[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]
The recent global pandemic, the looming tragedy of the climate emergency, and ubiquitous economic and political troubles have decisively contributed to steer a number of ancient historians and archaeologists towards understanding moments of ruptures, transformations, and radical changes in ancient societies. Discourses about consequences and adaptation of past communities in consequence of, and in response to, these moments of rupture have populated global academic libraries in the past decade.
Paolo Cimadomo and Dario Nappo’s edited book fits perfectly within this scholarly framework, by offering a wide array of studies focused alternately on socio-political transformation and phenomena of crisis, with a declared limited timeframe—from the third to the fifth centuries CE—which in lieu of narrowing down the general topic, creates a narrative scenario in which different agents can be fully analyzed and interpreted, and from several perspectives.
Thematically, the chapters are indeed diverse, from general comments on the so-called third-century crisis (Nappo) to Palmyra and its role in shaping the unique visual art of contemporary Southwest Asia (Sokolowski), and from late antique Britain (Sitaro) to the fall of the (western) Roman Empire as seen in fifteenth-century Italy (Marcone). Some of the chapters are engaging and well written (Mazzini, Cimadomo, Marcone), whereas others are more baroque in style, but with equally engaging discussions (Autiero, Oppedisano, Sokolowski, Di Franco and Laudonia). A final note before analyzing each contribution: the book suffers from a certain imbalance when it comes to the audience it is (or was?) intended for. Some chapters are in English (mostly from non-native speakers), while others are in Italian. This choice, I believe, will limit the appeal of the book, as well as its chances of being cited in broader academic contexts. This is, naturally, not a major flaw per se, but the result is a hybrid volume, which could perhaps have been avoided.
The book originates in a workshop held in Naples. It opens with an introduction by Paolo Cimadomo, in which the major underlying terms of the collection, crisis and globalization, are discussed as intrinsically connected in contemporary scholarly literature on the period under examination. Although one can certainly disagree on the use (and abuse) of these words (did the events they point to even take place in the first place?), it is important to stress that Cimadomo’s analysis rightly focuses more on the blank spaces than on the known picture. Transformation and change did indeed occur, on both a grand and smaller scale, but immediate and complex large-scale socio-political ruptures are hard to distinguish, and difficult to pin down on a global scale.
In the first contribution, Dario Nappo explores the so-called crisis of the third century CE, proposing a historical interpretation largely based on a Marxist approach, and particularly through a Gramscian view. His main assumption is that a crisis inevitably generates a before and an after, and that the specific moments between these two phases contain the seed for the transforming society, one that reacts to the impact, adjusts, and transforms once the rupture tension has eased.
Serena Autiero’s chapter builds upon a broad perspective in which several agents (Rome, Palmyra, Asia) are taken on the stage as actors of past globalization phenomena from the eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Moving away from outdated theoretical approaches (centre vs periphery; diffusion vs influence) the author positions several agents (cities, merchants, polities, geographical regions) at the intersection of long-trade communications (both literally and figuratively). Particularly, the city of Palmyra emerges as a critical cultural and social node in the vast network of agents and places that was southwest Asia in the early centuries of the modern era.
Enrico Foietta’s chapter on Hatra deals with the scanty and yet interesting evidence of a Roman presence in the sacred city of northern Iraq. Moving from the famous three Latin inscriptions, already discussed elsewhere by many scholars, including this reviewer, Foietta splendidly debates all the other archaeological data, from the Qasr Shimali complex (the most interesting evidence, in my opinion) to the numismatic records, from the fortification towers to the visual art of the Hatrene reliefs and statues. The author has massive experience when it comes to the study of Hatra, and I believe that his interpretation of Qasr Shimali as the headquarters of the Roman commander(s) of troops in Hatra is extremely convincing. Due to its position along the city walls and its internal spatial organization, the large building in the northern part of the city had more chances to host Roman soldiers than the one proposed by Jakubiak (pp. 93-94).[1] The architectural reconfiguration of the city walls, with ashlar blocks in place of mudbricks, might also speak for a (semi)direct involvement of Roman troops in the making.
