Neopalatial Crete - the 'Golden Age' of the Minoan Civilization - possessed palaces, exquisite artefacts, and iconography with pre-eminent females. While lacking in fortifications, ritual symbolism cloaked the island, an elaborate bureaucracy logged transactions, and massive storage areas enabled the redistribution of goods. We cannot read the Linear A script, but the libation formulae suggest an island-wide koine. Within this cultural identity, there is considerable variation in how the Minoan elites organized themselves and others on an intra-site and regional basis. This book explores and celebrates this rich, diverse and dynamic culture through analyses of important sites, as well as Minoan administration, writing, economy and ritual. Key themes include the role of Knossos in wider Minoan culture and politics, the variable modes of centralization and power relations detectable across the island, and the role of ritual and cult in defining and articulating elite control.

In 2008, the Berlin Antikensammlung initiated a project with the J. Paul Getty Museum to conserve a group of ancient funerary vases from southern Italy. Monumental in scale and richly decorated, these magnificent vessels were discovered in hundreds of fragments in the early nineteenth century at Ceglie, near Bari. Acquired by a Bohemian diplomat, they were reconstructed in the Neapolitan workshop of Raffaele Gargiulo, who was considered one of the leading restorers of antiquities in Europe. His methods exemplify what was referred to as "une perfection dangereuse," an approach to reassembly and repainting that made it difficult to distinguish what was ancient and what was modern. Bringing together archival documentation and technical analyses, this volume provides a comprehensive study of the vases and their treatment from the nineteenth century up to today. In addition to lavish illustrations, two in-depth essays on the history of the vases and on Gargiulo's work, as well as detailed conservation notes for each object, this publication also features the first English translation of Gargiulo's original text on his understanding as to how ancient Greek vases were manufactured. This is the companion volume to an exhibition on view at the Getty Villa, from November 19, 2014, to May 11, 2015, and then at the Antikensammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin from June 17, 2015, to June 18, 2017.

If all the portable artifacts of Ancient Rome were in a single location, the lives of students, historians, and connoisseurs would be immeasurably simpler. But the masterpieces are in museums all over the world. This book identifies 200 of the most important of these works, and describes them vividly and informatively in ways that reveal how each is a key object in its own right - a creation that commemorates a great event or heralds the start of a new era in creativity or politics. From coins of the fifth century bce to pottery made at the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 ce, each object reveals an important insight into this highly influential ancient civilization.

Since then new texts have appeared (such as the Artemidoros palimpsest), and new editions of existing texts (by geographical authorities who include Agatharchides, Eratosthenes, Pseudo-Skylax and Strabo) have been produced. There has been much archaeological research, especially at the perimeters of the Greek world, and a more accurate understanding of ancient geography and geographers has emerged. The topic is therefore overdue a fresh and sustained treatment. In offering precisely that, Duane Roller explores important topics like knowledge of the world in the Bronze Age and Archaic periods; Greek expansion into the Black Sea and the West; the Pythagorean concept of the earth as a globe; the invention of geography as a discipline by Eratosthenes; Polybios the explorer; Strabo's famous Geographica; the travels of Alexander the Great; Roman geography; Ptolemy and late antiquity; and the cultural reawakening of antique geographical knowledge in the Renaissance, including Columbus' use of ancient sources.

The Etruscan city of Caere and eleven other Etruscan city-states were among the first urban centers in ancient Italy. Roman descriptions of Etruscan cities highlight their wealth, beauty, and formidable defenses. Although Caere left little written historical record outside of funerary inscriptions, its complex story can be deciphered by analyzing surviving material culture, including architecture, tomb paintings, temples, sanctuaries, and materials such as terracotta, bronze, gold, and amber found in Etruscan crafts. Studying Caere provides valuable insight not only into Etruscan history and culture but more broadly into urbanism and the development of urban centers across ancient Italy. Comprehensive in scope, Caere is the first English-language book dedicated to the study of its eponymous city. Collecting the work of an international team of scholars, it features chapters on a wide range of topics, such as Caere's formation and history, economy, foreign relations, trade networks, art, funerary traditions, built environment, religion, daily life, and rediscovery. Extensively illustrated throughout, Caere presents new perspectives on and analysis of not just Etruscan civilization but also the city's role in the wider pan-Mediterranean basin.

