbau in der S. R. Makedonien, CARB 33, 22151.MIKULCIC, I. 1986b: Sptantike Fortikationen der S. R. Makedonien, CARB 33, 25377.


MIKULCIC, I. 1999: Antike Stdte in der Republik Makedonien, Skopje.MILCHEVA, A. 2002: Sveti VrachSandanski. in R. Ivanov (ed.), Roman and early Byzantine cities

in Bulgaria, vol. I, Soa, 26994.MIRAJ, F. 1980: Pr n interprentim t ri t monogrameve n tullat e murit rrethues t Durrsit,

Monumentet 20, 1279.MORRISSON, C., POPOVIC V., IVANISEVIC, V. 2006: Les Trsors montaires byzantins des

Balkans et dAsie Mineure, Ralits Byzantines 13, Paris.MUAJ, S. 2002: Byllis (Albanie), introduction. BCH 126, 65961.MUAJ, S. 1990: Sistemi fortikues i qytetit t Bylisit n antikitetin e von, Iliria 20, 169200.MULLER, C. 1851: Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum IV, Paris.NALLBANI, E. 2003: Une nouvelle synagogue de lantiquit (tardive ?) identie Saranda, Hortus

Artium Medievalium 9, 16772.PAPAZOGLOU F. 1988: Les villes de Macdoine lpoque romaine, Paris, Suppl. BCH 16.PIETRI, C. 1984: La gographie de lIllyricum ecclsiastique et ses relations avec lglise de Rome, in

Villes et peuplement dans lIllyricum protobyzantin, Rome, Coll. Ecole Francaise de Rome 77,2162.

POPOVIC, V. 1975: Les tmoins archologiques des invasions avaro-slaves dans lIllyricum byzantin,MEFRA 87, 445504.

POPOVIC, V.1978: La descente des Koutrigours, des Slaves et des Avars vers la mer Ege: letmoignage de larchologie, CRAI, 596648.

POPOVIC, V.1982: Desintegration und Ruralisation des Stadt im Ost-Illyricum vom 5. bis 7. Jhdt n.Chr, in Palast und Htte, Tagungsbeitrge eines Symposiums der A. von Humbolt-Stiftung Berlin,1979, Mayence, 54566.

POPOVIC, V. 1984: Byzantins, Slaves et autochtones dans les provinces de Prvalitaine et NouvelleEpire, in Villes et peuplement dans lIllyricum protobyzantin, Rome, Coll. Ecole Franaise de Rome77.

POULTER, A. G. 1998: Field survey at Louloudies: a new late Roman fortication in the Pieria, BSA93, 463511.

PROVOST, S. 2001: City wall and urban area in Macedonia: the case of Philippi, in Recent researchin late-antique urbanism, L. Lavan (ed.) JRA Suppl. Ser. 42, 12335.

PROVOST, S. 2002: Philippes, BCH 126, 51218.PROVOST, S. and BOYD, M. 2002: Application de la prospection gophysique la topographie

urbaine II. Philippes, les quartiers ouest, BCH 126, 43188.REY, L. 1925: Les remparts de Durazzo, Albania 1, 3348.REYNOLDS, P. 2004: The Roman pottery from the Triconch Palace, in Hodges et al., 22469.ROSSER, J. 2001: Evidence for a Justinianic garrison behind Thermopylae at the Dhema Pass, in

J. Herrin, M. Mullett, and C. Otten-Froux, (ed.), Mosaic, Festschrift for A. H. S. Megaw, London,The British School at Athens Studies 8, 3342.

SANDERS, G. D. R. 2004: Problems in interpreting rural and urban settlement in southern Greece,AD 365700, in N. Christie (ed.), Landscape of change, Aldershot, 16393.

SARADI, H. 1998: Aspects of early Byzantine urbanism in Albania, in The Mediaeval Albanians,Athens, Institute for Byzantine Research Int. Symposium 5, 81129.

SHKODRA, B. 2005: Kontekste me qeramik t shek. VI nga Macellum-Forum, Durrs (6th centuryAD Pottery Contexts from the Macellum-Forum at Durrs), Candavia 2, 20538.

SNIVELY, C. S. 1998: Intramural burial in the cities of the late antique Diocese of Macedoine, in N.Cambi et E. Marin (eds), Acta XIII CIAC Split-Porec 1994, VaticanSplit, 2, 4918.



336 J.-P. Sodini

SODINI, J.-P. 1984: Lhabitat urbain en Grce la veille des invasions, in Villes et peuplement danslIllyricum protobyzantin, Rome, Coll. Ecole Franaise de Rome 77, 34197.

SODINI, J.-P. 1995: La ville de Thasos lpoque protobyzantine; les lacunes de la topographie, inCongrs international La Macdoine Byzantine, Thessalonika, Oct 1992, Thessalonika,Bibliothque Macdonienne no. 82, 27994.

SODINI, J.-P. 1997: Habitat de lAntiquit Tardive 2, Topoi 7, 435577.SODINI, J.-P. 2000: Productions et changes dans le monde protobyzantin (IVeVIIe s.): le cas de la

cramique, in K. Belke, F. Hild and P. Soustal (eds), Byzanz als Raum, Vienna, VerffentlichungenTIB 7, 181208.

SPIESER, J.-M. 1973: Les inscriptions de Thessalonique, in Travaux et Mmoires 5, 14580.SPIESER,J.-M. 1984a: Thessalonique et ses monuments du IVe au VIe sicle, Paris, BEFAR 254.SPIESER, J.-M. 1984b: La ville en Grce du IIIe au VIIe sicle, in Villes et peuplement dans lIllyricum

protobyzantin, Rome, Coll. Ecole Franaise de Rome 77, 31540.SPIESER, J.-M. 1999: Les remparts de Thessalonique. A propos dun livre rcent, Byzantino-Slavica

60, 55774.STEPHANIDOU-TIVERIOU, Th. 1988: Aaag Diot, A, G Oxg, Thessalonika.TEODOR, Dan G. 1984: Origines et voies de pntration des Slaves au sud du Bas-Danube, in Villes

et peuplement dans lIllyricum protobyzantin, Rome, Coll. Ecole Francaise de Rome 77, 6384.THEOCHARIDOU, K. 1994: Rlbokg rsgm lekesg sgy pqxilgy rsoqiay sxm amasokijxm seivxm

Herrakomijgy, in Hliala g lmglg sgy Karjaqimay Lpoa, Athens, Muse Benaki,30916.

TSAFRIR, Y. and FOERSTER, G. 1997: Urbanism at Scythopolis-Bet Shean in the fourth toseventh centuries, DOP 51, 85146.

TSOURIS, C. 2002: Meapokiy- Vqirsotpokiy- Jabaka, Arch. Delt. 53, 1, 387554 (with summaryin English).

VELENIS, G. 1998: Sa Seivg sgy Herrakomijgy, Thessalonika.VIDA, T. and VLLING, Th. 2000: Das slawische Brandgrberfeld von Olympia, Rahden,

Archologie in Eurasien 9.VICKERS, M. 1973: Fifth-century brickstamps from Thessaloniki, BSA 68, 28594.WISEMAN, J. 1973: Stobi: A guide to the excavations, Belgrade.WISEMAN, J. 1984: The city in Macedonia Secunda, in Villes et peuplement dans lIllyricum proto-

byzantin, Rome, Coll. Ecole Franaise de Rome 77, 289313.ZHEKU, K. 1972: Zbulime epigrake n muret rrthuese t Kalas s Durrsit, Monumentet 3, 3546.


Documents

Transformation of Cities