ABSTRACT
As the days of the Roman empire slowly turn into months and years, then decades and centuries, life’s routines, structures and traditions change and develop, punctuated by occasional threatening moments such as the Goths causing havoc in Rome in 410, the sight of the Huns within bowshot of the walls of Constantinople in early February 447, a massacre in the hippodrome in January 532 or the bold usurpation of Phocas on 23 November 602. As earlier forms of Roman thinking and behaving are eclipsed, novel forms emerge, but they are normally imperceptible at the time, at least during any individual’s relatively short lifetime. Until the 1970s, the ‘Later Roman Empire’ was a category reflecting underlying Roman political, military and legal structures, as demonstrated by the imperial court and administration. One of the more exciting and fruitful developments in the archaeological study of early Byzantine history has been the growth of Byzantion itself into the imperial capital of Constantinople.
