Aspects of Romanisation in Cappadocia. Staging architecture and cityscapes

Year 2025, Volume: 1, 37 - 46, 15.04.2025

Georgia Aristodemou

Abstract

Cappadocia, the north-easternmost province of the Roman Empire was established in AD 17 by the emperor Tiberius, after the death of Cappadocia's last king, Archelaus. This paper discusses settlement patterns, city foundations, the absence, at least during the 1st century AD, of an extended network of cities and the development of local communities in the region under the Romans. The establishment and the role of the Imperial Cult in this remote province is also addressed. This paper further attempts to trace the emergence of urbanisation and civic monumentality in Cappadocia, through the introduction of monumental architecture and prominent infrastructure within the major Cappadocian cities - and to understand whether Cappadocia followed, or stood aside from, the architectural/urbanistic developments launched in the rest of the Roman world.

Keywords

Roman East , Cappadocia , Anatolia , Urbanisation , Monumentality , City-networks.

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