Deultum was among the cities that suffered.

The fourth century brought a degree of recovery under Diocletian and then Constantine, who reorganized the empire’s administration and military structure in ways that strengthened its ability to defend the frontier.

But the recovery was uneven and the underlying pressures did not disappear.

By the late fourth century, the situation was deteriorating again, and by the period that Vagalinski’s team is investigating — around A.D.

400 — Deultum was living through one of the most dangerous periods in the history of the Roman Balkans.