Government centralization in late second and third century A.D. Asia Minor: a working hypothesis

This paper offers the working hypothesis that increased central government intervention in civic and provincial affairs in the late second- and third-century A.D. Roman Empire can be partly explained by the effects of the demographic contraction following the Antonine Plague pandemic. The sharp reduction in the number of people who could work and pay rents and taxes posed a direct threat to government revenues and elite incomes. The result, growing central government attempts at direct control of local surpluses and increased exploitation of the non-elite population, is then tentatively documented for Roman Asia Minor

Space, movement and the economy in Roman cities in Italy and beyond

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