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London, Paris, Milan, and hundreds of other cities founded by the Romans are still thriving today, but hundreds more in every part of the former classical world have been abandoned. I'm standing in the ruins of Tsus in what is now southern Turkey. This was a monumental street lined on both sides by shops with statue bases carrying bronze images of local benefactors. But for 15 centuries, this street has been silent, save for the rumbling of earthquakes and the scratching of scavengers. Today's video will try to explain how cities like Tesus could flourish for centuries and then almost without warning disappear.
The Roman Empire was a confederation of cities. Rome itself had begun as a citystate which annexed hundreds of others as it expanded across the Mediterranean basin. Where cities did not yet exist, the Romans established them until a continuous network of 2,000 extended from Britain to Syria. Each Roman city was responsible for administering a fixed territory. Its leading citizens collected taxes on Rome's behalf and kept order in the countryside. In return, they were offered a share in the prosperity of the Pox Romana with its unprecedented opportunities for political advancement. To consolidate and commemorate their position, civic elites poured vast sums into public building forums and fountains, aqueducts and baths and gymnasiums, amphitheaters and avenues
lined with statues. All the monuments in short that still define our image of the Roman city. The golden age ended amid the invasions and economic crises of the 3rd century. Along the frontiers, barbarian incursions damaged or destroyed hundreds of cities. Even places spared by the marauders often withdrew within walls cobbled together from disassembled monuments. Although stability returned in the 4th century, long-term social changes slowed the process of recovery. The later Roman emperors had increasing difficulty convincing local notables to manage their cities. The wealthiest magnates often left for well-paid positions in the imperial administration. Those who remained tended to become increasingly
impoverished, less able, and less willing to govern. Cities with important roles in the government of the empire thrived as long as the empire did. In Gaul, Arl and Trier grew larger than ever before in late antiquity. But in most parts of the northwestern provinces where the urban tradition had shallow roots, cities contracted. Londinium, for example, began to lose inhabitants in the late 2nd century and seems to have been completely abandoned after the Roman evacuation of Britain. We'll explore some of the factors that affected the survival of late antique cities after a brief word about this video's sponsor. For historians like me, context is everything. And when I need context in today's media landscape, I turn to
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Vantage plan which comes to just $5 a month. Returning to our topic in general, cities near the Mediterranean were likelier to survive the collapse of the Western Roman Empire than those on the frontiers. Besides being closer to still vital trade routes, they had a better chance of being peacefully incorporated into one of the barbarian kingdoms that replaced the empire. In later centuries, however, cities on the Mediterranean coast became subject to pirate attack. Even St. Peter's Basilica was looted by Sariss raiders in the 9th century. To escape the danger, the inhabitants of some coastal settlements moved on mass to the nearest defensible hill. Cities and parts of the Eastern Roman Empire remained healthy until the early 7th
century when the Avars and Slavs overran the Balkans and the Persians and Arabs took the Near East. The cities of Syria and Palestine, close to the center of the newly established Umayad Caliphate, survived and even flourished after the Arab conquests. Eventually, however, almost every region was subjected to raids and invasions. The Anatolian plateau was ravaged by armies of Arab horsemen, driving the inhabitants to abandon their cities for castles and caves. In the 11th century, Mcgrebb the migrating Banu Hilal tribe destroyed so many cities that regions cultivated since the Roman period reverted to pastoralism.
Invaders were far from the only problems cities faced. The early imperial era had coincided with a protracted period of exceptional warmth. As the climate cooled in late antiquity, cities like Zagalasses high in the Taus Mountains withered in response. Sometimes the landscapes around cities became inhospitable. The irrigated fields of Egypt's Fume Basin were ruined by salination. The harbors of Ephesus and Mitus silted up. Earthquakes caused much of Alexandria and Bayi to sink into the sea. Over the course of classical history, fiferum malaria, the variety most deadly to humans, gradually spread westward across the Mediterranean basin. The effects seem to have been worsened by
deforestation, which filled rivers with sediment and encouraged them to form mosquito haunted deltas. Previously healthy places became dangerous. Malaria was largely responsible for transforming the Roman Campa, once famous for its rich farms and sprawling villas, into the wasteland it remained until the 19th century. Even where invasions were infrequent and the landscape remained healthy, the disappearance of the Roman Empire was accompanied by profound economic changes. These were most dramatic along the former frontiers where many cities had depended directly or indirectly on military spending. Cities everywhere, however, relied on dense networks of exchange. On the limestone plateau of
northern Syria, dozens of large villages had emerged in late antiquity, supplying olive oil to Antioch and its neighbors. But after trade routes changed in the wake of the Arab conquest, the villages were abandoned. Their gaunt ruins, never again inhabited, came to be known as the dead cities. It can be easy to forget how fragile cities are. They rely on sprawling networks of trade and transport, delicate webs of infrastructure, critical masses of people and resources. Although invasions and natural disasters played their part, most Roman cities were doomed by subtler changes which slowly unraveled their reasons for being. The world changed, people drifted away, and only ruins were left behind.
Make sure you aren't left behind by joining my trip to Greece this October. You'll find a link in the description along with a link to the Tollenstone Patreon page with its myriad historical delights. Don't forget my other channels, Scenic Roots of the Past and Tollen Stone Footnotes. And as always, thanks for watching.
