![]() ![]() Since the 1950s there has been an enormous growth in archaeological research-surface survey of rural areas, excavations of farmsteads, study of the ancient environment (through pollen, seeds, bones)-which is taking our knowledge and understanding of Roman agriculture far beyond what could be discovered from the evidence of the literary sources.Īmmaedara (mod. But two factors-the geophysical diversity of Italy (let alone of Rome's provinces), and the effects of political and social developments-led to historically important variations between areas and across time in the organization and practice of agriculture. Roman agriculture broadly fits the ahistoric pattern which is commonly seen as characteristic of the Mediterranean region: based on the triad of *cereals, vines (see wine) and *olives, at the mercy of a semi-arid *climate with low and unreliable rainfall, and dominated by small farms practising a polyculture aimed principally at self-sufficiency and safety. Nevertheless, in the late republic and earlier Principate agriculture and urbanization (see urbanism (Roman)) developed together to levels probably not again matched until the late 18th cent. This limited urbanization (and hence ‘industrialization’) obliged the bulk of the population to live and work on the land. After the battle of Thapsus in 46 bce*Caesar added to the existing province (thenceforth called Africa Vetus, ‘Old Africa’) the Numidian territory of Juba I (Africa Nova, ‘New Africa’).īy modern standards Roman agriculture was technically simple, average yields were low, transport was difficult and costly, and storage was inefficient. ![]() *Marius (1)'s veterans settled west of the fossa regia. *Sempronius Gracchus to found a colonia at Carthage failed, Roman and Italian traders and farmers settled in the province in large numbers, and many of C. Except for *Utica and six other towns of Phoenician origin which had supported Rome rather than Carthage in the Punic Wars, most of the land became *ager publicus. mi.) of north and central Tunisia, north-east of a boundary line (the fossa regia, ‘the royal ditch’) from Thabraca to *Hadrumetum it was governed by a praetor from Utica. In 146 bce she left most territory in the hands of *Masinissa's descendants, but formed a new province (Africa) in the most fertile part. The *Punic Wars made Rome heir to the Carthaginian empire. Aezani was an enthusiastic member of the *Panhellenion at Athens, where its best-known citizen and civic benefactor, M. During this time Aezani was transformed from a modest agricultural town (there are traces of late Hellenistic buildings and it may have been the minting centre for the people of Phrygia Epictetus) into an imperial architectural show-piece, with a theatre, a stadium, a large bath-house, several bridges across the river Pencalas which flowed through the city, and cemeteries full of elaborately decorated tombs. A long dispute over the revenues from this land was settled by Roman proconsuls of Asia in the 120s, and this appears to have unleashed a period of great prosperity in the 2nd cent. There were extensive sacred lands around the city, which were used to settle military colonists from the Attalid and Bithynian kingdoms. According to local legend Zeus was born in the Steunos cave which overlooked the river Pencalas near the city (the site has been identified and excavated). The well-preserved ruins of the site are dominated by the peripteral (colonnaded) Ionic temple of *Zeus, dedicated under Domitian in ce 92. Was the most important city of northern *Phrygia in Roman times. They have no Greek models or counterparts, and clearly follow schemes derived from the strong indigenous tradition of exuberantly decorated roof-tops documented by the impasto hut-urns used as cinerary receptacles (but representing real huts) in Etruria and Latium between the 10th and 8th centuries. The most important category, previously unknown or unrecognized, is that of the *orientalizing cut-out acroteria used on two-slope roofs between c.650/600 and c.575. Like Poggio Civitate, Acquarossa has yielded copious architectural *terracottas. Excavation (1966–78) of its component areas-including the monumental complex in zone F, variously defined as a ‘palace’, a ‘ regia’, or a ‘sacred area’ (with a temple)-has combined with contemporary work at *Poggio Civitate to focus attention on early Etruscan building techniques, domestic and public architecture, town planning, and non-funerary religious practice. (3 ½ mi.) north of Viterbo, is the site of a small and anonymous *Etruscan centre in the territory of *Caere. ![]()
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