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A SURVEY OF THE AEGEAN ISLANDS IN LATE ANTIQUITY

D.’s volume, based on his doctoral thesis, is the result of impressive amounts of fieldwork and research on the Dodecanese and Eastern Aegean Islands. This has given D. valuable insights into the archaeology while enabling a strikingly well-illustrated piece of work with photographs, maps and plans. The study moves from the macro to the micro: beginning in Chapter 1 with a discussion of the islands, topography, chronology and material culture. Further contextual background of the fourteen islands that make up the present-day Dodecanese follows with brief analysis of the archaeological, historical and epigraphic data, fundamental for a study of this size. The administrative and political history is presented, first in Chapter 2, with a particular focus on the epigraphic and literary data. The wide chronological range covered here, Diocletian to Leo III, is condensed into a pithy summary of warfare, conflicts, the growing threat of the Arabs as they increased in strength and the overall bearing on provincial authority. A little more on the direct impact of internal conflict and wars on the islands themselves would have been helpful, but in general it is a useful summary. Moving on from official structures, but still using the same kinds of data, Chapter 3 turns attention to individuals (bishops) and communities (primarily Christian and some Jewish) on the islands. There is a short paragraph on the evidence for Jewish populations, who are not well known in the Aegean in the late Roman period (in contrast to the earlier Roman period). Epigraphic and literary data suggest communities on Samos, Chios, Kos, Naxos and Syros, and some possible synagogues indicate communities on Aegina and Crete. This tantalising but short section has great potential for more analysis and discussion. Chapter 4 is based on a 2011 article (‘Late Paganism on the Aegean Islands and Processes of Christianisation’, in L. Lavan and M. Mulryan [edd.], pp. 311–46) and is divided into sections including: the afterlife of pagan sanctuaries, the archaeology of temple conversion and early monasticism. A number of geographically diverse case studies discussed in each section allows a focused analysis. The Sanctuary of Lindian Athena, Rhodes, the Heraion at Samos, the Artemis cult on Patmos and the Sanctuary of Apollo and Heracles at Halasarna, Kos, are discussed in the first section. In the second, the Temple of Apollo Dalios and Ikarian inscriptions are the focus of the East Aegean islands while the Sanctuary of the Demeter at Naxos is also included as a case study. Without more analysis, broad statements based on individual sites are difficult to support, such as the conclusion that Naxos had an ‘island wide policy’ of appropriating pre-Christian buildings (p. 27). This and D.’s points about unrest between the resident Jewish and Christian populations on Ikaria (pp. 29–30) are important, and signify a key area of research to tackle in the near future. D. makes a great start on outlining what is known about monasteries, and his honest approach in terms of summarising the issues with their identification (including a lack of a set architectural form) means that there is scope for more discussion based on his helpful initial account. The use of case studies in this chapter enables an in-depth discussion on the sites of focus and shores up the arguments for different levels of religious change at individual sites (e.g. Heraion on Samos versus Athena Sanctuary in Lindos on Rhodes). THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 214