This is a detailed, systematic analysis of Rome's urbanization. Aiming for a ‘more balanced approach’ to understanding local and external contributions, Francesca Fulminante argues that ‘urbanisation and state formation in middle Tyrrhenian Italy were probably “entangled with”, but certainly not “triggered” by, external influences from the eastern Mediterranean’ (6). The process towards higher social complexity and the creation of central places is said to have started in the Final Bronze Age and accelerated by the end of the ninth century, prior to Greek colonization, thus marginalizing Greek influence (6).
Ch. 1 provides a methodological overview, describing numerous theoretical approaches from evolution to chaos theory and Bintliff's socio-ecological model. Ch. 2 defines the territory of Latium vetus, showing that many smaller settlements disappeared during the tenth century b.c. while nucleated centres emerged, later occupied by the ‘Archaic cities’ (46). This gradual development is contrasted with a more ‘revolutionary’ process in Etruria (217). Ch. 3 traces Rome's development from Bronze Age village to ‘the Great City of the Archaic Age’ (66). The ‘proto-urban’ phase is said to begin around 950–875 b.c. (72), the urban phase from the end of the Iron Age (80). Among others, the uncritical references to Etruscan kings in Rome, and the long discussion of two separate communities in early Iron Age Rome and of the Septimontium Festival (74–5) seem problematic.
Ch. 4 defines the ager Romanus antiquus (105–32), even creating a map of ‘pre-Romulean’ and ‘post-Romulean’ territory (fig. 32). Though surely only meant to be a working model, the calculated size, 191 km2, is frequently cited in the book. Based inter alia on the use of now out-dated ‘Thiessen Polygons’ (115–20), F. concludes that the ‘ager Romanus antiquus would have been sufficient to feed only the hypothetical population of Rome at a very early stage’ (123). By the mid-eighth century, the territory would have been unsustainable, which ‘could possibly explain the predatory and hegemonic behaviour of Rome’ (130). This is highly speculative. Other Latin communities would surely have been in a similar situation. Important topics, like ‘territorial control’, are only dealt with in passing (130). Ch. 5 provides an interesting in-depth discussion of Rome's north-eastern ‘hinterland’. Regarding settlement hierarchy, we might want to question how important all these patterns really are: this territory is said to ‘represent an unstable equilibrium due to lack of resources and/or overpopulation pressure’ (162). Trade in food to relieve the situation is not discussed, although F. demonstrates the level of craft specialization in this period (221–4).
In ch. 6, an increasingly unstable house of cards on Latium vetus is apparent (181 ff.), for example when we are told that some centres ‘were already acting as “central places”’, providing ‘“central services” for surrounding smaller centres’ (184). But what kind of ‘central services’? It would be difficult to prove that they were economic, political, cultural and religious centres. The conclusion that people went to the nearest market place (191) seems untenable since there will be other motivational factors that influenced people's decisions (ethnicity, cult, dependencies). All this culminates in ch. 7. Leaving aside the descriptive historiographical account of the funerary literature (218), there are a number of good points. But one needs to be more critical when discussing, for example, the ‘increased division of labour’ and ‘workshop industry’ (221–2). Despite its significance, religion is hardly mentioned, largely focusing on cult places that served the whole community in the eighth century, as ‘a sign of incipient urbanisation’ (224). F. suggests that for this, ‘accounts from literary sources can be integrated with the archaeological evidence’ — at least she refrains from mentioning Romulus and Numa (225). Again a proper critical analysis is missing. For the theme of ethnicity, the author summarizes Guy Bradley's work (225–7); Barth's well-known statement that ‘ethnic identity is a social and cultural construction’ is hailed as providing ‘new insights’ (225). Moreover, the author naïvely seems to assume a correlation between ethnic/state identities and cultural distribution patterns.
The eighth century is considered a ‘threshold’, marking the ‘beginning of urban organisation’, with larger settlements, controlling larger territories, and burials showing more social differentiation and hereditary status. The development of regional material cultures, said to follow closely Augustus' regiones, is described, in Renato Peroni's terms, as ‘“national” taste’ and ‘“national” markets’ (239). Cult places are presumed to have been relocated to urban contexts due to ‘urban elites … extending their control over religious power’ (240) (though they probably had this power before); for F., we are probably dealing with the ‘control of a single rex, who holds both religious and political power’ (240). By the mid-eighth century, ‘the “city-state” was born in middle Tyrrhenian Italy’ (240), and by the Orientalizing and Archaic period, Rome ‘had undoubtedly become an “international”, multi-ethnic polity, fully integrated into inter-regional and Mediterranean networks and open to cultural diversity and integration’, as reflected in the myth of King Tarquinius Priscus and his father (240). But really, such an ‘international’ character could be postulated even for remote Golasecca proto-urban ‘oppida’ like Castelletto Ticino. Rome in the mid-eighth century is described as ‘perhaps the first city-state in the western Mediterranean’ (251). Rome's annalistic tradition is thus correct, is it not?
Though we might want to be careful with individual interpretations, overall F. makes some important contributions. Above all, she presents a new systematic and methodological approach for the study of settlement structures in Rome and Latium vetus that can provide a useful basis for the study not only of early Rome, but of urbanization processes across the Mediterranean. Also, the application of the ‘network model’ is advantageous as it allows us to ‘circumvent the old debate between exogenous and endogenous perspectives’, and focus on Mediterranean ‘connectivity’ (5). Among the many maps and tables, some are very useful, like the distribution maps for early Rome (together with table 8 at 98–9). But despite the detailed analysis of settlement patterns, the author sometimes appears over-reliant on certain modern scholars, like Andrea Carandini, while important elements are not really dealt with in a critical manner — such as the alleged Etruscan kings and Etruscan hegemony — though important for the author's overall hypothesis.
