Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire

A Systematic Survey of Subsistence Crises and Epidemics

Dionysios Ch. Stathakopoulos

• Verlag: Routledge
• Jahr: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351937030
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: History
• Thema: World History

Famine and Pestilence in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Empire presents the first analytical account in English of the history of subsistence crises and epidemic diseases in Late Antiquity. Based on a catalogue of all such events in the East Roman/Byzantine empire between 284 and 750, it gives an authoritative analysis of the causes, effects and internal mechanisms of these crises and incorporates modern medical and physiological data on epidemics and famines. Its interest is both in the history of medicine and the history of Late Antiquity, especially its social and demographic aspects. Stathakopoulos develops models of crises that apply not only to the society of the late Roman and early Byzantine world, but also to early modern and even contemporary societies in Africa or Asia. This study is therefore both a work of reference for information on particular events (e.g. the 6th-century Justinianic plague) and a comprehensive analysis of subsistence crises and epidemics as agents of historical causation. As such it makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate on Late Antiquity, bringing a fresh perspective to comment on the characteristic features that shaped this period and differentiate it from Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

PART I
TYPOLOGY OF CRISES

Chapter 1

The Late Roman and Early Byzantine
Empire

Late Antiquity was a period characterized by movement. The Roman Empire was still the most powerful state encircling the Mediterranean, the mare nostrum, but after some two centuries of stability and prosperity after Augustus it was thrust into a prolonged crisis in the third century.¹ Some 26 emperors, elevated to power chiefly by the army, succeeded one another in half a century characterized by anarchy, inflation and general social disarray. Diocletian (284–305) was the first ruler to undertake drastic reforms in an effort to stabilize the Empire. Conventionally the history of the Late Roman Empire begins with his reign. He divided the realm under Roman control first into two, then into four parts, to be ruled by a joint team of two augusti and two caesares. This division of the Empire into East and West was a de facto recognition of the different developments in each separate region; as time went by the division deepened and resulted in a permanent demarcation from the end of the fourth century onwards. Other significant reforms included the reorganization of the system of the provinces (they were increased in number and size), the army and the coinage. The gold coin created at the time, the solidus, was to remain the standard monetary issue throughout Late Antiquity. Regarding the specific focus of this book, one of Diocletian’s measures was of particular interest. To deal with inflation he issued a decree fixing the maximum prices for vital commodities and services. The result was not the expected one: goods vanished from the market and shortages ensued, turning the edict into a dead letter.

Constantine I (324–37) was the son of one of the principal caesares and after a career within this system of tetrarchy he rose to the throne after defeating all his opponents. Constantine’s reign represents a turning point: by moving the imperial residence and capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople (the official dedication took place in 330) and by showing a marked (though not exclusive) preference for the Christian religion, he laid the foundation of what has been named the Byzantine Empire. There was now a clear shift of power towards the East. Situated strategically at the intersection between Europe and Asia, both by water and by land, Constantinople was designed to become a major urban centre: lavish public buildings and churches were built while the emperor took measures to attract a growing population, such as the distribution of free bread from 332. Constantine continued Diocletian’s reform work, so that today scholars have trouble in ascribing specific measures to the one or the other ruler.

The Roman Empire still occupied a huge territory stretching from Britain to North Africa and from Spain to Mesopotamia. The Eastern frontier bordering the Sassanid Empire of Persia was in continuous flux; both states were in more or less a constant state of warfare punctuated by occasional periods of peace. This was to remain so until the destruction of the Persian state by the Arabs in the seventh century. Frontiers to the West and the North were persistently menaced by a number of peoples; as a rule the Eastern part of the Empire suffered less than its Western counterpart.

The short interlude of the pagan Julian (361–63), the last ruler who was a blood relative of Constantine, did not stop the successful course of Christianity. The Church emerged as a growing economic and social institution in the fourth century. Theodosios I (379–95) put an end to the tolerance of religions other than the Christian faith: pagans, Jews but also dissident Christian groups were gradually marginalized in a process that culminated in the reign of Justinian I (527–65).

