Small towns formed the center of political, social and economic life for most Romans. Their fora, baths, theaters and markets provided stages for a complex range of activities that held Roman local society together. Pompeii was typical of these towns. The excellent preservation of that community due to the eruption of Vesuvius allows us to place a range of urban activities in their physical settings.

In this leture, the audience will be taken through the city of Pompeii from the tombs outside the walls, through the public structures to the private houses. At each stage, the monuments will be related to certain types of civic activities that made the individual Roman feel part of the political, social and economic community. The talk will be illustrated with photos, plans and reconstructions.

Professor Stephen L. Dyson is a Roman archaeologist and ancient historian. Educated at Brown, Oxford and Yale, he has excavated Roman sites in Italy and has written on various aspects of the history and archaeology of Roman Italy. His most recent book (1992) is Community and Society in Roman Italy. Professor Dyson has been a Mellon professor at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, conducting semester long tours of the ancient monuments of Rome. His current research centers on books concerned with the history of classical archaeology and with the social and economic development of the ancient city of Rome. He teaches Roman history and archaeology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.