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This thesis takes an interdisciplinary, multi-theoretical approach to investigate the physical growth and expansion of ancient Rome in relation to its concomitant economic and demographic development from its inception as a decidedly urban entity in the Archaic period (6th century BC) to the construction of the Aurelian Wall in the later 3rd century AD. In particular, it seeks to achieve more accurate delineations of Rome’s urban and suburban space, diachronically, and to analyze and qualify Rome’s physical and economic expansion through a re-assessment of the available archaeological and textual evidence and the employment of models and theories from disciplines such as Economic Geography, Regional Science, Urban Morphology, and Complexity Science. As such, case studies from Rome’s eastern periphery and so-called ‘suburbium’ were used to more fully explore and evaluate the applicability and usefulness of frameworks designed for the study of contemporary cities in an ancient setting. The results presented show that such approaches do have value for tracking and examining Rome’s urban and suburban growth on local, regional, and macro scales. In addition, their application allows both the underlying stimuli behind the City’s urban and suburban expansion, as well as the impacts of it, to be analyzed and understood in novel and meaningful ways. Furthermore, as an emerging framework known as Settlement Scaling Theory indicates the physical, demographic, and economic growth of settlements correlate in both past and present urban systems, the style and speed of Rome’s urban growth should also be seen to reflect its economic and demographic development, which has significant implications for how we interpret the City’s archaeological remains.

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This thesis examines the history of nineteenth-century Sicilian archaeology through the archival documentation for the excavations – official and casual – at Tindari, Lipari and nearby minor sites (Messina, Sicily) during Italy’s post-Unification period (1861-1918). The evidence comprises substantial sets of unpublished records and images from Italian and UK archives (Palermo, Patti, Rome and Glasgow). Specific themes of study are cultural heritage protection, historical and social contexts, excavation histories, sales of archaeological collections abroad, finds recognition and judicial activities. The study compares archaeological research during the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the post-Unification period in northern Sicily and aims to clarify relationships between the Ministry of Public Education, the Museum of Palermo and local government authorities; to pinpoint contacts with the contemporary social context; and to contextualise this work in terms of the evolution of archaeology and social change in the wider Italian and European contexts. A pivotal figure in the study is Antonino Salinas, director of the Palermo Museum across the period 1875-1914. Key results include: the identification of ‘hidden’ networks between politicians, national, regional and local authorities, who operated within protection of Sicilian antiquities, organised on a ‘three-level’ scale; insights into Antonino Salinas as a person and as director, and his role in the province of Messina; the reconstruction of the discovery and the exportation of finds from Lipari to Britain (1878); and the analysis of the unique documentation related to the Tindari excavations (1896), which reveal much about local characters involved in archaeology. This study thus contributes to a fuller understanding of the development of Sicilian archaeology before the First World War.

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Roman civilisation had penetrated South Eastern Gaul more than any region in Western Europe. It is where Christianity gained its first converts and the first episcopal sees were established. For these reasons alone Gallo-Roman traditions might be expected to linger longer than elsewhere, but there is a marked transition: inscriptions set up during the Gallo-Roman period are predominantly votive or honorific as well as funerary, after c.300 AD they are almost exclusively funerary, suggesting a change in emphasis of purpose. Sentiments expressed on an inscription exposed to public view were expressly designed to be read by the passer-by, thereby recording something of the mores of the society that inscribed them, the spread of literacy and fashions in orthography and palaeography. Moreover, such a corpus may be expected to reflect demographic changes during a period encompassing Germanic invasion and subsequent settlement; did such changes affect the numbers of inscriptions set up and even their textual content over time? This corpus offers an invaluable mirror to the evolving society of South Eastern Gaul during the transition from the Gallo-Roman to early medieval period.;Chapter One describes briefly the sites where inscriptions have been discovered. Chapter Two discusses the dating methods employed, Chapter Three describes the most common funerary formulae employed. Chapter Four proposes and employs statistical methods for the reconstruction and dating of those epitaphs where some or most of the data discussed in Chapter Three are no longer extant. Chapter Five discusses the social background of the recipients of the epitaphs and the themes and eulogies inscribed. Chapter Six provides a conclusion explaining the reasons for such a concentration of epitaphs within their cultural and historical contexts.

