Cities of Sinners, Cities of Angels: Urban Life and Civic Elites in Late Antique Greece - Amelia Brown (Berkeley)

For previous generations of scholars, urban life in Greece was practically invisible in Late Antiquity. The literary sources of the 4^th through 6^th centuries were either Christian or written in a decadent style largely empty of artistic or historical merit; the archaeological remains were of poor quality, suitable only for passing mention, usually of their removal. Scattered references to barbarians and earthquakes combined with what little archaeologists did record to yield a narrative of decline and destruction for most cities in the 3^rd or at the latest the 4^th century. In Thessaloniki, though, several monuments still in use, the cult of St. Demetrius and a growing number of rescue excavations made the Galerian and Late Antique city impossible to deny. Athens also yielded renovations and conversions aplenty, which have recently beguBato be dated and interpreted more closely. Most Late Antique monuments of Corinth, though, and other cities in the Peloponnese, have only recently been dated or discovered, let alone analyzed alongside the relevant Late Antique literature. While only a few mainly cemetery churches have been excavated on the periphery of Corinth, the sculpture, epigraphy and architecture of the city center all testify to the vigor of urban life and pagan religion throughout Late Antiquity. The evidence of Thessaloniki and Athens, and the newly redated or discovered monuments of Corinth, together contribute to the reconstruction of active civic life in Late Antique Greece. Pagan religion and Christianity, councils and euergetism, games and construction were all contested and guided by civic elites in local, imperial and ecclesiastical offices interacting in ancient city centers. This new picture of vigorous cities in Late Antique Greece has important implications for current scholarship on ancient urbanism, the development of Christianity and the transition to the Byzantine world.