This volume consists of fourteen papers with an introduction and conclusion by L. and P. as well as a prologue by O. Picard. As the editors note, the aim of the colloquium from which the book derives was ‘to establish a dialogue between institutional and economic history through a specific issue: the relation between landed property and the functioning of cities in the Roman East’ (pp. 9–10 [trans.]).

After a prologue looking at the precedents in the Classical and Hellenistic ages, the book is divided into three main sections: (1) agricultural changes introduced by the integration into the Empire; (2) landed property and taxation; (3) land inequality and its relation to the city.

The first section starts with the contribution by I. Anagnostakis and T. Boulay on the cultivation of vines in Bithynia from the Hellenistic period to Late Antiquity, when the area became the fertile hinterland of Constantinople and produced ‘royal wine’. A. Rizakis analyses the rural landscape and practices of Greece with a focus on Achaea and the necessity of drawing regional distinctions as regards the impact of Roman domination on the East. C. Brélaz studies the communities of Roman citizens in Greek cities and emphasises that there were several ways in which clusters of Romans could be established without the colonial deduction that has traditionally been favoured by modern historiography. A. Avram provides a case study of Dorylaion, a Phrygian territory with predominant native elements before a.d. 212, and shows the difficulties of identifying Roman settlers on the basis of nomenclature. J. Aliquot presents a catalogue of villages belonging to cities in Syria and argues that the toponyms including personal names are important for understanding landed property in the Levant.

The second section includes contributions by S. Demougin on the evolution of the duties of procurators in Asia and their collaboration with the provincial governors. B. Le Teuff deals with the scarcity of monumentalised land registers before the Tetrarchic period, their connection with civic archives and Roman law (e.g. Babatha's papyrus and Ulpian's De censibus) and the fact that most of the testimonies are due to exceptional circumstances such as the alimenta programme instituted by Trajan. R.-L. Chang presents a technical analysis of new tax roles from Hermopolis in Egypt (P.Stras. 901–3). A. Monson discusses the benefits of the new tax system introduced by Augustus in comparison with the preceding Ptolemaic administration.

L. begins the third section with a paper re-assessing the progressive creation of an elite of landowners in Egypt during the imperial period, their municipal duties and the appearance of a ‘library of acquisitions’. P. provides a case study of Iasos, an average city in Caria, which illustrates the different layers of Roman citizenship, the increasing ‘depoliticisation’ of the richest elites and the limited impact of Italian settlers on the socio-economic balances in Greek cities. T. Corsten studies the differences in landed property between Bithynia and the area surrounding Kibyra, which also shows diverse patterns of engagement by the owners in local civic life. M. Christol locates the various estates of Cn. Claudius Severus – a native of Pompeiopolis – and his family across Paphlagonia, southern Anatolia and the Pontic road. Christol argues that the consul could have visited the last on the basis of a recently discovered inscription belonging to one of his managers. F. Chausson tracks the prosopographical connections of several Roman senators between the third and fourth centuries who originated from the eastern provinces and had properties in the Italian peninsula and Sicily.

The book is written in French, except for Monson's (English) and Corsten's (German) papers. Given such a multi-lingual character, this reviewer would have expected the addition of abstracts in another academic language; especially when the back cover includes both French and English summaries, and the editors already made the effort of preparing meticulous indexes of sources, names and topics at the end of the volume. All the contributors are clearly experts in their fields of research, provide abundant and up-to-date bibliography, but do not succeed equally well in conveying their arguments in a tone accessible to the average reader of Ancient History. This is a volume addressed to scholars already informed on the topic and its technicalities, who can benefit from the detailed discussions of specific issues related to them. Most papers present case studies which, while insightful and rich in sources, do not always contribute to creating a general sense of cohesion. For example, the copious discussion about Bithynian vineyards is not echoed in other contributions dealing with this region. The geographical distribution of the case studies is equally not uniform, as most of them focus on Asia Minor and Egypt. These are exactly the areas in which the editors are mainly interested and which dominate the volume's conclusion. In this conclusion, the issue of land inequality and its promotion by Roman rule is particularly emphasised, again one point very much discussed by the editors but not necessarily by some of the other contributors. This relative lack of cohesion prevents the volume from completely superseding more general studies such as S. Alcock, Graecia Capta (1993), N. Lewis, The Compulsory Services of Roman Egypt (1997) or T.R.S. Broughton, Roman Asia (1934), even if in some respects these have become outdated and clearly need revision. Moreover, there are fundamental aspects of the subject which are not sufficiently treated. For instance, the importance of foundations based on landed property is barely touched upon beyond allusions to M. Wörrle, Stadt und Fest (1988). Such foundations had profound implications for the maintenance of civic life or the establishment of communal activities such as agonistic festivals, and the main study remains the ancient B. Laum, Stiftungen in der griechischen und römischen Antike (1914). The same applies to the study of the presence of Italian settlers, which in some cases still depends on J. Hatzfeld, Les trafiquants italiens dans l'Orient hellénique (1919).

Despite these remarks, the book is of good academic quality, and the editorial work has to be commended at this bargain price. There are very few typos given the broad range of technicalities/languages used, and the reader should not be misled by the unfortunate mistake in the editors’ names on the front page. As the reference bibliography cited above shows, the topic of landed property and civic life demands fresh studies, and this work is very much welcome. Nonetheless, no one should expect here a companion-type approach, even if almost all the papers can be recommended to the specialists in either this field or the regions discussed.