Dey naturally focuses on the kinds of cities associated with rulership—imperial and regional capitals, royal cities, communities connected to political patronage)—as he shuttles from cities of the former western provinces to Byzantium and the Umayyad state. The result is a panoramic study of a discrete—but vibrant and consequential—thread in the lived experience of the urban environment that testifies to the durability of an urban political tradition that persisted in conversation with dramatic changes to that environment.

Hendrik W. Dey. The Afterlife of the Roman City: Architecture and Ceremony in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

From Bryn Mawr Classical Review (BMCR). Review by M. Shane Bjornlie, Claremont McKenna College