In Chapter 2 I will theorize about the transformation process of pre-Roman towns into their Roman successors with colonial or municipal status. I will propose a new theoretical framework to describe Roman urbanism. This framework will explain the different aspects of Roman urbanism and help to better understand the transformation of town and country into their Early Imperial phase. After describing the most important gentrification theories, I will apply them to Roman towns, using an explanatory model, which helps filter the evidence and provide a special lens for looking at structures and changes in Roman towns. I shall also concentrate on five main elements for Roman gentrification theory: (1) the presence of a sizeable group of affluent people, (2) a functioning property and rental market, (3) a shift in employment and diversification of professions, (4) a professionalization of trades and crafts, (5) the locational preferences of the elite and their dependents and their investment in domestic and public architecture (urban renewal), public display and forms of entertainment. I will also investigate evidence of rural gentrification.

In Chapter 3 I will compare the Archaic and Classical poleis of the Greek homeland to the official Roman towns, defined in this study as the coloniae and municipia, on the Italian peninsula in the time of Augustus. This comparison is based on the inventories of poleis by Hansen and the official Roman towns on the Italian peninsula by De Ligt. The list of official Roman towns by De Ligt is leading in my analysis. A complementary source of information on higher-order settlements on the Italian peninsula south of the Po River is the Romurbital database. The justification for this comparison between Greek and Roman towns is based on the observation that most Roman towns were of modest size, often evenly distributed over the landscape and with a relatively large hinterland. This in contrast to Greek homeland poleis. Those towns were also relatively small, but more densely distributed in the landscape. This made small towns the norm and large towns the exception in Early Imperial Roman Italy. The large towns have received most of the scholarly attention because of the available archaeological and epigraphic evidence and the important role of these large towns in the economic network of Roman Italy. The German tradition of landscape research and geographical studies referred to the typical polis of the Greek world as the ‘Normalpolis’; in analogy, the typical small Roman town is called ‘Normalurbs’. I will define and put into context the size-ranges for the dimensions and populations of these two ideal types. This chapter will also review the origins that led to what is known as the Greek model of urbanization, in which 70–80% of the population of Classical Greece lived within the polis walls and consisted mainly of commuter-farmers. I will compare this Greek model to the Roman model of urbanization, in which 80–85% of the people did not live in towns, but in the countryside. This comparison will provide insights into the composition of both Greek and Roman urban populations and their activities.

In Chapter 4 I will discuss the Etruscan towns, with a focus on Veii, Doganella and Volaterra. The transformation of Veii, a primary centre of the Etruscans before the Roman conquest, is based on the study of the pottery evidence from the urban and rural surveys by the British School at Rome. The size of habitation in the different phases of the town’s existence were reconstructed based on urban and rural field survey data and contextualized using Livy’s narrative. The second town I will investigate is Etruscan Doganella, located in the fertile plain of the Albegna Valley. This large town was conquered by the Romans under conditions that cannot be reconstructed due to a lack of archaeological evidence and literary sources. The town disappeared in the Roman period and the Albegna Valley transformed into a colonial landscape. Finally, Volaterra will serve as an example for a peaceful form of expansion by the Romans: Terrenato argued in favour of an elite-negotiated hand-over of Volaterra that resulted in continuity of the rural settlement pattern.

In Chapter 5 I will study the former independent towns of Latium, and focus on Praeneste, Lanuvium and Antium. These towns were overbuilt in later periods, but their development into the Early Imperial period is explained through a Roman gentrification-centred view. The archaeological and literary evidence for these towns is fragmented, not visible or absent. Nevertheless, Latium is a region that offers insight into the challenges of articulating and testing the Roman gentrification model.

In Chapter 6 I will focus on Pompeii. This town will serve as the ultimate test case for the interpretive framework proposed in Chapter 2. Because of its abundance of evidence, Pompeii will act as an anchor, a point of reference for the other regions and towns explored in this study.

In Chapter 7 I will investigate the towns of Magna Graecia, focussing on the transformation of Metapontion (Roman Metapontum) and the province of Sicily. Metapontion was a flourishing polis in the south of the Italian peninsula up to 300 BC. The town was impacted by frequent warfare; the Pyrrhic and Second Punic Wars were decisive for its future. What remained of the town in the Roman phase was a concentration of habitation within the area of the former Roman castrum that covered 14 ha. The modest size of Metapontum was not unique: 40 official Roman towns on the Italian peninsula fall within the 10–15 ha range. The second case that will be discussed did not have Greek-Hellenistic antecedents, but Lucanian. Whereas the former Greek colonial poleis of Southern Italy were located in coastal areas, this was not the case for Grumentum. In the final section of Chapter 6 I will explore the province of Sicily and evaluate if the proposed Roman gentrification model has value for analysing Roman urbanism in the provinces.

In Chapter 8 I will investigate how urbanization in the northern regions of the Italian peninsula and Picenum, the key features of its Roman towns and how they differed from the Roman towns of central Italy. Special attention will be given to Trea and Comum.

In the concluding Chapter 9 I will discuss the value of the Roman gentrification model for the study of Roman urbanism and the insights from the case study regions and towns. Differences between regions and towns will be highlighted in a factor analysis.