The Decline and Fall of the Roman City. - book review

Contemporary Review, Jan, 2002

The Decline and Fall of the Roman City. J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]70.00. 479 pages. ISBN 0-19-815247-7. This study is about the 'transformation of cities and life in cities during what is sometimes known as the age of Migrations or the Dark Ages', from about 400 to 650 A.D.

Prof. Liebeschuetz wants to know how cities - that is, the cities themselves and the surrounding territories they governed, developed in what had been the Roman Empire. These 'city-states' had been, after all, an essential part of Graeco-Roman life. He is concerned with the survival of physical structure - baths, government buildings, roads - and the new forms of civic government, the decline and end of public spectacles, the Christianisation of education, the changes in social and economic life, movement out of the cities and the development of the new kingdoms which succeeded the Empire in the West and with them, new forms of allegiance. Cities in the East and West evolved similarly but at differ ent rates: western cities shrank and became centred on the bishop and the local cathedral. Roman civic life vanished and, in the west, so did classical culture and education. These changes undermined the Empire's administration: government 'by decurions' became government by 'notables'. This made them vulnerable to Germanic, Persian and Mohammedan invaders. This incisive study examines the Empire's decline from the ground up and gives new perspectives and understanding to one of the greatest changes in European and Middle Eastern history.