Urban networks in Latium

Abstract

Rome’s hinterland, Latium, has long been a focus of research. It offers a remarkably rich set of information, archaeological, epigraphical, and literary, and especially for the period 200 bc to ad 200. We can see a densely settled countryside with a scatter of urbanized settlements, and we can trace links between them and repetitive cultural behaviours. This paper presents the potential of a new database, combining three major surveys, and relates this first to the model of the globalized countryside, and then argues for the relevance of actor-network theory and assemblage theory. The intention is to encourage a renewed collaborative effort to understand ‘urbanity’ at a regional level, in central Italy and elsewhere.