- Title Pages
- List of Plates
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Maps
- 1 The Transition to Late Antiquity
- 2 The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside
- 3 The Lower Danube Region under Pressure: from Valens to Heraclius
- 4 The Late Roman Army and the Defence of the Balkans
- 5 Goths in the Roman Balkans <i>c</i>.350–500
- 6 The Two Anglo-Bulgarian Research Programmes and the Results of the Bulgarian Excavations
- 7 The Late Roman Agora and the State of Civic Organization
- 8 The Environmental Archaeology Research Programme at Nicopolis: Methodology and Results
- 9 Dichin (Bulgaria): Interpreting the Ceramic Evidence in its Wider Context
- 10 Seeds of Destruction: Conflagration in the Grain Stores of Dichin
- 11 A Short Report on the Preliminary Results from the Study of the Mammal and Bird Bone Assemblages from Dichin
- 12 Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity
- 13 The Transformation of Cities in Late Antiquity within the Provinces of Macedonia and Epirus
- 14 Caričin Grad and the Changes in the Nature of Urbanism in the Central Balkans in the Sixth Century
- 15 Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
- 16 Ephesus in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Period: Changes in its Urban Character from the Third to the Seventh Century AD
- 17 Amida and Tropaeum Traiani: a Comparison of Late Antique Fortress Cities on the Lower Danube and Mesopotamia
- 18 The Fort of Iatrus in Moesia Secunda: Observations on the Late Roman Defensive System on the Lower Danube (Fourth–Sixth Centuries AD)
- 19 The Fortresses of Thrace and Dacia in the Early Byzantine Period
- 20 From the Danube to the Po: the Defence of Pannonia and Italy in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD
- 21 Extensive Field Survey in North Central Bulgaria
- 22 Site-Specific Field Survey: the Methodology
- 23 Geophysical Survey and Rural Settlement Architecture on the Lower Danube at the Transition to Late Antiquity
- 24 Another View on Late Antiquity: Sagalassos (SW Anatolia), its Suburbium and its Countryside in Late Antiquity
- 25 The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context
Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
- Chapter:
- (p.375) 15 Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
- Source:
- The Transition to Late Antiquity, on the Danube and Beyond
- Author(s):
M. WHITTOW
- Publisher:
- British Academy
The story of Nicopolis ad Istrum and its citizens exemplifies much that is common to the urban history of the whole Roman Empire. This chapter reviews the history of Nicopolis and its transition into the small fortified site of the fifth to seventh centuries and compares it with the evidence from the Near East and Asia Minor. It argues that Nicopolis may not have experienced a cataclysm as has been suggested, and that, as in the fifth and sixth century west, where landowning elites showed a striking ability to adapt and survive, there was an important element of continuity on the lower Danube, which in turn may account for the distinctive ‘Roman’ element in the early medieval Bulgar state. It also suggests that the term ‘transition to Late Antiquity’ should be applied to what happened at Nicopolis in the third century: what happened there in the fifth was the transition to the middle ages. This chapter also describes late antique urbanism in the Balkans by focusing on the Justiniana Prima site.
Keywords: Nicopolis ad Istrum, urbanism, Roman Empire, Near East, Asia Minor, cataclysm, lower Danube, Late Antiquity, Balkans, Justiniana Prima
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- Title Pages
- List of Plates
- Notes on Contributors
- Preface
- Maps
- 1 The Transition to Late Antiquity
- 2 The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside
- 3 The Lower Danube Region under Pressure: from Valens to Heraclius
- 4 The Late Roman Army and the Defence of the Balkans
- 5 Goths in the Roman Balkans <i>c</i>.350–500
- 6 The Two Anglo-Bulgarian Research Programmes and the Results of the Bulgarian Excavations
- 7 The Late Roman Agora and the State of Civic Organization
- 8 The Environmental Archaeology Research Programme at Nicopolis: Methodology and Results
- 9 Dichin (Bulgaria): Interpreting the Ceramic Evidence in its Wider Context
- 10 Seeds of Destruction: Conflagration in the Grain Stores of Dichin
- 11 A Short Report on the Preliminary Results from the Study of the Mammal and Bird Bone Assemblages from Dichin
- 12 Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity
- 13 The Transformation of Cities in Late Antiquity within the Provinces of Macedonia and Epirus
- 14 Caričin Grad and the Changes in the Nature of Urbanism in the Central Balkans in the Sixth Century
- 15 Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?
- 16 Ephesus in the Late Roman and Early Byzantine Period: Changes in its Urban Character from the Third to the Seventh Century AD
- 17 Amida and Tropaeum Traiani: a Comparison of Late Antique Fortress Cities on the Lower Danube and Mesopotamia
- 18 The Fort of Iatrus in Moesia Secunda: Observations on the Late Roman Defensive System on the Lower Danube (Fourth–Sixth Centuries AD)
- 19 The Fortresses of Thrace and Dacia in the Early Byzantine Period
- 20 From the Danube to the Po: the Defence of Pannonia and Italy in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD
- 21 Extensive Field Survey in North Central Bulgaria
- 22 Site-Specific Field Survey: the Methodology
- 23 Geophysical Survey and Rural Settlement Architecture on the Lower Danube at the Transition to Late Antiquity
- 24 Another View on Late Antiquity: Sagalassos (SW Anatolia), its Suburbium and its Countryside in Late Antiquity
- 25 The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context
