Roman Villa in the Mediterranean Basin

Annalisa Marzano, Guy P. R. Métraux

"The expansion and proliferation of villas into the Mediterranean under Roman hegemony is the topic of this volume. In addition, the historical trajectory of the villa as a formula and phenomenon is outlined for different parts of the empire. Villas - extra-urban, suburban, or seaside country houses, many with productive estates or facilities contiguous or non-adjacent to them, others purely residential - were unmistakable signs of Roman social and economic presence. Roman villas expanded into Italy and the coasts and inland areas of the mare nostrum (and ultimately into the northwestern provinces of the empire) along with other agricultural, physical, institutional, and socio-cultural phenomena of the new hegemony. There were exceptions, most notably in the eastern empire where a widespread residential tradition and culture on agricultural estates did not develop. However, villas...