Proceedings of a conference held at the University of Kent, 11th and 12th October 2008There has been, in recent years, a quickening of interest in the condition of Italy and state of those who lived there during the Roman republic. The diverse nature of the evidence, both historical and archaeological, has stimulated scholarly debate. New techniques and ideas are being brought to bear on old questions with interesting results. The papers in this volume, by both historians and archaeologists, are a contribution to the debate. They look at Italy and Rome from an Italian as well as from a Roman perspective. Dogmatism has been avoided in order to present different viewpoints and individual perspectives. Out of such diversity there eventually comes progress in understanding.A wide range of topics will be found scrutinised and discussed here. Issues covered include villas, the ager publicus and agriculture, Italian participation in Roman politics, Roman agricultural writers and some of the methodological problems our evidence poses.