Falerii Novi, in the heart of the ager Faliscus, offers an unrivalled opportunity to investigate the peri-urban landscape of a Roman town. The paper presents some of the results of a research project that has been looking at the entire peri-urban landscape of Falerii Novi through a multidisciplinary approach, including extensive geophysical surveys, pedestrian surveys, and targeted excavation. The paper focuses on the area to the south of the city, where a series of geomorphological and archaeological features have been newly detected. The results have revealed that despite the artificial and natural boundaries of the city (i.e., the city wall and the steep ravine of the Rio Purgatorio), the community's efforts in managing, exploiting, and occupying the peri-urban area were substantial. The paper presents the newly recorded evidence of the significant effort put into water management as one of the key factors in shaping the landscape, demonstrating how the geological composition of the territory conditioned the engineering solutions adopted. Finally, the discussion focuses on the discovery of an agricultural area, likely a mixed cultivation system relating to the production of a surplus by the inhabitants of a large suburban villa.

The Tomb of the Scipios is a multigenerational patrician tomb outside Rome dating from the early third to mid-second century b.c.e. The tomb is perhaps most famous for its verse epitaphs, which have traditionally been identified as echoes of the lost elite family domestic archives that informed the first Roman histories. In dialogue with the recent turn towards considering the role of non-literary methods of recording the past in the development of Roman historical thought, this paper proposes a reinterpretation of these epitaphs within their archaeological context. Ultimately, this paper argues that the Tomb of the Scipios and its epitaphs should be understood not simply as lost echoes of other types of family history, but as a site where the family experienced history through an ongoing dialogue with the dead.

This article offers a fresh interpretation of the ancient Roman relief at Palazzo Sacchetti, identifying it as a depiction of the senatorial delegation meeting Septimius Severus at Interamna in AD 193. Through iconographic analysis, it argues that the relief embodies the Senate’s expectations for Severus’ rule, grounding his image in the principle of Iustitia and portraying him as a model of moderation and fairness. Ultimately, it reveals how the relief uses a ‘historical’ depiction of a real event as a lens to examine the negotiation of power dynamics between the emperor and the Senate at the outset of Septimius Severus’ reign.

This paper presents an archaeological material science study of pottery production and use at the Bronze Age Minoan town of Palaikastro, east Crete, from Middle Minoan IIA to Late Minoan IIIA2 (c. 1850 to 1300 BC), through petrographic analysis of thin sections and wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The compositions of 288 archaeological samples are compared with geological references collected from the site and its adjacent hinterland. The results of this study indicate that throughout this period the majority of the archaeological pottery assemblage was probably produced using materials from a small number of geological outcrops local to the town; however, the manner in which these resources were utilised changed significantly over time, particularly between the Proto- and Neopalatial periods.

Recent years have seen a remarkable revival of research on Cassius Dio and his Roman History, including the publication of numerous volumes of collective essays, and this has been accompanied by a much higher estimation of his achievement than used to be customary. This article seeks to assess the progress made on a range of key issues relating to Dio and his history and to point ahead to further directions for research. The chief topics considered are Dio’s career as senator and historian, central aspects of his history (transmission, sources and models, structure, speeches), and Dio’s handling of politics and system change.