This is the first systematic study of the changing nature of Roman identity in post-Roman North Africa.

What did it mean to be Roman once the Roman Empire had collapsed in the West? Staying Roman examines Roman identities in the region of modern Tunisia and Algeria between the fifth-century Vandal conquest and the seventh-century Islamic invasions. Using historical, archaeological and epigraphic evidence, this study argues that the fracturing of the empire's political unity also led to a fracturing of Roman identity along political, cultural and religious lines, as individuals who continued to feel 'Roman' but who were no longer living under imperial rule sought to redefine what it was that connected them to their fellow Romans elsewhere. The resulting definitions of Romanness could overlap, but were not always mutually reinforcing. Significantly, in late antiquity Romanness had a practical value, and could be used in remarkably flexible ways to foster a sense of similarity or difference over space, time and ethnicity, in a wide variety of circumstances.

In 88 B.C. King Mithradates Eupator VI of Pontus ordered the murders of every man, woman, and child of Latin heritage in all of Asia Minor {Today’s Turkey} and the Aegean Cyclades. A state organized genocide or murder of Romans covering half a continent and over one hundred thousand victims. Herein resides the account of one exceptionally unfortunate and resilient youth. He awakes to a dissimilar world and discovers his life torn to shreds. Yet he makes the most of his situation with brains, bravado, and spiritual strength. This is further the narrative of those brave Ionian souls who we re willing to risk their lives to assist this Roman lad. Witnessing his families’ demise, the young man survives and is the last Latin speaking citizen remaining alive in this vast area.

"In 416, when preaching a sermon on the psalms in late Roman Carthage, Augustine was able to ask his audience, 'Who now knows which nations in the Roman empire were what, when all have become Romans, and all are called Romans?'1 Yet already by the time Augustine addressed his Carthaginian audience the continued unity of the Roman Mediterranean was being called into question. The defeat and death of the Roman emperor Valens at Adrianople in 378 had set the stage for a new phase of conflict between the empire and its non-Roman neighbours; and over the course of the fifth century Roman power collapsed in the West, where it was succeeded by a number of sub-Roman kingdoms. Questions that had seemed trivial to Augustine were suddenly and painfully alive: what did it mean to be 'Roman' in the changed circumstances of the fifth and later centuries? And (from a twenty-first-century perspective) what became of the idea of Romanness in the West once Roman power collapsed?"--

This is the first volume to attempt a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the 'Arian' churches in the Roman world of Late Antiquity and their political importance in the late Roman kingdoms of the 5th-6th centuries, ruled by barbarian warrior elites. Bringing together researchers from the disciplines of theology, history and archaeology, and providing an extensive bibliography, it constitutes a breakthrough in a field largely neglected in historical studies. A polemical term coined by the Orthodox Church (the side that prevailed in the Trinitarian disputes of the 4th century C.E.) for its opponents in theology as well as in ecclesiastical politics, Arianism has often been seen as too complicated to understand outside the group of theological specialists dealing with it and has therefore sometimes been ignored in historical studies. The studies here offer an introduction to the subject, grounded in the historical context, then examine the adoption of Arian Christianity among the Gothic contingents of the Roman army, and its subsequent diffusion in the barbarian kingdoms of the late Roman world.

"Excavations at Ditches in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds during the 1980s investigated a large late Iron Age enclosure which proved to contain a remarkably early Roman villa. Discoveries included a well-preserved cellar and a range of finds, including Gallo-Belgic wares, Iron Age coins, coin moulds, Venus figurines and brooches indicating high-status occupation in the late Iron Age and early Roman period. This volume not only includes a report on the excavations of 1984-5, but also additional work, including a new geophysical survey and reassessment of the finds. Alongside re-appraisal of much of the 1980s evidence, this analysis allows the earlier material to be compared with more recent studies of the late Iron Age-Roman transition contributing to debates over processes of 'Romanization', questions of social and political continuity and the nature of villa development in Britain."--Jacket.

Thematic treatment of the broader impact of warfare in the Roman world, integrating Late Antiquity alongside the Republic and Principate.