Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.11.57 Lucy Grig, Gavin Kelly
(ed.), Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity.
Oxford studies in late antiquity. Oxford; New York: Oxford
University Press, 2012. Pp. xv, 465. ISBN 9780199739400. $85.00.
Reviewed by Raymond Van Dam, University of Michigan
(email@example.com) The city of Rome was one of the
extraordinary accomplishments of Roman imperial rule. Rome was
the first city in world history to have a population of one
million residents, and its population seems to have remained
steady for the three centuries from Augustus to Constantine. In
part this great size and its long duration were contingent on
the city’s fortunate location. Increasing numbers of people
moved to Rome already during the later Republic, as refugees
from warfare in Italy, as displaced peasants, and as slaves,
while the spoils of vast overseas conquest provided food and
other resources. The migration of people and the supply of
provisions could intersect so readily because the Mediterranea