The volume Ancient Cities 5 is a liber amicorum, including a collection of papers dedicated to Ariel Lewin, founder and coordinator of the Ancient Cities scientific project, by a group of friends and colleagues. There are papers in English, Italian, French, and German language on society, law and economics in the Greco-Roman world, up to late antiquity; some papers also deal with the history of modern and contemporary historiography. All of them reflect Ariel Lewin’s wide scientific interests, spanning a scholarly path that has unfolded over a period of almost half a century.