Nomads on the Territory of the Late Roman and Byzantine Empire from 3rd to 14th Century

Programme

The project examines if the ways of life of nomadic populations changed after they came to the territory of Late Roman and Byzantine Empire and if the modified circumstances affected interests and aims of these indigenous societies and tribes, because they necessarily got in close contact to settled communities, too. Therefore it has to be analyzed, under which conditions such immigration took place, i.e. the interests of the migrating tribes (external pressure, internal crisis or economic misery) and the possible needs of the imperial government (military allies or taxpaying inhabitants) have to be looked at. Moreover it has to be examined, if the immigrants forced territory to live on from the central state or if Romans or Byzantines wanted to sendentarize external populations on the territory of the empire. After that the circumstances of land assignations have to be investigated, i.e. if the communities occurred in greater units or just spread in small groups. Settlement could either mean the explicit assignation of farmland through the central government or only that of a residence area similar to a reservation in which these populations from outside the empire could migrate freely. The institutional regulations, which were taken from the imperial government to deal with these indigenous or nomadic groups and how those handled such rules, are of some interest, too. The short- and longterm effects of these communities should be investigated as well as the correlations between tribes and settled populations. Did the tribes show readiness to adapt forms of sedentarized ways of life or could be shown, that zones of contact settled populations adopted nomadic forms of life? Another complex of interest is represented namely through the connection between tribal elites and either local or empirewide leading classes. So it has to be examined if and under which conditions tribal elites got access to the highest positions in the imperial administration and due to that to the Roman or Byzantine aristocracy. What made the tribal immigrants in some cases get involved with local imperial peasants at the empires expense? In this context it is worth questioning for the relevance of Christianization of each of the settled members of those tribes. Then the at least formal conversion of those had been an essential assumption for integration in the eyes of the imperial central government. How far such a change for Christianity affected tribal values or forms of life is a problem, which due to scarce sources is difficult to show, but which nevertheless should be investigated in D8.

Publications

Prof. Dr. Andreas Mehl

Die antiken Griechen. Integration durch Kultur. In: The Idea of European Community in History. Conference Proceedings [Athens 13–16 March 2003], hrsg. vom Education Research Centre of Greece. Bd. II: Aspects of Connecting 'poleis' and 'ethne' in Ancient Greece, hrsg. von Kostas Buraselis und Kleanthis Zoumboulakis, Athen 2003, 191–204.

Der Hellenismus – Synthese zwischen Orient und Okzident? In: E. Erdmann/U. Uffelmann (eds.): Das Altertum. Vom Alten Orient zur Spätantike. Idstein 2001, 103–127.

Zwischen West und Ost / Jenseits von West und Ost: Das Reich der Seleukiden. In: K. Brodersen (ed.): Zwischen West und Ost. Studien zur Geschichte des Seleukidenreichs. Hamburg 1999, 9–43.

Stadt – Staat – Begegnung von Kulturen. Grundsätzliche Gedanken, ausgehend vom hellenistischen Zypern. In: Alte Geschichte: Wege – Einsichten – Horizonte. Festschrift für Eckart Olshausen zum 60. Geburtstag. Hildesheim 1998, 143–167.

Griechen und Phoiniker im hellenistischen Zypern – ein Nationalitätenproblem? In: B. Funck (ed.): Hellenismus. Beiträge zur Erforschung von Akkulturation und politischer Ordnung in den Staaten des hellenistischen Zeitalters. Tübingen 1996 (1997), 377–414.

Seleukos Nikator und sein Reich. 1. Teil: Seleukos' Leben und die Entwicklung seiner Machtposition. Leuven 1986 (Studia Hellenistica 28).

Dr. Oliver Schmitt

Noch einmal zu Mavia, der ‚Königin der Sarazenen'. In: Mediterraneo Antico 7,2, 2004, 859–877.

Kriegführung und tribale Gesellschaft. In: Burkhard Meißner/ Oliver Schmitt/ Michael Sommer (eds.): Krieg – Gesellschaft – Institutionen. Beiträge zu einer vergleichenden Kriegsgeschichte. Berlin 2005 (im Druck).

Zur Fleischversorgung Konstantinoples. In: JÖB 54 (2004), 135–157.

Untersuchungen zur Organisation und zur militärischen Stärke oströmischer Herrschaft im Vorderen Orient zwischen 628 und 633. In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift 94 (2001), 197–229.

Die Buccellarii. Ein Studie zum militärischen Gefolgschaftswesen in der Spätantike. In: Tyche 9 (1994), 147–174.

Dr. Thomas Brüggemann

Römer, Nomaden, Christen. Staat und Gesellschaft im spätantiken Nordafrika (3.–5. Jahrhundert n. Chr.). Diss. (im Druck).

Pliska – vom nomadischen Winterlager zur Hauptstadt (6.–8. Jh.). Neue Erkenntnisse im Lichte der Untersuchungen Karel Škorpils. In: Jubilaeus VI "Das antike Erbe des westlichen Pontosraumes", Sofia 2005 (im Druck).

Roman Order or Latin Culture? Forms of Nomadic Assimilation in the Late Roman Antiquity in Northern Africa (3rd–5th Century). In: S. Leder/B. Streck (eds.): Shifts and Drifts in Nomadic-Sedentary Relations. Wiesbaden 2005 (im Druck).

Phoiniker und Phoinikerbild bei den Griechen von Homer bis auf Aristoteles. In: Herbert Graßl (ed.): Beiträge des 10. Österreichischen Althistorikertages 2004. Salzburg/ Wien 2005 (im Druck).

Nundinae als Bindeglied zwischen römischer Administration und indigenen Gesellschaften im antiken Nordafrika. In: Mitteilungen des SFB "Differenz und Integration" 6, OWH 14 (2004), 157–187.

Die Gründung Karthagos. Gesellschaft und Staat im 7. und 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. In: Zur Erkenntnis der die Gegenwart prägenden Faktoren der Vergangenheit. Projekte zur deutschen und europäischen Geschichte in Düsseldorfer Magister- und Examensarbeiten. Neuried bei München 2001, 25–42.