Publisher Description

This volume presents a collection of studies focussing on population and settlement patterns in the Roman empire in the perspective of the economic development of the Mediterranean world between 100 BC and AD 350. The analyses offered here highlight the issues of regional and temporal variation in Italy, Spain, Britain, Egypt, Crete, and Asia Minor from classical Greece to the early Byzantine period. The chapters fall into two main groups, the first dealing with theevidence for rural settlement, as revealed by archaeological field surveys, and the attendant methodological problems of extrapolating from that evidence a view of population; and the second with citypopulations and the phenomenon of urbanization. They proceed to consider hierarchies of settlement in the characteristic classical pattern of city plus territory, and the way in which those entities are defined from the highest to the lowest level: the empire as 'city of Rome plus territory', then regional and local hierarchies, and, more precisely, the identity and the nature of the 'instruments' which enables them to function in economic cohesion.

Author Biography

Alan Bowman is Camden Professor Emeritus of Ancient History and Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. His research interests focus on papyrology, the Vindolanda Writing tablets, and the social and economic history of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt and the Roman Empire. Andrew Wilson is Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and Chairman of the Society for Libyan Studies. He hasdirected excavations in Italy, Tunisia, and Libya, and is the author of numerous articles on ancient water supply, ancient technology, economy, and trade.

Table of Contents

Introduction A. Bowman & A. Wilson:Survey Method and Data1: S. Price: Estimating Ancient Greek Populations: The Evidence of Field Survey2: R. Witcher: Missing Persons? Models of Mediterranean Regional Survey and Ancient Populations3: D. Mattingly: Calculating Ploughzone Demographics: Some insights from arid zone surveys4: P. Attema and T. de Haas: Rural Settlement and Population Extrapolation, a Case Study from the ager of Antium, central Italy (350 BC- AD 400)Urbanization5: N. Morley: Cities, Demography, and Development in the Roman Empire6: A. Wislon: City Sizes and Urbanization in the Roman Empire7: A. Marzano: Rank-size analysis of Roman cities in Iberia and Britain8: J. Hanson: The Urban System of Roman Asia Minor and Wider Urban Connectivity9: S. Keay & G. Earl: Towns and Territories in Roman Baetica10: A. Bowman: Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt: Population and Settlement

Review

This book emerges from one of the many fruitful colloquiums organised as part of the Oxford Roman Economy Project...this volume ultimately achieves what it intends; that is, to assess and analyse quantifiable data on the Roman economy as well as to provide interpretations for how these data fit within wider categories of economic behaviour, institutions and processes. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

Promotional

Clear presentation and analysis of new data for ancient economic history.

Long Description

This volume presents a collection of studies focussing on population and settlement patterns in the Roman empire in the perspective of the economic development of the Mediterranean world between 100 BC and AD 350. The analyses offered here highlight the issues of regional and temporal variation in Italy, Spain, Britain, Egypt, Crete, and Asia Minor from classical Greece to the early Byzantine period. The chapters fall into two main groups, the first dealing with the
evidence for rural settlement, as revealed by archaeological field surveys, and the attendant methodological problems of extrapolating from that evidence a view of population; and the second with city
populations and the phenomenon of urbanization. They proceed to consider hierarchies of settlement in the characteristic classical pattern of city plus territory, and the way in which those entities are defined from the highest to the lowest level: the empire as 'city of Rome plus territory', then regional and local hierarchies, and, more precisely, the identity and the nature of the 'instruments' which enables them to function in economic cohesion.

Review Quote

"This book emerges from one of the many fruitful colloquiums organised as part of the Oxford Roman Economy Project...this volume ultimately achieves what it intends; that is, to assess and analyse quantifiable data on the Roman economy as well as to provide interpretations for how these data fit within wider categories of economic behaviour, institutions and processes."--Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Feature

Clear presentation and analysis of new data for ancient economic history.
Wide geographical range of comparative regional studies of the ancient Mediterranean.
Focuses on methods of combining documentary and archaeological evidence.
Citation of recent scholarship on Roman economic history.

Details