Peasants and Economic Agency in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages: A Byzantine Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines agrarian relations in both the core territories of the Byzantine Empire in Anatolia and Asia Minor from the sixth to eighth centuries and also those in the empire’s westernmost provinces. It argues that around the western Mediterranean, both within and beyond imperial territory, the period witnessed a greater degree of continuity in the form and extent of peasant exploitation than is sometimes supposed. In so far as peasant exploitation diminished, a crucial role may have been played by labour shortages associated with the so-called «Justinianic Plague», which would have allowed peasants to negotiate better terms for themselves, and caused military and political disruption (as emphasised by Wickham).