The Geography of Urbanism in Roman Asia Minor

Abstract

The Geography of Urbanism in Roman Asia Minor investigates how Roman urbanism manifested itself in Asia Minor during the first three centuries CE, particularly with regards to its spatial patterning over the landscape and the administrative, economic and cultural functions cities fulfilled, and how cities developed in terms of size and monumentality. It also addresses to what extent this was a result of political and socio-cultural and economic context and to what extent ‘structural determinants’, such as the physical topography, agricultural potential and climate (including the shifts/changes therein) influenced the observed patterns. As Asia Minor was already dotted by cities long before the Romans got a hold on this area during the second century BCE, this work compares urbanism of the first three centuries CE with the patterns of cities during the first millennium BCE (Classical and Hellenistic period particularly) and the Byzantine and Ottoman patterns, creating a long term perspective. The book contains an appendix with the information for the 500 cities and 1000 villages in Asia Minor.

Entangling Urban and Religious History: A New Methodology

“…In rather materially oriented quantitative studies on religious architecture (on Asia Minor (Willet 2020)) the question of urban practices and reflections is, in our view, somewhat underdeveloped. Why did temples multiply when actors concentrated on diversifying the spectrum of specialized architecture and functions?…”