Description
Book SynopsisWater in the Roman World: Engineering, Trade, Religion and Daily Life offers a wide and expansive new treatment of the role water played in the lives of people across the Roman world. Individual papers deal with ports and their lighthouses; with water engineering, whether for canals in the north-west provinces, or for the digging of wells for drinking water, and for multiple other purposes; with baths for swimming; and with spas. Further papers explore religion in water-sanctuaries and the deposition of objects in rivers as well as deities connected with water, including river gods and nymphs. A final chapter provides an overview of subjects not fully covered elsewhere, including warships and naval battles, trade and navigation, aqueducts, fishing and fish-farming, and literary response to watery landscapes, rivers and lakes. The latter include works by great landowners such as the younger Pliny with his Laurentine villa beside the sea west of Rome or by poets, among them Catullus enjoying Lake Garda and Ausonius with his loving description of the River Moselle. The contributors address the subject in a variety of different ways, as Classicists drawing largely on literature, archaeologists with experience of excavating the watery environment, and art-historians. The papers range from the theoretical, with particular interest in materiality, to more lyrical approaches which address the Romans with their problems as well as their pleasures.
Trade Review'Water in the Roman World is a strong addition to our understanding of both water and waterways under the Romans, and how they are analysed and interpreted by archaeologists and academics. It is an invaluable, accessible contribution to the topic, and would make an excellent addition to the collections both of scholars and of those with more general interests.' – Andrew Tibbs (2023): Current Archaeology Issue 395
'This volume is extremely successful in that it brings together a number of different authors, who all provide new perspectives, often through new evidence, on how water was used and perceived. It should be noted that readers looking for the most up-to-date bibliography will not always find that in some chapters, such as in Henig’s. But that certainly does not detract from the work, which is a valuable resource for those wishing to plunge deeper into Roman water.' – Dylan K Rogers (2023): Current World Archaeology, March 2023
'The articles in the volume are brilliantly written and understandable, the arguments are convincing... Overall, the contributions convey fundamental insights and provide important suggestions for future research.' [translated] – Helmuth Schneider (2023): Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Table of ContentsPreface ;
Water and Why Materiality Matters in Roman Studies –
Jason Lundock ;
Iconography of the Lighthouse in Roman Antiquity: Symbolism, Identity and Power Across the Mediterranean –
Federico Ugolini ;
Roman Offensive Planning: Shaping the Lower Rhine Waterscape –
Stijn Heeren and Mark Driessen ;
‘Springs Sumptuously Equipped’: Meanings of Water at Bath –
Eleri Cousins ;
If Swimming Was Not a Serious Activity for the Greeks and Romans, They Would Not Have Had Swimming Pools –
Jenny Amphaeris and Martin Henig ;
The Social Lives of Wells in Roman Britain and Beyond –
James Gerrard ;
Aspects of the Iconography of River Gods in Roman Britain –
Penny Coombe ;
What Lies Beneath? Interpreting the Romano-British Assemblage from the River Tees at Piercebridge, County Durham –
Philippa Walton and Hella Eckardt ;
Water and Liminality in Pre-Roman Gaul –
Aaron Irvin ;
Worship of the Nymphs at
Aquae Iasae (Roman Pannonia Superior): Cognition, Ritual, and Sacred Space –
Blanka Misic ;
An Empire Written on Water: A Personal View –
Martin Henig ;
Author Biographies
