IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 1610: Rethinking the Medieval Frontier, II: Defining and Dissolving Borders in the Late Roman and Byzantine Empires
Thursday 7 July 2016, 11.15-12.45
Organiser: | Jonathan Jarrett, School of History, University of Leeds |
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Moderator/Chair: | Sarah Lambert, Department of History, Goldsmiths College, University of London |
Paper 1610-a | Fatal Permeability: The Roman Frontier in Late Antiquity (Language: English) Index terms: Mentalities, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy, Rhetoric |
Paper 1610-b | Trading with the Enemy across the Byzantine-Sasanian Frontier (Language: English) Index terms: Administration, Archaeology - Artefacts, Byzantine Studies, Economics - Trade |
Paper 1610-c | The Lower Danube Frontier Zone, 441-602 (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Military History, Social History |
Abstract | In sources from the late antique world a powerful rhetoric of insiders and outsiders defines much of the conceptual structure with which we are presented as readers. This session pits concepts against reality on late Roman and early Byzantine frontiers, as Darley examines the apparently futile attempts of both Roman and Persians to close the border between their two empires and Sarantis details the effectiveness of Byzantine defences against barbarians in the Balkans. Kitchen opens the session by studying how the writings of late Romans envisage the ideal frontier and how these visions survived contact with reality. |