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This account of viticulture in Italy during the period from the Punic Wars to the crisis of the third century AD is written in the conviction that the 'economic' history of the ancient world will remain unacceptably impoverished if it is written in isolation from the social and cultural history of the same period. The orthodoxy which sees a revolution in Italian agriculture in the age of Cato the Censor and a crisis in the time of the emperor Trajan seems to me to be an example of this. It is based on a traditional and limited selection of evidence, and is unable to answer many questions which are increasingly being asked about production and exchange in the ancient world, questions about the social background and cultural preferences which underlie production strategies and the evolution of demand. I hope that this study may show some other possibilities, which have still been only partly explored by researchers, of illuminating the changing patterns of Roman agriculture and trade, through the use of comparative evidence and the re-examination of the relevant literary texts for data that are more than simply 'economic' in the most restricted sense.

This thesis finds that both the Spartans and the Romans consciously adopted Heracles as a model for their societies. This adoption is seen both through their historical actions and, especially, in their founding myths, which identify the city's founders with Heracles. Although the argument relies on previous scholarly work interpreting the character of Heracles, several connections, especially those in the Sparta chapter, are original arguments for Heracles' relevance in founding mythology. A close analysis of the Twelve Labors of Heracles is the foundation for my arguments. The analysis of Sparta relies on the works of Tyrtaeus, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch. The analysis of Rome relies on the works of Fabius Pictor, Virgil, Livy, and Plutarch. Secondary sources were also important, especially the writings of G. Karl Galinsky, whose work is influential throughout the thesis.

Aquae Urbis Romae is an interactive cartographic history of the relationships between hydrological and hydraulic systems and their impact on the urban development of Rome, Italy. Our study begins in 753 BC and will ultimately extend to the present day. Aquae Urbis Romae examines the intersections between natural hydrological elements including springs, rain, streams, marshes, and the Tiber River, and constructed hydraulic elements including aqueducts, fountains, sewers, bridges, conduits, etc., that together create the water infrastructure system of Rome. The long term goals of this project are to increase understanding of the profound relationships that exist between water systems, cultural practice, and urbanism in Rome, and by its example, in all cities, landscapes, and environments. It is hoped that this study will foster work by other scholars and designers who are interested in exploring the ways in which water infrastructure can be exploited toward the future development of humane, ecologically responsible, and engaging civic environments.

Abstract: What happens when states or empires face multiple and geographically dispersed assaults along their frontiers from non-state, tribal actors? It is plausible to argue that the result may be state decentralization, both military and administrative. In some cases, this may be a conscious strategy pursued by the central authorities, but in others, it may be the result of centrifugal tendencies pursued by disaffected local leaders. This article illustrates this argument by describing the end of the Roman empire, caused by multiple assaults of barbarian groups. The lesson is that in such an environment a centralized state that arrogates to itself all the functions of security provision may undermine its own safety.

Swaying palms, white-sand beaches and sparkling water with the sweet smell of sand and bougainvillea, doesn't it just sound heavenly? Goa, is this glorious slice of India that has a lot of these balmy beaches hugging the western coast bounded by the Arabian Sea. This is not just India's but one of the world's favourite tourist destinations.

Daniel De Leon's pamphlet on Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and other tribunes in ancient Rome. De Leon was a leading U.S. socialist and Marxist in the late 19th and early 20th century. His focus is mostly on class struggle in in the Roman Republic. His points are polemical with constant comparison and contrast to contemporary class struggle and politics.

Daniel De Leon's pamphlet on Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and other tribunes in ancient Rome. De Leon was a leading U.S. socialist and Marxist in the late 19th and early 20th century. His focus is mostly on class struggle in in the Roman Republic. His points are polemical with constant comparison and contrast to contemporary class struggle and politics.

Daniel De Leon's pamphlet on Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and other tribunes in ancient Rome. De Leon was a leading U.S. socialist and Marxist in the late 19th and early 20th century. His focus is mostly on class struggle in in the Roman Republic. His points are polemical with constant comparison and contrast to contemporary class struggle and politics.

Daniel De Leon's pamphlet on Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and other tribunes in ancient Rome. De Leon was a leading U.S. socialist and Marxist in the late 19th and early 20th century. His focus is mostly on class struggle in in the Roman Republic. His points are polemical with constant comparison and contrast to contemporary class struggle and politics.

A great resource for Roman Biography, even if it is old. An old reference book but still covering the basics.

A great resource for Roman Biography, even if it is old.

What did the Roman emperor look like? Among the thousands of surviving Roman imperial marble heads, how do we put a name to a face, or a face to a name? This lecture will take a critical look at this process: it will not only question some of our modern certainties about who is who, but it will ask what we can learn from our mistakes.

Book from U. of California which the University is offering free on-line. 

Spanning one-ninth of the earth's circumference across three continents, the Roman Empire ruled a quarter of humanity through complex networks of political power, military domination and economic exchange. These extensive connections were sustained by premodern transportation and communication technologies that relied on energy generated by human and animal bodies, winds, and currents. Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity. For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity. Taking account of seasonal variation and accommodating a wide range of modes and means of transport, ORBIS reveals the true shape of the Roman world and provides a unique resource for our understanding of premodern history.

Scholarship on Sulpicius Rufus has long been guided by an old paradigm of prosopography, which dictated that political events in the Roman Republic were based on long term alliances built through kinship ties and mutual ideology. While modern scholarship has changed to view Roman political alliances more fluidly, views of Sulpicius have not changed. Most scholars accept the view that Sulpicius was little more than a lackey of Marius, who switched to Marius' side after a bitter split with his former comrades, the optimates. Sulpicius' tribunate was a time of great change in Rome, at the eve of the Social War and the dawn of a new era of civil wars. Thus it is key to re-evaluate his actions and motives in light of more recent studies that give evidence of independent agency among Roman politicians, and especially among tribunes. Thus, this paper discusses the nature of power politics and the institution of the tribunate in the late Republic as well as argues that Sulpicius Rufus acted as an independent agent who made his own decisions rather than be the tool of another.

Introduction: The political 'fall' of the Roman Empire (from 410 C.E.) has long been regarded as one of the pivotal events in world history. Ever since Edward Gibbon completed his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1788, there has been considerable debate on the causes for this 'event'. It must be stressed, first, that though there was a real decline of the political power and unity of the Western Roman Empire, the cultural heritage of the empire would persist in the West through the middle ages and in an altered form into the modern period. The eastern portion of the empire continued as the relatively Byzantine Empire, which was eventually conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 C.E.. Second, it is wiser to speak of causes rather than any single cause; a series of interlocked conditions and their effects led to a radical change in the political condition of Europe during the 5th century. As noted by Michael Grant: