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The Afterlife of the Roman City: Architecture and Ceremony in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
This book offers a new and surprising perspective on the evolution of cities across the Roman Empire in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages (third to ninth centuries AD). It suggests that the tenacious persistence of leading cities across most of the Roman world is due, far more than previously thought, to the persistent inclination of kings, emperors, caliphs, bishops, and their leading subordinates to manifest the glory of their offices on an urban stage, before crowds of city dwellers. Long after the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, these communal leaders continued to maintain and embellish monumental architectural corridors established in late antiquity, the narrow but grandiose urban itineraries, essentially processional ways, in which their parades and solemn public appearances consistently unfolded. Hendrik W. Dey's approach selectively integrates urban topography with the actors who unceasingly strove to animate it for many centuries.
296 pages, Hardcover
First published October 29, 2014
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October 9, 2018
It is one off those, content is worth a lot but the style of writing drags down the whole book. In general even though I found the content interesting and the ideas presented interesting, but after about half of each chapter I felt as if the author had made his point already making the rest of the chapter read more as add on information repeating a point already made.
Having said that, the content of the book and the point made are worthwhile. In short the author set out to prove that unlike the classic narrative of collapse of the urban culture in the late roman and early medieval period, there was but a radical transformation of the dynamic of city policy. Cities became the setting for political and social ceremonies, it provided the audience of spectators, the stage and theater props all required in a new state order that was more centralized and more unequal in access to power and wealth. Where in the past local notables of the city invested in forums and baths, the late roman city as a build site was the playground of the emperor, governors and later on Bishops who had access to resources provided by the powerful bureaucracy.
Cities got founded and maintained or even abandoned mid construction on the whims of said powerful brokers if it suited their political needs and if one word was overused in the book, it was the central colonnade. The long straight road straight to the hearth of the cities were they were build and maintained effectively hiding the rest of the town that was under financed and decayed. On this point though Hendrik Dey disappoints. even though he makes the occasional reference to the masses he never got into detail how they lived. How did their lives changed, their houses and lifestyles while the emperors, kings, bishops and governors invested so heavily in the colonnade and the few monumental buildings alongside it? After all for all its importance, the political parade was an event not a part of daily life.
The author does deliver on his promise to present an alternative to the dominant decay and catastrophe discourses on the post roman world. He makes a strong case for the continued maintenance of the colonnades and the political theater that required such elaborate and expensive stages. He convincingly explains why cities survived as living centers of habitation after losing most of their access to the wider economic system of early and middle antiquity. They survived and changed because the powers that be needed them and invested in them (Langobard Italy and Gothic Spain) and stagnated when investing was an expense to big (Merovingian France) or were abandoned when they no longer served a stage function and failed to acquire another role (Britain and Balkan) or as in the case of Byzantine empire all three combined depending on the region. Considering the dominant narrative of cities as economic and cultural centers instead of political stages, it is no wonder so many historians proclaim a sort of indisputable necessity of loss of the urban lifestyle between 500 and 1000 AD.
in Short a book worth your time if you want extra information on the period between 350 AD and 900 AD.
Having said that, the content of the book and the point made are worthwhile. In short the author set out to prove that unlike the classic narrative of collapse of the urban culture in the late roman and early medieval period, there was but a radical transformation of the dynamic of city policy. Cities became the setting for political and social ceremonies, it provided the audience of spectators, the stage and theater props all required in a new state order that was more centralized and more unequal in access to power and wealth. Where in the past local notables of the city invested in forums and baths, the late roman city as a build site was the playground of the emperor, governors and later on Bishops who had access to resources provided by the powerful bureaucracy.
Cities got founded and maintained or even abandoned mid construction on the whims of said powerful brokers if it suited their political needs and if one word was overused in the book, it was the central colonnade. The long straight road straight to the hearth of the cities were they were build and maintained effectively hiding the rest of the town that was under financed and decayed. On this point though Hendrik Dey disappoints. even though he makes the occasional reference to the masses he never got into detail how they lived. How did their lives changed, their houses and lifestyles while the emperors, kings, bishops and governors invested so heavily in the colonnade and the few monumental buildings alongside it? After all for all its importance, the political parade was an event not a part of daily life.
The author does deliver on his promise to present an alternative to the dominant decay and catastrophe discourses on the post roman world. He makes a strong case for the continued maintenance of the colonnades and the political theater that required such elaborate and expensive stages. He convincingly explains why cities survived as living centers of habitation after losing most of their access to the wider economic system of early and middle antiquity. They survived and changed because the powers that be needed them and invested in them (Langobard Italy and Gothic Spain) and stagnated when investing was an expense to big (Merovingian France) or were abandoned when they no longer served a stage function and failed to acquire another role (Britain and Balkan) or as in the case of Byzantine empire all three combined depending on the region. Considering the dominant narrative of cities as economic and cultural centers instead of political stages, it is no wonder so many historians proclaim a sort of indisputable necessity of loss of the urban lifestyle between 500 and 1000 AD.
in Short a book worth your time if you want extra information on the period between 350 AD and 900 AD.
Displaying 1 of 1 review