Rome, archéologie et historie urbaine follows in the steps of L'Urbs, the influential 1985 conference subsequently published in 1987. L'Urbs presented and discussed the new discoveries and ways of working on the topography of the city of Rome developed from the 1960s onwards by the CNRS research teams of Pierre Gros and Claude Nicolet. Following the same premises, Rome aims to cover the last thirty years of research and does this quite successfully. In some cases it retreads areas discussed in L'Urbs, such as the Palatine or Aventine hills or the topography of the working classes, but it also broadens its scope both chronologically and methodologically.

The book is divided into three sections, ‘sources et méthodes’, ‘lieux et contextes’ and ‘nouvelles approches’, that aim not to be comprehensive but to provide an insightful overview of the direction that the study of the topography and urbanism of the city of Rome has taken since L'Urbs was published. It particularly emphasises the move from the study of single buildings towards an integrated approach that connects the buildings with the areas of the city they are in and their relationship with social and political history, as discussed in Manuel Royo's introductory chapter. The thirty-year gap between L'Urbs and Rome is bridged with a chapter on Ferdinando Castagnoli, who was invited to participate in L'Urbs but could not join. The heartfelt chapter by Maria Pia Muzzioli not only remedies the missed opportunity of incorporating Castagnoli's scholarship, but also sets the tone of the volume. Castagnoli's working methods, his accuracy and constant reassessment of the sources used in the topographical study of Rome are key in such a complex discipline, and that need for methodology is highlighted in several of the chapters.

‘Sources et méthodes’ extensively covers current methodologies: from literary and epigraphical sources (chapters by Domenico Palombi and by Gian Luca Gregori and Silvia Orlandi) to archaeological methods (Alessandro d'Alessio), the latter an ode to the approach of Coarelli. Alessio de Cristofaro discusses new ways of approaching topography, influenced by the Anglo-Saxon tradition that uses models and considers the influence of social dynamics. The differences and evolution of methods find a case study in Francesca de Caprariis's chapter on the Forma Urbis. The section ends by juxtaposing Paolo Liverani's discussion of architectural representation during the Renaissance with Philippe Fleury and Sophie Madeline on the possibilities of virtual reality for understanding Roman topography. While the two chapters apparently deal with disciplines miles apart, this actually stresses how new techniques allowing us to view buildings from a contemporary perspective can help us to understand Roman architecture and planning. A chapter on material culture would have been useful. Anna de Santis’ chapter on tomb groups in the area of the Capitoline Hill shows the possibilities of this type of material in understanding the occupation of areas and their buildings, and while the chapter deals with the proto-historical period, this evidence is also relevant for later periods where written sources are also available.

While the first section is comprehensive, ‘lieux et contextes’ has a different feel. The editors stress the impossibility of covering all the areas and sites that have been researched in the last thirty years; hence the need for selectivity. While this is sensible, sometimes one misses coverage of certain areas of Rome. However, there is an important novelty here in the book's chronological coverage. While L'Urbs focused on the late republican/imperial period, here it is expanded to cover early Rome and Late Antiquity and the early medieval period — a welcome decision, given that the city has been occupied continuously and each successive Rome feeds on earlier periods not only physically, but also conceptually. Jens Fleug's chapter on the Palatine is a good example of this new approach. He discusses the Palatine not as a monolithic site, but as an area that evolved under the direction of different emperors. The Augustan period had very different needs to the Flavian; there is not one Palatine but many. Paola Quaranta and Alessandra Capodiferro offer a similar diachronic approach for the Aventine, showing its evolution from a sacred area to a busy urban neighbourhood. Given how much of that change was due to the development of the sub-Aventine area, it would have been welcome to include discussion of that area, as much work has been done here in recent years. Alessandra Ten's chapter on the Campus Martius is a good example of the volume's aims, the need for critical use of multiple kinds of evidence as well as relating the archaeological evidence to its political and social context. This section ends with two articles on late antique Rome, Lucrezia Spera on the transformation of buildings within the context of Christian Rome and Riccardo Santangeli Valenziani on the urban transformation between the fourth and seventh centuries a.d.

‘Nouvelles approches’ is probably the weakest section of the book. Some of the articles read more like introductory overviews rather than pointing a way forward in the study of the city of Rome, as those in the previous two sections do. They are, however, a useful introduction to the topics they discuss, and no doubt provide an update on the chapters on the same topics that were first published in L'Urbs. The public spaces of the city are discussed in Audrey Bertrand and Sylvia Estienne's chapter dedicated to religious areas, while Cristina Rosillo-López and Francisco Pina Polo survey the political spaces and Emmanuelle Rosso discusses how the imperial power is represented. Economic and legal aspects are covered by the chapters of Christer Bruun and Charles Davoine. Cyril Courrier and Jean-Pierre Guilhembet's chapter on housing provides a counterpart to Flug's chapter on the Palatine in the previous section, echoing L'Urbs in showing that Rome is much more than a city of emperors. The ordinary population of Rome is further discussed by Nicolas Tran in his chapter on the variety of workers and the buildings that can be related to them, such as tabernae. The section ends with a chapter on the sensory experience in Rome by Alexandre Vincent and a final overview of the volume's aims by Pierre Gros, one of the scholars behind L'Urbs, which provides a good conclusion.

At the end there are useful indexes of sources, ancient names, places, subjects and modern scholars (covering only those discussed in the text; so, for example, Amanda Claridge does not appear, but her work on the Forum of Trajan is discussed in the footnotes).

Overall the illustrations are good, although not consistent; thus Spera's chapter includes detailed maps that complement the text, while Muzzoli's article on Castagnoli would have benefited from clearer images to allow us to read some of that scholar's notes.

Rome, archéologie et historie urbaine is a valuable book that not only provides a good overview of the research conducted on the city of Rome during the last thirty years, but also indicates paths to follow in the future.