Travel, Communication and Geography in Late Antiquity brings together a set of papers that consider anew issues of travel, communication and landscape in Late Antiquity. This period witnessed an increase in long-distance travel and the construction of large new inter-provincial communications networks. The Christian Church's expansion is but one example of both phenomena. Contributions to this volume present readers with new research on this explosion in travel and large-scale communication and the effect on this of different geographical possibilities and limitations. The papers deal with many kinds of travel (religious pilgrimages; travel for work and educational purposes; journeys of the soul) and writings about travel; they look at various kinds of communication (ecclesiastical communication; communication for commerce; and the communication of religious identity); and they examine both physical and psychological aspects of geography, travel and communication.

Contents: Preface; Editors' introduction; Introduction: And up and down the people go, J.F. Drinkwater. Part 1 Aspects of secular travel in late antiquity: Introduction; Cicilia, geography, and the late Roman empire, Hugh Elton; Student travel to intellectual centers: what was the attraction?, Edward Watts; Letters of recommendation and the circulation of rural laborers in the late Roman west, Cam Grey; Milestones, communications, and political stability, Ray Laurence. Part 2 Elite communication networks: Introduction; How were bishops informed? Information transmission across the Adriatic Sea in late antiquity, Claire Sotinel; Libanius' letters as evidence for travel and epistolary networks among Greek elites in the 4th century, Scott Bradbury; Travel and communication in The Letters of Symmachus, Michele R. Salzman; The collected letters of Ambrose of Milan: correspondence with contemporaries and with the future, J.H.W.B. Liebeschuetz. Part 3 Reconsidering late antique pilgrimage: Introduction; Empresses in the Holy Land: the creation of a Christian Utopia in late antique Palestine, Noel Lenski; Itinerant spirituality and the late antique origins of Christian pilgrimage, Maribel Dietz; Sinai pilgrimage and ascetic romance: pseudo-Nilus' Narrationes in context, Daniel Caner; Pilgrims and foreigners: Augustine on travelling home, Gillian Clark; Indexes.