Symbolic figures in Early Imperial Asia Minor. Reshaping of funeral architecture?

In: Iliria international review, Band 6, Heft 2

Abstract

The Hellenistic tradition of funerary monuments in Early Imperial Asia Minor was based equally on both, the form and decoration of tomb monument. Figural decoration on panel reliefs or sarcophagi embodied political allegory and civic ideology together with the depiction of the deceased. Unfortunately, various free standing statues and mural paintings are nowadays consider lost, despite numerous references of ancient authors and epigraphic evidence. How much of funerary decoration should be understood in terms of traditional civic ideas of the Hellenistic world and how much in terms of Roman concept, is one of the most important issues related to the Roman sepulchral landscape in Anatolia. Early Imperial architectural forms followed hellenistic tradition while communicating Roman ideas through orientation and organization of space. Similar system of public honours that Greek cities bestowed upon their citizens and foreign benefactors in previous period (praise, crown, statue, prohedria, tafé demosia) was maintained. Architectural changes in western Asia Minor came about in the Augustan Age, reflecting the major political transformation of the empire.