ABSTRACT
Roman archaeology has sometimes been seen in the past as a kind of visual aid to the works of historians or commentators like Livy, Tacitus. Archaeologists are constantly improving their understanding of the ancient world by applying a range of techniques borrowed from other disciplines, historical demography, sociology and anthropology, statistics or economics, to their data. Archaeological data come first and foremost from the palaeopathological study of the remains of the individuals themselves. It is important to remember that these contemporary sources form virtually the only link between archaeological material and the events of Roman history. Study of the spacing and distribution of Romano-British towns in southern England has shown that there is a hierarchy of organization between the coloniae, the cantonal capitals, and the lesser walled towns. The cantonal capitals are regularly spaced, and have intersecting spheres of influence round them with a radius of about fifty kilometres.
