After the First Punic War most of Sicily came under direct Roman rule with Hieron II's Syracusan kingdom in the southeast an important ally. With the subsequent defeat of Syracuse in 212 bc, all of Sicily became Roman and was to remain so until the disruptions in the fifth century. Yet Roman Sicily is surprisingly understudied in comparison with other Roman provinces as well as with other periods in Sicilian history.

R.J.A. Wilson's groundbreaking work on Roman Sicily (1990) remains the essential monograph to treat the subject, but much new evidence has come to light since then. P.’s book will not replace Wilson's, but it is a most welcome addition to the scholarly literature on Roman Sicily and treats its subject well. The book, which is based on P.’s 2013 doctoral dissertation at UC Berkeley, is a thorough study of urbanisation and de-urbanisation in Roman Sicily, relying on a solid empirical foundation. P. has undertaken a detailed examination of the available archaeological data from excavations as well as surveys and tied this to what the written sources tell us, not least the wealth of information coming from epigraphy.

After an introduction that sets out the purpose of the study the book consists of seven chapters followed by a conclusion. The first two chapters look at the urban abandonment in the Late Republic and Early Principate (c. 50 bc–ad 50) and in the High Empire (c. ad 50–250) respectively. A number of cities throughout the island, selected by P. as case studies, are discussed: Heraclea Minoa, Phintias (Licata), Morgantina, Camarina, Ietas (Monte Iato) and Calacte (Caronia) for the early period, and Soluntum, Segesta and Halaesa for the later. P. motivates her choice on the availability of good archaeological data – the changes in urban life in these cities exemplify well the process of urban abandonment. Her point is to show how former poleis lost their political importance to the coastal cities where Augustus had installed coloniae. Economically many cities continued to be highly active, but sometimes at locations at a distance from the original settlement. There are, however, limitations in the archaeological material at several of the sites that make it difficult to speak of a clear-cut abandonment. Based on the published excavation results, P. writes that the economic activity of the coastal settlement at Caronia Marina continued long after the presumed abandonment of the hilltop settlement, which constituted the political power of the city. However, due to the fact that the medieval and modern town of Caronia lies directly above the ancient city, very limited excavations have only taken place on the fringes of the modern town. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the settlement continued despite earthquakes (which damaged both the hilltop and the coastal settlements). The surrounding countryside has not been systematically surveyed; so it is far from clear just how abandoned Calacte was in the period under discussion. Still, P. is correct in highlighting the ‘separation of the political from the economic roles of the city’ (p. 54), with Caronia Marina representing the latter and apparently growing into a sizeable settlement thanks to the important role it played in trade. But it may well have been controlled by the hilltop settlement, where it is also likely that the main religious centre lay, perhaps under the medieval castello.

Three other northern Sicilian cities – Soluntum, Segesta and Halaesa – were gradually abandoned in the High Empire, but, as P. points out, this took place significantly later than the abandonment of the southern Sicilian cities of Heraclea Minoa, Phintias and Camarina. The explanations for the regional variation in deurbanisation are many and complex; every city had a unique relationship with Rome, but Chapter 2 demonstrates how the changing economic reality, with commerce being shifted from the southern to the northern coast, could lead to the decay even of old established cities with monumental infrastructure and local elites loyal to Rome. There were many non-urban and semi-urban settlements all over the island, and P. does not explain away the phenomenon of de-urbanisation by simply suggesting that more people moved to the countryside. On the contrary, she paints a nuanced picture, rejecting ‘the dichotomy between urban and rural settlement’ (p. 4), and underlines that where we have good archaeological data from excavations and hinterland surveys no one single pattern is visible. For example, in the survey of the countryside surrounding Heraclea Minoa there is an increase in rural settlement when the city declines in the third century bc, but in other places we see contemporaneous urban and rural contraction. The environmental reasons for a city's abandonment are dealt with adequately and are integrated into the discussion of the political and economic factors.

Many cities in Roman imperial Sicily were not affected by the processes described in the first two chapters; on the contrary they prospered under Roman rule. The following three chapters (half of the book) discuss such cities, for example Agrigentum, Tyndaris, Tauromenium and Syracuse. These cities were important political and economic centres and were well integrated in Mediterranean-wide trade networks. Much of what is presented and analysed in the book so far is then dealt with again in Chapter 6, which serves as a summary of the evidence from the many case studies. A ‘Romano-Sicilian’ urbanism emerges, local Greek elites disappear in the epigraphic record, and Roman citizenship replaces the old polis citizenship. The final chapter explores new settlements that arose in the imperial period and their relations (political, economic, social) with existing settlements, urban as well as non-urban. One of the places discussed is Naxos, where in the imperial period a settlement evolved at a distance from the old polis; another is the interesting inland urban (or ‘urban-like’) settlement at Contrada Sofiana (Philosophiana) with residences and baths within a perimeter wall and a Christian basilica outside.

There are some surprising omissions in the bibliography, such as Wilson's ‘Rural Settlement in Hellenistic and Roman Sicily’ (PBSR 2000) and the proceedings of the conference La Sicilia romana tra Repubblica e Alto Impero (held in Caltanisetta in 2006 and published the following year), with numerous articles that would have been useful for the argument put forward in the book. A more recent publication that presumably came out too late for P. to take into account is R. Chowaniec, The Coming of Rome (2017), on the cultural landscape of south-eastern Sicily with a focus on the University of Warsaw excavations at Acrae – a site conspicuously absent (or as good as) in P.’s discussion.

Maps and plans are good, but there could have been more illustrations of the sites discussed and perhaps also examples of inscriptions, sculpture and pottery. This criticism aside, the book reads well and clearly presents the evidence on which the conclusions are built. It will become a point of departure for any reader wishing to gain a deeper understanding of the complex processes behind changes in settlement patterns in Roman Sicily. It will appeal to historians with limited knowledge of the archaeological material as P. has done considerable legwork in gathering results from numerous excavations and surveys, and combined these with literary and epigraphic sources in support of her analysis. Specialists in urban studies or scholars working on settlement patterns, urbanisation and abandonment in any period will find the book insightful and a rewarding read. Moreover, as the book demonstrates how Roman state power manifested itself in the province of Sicilia and the changes that occurred in the Sicilian urban landscape, it will be of great interest to those studying similar processes in other parts of the Empire.