This thesis studies the inscriptions produced by the southern and western settlements on the Anatolian peninsula - modern Turkey - from the death of the emperor Commodus (AD 192) to Diocletian's accession (284). The 3rd century AD, a period of fundamental transition between the high and late Roman imperial ages, has traditionally been considered an age of crisis and decline. This crisis supposedly affected civic life as members of the local communities were not willing or financially able to take part in politics. Against this prevalent opinion in scholarship, the purpose of this study is to analyse the abundant epigraphic evidence surviving from this region in order to reassess the local activity of such political communities. The first chapter intends to determine whether the effects of the Constitutio Antoniniana on the nomenclature of the peregrine (i.e. non-Roman) population can be used as a reliable dating criterion. It also explains the methodology on which my collection of epigraphic evidence has been based. The second chapter examines the families, individuals, institutions and celebrations comprising the civic life of Ephesus, Lydia, Aphrodisias and Southern Anatolia (esp. Termessos, Perge and Side) in the first half of the 3rd century. These four case studies demonstrate a high level of local activity, which was recorded with inscriptions resembling those produced in the 2nd century AD. The third chapter analyses the communication between these local communities and the ruling power of Rome. On the one hand, this analysis describes the prevalent diplomatic procedures followed and their motivations. On the other, it evaluates the testimonies attesting direct contact between the population of south-western Asia Minor and imperial representatives such as governors, administrators and soldiers. The final chapter deals with the particular circumstances affecting the production of inscriptions in the region from 250 to 284. These four chapters demonstrate that the civic life of south-western Asia Minor can be studied from a local perspective and beyond the narrow methodological framework imposed by adherence to the model of the '3rd century crisis'. The contextualised analysis of epigraphic evidence provided shows strong elements of continuity in the civic life of the region and its relation with Rome. The same analysis also concludes that the stark decline and changes of the inscriptions produced in the second half of the 3rd century were not only caused by internal factors. According to these results, this thesis hopes to contribute to the reconsideration of the Anatolian peninsula in such a crucial period of the history of the Roman Empire.

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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While known for his accomplishments surrounding the Fall of Edessa in 1144, the career of Imad al-Din Zengi receives little coverage in the modern Historiography on the Crusades. Even though the careers of other famous Muslim warriors during the Crusading period tend to overshadow his accomplishments, Zengi had a remarkable career which provided him the opportunities to advance his own agenda within the larger Saljuq political structure. This structure allowed Zengi the opportunity to establish power within the Levant (modern day Syria, Iraq). Zengi succeeded in further stabilizing his own military position through manipulation of both political relationships and religious practices, specifically the calling for and waging of jihad, both of which allowed him to build toward developing his own independence from the Saljuq sultanate. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

This thesis aims to revise the established history of the passage of the Second Crusade through the Byzantine Empire and Anatolia in 1147. In particular, it seeks to readdress the ill-fated advance of the army nominally headed by King Conrad III Staufen of Germany towards Ikonion, the fledging Seljuk capital of RÅ«m. The work consists of four mutually supportive parts. Part I serves to introduce the thesis, the historiographical trends of the current scholarship, and the Byzantine notion of the Latin 'barbarian', a stock, literary representation of the non-Greek other which distorts the Greek textual evidence. Part II analyses the source portrayal of particular incidents as the army marched through the Byzantine Empire, provides analyses of those events based on new approaches to interpreting the sources and a consideration of the army's logistical arrangements, and argues that the traditional historiography has been and continues to be subject to textual misrepresentation. An understanding of the topology of Anatolia is required to appreciate why the army failed to reach Ikonion. Part III therefore consists of chapters devoted to the geography of Anatolia, the form, function and the population density of the typical twelfth-century town, the country's changeable medieval geopolitical landscape, and the settlement patterns and the way of life of western Anatolia's pastoral-nomadic warriors. Part IV revisits the Latin, Syriac and Greek sources which constitute the written history of the crusade in Anatolia, analyses the concerns of the army's executive decision makers within geopolitical, logistical, topographical and tactical frameworks, and offers a reconsideration of the established location of where the army ceased to advance on Ikonion, and a new version of the circumstances which led to the decision to retreat.

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This thesis is a regional history of Lesbos and the adjacent regions of Troas and Aiolis in NW Turkey during Greco-Roman antiquity. This area represents a zone of transition between the Mediterranean and inland Asia Minor, and therefore provides us with a case study of how regions which lie at the margins or beyond the theoretical framework of Horden and Purcell's The Corrupting Sea (2000) function. Rather than defining the area of study simply in terms of physical geography, I instead argue that we can identify a region which I term the coastal interface that is characterized by the overlapping and intermingling dynamics of the maritime and terrestrial worlds. This zone of transition can extend out to sea to include nearby islands which are orientated towards the mainland, for example Lesbos in the case of my thesis, or equally it can stretch inland up river valleys or along other routes of communication to places which, although out of sight of the sea, were nevertheless profoundly influenced by their connection to the maritime world. The chapters of the thesis aim to demonstrate that the concept of the coastal interface can help illuminate the social and economic history of communities living within this region, with Chapters 1-3 focusing on the Troad and Chapters 4-7 looking at Lesbos. The subjects covered include Hellenistic Ilion and the koinon of Athena Ilias (Chapter 1), Theophrastos as a source for the social and economic history of the forests of Mt. Ida (Chapter 2), large-scale state-directed horse breeding in the middle Skamander valley (Chapter 3), Mytilene's peraia in coastal Anatolia from the seventh century down to 427 (Chapter 4), Mytilene's minting of billon and electrum coinage in the fifth century (Chapter 5), the refoundation of the Lesbian koinon in the early second century BC (Chapter 6), and the Aiolian aspect of Mytilenaian identity in the first centuries BC and AD (Chapter 7).