Economic life and the urban environment in the Roman World

This paper will use the archaeological remains of Pompeii as a starting point for discussing the position of everyday economic activities in the cities of the Roman world. Focusing on the embedding of shops and workshops in their urban environment and their geographical spread over the urban area, I will discuss how social, cultural and economic priorities influenced the contextualization of commercial facilities in public and private spheres, and to which extent this does (and does not) shed light on the attitudes of people towards the presence of everyday work within the urban landscape.