Managing Territory in Roman Times:Road Networks, Fortifications and Territorial Control

29. Januar 2026

Foto: Unknown

This workshop wants to analyze the dynamics of territorial management that enable Rome to maintain its power on a regional scale. We propose a study of the infrastructure that supported this management (roads, fortifications and settlements), understood not only as specific elements of transport or warfare, but as part of a logistical system. In this way, the workshop seeks to discuss the capacity of Roman power to exercise its authority through structures that, far from direct coercion, consolidated the political, economic and spatial cohesion of the Empire. 

This global approach transcends the usual thematic, spatial and temporal fragmentation between studies of territory, military archaeology and road networks. In contrast to approaches focused on technical aspects or the analysis of isolated sites, this workshop will address the territory from a holistic point of view: the aim is to re-evaluate the analysis of territorial management not as a minor phenomenon, limited to a sectoral study, but as an essential dimension for understanding imperial development.

You can find the program here.

• Date: 29.-30. January 2026
• Place: Warburg-Haus, Heilwigstr. 116, 20249 Hamburg (Germany)