Excavation in Italy, in the post-Risorgimento period of the 1910s, was limited to Italians and disallowed to foreigners, leading to their concentration on topographical and museum studies.
Ashby was no exception, producing a series of detailed topographical studies of Italy's Roman roads, later collated in the valuable work The Roman Campagna in classical times (1927, republished in 1970 with an Italian edition in 1982), and studies on the aqueducts in the city of Rome, the first of which was published in the Classical Review in 1900.
 (After his retirement, he also produced The aqueducts of ancient Rome, published posthumously in 1935 under Ian Richmond's guidance).
Indeed, Ashby grew into a master of Rome's urban topography, working from both classical and early modern literature and prints, and drawing on (among other things) Antonio Labacco's 16th century architectural drawings, Eufrosino della Volpaia's 1547 map of the Campagna, the Étienne du Pérac's 1581 topographical studies, Giovanni Battista de'Cavalieri's "Antiquae statuae urbis Romae", and the art collections at Windsor Castle, the Sir John Soane Museum, and Eton College.
Excavation in Italy, in the post-Risorgimento period of the 1910s, was limited to Italians and disallowed to foreigners, leading to their concentration on topographical and museum studies. Ashby was no exception, producing a series of detailed topographical studies of Italy's Roman roads, later collated in the valuable work The Roman Campagna in classical times (1927, republished in 1970 with an Italian edition in 1982), and studies on the aqueducts in the city of Rome, the first of which was published in the Classical Review in 1900.  (After his retirement, he also produced The aqueducts of ancient Rome, published posthumously in 1935 under Ian Richmond's guidance). Indeed, Ashby grew into a master of Rome's urban topography, working from both classical and early modern literature and prints, and drawing on (among other things) Antonio Labacco's 16th century architectural drawings, Eufrosino della Volpaia's 1547 map of the Campagna, the Étienne du Pérac's 1581 topographical studies, Giovanni Battista de'Cavalieri's "Antiquae statuae urbis Romae", and the art collections at Windsor Castle, the Sir John Soane Museum, and Eton College.
Thomas Ashby