A Tale of Political Identity and Social Transition: Early Medieval Italy and North Africa, 450 to 800AD

Abstract

This thesis explores the nature and manner of socio-political transition in Roman and post-Roman Italy and North Africa. A vital part of this study is understanding that the socially constructed notion of ‘Roman-ness’ was used both as a categorisation and as a form of exclusivity. However, due to the inherent vagueness of ‘Roman-ness’, by the seventh century it had morphed into a blurring of regional-political and religious loyalty. Of the two main geographic locales this thesis is concerned with, preliminary evidence suggests socio-political continuity was mostly maintained in Italy because the plethora of different invading regimes that inherited the region were all comprised of vaguely ‘Romanised’ peoples or ‘actual Romans’. By comparison, Africa experienced a more significant break in continuity because of the eighth century Berber invasion than when compared to Vandal rule from 429AD to 534AD. This thesis uses Africa and Italy as case studies to explore the internal mechanisms of the variety of regimes and administrations that ruled over the respective regions in rapid succession. It will also provide an in-depth analysis of the organisation of the Late Roman Army and how it operated because changes in continuity are more obvious in governmental institutions which are heavily subject to foreign or domestic political changes. The role of culture and language in social continuity will also be scrutinized. While any discussion of this period of history will unavoidably have recourse to Early Christianity and Early Islam, this thesis will focus on Christianity because it forms the crucible of many important events in my case studies whereupon Islam only plays a role in one small area. The most important point to take away from this thesis is the understanding that many, but not all, of the post-Roman regimes actively tried to link themselves to a Roman legacy and were therefore, in some cases, willing to ‘pretend’ to be Romans in order to preserve this narrative. Continuity was thus largely self-maintaining because it was in the interest of all to play along.