Balkan urban development during Justinian's reign in 6th century.

Iustiniana Prima

By AD 500, late-Roman towns underwent extraordinary changes, due to the downfall of the public domain in most of the  cities, while at the same time, those urban centres, which didn't perish, inherited the roles of manufacturing vici as production and distribution centers. As a consequence the poleis of the sixth century have no continuity with those of the fourth, let alone those of the second century. They became centres of imperial and ecclesiastical administration, and the civilian population has been left outside of this development, largely excluded from, these Byzantine citadels, even when accepted inside to provide work and services. This process started already in the 4th century, but by the end of the 6th century the transfer of authority from secular officials to ecclesiastical leaders was a widely distributed process, because the areas of ecclesiastical administration always coincided with those of the Roman civil administration.

This process underwent similar changes both in the East and West of the Roman Empire European territories. The Balkans (Eastern Roman Empire) became a land  which by the end of the sixth century, changed its urban outlook, resembling very much like Medieval Europe of the 12th century, when towns were surrounded by walls, being built around a castle, mainly an ecclesiastic one. The western part of the Balkans was a Latinophone region