Ray Laurence - The City in the Roman West, c.250 BC-c.AD 250

The city is widely regarded as the most characteristic expression of the social, cultural and economic formations of the Roman Empire. This was especially true in the Latin-speaking West, where urbanism was much less deeply ingrained than in the Greek-speaking East but where networks of cities grew up during the centuries following conquest and occupation. This up-to-date and well-illustrated synthesis provides students and specialists alike with an overview of the development of the city in Italy, Gaul, Britain, Germany, Spain and North Africa, whether their interests lie in ancient history, Roman archaeology or the wider history of urbanism. It accounts not only for the citys geographical and temporal spread and its associated monuments (such as amphitheatres and baths), but also for its importance to the rulers of the Empire as well as the provincials and locals.

RAY LAURENCE is Professor of Roman History and Archaeology at the University of Kent. He has published widely on the history of Ancient Rome, including Roman Pompeii: Space and Society (2nd edition, 2007), The Roman Empire: Rome and its Environs ( The Travellers Guide to the Ancient World ) (2008) and Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome (2009).

SIMON ESMONDE CLEARY is Reader in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham. His previous books include The Ending of Roman Britain (1989) and Rome in the Pyrenees: Lugdunum and the Convenae from the First Century BC to the Seventh Century AD (2007).

GARETH SEARS is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Late Roman African Urbanism (2007).

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

Ray Laurence, Simon Esmonde Cleary and Gareth Sears 2011

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2011

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Laurence, Ray, 1963

The city in the Roman West, c.250 BCcc.AD 250 / Ray Laurence, Simon Esmonde Cleary, Gareth Sears.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-521-70140-2 (pbk.)

1. Cities and towns Rome. 2. Urbanization Rome. 3. Sociology, Urban Rome.

4. City planning Rome. I. Esmonde Cleary, A. S. (A. Simon) II. Sears, Gareth, 1977 III. Title.

DG70.A1L38 2011

307.760937dc22

2010053225

ISBN 978-0-521-87750-3 Hardback

ISBN 978-0-521-70140-2 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

The city is a wonderfully complex entity; it can be defined as either a physical space of architecture, or as a people living in a single place, or as both of these. Within these definitions a myriad other elements emerge that make the city a very slippery object of analysis. This is as true of the multiple entities categorised as the Roman city as it is of any other urban form. Indeed, the idea that there was a single category, the Roman city, in the western half of the Mediterranean basin throughout the period of almost half a millennium that is the subject of this book, does not stand up to more than a few seconds scrutiny. Indeed, one of the central tenets of this book is that what we see across this huge area and long time-scale is the working out by numerous local communities of their relationship to Rome as expressed through the almost infinite variations on common themes of urban form and urban structures which were first generated in Italy and then adopted and adapted in the provinces. Moreover, analysis of the Roman city has been shaped by a series of explicit and often implicit theoretical positions rather than by any single agreed narrative or type of explanation. Some of these positions have been articulated with reference to social theory, although much that is written on the Roman city has relied on empiricism and reference to an undefined common sense. The Roman city has also featured in debates among scholars of the Roman Empire over Romanisation (and resistance), imperialism, the economy, cultural identity, discrepant experience, and phenomenology, to name but a few. nor to summarise the views of other authors (references are provided and these can be read at first hand). Instead we wish here to explain our view of the Roman city in the light of these discussions in order to articulate the conceptual and theoretical positions which underpin the chapters that follow.