Studies on Late Antique urbanism have revealed impressive developments under the auspices of civic and ecclesiastical authorities who staged magisterial events within grand city spaces so as to showcase their leadership. Streets lined with colonnades fed into public plazas that were dominated by monuments honoring those holding power. The major Late Antique civic spaces of streets, markets, plazas, and commercial areas are the topics of Luke Lavan's (L.) extensively researched volumes consisting of a first part functioning as a monograph (vol. I) and a second part comprised of appendices, including a gazetteer (vol. II). His focus on public areas can be traced to an interest in daily life in its civic, outdoor manifestations, causing him to shift attention away from the private and domestic buildings of Late Antique cities. L. characterizes daily life in the public sphere by drawing upon evidence from hundreds of cities and towns in various regions, creating an overview of issues and trends, with the material and textual evidence aggregated for the purpose of painting the big picture. This examination of extensive archeological data from many sites, inserted here into a dialogue with textual sources, was launched in an effort to document many points of continuity with the Classical past. The text explores, for example, the statues with mythological subjects that appeared near churches, in addition to the pagan and Christian decorations commingling in the civic areas of Constantinople, Ephesus, and Laodicea. L. emphasizes points of continuity so as to claim that Classical urban forms neither suffered from dramatic breakdowns nor experienced totalizing Christian transformations prior to the end of the 6th c., since the author counters most of the evidence of ruin with testimony of reuse. He contends that the physical basis for Late Antique urban life remained somewhat altered but not drastically reconfigured with respect to the Imperial past. The site documentation and careful scrutiny of archeological reports coupled with the diligent focus on ancient texts have yielded an account which avoids wagging fingers at Christians for the dissolution of ancient cities. The volumes show some inherent discrepancies in that a great deal of attention has been devoted to the evidence in part two and yet these details often go unregistered in the main text of part one. L. has much to add to discussions about Late Antique cities, especially in identifying the material testimony to economic vitality as witnessed in Late Antique shops. Overall, L.'s account of relative continuity in urban conditions throughout Late Antiquity views each city as contributing data to a big picture. His arguments steer clear, for the most part, of explicit entanglements with historiographic concerns as presented in more focused studies of individual post-Classical cities, about which the author is clearly aware. The book is most useful in its presentation of urban outdoor processions and daily life as it occurred on the streets and is especially valuable in its documentation of the commercial infrastructure of Late Antique cities.
There have been vigorous debates as to whether later Roman urban life collapsed into dismal doldrums or remained continually vibrant, albeit changed, during Late Antiquity. Yet these controversies have subsided of late, since the arguments between the “catastrophists” and the “continuists” have given way to a common ground that has settled into the consensus view that cities certainly persisted throughout Late Antiquity. L.'s ambitious study contributes to the picture of urban continuity by highlighting lasting ritual activities and the permanent patterns in civic infrastructure that might be interconnected with and yet—as he asserts—were not necessarily instigated by those who sponsored the ongoing rituals or who launched the healthy commercial economy. The author's diligent labor draws upon evidence from about 500 cities and towns to set up claims that Late Antique urbanism remained more or less unbroken with respect to the Principate (I: 428–30). It should be stated that L. clearly identifies minimally invasive changes. Although the transformations of urban infrastructure across time and space are considered, the author presents the nuanced evidence in the appendices without carrying their multifaceted dimensions over into the main narrative. Details fall into the background of an overall (perhaps flattened) view that urban life remained relatively consistent. After reviewing scholarly publications, L. provides a synthetic summary of archeological accounts about Late Antique cities to revise the view that urban plazas (agorai and fora) fell out of use starting in the 4th c. CE, since many featured repairs, rebuilding, and traces of vigorous use which have left attestations into the 6th c. (I: 263, 338, 371). This is well documented in the epigraphic, literary, and physical testimony adduced in this book.