Listening to the Stones: Essays on Architecture and Function in Ancient Greek Sanctuaries in Honour of Richard Alan Tomlinson deals with a range of topics that relate to the broad scope of Richard Tomlinson's archaeological quests and echoes his own methodology in research. Innovative masonry modes, matters of style and orders, proportions and design principles, as well as the inter-regional connections which fostered the transmission of architectural traditions and technical know-how have been cardinal points in Tomlinson's writings and lectures, as much as the Greek foundations on foreign soil, the forethought in planning, achievements in the field of engineering and the interaction between the secular, the sepulchral and the sacred premises in an ancient city. The conservative or progressive attitudes of a society usually leave an imprint on architectural creations. So, architecture is subject to evolution along with the developing societies. Its gradual changing signifies the building programs taken up by ancient communities. Within this frame, we better comprehend the function of public edifices, the remodeling of cult sites in accordance with historic circumstances, the role of politics in architecture. This book is a token of appreciation for a British professor of archaeology, who spread knowledge of the Greek civilization, manifesting the brilliant spirit of the versatile ancient Greek builders.

The tale of the combat between the Storm-god and the Sea that began circulating in the early second millennium BCE was one of the most well-known ancient Near Eastern myths. Its widespread dissemination in distinct versions across disparate locations and time periods - Syria, Egypt, Anatolia, Ugarit, Mesopotamia, and Israel - calls for analysis of all the textual variants in order to determine its earliest form, geo-cultural origin, and transmission history. In undertaking this task, Noga Ayali-Darshan examines works such as the Astarte Papyrus, the Pisaisa Myth, the Songs of Hedammu and Ullikummi, the Baal Cycle, Enuma elis, and pertinent biblical texts. She interprets these and other related writings philologically according to their provenance and comparatively in the light of parallel texts. The examination of this story appearing in all the ancient Near Eastern cultures also calls for a discussion of the theology, literature, and history of these societies and the way they shaped the local versions of the myth.

The third part of the four volume set which aims to make available the most important studies of Cornelius Vermeule, the formercurator of Classical Art at the Boston Museum of Fine Art. This volume contains studies published between 1974 and 1984 which cover a wide range of broad topics as well as including studies of specific artworks, mostly held in American collections. The many subjects include Graeco-Roman artworks in the East, the ram cults of Cyprus, numismatic art, Graeco-Roman sculpture, monuments and memorials, painting and mosaic, the Ara Pacis and Nero, Roman imperial art, crime and punishment and Alexander the Great's souvenirs. Contents: Preface Dated Monuments of Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman Popular Art in Asia Minor: Ionia, Lydia and Phrygia Recent Acquisitions. Aphrodite or a Nymph Ten Greek and Roman Portraits in Kansas City Cypriote Sculpture, the Late Archaic and Early Classical Periods: Towards a More Precise Understanding Greek, Roman and Etruscan Sculptures: The Benjamin and Lucy Rowland Collection The Ram Cults of Cyprus: Pastoral to Paphian at Morphou Medallions best reflect Renaissance creativity Neoclassic Sculpture in America: Greco-Roman sources and their results Numismatic Art in America Numismatic Art in America to 1796 Numismatics in Antiquity The Weary Herakles of Lysippos The Westmacott Jupiter Commodus, Caracalla and the Tetrarchs: Roman Emperors as Hercules Dated Monumens of Hellenistic and Greco-Roman Art in Asia Minor: Caria, Pamphylia, Pisidia and Lycaonia Greek and Roman Sculpture from the Northern Coasts of the Black Sea The Ancient Marbles at Petworth The Heroic Graeco-Roman Zeus from the Villa d'Este amd Marbury Hall Vita: Berenike II. Liberated Queen An Imperial Commemorative Monument Never Finished: A Possible Memorial of Trajan's Eastern Conquests at Salamis on Cyprus Athenian Eternity. Attic Funerary Stele, about 340 BC Ideal Portraiture at the Outset of the Hellenistic Age Interactions and Reflections of Painting, Mosaic and Sculpture. Complex Mythological Scenes in Greek and Roman Imperial Numismatic Art Roman Pictorial Mirrors The Imperial Shield as a Mirror of Roman Art on Medallions and Coins The Late Antonine and Severan Bronze Portraits from Southwest Asia Minor A Silver Cup of the Augustans or Julio-Claudian Period Bench and Table Supports: Roman Egypt and Beyond Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Holy Land The Ara Pacis and the Child Nero: Julio-Claudian Commemorative Reliefs in Italy and Elsewhere The Basis from Puteoli: Cities of Asia Minor in Julio-Claudian Italy Transmissions of Roman Historical Relief throughout the Empire, with Special Reference to Southern Italy and Sicily Alexander the Great, the Emperor Severus Alexander and the Aboukir Medallions The Mosaic from Montebello near Rome: An Early Manifestation of the Seasons in Roman Imperial Art Crime and Punishment in Antiquity From Halicarnassus to Alexandria in the Hellenistic Age: the Ares of Halicarnassus by Leochares The Horse and Groom Relief in Athens Souvenirs of Alexander the Great's March through Persia to India Victory in Death: Roman Triumphal Art and Private Life Index.