Meanwhile developments in Eurasia seemed to follow the domino principle: under the pressure of the Huns, large numbers of Goths entered the imperial realm. The fifth century saw these Germanic peoples dominate the political scene in both parts of the Empire. In the East, Germanic officials were integrated into the government and occupied important positions in the state machinery up until 474 when they were liquidated by the Isaurians, a mountainous people from Asia Minor, and their leader the emperor Zeno (476–91). Huns and Goths were either defeated or successfully held back from the Eastern territories and pushed towards the West. As a result, the West was overrun by these peoples and the Roman state ceased to exist. In 410, Alaric’s Visigoths sacked Rome and then marched on through Gaul and conquered Spain. The Vandals crossed over to Africa, captured Carthage in 439 and established their own kingdom. In 476 the last nominal western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by the Germanic chieftain Odoacer. Another chieftain, the Ostrogoth Thedoderic was sent against Odoacer; he managed to defeat him and conquer Italy, which he ruled, nominally, in the Emperor’s name. Gaul was captured and governed by the Franks and the Burgundians. The demarcation between East and West as it had been set by Theodosios I in 395, running roughly all the way from Belgrade to Libya, was now a true frontier separating two distinct entities. The Eastern Empire was an unbroken continuation of the Roman state; Greek was the dominant language and the official dogma followed the orthodoxy of the ecumenical councils. The West was now divided into several Germanic kingdoms; Latin was the dominant language and Christianity was as a rule of the Arian faith. The Eastern provinces in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor went through a phase of growth and affluence. A network of important urban centres, most of them existing since Antiquity but now experiencing a period of increase, held the countryside in their firm grip. A class of great landowners accumulated wealth and power and distinguished themselves and their class through donations and crisis management. Constantinople had grown to become the largest city in the entire Mediterranean. Its ecclesiastical head, the Patriarch of the New Rome, had risen to the second position in the hierarchy of the Church just below the old Rome.

Anastasios I (491–518) introduced a period of prosperity and expansion for the Eastern Empire. Through sound economic measures he managed to leave the state with an unprecedented surplus of gold coins at the time of his death. This became the basis for Justinian’s I (527–65) ambitious reign. Hailed rightly as the most famous and accomplished ruler of Late Antiquity, Justinian rose to power through his uncle Justin I (518–27). In his time the Empire sought to regain the lost territories in a series of long wars. The Vandal kingdom in Africa was subdued in the 530s, but the Ostrogoths were not as easy to deal with. The Reconquista in Italy lingered on from 535 until the final defeat and extinction of the Goths in 554. At the same time there was almost constant warfare with Persia from the time of Anastasios until the 560s, although imperial victories and territorial gains were not as decisive as in the West. It was in this world unified by sea and land communications that the plague appeared in recurrent waves from 541 to 750. At the end of Justinian’s reign the elaborate new construct of an Empire possessing territory all around the Mediterranean began to collapse as a result of both demographic losses (plague, long wars) and economic hardships brought about by these two factors and the large-scale building activities of Justinian. Until the advent of Herakleios (610–41) much of the regained territory had been lost: the Lombards captured and held Italy from the late 560s, the Visigoths regained the few Byzantine holdings in Spain, while the Eastern front collapsed under renewed Persian attacks. Moreover, a new force emerged in the Balkans: the Avars and the Slavs. From the 580s onwards the Slavs began their settlement of the Balkans, gradually taking almost the entire peninsula de facto out of Byzantine control for the next two centuries. Large parts of the West now enjoyed a period of stability under the Frankish kingdoms in Gaul and Germany and the Visigothic kingdom in Spain.

During the reign of Herakleios territorial movement was again considerable. After initial success against the Persians, which led to the recovery of all Byzantine realms (Egypt, Palestine, Syria), the Arab expansion began in the 630s. Until the turn of the century Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Northern Africa were irrevocably lost to the Byzantine Empire, while the Sassanid state had been crushed. The seventh century was subsequently a period of massive restructuring and reorganization as the Byzantine empire fought for its survival. The massive loss of territory -especially Egypt, the ‘granary’ of the Empire – deprived the state of considerable human resources and commodities. From then on Byzantium concentrated on Asia Minor as an almost exclusive source for both. A large-scale reorganization of the army took place in that period, first in Asia Minor, spreading then to the entire Empire. Territory was organized into administrative and military units, the themata, in which both civil and military power was concentrated in the hands of one military commander. Soldiers were from then on recruit...