It is often assumed that we are familiar with Roman towns. Many accounts of towns in Roman Britain take descriptive and romanocentric approaches, but this is not the case for all studies. Merrifield (1995), for example, has highlighted the pervasiveness of pre-Roman religious activity within London through a study of ritual deposition, and Fulford (2001) has argued a comparable perspective for Silchester and other towns. Studies have also explored the role of religious ceremony within towns (e. g., Esmonde Cleary 2005); these activities will have drawn on the past as well as introduced new rites.
Millett’s (2001: 64) research agenda for examining Romano-British towns called for an examination of the distribution of ritual space within towns, but it only referred to temples and not to other ways in which belief was expressed. This includes the meaning attached to the ‘landscapes’ in which towns were placed. The agenda Millett outlined is still largely from a romanocentric viewpoint and does not seek to explore urbanism from the types of perspectives discussed here. Iron Age specialists, by contrast, have redefined their approaches (Burnham et al. 2001; Haselgrove et al. 2001), indicating the way in which the methodologies of the two periods often conflict. Ideally the perspectives of both period specialisms should be combined to gain a more comprehensive view of urbanism. The ‘Golden Age’ period of towns is a term that has been rightly refuted by Mattingly (2004:22) for its simplicity and romanocentric stance. With timber buildings remaining important in towns throughout the Roman period and public buildings often being poorly constructed (e. g., the basilica at London; Milne 1992) or even unfinished, as some have argued for the basilica at Silchester (see Fulford and Timby 2000), it is clear that classical notions of Golden Age towns should not form the only comparison for towns in later Roman Britain.
Moving beyond the notion of a Golden Age leading to decline can be aided further by taking more account of the peculiarities or specificities of town foundation and early development, especially relating to the pre-Roman use and conception of the sites. There was a variety in the outcomes of towns and in the response and needs of the local population. There was no clearly defined Roman blueprint for urban development following a cycle of growth, Golden Age, and decline, but towns were places that can be studied in terms of their use, experience, and meaning.
World History
