Late Roman Italy: imperium to regnum

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]

How often do you think about the Roman Empire? Although this trend swept social media last year with amusing results, regardless of how often people think about the Roman Empire, the heydays of the Republic or the early Principate more often come to mind.  Conversely, late antique Rome enters popular discourse with less frequency. Similarly in scientific research, the span between the reign Trajan and Charlemagne’s coronation in Rome more than 650 years later remains underexplored. This observation does not only concern the caput mundi Rome. It also applies to its hinterland, the Apennine Peninsula of Late Antiquity. The volume edited by Jeroen Wijnendaele, here under review, aims to remedy this shortcoming by focussing on late antique Italy. To this end, Wijnendaele has brought together some of the leading experts on late antiquity, who deal with the political, institutional, socio-economic, religious and cultural developments in seventeen detailed essays.

In a concise introduction, the editor explains that previous research has mainly adopted geographically or chronologically limited perspectives, focussing either only on the city of Rome or on the Ostrogothic period. The volume therefore aims to fill a desideratum, by drawing on a vast array of literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological sources. Wijnendaele identifies three phases in the development of late Roman Italy. In the first period, that of the so-called “imperial crisis” and the tetrarchy, the spatial connection between the emperor and Italy was initially abolished, leading to the end of Italy’s privileged status and its ‘provincialisation’ (285-395). In the fourth century, however, attempts were made to keep Italy under special imperial protection and care, which led to a “cannibalisation” of resources and the loss of other important provinces such as Britain, Gaul and Northern Africa (395-476). Eventually, an autonomous kingdom emerged under Ostrogothic rule, obliged to maintain itself in a complex Mediterranean geopolitical system in the dawn of the Middle Ages (476-535).

The first part, entitled ‘Political Developments’, follows this chronological outline. In his contribution, Umberto Roberto focusses on the imperial crisis and the tetrarchy. According to the principle ‘Rome Is Where the Emperor Is’ (p. 17), the permanent distance of the imperial court from Italy from the middle of the 4th century onwards required the implementation of new administrative units. This resulted in the “vision of a bipolar region” (p. 19) of “two Italies” (Italia Annonaria and Italia Suburbicaria), which had an impact far beyond antiquity and led to a new polarisation with the establishment of Milan as imperial residence from the tetrarchic period onwards. This approach is certainly stimulating, even if the assumption of competing cultural identities on the sole base of the Panegyrici is perhaps a little too far-reaching. Noel Lenski’s essay aims to substantiate these considerations with statistics based on epigraphic and legal sources. Lenski demonstrates that the city of Rome’s loss of importance cannot be equated with the disappearance of the Italic senatorial aristocracy. As hinted at by prosopographical evidence, it can be observed that the new administrative structures had to offer great political and economic potentials to senatorial individuals, though it varied from region to region. Citing Fergus Millar’s famous dictum “that Italy under the empire had no history” of its own (Millar 1986, p. 295), Mark Humphries sets out to prove the opposite. In continuation of more recent research which no longer regard the era of the Valentinian-Theodosian child emperors as a period of pure decline, Humphries also points out innovative strategies of the imperial court remaining in northern Italy to tackle military, logistical and administrative problems. Especially, the well-preserved legal sources of the often neglected reign of Valentinian III reflect a variety of these approaches. Jeroen Wijnendaele also deals with an extremely complex period in his essay, focussing on the short-lived imperial reigns after 455. During this period, the remaining Roman army in particular exercised a monopoly on state power, which led to numerous and well-known violent conflicts. According to Wijnendaele, only Odoacer was able to put an end to this escalating violence with the de facto abolition of the offices of emperor and magister militum, as he recognised that Italy now had to produce and control its own resources to stabilise the situation after the remaining Western provinces had broken away – creating the conditions for an autonomous Ostrogothic regnum.

