During the Ancient Greek and Roman eras, participation in political communities at the local level, and assertion of belonging to these communities, were among the fundamental principles and values on which societies would rely. For that reason, citizenship and democracy are generally considered as concepts typical of the political experience of Classical Antiquity. These concepts of citizenship and democracy are often seen as inconsistent with the political, social, and ideological context of the late and post-Roman world. As a result, scholarship has largely overlooked participation in local political communities when it comes to the period between the disintegration of the Classical model of local citizenship in the later Roman Empire and the emergence of 'pre-communal' entities in Northern Italy from the ninth century onwards.
By reassessing the period c. 300-1000 CE through the concepts of civic identity and civic participation, this volume will reassess both the impact of Classical heritage with regard to civic identities in the political experiences of the late and post-Roman world, and the rephrasing of new forms of social and political partnership according to ethnic or religious criteria in the early Middle Ages. Starting from the earlier imperial background, the fourteen chapters examine the ways in which people shared identity and gave shape to their communal life, as well as the role played by the people in local government in the later Roman Empire, the Germanic kingdoms, Byzantium, the early Islamic world, and the early medieval West. By focusing on the post-Classical, late antique, and early medieval periods, this volume intends to be an innovative contribution to the general history of citizenship and democracy.
Author(s): Cédric Brélaz, Els Rose
Series: Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 37
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 452
City: Turnhout
List of Illustrations 7
Acknowledgements 9
Abbreviations 11
Introduction / Cédric Brélaz and Els Rose 15
Part I. Local Communities, Citizenship, and Civic Participation in the Early Roman Empire (First–Third Century CE)
Local Citizenship and Civic Participation in the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire / Clifford Ando 39
Democracy, Citizenship(s), and 'Patriotism': Civic Practices and Discourses in the Greek Cities under Roman Rule / Cédric Brélaz 65
Part II. Local Identities, Civic Government, and Popular Participation in Late Antiquity
Civic Identity and Civic Participation in Constantinople / Anthony Kaldellis 93
Social Status and Civic Participation in Early Byzantine Cities / Avshalom Laniado 111
Informal Expressions of Popular Will in Late Roman Africa / Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira 145
Urban Identities in Late Roman Italy / Pierfrancesco Porena 167
Cities and Civic Identities in Late Roman and Visigothic Spain / Michael Kulikowski 195
Part III. Rephrasing Citizenship
Personal Identity in the Later Roman Empire / Ralph Mathisen 215
A Relationship of Justice: Becoming the People in Late Antiquity / Peter Van Nuffelen 249
Reconfiguring Civic Identity and Civic Participation in a Christianizing World: The Case of Sixth-Century Arles / Els Rose 271
Legalizing Ethnicity: The Remaking of Citizenship in Post-Roman Gaul (Sixth–Seventh Centuries) / Stefan Esders and Helmut Reimitz 295
Part IV. Expressions of Civic Identity in the Early Middle Ages
Urban Populations in Early Islam: Self-Identification and Collective Representation / Mathieu Tillier 333
Urban Culture in the Early Medieval West: The Case of the Episcopal Towns in the German Kingdom / Marco Mostert 363
Elites and Urban Communities in Early Medieval Italy: Identities, Political Initiatives, and Ways of (Self-) Representation / Gianmarco De Angelis 391
Citizenship and Contexts of Belonging: A Postscript / Claudia Rapp 417
Index nominum 421
Index rerum 434