Augustus: From Republic to Empire is the product of a conference entitled AUGUSTUS. 23 September 63 BC - 19 August 14 AD - 2000 years of divinity organised on 12 December 2014 by the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University, the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations at the Jagiellonian University and the National Museum in Krakow. The conference was hosted by the Emeryk Hutten- Czapski Museum - a branch of the National Museum in Krakow - and commemorated the anniversary of Augustus's death. The volume offers readers articles that deal with a variety of topics ranging from architecture, urban issues and painting to fine art represented by glyptics and numismatics. It includes papers devoted to the publication of previously unknown objects, articles presenting iconographic research, deliberations on propaganda, and analyses of the political situation and source texts. Chronologically, some of the papers go beyond the age of August, yet are relevant to the understanding of the transformations that took place in art and architecture during the reign of the first princeps, the widely-understood middle and late periods of the Republic, and the early Empire. The geographic scope of the articles covers the entire territory of the Empire. This diverse topic allows a variety of research themes on the epoch of August to be presented from a broad perspective.

This volume traces the rise of Rome and the extension of Roman power across Europe, from the viewpoints of both conquerors and conquered, and also Rome's barbarian heirs, covering the period from 1000 BC through to AD 400. The book reconstructs as far as possible the indigenous experience of contact with Rome, showing how Roman domination impacted upon the already complex world of Iron Age Europe, before leaving a new 'barbarian' world in its wake. Using both literary and archaeological evidence, the eight expert contributors analyse the transformation of Europe, and the laying of the foundations of the Middle Ages, including chapters on Iron Age Europe, Roman society, warfare and the army, economy and trade, religions, and the cultural implications of Roman conquest, as well as narrative chapters on war and politics.

Much like our own time, the ancient Greek world was constantly expanding and becoming more connected to global networks. The landscape was shaped by an ecology of city-states, local formations that were stitched into the wider Mediterranean world. While the local is often seen as less significant than the global stage of politics, religion, and culture, localism, argues historian Hans Beck has had a pervasive influence on communal experience in a world of fast-paced change. Far from existing as outliers, citizens in these communities were deeply concerned with maintaining local identity, commercial freedom, distinct religious cults, and much more. Beyond these cultural identifiers, there lay a deeper concept of the local that guided polis societies in their contact with a rapidly expanding world. Drawing on a staggering range of materials----including texts by both known and obscure writers, numismatics, pottery analysis, and archeological records--Beck develops fine-grained case studies that illustrate the significance of the local experience. Localism and the Ancient Greek City-State builds bridges across disciplines and ideas within the humanities and shows how looking back at the history of Greek localism is important not only in the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean, but also in today's conversations about globalism, networks, and migration.

The colonnaded axes define the visitor's experience of many of the great cities of the Roman East. How did this extraordinarily bold tool of urban planning evolve? The street, instead of remaining a mundane passage, a convenient means of passing from one place to another, was in the course of little more than a century transformed in the Eastern provinces into a monumental landscape which could in one sweeping vision encompass the entire city. The colonnaded axes became the touchstone by which cities competed for status in the Eastern Empire. Though adopted as a sign of cities' prosperity under the Pax Romana, they were not particularly 'Roman' in their origin. Rather, they reflected the inventiveness, fertility of ideas and the dynamic role of civic patronage in the Eastern provinces in the first two centuries under Rome. This study will concentrate on the convergence of ideas behind these great avenues, examining over fifty sites in an attempt to work out the sequence in which ideas developed across a variety of regions-from North Africa around to Asia Minor. It will look at the phenomenon in the context of the consolidation of Roman rule.

