Roman Villas by David E. Johnston

Roman Villas by David E. Johnston
Soft back, 64 pages, Illustrated B&W, 15cm x 21cm

Roman villas range from modest farmhouses to fabulous palaces. Many thousands, certainly of the former, remain to be discovered. It could pay to learn what you are looking for.

Roman Villas contents:

On the back cover:

To many people villas symbolise the life of luxury in the countryside of Roman Britain: mosaics and wall paintings, dining rooms and sumptuous baths. This book shows that they were indeed the country houses of prosperous Britons who had learned the ways of Rome. Current research, however, is discovering another aspect: the villa as a farm, the most efficient means of producing goods for market in the new towns, and revenue for the tax collector. The book describes the villa estate and how it was managed, its fields, equipment and outbuildings. It is possible to point to villas that may have been held by tenant farmers, others perhaps managed by bailiffs for absentee landowners and yet others that were the country homes of the wealthy elite. This book looks at the interdependence of villas and towns and examines the fate of the villas and their estates when Roman rule ended. Throughout the book examples are chosen from sites that can be seen today, where the visitor can glimpse the richness and variety of life in the countryside of Roman Britain.