This publication runs to 1,696 large-format pages in double column. Volume 1 of 624 pages is in many ways a commentary on Volume 2, 1,072 pages of detailed presentation and discussion of the evidence. Volume 1 also contains a series of useful bar-charts showing the incidence of categories of evidence from 226–750 c.e., along with cartographical presentation of the information, and data tables, along with well-composed indices of topics. Volume 1 is enhanced by a series of photographs and plans to exemplify the topics and sites under discussion; Volume 2 eschews such fripperies. This reviewer only had access to the print edition; the e-book, as well as being far less bulky, is presumably searchable, a great boon for those wanting to find specific information.
So what are the ambitions of the volumes? The author states perfectly reasonably and truthfully that it is not designed as a ‘good read’ and that ‘Most sections … should be dipped into and skimmed through’ (11). That being so, it is proposed here essentially to set aside Volume 2, which consists of a huge series of Appendices laying out site-by-site the published evidence for particular types of event, be it the raising of road surfaces or the construction of sigma courts, with L.'s commentaries thereon. It forms a huge and impressive compendium, but could have been much compressed, so that readers could go to the source material and thus draw their own conclusions. Arguably it should only ever have been published electronically.
What about Volume 1? The first problem lies with the title. ‘Public’ is a word so often used and equally often undefined in studies of ancient cities and urbanism, subject to a certain Humpty-Dumpty-ism (‘[a word] means just what I want it to’). Public in what way? Funding? Ownership? Accessibility? Here the term is ‘mainly confined to streets, squares and shops’ (10). L. admits that this excludes types of structure regarded by many as highly public and highly important: baths, theatres, amphitheatres, hippodromes, churches. The inclusion of shops is unusual, as they are not normally seen as publicly funded or owned, even if accessible to those who want and are wanted. The coverage is empire-wide, demonstrating again the remarkable range of L.'s reading, and often autopsy. Not surprisingly, the East predominates, with Constantinople leading the pack, followed by ‘the usual suspects’, Aphrodisias, Ephesus, etc. For North Africa there are again well-known sites such as Sufetula. The West is completely overshadowed by Rome. Gaul and Iberia are surprisingly poorly represented, though L. admits this may be because of a lack of recent syntheses for him to draw on; Britain holds its end up better than many might expect. It is surprising that Reccopolis is omitted despite being an example of a late antique city laid out ex nihilo (Justiniana Prima is in). The evidence base is largely archaeological, with textual sources used to give the sort of circumstantial detail about the use of space that archaeology often cannot. The structuring first by type of evidence and then site does make it difficult to apprehend the overall developments at an individual city.
Crucial to understanding the thrust of the work are the opening ‘The Writing of this Book’ and ‘Introduction’ and then the ‘Conclusion’, which respectively lay out L.'s agenda and assess the extent to which they have been fulfilled. ‘The Writing’ is essentially a personal statement of how this work arose out of L.'s research career and it lays out the personal academic and political frameworks which have informed it (occasionally giving echoes of ‘old, unhappy, far-off things’). The ‘Introduction’ sets out L.'s intellectual stall, which comes over as largely evidence-based and empirically driven: L. is not a natural denizen of the wilder shores of ‘theory’. But his self-awareness should tell him that this is in itself a theoretical position and perhaps needs more justification, especially since the current literature on the city in (late) antiquity contains plenty of non-threatening theoretical approaches which would have helped articulate and elucidate the evidence.
Ch. 1, ‘Street Architecture in Late Antiquity’, lays out a huge amount of detailed evidence on streets, their fabric, their ornamentation, their surrounds, giving the physical setting for ch. 2, ‘Street Processions’ and ch. 3, ‘Late Antique Street Life’. L. has wrung so much out of the textual sources animating the dead stones of ch. 1, such as the role of music, the chanting and acclamations, the banners, giving such a lively sense of them as experiences. The disposal of offal in the streets raises images of the mule-borne bastarnae carrying aristocratic women glopping through ordure: so different to the carefully ‘curated’ presentation of the streets of an Ephesus or a Sardis today. But L.'s overall approach means that ch. 2 misses so many tricks. Processions and their functions have been the focus of a great deal of analysis for the (late) antique city and pre-industrial cities more generally, affording avenues of interpretation which allow the evidence to be used rather than just presented. Yet, even simply looking at the footnotes and references to the chapter, it is clear that the emphasis is on the textual, archaeological and artistic evidence, the ‘what’ rather than the ‘why’. The same spirit animates chs 4 and 5, which examine fora and agorai from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Ch. 6 on markets and shops follows the same scheme, with a glimpse of ‘shopping culture’. The Conclusion summarises the main lines of argument while posing questions as to whether there was an urban koine and the extent to which Christianity impacted on the cities physically and socially. It closes with critiques of some modern writers on the late antique city which probably say more about L. than about their targets. In all, a book that shows so much work, so much knowledge, so much potential, but ultimately frustrates because of L.'s self-denying ordinance on how to exploit all this material: potential unrealised.
