Staying Roman
Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439–700

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

Jonathan Conant (Author)

9781107530720, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 October 2015

458 pages, 5 b/w illus. 5 maps 29 tables
23 x 15.3 x 2.5 cm, 0.55 kg

'It is impossible to do justice to this finely argued and richly evidenced book in … a short review. Although the book's specific arguments will no doubt provoke continued debate and further research, its overall thesis that Roman cultural identity was paradigmatic throughout the period is highly convincing and will hopefully inform studies of 'long' late antiquity elsewhere in the post-Roman West.' Jamie Wood, Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean

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.

Introduction
1. The legitimation of Vandal power
2. Flight and communications
3. The old ruling class under the Vandals
4. New Rome, new Romans
5. The Moorish alternative
6. The dilemma of dissent
Aftermath
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], European history [HBJD]