Every day Roman urbanites took to the street for myriad tasks, from hawking vegetables and worshipping local deities to simply loitering and socializing. Hartnett takes readers into this thicket of activity as he repopulates Roman streets with their full range of sensations, participants, and events that stretched far beyond simple movement. As everyone from slave to senator met in this communal space, city dwellers found unparalleled opportunities for self-aggrandizing display and the negotiation of social and political tensions. Hartnett charts how Romans preened and paraded in the street, and how they exploited the street's collective space to lob insults and respond to personal rebukes. Combining textual evidence, comparative historical material, and contemporary urban theory with architectural and art historical analysis, The Roman Street offers a social and cultural history of urban spaces that restores them to their rightful place as primary venues for social performance in the ancient world.

'Focusing especially on evidence from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Rome, Hartnett brings Roman streets to life, weaving together information from roadbeds, street monuments, and building facades with historical and literary descriptions, inscriptions, and representations in art. This topic is rarely tackled, says Hartnett, because of the reliance on birds-eye plans and a focus on grand public spaces. His book is divided into an introduction and three parts of multiple chapters: the activities of the street itself - traffic, social interaction, and self-display; the scale and frame of the street, including facades, sidewalks, and benches; and case studies of two specific streets, one in Pompeii and one in Herculaneum. … the author brings to light the flow of the city and the intersection of citizens and slaves. Readers can picture the sounds, sights, and smells of the street as a stage for posturing, displaying respect, and enacting disgrace and revenge. Hartnett cites sources liberally and usefully provides many original Latin texts in footnotes on each page. The bibliography is thorough, and illustrations are ample throughout the book.'

Source: Choice