L. focuses his attention on daily life as it occurred in the streets and other public zones, providing an excellent overview of Late Antique processions. Chapter 2, on outdoor events, is sandwiched between a discussion of streets in their physical manifestations and another section on the activities of people who populated these thoroughfares. L.'s comprehensive survey should function as the starting point for those investigating Late Antique ritual life as witnessed in Christian, pagan, and political outdoor processions. Drawing upon a descriptive method that characterizes his text overall, L. sets forth the internal dynamics of organized rituals without making the sponsors of processions into the agents of spatial change. The author rejects views that processions shaped the urban form or that rituals accommodated themselves to fit within the colonnades lining the major streets of Late Antique cities (I: 230). In the chapter on streets (Ch. 1), L. does not accept proposals that towering column monuments placed prominently in plazas were at the ends of sightlines to grab the attention of those progressing along the avenues feeding into these fora (I: 86). L. has clearly digested and benefited from the pioneering work of Franz Alto Bauer on the Imperial column monuments dominating the plazas of Constantinople; yet L. argues that the viewsheds were mostly obscured and that Bauer's insights into Late Antique urban sightlines did not work for viewers positioned along the streets.Footnote 1 Of course, the imposing Imperial monuments could have been witnessed upon entering the fora. Later, L. concedes that the Mese in Constantinople with a series of fora interspersed along the processional route “must have had an impact on political life” (I: 236). Even as the author concedes that emperors clearly held sway in urban spaces, in his account, Imperial authorities seem not to have intruded too much into the daily activities occurring there. L. also suggests that the politicized city was forged prior to Late Antiquity and thus he sees that the indications of ongoing rituals conducted by later Roman emperors cohere with his position on urban continuities in the post-Classical period. Further, the author characterizes Christian processions as similar to earlier political and traditional events by depicting an unbroken chain of outdoor rituals without calling attention to changes in itineraries, tone, or ritual leadership. L. emphasizes shared values so as to develop his picture of ritual life continuing with general stability over time, since he argues that Christian outdoor liturgies picked up where earlier Imperial processions left off. There are interesting remarks on the politicization of Christian litanies, and L. deems this development more pervasive than the Christianization of political events (I: 233). While it is plausible that there was a “shared sphere of cultural practice” (I: 231) between Christian and Imperial outdoor events and that the preservationist impulse in later Roman culture stifled liturgical innovation, the author neither emphasizes church locations in his discussion of Christian processions nor identifies the penitential mood of such religious events as Gregory the Great's seven-part litany. Had he considered the placement of churches and the mournful contrition expressed in Christian processions, L. might have seen points of discontinuity when judging the differences between Christian and non-Christian events. In other words, the present volumes provide a picture of lasting processional vitality but do not venture into the tonality, the topography, and the transformations that other accounts have witnessed in Late Antique urban rituals.Footnote 2 Finally, the placement of churches outside the urban walls is mentioned in the book but does not play a major role in L.'s account.
L. presents solid evidence for numerous urbanistic features that were distinctive to Late Antiquity. Physical history is traced by categorizing infrastructure. Chapter 1 focuses on the streets; Chapters 4 and 5 examine fora and agorai; and Chapter 6 concentrates on markets and shops. L. identifies, for example, tetrakionia, circular plazas, and statues displayed atop monumental columns dominating the agorai and fora of cities; all of these are characterized as widespread urban features of Late Antiquity. The round plazas appeared at the intersections of major avenues where groups of statues could optimally be arranged (I: 271). Rows of statues were placed at the edges of civic plazas at Aphrodisias, Rome, and Sagalassos, to take some examples, in installations that featured Imperial portraits arranged in dynastic groupings (I: 297). In other cities, including Cuicul and Thamugadi, newer statues were placed in juxtaposition to earlier, Imperial-era monuments that had survived into Late Antiquity (I: 293). Concentrations of statues were discovered at the top of stairs leading up to the porticoes that lined such Late Antique agorai and fora as the Severan Forum in Lepcis Magna and the Basilica Julia in Rome. Using epigraphic texts identifying those depicted in the portrait statues and also those who dedicated them, L. has defined some sort of “zoning”; in other words, emperors received most of the exclusive honors of portrait statues in certain plazas, whereas high-ranking governors and other state officials received acclaim in the outdoor portrait installations of other civic spaces (I: 307–8). After considering the statues on display in Late Antique civic plazas, L. categorizes these agorai and fora as either for political authorities or for cultural displays of artworks, or for both, given that portraits of officials or older statues reclassified as public art were exhibited together in some of these spaces (I: 308). In terms of commercial developments, L. articulates that the sigma-shaped plaza for shopping emerged as a distinctive feature of cities in the 5th c. (I: 390). Noting a relative lack of wheel marks at Corinth, Sagalassos, and Xanthos, and on specific avenues of Ephesus, L. proposes an increase in mostly pedestrian use of the Late Antique streets at these locations. Others have noted a Late Roman shift away from carts as loads started to be carried directly on the backs of pack animals during Late Antiquity, which might offer an explanation for the drop-off in wheel marks on streets.Footnote 3 Perhaps cargo supported by beasts of burden offered a parallel to the new type of boxed sedan chair, resting upon poles carried by mules rather than people, which is here characterized as a Late Antique invention (I: 247). L. presents fascinating details about the organization of urban life such as restrictions that apparently encouraged pedestrian zones during daytime hours and promoted the commercial character of certain streets.
