This dissertation studies the diplomatic communication between the Byzantine Empire and the West during the last century of the empire’s life from 1354 to 1453. The first chapter deals with ambassadorial travel to the West, studying land and sea routes, the season of travel, its speed and duration and the choice of vessel for the transportation of ambassadors to western destinations. The second chapter analyses diplomatic missions to the West, examining both the embassies themselves and the people involved in them, in an effort to create the profile of the late Byzantine imperial ambassador to the West. The third chapter examines specific diplomatic practices focusing both on the different characteristics of each emperor’s reign, and on the late Palaiologan period as a whole. These three chapters are accompanied three Appendices comprised of three main databases that list the embassies of the period, the journeys of the ambassadors and the ambassadors themselves, and a series of tables and charts that further facilitate reading and comprehending the results of this study. Through my research into these aspects of late Palaiologan diplomatic practice, I aim to demonstrate that the late Palaiologoi combined traditional diplomacy and innovative methods, such as their personal involvement in embassies to the West, which reflect the dynamism of the late empire.

The people of early Iron Age Cyprus worshipped at sanctuaries where a sacred tree was the focus of their rituals. The tree was closely associated with a goddess thought to inhabit the natural landscape in which the fields and settlements grew, and in which the people lived and worked. This thesis explores why the tree of life was the central symbol of Cypriot Iron Age rituals, covering the period from the end of the Bronze Age to 500 B.C. Although the tree of the goddess has been studied as an artistic motif, and ceramic material from Cyprus has been studied scientifically, material carrying the motif has never been studied within a fully contextualised archaeology that queries its prevalence in Cypriot material culture, its role within the sanctuaries and necropolises of the city kingdoms and the meanings the material carried in those places. This research project addresses the complex, abstract, iconography of the Geometric and Archaic material in a methodical and theoretical manner, and with respect to the local and regional landscape settlement contexts from which it was recovered. The study takes a fresh, postcolonial approach and follows contextualizing, multiscalar methods towards an improved understanding of cultural structures, meanings and individual events. Old concepts of race and fixed groups are discarded in favour of a more nuanced approach that sees individual identities as constantly changing and material culture as both a driver and an indicator of social hybridisation. This research also serves as a vehicle to study a controversial transitional phase in East Mediterranean history, when the ancient agricultural empires gave way to the poleis and colonial systems of the maritime networks. Although the emergence of a ‘great divide’ between east and west has been postulated for this period, the alliances and cultural exchanges that preceded this transformation have not yet been adequately explored in mainstream academic histories. This research focussing on Iron Age Cyprus illuminates regional interaction between African, Levantine and Aegean cultures, and shows that the island existed within a continuous and contiguous cultural milieu that stretched from the Nile to Athens.

This thesis explores the meaningful character of traces of earlier occupation and burial locations visible in the late 8th century BC landscape of the Argolic Plain in the northeast Peloponnese, Greece. It will be argued that, where ruined former habitation remains and burials were observed in the contemporary landscape, these locations were regarded as meaningful places. In the past, scholarly interest has predominantly focussed on late 8th century BC votive activity and burial reuse in connection with Bronze Age chamber tombs and tholoi. However, this thesis will demonstrate that these activities should not be dislocated from the wider landscape but, rather, should be considered alongside contemporaneous interconnected behaviour. In support of this position, evidence of ritual performances among the ruins of abandoned former Bronze Age acropolis locations; placing of burials within the ruins of Bronze Age buildings; and establishment of shrines within areas of Bronze and Early Iron Age cemeteries will be considered along with data specific to late 8th century BC activities in connection with Bronze Age chamber tombs and tholoi. It will be established that these trends should be viewed collectively as a single phenomenon acknowledging locations where earlier occupation and burial remains were observed as places appropriate for the performance of rituals or burial of the dead in the late 8th century BC. This thesis will implement a landscape archaeology approach along with contextual analysis of the data and will propose an interpretation of late 8th century BC interest in earlier constructions visible in the contemporary landscape. This interpretation will assert a potential ideological connection between the location of ritual performances in association with previous occupation or burial areas and the regenerative qualities of the earth.

