Byzantine Borders were State Artefacts, not ‘Fluid Zones of Interaction’

In recent decades, a number of remarkable claims have been advanced about the Roman and early Byzantine imperial borders: namely, that the empire had no clear or fixed borders– or even no concept of a border to begin with; that there was no expectation that the borders could or should be defended and no ability to do so; that there was no concept of territorial integrity; that there was no imperial strategy for the defense of the empire; and that features of the natural terrain were not used or even imagined as marking the border. These theories have given rise to a revolutionary understanding of the imperial borders, encapsulated in the catchphrase “fluid zones of interaction.” This chapter shows, on the contrary, from primary source evidence, that borders were not zones of fluid contact: they were zones of state-regulated contact that could be more open or more closed depending on policy. Moreover, the movement of peoples, goods, and ideas across the border does not refute the existence of borders or make them fluid; borders exist if a state authority has the ability to regulate or restrict that movement, and there is every indication that the Roman-Byzantine state had this capability.