Luca Mazzini focuses on the presence of Macedonian symbols on coins from several cities in Lydia and Phrygia during the third century CE. Mazzini rightly states that the willingness of the civic councils of cities in Asia Minor to proudly and publicly display Macedonian labels might be connected to the desire of expressing Greekness, in a moment in which the Roman world—heir of the Greek past—was confronting the Sasanians, who originated from the same heartland as the Persians, whose extended territory was conquered by the most famous Macedonian of all, Alexander the Great. All the civic communities of Asia Minor were therefore legitimately exploiting the memory of Alexander to build a narrative in which their tight relation to Macedonia, included in the Delphic Amphictyony by Hadrian, and to Rome, is expressed as opposed to the Persians / Sasanians.
In the following chapter, Fabrizio Oppedisano investigates the role of the Roman senate, and its political autonomy, in late antiquity. The timeframe of his investigation is particularly wide, from Constantine to the mid-sixth century. If during the fourth century, the socio-political stabilization of the res publica was tied to an ongoing negotiation between the senators (widely defined, both for newcomers and clarissimi) and the emperor, both taking advantage of this pact (social relevance for the senators and control over the senatorial group for the emperor), this delicate balance progressively evinced a visible disparity. Already at the end of the fourth century, there seems to be evidence of a re-negotiation of the pact, with specific imperial edicts targeting the access to the senatorial privileges of relevant provincial citizens. Oppedisano then concludes with the analysis of the relationship senate-emperor at the time of the imperial-Gothic war in the sixth century. This event marks the end of senatorial autonomy, annihilated by Justinian’s invasion of Italy that cut the knot of institutional ties between the senate and the Ostrogothic monarchy. This relationship was, however, already altered due to of a series of decisions that enabled senators to live and operate far from Rome, with the natural and inevitable consequence of an unparalleled growth in local interests, thus creating a new social class whose focus was exclusively micro-regional.
Chapter 7, by Cimadomo, explores the supposedly large-scale impact of a devastating earthquake, and consequent tsunami, which likely took place in the central Mediterranean on July 21, 365. A destructive event is remembered by Libanius, with a certain degree of uncertainty when it comes to the exact date, and by Ammianus Marcellinus, more likely to refer to the earthquake here discussed. Along with the textual evidence, Cimadomo also discusses both geological records and archaeological data. The range of his investigation is broad: from Crete to the eastern coast of Sicily, and from Alexandria to Cyprus and the Levant. The author collects and accurately analyzes several instances of violent destruction as they have been recorded in multiple (geo)-archaeological and paleo-environmental contexts. Cimadomo’s conclusion is that we are not in the presence of a single, unprecedented earthquake and tsunami, but rather one should consider the possibility of multiple events, unluckily close in time, that might have contributed to a narrative of destruction—as reflected in the textual sources—and to the evidence of violent rupture(s) in the archaeological record.
While I do not fully agree with the interpretation of these events as connected to increasing fear, instilled by the Christian credo, that these were all punishments from above, I believe that this line of thought is worth exploring, perhaps with the aid of a more robust analysis of the literary evidence. This is, however, a plate for another dinner.
The fifth-century crisis appears under a different light in Sitaro’s contribution on the late-antique church of Britain and its connection with the Roman mainland. The desire of the Holy See to maintain a certain degree of power in the transforming religious landscape of Britain is evident, according to the author, in the agenda of prominent characters of the time such as Germanus of Auxerre and Prosper of Aquitania. Thanks to their intervention, the Roman Church managed to keep a firm control of the region, and in fact its peaceful co-existence with local churches (supported by Romano-Gallic polities) might have contributed to the establishment of specific political and social structures that would be reinforced, consolidated, and expanded in the following centuries.
