Michalis Karambinis took his BA on archaeology in the University of Athens and his MA in the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology in Rome. In 2009 started his PhD dissertation at Leiden University, with this book being the outcome of this research. In 2007-2015 he worked for the Hellenic Archaeological Service (Archaeological Ephorate of Euboea). He is currently a Post-Doctoral researcher at Leiden University in the ERC project “Empire of 2000 cities: urban networks and economic integration in the Roman Empire”.