Andrei Gandila, Cultural Encounters on Byzantium’s Northern Frontier, c. AD 500–700. Coins, Artifacts and History (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018).

Andrei Gandila studied history and archaeology in Bucharest before completing his PhD at the University of Florida in 2013. Between 2013 and 2019, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the History Department at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, where he continued to work as an Associate Professor since 2019. He is has also been the Director of the Ancient and Medieval Studies Programme since 2016. Gandila’s research focuses on the Balkan region and the Mediterraneum in the Roman and late antique period. In particular, he focuses on cultural interactions in the militarised border zones and the emergence of identities in these regions.

Based on his doctoral thesis and the results of further research on the distribution of various archaeological and numismatic object types (pp. viii–‍ix), Gandila analyses the contacts and exchanges between Romans and “barbarian” groups. In his analysis, he focuses on the processes within the border zone of the Byzantine Danube border and its hinterlands during the 6th–8th centuries. As an underlying theoretical model, Gandila uses Immanuel Wallerstein’s world-system-theory (1987), according to which Gandila assigns the role of an economic semi-periphery to the border regions of the Byzantine Empire, while he sees the periphery of the producing centres in the hinterlands beyond the border (pp. 133–‍135). Gandila further argues that the military resources of the Byzantine Empire during the period studied was predominantly bound by the disputes with the Persian Empire (p. 19), which is why the Danube border had to be secured through complementary, diplomatic strategies. According to Gandila, the exchange of prestige goods and the payment of large sums of money ensured the goodwill of the “barbarian” community north of the border zone and was an essential component of the military strategy on the Byzantine Danube border.

Gandila presents his main arguments, the historiographical context and the primary results in the introduction and conclusion of this book. In the first chapter, he discusses various theoretical models for understanding the border politics of the Byzantine Empire, focusing particularly on Edward Luttwak’s grand-strategy theory (1976; 2009) (pp. 12–‍20). Gandila elaborates on the multi-layered character of the Danube border, whose fortification line functioned as a political demarcation and as a line of communication, posing the question of whether the frontier was permeable for people and goods at the same time (p. 32).

In chapter 2, Gandila draws attention to the archaeological sources. After an overview of the historical and archaeological context of the 4th and 5th centuries, he points out that the Danube border was a zone of active exchange and close cultural contacts (pp. 33–‍34). He illustrates this by evaluating the distribution of various archaeological object types, including amphorae and selected types of fibulae.

Chapter 3 focuses on the Christianisation of the areas north of the lower Danube. Gandila contradicts the existing view that the spread of the Christian religion was accompanied by the Romanisation of the population. He sees the apparent adoption of the Christian religion as an opportunistic choice of elites north of the Danube and as a by-product of cross-border relations (pp. 128–‍130).

Chapter 4 brings together the results of the previous analyses, thereby answering the question raised at the end of chapter one. Drawing on the historical sources, Gandila concludes that although the border was politically closed, it was permeable for the exchange of goods between the Byzantine provinces and the hinterlands of the border. Whereby these imported goods were reinterpreted beyond the border and now underlined the political status of the new owner as prestigious objects (pp. 148–‍153).

Chapter 5 begins a section comprising several chapters that focus on the numismatic sources. First, Gandila looks at the distribution of bronze money in the areas south and east of the Carpathians, which are located north of the border. In this context, he emphasises that a large number of the hoards as well as individual finds come from unclear contexts, which limits the possibilities of research. Gandila nevertheless succeeds in reconciling temporal gaps in the distribution of copper coinage with periods of economic weakness in the Byzantine Empire, and in disprove to the existing interpretation of a closing of the border in these phases (pp. 156–‍160).

Chapter 6 compares the numismatic source situation in Transcaucasia and the Carpathian Basin. Taking into account the historical sources, Gandila concludes that both regions received large quantities of coinage made of precious metals, with silver coinage being predominant in the Transcaucasian region, while a large number of gold coinage is known north of the Danube. He stresses that the finds of gold and silver coins reflect military and diplomatic efforts of the Byzantine Empire to forge strategic alliances with barbarian rulers, especially during the Avar Khaganate between the 570s and 620s (pp. 216–‍217; 233–‍234).

The chapter 7 emphasises the function of coins in the semi-periphery region of the border as well as in the periphery beyond the border. Gandila shows that coinage entered the periphery primarily as diplomatic tribute payments and lost its function as a means of payment here. He points out that there was no monetary economy in the periphery. Coins became prestige goods, sometimes converted into jewellery (p. 279). Gandila reinforces his argument with modern comparisons of anthropological studies that show similar phenomena in traditional societies that exist today (pp. 252–‍260).

Gandila’s book provides a well-structured and multi-layered insight into the interactions within the border zone and the adjacent regions. In my view, its strength lies above all in its interdisciplinary approach, the linking of material and written sources. In this way, the book is also thought-provoking in terms of its methodology. It makes particularly clear that Byzantine border policy was complex and that the diplomatic exchange of goods and tribute payments played a major role, going hand in hand with the military presence within the border zone and underlining, supporting, and complementing it.