Editors: Annalisa Marzano and Guy P.R. Metraux
Publisher:  Cambridge University Press – 599 pages
Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram

This book is about the expansion and proliferation of Roam villas into the Mediterranean under Roman hegemony is the subject of this book.

Villas were extra-urban (outside of population centers such as a city) suburban, or seaside country houses. Many were with productive estates such as agricultural lands contiguous or non-adjacent to them. But some were purely residential, and these were unmistakably signs of high Roman socioeconomic status and success.

The Roman villas expanded into other parts of Italy such as the coastal areas, and into the northwestern provinces of the empire

Thirty-one specialists on Roman villas in ten countries – Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States – authored the 25 chapters of this book. We list the chapter titles below to provide you an overview of the coverage of topics and content in this book:

Introduction

  1. The Roman Villa: An Overview
  2. The Roman Villa: Definitions and Variations
  3. Part I – Roman Villas on or Near the Bay of Naples and Maritime Villas
  4. The Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii and the Ideals of Hellenistic Hospitality
  5. The Building History and Aesthetics of the ‘Villa of Poppaea’ at Torre Anunziata: Results from the Oplontis Project 2005-2014
  6. Landscape at the ‘Villa of Poppaea’ (Villa A) at Torre Anunziata
  7. The Social Status of the Villas of Stabiae
  8. The Roman Villa of Positano
  9. Maritime Villas and the Resources of the Sea
  10. The ‘Villa of Augustus’ at Somma Vesuviana
  11. Part II – Roman Villas in the Mediterranean
  12. Roman Villas in Southern Italy
  13. Villas in Northern Italy
  14. Roman Villas in Sicily
  15. Villas in South and Southwestern Gaul
  16. Roman Villas in the Iberian Peninsula
  17. Roman Villas in the Maltese Archipelago
  18. Roman Villas in North Africa
  19. The Roman Villa at Apollonia (Israel)
  20. Houses of the Wealthy in Roman Galilee
  21. Villas in Roman Greece
  22. Villas of the Eastern Adriatic and Ionian Coastlands
  23. Part III – Roman Villas: Late Antique Manifestations
  24. Late Antique Villas: Thames
  25. Aristocratic Residences in Late Antique Hispania
  26. Christianization of Villas
  27. Part IV – Roman Villas: Later Manifestations
  28. Conviviality versus Seclusion in Pliny’s Tuscan and Laurentine Villas
  29. The Villa Dei Papiri: Herculaneum and Malibu

Conclusions

Some important points made in this book:

  • The Roman villas were oftentimes grand and luxurious
  • Many were farms where wine, olive oil, cereals, and manufactured goods were made
  • They were also places for conversation, hospitality, mingling and socializing
  • They became the means of assimilation of power

This is an insightful, well-researched, and well-written book that will provide hours of pleasure to those looking to learn and understand Roman architecture and lifestyles. It would be an important addition to your library about the Roman Empire and everything related.

 

Editors:

Annalisa Marzano (PhD 2004, Columbia University, New York) is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Reading, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries in London. She has published on a wide range of topics related to the social and economic history of the Roman world and has participated in numerous archaeological projects.

She is the author of two monographs:  Roman Villas in Central Italy: A Social and Economic History (2007) which won the Silver Medal and Honorable Mention at the VIII Premio Romantico Internationale Gerard Boulvert, and Harvesting the Sea: The Exploitation of Marine Resources in the Roman Mediterranean (2013).

Guy P.R. Metraux is Professor Emeritus of Visual Arts at York University, Toronto, and a member of the Collaborative Program in Ancient History (University of Toronto / York University). He has participated in archaeological excavations in Italy, Tunisia, and Turkey, coauthoring San Rocco Villa at Francolise (with M. Aylwin Cotton, 1985).

His 1995 book Sculptors and Physicians in Fifth Century Greece won the Raymond Klibansky Prize from the Social Science and Humanities research Council. A Guggenheim Fellow, his current work focuses on villas in their literary and physical aspects.