The 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies

Symploke and complexio

Entangling and Dis-Entangling the Networks of the Roman Empire of the East in the Early Medieval World, Fourth-Ninth Century CE

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Abstract

The paper synthesises and develops further several attempts to model aspects of the complexity of the infrastructure and administrative organization of the Roman Empire between the 4th and 8th century CE based on evidence from historiography, historical geography, sigillography and archaeology. It provides a short introduction into concepts and analytical tools of network theory. Furthermore, the paper combines this approach with a visualization of the spatial range of Roman power and maps based on mobility and perceptions of contemporaries. Thereby, the already successful integration of the “relational turn” to Byzantine studies shall be demonstrated.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Dec. 21, 2021 | Accepted: Feb. 2, 2022 | Published Aug. 22, 2022 | Language: en

Keywords Network analysis • Roman infrastructure • Early Medieval Mediterranean • Late Antiquity • Late antiquity • Roman administration • Complexity theory

Copyright © 2022 Johannes Preiser-Kapeller. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-590-2/021


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