About the lecture
We often hear that the city of Rome by the Early Empire had a million inhabitants. In fact, scholars have in the last century suggested between 2.5 million and 250,000 urban inhabitants. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of ancient sources on which modern estimates of the ancient population of Rome are based in order to highlight the different limitations of the material and the uncertainty of any conclusions. The five main approaches to estimate Rome’s population will be presented, with a focus on the number of recipients of the grain dole.
About the speaker
Simon Malmberg is a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Bergen. His main focus is on urban developments in the imperial and late antique periods, especially in the city of Rome and Italy. He has carried out research on the impact of movement on land and water on urban developments in central and eastern Rome, as well as along the Tiber, and has studied how capital cities may express political status through architecture and ritual, with a focus on Rome, Constantinople and Ravenna.
Simon Malmberg teaches at the University of Bergen, including the course "Rome in Antiquity" taking place at the Norwegian institute in Rome every Spring, and in collaboration with the University of Oslo. He previously served as a board member of the Norwegian Institute in Rome and is a frequent visiting researcher there.
Interested in attending?
For in-person participation in the lecture room, please register, preferably the day before the lecture:
https://nettskjema.no/a/eveninglecture
For online participation, registration is not required, just follow the link below:
https://uio.zoom.us/j/61131791594