S.’s aim in this book is to make a case for taking what he calls a ‘spatial approach’ to writing ancient history. The book is structured around five case studies in which S. combines archaeological, epigraphic and literary evidence to explore the space–society relationship at successively expanding scales. There has been an upsurge of interest in space in the ancient world over the last few decades, which makes this a welcome addition to Cambridge's Key Themes in Ancient History series. The book is clearly written and rich in insights but could have benefited from greater engagement with theoretical discussions and more explicit articulation of methodology.
In Chapter 1 S. presents the complex development of Cyrene's agora from Archaic through to Roman times in a concise and accessible manner. Buildings and monuments are interpreted in light of what is already known of Cyrene's changing constitution, following a similar approach to J. Camp's The Athenian Agora (1986). The difference, of course, is that Cyrene's political history is far less well documented than that of Athens, leaving far more room for speculation. For the Archaic and Classical periods S. connects various building projects with periodic regime shifts between aristocracy and democracy. He sometimes lapses into circular reasoning, presenting buildings and monuments as supporting evidence for the very changes he had expected to find on the agora. For the Hellenistic and, even more so, the Roman period his explanations for change on the agora are overly top-down. For example, he talks of direct manipulation of the space by Augustus in determining where particular inscriptions were set up (p. 34) at a time when the emperor was in Rome facing more pressing concerns, and credits ‘the Romans’ with choosing to convert a well-house into a temple to the Imperial cult (p. 36). More attention to what the agora was used for and for local involvement in its development in post-Classical times might have resulted in a more nuanced picture.
The second case study widens the focus and looks at the development of religious space across the whole island of Delos. Again the emphasis is on politics, with cults and sanctuaries being interpreted as expressions of control by outside powers (Naxos, Athens, Hellenistic monarchs and Rome) or, for a brief period in the third century b.c., of Delian independence. S. uses the attractive phrase ‘network of polytheism’ to describe the distribution of temples and cult places on Delos but there seems to be little evidence for the interconnectivity between sanctuaries that the term implies. The discussion, however, is concise and provides much food for thought on the interplay between politics and religion and the changing identity of the island.
The third chapter really consists of three case studies in one, examining the use of cemeteries at the cities of Ostia, Pompeii and Rome, for the Republican and early Imperial periods. The central concern is how different types of people (elites, non-elites, men, women, free, freed, soldiers) were buried in different areas at different times, and what this tells us about power and identity of the cities and these groups. Issues such as tomb design, clustering and visibility are all addressed but none is dealt with systematically. Looking at just one of these cities would have given the discussion more depth. One of S.’s most interesting suggestions in this chapter is that the Romans experienced their cemeteries as alienating and potentially threatening spaces. However, his attention again is primarily on buildings and monuments rather than the people who moved among them which leaves the idea requiring further consideration.
The fourth case study moves away from the built environment to consider perceptual spaces. Focusing on Corinth and Syracuse, S. aims to demonstrate how a ‘spatial approach’ can help us rethink the relationship between Greek colonies and their mother-cities. Urban layout, material culture, political interaction and literary representations of the cities’ connections are all examined. S. makes a strong case that the colony–metropolis relationship deserves more attention than scholars have given it and his discussion of Syracuse's changing place within the Greek world is illuminating. Less convincing, however, is that his approach here can really be called spatial. How Syracuse positioned itself vis-à-vis Corinth, Athens or Rome is really an issue of identity and could have been discussed just as fruitfully without the use of spatial metaphors such as ‘proximity’ and ‘distance’. As a contribution to Syracusan history, and the broader subject of colonial identity in the Greek world, the chapter is excellent but its connection to the rest of the book feels somewhat stretched.
The fifth case study is the strongest. Here S. explores the way that Greece as a space is constructed in Strabo's Geography, a text that naturally lends itself to thinking spatially. S. argues convincingly that Greece's position within the work is far more central, both thematically and in terms of composition, than has previously been acknowledged. Strabo is shown to use the construct of Greece to think about Mediterranean-wide cultural connections, to ground the places of the present in the mythical and legendary past, and to reflect on the nature of hegemony, thereby painting contemporary Roman dominance as anything but certain.
In the introduction, and in the useful bibliographic essay that follows the conclusion, S. describes how scholarly understanding of the space–society relationship has become increasingly sophisticated in recent decades. Thinkers such as Lefebvre, Giddens, Bourdieu, de Certeau and Soja are all mentioned (p. 170). However, the book contains no real discussion of how their work has filtered into research on the ancient world or how it has informed S.’s own case studies. S. tells us on p. 10 that the last substantial comparative study of the Greek agora, R. Martin's 1951 Recherches sur l'agora grecque, was written ‘before the advent of modern spatial studies’ but does not explain how his own approach to the agora of Cyrene capitalises on modern theory. Even in Chapter 5, which opens with a quote from Lefebvre and where S. promises to make use of ‘recent advances in the understanding of space and text’ (p. 137), the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of his approach are not stated. A result of this lack of attention to theory and method is that S. ends up somewhat underselling the potential of his spatial approach. A phrase that recurs frequently is that thinking spatially can ‘add texture’ to our understanding of the ancient world, which sounds rather like filling-in background detail for what we already know. I would argue that a spatial approach has the potential to cast light on aspects of ancient culture and society about which we would otherwise know very little, and that this is what makes it a key theme in ancient history.
The wealth of material amassed in this short book is impressive. I noticed few errors: when Strabo places Octavian at Corinth on his way to celebrate a triumph for the battle of Actium the soon-to-be emperor was, of course, en route to Rome rather than returning to the battle site (p. 157); a building inscription at Cyrene was presumably carved on the epistyle rather than the ‘peristyle’ (p. 36). A more serious complaint concerns the images. The book is well equipped with illustrations and maps but unfortunately many of the latter, reproduced from earlier publications, have been reduced so much that they are hard to read, especially those of the tomb areas at Ostia (figures 3.2 and 3.3). In a book where visualising spatial arrangements is so central to the argument this is a real shortcoming.
The book has its flaws but it also has many strengths and deserves to be widely read. The case studies make important contributions to their respective subjects and scholars and students interested in physical and conceptual space in the ancient world will find many stimulating ideas.