The protracted war and the centrality of security in Israel raises the Lasswellian question, can parliamentary democracy and political pluralism prevail under such conditions, without turning Israel into a Garrison State? The prevailing understanding of political-military relations in Israel is that the IDF is an instrumentalist army, that it serves as the executive tool of the legitimate political authorities and is not involved with state politics. Furthermore, it is accepted that the greatest achievement of David Ben Gurion, Israel's first Prime Minister and Defence Minister, and the architect of the defence establishment, was the de-politicization of the IDF and its disconnection from party politics. Both assumptions are challenged in this study. New evidence, and an analysis of existing material reveals the existence of a nominal control pattern, which has the formal appearance of an instrumentalist model, whereas the reality is otherwise. The IDF was not subordinate only to a state channel of political control, like other instrumentalist armies. In Israel there existed a unique pattern of political-military relations, a dual-control pattern. The political authorities exerted control through two channels, not only the state but also the party channel, that is of the dominant Labour Party. The state control was in fact weak and there was a lack of effective mediatory mechanisms between the military on the one hand and the Cabinet, Parliament and Defence Ministry on the other. As a result a pattern of civil-military partnership emerged in place of civil control. The boundaries between the military and the Labour Party were permeable. This allowed the rivalry between that party's two "sub-elites" to affect the military which enhanced the partnership between the military and political elites. The emergence of the military as one of the main mobility channels to the national leadership, evidenced by the increased influence of the generals-turned-politicians, has resulted in a developmental construct of Military Democracy.

This thesis is made up of nine chapters. The introduction offers some preliminary discussion of the subject of the period as a whole, and some consideration of existing modern sources upon it. Our modern concept of the ancient world is necessarily constructed from materials derived from reports, and from the various other sources which have survived to use. The purpose of Chapter 1 is to establish how the reports and sources which pertain to the fifth century BC will be evaluated and used in the following thesis. To this end, the work of the three main contemporary historians for fifth century Greece are examined and some concluding comments regarding our use of them for the study of fifth century Macedon are made. Alexander I of Macedon faced circumstances which were almost completely incomparable to those faced by any other king during the period covered by this thesis. The fact that he not only preserved the integrity of his kingdom during the titanic Persian Wars but went on to gain territory, increase trade and improve the Macedonian army to an extent that it could conquer and maintain a vast tract of land, displays a commitment to the wellbeing of his country and a level of patriotism which Chapter 2, alone amongst modern studies, identifies and explores. In his commentary on Thucydides, A. W. Gomme has this to say about Perdiccas’ frequent changes of allegiance: “he chopped and changed all his life, as far as we can see to no very good purpose, except that he kept his kingdom intact and his own throne.” (p201) From Perdiccas’ point of view, and in the context of the Peloponnesian war, during which Macedon itself became, at times, a military objective, keeping his throne and kingdom intact was, in fact, a “very good purpose,” and indeed no small achievement. Chapter 3 explores the dramatic fluctuations in Perdiccas’ foreign policy which allowed him to do this, and considers modern viewpoints upon it.

During the medieval period the order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem was one of the oldest, wealthiest and farthest reaching of the crusading military orders. Granted official recognition by Pope Pascal II in 1113, the Order of the Hospital expanded its original vocation of caring for the sick to include a martial function within the Holy Land during the course of the twelfth century. In support of its various activities, the Hospitallers were given vast estates both in the east and in Western Europe from which it drew continual supplies of men, money, equipment and foodstuffs. This dissertation seeks to expand the current understanding of the activities, nature and function of the military orders generally by providing a study on the estates of the Order of St John in Britain and Ireland, the regions physically farthest from the most active centre of traditional crusade activity, focusing on the period of time from the twelfth to the sixteenth century.

This thesis argues that archaeologists have ignored fundamental aspects of ceramic assemblage formation. The factors that are traditionally invoked to explain quantitative variation in ceramics are such things as distance from source, breakage rates and trade flows. These considerations are all perfectly valid. However, this thesis argues that it is essential that we also consider the effects of changing eating habits. Using the example of African Red Slip Ware (ARS), a particularly common late Roman fineware in the Mediterranean, it is shown that changes in dining practices can have had dramatic effects on the amount of pottery that would have been used at any given period in time. A model is developed for the circulation of ARS which takes these culinary changes into account. It is argued that the changes were related to the role of the ancient meal as a means of negotiating ethnic identities. Specifically, it is suggested that many of the observed changes can be related to the rise of early Christianity. This model is then used to challenge long-accepted views of the Roman economy and late Roman rural demography, both topics in which ARS plays an important role. It is argued that the traditional view of the Roman economy, as having undergone successive boombust cycles, is misguided. In large part this model is based on a misunderstanding of the formation processes of ARS assemblages, and so a new model is forwarded which allows for the effects of changing eating habits. Finally, ARS is commonly used as a guide to the density and spread of late Roman rural occupation. Traditional views cite massive depopulation in Late Antiquity. It is argued that, by re¬ examining the ARS sherds, it can be shown that this view is also misguided. This is demonstrated through an analysis of the British School at Rome's South Etruria survey ARS collection, and a critical reappraisal of the historical evidence.

