Ceramic materials from a large cross-section of Emerita’s late antique sites offer new details to augment the portrait of the city gleaned from late Roman and Visigothic written sources and architectural remains. The pottery market in late fifth- through seventh-century Emerita did not operate according to the same values that had driven the large-scale importation of goods from abroad in the late Roman period. The evidence shows a substantial decline in fineware imports in the course of the fifth century, but at no point does it indicate a complete loss of trade ties between Emerita and the Mediterranean world. Imported forms manufactured after the end of the fifth century still found their way to the city, though in much lower numbers than in the fourth and fifth centuries. Changing preferences among Hispano-Roman residents, or the arrival of new inhabitants, may have affected demand and production levels, in effect reducing the profitability of large-scale pottery operations. Emerita’s coarseware ceramics also underwent significant changes beginning in the late fifth century, possibly reflecting changing food preparation and consumption practices. All of these changes may be related to the destruction and abandonment of several sections of the city in the middle decades of the fifth century, when barbarian activities severed Hispania from the Roman Empire.

Summary This article presents the archaeological evidence for a comprehensive change in the residential pattern of late antique Mérida, Spain (Augusta Emerita) in the second half of the fifth century AD. By the fourth century AD, the peristyle house had become the fundamental unit of aristocratic late Roman housing, offering the ideal setting for high‐status interactions, aristocratic ceremony, and even private and public business. The peristyle house was gradually replaced by subdivision housing in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries, in a trend seen throughout the late Roman world. In Emerita, however, the transition was quite sudden. Here, a destructive event in the middle of the fifth century paved the way for the rapid introduction of subdivision housing, over just a few decades. While this new style of housing was typical of the late antique world, the evidence from Emerita highlights the role that a local catalyst might play in the adoption of new cultural forms.

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listing of the most relevant items. Unfortunately, this is not true. In the preface, the editors declare that 'the individual chapters were completed by the end of 2018', but the effective cutoff for inclusion in the general bibliography seems to have been 2016 (with the noteworthy exception of various works by the contributors themselves which can date as late as 2019). Yet even if one assumes that the cutoff date for inclusion in the general bibliography (or in the end-of-chapter bibliographies) was 2016, there still remain many puzzling omissions of directly relevant papers published in leading, peer-reviewed journals, whether on Julian's campaigns in Gaul or on many other issues. The publication of this volume is extremely welcome because it serves as a very good introduction to the actions and writings of Julian as both Caesar and Augustus. I will certainly recommend the chapters directly relevant to my own lectures to my students as the best places at which to start their exploration of certain key issues. Nevertheless, the chapters are only introductions to these subjects, and students also need to be warned that the authors have often chosen to survey or simplify in order not to confuse the beginner, or so it seems.

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