A further contribution toward the re-evaluation of the fourth- and fifth-century crisis comes from the chapter by Samuel Azzopardi on the emergence of dower in the late antique Roman jurisprudential panorama. The appearance of the bride-to-groom marriage gift at the time of Diocletian indicates—according to Azzopardi—the willingness of the emperor, and his new army-derived ruling class to support a renewed culture of meritocracy.
Teresa Laudonia and Luca di Franco’s paper slightly differs from the rest, as it focuses on purely archaeological evidence retrieved from recent excavations carried out in the modern city of Sorrento, Surrentum in Latin, and specifically at the villa of Agrippa Postumo, a large and architecturally complex building that survived for centuries from the Augustan age to late antiquity. Transformation, adaptation, and community response(s) to political and urban modification are discussed in their contribution. Although the structure of this chapter seemingly jars with most of the contents, it nevertheless yields an interesting point of view on different topics (resistance, adaptation, re-use) that have been addressed elsewhere, and with alternate fortunes, in the book.
The following chapter, by Arnaldo Marcone, was wisely placed at the end of the book by the editors. Marcone passionately deals with the question of the fall of the (western) Roman empire as seen through the eyes of Italian Renaissance literates, scholars, and authors. From Leonardo Bruni to Biondo Flavio, the reflection Marcone takes on in his chapter brings the reader to reconsider the moments of decline in the final years of Rome almost as a preparatory scene for the stage of fifteenth-century vibrant Italy. Biondo’s interest for both ancient and contemporary Rome (and a diverse, perhaps also in the modern sense of the term, Italy) makes him a rather unique case within the context of Renaissance humanists and ancient-Rome aficionados of the early-modern peninsula.
The uniqueness, much to be praised, of the present volume resides in its successful attempt to draw data from several perspectives and sources, offering a comprehensive view of the troubled phase between the high imperial period and the final years of Rome’s dominion over the extended Mediterranean, and it has few parallels in recent academic literature. The diversity of themes, geographic ranges, and approaches contribute to make a complete book, in which several phenomena of transformation, resistance, and adaptation are thoroughly discussed and well analyzed with the critical support of textual evidence, visual arts, and archaeology. While the editors present the book as an oeuvre that deals with ideas of globalization in the ancient world during moments of intense crises, quiescence, and socio-political (and cultural) acceleration, I also feel that an interesting glocal perspective is pleasantly present, and it was much enjoyed by this author throughout the whole reading.
Authors and Titles
Paolo Cimadomo. Introduction
Dario Nappo. Per una interpretazione critica della crisi del III secolo
Serena Autiero. Can crisis be global? From the fringes of the Empire to the rest of the world
Łukasz Sokołowski. Alternative Rome on the periphery and self-portrait of Syrians throughout the third century: fragmented visual report
Enrico Foietta. The Romans at Hatra: A reassessment through the archaeological, epigraphical and historical evidence
Luca Mazzini. Local reactions to a global threat? The sense of Greekness in the province of Asia during the “Persian wars” of the third century CE
Fabrizio Oppedisano. L’autonomia del senato nella res publica tardoantica
Paolo Cimadomo. 21 luglio 365: una crisi globale?
Donato Sitaro. Breaking the Habit: esiti inaspettati della crisi di V secolo nei rapporti tra Britannia e Continente
Samuel Azzopardi. The Emergence of Dower in Late Antique Roman Law
Luca Di Franco, Teresa Laudonia. La città di Surrentum tra medio impero e tardo-antico: dal contesto territoriale alla fase di rifunzionalizzazione e abbandono della villa di Agrippa Postumo
Arnaldo Marcone. Tra contingenza politica e riflessione storiografica: la caduta dell’Impero Romano nel primo Umanesimo
Notes
[1] Jakubiak. J. (2015), “The Last Days of Hatra: The Story Behind the City’s Downfall”, in Tomas, A. (ed.), Ad Fines Imperii Romani. Studia Thaddeo Sarnowski septuagenario ab amicis, collegis discipulisque dedicata, Warsaw, 469-475.