Urban margins in Greco-Roman cities

Saskia Stevens*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

The Greco-Roman city did not begin or end at the city wall: the relation between the city and its immediate environment was unmistakable yet complex, and from early on resulted in the emergence of a zone that was neither truly urban nor fully rural. These urban margins combined an array of functions and developed historically from the Greek to the Roman imperial period in quite substantial ways. Profiting from recent developments in scholarship, this chapter will explore the long term trends in the ways in which cities encroached upon the immediate countryside. The investigation incorporates ancient written sources, archaeological data, and inscriptions to contextualize and understand ancient perceptions of the urban edge.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationA Companion to Cities in the Greco-Roman World
PublisherWiley-Blackwell
Chapter12
Pages202-218
Number of pages17
ISBN (Electronic)9781119399940
ISBN (Print)9781119399834
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Aug 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial intelligence technologies or similar technologies.

Keywords

  • Ancient urbanism
  • Borders
  • City walls
  • Necropoleis
  • Pro-asteion
  • Suburbium
  • Urban borderscape

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