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Ateste (mod. Este) has given its name to one of the principal iron age cultures of northern Italy, lasting from the 9th cent. bce until its peaceful annexation by Rome in 184 bce. Until ce 589 it stood on the Adige, now some miles south, and throughout its history thus combined natural advantages for sea-trade, presumably coming through *Atria, with easy access to the land routes round the gulf. Already by the late 7th–early 6th cents. its products were not only reaching *Felsina and the head of the Adriatic, but were also crossing the Alps to Carniola and the Tyrol. Noted for its production of sheet-bronze, particularly of situlae, Ateste was for 800 years the most important commercial and artistic centre of Venetia (see veneti (2)): its commercial position led to the incorporation of foreign (e.g. oriental) elements, via Greek and Etruscan intermediaries, into a distinctive indigenous art-style.

Roman landscapes exhibited enormous diversity, from the rolling hills of the Mediterranean heartland, to Nile marshlands, Apennine mountain pastures, and African pre-deserts. New work on this diversity has demonstrated the intensive methods with which they were managed for agriculture and artisanal output, as well as their highly periodized histories. While much debate in the study of these landscapes has revolved around ancient climate change, more apparent is robust human intervention, which often reached a peak during the Roman period. Romans thought deeply about landscapes, and their literature and religious rituals used landscape to frame moral, religious, and political values.

Unlike the landscapes of the Greek city states, those encompassed by the Roman empire at its height were diverse in the extreme. Among the empire’s territories were the pre-desert regions of Tripolitania and the Syrian frontier, the mountain pastures of the Apennines, and the marshes of the Egyptian oases, not to mention the rolling limestone landscapes of the Mediterranean heartland. Even within smaller slices of these territories (and even within tiny micro-regions), new work has revealed the remarkable diversity of vegetation, sunlight, rainfall, and topography. It is the plurality of these landscapes that gave Romans material for a rich tradition of literary and religious expression as well as a vast and intensive apparatus for economic exploitation.

Whilst the enforced movement of enslaved workers was by far the largest example of economic mobility in the ancient world, there is also plenty of evidence for more voluntary economic movement. This relates particularly to traders and skilled workers, for whom mobility could provide specific economic benefits, opening up new markets, enabling further training, increasing prestige, and maximizing income by moving to wherever their skills or goods were most in demand. Less positively, mobility could also be a necessity when work such as construction was episodic and, to a certain extent, seasonal. Other economic opportunities, such as agricultural labour at harvest time, or porterage in maritime and riverine harbours and cities, were also seasonal, with demand for labour following a relatively predictable annual schedule, whilst extractive industries such as mining and quarrying typically had to bring in workers from elsewhere. Much of this movement was temporary in nature, and so is best thought of as mobility rather than migration, although movement likely ranged from permanent migration at one extreme to near-constant itinerancy at the other.

Mountain east of Athens, known in antiquity as Brilessus. From the 6th cent. bce onwards the high-quality *marble was exploited by quarrying on both western and northern slopes. All the major building projects in Athens in the late 5th cent. employ Pentelic marble, and the ancient *quarries and quarry roads remain visible today. Traces of both a fort and a sanctuary have been found at the summit.

Via Salaria, an old-established route which facilitated the salt trade from the *Tiber mouth. It ran north-east from Rome to *Reate in the Sabine country. Later extensions,

(1) through Amiternum and

(2) through *Asculum Picenum, carried it to the *Adriatic.

The most common words to designate a marsh, a swamp, or a bog are helos in ancient Greek and palus in Latin; beside these terms, less common words were also employed. Literary and epigraphic texts give evidence for marshlands in the countryside, in the coastal areas, and also close to urban agglomerations. The sources often give evidence for drainage activity, but cases of extensive drainage are rare. In fact, they were possible only at public expense, by employing free or slave labor. On the other hand, several territories were characterized by a sort of marsh economy. Although rarely portrayed in literature, and despite the risk of malaria, marshy areas presented some economic potential: fishing, hunting, salt extraction, and farming. In many respects, the negative image of wetlands is a modern invention. The contrast between the rational order of the Roman countryside and the “barbaric” medieval landscape was introduced by the Enlightenment, and must be treated with caution.