Towns in Late Antiquity: Iol Caesarea and its Context

The author describes his 1977-81 excavations in the forum at Cherchel in Algeria which ranged from Punic and Juban, through Imperial, Vandal and Byzantine, to Islamic times. His findings are then used as the basis for a discussion of civic centres in Late Antiquity in North Africa, Asia Minor and the Levant, and elsewhere around the Mediterranean. Finally, he views the late antique change through the example of the site of Mola de Monte Gelato, near Rome.