Urbanization is defined as “the act of making urban by nature or character (Urbanization). Understanding urbanization is fundamental to understanding the components underlying Roman rule in Italy and the process of rapprochement of different cultures. The operations, particularly of the elites, of Roman society are also essential to understanding urbanization. Cities then were not what they are today, as far as economic assemblies are concerned. Roman cities were an arena as much for social and political interaction as for economic exchange. By studying urban development in Roman society, we are able to gain an inside perspective of the powerful insights that changed the ideals of Roman cities. Early authors often measured cities as centers of learning and culture, and a qualification for a civilized world. society. It was these ancient authors who believed that territories were an important and essential part of a city, which served as a center for people. Strabo, in his first century AD writings on the Allobroges, noted that "the absence of a city" included savagery, war, and unsettled times, where a "city" created peace and civilization (Huskinson). Opposition to savagery in Roman civilization devalued the social and political development of these "savage" societies; the elite of Roman society associated civilizations within a city as superior to the "barbarian" lifestyle in villages. The elites' way of thinking represented a cultural separation between the rustic life of the "barbarians" and the urbanitas, or sophisticated values ​​of those who lived in the city. In ancient times the term "city", also known as urbs or civitas in Latin and polis or asty in Greek, carried a variety of butts...... to the center of the paper......r nuclear. This change is usually attributed to a population decline in that era, but sometimes this was not the case. The replacement of the settlement pattern, with a smaller, more compact populated city, is seen more as a cultural change to reflect Romanization rather than a population decline. Works Cited Huskinson, Janet. "Urban planning and urbanization in the Roman world". Experiencing Rome: culture, identity and power in the Roman Empire. London: Routledge in association with Open UP, 2000. 213-44. Print.Lomas, K. "The idea of ​​the city: elite ideology and the evolution of urban form in Italy, 200 BC - 100 AD." Roman urban planning: beyond the city of consumption. By Helen Parkins. London: Routledge, 1997. 21-41. Print."Urbanization." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. November 19. 2011.