It was not until the third century BCE that geopolitical realities beyond Italy forced Rome to recognize the importance of the sea to its own fate. Two centuries later, following the fall of Egypt in 30 BCE, Rome emerged as the dominant maritime power. Once in place, Rome's dominance of the sea became an important component of its imperial history. No other power before or since has controlled the Mediterranean basin or exercised an imperial naval tenure to such an extent.

Derived from the proceedings of the conference "The Maritime World of Ancient Rome" held at the American Academy in Rome 27-29 March 2003, this volume was conceived to provide a forum for recent research on subjects relating to the maritime life of Rome and the vast empire it created. With contributions from eminent scholars from around the world, this volume builds upon and extends the scope of the American Academy in Rome's first volume on Rome's maritime life, "The Seaborne Commerce of Ancient Rome: Studies in Archaeology and History," It will be of interest to scholars investigating maritime aspects of the Roman period and to upper level students studying the maritime affairs of the Roman period.

Cover Credit: Roman merchantman under sail entering or leaving Portus, ca. 3rd century AD. Courtesy Fototeca Unione, AAR.

"From papers on warship slipways to prostitutes, and from piracy to hydraulic concrete, this volume will be a required source for researchers dealing with maritime life in Roman times. As with all good scholarship, the combined gravitas of the contributions here pushes research forward by discussing new fieldwork, reviewing critically previous conclusions, studying evidence in new patterns andexperimental archaeology."
---Shelley Wachsmann, Meadows Professor of Biblical Archaeology, Nautical Archaeology Program, Texas A&M University

""The Maritime World of Ancient Rome" provides both theoretical and descriptive discussions of recent scholarly work devoted to expanding our modern understanding of the role of waterways and seas in Roman life. Drawing upon history and archaeology through cogent and accessible contributions by top scholars, the collection will stimulate discussion and debate for years to come. Readers will, like me, be inspired by the overarching perspective of the maritime network and its influence on so many aspects of life in the ancient Roman world."
---Cheryl Ward, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Florida State University

""The Maritime World of Ancient Rome" is not just of interest to maritime scholars but also to anyone working on the ancient Roman world."
---Hector Williams, Trustee, Vancouver Maritime Museum, and Professor, Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, University of British Columbia

In 1971, in the southwestern area of the Roman Forum of Corinth, a round-bottomed drainage channel was discovered filled with the largest deposit of pottery of the 4th century ever found in the city, as well as some coins, terracotta figurines, and metal and stone objects. This volume publishes the pottery and metal and stone objects, and includes a re-examination of the coins by Orestes Zervos. Some of the cooking ware has been subjected to neu-tron activation analysis, and a statistical analysis of all recovered pottery has been completed. The contents of Drain 1971-1 are important for the function of the Classical buildings in this part of Corinth, especially Buildings I and II, and for the chronology of the renovation program that included the construction of the South Stoa, which was probably not built before the last decade of the 4th century.

By mingling images on well-preserved Greek vases with the more fragmentary ceramics recovered during excavations at the Agora, the authors show how different vessel forms were used in classical Athens. By linking the shapes of pots with their social functions, this book gives meaning to the ancient names, such as skyphos, olpe, kantharos, lekane, and hydria, that one encounters when visiting museums.

This book explores ancient efforts to explain the scientific, philosophical, and spiritual aspects of water. From the ancient point of view, we investigate many questions including: How does water help shape the world? What is the nature of the ocean? What causes watery weather, including superstorms and snow? How does water affect health, as a vector of disease or of healing? What is the nature of deep-sea-creatures (including sea monsters)? What spiritual forces can protect those who must travel on water? This first complete study of water in the ancient imagination makes a major contribution to classics, geography, hydrology and the history of science alike. Water is an essential resource that affects every aspect of human life, and its metamorphic properties gave license to the ancient imagination to perceive watery phenomena as the product of visible and invisible forces. As such, it was a source of great curiosity for the Greeks and Romans who sought to control the natural world by understanding it, and who, despite technological limitations, asked interesting questions about the origins and characteristics of water and its influences on land, weather, and living creatures, both real and imagined.