L.'s research on the commercial architecture of markets builds upon the vigorous scholarship on urban shopping during earlier periods.Footnote 4 The author convincingly jettisons arguments that a Late Antique failure to regulate urban commerce created chaos in the public sphere, since he cites abundant evidence (for example, from Iol Caesarea and Perge) that Late Antique streets accommodated well-organized shopping districts (I: 375–86). Some of the information comes from the rows of shops that were situated behind colonnades so as not to disturb the beautiful infrastructure of these avenues (I: 415). L.'s discussion of ample commercial infrastructure contributes to a picture of economic health due to the extensive marketing of agricultural commodities in Late Antique cities.Footnote 5 The cellular shops arranged in rows seem to have been standardized, supporting claims that the cells supported “regulated retail” (I: 415). Even though he characterizes urban commerce as “regulated,” the archeological testimony has led L. to be skeptical about interpretations launched using laws or the Theodosian Code specifically, since “there are too many clear differences between traditional interpretations of legal evidence and archeology on the ground” (I: 8). Of course, the Imperial legal texts compiled by jurists working for Theodosius II only recorded the outgoing letters, which give us a limited picture of this reactive judicial system. Further, each letter preserved in the Code was sent to a specific location, leading to some ambiguity about the geographic scope of enforcement. It is not specified which publications on the Theodosian Code L. rejects. It is thus not clear that he references here the excellent work on the Code inspired by John Matthews's important book; yet L. generally does not assess Imperial legislation.Footnote 6 There seems to be a tendency to soften the blow of judgments imposed by Imperial authorities, much as L.'s text seems to sidestep religious polemics. Still, the legal evidence is probably more valuable than L. permits.
In the organization of his book, in which a descriptive first chapter on streets is succeeded by a second chapter on processions and a third on street life, the underlying premise presumably is that rituals and quotidian activities shed light on the physical infrastructure of Late Antique cities. Here, L. proceeds with a great deal of caution, avoiding causal relationships and perhaps with good reason due to the many indications that colonnaded streets often predated the Late Antique activities that have prompted others to interpret them. In L.'s account, the inscribed statue bases honoring authorities, the acclamations written upon monuments, and the topos inscriptions accompanying porticoes lining both sides of major urban avenues do not necessarily add up to grand political messages. One reason stems from his assumption that the inscriptions address locals rather than visitors. “It is unlikely that the dedication of a single gameboard by a pater or by a private individual, as seen at Aphrodisias, was intended to impress anyone from abroad. … One might, thus, see much investment in streets as being aimed at local communities, reflecting largely pragmatic utilitarian concerns” (I: 236). In other words, patrons placed their names in public space while fulfilling their practical duties without launching grand political strategies, according to the author. And yet one might look, for example, at the Embolos at Ephesus, where the colonnaded avenue seems to have encouraged viewers to appreciate those sponsors who set up amenities enjoyed during both ceremonial occasions and more prosaic activities pursued by either visitors or locals proceeding toward one of the city's agorai. To be sure, this urban condition was not forged in one fell swoop and cannot be linked to any single, discrete motivation. Nonetheless, L.'s caution with respect to political motivations tends to disallow that civic authorities sought status in Late Antique cities. It is entirely plausible that many urban residents hesitated to acclaim the local grandees. Would it not be possible nonetheless to entertain the possibility that the elites sought this recognition even if humble locals disdained the urban aristocrats who clamored for so much civic praise?
