The area under study comprises the Autonomous Community of Madrid, a highly urbanized modern region which coincides grosso modo with the N part of what used to be Carpetania. During the Early and Later Empire, it fell within the province of Hispania Citerior Tarraconensis, embracing the N part of the conventus Carthaginensis and the SW part of the conventus Caesaraugustanus. From the early days of municipalisation of the Hispanic provinces rural sites in this region belonged to the ager of three Latin municipia: Complutum, Titulcia, and Mantua Carpetanorum (fig. 1). While it is difficult to identify the precise limits of their agri, it seems probable that Complutum, as the most important urban centre in the region, would have had the largest territorium.