Abstract
In recent years, there has been considerable debate on estimating Roman urban population sizes. Most of these efforts, however, have been focused on the best-known Italian urban contexts, such as Pompeii, Cosa, Ostia and Rome, that is, towns with an exceptional state of preservation and a long history of archaeological excavation. In this paper, we will focus our attention on two lesser-known Roman towns in central Adriatic Italy: Potentia, a newly founded colonia, and Trea, an organically grown municipium. In particular, we aim to demonstrate how a combination of systematic fieldwork in abandoned town areas with the incorporation of all relevant archaeological, literary and epigraphic data from the wider study area can be a great starting point for establishing urban demographic models based on more commonly encountered archaeological contexts. The proposed methodology is linear and starts from an analysis of the best documented phase of the settlements regarding urbanistic, public, commercial and religious space, as such establishing the potential areas available for residential buildings. These areas are then filled in by looking at the private architecture in these and other surrounding Roman towns, this in order to arrive at approximate density figures for their populations.
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Notes
- 1.
Estimating populations from archaeological data has a long history. There is no room to dwell on this history here, but the interested reader is referred to Chamberlain, Demography in Archaeology; Drennan, Berry and Peterson, Regional Settlement Demography in Archaeology.
- 2.
Casselberry, “Further refinement of Formulae for Determining Populations from Floor Area”; Kolb, “Demographic Estimates in Archaeology”; Le Blanc, “An Addition to Naroll’s Suggested Floor Area and Settlement Population Relationship”; Naroll, “Floor Area and Settlement Population”; Wiessner, “A Functional Estimator of Population from Floor Area”.
- 3.
Schacht, “Estimating Past Population Trends,” 119; Kardulias, “Estimating Population at Ancient Military Sites.
- 4.
Curet, “New Formulae for Estimating Prehistoric Populations for Lowland South America and the Caribbean”; Kramer, Village Ethnoarchaeology; Morley, “Cities and Economic Development in the Roman Empire”; Sumner; “Population and Settlement Area”; Zorn, “Estimating the Population Size of Ancient Settlements”.
- 5.
De Roche, “Population Estimates from Settlement Area and Number of Residents”; Kramer, Village Ethnoarchaeology; Postgate, “How Many Sumerians per Hectare”.
- 6.
De Ligt, Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers.
- 7.
Wilson, “City Sizes and Urbanisation in the Roman Empire”; Hanson, Urban Geography of the Roman World discusses the constraints of this method in more detail. For aqueducts in particular, see Duncan-Jones, The Economy of the Roman Empire. For a recent attempt, however, at estimating population size from palaeodemographic and burial data, see McIntyre, “Reconstructing population size in a Romano-British colonia”.
- 8.
Beloch, “Le città dell’Italia antica”; Fiorelli, Gli Scavi di Pompeii dal 1862 al 1872; Nissen, Pompeianische studien zur Städtekunde des altertums; Storey, “The Population of Ancient Rome”; Wallace-Hadrill, “Houses and Households”; Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum.
- 9.
Calza, Scavi di Ostia; Meiggs, Roman Ostia; Nibby, Viaggio antiquario ad Ostia; Packer, The Insulae of Imperial Rome; Storey, “The Population of Ancient Rome”.
- 10.
Bairoch, “Urbanisation and the Economy in Pre-Industrial Societies; Brunt, Italian Manpower; Carcopino, Daily Life in Ancient Rome; Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves; Lo Cascio, “The Population of Roman Italy in Town and Country”; Robinson, Ancient Rome; Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City.
- 11.
Fentress et al., “Cosa”; Hanson, Urban Geography of the Roman World is the first work to focus on the Roman Empire as a whole.
- 12.
Russell, “The Population and Mortality at Pompeii” argues that most cities in the ancient world had population densities of between 100 and 120 persons per hectare.
- 13.
Castagnoli, Orthogonal Town Planning in Antiquity.
- 14.
Sommella, Italia antica.
- 15.
Vermeulen et al., Urban Landscape Survey in Italy and the Mediterranean.
- 16.
Vermeulen, “The Potenza Valley Survey”.
