Latium Vetus is accepted as having possessed an urban status by the archaic period. The evolution towards this status depended upon various factors operating through centuries. From an initial stage in which the region was composed of insular settlements, the first step towards urbanisation was nucleation of settlement. This was a federal grouping of small, self-governing kin units. Such were the curiae of history; their individualism is emphasised in the topography of the cemeteries. They are revealed in the remnants of early law operating along the lines of reciprocity and collusion. This nucleation was probably a result of demographic pressures; trade and technological innovation may also be considered contributory factors. Certainly these latter emerged as conditioning elements within the development of such communities. The separate units within the settlements practised an individual prestige-goods economy. Their powers were separate from those of the community as a whole. Such powers had to be curbed as the role of manufacture and trade increased. Thus the central, 'state' power grew, as may be seen in legal and historical developments. The aristocracies which had emerged had proved a destabilising factor in the state, for they maintained economic and sociopolitical practices which artificially supported secondary activities and separatist influences. As society became more complex, so the kin basis upon which it was founded proved inadequate. Changes in the demographic constitution of the community, overly competitive economic practice and increasing functional differentiation caused the creation of a public domain, one witnessed in various ways in the source material. Urbanisation was the end-result of the functioning of a prestige-goods economy in a society formed of distinctive groups prior to the initiation of large scale trade and manufacture. The competition inherent within such a society led ultimately to the unity of the urban system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:324693 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Betteridge, James |
| Publisher | University College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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