Society and Economy in the Mediterranean and the Near East

250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650

The divergence between the eastern and western empire The Near East and the "fertile crescent"

The limestone massif of northern Syria The Amuq plain and the Hauran Syrian cities

Settlements of the Negev and Gaza Asia Minor and the development of civic life The economic dynamism of southern Asia Minor The militarized zones of the eastern frontier Egypt

Africa's prosperous agricultural economy under Rome and the Vandals

Africa in decline after Justinian's reconquest Gaul in the fourth century on the empire's front line The social and economic transformation of ifth-century Gaul and the origins of Medieval European society The Italian economy in the late empire The Danube region and the Balkans under barbarian pressure The impact of the Roman state on the economy in the East and the West

A History of the Later Roman Empire, AD 284-641, Second Edition. Stephen Mitchell. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

There was a profound divergence between the economic and social history of the eastern and western parts of the empire. The fundamental reason for this can be expressed in a single word - security. Until the middle of the sixth century most of the Roman East was free from war and invasion. During long periods of peacetime, urban culture thrived, the population rose both in the cities and in the countryside, and the economy benefited from long-term stability. The disastrous effects of war were only felt in the Thracian hinterland of Constantinople, and in North Syria and Mesopotamia, where the empire was exposed to Sassanian attacks in the sixth century. By contrast, the western provinces were exposed to continuous threats from Germanic barbarian groups and later from the Huns. Former provinces were successively relinquished to the invaders. This led not only to the collapse of the western empire in a political sense, but to a transformation of its economic and social structures. As the infrastructure created by Roman administration and taxation was removed, cities shrunk in size and lost their significance, and populations were dispersed into villages with narrow economic horizons. Only the institutions of the church were resilient and adaptable enough to carry forward the legacy of the empire into the Middle Ages.