- Chapter Eight -
expansion into north Italy during the third and second centuries Be (Ward Perkins
(974). This had witnessed the establishment of various military colonies in recently
conquered Celtic lands, among them Piacenza (218 Be) and Bologna (189 Be), all
characterized by the later norm of square or near square street grids. Such sites
and their developing public buildings and amenities provided the models for urban
development elsewhere in the west, where Rome had to take a more active role in
promoting city growth as the focus of local self-government (Bedon et al. 1988;
Duby 1980; Wacher (974). The resulting cities were planned from the outset with a
street grid which conformed to the north Italian norm, providing a unity of plan
which was further emphasized by the provision of public buildings and amenities,
most notably a forum-basilica complex, bath-houses and markets, theatres and
amphitheatres, official guesthouses, and a water supply and sewerage system,
together with temples, wealthy private housing, shops and workshops (Figure 8. I).
Such features help to explain the family likeness of most cities in the north-west
provinces, from Aries and Nimes in the south, to Augst, Trier and Silchester further
north. Such cities were not mass-produced, however, and did not appear overnight,
each one being the dynamic end product of essentially local circumstances, as
regional variations show (Drinkwater (985).
Figure 8.1 Reconstruction view of Silchester in the third century from the south-east by Alan
Sorrell. The street grid, public buildings and amenities of a romanized administrative centre
are clearly apparent. (The original is housed in the Reading Museum and Art Gallery; photo
courtesy of English Heritage Photo Library.)122