City Walls in Late Antiquity: An Empire-wide Perspective

Hardback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-364-1 Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-36 5-8 (epub) A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2020932445

The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late antique periods (AD 300–600) throughout the Western and Eastern Empire. While a number of cities already had existing urban defences, most urban centres seem to have been entirely unfortifed prior to late antiquity; however, between the third and sixth centuries AD, the situation changed drastically, with walled circuits of varying types and designs being erected in many cities throughout the Roman world (Sarantis 2013a, 256). This included not only the imperial and provincial capitals but also smaller cities and towns. In Gaul, for example, some 85% of the 125 largely undefended towns were provided with walls through the third, fourth, and into the ffth centuries (Bachrach 2010, 38 with bibliography). That city walls were the most signifcant construction proMects of their time and that they redefned the urban landscape cannot therefore be understated. In both the West and the East of the Empire, many cities followed a reduced course, excluding large sections of the existing imperial city (e.g. Bordeaux, Pergamon, Sagalassos, and Hierapolis). Moreover, their appearance and monumental scale (varied as they may be), as well as the cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to proMects from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided late antique towns with new means of self-representation and represent one of the most important urban initiatives of the period. To-date, research on city walls has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and how they functioned in late antiquity. Scholarship also has sought to question traditional historical narratives of barbarian invasions and instead shown that benefaction, civic pride, availability of military labour, or a combination of these, alongside defence, acted as powerful motivations for the construction of city walls (see Laurence et al. 2011, 141– 169, for arguments about urban status; Dey 2011, 112–121, for a discussion of the motivation for the Aurelian Wall in Rome and the various factors involved in its construction, including defence, prestige, and the undertaking of a largescale public work to aid in the stability of Aurelian’s regime in the capital). Although these developments have made a signifcant contribution to the understanding of late antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument, small groups of monuments, or a particular region. As a result, broader perspectives, especially those that consider walls from both the Western and Eastern parts of the Empire, are still lacking and therefore create an artifcial divide between East and West. This divide appears to have been well established already in the 1s, when fortifcations experienced a surge of interest in scholarly literature. In this respect, the summary works of Johnson (1983) and Lander (1984), which cover up to the fourth century AD, can be considered as indicative of this. While the former is mostly concerned with case studies from the West, Lander focuses his attentiun to the East. That this tendency still persists is refected by the excellent bibliographic reviews (on ‘West’, ‘East’, and ‘Africa’) written by Sarantis and Christie (Sarantis and Christie 2013, Sarantis 2013a, 2013b) in the volume edited by the same scholars on ‘War and Warfare in Late Antiquity’. Despite the fact that single-site and regional approaches ....

Constructing City Walls in Late Antiquity: an empire-wide perspective, 2019

Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, 2017

During the Augustan period, some 18 cities in Roman Italy constructed city walls around their urban centres – the last cluster of city walls to be built here until the late third century AD. There was no defensive imperative for walls at this time, as the heart of the empire was relatively peaceful, so what motivated urban communities to undertake such a time-consuming and expensive project? This article notes the superficial similarities in the physical form of Augustan city walls and their towers and gateways, but downplays the notion of a shared design model. Rather, it argues that a more important theme which links this group of city walls was their symbolic and ideological meaning. The common ways in which Augustan city walls engaged with their physical and cultural environment are examined, and shared characteristics such as the visual prominence and imposing display of city walls and gateways, connections with pre-Roman sanctuaries and foundation rituals, and imperial involvement and patronage are explored. The article concludes that in terms of typology, Augustan city walls are surprisingly diverse in their physical form despite apparent congruencies, but that they share important political and social themes. In summary, Augustan city walls were built to impress – icons of visual dominance and cultural manipulation of the landscape, promoting the status and prestige of the city they surrounded.

CITY WALLS IN LATE ANTIQUITY: AN EMPIRE-WIDE PERSPECTIVE, 2020

The reliance on reused materials for new construction projects in late antiquity cannot be understated and the building of fortifications is no exception. The systematic incorporation of spoliated decorative stone elements is found in some of the most iconic late antique and early medieval defensive architecture in both the east and west. Less immediately apparent but just as prevalent was the reuse of bricks in the expansion or rebuilding of late antique defences, where brickstamps provide a clear evidence of salvage from the surrounding built environment. However, brick size variations are commonly referenced where brickstamps are lacking to also conclude that bricks were reused. Recent research on the construction programmes of fast-expanding imperial cities in late antiquity has placed the supposition of wholesale reuse into question. This paper reflects upon the construction of Ravenna’s late antique circuit wall in light of the industries required for its completion as well as the competition of labour and material resources. Furthermore, this paper will explore how the rapid investment in urban infrastructure as Ravenna was designated an administrative capital does not stand as a unique case in late antiquity.

The paper discusses the political meaning of the fortification of Rome in parallel with the social and urban transformations which took place in central Tyrrhenian Italy in the 6th century BC. As matter of fact, the city of Rome in the course of the 6th century BC appears already as one of the largest settlements in the central Mediterranean area, which makes this site one of the most advanced experiments in archaic urban fortification. The paper focuses on the relationship between fortification and evolution of settlement and contextualizes the evolution of the city walls in Rome with the social and political background of its community.

Abstract: Defensive systems of main settlements in the region around Rome are diverse during the period 950–300 BC. They consist originally of natural defences in the form of steep hillsides, trenches as well as monumental earthworks with or without stone walls. Often an efficient combination of fortification works is recorded to prevent the construction of full-blown artificial battlements around the entire settlement with sizes up to 200 ha. Rome is the exception because it became, within its fortification, at least twice as large as its Etruscan peers around 600–550 BC. The beginning of the construction of full-size city walls with rectangular stones is disputed. They became more common from the 6th century BC onwards. The full circuit, retaining walls made of massive polygon stones, expands the number of options for battlements but seem hardly constructed any longer after the 3rd century BC. Some issues regarding concepts of fortification in central Italy are reviewed. The paper presents cases of fortifications at main sites around Rome such as Veii, Ardea and Crustumerium revealing that concepts of defences were frequently modified once the perimeter of a proto-urban/urban settlement was established. These cases are subsequently integrated to address the long-standing debate on Rome’s Esquiline agger and an argument on the rise of the Roman state.

Talanta. Proceedings of the Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society 48-49, 2016-7

The period between the Social War and the Augustan settlement is often described by Roman historians as an era of socio-political turmoil: civil wars, proscriptions, random violence, looting and destruction of cities and towns are vividly described in these histories. However, the end of the Social War also marked the beginning of an unprecedented period of building projects which changed cities and towns into monumentalized urban landscapes. This period of so-called monumentalization continued well into the last decades of the Republic and throughout the early Principate. From an empiric perspective there seems to be a discrepancy between these different – literary and archaeological – types of sources. I am arguing, however, that no dichotomy is necessary between these sources. Furthermore, this increase in building schemes can be interpreted as the agency of an elite responding towards crisis and trauma. In framing the argumentation, I have used an approach known as cognitive archaeology (or cognitive-processual archaeology). In this paper I will try to show how architecture was used by the local elite to communicate ideology, identity and memory in the Roman and Italic cities. In doing so, I will use the principles outlined by this cognitive archaeological approach and provide a case study on the building, destruction and rebuilding of city walls which will support my assumptions.