- 17.
Hanson, Urban Geography of the Roman World, discusses this issue at length.
- 18.
De Graaf, Late Republican-Early Imperial Regional Italian Landscapes and Demography; De Ligt, “The Population of Cisalpine Gaul in the Time of Augustus”; Fentress et al., “Cosa”.
- 19.
Wallace-Hadrill, “Houses and Households”; Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society.
- 20.
For the lowest estimate, see Fiorelli, Scavi di Pompeii; for slightly higher estimates, ranging from 15,000 to 18,000 persons (227–272 p/ha), see Beloch, “Città dell’Italia”; Nissen, Pompeianische studien, proposes estimates between 18,000 and 20,000 (272 to 303 p/ha). A figure of between 10,000 and 12,000 is now thought to be the most accurate; see Storey, “The Population of Ancient Rome”.
- 21.
Lazer, Resurrecting Pompeii; Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society.
- 22.
The lowest figure is provided by Nibby, Viaggio antiquario: 20,000 inhabitants or 290 p/ha; substantially higher figures are offered in Calza, Scavi di Ostia: 36,000 people or 521 p/ha, and in Meiggs, Roman Ostia: a maximum of 58,000 inhabitants or 840 p/ha. Based on the analysis of the different residential units, Packer, Insulae, estimates the population at a maximum of 27,000 inhabitants (391 p/ha); see also Storey, “The Population of Ancient Rome”.
- 23.
De Ligt, “The Population of Cisalpine Gaul in the Time of Augustus”; De Ligt, Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers; Duncan-Jones, The Economy of the Roman Empire.
- 24.
Suetonius, Aug. 40.2; Res Gestae Divi Augusti 15.
- 25.
These are the figures we can find for the population of the city in Brunt, Italian Manpower; Hopkins, Conquerors and Slaves; Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City; Bairoch, “Urbanisation”; Robinson Ancient Rome; and Lo Cascio, “The Population of Roman Italy in Town and Country”. A considerably lower estimate of less than 500,000 has been offered by Carcopino Daily Life; a figure that also seems to be suggested in Storey, “Population”.
- 26.
Or, according to De Ligt, “The Population of Cisalpine Gaul in the Time of Augustus”, between 440 and 560 p/ha if the suburbs outside the Aurelian walls are included.
- 27.
The presence of such buildings can also be assumed from some of our literary sources, see Yavetz, “The Living Conditions of the Urban Plebs”, referring to Livy 21.62.3, Strabo 5.3.7, and Suetonius Aug. 89. For the archaeological evidence, see Wallace-Hadrill, “Case e abitanti a Roma” and also De Ligt, Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers.
- 28.
Although it seems clear from the available evidence that only the largest cities in the Roman world were provided with apartment buildings (Hanson, Urban Geography of the Roman World).
- 29.
De Ligt, Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers; Wilson, “City Sizes and Urbanisation in the Roman Empire”.
- 30.
Raper, “The Analysis of the Urban Structure of Pompeii”; Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society; Laurence, “The Organization of Space in Pompeii”; Paoli, Rome; Storey, “The Population of Ancient Rome”; Hanson, Urban Geography of the Roman World.
- 31.
Conventi, Città romane di Fondazione.
- 32.
De Ligt, “The Population of Cisalpine Gaul in the Time of Augustus”; De Ligt, Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers (Cosa); Wilson, “City Sizes and Urbanisation in the Roman Empire”; Hanson, Urban Geography of the Roman World (Sabratha).
- 33.
Chevallier, La Romanisation de la celtique du Pô; Conventi, Città romane.
- 34.
Eschebach, Die stadtebauliche entwicklung des Antiken Pompeij; Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society. A similarly low figure of 7000 to 7500 people (106 to 113 p/ha) was also proposed by Russell, “Population and Mortality,” 107.
- 35.
Again, the varying dimensions of these streets may be illustrated by the aforementioned study by Marta Conventi, who registered road widths of between 3.1 m and 12 m for the decumanus maximus, and between 3.5 m and 10 m for the cardo maximus. Secondary streets, on the other hand, had smaller widths of between 2.4 m and 6.5 m. The respective average widths were 6.37 m, 7.31 m and 4.44 m (Conventi, Città romane).
