The Urban Dynamics of Late Antique Antioch (270-438 CE)

forthcoming

Late Roman cities were multifaceted and possessed several social and political networks which contributed to its urban dynamics. Antioch – a major military base, ecclesiastical centre, and imperial residence in the East of the later Roman Empire – saw the coming and goings of the imperial retinue, external ecclesiastical appointments, and the introduction of many external political networks which meant that its urban dynamics were consistently in flux and often contested. Simultaneously, the internal climate of Antioch saw local responses to these external pressures, and the Antiochene local elites would also interfere in these transfers of power, often being obstinately opposed to the emperor or the externally appointed officials and bishops. The significance of these intersections and interactions has been hitherto downplayed, despite the major role these played not only on the internal political climate of Antioch, but also its external role in the political events of late antiquity, with many Antiochenes also possessing great influence in other major cities like Constantinople. UrbAnt will both create a framework for understanding the urban dynamics of Antioch, and will help scholars understand the role of a non-capital city in the contests, negotiations, and transfers of civic, ecclesiastical, and imperial power in the Late Roman world. It will adopt a prosopographical and social network analysis approach for the framework. It will create a holistic prosopographical database, which will collate information about individuals regardless of secular or ecclesiastical career, gender, or political class. It will then use a form of network analysis involving ego-networks to investigate the shifting political and social networks of Antioch. It will be shown that Antioch’s political networks closely intersected and that there was a continuous negotiation of power both internally and externally, and that these heavily influenced the urban dynamics of the Late Roman city.