Acknowledgements
This book is an improved version of the PhD thesis I defended at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Cologne in June 2021. I look back on my time in Cologne with much fondness and good memories, and I am thankful for the many friendly and inspiring people that I have met along the way. It is therefore a pleasure for me to thank some of them here.
First of all, my Doktorvater, Peter Franz Mittag. He always stood ready to discuss my work with him, but he also knew how to keep me on my toes with his critical questions. I also greatly appreciate the encouragement he gave me when I was struggling with my research at times. This has kept me on the right track. My thanks also go to my second supervisor, Eckhard Deschler-Erb. From him, I learned a lot about provincial Roman archaeology, and my work has greatly benefited from the friendly discussions that I had with him. I am also very grateful to Wim Jongman. He introduced me to Roman economic history during my studies in Groningen and has inspired me with his great enthusiasm for the topic. He taught me a lot and gave me the confidence to start doing research. He has also been a great help in formulating the research questions for this book.
I consider myself very fortunate to have been a member of the DFG Graduiertenkolleg 1878. Archäologie vormoderner Wirtschaftsräume. My time in the ‘Grako’ has been a great and valuable experience. I have gained many new insights, and my work has certainly profited from the many good discussions and lectures that we had. At the same time, the social aspect was of great importance. Whether it was a plenum, an international workshop, or just an evening of drinks, we always had lots of fun. I would therefore like to thank everyone who was involved in the Grako. More specifically, I would like to thank Ina Borkenstein, who was the coordinator of the Grako. She always made sure that everything was taken care of, which has made our lives much easier. A word of thanks also goes to Tymon de Haas, who was the leader of our research line. The discussions I had with him have really helped me better plan and structure my research. Of course, I would also like to thank my colleagues in the office, Dean Peeters, Cathalin Recko, and Ella Hetzel, for the many good conversations and the sociability.
A very big thank you also goes to David Brough. Not only was he a great drinking buddy at the Limes Congress in Serbia, but he also proofread the whole manuscript for me. I would also like to thank Caroline van Toor, who has checked the Latin in this work for me.
I am also thankful to the editors of Impact of Empire for accepting my book in this series and to the people at Brill for their fine cooperation and good guidance during the publication process. The anonymous reviewer also made an important contribution to this work by providing useful feedback.
Furthermore, there are several people who I would like to thank for a variety of things, such as helping with my research proposal, sharing (unpublished) work and data, allowing me to reproduce figures, or providing useful literature and bibliographies: Barbara Borgers, Bert Groenewoudt, Gijs Tol, Julia Hoffmann-Salz, Maaike Groot, Marion Brüggler, Paul Beliën, Peter Attema, Philip Verhagen, Rahel Otte, Sebastian Held, Stijn Heeren, Thomas Frank, Tyler Franconi, and Vince Van Thienen.
Finally, I want to thank my parents for the love, support, and opportunities they have always given me. And last, but certainly not least, my sweet girlfriend Franziska. Her love, support, and patience helped me a lot in writing this book.
Erik Timmerman