The Internal Frontier of Late Roman Isauria: Integration, Resistance, and Economic Expansion

Abstract

Abstract

The present paper aims to investigate the peculiar situation of Late Roman Isauria, where, from the 4th century AD, phenomena of economic expansion intermingled with episodes of resistance and social conflict. These interrelations stemmed from the struggle between different socioeconomic organisations, which in turn gave birth to different worldviews, but this scenario was further complicated by the assimilation of Graeco-Roman Imperial habits, and so by numerous examples of integration. At the same time, the province witnessed a substantial economic expansion, as amphoric remains testify. Thus, in order to study the dialectic between integration, resistance, and economic expansion, the production of symbolic discourses and material values is discussed from a regional perspective, since this is the ideal arena within which socioeconomic and cultural trajectories can be properly analysed.