Space and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds

An interdisciplinary study of the dynamic relationship between space and society through case studies across the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.

Michael Scott (Author)

9781107401501, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 November 2012

227 pages, 28 b/w illus. 5 maps
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.37 kg

'The book is well-written and has excellent maps and images that make following the argument an enjoyable experience; it also includes very useful bibliographical essays that are fully up to date. The book is well-designed, covering both a variety of physical spaces (civil, sacred and funerary), as well as examining a range of conceptual spaces and how they function. Particularly laudable is the geographical spread of the topics, which ranges across the Mediterranean and manages to avoid the Athenocentrism and Romanocentrism which often dominate similar works; the same also applies to chronological coverage, that ranges from the archaic period to the early imperial period.' Sehepunkte

We cannot properly understand history without a full appreciation of the spaces through which its actors moved, whether in the home or in the public sphere, and the ways in which they thought about and represented the spaces of their worlds. In this book Michael Scott employs the full range of literary, epigraphic and archaeological evidence in order to demonstrate the many different ways in which spatial analysis can illuminate our understanding of Greek and Roman society and the ways in which these societies thought of, and interacted with, the spaces they occupied and created. Through a series of innovative case studies of texts, physical spaces and cultural constructs, ranging geographically across North Africa, Greece and Roman Italy, as well as an up-to-date introduction on spatial scholarship, this book provides an ideal starting point for students and non-specialists.

Introduction
1. Inheriting and articulating a community: the agora at Cyrene
2. Networks of polytheism: spaces for the gods at Delos
3. Spaces of alienation: street-lining Roman cemeteries
4. A spatial approach to the relationships between colony and metropolis: Syracuse and Corinth
5. The place of Greece in the oikoumene of Strabo's Geography
Conclusion: space and society in the Greek and Roman worlds.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Historical geography [HBTP], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]