Rome in Late Antiquity

In this post I tackle issues relating to the city of Rome in Late Antiquity, and how the emperors continued to improve and innovate, and what factors motivated them to do so. To begin, I am going to tackle some of the issues regarding the archaeology of Late Antique Rome, in an effort to demonstrate …

Hadrian and Rome

Hadrian came to power after the death of his adopted father Trajan in 117 AD. In contrast to Trajan, Hadrian wished to consolidate the empire rather than expand it, and this is reflected in how he approached building projects in the city of Rome. A learned man, he sought to ensure stability and did this …

Federalism in the Hellenistic Period

In another post based on my undergrad dissertation, I discuss the role of Achaean identity and the rise of federalism in the Hellenistic period. What does it mean to be a city in a world dominated by large kingdoms and how do you react to their domination? I have previously discussed how Achaea was able …

Early Italy’s Canals

When discussing the concept of identity in the ancient world, as historians we often group people by actions and achievements, as much as how they wanted to be seen. When discussing Early Rome, it has often been the case in the past to say that certain innovations, rather than natural developments, were due to the …

The Early Achaean League 900 – 371 BC

“The Achaean League seems to have been, on the whole, a rather admirable institution. Its early history and development is, however, somewhat more complicated than I realised…”[1] The lack of certainty regarding the origins of how the Achaean League formed means most histories of Achaea mention Homer, the lack of poleis in the region until …

Romans, Wiltshire and Landscape Surveys

In my last post I discussed how survey archaeology is useful to gain an understanding of a city, in this one I want to show how it can be used to reconstruct the ancient landscape, in this case the landscape of Roman Wiltshire. Wiltshire is a good example for the benefits of landscape archaeology since …

Sikyon – Building a Picture of a City

This post is the first in a two part series about Survey Archaeology. Sikyon was a polis in the North of the Peloponnese. It was city famed for the Archaic and Hellenistic figures associated with it (the tyrant Cleisthenes and the Achaean League strategos Aratus) and the various sculptors who originated there, most famous amongst …

Two Parthian Coins

Sources for the Parthian empire are few and far between. Their coinage is one way which we can reconstruct Parthian policy and political thought. The Parthian empire was born out of the decline of another, the Greek successor kingdom of the Seleukids and, in 247 BC, Parthia was able to break away. The origins of …