Matthew Notarian
This project is a comprehensive account of the development of three urban communities in Latium Vetus, Praeneste (modern Palestrina), Tibur (Tivoli), and Tusculum, between the second century BC and the second century AD. Using a combination of archaeological, historical, and epigraphical evidence, I will investigate the continuity and adaptation of communities at the fringe of the Roman suburbium. Examinations of these outer towns have been neglected in consideration of the social and economic system of Rome’s hinterland. This study is innovative because it approaches them collectively as functional communities, considering their social, economic, and political qualities, as well as their association with the city of Rome and its suburbium. By examining the relationship between material culture in the towns and their territories and the social history of these communities, this study will demonstrate how suburban civic life survived and adapted to the political and economic system of the imperial era.