towns and villages: Rome small townships evolved into great cities from the beginning of the fourth to the beginning of the third century b.c.e The distinctive sign of this evolution is the establishment of an agora, or marketplace The agora was such a distinctive trademark of a city that Athens allowed only two other marketplaces to operate in all its vast territory ROME BY KATIE PARLA The first towns and villages in central Italy were Iron Age settlements later expanded by various groups such as the Villanovans, Etruscans, Latins, and, ultimately, the Romans As Rome’s territory began to grow, existing buildings in acquired towns were replaced with Roman models Accordingly, certain common features emerged in towns and cities throughout the Roman world These similarities were the product of town planning that combined Greek, Etruscan, and Roman elements During the Republican and Imperial ages, Rome expanded to include territories as far as Great Britain and the Near East By imposing town planning on old and new settlements, the Romans were able to provide a common, unifying urban experience for all By constructing public buildings that served as communal social and commercial spaces and by providing amenities to the people living in these territories, Rome was able to offer an unparalleled quality of life even in the smallest towns and villages Roman towns were typically laid out in grids; the organization of a town’s streets into a grid system is called orthogonal planning This model was borrowed from Greek town planning, but the Romans used square rather than rectangular city blocks The streets running from east to west in such a design are called decumani, while those running from north to south are cardines Where the principal decumanus axis (decumanus maximus) intersected the principal cardo axis (cardo maximus) is where the town forum would be located Romans built forums in towns and villages throughout their territory to provide a communal area to be used for political, economic, religious, and legal activities Buildings and speaker’s platforms would be constructed for meetings of the town or provincial government Warehouses, banks, and shops would provide space for commercial exchanges Temples dedicated to gods and emperors would reinforce the town’s connection to Rome and its other settlements Law courts, called basilicae, would be where Roman law was enforced and punishments doled out Forums in Roman towns were public places where visitors would absorb the messages of unity and Roman primacy that were communicated through architecture Another important aspect of Roman towns and villages was their constant water supply Aqueducts were built to bring water from lakes, springs, and rivers to settlements These aqueducts were aboveground or belowground channels that delivered water over a distance at a low-grade angle 1093 using gravity Some water sources were more than 50 miles away from the towns they supplied This constant flow of water allowed for amenities like public fountains, public bath complexes, public latrines, and even running water in some residential complexes Waste management was another feature of Roman towns and villages Sewers were built below street level to channel waste away from residential, commercial, and industrial sites Also, groups of slaves would collect trash in the streets and rinse the streets regularly to keep public areas sanitary This would help prevent the spread of disease Places for pubic spectacles were a major social component of Roman town planning Theaters for cultural performances, as well as stadia and arenas for gladiator fights, chariot races, wild beast hunts, and public executions, could be constructed from wood or stone Typically, these buildings were erected on the outskirts of towns, where more space was available During the Roman Republic (509–27 b.c.e.) private individuals commissioned the buildings and the events held there In the empire, the state financed such projects and produced structures of great scale and permanence The sites for public spectacle found in ancient Roman towns were places where the masses, citizens and noncitizens alike, could reap the benefits of the government’s generosity, since the events were free to the public Another Roman structure found in all towns and villages was the bathing complex Public baths provided a common space where all members of society could relax, wash, exercise, and interact; the baths were social areas that guests would visit most afternoons for a minimal price Like arenas and theaters, bathing structures were usually built by politicians during the republic and commissioned by emperors and the government during the empire One of the fundamental functions of Roman towns and villages was to provide secure areas for residential life Since Roman towns were surrounded by defensive walls guarded by soldiers, residents would be protected from invaders Police also patrolled the streets to protect private property within the town limits The two main types of residential buildings were the insula and the domus An insula was an apartment block with commercial spaces for lease on the ground floor and apartments on upper stories A domus was a single-family home or villa that had reception and dining areas in addition to the private bedrooms and slaves’ quarters Sometimes the rooms of a domus facing onto a street would be used as commercial spaces Many examples of this practice can be found in both Ostia and Pompeii Towns and village were located in all areas of Roman territory Sometimes the Romans would reorganize existing settlements, adapting standing structures into the Roman layout that they would impose on conquered towns This could result in established towns not adhering precisely to the orthogonal plan Pompeii offers an example in which the original Oscan street plan, with its only occasional right angles, was incorporated into first the Greek, then the Roman grid system