Architecture and Competition. The Building Rivalry of the Cities in Roman Asia Minor
In the research on competition between cities in Asia Minor during the Roman imperial period, the architectural evidence only played a minor role yet. A glance into contemporary orations of Dio Chrysostom or Aelius Aristides which dealt with rivalries between cities and urbanity, however, quickly makes clear that the adornment of a city with representative buildings was of major significance for the self-image and the external perception of a polis. Both the polis as a community and individual benefactors used urban architecture as a communication medium towards competing cities and representatives of Rome.
Against this background, a diachronic comparison of urbanistic developments of rivalling cities, such as Pergamon and Ephesos or Perge and Side, will shed light on the reciprocal relationship between architecture and competition. Based on the chronology and the variable design parameters of public edifices urban building cultures can be ascertained, which could exhibit differences as well as similarities among competing poleis. Thus, this study will achieve new insights into urbanistic dynamics in Roman Asia Minor and systematically examine, for the first time on a broad material basis, the impact of interurban competition on ancient cityscapes.
Contact:
Samuel Oer de Almeida, M. A.
samuel.oer-de-almeida@uni-tuebingen.de
Funded by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation
Supervisors:
Prof. Dr. Richard Posamentir
Prof. Dr. Christof Schuler