- 36.
De Ligt, “The Population of Cisalpine Gaul in the Time of Augustus”; De Ligt, Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers.
- 37.
Vermeulen, “Città romane nella valle del Potenza”; Vermeulen, “Reviewing 10 Years of Aerial Photography in the Valley of the River Potenza”; Vermeulen and Boullart, “The Potenza Valley Survey”; Vermeulen and Verhoeven, “The Contribution of Aerial Photography and Field Survey to the Study of Urbanisation in the Potenza Valley”; Vermeulen and Verhoeven, “An Integrated Survey of Roman Urbanisation at Potentia”; Vermeulen, Monsieur and Boullart, “The Potenza Valley Survey”; Vermeulen, Hay and Verhoeven, “Potentia”; Vermeulen et al., “Investigating the impact of Roman urbanisation on the landscape of the Potenza valley”.
- 38.
Vermeulen et al., “Scavi presso la porta occidentale di Potentia”; Vermeulen and Monsieur, “Le système défensif”.
- 39.
Vermeulen et al., “Scavi presso la porta occidentale di Potentia”.
- 40.
Percossi Serenelli, Potentia; Percossi, “Le fasi repubblicane di Potentia”; Vermeulen and Monsieur, “Système défensif”.
- 41.
Vermeulen and Carboni, “Measuring Urbanisation”; Vermeulen et al., “Scavi presso la porta occidentale di Potentia”; Vermeulen, “Potentia”. Excavations in the area of the temple have indeed identified an important destruction layer, possibly dated to the mid-first century BCE (Paci and Percossi-Serenelli, “Il paradigma della romanizzazione”); traces of an important reconstruction under Augustus have also been found during the excavations of the western town gate (Vermeulen and Monsieur, “Système défensif”).
- 42.
Paci, “Le iscrizioni romane di Potentia”.
- 43.
Vermeulen, “Functional Zoning and Changes in the Use of Space in the Roman Town of Potentia.
- 44.
Vermeulen, “Potentia”; Vermeulen et al., Archaeological Investigations in the Potenza Valley.
- 45.
Vermeulen, “Functional Zoning”; Vermeulen, “Potentia”.
- 46.
Mercando, “Marche-Rinvenimenti di insediamenti rurali”.
- 47.
Mercando, Sorda and Capitanio, “La necropoli romana di Portorecanati”; Percossi Serenelli, Potentia. Quando poi scese il silenzio; Edvige Percossi, “La necropoli di Potentia”; Vermeulen, “Potentia”.
- 48.
Percossi, “Necropoli”.
- 49.
Vermeulen et al., “Scavi presso la porta occidentale di Potentia”.
- 50.
Vermeulen et al., Archaeological Investigations.
- 51.
Vermeulen et al., Archaeological Investigations.
- 52.
Mercando, “Marche”.
- 53.
Vermeulen and Monsieur, “Système défensif”.
- 54.
Vermeulen and Carboni, “Approaching Roman Fora with Non-Invasive Urban Survey”.
- 55.
Percossi Serenelli, “Potentia. Fonti letterarie e fonti archeologiche”; Vermeulen and Monsieur, “Système défensif”.
- 56.
Vermeulen and Verhoeven, “Integrated Survey”.
- 57.
Vermeulen and Carboni, “Measuring Urbanisation”.
- 58.
These include the complexes excavated at the towns of Tifernum Mataurense (Catani, “Tifernum Mataurense), Forum Sempronii (Gori and Luni, “Edificio termale a Forum Sempronii”), Ostra (Dall’Aglio, Silani and Tassinari, “Nascita e sviluppo monumentale della città romana di Ostra”), Sentinum (Cavallo, “Sentinum, le Terme Urbane), Septempeda (Sisani, Umbria/Marche), Matilica (Biocco, Città romane), Falerio (Maraldi, Falerio) and Interamnia Praetuttiorum (Staffa, “Teramo”).
- 59.
