The early establishment of Roman power and control in Macedonia in the second century bce brought about significant changes in the traditional land-owning schemes and site hierarchy. After the turbulent late Hellenistic period, the stabilization of financial and social conditions under the Roman Empire allowed the continuation of urban and rural growth. Old and new cities gradually incorporated all the features that characterized Roman urban life like the provision of high-quality services, functionality and monumentality, while in the countryside next to the traditional agricultural, pastoral, or mining communities new villae rusticae appeared as a dominant feature of the rural landscape. Although the formation of the provincial landscape followed a similar path with Achaea, many differences, like Macedonia's proximity to the Balkans, its early contact with Rome, its relatively lower level of urbanization, and the presence of different cultural contexts, might have played their own role in the process we conventionally call Romanization.