indigenous elements and immigrant soldiers to produce a militarily effective society with a strong sense of local patriotism, whose nominal loyalty to Byzantium rested on little more than inertia. The weakening of ties with the universal empire had its beneficial effects: freed from the domination of a uniform élitist culture and the siren pulling-power of a metropolitan centre, local cultures and communities gradually blossomed. Sometimes this entailed a resurgence of local ethnic traditions, as with the Basques in Spain and Moors in Africa; elsewhere, as in Italy, it found expression in the rebirth of identity and vitality among existing cities.

Long-distance trade was of limited importance in the Roman world, although large quantities of goods and produce were transported through official channels, most notably by statesponsored shippers. With the breakdown of the state apparatus, especially in the west, such large-scale transport was restricted, and an increasing role was taken by Jewish and Syrian traders who specialized in luxury items from the east. Records of these long-distance peddlars dry up in the seventh century, but eastern goods continued to flow into the west by other means. A great number of items were distributed by the Byzantines as tribute or diplomatic gifts to allies and important churchmen in the west. These objects had a significance out of all proportion to their quantity and price because they were valued as an index of social status and because they served as models for local craftsmen. Even the supply of basic commodities never dried up completely. Although there was a trend towards locally produced parchment, papyrus continued to be used for more important documents in traditionalist centres such as Rome and Ravenna.

The hiatus of the seventh century was therefore confined to the already limited level of commercial exchange. This break did not apply to the non-Christian areas of the west; Spain and North Africa developed lucrative trade links with the Levant as a result of their integration into an Islamic free-trade zone. Elsewhere long-distance trade picked up considerably from the eighth century onwards, reflecting increased internal stability and a demographic and climatic recovery. References to

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