By providing a holistic viewpoint this thesis has gone some way to correct the imbalance in the secondary literature which has been dominated by coverage of the Mediterranean from either a domestic or international perspective. The thesis clarifies whether there has been a resurgence of regionalism in the Mediterranean since the end of the Cold War by examining regional dynamics in the area from five different perspectives. The first investigates the concept of regionalism in international relations. The second gives an historical perspective of regionalism in the Mediterranean. The third focuses on contemporary international relations in the Mediterranean. The fourth examines the influence of external actors in the international politics of the Mediterranean. The fifth provides a “reality check” of the Mediterranean in the post-Cold War world. Patterns of interaction in the Mediterranean area reveal that there are two neighbouring international regions that are very different in character: Western Europe and the Middle East, which include three subregions bordering the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, the Levant, and the Maghreb. Post-Cold War trans-Mediterranean political proposals resonate with older traditions. This research project investigates the substance behind such Mediterranean regional rhetoric. The conclusions of this analysis are that external actors have often influenced regional patterns of relations, but have not been able to alter the basic pattern of regional alignment and conflict within international regions. In addition, regionalising proposals are more accurately described as attempts to pursue particular national and subregional interests, and as boundary management devices rather than boundary transcending ones. A reality check at the end of the twentieth century shows that the Mediterranean is more of a frontier zone than an international region.

This thesis examines warfare, social power, and the state in central Italy for the period between 900 and 343 BC.1 The goal of this research is to better understand how warfare fit into the dialogue of social power in Etruria and Rome. This is achieved through the fulfilment of a number of aims. The first is to understand the patterns of warfare present in central Italy, as these can help us better understand the social aspects of conflict in the region. The project assumes that the practice of warfare is important for understanding its role in this dialogue, and thus an analysis of arms, armour, and tactics is also necessary. The second aim is to understand how warfare and politics affected one another. The condottieri paradigm is challenged and the strength of central Italian states asserted. The third aim is to explain the interaction between warfare and economic power, and the interaction between these two aspects of social power. The fourth aim is similar, and analyzes the connections that are visible between warfare and religion. Through these aims, this project creates a clearer picture of warfare in Etruria and Rome from the Iron Age to the Archaic Period. It argues that the exchange and dialogue of social power was not alienated from the state, and that independent warfare would have been of less value than it was probably worth. To this end, the Servian Constitution is re-examined and the idea of an early Roman hoplite phalanx, and single class army, is rejected. The original contribution of this work is in reasserting the position of the state in Tyrrhenian warfare and rejecting the idea that private interest was more powerful.

Since Ardashir’s victory over the Parthians in A.D 224 to his successors’ eventual defeat at the hands of the Arabs in 651 the Roman and Sasanian Empires had been bitter and deadly rivals. Throughout Late Antiquity the Roman-Sasanian relationship was dominated by competition; a constant battle for imperial prestige, military supremacy, cultural influence and economic advantage. In the course of their relationship Ctesiphon, the Sasanian capital, was sacked by Roman forces, the Roman emperor Valerian was captured and taken prisoner, Julian the Apostate was killed by Sassanian forces in his infamous campaign of 363, and the great Roman city of Antioch had been captured and razed. Yet in this seemingly never-ending imperial struggle the fifth century stands out as a period of unprecedented peace between the imperial rivals. It is the aim of this thesis to analyse what made the fifth century a unique period of peace. This thesis seeks to expand on current scholarship on the fifth-century Roman-Sasanian relationship, which has focused on the investigation of specific and individual events, by taking a more holistic approach. In this regard, all aspects of the relationship, military conflicts, frontier zones, barbarian threats, religious issues, economic considerations and the development of diplomatic contacts, will be analysed in order to identify what pushed the two empires towards a peace and, more importantly, how this peace was maintained in the face of old hostilities and traditional antagonism. Viewing the Roman-Sasanian relationship as merely one part of the wider late antique world, not as something unique and separate, will also be a key component of this investigation. Central to the aim and approach of this thesis is the use of political realism, a theory for understanding international relations, to reveal the motivations and pressures that both empires faced in this period that pushed them towards peace. In this regard, it will be argued that the Roman and Sasanian overriding desire and goal of ensuring their own safety and security in an anarchic world in the face of the new and dangerous threats posed by the ascendant Huns, Hephthalites and Vandals was the underlying motivation behind the fifth-century peace. It was the threat posed by these groups that forced a shift in Roman-Sasanian relations towards the accommodation that both needed to survive the turbulent fifth century. As such, it was these new threats that stimulated the development of imperial diplomacy in the fifth century that allowed the two empires to mediate their traditional casus belli and maintain peace throughout this period. This diplomatic development allowed them to reach new and innovative diplomatic solutions to their problems in the frontier zones of Arabia and Armenia.