Arcadia · Imperium Romanum

The later Balkan provincial landscape. Dacia south of the Danube, the two Epiri… — The later Balkan provincial landscape. Dacia south of the Danube, the two Epiri, Thessaly, Macedonia, Achaia, and the Thracian districts illustrate the replacement of large commands by smaller jurisdictions. The river network helps relate frontier districts to the Adriatic, Aegean, and imperial straits.

The province’s name commemorated imperial association rather than a connection with the Greek Peloponnesian region of Arcadia. Its towns, villages, estates, fields, canals, and markets supported a substantial agricultural and administrative society. Oxyrhynchus served as an important urban and Christian centre within this network.

Taxation and local government depended upon the productive and legal relationships of rural communities. Religious institutions and landed interests became increasingly prominent in late antiquity. Further administrative changes and seventh-century conquest altered the sovereign framework without making the villages, irrigation systems, and household economies disappear at the same moment.

LE-58 Arcadia