New Rome: The Empire in the East by P. Stephenson

Abstract

Reviewed by: New Rome: The Empire in the East by P. Stephenson Geoffrey Greatrex New Rome: The Empire in the East. By P. Stephenson. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2022. Pp. xxxi, 432. This new survey of late Roman history follows in the same series as the two sweeping treatments of the high empire and the late antique period by Michael Kulikowski, The Triumph of Empire (Cambridge, MA 2016) and The Tragedy of Empire (Cambridge, MA 2019). The approach of the two authors is quite different, however: while Kulikowski opts for a vivid narrative of the period, incorporating useful digressions on broader themes here and there,1 Stephenson prefers to subordinate narrative to a more thematic structure. He dedicates only the second part of the work, "Power and Politics," to recounting the period. The first part concentrates on "Life in the Later Roman World," describing how ordinary people lived in this period, drawing on recent scientific evidence. The third takes stock of the situation in the eastern empire in 700, examining how it had changed over the centuries, both materially and in terms of its mentalité. Part 1 has many strengths, ably exploiting scientific research for issues relating, for example, to the environment, to metallurgy, and to living conditions. It is immediately apparent that the author has delved deeply into the literature here, resulting sometimes in rather abstruse phrases, as for instance "The sum of the energy emitted by the sun that reaches earth, solar irradiation, can be measured through proxies known as cosmogenic radionuclides, which are radioactive isotopes" (8). The second chapter makes good use of papyrological evidence and saints' lives to explore family relations in late antiquity. It is followed by a chapter devoted to cities, a subject on which work continues to pour forth: both Mark Humphries's Cities and the Meanings of Late Antiquity (Leiden 2019) and Luke Lavan's Public Space in the Late Roman City (Leiden 2020), among many other works, appeared too late to be cited. The chapter surveys the empire's large cities, underlining the squalid conditions endured by many inhabitants. The lack of an earlier narrative obliges Stephenson to enter into considerable detail on doctrinal [End Page 152] disputes at the time of Athanasius (60–61). Chapter Four, "Culture, Communications and Commerce," has a particularly well-handled section on travel within the empire, even if the author is unduly downbeat on geographical thinking of the time (80), given, for example, Procopius' extensive geographical and ethnographical digressions. The chapter has interesting discussions of the recent excavations of the Roman harbours in Istanbul (90–91), which feature also in Chapter Five, devoted entirely to the eastern capital. Here Stephenson examines the government of the empire and the city's amenities, illustrated by numerous black and white pictures. To credit the city's senate with 300 members already under Constantine seems excessive (96),2 while the assertion that "until the reign of Anastasius, the [praetorian] prefect of the east was based at Constantinople" (98) is baffling: praetorian prefects of the East continued to be based in the city until the disappearance of the office in the 620s. The first of the narrative chapters concerns the Theodosian age. Stephenson offers a lucid narrative, embracing both secular and religious history, with nice vignettes of leading figures. He is well versed in the latest research, although on the scandal surrounding Theodosius' friend Paulinus and his alleged affair with the empress Eudocia, recounted at some length, one should cite Roger Scott's 2010 article,3 while on Nestorius (150–152) we now have an important recent study by George Bevan.4 There are some interesting remarks on the leading families of the time (157–158; cf. 190–191), where one might take into account Meaghan McEvoy's 2016 article on Aspar's family and the detailed study by Christoph Begass.5 Chapter Seven covers the period from Marcian to the death of Anastasius. Stephenson here displays a knack for introducing evidence seldom exploited in standard surveys, citing a description of a mosaic of Leo, his wife Verina, and their children Leo and Ariadne from which Zeno was...