Chapter Eight. A.H.M. Jones and “the cities” 1964–2004

Abstract

A.H.M. Jones? chapters on ?Rome and Constantinople? and ?The Cities? in the Later Roman Empire of 1964 remain seminal for the topics they cover. Before the Later Roman Empire, very little had been written on Late Roman cities. From the late perspective on Jones? career that the Later Roman Empire affords, his main interest appears not to be cities but rather administration. Jones is very hard on Christianity in The Greek City, and his view is not notably different in the Later Roman Empire. Later Roman Empire Chapter XVIII ?The Cities? included the first balanced administrative survey of Constantinople, pre-figuring Dagron?s exhaustive Naissance d?une capital. In sympathising with the cities rather than the empire, Jones takes the perspective of Libanius, rather than that which a senator at the court might have taken. In the decades following 1964, a late antique urban archaeology gradually began to develop.Keywords: Later Roman Empire; A.H.M. Jones; Christianity; Constantinople; Dagron; late antique urban archaeology; late Roman city; Libanius; The Greek City