The economic and political challenges along the maritime borders of the Roman Empire were multiple. The North Sea coasts were the focus of the attention of traders within the framework of commercial exchanges, of the General Staff preparing for the conquest of Britain under Claudius, and for the defence of the coastlines from the time that their protection became required. The design of a defensive system and the establishment of a supportive force followed a long path through five centuries, adapting to each development and changing strategy and evolving military installations. It had to face the threat of Saxon pirates, not to mention the use of the Roman fleet for political purposes as under Carausius. Military systems are complex because they rely upon the combination of various elements, ports, fleets - thus the famous Classis Britannica - forts protecting estuaries and watch-towers. This border represents a page in military maritime history, but its coasts, in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and France, contain archaeological sites of high heritage value that deserve a large audience.

Towards the end of Caesar's Gallic War, Rome had reached the Rhine. Since the campaigns under Emperor Augustus (15 B.C.), larger troop contingents were stationed along the river, with focal points around Mogontiacum/Mainz and in northern Switzerland. After the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9 AD), when the attempt to occupy all of Germania had failed, the Lower Rhine remained the frontier of the empire's territory until Late Antiquity. East of the Middle and Upper Rhine, however, the Roman sphere of power was pushed forward several times over a period of almost 200 years, and from 90 AD at the latest, the construction of artificial borders was initiated. When the Roman expansion came to an end around 160 AD, the province was secured in its furthest extension by the "Frontal" or "Outer Upper-Germanic Limes", which existed until the middle of the 3rd century. This book illustrates the historical and archaeological significance of the Upper Germanic Limes and provides an up-to-date overview of its manifold features in the field.

In a pre-industrial world, storage could make or break farmers and empires alike. How did it shape the Roman empire? The Socio-Economics of Roman Storage cuts across the scales of farmer and state to trace the practical and moral reverberations of storage from villas in Italy to silos in Gaul, and from houses in Pompeii to warehouses in Ostia. Following on from the material turn, an abstract notion of 'surplus' makes way for an emphasis on storage's material transformations (e.g. wine fermenting; grain degrading; assemblages forming), which actively shuffle social relations and economic possibilities, and are a sensitive indicator of changing mentalities. This archaeological study tackles key topics, including the moral resonance of agricultural storage; storage as both a shared and a contested concern during and after conquest; the geography of knowledge in domestic settings; the supply of the metropolis of Rome; and the question of how empires scale up. It will be of interest to scholars and students of Roman archaeology and history, as well as anthropologists who study the links between the scales of farmer and state.

The Art and Archaeology of the Aegean Bronze Age offers a comprehensive chronological and geographical overview of one of the most important civilizations in human history. Jean-Claude Poursat's volume provides a clear path through the rich and varied art and archaeology of Aegean prehistory, from the Neolithic period down to the end of the Bronze Age. Charting the regional differences within the Aegean world, his study covers the full range of material evidence, including architecture, pottery, frescoes, metalwork, stone, and ivory, all lucidly arranged by chapter. With nearly 300 illustrations, this volume is one of the most lavishly illustrated treatments of the subject yet published. Suggestions for further reading provide an up-to-date entry point to the full richness of the subject. Originally published in French, and translated by the author's collaborator Carl Knappett, this edition makes Poursat's deep knowledge of the Aegean Bronze Age available to an English-language audience for the first time.

Cycladic Archaeology and Research: New approaches and discoveries' reflects the present exciting times in Cycladic archaeology. New excavations are bringing to light sanctuaries unmentioned by literary sources and inscriptions (e.g., Kythnos, Despotiko); new theoretical approaches to insularity and networks are radically changing our views of the Cyclades as geographic and cultural unit(s). Furthermore, the restoration and restudy of older sites (e.g., Delos, Paros, Naxos) are challenging old truths, updating chronologies and contexts throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. This volume is intended to share these recent developments with a broader, international audience. The essays have been carefully selected as representing some of the most important recent work and include significant previously-unpublished material. Individually, they cover archaeological sites and materials from across the Cycladic islands, and illustrate the diversity of the islands' material culture across the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique periods. Together, they share common themes such as the importance of connectivity, and the role of each island's individual landscape and its resources in shaping human activity. The work they represent attests the ongoing appeal of the islands and of the islanders in the collective imagination, and demonstrates the scope for still further innovative work in the years ahead.

