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Epigraphy and Ambition: Building Inscriptions in the Hinterland of Carthage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2020

Monica Hellström
Monica Hellström*
Affiliation:
Durham University/University of Oxford
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Building inscriptions are not a good proxy for building activity or, by extension, prosperity. In the part of Roman North Africa where they are the most common, the majority of surviving building inscriptions document the construction of religious buildings by holders of local priesthoods, usually of the imperial cult. The rise of such texts in the second century a.d., and their demise in the early third century, have no parallel in the epigraphic evidence for other types of construction, and should not be used as evidence for the pace of construction overall. Rather than economic change, these developments reflect shifts in the prospects of aspirational local elites, for whom priesthoods served as springboards to more prestigious positions. These positions were linked to Carthage through administrative arrangements that made this city the metropolis for scores of dependent towns and their ambitious elites.

Keywords

Roman North Africabuilding inscriptionselitesepigraphic habitreligious architecture
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 110 , November 2020 , pp. 57 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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Footnotes

I wish to express my gratitude to the Editor and JRS Editorial Board for their invaluable advice, and also to Amy Russell, Helen Foxhall Forbes and Serafina Cuomo for their time and helpful comments.

References

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