La ridefinizione degli spazi urbani nelle città dell’Adriatico centrale tra la tarda Antichità e l’alto Medioevo

Between the 4th and 8th centuries disappear around a third of Italian urban centers of Roman tradition. These crises of the cities have different characters in various parts of Europe. The parameters used to define the state of health of the city, however, are numerous. Fundamental is the possibility to be reached easily from the Mediterranean trade, especially and the availability of primary resources, such as salt. Center-Adriatic Italy presents several cases of abandons and transfers of urban locations. Romagna, the region of Ravenna, lives a period of economical increase and its expansion and enrichment enables vast new investments in its territory and surrounding urban settlements such as Rimini, Faenza, Forli and Cesena. In other areas just to the south, the phenomenon is very different. The Marche are undergoing a crisis of the urban system and many major cities were instead abandoned. In this paper I will try to examine the different characteristics and causes that led to the continuity of life and the abandonment of these urban centers, mainly by analyzing the material sources. I will try to understand especially if cities continue to play a key role in the administration of the territory, in spite of the power relations and forms of settlement are transformed gradually, since the fourth century.