Printable View
Over the summer break period ive been set an Archaeology essay on the way in which small settlements develop into larger and more complex settlements. I chose Rome i was interested if anyone in the monastery knows any good sources off or on the interenet to look at and any advice and to open a wider discussion itself into settlement growth in any period. Enjoy sorry if the subject is a little dull
Well, I can't exactly help you there. Check Wikipedia, although what I've seen there isn't very encouraging.
One thing to note, though, is that unlike the Colonies of the Late Republic, the development of Rome had never been really planned. It just kind of "grew" over the decades to accomodate the people.
Sorry I'm not much help, but that's already something. How long do you have to do this assignement of yours?
Its not particularly long assignment but im doing it mostly out of my own interest but i would say about 3-4 weeks.
No Internet sources other than the usual google and wiki, but a few major building projects and milestones on the top of my head (with reservation for errors) are:
- Augustus, who "came to a city of bricks and left a city of marble"
- the great fire during Nero, after which there was room for rebuilding
- Construction of Colloseum 72-80 AD
- Draining of marshes during Trajan, expanding the city, and construction of a new Forum
- Marcus Aurelius new improved city walls in the 3rd century
There was also a thread a while ago about a virtual 3d fly-around application where you could move through a reconstruction of ancient Rome.
As you can see in LegioXXXUlpiaVictrix's post, Rome only started being planned in the second half of its existence, and long after it had started building an empire. As far as I know it wasn't a particularly large, let alone impressive city before the advent of the Principate proper (Augustus and onwards), with large numbers of the citizens of the Roman state living either on the Latin countryside or in coloniae spread throughout Italy and the empire. IIRC its growth to a city of a million with great, monumental architecture only started during the Pax Romana.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this would be the kind of site you are looking for:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...Rome/home.html
Lots of Ancient sources, monuments, photots, maps, etc, etc.
The link is very much appreciated thanks!