Annona and commerce in Justinian's Italy and beyond: changing economic structures

Much literature, especially of archaeological nature, seems still influenced by the idea that the vigorous transmarine trade in the late antique Mediterranean was largely fuelled by state initiative. In the present article this assumption is analysed in the light of how armies were supplied during military campaigns, without finding a clear confirmation. Justinian's conquest of Italy led to an increase in the importation of Levantine amphorae in several Italian towns. However, it is not at all clear whether this increase was due to the need to supply new units stationed in Italy or whether it was largely due to the demand of private consumers, as several indications suggest. The praetorian prefecture experienced a transformation that led it to rely more and more on the private market to support the military rather than on the system of taxation in kind. With the disappearance of the prefecture, in the second half of the seventh century, new mechanisms of supply were tried out. At least in Italy, some documented cases in the Marche and in Rome hint at the collective exploitation of landed property by some military units. Finally, the article insists that our improved knowledge of seventh- and eighth-century amphorae will not lead to a ‘new’ economic history of the early Middle Ages if the same new materials are analysed with a model created for the explanation of late antiquity – a model that proves to be questionable even for late antiquity.