Van Limbergen, Pots, Presses, People and Land.
- 60.
Percossi Serenelli, “Potentia. Fonti letterarie e fonti archeologiche”; Percossi Serenelli, Potentia. Quando poi scese il silenzio.
- 61.
Vermeulen, Slapzak and Mlekuz, “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”. Such an origin had already been suggested given the vicinity of the Monte Pitino—an important Picenian centre in pre-Roman times—and the site’s obvious strategic position (Lollini, “La civiltà picena”; Vermeulen et al., “Potenza Valley Survey”; Vermeulen et al., “Investigating the impact of Roman urbanisation on the landscape of the Potenza valley”.
- 62.
Moscatelli, “Municipi romani della V ‘regio’ augustea”.
- 63.
Paci, “Indagini recenti e nuove conoscenze sulle città romane del territorio marchigiano”; Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”. Based on the building technique, the construction of the town walls is usually situated either in the first half (Moscatelli, “Municipi romani”) or the second half of the first century BCE (Percossi Serenelli, “Potentia. Fonti letterarie e fonti archeologiche”).
- 64.
Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”.
- 65.
Moscatelli, “Municipi romani”; Fabrini, “Dal culto pagano al culto cristiano”.
- 66.
Moscatelli, Trea.
- 67.
Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”; Vermeulen and Carboni, “Approaching Roman fora”.
- 68.
Marengo, Regio V Picenum - Trea, 155–188).
- 69.
Van Limbergen, Pots, Presses, People and Land.
- 70.
Fabrini, “Culto pagano”; Capriotti Vittozi, Oggetti, idee, culti egizi nelle Marche.
- 71.
Van Limbergen, Pots, Presses, People and Land.
- 72.
Vermeulen, “Città romane nella valle del Potenza; Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”.
- 73.
Van Limbergen, Pots, Presses, People and Land.
- 74.
Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”.
- 75.
Most of the Republican material collected during the surveys by the PVS was found in the higher western part of the town (Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”).
- 76.
The site shows traces of occupation between the second century BCE and the early sixth century CE (Vermeulen, “Città romane nella valle del Potenza,” 630).
- 77.
Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”.
- 78.
Vermeulen et al., “Surveying the townscape of Roman Trea”.
- 79.
Van Limbergen, Pots, Presses, People and Land.
- 80.
Catani and Monacchi, Tifernum Mataurense.
- 81.
Medri, “Materiali per una nuova Forma Urbis di Sentinum”.
- 82.
Boschi and Silani, “Aerofotografia e geofisica nella Valle del Misa.
- 83.
Van Limbergen, Pots, Presses, People and Land.
- 84.
Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society.
- 85.
Salvini, Area archeologica e Museo La Fenice.
- 86.
Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society.
- 87.
Montali, “Considerazioni sulle strutture edilizie dell’area del Tempio-criptoportico”.
- 88.
De Maria and Giorgi, “Urbanistica e assetti monumentali di Suasa”.
- 89.
Campagnoli, “Le fasi edilizie”.
- 90.
De Maria, “Suasa, la città e la sua storia.
- 91.
Tornatore, “Una domus con mosaici a Sant’Angelo in Vado”.
- 92.
Campagnoli, “Fasi edilizie”). For the Domus dei Coiedii, the corresponding letters on the map are the following: garden/peristylium (BT, AD, AE, BA, BB, BC, BD, BE, BQ, BR, BG) with inserted baths (BL, BI, BP, BM, BS, BN), hospitium (AF, AK, AN, AQ), tabernae (AB, AC, AL, AH, AQ), service spaces (AG, AP, AR, AT, AU, AV, A, AZ), corridors (T, D, F, N, AI), living spaces (AA, U, V, R, Q, P, O, C, E, G, H, I, L, M1, M2).
- 93.
De Ligt, Peasants, Citizens and Soldiers.
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Van Limbergen, D., Vermeulen, F. (2021). A Method for Estimating Roman Population Sizes from Urban Survey Contexts: An Application in Central Adriatic Italy. In: Verboven, K. (eds) Complexity Economics. Palgrave Studies in Ancient Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47898-8_7
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