Research project

The urban system in the North Western provinces

The first objective is to create a catalogue raisonée, i.e. a structured database that will store the main attributes of each town in a standardized format database, which will be freely accessible when completed; the second objective is to exploit theories and methods that can help us to understand the urban hierarchy, the connections and inter-city relationships and the level of economic integration reached in these provinces.

Funding: ERC

This research is part of the ERC Advanced project 'An empire of 2000 cities: urban networks and economic integration in the Roman Empire'. Together with my colleagues we try to map the ancient cities of the Roman provinces and to look at the shape of regional and supra-regional urban system. The social and political organization of the provinces is also an object of study, the relationship between small towns and their hinterlands, not least in terms of economic interdependence and the relationship between the small towns and their larger counterparts.