Illyricum - Griechenland - Rom

The book deals with town centres of cities on the eastern Adriatic coast from the Geometric Period until Late Antiquity. On the basis of archaeological finds, epigraphic evidence, and city structures of antique origin, 40 town squares in 38 cities have been identified between the Gulf of Trieste in the north-west and the Akroceraunian Mountains in the south-east. In the catalogue they are described in detail and distinguished into proto-urban centres, agorai or fora. In addition, the topographical situation of the settlements and their contacts to the neighbouring Greek and Roman cultural spheres are considered. The gained insights serve as a basis for the discussion of cultural interdependencies. This revealed the existence of cultural contacts ever since the Geometric period. Systematic settlement foundations all over Illyricum attest a civilisation with administrative centres already in existence before the Greek colonisation. Alignments of fortified gradina settlements bear witness to controlled traffic routes from the Adriatic Sea to the ore deposits in the Dinaric Alps. Greek apoikiai and Roman urbanisation both tied up with these urban centres.