Network analysis of transport vectors in Roman Baetica

The Roman province of Baetica, roughly commensurate with modern Andalusia, Spain, provides an excellent case study of “Romanization” from its early days as a republican overseas possession to its development into a pillar of the imperial economy. The work presented here uses Network Analysis applied to our current knowledge of transport and communication routes in the region in order to better understand the relationship between the location and political/economic significance of sites. This paper focuses on the technological aspects of the study, in particular the methodology used, as well as the results, which indicate strong transport-influenced spatial patterning. The concluding section takes a deeper look at the nature of the source data and its “directionality.