How were space and movement in Roman cities affected by economic life? What can the study of Roman urban landscapes tell us about the nature of the Roman economy? These are the central questions addressed in this volume. While there exist many studies of Roman urban space and of the Roman economy, rarely have the two topics been investigated together in a sustained fashion. In this volume, an international team of archaeologists and historians focuses explicitly on the economics of space and mobility in Roman Imperial cities, in both Italy and the provinces, east and west. Employing many kinds of material and written evidence and a wide range of methodologies, the contributors cast new light both on well-known and on less-explored sites. With their direct focus on the everyday economic uses of urban spaces and the movements through them, the contributors offer a fresh and innovative perspective on the workings of Roman urban economies and on the debates concerning space in the Roman world. This volume will be of interest to archaeologists and historians, both those studying the Greco-Roman world and those focusing on urban economic space in other periods and places as well as to other scholars studying premodern urbanism and urban economies.

This study presents new evidence for the development of commerce and inter-regional trade through survey and analysis of urban layout and architecture. The study of Roman urbanism – especially its early (Republican) phases – is extensively rooted in the evidence provided by a series of key sites, several of them located in Italy. Some of these Italian towns (e.g. Fregellae, Alba Fucens, Cosa) have received a great deal of scholarly attention in the past and they are routinely referenced as textbook examples, framing much of our understanding of the broad phenomenon of Roman urbanism. However, discussions of these sites tend to fall back on well-established interpretations, with relatively little or no awareness of more recent developments. This is remarkable, since our understanding of these sites has since evolved thanks to new archaeological fieldwork, often characterised by the pursuit of new questions and the application of new approaches. Similarly, new evidence from other sites has since prompted a reconsideration of time-honoured views about the nature, role and long-term trajectory of Roman towns in Italy. Tracing its origins in the Laurence Seminar on Roman Urbanism in Italy: recent discoveries and new directions, which took place at the Faculty of Classics of the University of Cambridge (27–28 May 2022), this volume brings together scholars whose recent work at key sites is contributing to expand, change or challenge our current knowledge and understanding of Roman urbanism in Italy. The individual chapters showcase some of the most recent methods and approaches applied to the study of Roman towns, discussing the broader implications of fresh archaeological discoveries from both well known and less widely known sites, from the Po Plain to Southern Italy, from the Republican to the Late Antique period (and beyond).

This book discusses the extent to which Thomas Piketty’s work can offer a model for ancient economic history, both methodologically and politically. The book derives from a research workshop in Berlin in April 2018, which brought together a group of established and early career scholars to discuss the implications of Piketty’s work and related themes for classical antiquity. Key questions reflected in the text include:d: How should we characterise the ‘development’ of the economy/economies of the classical Mediterranean, in relation to the role of ‘capital’ and the prevalence of inequality? How was wealth, both public and private, evaluated and managed? How much of the wealth of their society did the ancient 1% control – and is their dominance better understood in terms of the power of capital, or the role of predation and state capture? How far did certain ancient polities – above all the Greek city-states – succeed in placing limits on the power of the rich and integrating their interests with those of the masses? Did inequality increase between the height of the Roman Principate and late antiquity, as is often believed? This book will be valuable reading for academics and students working in economic history, ancient history, and other related fields.

According to one narrative, that received almost canonical status a century ago with Francis Haverfield, the orthogonal grid was the most important development of ancient town planning, embodying values of civilization in contrast to barbarism, diffused in particular by hundreds of Roman colonial foundations, and its main legacy to subsequent urban development was the model of the grid city, spread across the New World in new colonial cities. This book explores the shortcomings of that all too colonialist narrative and offers new perspectives. It explores the ideals articulated both by ancient city founders and their modern successors; it looks at new evidence for Roman colonial foundations to reassess their aims; and it looks at the many ways post-Roman urbanism looked back to the Roman model with a constant re-appropriation of the idea of the Roman.

This volume considers “lived space” as a scholarly approach to the past, showing how spatial approaches can present innovative views of the world of Late Antiquity, integrating social, economic and cultural developments and putting centre stage this fundamental dimension of social life. Bringing together an international group of scholars working on areas as diverse as Britain, the Iberian Peninsula, Jordan and the Horn of Africa, this book includes burgeoning fields of study such as lived spaces in the context of ships and seafaring during this period. Chapters investigate the history, function and use of different spaces in their own right and identify the social and historical logic presiding over continuity and/or change. They also explore the fluidity of lived space in both its physical and conceptual dimensions, analysing issues like agency and intentionality as well as meaning and social relations. Space is the fundamental dimension of social life, the arena where it unfolds and the stage where social values and hierarchies are represented; analysis of space allows us to understand history through different means of shaping, occupying and controlling space. Considering Late Antiquity through a spatial perspective offers a complex and stimulating picture of this pivotal period, and this volume provides avenues for the development of further research and discussion in this area. Lived Spaces in Late Antiquity is a fascinating resource for students and scholars interested in space and spatiality in the late antique world, as well as archaeology, classical studies and late antique studies more generally.