L.'s approach of attending carefully to material culture and physical patterns without ascribing motivations might allow the reader to be freed from the scholarly conventions of the past, and yet there are other assumptions that creep into this book. For example, its concluding section launches a fairly secular vision of Late Antique urban life that is rooted in such evidence as churches having been set within preexisting urbanistic infrastructure. Yet L. fails to seriously consider evidence about the placement of Christian centers of worship at the city's periphery. Richard Krautheimer's Three Christian Capitals, for example, emphasizes the displacement of the city center that occurred after major basilicas such as the Basilica Apostolorum in Milan or Old St. Peter's and San Paolo fuori le mura in Rome had been situated outside the city walls.Footnote 7 To be sure, L. admits that Christian authorities departed in specific ways from Classical urban patterns. Yet, the author writes, “beyond church buildings, Christianity did not make an immediate impact on public space, and even when it did that impact was not sufficient to overwhelm the predominately secular character of a city, expressed above all in its colonnaded streets, shops, and squares in places like Ephesus, Sagalassos, and Apamea” (I: 463). It is probably worthwhile to consider that Christians sponsored more than just churches. For example, one could look at such charity centers as the mammoth Basilias hospital for the poor founded by Basil in Cappadocian Caesarea to identify dramatic changes in Late Antique systems of patronage and so to understand that Christian benefactors began to embrace distinctively Christian, ascetic values.
One learns toward the end of the first volume that L.'s agenda is to counter narratives that blame Christianity for urban desuetude. L.'s motivations for identifying continuity between the Classical and the Late Antique city stem in part from a reaction to publications in which Christians are held to account for restrictions upon Classical culture.Footnote 8 L. has every right to argue his case. Yet the debate over religious issues occurs at the expense of explicitly engaging with the important, recent publications of Hendrik Dey and Ine Jacobs that specifically address Late Antique urbanism. Although both scholars' books are mentioned by L. in the preface, they are not taken up discursively within the body of the text. This is surprising, since Dey politicizes the urban armatures lined with porticoes and Jacobs documents with physical evidence how colonnaded avenues were repaired so as to develop her ideas emphasizing the Late Antique maintenance of cities.Footnote 9 It appears that L. wishes to be judicious in reporting about the data and seemingly strives to avoid polemics by generally sidestepping historiographic issues, placing most of the citations in the appendices. One is nonetheless left wondering why L.'s account does not take up an explicit analysis of recent work on the archeology and history of Late Antique cities.
Those seeking to read a well-researched survey covering the cities of the Mediterranean, the Levant, the Middle East, North Africa, and Western Europe with detailed information about the agorai, fora, processions, streets, and commercial zones will be able to find comprehensive coverage in L.'s two-volume set. The method appears to be rooted in an archeologist's attention to the wide range of available physical evidence with an apparent desire to cast aside unnecessary theoretical baggage, although to characterize this as a straightforward account without interpretation would be misleading. The author's arguments about the material come through loud and clear and his perspective minimizes both political agency and religious change. A reader seeking to survey the past scholarship on the cities of Late Antiquity will find some material in the bibliography and will need to seek out the more detailed entries in the appendices (but note that the second volume lacks an index listing page numbers and that individual cities are not indexed in the first volume). The discursive first volume uses footnotes sparingly, which might make the ideas flow more than if more citations had been systematically included. One needs to read vol. I, therefore, while flipping concurrently through the appendices in the second volume so as to gain access to the full references on the sites. It is a challenge to read this two-volume set and yet this comprehensive analysis of the archeological sites contains many important insights.
