BACK TO ROME

 

BACK TO ROMAN SITES

 

Sites in the Roman World
of the ancient Roman civilization 

A Mediterranean empire that pulled together diverse cultures, in the Near East, Egypt and North Africa.Towns and Cities Roman life was characteristically the life of the cities and towns. Romans considered the city an essential part of civilization, and it is certainly true that, especially in the west, the creation of cities and towns was one of the most dramatic effects of Roman rule. Native people gravitated towards the towns: not only the upper classes, who were often enrolled as councillors and magistrates, but also the artisans and craftsmen who rapidly adopted the new styles and technologies.

 

A Mediterranean empire

Provincial towns could be of great magnificence, and were regularly distinguished by fine public buildings, temples, and other amenities. As early as the reign of Augustus, the city of Augustodunum (Autun), in central Gaul, was given walls and magnificent gates in a distinctive North Italian style which would not be disgraced by any building in Rome itself. This represented a vast diversity, including language two languages were still needed for communication, Greek as well as Latin, let alone local languages) and relative development - they spoke of 'barbarians' versus Romans/Greeks, where we would speak of first and third world. The planting of cities, with their familiar apparatus of public services and entertainment, was a sign and instrument of the advance to 'first-world' status.

The imperial bureaucracy nor even the military forces were large by modern standards. The central state in that sense weighed less heavily on its component parts, which were largely self-governing.

But above all the unity lay in the reality of participation in central power by those from the surrounding regions. Just as the emperors themselves came not just from Rome and Italy, but Spain, Gaul, North Africa, the Danubian provinces, and the Near East, so the waves of economic prosperity spread over time outwards in ripples.

All roads lead to RomeThe Roman roads were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 500 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire,these are some of the sites Ihave visited.

 

more to be added

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