This book showcases the unique shape of urban development that took hold during the Roman Empire, beginning in the Mediterranean basin before spreading out across Europe, and offers a fresh perspective on the cities and territories of the Roman West. With the expansion of Rome came a particular form of social organisation: the Roman city. This book provides a basic introduction to Roman cities, not through the lens of architecture and urbanism, but from a social, legal, cultural, spatial, and functional perspective. It focuses on the Roman civitas – the city and its territory – as the spatial model par excellence of Roman colonialism and expansion. Exploring primarily the cities and territories of the Western Empire, such as the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, and Britain, González-Villaescusa revives from their ruins those central places that facilitated the circulation of people, goods, and information, forming the large urban network of a unified imperial territory. Cities and Territories of the Western Roman Empire: 4th Century BC to the 3rd Century AD is suitable for school and university students, as well as the general reader interested in the subject of Roman cities in the Western Empire.

The Routledge Handbook of the Archaeology of Urbanism in Italy in the Age of Roman Expansion explores trends in urbanism across Italy in the period when Rome extended its power across the entire peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. Chapters present the most up-to-date archaeological data in the first broad and detailed treatment of this topic, superseding traditional academic particularism. They present a significant re-evaluation of the process of Roman imperialism and the role of urbanization within it. Particular attention is paid to evidence for local agency in different regions and at different sites, but general trends are also highlighted. Various types of urban sites are examined, including Indigenous urban centers that pre-date Rome’s conquest, colonies, both Greek and Roman, small centers in the hinterlands of larger urban entities, and the symbiotic relationship between urban centers and their rural territories. This volume challenges the existence of a standardized “Roman model” imposed on Rome’s vanquished enemies through conquest and highlights that this was a period of intense experimentation. Archaeological data are used to challenge traditional text-based historiographic models and reveal the complex interplay and tensions between Roman imperial control, local and regional traditions, and broader Mediterranean trends. This book is of importance to archaeologists and ancient historians working on urbanism and Roman Imperialism, as well as those interested in early urbanism in the Western Mediterranean and Europe and the comparative study of imperialism and colonialism across geographical areas and historical periods.

Taking a broad geographical, temporal, and cross-disciplinary approach, this volume explores new and innovative research which focuses on rivers and waterways from across the Roman world. Rivers and Waterways in the Roman World brings together cross-disciplinary chapters focussing on theoretical approaches, new digital and scientific methods and analytical techniques, and related surveying and excavation case studies to examine the Romans' extensive use of rivers and inland waterways around the Empire. Roman seafaring is well studied, but this book expands our knowledge of Roman transport, communication, and trade networks inland. The book highlights the challenges of archaeological work in the dynamic environments of rivers and waterways and showcases the use of new methodologies, including the increasing availability and accessibility of digital technologies that have led to a growth in the development and application of new archaeological and analytical techniques, as well as the discovery of new archaeological sites, many of which were previously inaccessible. This book is for archaeologists, historians, classicists, and geographers with an interest in the history and archaeology of the Roman Empire. Chapter 15 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution(CC-BY) 4.0 license.

This volume uses the travels of Roman governors to explore how authority was defined in and by the public places of Greek cities. By demonstrating that the places where imperial officials and local notables met were integral to the strategies by which they communicated with one another, Greek Cities and Roman Governors sheds new light on the significance of civic space in the Roman provinces. It also presents a fresh perspective on the monumental cityscapes of Roman Asia Minor, epicenter of the greatest building boom in classical history. Though of special interest to scholars and students of Roman Asia Minor, Greek Cities and Roman Governors offers broad insights into Roman imperialism and the ancient city.

This volume presents a coherent collection of papers presented at an International Workshop (held in Ravenna, 13-14 May 2019) which focussed on the transition between Italic culture and Romanised society in the central Adriatic area – the regions ager Gallicus and Picenum under Roman dominance – from the fourth to the second centuries BCE.