Dyson states at the outset that his aim was to write a book designed as ‘an introduction to the ancient city for the student or tourist who wants an overview rather than a detailed consideration of individual sites and remains’. One of the problems with the standard tourist image of ancient Rome is that it never changes. Rome is the eternal city of the Colosseum, the Pantheon and the ruins of the Forum complex. What D.'s book succeeds in doing is demonstrating how much more complicated and ever-changing the ancient city really was.

The introduction surveys the history of ‘writing Rome’ and examines the kinds of evidence that survive. The rest of the book is organized into two sections with different methods. The first comprises chapters dividing the history of Rome into simple chronological tracts. These start with the creation of Rome as a megalopolis, before moving through the Republic, the transformation of Rome into an imperial capital, and ending with the Antonine city. The aim of these chapters is primarily to provide a broad context for understanding the way in which Rome was almost completely rebuilt during this long period. The later chapters then approach the city thematically. Four chapters examine the neighbourhoods and rituals of the city, the urban economy, the people of Rome, and the city that lay beyond the pomerium. A final chapter returns to the chronological approach and outlines the changes that occurred in the city during the third century and after Constantine's conversion to Christianity and move to Constantinople left the old pagan capital in a more marginal position.

The varying approaches of the chapters reflect D.'s desire to combine a variety of historical and archaeological styles. He is largely successful in this, but the downside of the chronological method is that a vast amount of information and history has to be crammed into a fairly small space. Even then, the book runs to over 360 pages, plus almost 60 pages of notes. I am not sure that there are many tourists who will have the stamina to work their way through this level of detail. But this is not really a complaint. What D. has actually succeeded in producing is a masterful overview of the state of current scholarship on the ancient city of Rome, which reflects a lifetime spent studying it. The book will be accessible to those who are studying the subject at university, and most professionals will also learn much from its extensive coverage. It is at its best when it is digging deeper into the broader underlying themes that affected Rome's development. It is in the sections on the problems of supplying so vast a city in a pre-industrial society and in his analysis of the everyday difficulties faced by the common people that his account most succeeds in creating a living portrait. If the aim was to write a more popular book, it would probably have been better to focus on a few key examples to try to evoke something of the experience of being in the city. Political detail could have been sacrificed in favour of giving a better idea of the sensory overload which living in the capital seems to have involved. But overall, this book successfully manages to link the tangible remains to the wider themes of Roman history.