Rome and the Colonial City, British School at Rome and Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, January 28–30, 2020
Rome, following Greek models, spread its power across the Mediterranean by founding hundreds, if not thousands of new cities. These "colonies", unlike older cities which evolved over time, including Athens and Rome, were based on a grid layout. That layout then influenced the form of new city foundations in Medieval Europe, in the New World after 1492, down to its most brazen imitation by Mussolini. What were the ideals that lay behind these new cities, and particularly their grand layout? This conference pulls together specialists on antiquity, the middle ages and the modern period to question some of the "colonialist" assumptions in the literature, and to link at the changing ways in which antiquity has influenced modern urbanism.
Advance registration required.