This thesis offers a new evaluation of Philip V of Macedon (221-179 BC) through a reassessment of his portrait in our primary literary source, Polybios of Megalopolis. Chapter 1 introduces the topic and explores how Polybios’ presentation of his content, including Philip, is greatly dependent on his intention to produce a pragmatic, didactic, universal history, facilitated by the unifying concepts of symploke and tyche. Chapter 2 investigates Polybios’ Achaian background, patriotism and admiration of the Achaian leader Aratos, and how this political bias shapes Philip’s depiction. Chapter 3 questions the validity of the historian’s claim that the king suddenly turned from a brilliant king to a treacherous tyrant in 215 BC, and reveals how Polybios overemphasises this change to explain the king’s downfall, encourage correct political and moral behaviour, and defend Aratos and the League’s association with the king. Chapter 4 assesses Polybios’ conviction that Philip’s treatment of his Greek allies turned deceitful after his change for the worse in 215, and reveals how his statements are exaggerated and once again in pursuit of vilifying the king, justifying the League’s defection to Rome in 198 BC and ultimately explaining Macedonia’s demise. Lastly, Chapter 5 discusses Polybius’ tragic account of Philip’s last years and its modern reception, arguing that while the account may not be historically accurate, it still represents a completely satisfactory, consistent and justifiable end to Polybius’ account of the Macedonian king. This thesis concludes that Polybios’ picture of the king is intensely loaded and complex, dependent on a number of wider literary factors and personal biases. Yet, it also proves that it is possible to unravel Philip from some of the historian’s weavings and uncover a more balanced portrayal of the monarch than the generally negative one presented in the Histories.

From the foundation of the city of Rome in 753 BCE to the capture of the same in 476 CE, the ancient Romans came into contact with a diverse range of peoples. The Romans did not want only to conquer these peoples and incorporate them into the empire, but also they displayed a genuine interest in learning about foreigners. Roman historical narrative demonstrates clearly this prevailing curiosity. This thesis examines the representations of foreign individuals and communities in five works: SaUust, helium lugurthinum; Livy, Ab Vrhe Condita 21-30; Justin, Epitome of Pompeius Trogus, Historiae Philippicae 11-12; Tacitus, Germania; Ammianus MarcelHnus, Res Gestae 23.6. These authors represent a broad range of types of history writing (monograph, AUG history, universal history), and they span most of die history of Rome as an empire (40s BCE to the late 300s CE). Moreover, these works represent a diverse range of geographic locations in that they include the three major parts of the world as understood by the Romans: Africa, Europe and Asia. Finally, they cover—or they exist within the context of—the full range of the Roman-Foreign experience: victory (Numidia, Carthage), defeat (Persia), and non- result (Germani).This thesis demonstrates that Roman historians employ a diverse range of presentations of non-Roman individuals and communities. Roman historians appear not to have been constrained by a narrow set of rules when it comes to writing non- Romans; rather, each author can be seen to be engaging in a wider Roman discourse on the foreigner. And this discourse extends beyond the Roman world and Roman historical writing: the historians of Rome can be seen as building upon, and responding to, the so-called father of history, Herodotus, whose own narrative established firmly that exploration of the foreigner is an important part of historical inquiry. Close analysis clearly demonstrates each presentation of a non-Roman character or community to be an intricate and fascinating construction, and understanding how the foreigner is conceptualised in the work is of critical importance. On the one hand, the presentation of foreigners fits into the historian’s overarching aims and objectives in his work; on the other hand, the representation of foreigners can dictate the ways in which the Roman history is narrated. Non-Romans both fit into and they provide direction for, Roman historical narrative. By studying the complexities of the presentation of non-Romans, therefore, this thesis enhances our understanding of the sophistication of Roman historical writing. Despite the continuing acknowledgement of the important role ethnography plays in writings of Herodotus and his Greek and Roman successors and imitators, there has not so far been a genre-wide detailed study of the ethnography in Greek or Roman historiography. This thesis, therefore, seeks to rectify partially this omission on the part of scholarship, and establish a foundation for future study of the non-Roman in Latin literature and Roman culture.

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This thesis studies the symbolism of the eagle throughout Roman history from the pre-Roman background to A.D. 211. Its aim is to discover whether the popular assumptions made concerning this well-known Roman symbol, i.e. that it represented Jupiter or Rome, were true or whether it has a range of meanings, previously undiscussed in scholarship. Using a combined methodology of semiotics and cognitive science, I examine the eagle in five chronological periods, each of which are divided into themes based on particular areas of the eagle’s symbolism. The first of these themes, ‘Physical Animal and Reality’, examines the ancient thought surrounding the actual eagle and its use in magic and medicine. The second, ‘Concepts and Characteristics’, examines the particular characteristics of an eagle (i.e. its eyesight and claws) used for symbolic purposes and the particular concepts (i.e. valour and criminality) it is used to express. The third, ‘Religion and Myth’, examines the divine nature of the eagle and its connection to deities, as well as its position in myth, astrology, and fringe religions. The fourth, ‘Martial and State Connections’, examines the origin of the eagle standard and its social and religious functions and the ways the eagle is used or connected to the Roman state or empire. Lastly, the fifth, ‘Political Aspects’, examines the eagle’s relationship to the symbolism of power, through either royalty, important republican figures, or emperors. Due to my methodology, which identifies that symbols have multiple and concurrent meanings, my conclusion outlines the many meanings of the eagle and how they relate to each other. These are categorised into macro-symbolism, which appears across the period, and micro-symbolism, that is defined by particular variables (i.e. location or gender). Lastly, the wider implications draw attention to the multivalences of all symbols in ancient culture and that problems of centre/peripheral identity are bound up within these symbolic expressions.