The urban hinterland

Abstract

The Roman roads radiating from London attracted a series of roadside settlements, suitably distanced to have been stopping points after a day’s slow travel by ox-drawn cart and for cattle drovers. These were also places from which local estates might have been managed and where taxes could be raised at the intersection between urban and rural economies. Whilst the outlines of this road system and settlement network were Claudio-Neronian in origin, it was significantly enhanced in the Flavian period. Several important suburban villas were also established along the banks of the Thames at this time, although the wider landscape contains surprisingly few Roman villas. This was perhaps because of the relative unimportance of local land-ownership to the formation of power within the early town.