Relying on primary literary sources and archaeological scholarship, this study sheds new light on the development of towns in early England from late Roman to late Anglo-Saxon times. After a discussion of the problems of urban definition and typology, Russo examines the background of Romano-British urbanism in its prime and in its late Roman transformations. He demonstrates that late Roman towns were virtually abandoned before the Anglo-Saxon invasions. The emporia - new types of Anglo-Saxon towns - are analyzed on the basis of written and archaeological evidence and are compared with continental emporia. Finally, the origin and growth of the Anglo-Saxon burgh is considered from its 8th-century Mercian beginnings to the better known cases of King Alfred and his successors.