City of Encounters. Public Spaces and Social Interaction in Ancient Rome

The aim of this book is to identify and analyse the main internal and external spaces that enabled and encouraged interaction among individuals and groups in the ancient city of Rome. Such spaces include places of worship, places of entertainment, bathhouses and other places for personal care and recreation, guildhalls and places of economic and political exchange. The main objective of each chapter of the volume is to establish the topographical framework of spaces and buildings, and the relations between spaces (and their furnishings) and the individuals or groups who used them. Since this volume sets out to explore mechanisms of social interaction, its emphasis between spaces and people.1