Something old, something new: Social and economic developments in the countryside of Roman Italy between Republic and Empire

In his classic publication Hannibal’s Legacy, Toynbee wrote about the economic consequences of the deracination of the Italian peasantry which supposedly had both accompanied and followed the Hannibalic War. In his opinion new economic possibilities had potentially existed in the Italian peninsula since its political unification, though they had never really been exploited: “If an alternative economic system, or set of systems, were to present itself, and if the introduction of this promised to be profitable to the old Roman aristocracy or to the new commercial and industrial class whose fortunes had been made by the wars that had been the Italian peasantry’s ruin, this ruined and uprooted peasantry would no longer have the strength to protect and preserve its ancestral way of life”. 1 Whatever the exact nature of the relationship Toynbee established between the outcome of the Second Punic War, rural free-population dynamics, the attitude of the landed aristocracy, and new productive/trade patterns, the interplay of these factors has kept many scholars occupied over the last fifty years. 2 The aim of this contribution is to offer a critical discussion of more recent developments in our understanding of the social and economic transformations taking place within the countryside of Roman Italy in the period 200 BC to AD 100

Falerii novi (comune di fabrica di Roma, provincia di viterbo, regione lazio)

As part of the AHRC-funded “Beneath the Surface of Roman Republican Cities” project (2015-17), our team is pursuing a full-coverage Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of the entire intra-mural area of the Roman town of Falerii Novi, in combination with an assessment of the unpublished pottery from the excavations of 1969-75: our objective is to further our knowledge and understanding of the Roman town and its earlier phases of settlement (Launaro et al. 2016; 2017)

Interamna lirenas and its territory (comune di pignataro interamna, provincia di frosinone, regione lazio)

The archaeological fieldwork at Interamna Lirenas is part of an integrated research project involving geophysical prospection, field survey and excavation, all aimed at exploring the long-term development of the Roman town and its territory from its colonial origin (late 4th c. BC) well into Late Antiquity (6th c. AD) (Bellini, Launaro and Millett 2014). The full coverage Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of the urban area (in collaboration with Ghent University) and the main excavation of the roofed theatre (theatrum tectum) were brought to completion in the course of the eighth fieldwork season (2017)

Interamna lirenas and its territory (comune di pignataro interamna, provincia di frosinone, Regione Lazio)

Interim report on excavations 201

Interamna Lirenas and its territory (Comune di Pignataro Interamna, Provincia di Frosinone, Regione Lazio)

The fieldwork project at Interamna Lirenas has run for six consecutive years in 2015. Since its inception, our research has endeavoured to combine an integrated array of field methodologies including geophysical survey, fieldwalking and (since 2013) excavation (Bellini et al., 2012; 2013; 2014; Ballantyne et al., 2015). The range of data so collected not only has prompted a fundamental change in our understanding of the long-term development of the site and its hinterland (e.g. moving away from narratives of early decline), but it has also further reinforced our belief in the enormous informative potential of large-scale remote sensing (e.g. making it possible to cast the results of trench excavation and surface collections against a much broader and more complex interpretive canvas).The project is run in collaboration with the British School at Rome and the Soprintendenza Archeologia del Lazio e dell'Etruria Meridionale. It has benefited from the generous support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Faculty of Classics (University of Cambridge), the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (University of Cambridge) and the Comune di Pignataro Interamna

Guida alla redazione degli atti amministrativi

La "Guida alla redazione degli atti amministrativi" intende fornire indicazioni per la redazione degli atti per tutti i funzionari della pubblica amministrazione. Si articola in tre parti: (a) la lingua degli atti, (b) la struttura del provvedimento amministrativo, (c) il rinvio ad altri atti. Ne è autore un gruppo di linguisti e giuristi facenti capo all'ITTIG-CNR (Istituto per le Tecniche e Tecnologie dell'Informazione Giuridica) e dell'Accademia della Crusca

The Economic Archaeology of Roman Economic Performance

Recent years have witnessed a paradigm shift in the study of the Roman economy. Methodologically modern economic analysis is now far more acceptable than it once was, and archaeology has become the major source of empirical data for many questions. On the substantive side there is now a far clearer appreciation of the major changes that the Roman economy underwent, with substantial growth of population and aggregate production and even some improvements in standard of living, but followed by equally dramatic decline. This economic success was not limited to the imperial core, but also extended to the provinces

Common and rare variant association analyses in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis identify 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology

A cross-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) including 29,612 patients with ALS and 122,656 controls identifies 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with a lifetime risk of one in 350 people and an unmet need for disease-modifying therapies. We conducted a cross-ancestry genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 29,612 patients with ALS and 122,656 controls, which identified 15 risk loci. When combined with 8,953 individuals with whole-genome sequencing (6,538 patients, 2,415 controls) and a large cortex-derived expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) dataset (MetaBrain), analyses revealed locus-specific genetic architectures in which we prioritized genes either through rare variants, short tandem repeats or regulatory effects. ALS-associated risk loci were shared with multiple traits within the neurodegenerative spectrum but with distinct enrichment patterns across brain regions and cell types. Of the environmental and lifestyle risk factors obtained from the literature, Mendelian randomization analyses indicated a causal role for high cholesterol levels. The combination of all ALS-associated signals reveals a role for perturbations in vesicle-mediated transport and autophagy and provides evidence for cell-autonomous disease initiation in glutamatergic neurons

Analysis of shared common genetic risk between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy

Because hyper-excitability has been shown to be a shared pathophysiological mechanism, we used the latest and largest genome-wide studies in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (n = 36,052) and epilepsy (n = 38,349) to determine genetic overlap between these conditions. First, we showed no significant genetic correlation, also when binned on minor allele frequency. Second, we confirmed the absence of polygenic overlap using genomic risk score analysis. Finally, we did not identify pleiotropic variants in meta-analyses of the 2 diseases. Our findings indicate that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and epilepsy do not share common genetic risk, showing that hyper-excitability in both disorders has distinct origins