ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the political and social consequences of Roman conquest on the residents of Morgantina, a city in eastern Sicily of moderate size and proportionately modest geopolitical importance. While Morgantina does not feature prominently in ancient historical narratives, the city plays an outsized role in its contribution to the archaeology of ancient Sicily. Since 1955, archaeologists working with the American Excavations at Morgantina have systematically investigated the ancient urban settlement, bringing to light a vast body of archaeological data. Remains from the centuries following the absorption of Sicily into Rome’s political ambit have often been considered mainly within a narrative framework of urban decline. By re-examining the material realities of daily life at Morgantina during the first two and a half centuries of Roman rule, we can more easily forestall these narratives of inexorable urban decline, which have too often been used to describe the trajectory of Sicily’s inland centers following Roman conquest of the island.
