More important than the degree of continuity and disruption is the question of the impact of surviving institutions and new forces. The complexities involved in assessing survivals can best be seen by examining the fortunes of one key institution which was literally synonymous with ancient civilization, the city.

The popular image of Byzantium as a monument to political and social immobility is in many ways the opposite of reality. The empire of Constantinople did in part owe its survival to its self-confident view of itself as the universal Roman oikoumenē (inhabited world), the terrestrial image of God's kingdom, but the institutional and fiscal resources which enabled it to survive crisis after crisis were derived from a capacity for selfregeneration. The most practical elements of its administrative inheritance were retained, while costly traditions such as the free corn dole in Constantinople were abandoned. The empire reinforced its depleted manpower by encouraging the settlement of Slavs and other peoples, and the rigidity of the old civilian aristocracy was replaced by a meritocracy of parvenu soldiers. Subjects' loyalty was fostered by the introduction of new 'populist' symbols and beliefs, and the status of the peasantry increased as free village communities replaced large estates. The simplified society created by invasion, depopulation, and the devolution of power to local commanders represented a caesura with the Roman past, but helped to produce a responsive and efficient military machine.

Nowhere is the transformation of Byzantium more apparent than in urban development. Despite economic weaknesses and the erosion of their municipal autonomy, cities had remained the political and social foundation of the eastern empire in the fifth and sixth centuries and maintained a vigorous civic life, reflected in lavish buildings and the notorious activities of circus factions. In the aftermath of the Persian and Arab invasions, however, the cities of the Anatolian plateau were abandoned or reduced to the level of fortified villages. The relatively more prosperous and secure cities of the coast of western Anatolia also suffered a calamitous decline. In the case of Ephesus the harbour silted up and the baths fell into ruin as the formerly flourishing city was replaced by a small fortified

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