Rome, Ostia, Pompeii

Book excerpt: Rome, Ostia, Pompeii: Movement and Space demonstrates how studies of the Roman city are shifting focus from static architecture to activities and motion within urban spaces. This volume provides detailed case studies from the three best-known cities from Roman Italy, revealing how movement contributes to our understanding of the ways different elements of society interacted in space, and how the movement of people and materials shaped urban development. The chapters in this book examine the impressions left by the movement of people and vehicles as indentations in the archaeological and historical record, and as impressions upon the Roman urban consciousness. Through a broad range of historical issues, this volume studies movement as it is found at the city gate, in public squares and on the street, and as it is represented in texts. Its broad objective is to make movement meaningful for understanding the economic, cultural, political, religious, and infrastructural behaviours that produced different types and rhythms of interaction in the Roman city. This volume's interdisciplinary approach will inform the understanding of the city in classics, ancient history, archaeology and architectural history, as well as cultural studies, town planning, urban geography, and sociology.