The second part of the volume leaves the chronological path behind and focuses on relevant actors and institutions in late antique Italy. Danielle Slootjes’ contribution explores the emergence of the dioecesis Italiciana and subordinate provincial structures in Italy, which brought an end to the relative autonomy the Italic cities had been experiencing since the days of the Republic, despite the already existing administrative and legal “boundary awareness” (p. 113). Slootjes nevertheless notes a rapid acceptance of the new structures thanks to the careful recruitment of the regional administrative bureaucrats, and the advantages the presence of governors and their direct access to the imperial administration offered. Stuart McCunn also raises the question of Italy’s local administration functioning. He draws attention to the fact that the influential image of the collapse of Roman statehood in late antiquity often neglects the fact urban Roman institutions in Italy continued to function and, in most cases, even to flourish. The administrative practices of the curiales, remained unchanged and intact. McCunn acknowledges the local elites’ resilience and skill in combating rival groups and marginalising their means of influence. Philip Rance closes the second part by examining the military forces operating in Italy. He emphasises the paradigm shift that transformed Italy from relative ‘demilitarisation’ during most of the 4th century to an area permanently exposed to military presence after 395.  In addition, the common practice of recruiting foreign foederati and bucellarii lead to the fact, that there was no self-identification of the army in the sense of an ‘exercitus Italiae’ (p. 190) in comparison to other Roman regions.

After these fundamental developments have been dealt with, the third part provides four individual studies on questions of economic, social and environmental history. Ulrika Vihervalli and Victoria Leonard make the start and deal with gender-based violence against elite women in late antiquity, which, in contrast to the often discussed influential position of imperial women, has received less attention so far. The essay follows recent trends in academia and invites further exploration of topics such as forced marriage and women’s experiences of violence – eventually, however, the focus returns to imperial women, who are (reasonably) well documented in the source material, while the rest of the female population unfortunately remains a ‘silent social group’. In his contribution, Niels Arends also sets out to turn the economic-historical spotlight away from the well-documented large landowners and instead focus on rural “smallholders” (liberi plebei). Arends warns emphatically against over-generalisation and simplifications that postulate a strong asymmetry of the different groups throughout the whole late antiquity. Instead, he emphasises the great heterogeneity of the smallholders and the chronologically and geographically varying conditions. He paints a picture of the rural population as acting prudently using the given resources and their knowledge to their advantage. Edward Schoolman’s paper offers an analysis of the geographical and natural conditions of late antique Italy. The author interprets the data as an explanation for the population’s particular resilience to crises, but also combines this with an appeal to make greater use of archaeobotanical methods in the future and to consider their findings together with literary sources. At the end of the section, Neil Christie addresses urban societies. Based on the premise of a largely flourishing Italic urbanity up to the time of Theodoric, he explores the question of how the enormous political and social upheavals affected the cities and caused the emergence of ‘post-classical cityscapes’. The unprecedented military threat to Italy led to the construction of new fortifications, often at the expense of representative buildings that were no longer needed. Confident bishops were able to change the cityscape with the construction of church buildings in the long run.

Bishops are also the topic of Bronwen Neil’s paper with which commences the fourth section of the book dedicated to religious change. As Neil clearly states, the period between 250 and 490 was the “formative period for the episcopate”.  During this time churchmen were able to expand their power in the urban area and beyond. The role of the bishops during the 3rd century, who primarily claimed liturgical leadership and had to resolve theological disputes, differed significantly from that of their successors in the 4th century. The clergymen were initially able to benefit from the privileges granted by the emperors and later from their absence in the West, gradually claiming secular power – a situation that “annoyed everybody but the city of Rome” (p. 339), but was soon to be challenged by the appearance of the Ostrogoths. In his article, Samuel Cohen looks at violent disputes over the appointment of bishops in the 4th and 5th century. What has often been treated as spontaneous acts of violence by an unorganised ‘mob’, Cohen assesses instead as planned action by various factions, which is also supported by the militarily charged language of the sources. In her contribution, Jessica Van’t Westeinde argues against the often-used dichotomy between Christianity, which was favoured by the ‘Constantinian turn’, and the marginalised ‘religious minorities’. Using the example of Judaism in late antique Italy, she endeavours to demonstrate that it continued to have a firm place in urban communities and, in the sense of an ‘urban religion’ (p. 385), was involved in diverse, dynamic processes of exchange with Christian and pagan individuals.

