1. Preliminaries (fourth to sixth centuries
A.D.)
146 B.C. Greece conquered by Roman
troops and turned into a Roman province
------> by A.D. 400 (map):
the southern (Peloponnese) and central (Attica) parts become Achaia
thee northern part divided between Thessalia,
Macedonia and Epirus
Vetus
-
all four provinces were
part of the diocese of Illyricum,
which covered most of the Balkan region
-
when the empire was
divided in 395, Illyricum (including the four provinces) became part of
the Eastern Roman Empire (later Byzantine Empire), with its capital city
in Constantinople
-
within Illyricum, the
most important city was Thessalonica,
the capital city of Macedonia
by 500: Greece was still
a relatively well populated region (map),
well connected to long-distance trade routes within the Empire (map),
with a number of important cities and thriving Christian communities (map)
BUT: precisely because
it was relatively far from endangered frontiers, Greece was targeted by
barbarians raids/invasions moving deep into imperial territory (see map):
-
Visigoths in 380 (they
were still there by 395)
-
Ostrogoths in 482
-
Bulgars in 540 and 558
IN ADDITION:
-
541/2: urban areas in
Greece were hit by plague, most probably spreading from Constantinople
(Procopius of Caesarea);
confirmed by the discovery of a mass grave at Corinth
-
522, 548, 551: massive
earthquakes leveled Corinth and other cities around the Isthmus
Athens:
-
the urban center shrunk
to a small area around the Acropolis, to the exclusion of the Agora
-
the Stoa was abandoned
and a number of small houses were built in its ruins
-
flour- and olive mills
appear within the urban environment (--->process of ruralization)
-
Asklepieion, Olympeion,
the Temple of Kronos and Rhea, the Parthenon, and the Erechtheion: all
converted into churches
-
burials appear within
the walls
-
the next piece of evidence
for renewed building dates to the late ninth century (the church of St.
John the Baptist , built in 871, demolished in the early 1800s)
Corinth:
-
any use of the forum
as public square ceased by A.D. 500
-
Peribolos of Apollo
abandoned and houses built within its ruins
-
peasant houses built
within the ruins of the St. Leonidas church (destroyed in 551)
-
peasant houses built
in the ruins of the Roman Bath at Isthmia (near Corinth)
-
many buildings dismantled
or abandoned
-
burials within the city
C by
550: Greece was a much impoverished region, with fewer fortifications than
the rest of the Balkans, and declining cities (the ONLY exception: Thessalonica)
