The Roman Emperor Seen from the Provinces

The aim of the research is to investigate how Roman Emperors and members of the imperial family were represented in the visual culture of the provinces, in the western cities and especially in the eastern ones, from the reign of Augustus to that of Diocletian (c. 31 BC – AD 297). The research relies on the integrated analysis of Roman provincial coins (based on the RPC online database) and of provincial sculpture to study the forms and tropes of imperial imagery in full-figure and the typologies of imperial portraiture. It combines the traditional approach of iconographic and typological studies with the use of 3D imaging and visualisation to understand the relationship between provincial visual and material culture and their metropolitan models.

The interaction between the subjects and the Emperor was a crucial aspect of the political, economic and cultural life that the provincial communities had in common with the Romans; yet each community also interpreted the forms and significance of this interaction in its own way, often using it as a means to construct, consolidate and express its distinctive local identity. By focusing on the view of from the provinces, the project will contribute to our understanding of crucial themes in the study of the Roman administration and of its consequences, such as the extent and manifestations of local autonomy from central control, the balance between strategies of imperial propaganda and expression of civic identity in the use of images and words, the ways and channels through which Roman culture was disseminated, filtered, copied and embraced, or transformed, adapted and reinterpreted across the provinces.