Urbanism and empire in Roman Sicily challenges the limited availability of textual and archaeological evidence to analyse the consistency and nature of urban settlement on the island from c. 250 BC to 450 BC. Sicily represents a particularly interesting case study because it constituted an ethnically and culturally diverse entity, with a long-standing tradition of urban development, within a well-defined and bounded geographical unit (an island) at the crossroads of Mediterranean maritime routes.

The sources that form the basis of Pfuntner's analysis consist of biased and fragmentary textual sources and uneven, but rich and detailed, archaeological evidence. The book considers methodological issues and concepts such as urbanisation, de-urbanisation and decline. Pfuntner introduces an interesting ethnoarchaeological concept of abandonment as a normal and not necessarily permanent process, which “can occur in a continuum, from the disuse of structures and areas within settlements to the abandonment of whole regional settlement networks” (p. 19). She distinguishes between spatial and temporal settlement stability, which relates to whether settlements are repeatedly or continuously occupied. It is regrettable that this interesting methodological approach is not fully developed with an analytical quantitative application of the concept.

Chapters 1 and 2 describe in detail the decline of once flourishing poleis along the southern coast and the interior. The elevated sites of Heraclea Minoa and Camarina (previously Greek or Phoenician colonies and sub-colonies), Calacte and Phintias (new foundations of the Archaic and Hellenistic periods respectively) and Ietas and Morgantina (fortified Indigenous settlements) all showed signs of urban decline and abandonment between the end of the Republic and the Early Empire (c. 50 BC to AD 50). While Soluntum, Segesta and Halaesa, showed signs of abandonment only in the later imperial period (c. AD 50–250). Segesta and Halaesa's local elites maintained continuous good relations with Rome and other provincial regions (attested by epigraphic evidence), which delayed the decline and abandonment of these cities until the end of Antiquity.

The following chapters (3–5) focus on cities that thrived during the Roman occupation of Sicily, maintaining wide and strong connections with other Mediterranean regions. Lilybeum and Agrigentum (Chapter 3), on the south-western coast were never colonies, nor did they receive special attention from Rome; other cities, Tyndaris and Tauromenium (Chapter 4), and Catina, Syracuse and Centuripae (Chapter 5), all received colony status in the aftermath of the military campaign against Sextus Pompey in 36 BC (in which all were involved) apart from Centuripae, which was made a community with Latin status during the Republic. Pfuntner argues that a combination of factors led to the discontinuity of the cities analysed in Chapters 1–2 and the stability of those considered in Chapters 3–5. These were: the loss of political importance of previously independent cities and the concentration of political authority in the new coloniae and municipia; subsequent changes in the local intra-regional terrestrial networks within the island; the shift of international Mediterranean networks within the Roman Empire—for example, with the conquest of Egypt, which provided a new source of grain for Rome and supplanted Sicily as the primary source for the Annona; the presence, in some cities (Syracuse and Centuripae), of strong and active local or Roman elites and a diverse and varied population (such as in Catina and Syracuse).

Chapters 6 and 7 are more thematic. During the Augustan Era while Rome and other provinces saw a radical programme of architectural renovation making their urban appearance specifically Roman, Sicilian cities underwent a process of gradual “Romanization” or “forumization” (p. 191). This consisted mainly of the modification or embellishment of existing public spaces, such as agora and bouleteria, to adapt them to display the new imagery of power utilised by Roman elites and local elites connected to Rome. Residential and funerary architecture provided opportunities for conspicuous displays of wealth and civic visibility. New sites for the imperial cult were introduced in most colonial cities, as well as new building types such as amphitheatres “to keep up with the new cultural tastes” (p. 193). Gymnasia are lacking from Sicilian Roman cities, however, probably because they connoted athletic military preparation and political socialisation of autonomous citizens of the pre-Roman poleis. Similarly, macella are not found in most Roman Sicilian cities, as their storage and market functions were assumed by normal tabernae or they were moved to other centres outside the urban circuit. In fact, new forms of non-urban settlement emerged in Sicily during the Roman occupation, such as large latifundia and developing villages. These were located at key points on regional transportation routes and assumed the economic role of regional marketplaces for the surrounding territory. It must be stated, however, that this phenomenon is not unique to Roman Sicily. The presence of similar settlements that are not clearly definable—between a villa and a village—sometimes occupied since the Orientalizing or Archaic Era, and which probably served as central regional marketplaces, have been noted before (Fulminante Reference Fulminante2014). Tymon de Haas has emphasised the importance of these middle-range and secondary urban settlements to the economy of Roman Italy and beyond (De Haas Reference de Haas, Tol and de Haas2017).

The final chapter situates cities in a local and interregional network and explains the survival or abandonment of Sicilian Roman cities within the shifting fortunes of the island as it moved from a settlement system of independent cities and colonies to the province of a large Empire. The lack of evidence for terrestrial routes in Roman Sicily leads Pfuntner to rely on the Antonine Itineraries (presented in map 2, but poorly reproduced). While this is an understandable choice, greater effort could have been made to reconstruct, visualise and, more importantly, analyse those shifting networks on the basis of the methodology outlined in the Introduction, using, for example, the Sewell and Witcher (Reference Sewell and Witcher2015) and Hanson (Reference Hanson2016) data repositories, both available on-line. Similarly, it would have been interesting to use epigraphical evidence to analyse formally the local and international elite networks, correctly identified by the author, to test whether networks shifted their focus from Italy (during the Republic period) to Africa (in the imperial period) and if so how.

Pfuntner's work would be enhanced by developing her valuable ideas with quantitative analyses. Nonetheless, her volume is a fundamental contribution to the study of Roman Sicily within the wider context of the Roman Empire.