ABSTRACT
The late Roman period in Italy, as almost anywhere in the Roman world, is generally seen as one of general decay of urban and rural life in the face of the break-up of the state at the hands of hordes of barbarian invaders. Settlement is thought to have returned almost to a murky repetition of pre-Roman modes of upland nucleation, with the classical town-country relationship almost wholly displaced. But how valid is this picture nowadays, in the wake of new archaeological excavations, field surveys, and revised assessments of the documentary sources and of the material impact of the so-called ‘barbarians’? For example, was there continuity in ‘classical’ settlement activity and in rural exploitation beyond Rome's fall? And how far did human control over nature decline as control over society and the economy faltered?
