Variation in Representation through Architectural Benefaction under Roman Rule: Five Cases from the Province of Asia c. 40 B.C. – A.D. 68

Abstract

This thesis explores a new approach to understanding the influence that Rome had on its provinces through a study of architectural benefactors and their buildings. It moves away from the process-centric approach which has been prevalent in scholarship since the mid nineteenth century. Instead, it focuses on individual architectural benefactors, those who would have been directly affected by Roman rule, and how they construct and inscribe public monuments to represent the relationships between themselves, their home town and to the wider Roman world. This approach is more nuanced than earlier approaches, allowing for a more accurate picture of how provincial citizens responded to Roman rule and how they represented how Roman rule influenced their lives. The thesis examines the epigraphic and architectural evidence for two individual, two pairs, and four families of architectural benefactors, active in Aphrodisias, Ephesus and Miletus from c. 40 B.C. to c. A.D. 68. Where applicable, honorific texts and other literary evidence for the benefactor’s lives and works in their home towns and further afield were included. It has found that in a very small sample of architectural benefactors there was scope for variation in how they represented their relationship to Rome and their city. Such a variety of responses in very small geographical and chronological contexts suggests that across the span of the Roman empire homogeneity in responses to Roman rule did not exist and should not be searched for. Such findings have many implications for how scholars understand, and study, the influence of Rome on its provinces. It advocates a move away from models that aim to find a standardised process for examining the impact of Roman rule towards one that focuses more on how individuals and smaller groups of people were affected by, and responded to, Roman rule in the provinces.