The last three contributions deal with special genres of sources. Miriam Hay takes a closer look at Christian sarcophagi – sources that have not received enough attention apart from urban Roman contexts. Despite the awareness of tradition among late antique artists, Hay identifies interesting trends in the choice of motifs and artistic realisation in various regions. Adrastos Omissi deals with a typical late antique text genre: Latin panegyric. Although Italy together with the city of Rome continued to be the symbolic centre of the empire, there are only a few references to the region in 4^th century panegyrici. This changed abruptly after 395, when the imperial court permanently resided in Milan and Ravenna and Italy became a centre of military activity. As a text genre characterised by many tropes and stylistic guidelines, an event had to cross, as Omissi puts it, a relatively high “threshold of political importance” (p. 472) in order to be mentioned. Panegyrici therefore often allude to Italy in the context of exempla, which is why their value for historical or geographical questions can be considered as rather low. Peter Van Nuffelen comes to a different conclusion for late antique historiography: Italy already had been regarded with a primacy of honour in earlier literature, but this was always overshadowed by Rome as caput mundi. As the radiance of the city waned in late antiquity, a spatial conception of Italy became a possibility, although its transformation into a rather peripheric region could not be stopped.

In a concise epilogue, Giusto Traina summarises the most important findings of the volume. The ‘incomplete identity’ (Giardina, 1986) of Italy, which has been postulated a long time ago, can be better understood through the numerous individual studies. The loss of Rome’s overshadowing supremacy led to an increased spatial visibility of Italy. However its administrative, social and religious problems increased and often fostered violent conflicts. As Peter van Nuffelen states: “In the late antique drama, Italy is an extra, always present in the background, but rarely graced with a line to utter” (p. 475). One can only agree with Traina that the chosen framework of the book could have been easily extended from the time of Commodus to the 6th century with important literary works by Procopius and Cassiodorus. The essays collected in this volume make a fine read and offer a first-class example of how much can be extracted from aspects that have long been neglected. The result is an extremely dense and groundbreaking kaleidoscope that makes it easy to disregard minor weaknesses in the handling of its hardcover version (e.g. the rather small text size and not always outstanding print quality).

Authors and Titles

Introduction: Italy and its place in the Roman Empire of Late Antiquity – Jeroen W. P. Wijnendaele

PART I: Political Developments

1. Italy from the Crisis of the Third Century to Tetrarchy – Umberto Roberto
2. New Paths to Power: The Bipartite Division of Italy and Its Realignment of Society and Economy in the Fourth Century – Noel Lenski
3. Court, Crises and Response: Italy from Gratian to Valentinian III – Mark Humphries
4. The Final Western Emperors, Odoacer and Late Roman Italy’s Resilience – Jeroen W. P. Wijnendaele

PART II: Institutions

5. Administering Late Roman Italy: Geographical Changes and the Appearance of Governors – Daniëlle Slootjes
6. How the West Was Run: Local Government in Late Roman Italy – Stuart McCunn
7. Armed Forces in the Late Roman Italy – Philip Rance

PART III: Society, Economy and Environment

8. Elite Women and Gender-Based Violence in Late Roman Italy – Ulrika Vihenvalli/Victoria Leonard
9. Land of the Free? Considering Smallholders and Economic Agency in Late Antique Italy – Niels P. Arends
10. The Human Landscape and Paleoecology of Late Roman Italy – Edward M. Schoolman
11. Cities and Urban Life in Late Roman Italy: Transformations of the Old, Impositions of the New – Neil Christie

PART IV: Religion

12. From Local Authority to Episcopal Power: The Changing Roles of Roman and Italian Bishops – Bronwen Neil
13. Violence and Episcopal Elections in Late Antique Rome, AD 300-500 – Samuel Cohen
14. Religious Minorities in Late Roman Italy: Jewish City-Dwellers and Their Non-Jewish Neighbours – Jessica van’t Westeinde

PART V: Culture

15. Christian Sarcophagi in Late Roman Italy: Culture and Connection – Miriam A. Hay
16. Late Roman Italy in Latin Panegyric: From the Panegyrici Latini to Ennodius – Adrastos Omissi
17. Stepping Out of the Shadows: Italy in Late Antique Historiography – Peter van Nuffelen

Epilogue: Late Roman Italy – Paths Explored and Paths to Explore – Giusto Traina