On 24 August 410 the city of Rome the Goths led by their king Alaric captured and looted the city of Rome for three days. This was the first conquest of Rome in 800 years, an event that is full of symbolism and subject to great controversy. This book, based on a conference held at Rome in November 2010, offers a critical re-evaluation of all the evidence available, literary and archaeological, discussing not only what happened during those days, but also its context as well as its impact.

During the fourth and third centuries BC, Sicily and South Italy were the site of almost incessant conflicts between their indigenous peoples, Greek settlers, Punic colonists, and Roman conquerors. Their cities and villages offer great opportunity for the study of the ensuing political and military crises and their cultural and economic repercussions. The book presents a selection of contributions from an international congress, which inaugurated the research programme «Italian cultures from the seventh to the third century BC in South Italy and Sicily», funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The papers introduce and analyse concepts of urban planning and economic productivity. Some present general surveys, whilst others present more detailed discussions of newly excavated material.

The abundance of water in Roman cities was celebrated already in antiquity and became manifest in numerous different buildings. The present study discusses public and private fountains, important waterworks, which ensured most of the drinking and service water supply in ancient cities. Deep wells, cisterns and fountains in selected cities of the western half of the Roman Empire will be examined in a comparative analysis. Written sources, in addition to the archaeological record, provide important insights into the symbolic signification of running water and the assessment of ground- and rainwater. The examination of both material and written sources enables a comprehensive survey of the usage of various sources of water from the republican to the imperial period.

In the necropolis of Lipari (Italy) a great amount of terracotta masks from the 4th and early 3rd century B. C. have been found –– an important local speciality. Their study as products of local coroplast’s workshops is followed by the question of how the masks –– similar to contemporary theatrical masks –– relate to ancient Greek theatre. The investigation of the masks within their context in the necropolis –– here undertaken for the first time –– allows important conclusions on their function and meaning in funerary ritual.

The Hippodrome is one of the largest garden facilities in the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome. This monograph provides the first comprehensive analysis of its architectural ornamentation. On this foundation, the structure’s decorative systems are reconstructed. By analyzing the Hippodrome’s architectural decoration and assessing its place within the palace facility itself – as well as within the broader context of garden and villa architecture of the imperial period – we reach a new understanding of the structure, and how it was integrated into Rome’s Imperial Palace. This work contributes to the study of the architectural decoration of the city of Rome while simultaneously closing a gap in the study of the Imperial Palace as a whole.

The Basilica Aemilia in the Forum Romanum is one of the most important buildings of ancient Rome due to its location, size and architecture. It is also especially well preserved in comparison with many other ancient buildings, and yet it has received very little attention in the scholarship. This study assembles and documents the surviving, Imperial-period remains of the building. This forms the basis for a detailed reconstruction of the building’s architecture, origins, and evolution. Particular emphasis is placed on the modes and meaning of the architectural decoration, above all with reference to the use of space and the broader urban context.

Bis vor wenigen Jahren ging die archäologische Forschung davon aus, dass die Kunst des 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts nicht mehr an mythologischen Darstellungen interessiert gewesen und außerdem die handwerklichen Voraussetzungen dafür abhanden gekommen seien. Mittlerweile sprechen immer mehr Funde und Beobachtungen gegen diese Vorstellung. In diesem Kontext steht die Arbeit von Marianne Bergmann, die die Ausstattung einer Villa in Chiragan in Südfrankreich untersucht. Die Betrachtung dieser Villenausstattung, die von Künstlern aus Aphrodisias (Kleinasien) ausgeführt wurde, verändert die gängige Auffassung von einheitlichen Zeitstilen und kontinuierlichen Entwicklungen in der Kunst der Spätantike. Ausgehend von dem geschlossenen Komplex verbindet die Autorin weitere Skulpturen aus verschiedenen Fundorten mit den Werkstätten in Aphrodisias und stellt die Überlegung an, darin Reflexe der Kunst der neuen Hauptstadt Konstantinopel zu sehen.

This volume deals with a topic that has influenced much current research, but which has rarely been applied to Classical times – the complex phenomenon of "transport" and "traffic." Varied essays reflect on the manner and to what degree people in antiquity were consciously influenced by transport in their everyday lives, and how they reacted to it. The essays focus on the management of the spatial transport of people and goods within the urban environment and the interpersonal contacts these transactions involved, as well as on urban planning, legal regulation and the political significance of the movement of big crowds within urban areas.

The Egyptian grotto, as the Isis-Tomb of Vulci was called when it was discovered in the nineteenth century, is one of the most prominent tombs of the orientalising period in Etruria. Friederike Bubenheimer-Erhart presents in this volume many important documents of the time, on the basis of which she undertakes a fundamental reconstruction of this Etruscan sepulchre. She also addresses a number of aspects, which characterise the beginning of archaeology as an academic discipline, and she explains the special relevance of Egyptian artefacts found in the soil of ancient Etruria for the contemporary history of the Papal States.