Although the treasury of King Croesus held great quantities of gold and silver plate, the Lydians clearly loved fine ceramic wares imported from Greece. This preference was entirely appropriate for the capital of the expansive Lydian Kingdom, which occupied a pivotal position between the city states of the Greeks and the gigantic empire of the Persians. The importation of Greek pottery corresponds to the visits from poets, philosophers, and politicians mentioned by the historian Herodotus.

This collaborative work consists of three generously illustrated sections presenting the ceramic finds excavated at Sardis, but produced in the mainland Greek centers of Corinth, Athens, and Sparta. Judith Snyder Schaeffer analyzes the Corinthian imports, Nancy H. Ramage the Attic, and Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., the Lakonian. Their study of this material from the Harvard-Cornell excavations at Sardis offers new evidence of the taste for specific Greek wares and shapes in Anatolia before the time of Alexander the Great.

In ancient times, the first communities, societies and civilizations in the Iberian peninsula, according to archaeological evidence, began to develop following a progressive local evolution tempered by the significance of outside contacts. In order to reconstruct our history, resorting to ancient poets, we strive to distinguish reality from myth in the pursuit of a bond of certainty between the data provided by historical and literary sources and the excavated remains. Greek epics, based on the Illiad and the Odyssey, are the basis for the first speculations that link societies all along the Mediterranean coast, from east to west, with a common thread. However, how many times have we been told about mythical places, such as cities of great splendour and unique cultural progress? Did the land which Plato called Atlantis and Adolf Schulten linked to Tartessos truly exist? These answers may never be revealed (they are not at the forefront of research interests nowadays); for the time being, they are lost into a mythical and legendary world. Nonetheless, they remain alive over time. Spanish description: En tiempos lejanos, ahora sepultadas bajo la caida de los anos, comienzan a formarse las primeras comunidades, sociedades y civilizaciones que se iran desarrollando en la Peninsula Iberica, por una progresiva evolucion local, sin descuidar la atencion de los contactos foraneos previa contrastacion arqueologica. Refugiandonos en figuras creadas por los antiguos poetas, tratamos de discernir entre lo que comunmente se ha denominado mito-leyenda y lo real, buscando un vinculo de certeza entre los datos que revelan las fuentes literario-historicas y los vestigios que se desentierran de nuestra primera historia, aquella que tratamos de reconstruir. La epica occidental apoyada en los relatos homericos de la Iliada y la Odisea, son la base de las primeras conjeturas que con un hilo, unen a las sociedades que conviven en el Mar Mediterraneo desde Oriente hasta Occidente. Pero ?cuantas veces hemos oido contar relatos sobre miticas ciudades de gran esplendor e inigualable progreso cultural? ?Existio aquella tierra denominada por Platon "Atlantida" y que fue asociada por Adolf Schulten a Tartessos? Estas respuestas quiza nunca lleguen a desvelarse (tampoco estan en la vanguardia de los intereses de la investigacion), por ahora solo estan inmersas en un mundo mitico y legendario, pero es cierto que se mantienen vivas, nostalgicas, con el paso del tiempo.

Building Mid-Republican Rome offers a holistic treatment of the development of the Mid-Republican city from 396 to 168 BCE. As Romans established imperial control over Italy and beyond, the city itself radically transformed from an ambitious central Italian settlement into the capital of the Mediterranean world. Seth Bernard describes this transformation in terms of both new urban architecture, much of it unprecedented in form and extent, and new socioeconomic structures, including slavery, coinage, and market-exchange. These physical and historical developments were closely linked: building the Republican city was expensive, and meeting such costs had significant implications for urban society. Building Mid-Republican Rome brings both architectural and socioeconomic developments into a single account of urban change. Bernard, a specialist in the period's history and archaeology, assembles a wide array of evidence, from literary sources to coins, epigraphy, and especially archaeological remains, revealing the period's importance for the decline of the Roman state's reliance on obligation and dependency and the rise of slavery and an urban labor market. This narrative is told through an investigation of the evolving institutional frameworks shaping the organization of public construction. A quantitative model of the costs of the Republican city walls reconstructs their economic impact. A new account of building technology in the period allows for a better understanding of the social and demographic profile of the city's builders. Building Mid-Republican Rome thus provides an innovative synthesis of a major Western city's spatial and historical aspects, shedding much-needed light on a seminal period in Rome's development.