7.3 Networks

Is connectivity relevant to the economy of our contemporary world? And how far does connectivity help the spreading of ideas across the world?

Roads, bridges, aqueducts and harbours are at the bottom of the incredible economic, social and cultural growth that occurred in the Mediterranean during Antiquity. Despite the fact that they never theorized the importance of roads as means to facilitate the movement of people and goods, the Romans established the most complex and articulated system of connecting infrastructures (roads, bridges and aqueducts) that is still often at the base of the main road systems in Europe today.

How far then can the understanding of the economic and cultural implications of connectivity in the ancient world help our understanding of contemporary society?

EPQ Suggested Questions

In your EPQ project you may want to focus on one of the following questions:

How far can the Roman empire be defined as a globalized world?
What was the role of trade in shaping the Hellenistic and the Roman Mediterranean as a connected space?

Material culture

Check what is Monte Testaccio in Rome and the role oil and wine trade across the Mediterranean in the Roman period
Check the role of Roman aqueducts in providing cities with a vital resource for urban life: possible examples to look at are:
- Rome’s ancient aqueducts (open link)
- The Pont du Gard, France
- The aqueduct of Segovia, Spain
Check the nature and role of Roman roads in connecting cities and in enhancing military mobility during the Republican and Imperial periods. Possible examples to look at are:
- The military, commercial and cultural role of the Appian Way (Italy) during the Roman Republic
- How long did it take to travel from point A to point B in the Roman era? Check the role of sea, river and road transport across the Roman empire (open link)

Artefacts from the Great North Museum

Fragment of Roman beaker (open link), of the so called Samian ware class. The beaker was likely produced in Rheinzabern (modern Germany) but it was found at South Shields (Tyne and Wear, England, UK) and it shows the extent of the trade and exchanges that occurred across the Roman Empire.
Roman imperial coin (open link) emitted by the emperor Nero. The obverse shows the harbour of Ostia, the port of Rome, with 7 ships framed by an arcaded portico and with the reclining figure of the river Tiber. On the top, there is a lighthouse surmounted by a statue of Neptune. The coin celebrates the completion by Nero of the harbour initiated by Claudius, a work that helped providing Rome and its people with goods from all over the Roman empire.

References

Adams, C. and Laurence, R. eds., 2012. Travel and geography in the Roman Empire. Routledge.
Alcock, S.E., Bodel, J. and Talbert, R.J. eds., 2012. Highways, byways, and road systems in the pre-Modern world (Vol. 9). John Wiley & Sons.
Habicht, C., 1998. Pausanias guide to ancient Greece (Vol. 50). Univ of California Press.
Hingley, R., 2005. Globalizing Roman culture: unity, diversity and empire. Routledge.
Keay, S.J. ed., 2012. Rome, Portus and the Mediterranean. London: British School at Rome.
Laurence, R. and Berry, J. eds., 2001. Cultural identity in the Roman Empire. Psychology Press.
Laurence, R., 2002. The roads of Roman Italy: mobility and cultural change. Routledge.
Laurence, R., Cleary, S.E. and Sears, G., 2011. The City in the Roman West, c. 250 BC–c. AD 250. Cambridge University Press.
Mattingly, D.J., 2013. Imperialism, power, and identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire. Princeton University Press.
Ostenberg, I., Malmberg, S. and Bjørnebye, J. eds., 2015. The moving city: processions, passages and promenades in ancient Rome. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Pitts, M. and Versluys, M.J. eds., 2014. Globalisation and the Roman world: world history, connectivity and material culture. Cambridge University Press.
Pretzler, M., 2013. Pausanias: travel writing in ancient Greece. A&C Black.
Talbert, R.J. and Elliott, T., 2010. Rome's world: the Peutinger map reconsidered. Cambridge University Press.
Van Tilburg, C., 2007. Traffic and congestion in the Roman Empire. Routledge.
Wilson, A. and Bowman, A.K. eds., 2018. Trade, commerce, and the state in the Roman world. Oxford University Press.

Online resources

Perseus digital library: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/
The Grove Art Online: http://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/
Potsherd: http://potsherd.net/atlas/potsherd
Waters of Rome: http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/waters/first.html
Archaeology Data Service: Amphorae: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/amphora_ahrb_2005/
The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World: http://orbis.stanford.edu/
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire: http://imperium.ahlfeldt.se/places/34951.html
Pleiades: https://pleiades.stoa.org/home