Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict

One: Introduction

One Introduction J ustinian was furious. For nearly ten years he had pro­ moted careful administrative reforms in the empire's provinces. Yet one region in his vast domain still seemed to ignore the emperor's directives. Even though the all­ important tax revenues continued to flow uninterrup­ tedly Into the imperial treasury in Constantinople, Justinian com­ plained to his praetorian prefect that the situation in Egypt and its capital of Alexandria was completely disordered—so much so that he did not know what was going on in the province.1 We should not minimize the Byzantine emperor's frustrations in trying to understand one of the most important cities of his empire. The cities of late antiquity have long intrigued modern historians, since they bring into sharp relief the factors that transformed the fabric of society between antiquity and the Middle Ages. For the past three decades a flowering of urban histories has re­created for us the quality of life in these Mediterranean cities. Among the more notable of these "urban biographies" are Dagrons and Mango's on Constantinople, Fosss on Ephesus, Liebeschuetzs on Antioch, and Lepelleys study of the cities of North Africa. Recently, the archae­ ologist's spade has revealed the splendors of Aphrodisias in Carta, resulting in a handful of studies of this fascinating Anatolian site. 5 Alexandria in Late Antiquity 6 These admirable urban histories have done much to deepen our understanding of the empire's cities during a time of great cultural transition. Yet, they have also shown how difficult it is for us to grasp late antique cities on their own terms, separated in time as we are by more than a millennium and a half.2 Alexandria, the commercial hub of the eastern Mediterranean, especially invites our scrutiny. In the period spanning the empires restoration under Diocletian ( 2 8 4 ­ 3 0 6 ) and the conquest of the Near East by Arab armies in the seventh century, Alexandria figured prominently in late imperial politics, socioeconomic developments, and religious history. Alexandria entered the late Roman period as the center of a concerted rebellion against imperial authority which had to be suppressed by the emperor Diocletian himself. A nanism, the great heresy that rocked the late imperial church, had its origins in the preaching of an Alexandrian presbyter. The monastic move­ ment, which radically altered the way late antique man related to his society, his classical heritage, and even to his own body, was nurtured in the deserts near Alexandria. In addition, one of the most dramatic episodes in the bitter Mediterranean­wide struggle between paganism and Christianity was the violent conflict that erupted in 391 over the temple of Serapis in Alexandria. By the late fifth and sixth centuries, Alexandria was also a major center of opposition to the Christological theology of the imperial capital, creating the so­called Monophysite controversy.3 Despite the city's importance during late antiquity, the modern study of Alexandria has often fallen into the cracks between the disciplines of ancient history and papyrology. Evelync Patlagean touches on an important factor that dissuades historians from studying late antique Alexandria when she states that Alexandria and Egypt possess "la documentation trop riche et les realites trop particulieres."4 Consequently, discussions of Egypt and Alexandria frequently are relegated to papyrological journals, a "backwater" that historians of the broader Mediterranean world seldom enter, doubtless fearing the complexities of material as labyrinthine as the marshes of the Nile Delta.5 In the case of late antique Egypt, the situation has been redressed considerably by Roger Bagnalls nu­ anced survey of society and culture in the Egyptian countryside.6 Introduction Despite Bagnalls enumeration of the links between city and hinter­ land, most papyrologists consider Alexandria as somehow separate from Egypt, belonging more to the classical world of Mediterranean cities than to the more familiar villages and metropoleis of the Egyptian chora (countryside).7 From the standpoint of papyrology the city is considered Alexandria ad Aegyptum (that is, "next to" or "toward" Egypt) rather than in Aegypto, thereby echoing the phra­ seology of the ancients. One of the chief difficulties in discussing Alexandria during this era is the relative absence of a detailed archaeological context. This lack of material evidence is due principally to the modern city having been situated atop the ancient one. Added to this is the woeful disregard given by the builders of modern Alexandria to the city...