Activity: Talk and presentation › Academic presentation › Academic
Description
The early presence of Romans in Thessaloniki, and Macedonia in general, is well established: Romans put an end to the Macedonian presence in Greece at the battle of Kynoskephalai (197 BCE), Macedonia lost its independence to Rome in 168 BCE, and it was made the first Roman province on Greek-speaking territory in 148 BCE. Thessaloniki was made its capital and became the seat of the Roman proconsul. The Romans then strengthened Thessaloniki’s strategic location by paving the Via Egnatia, contributing to an increase in Italian negotiatores in the city. Thessaloniki’s greatest period of prosperity dates to the second to third century CE, as reflected in the numerous marble monuments on display at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki. The question that I want to address in this contribution is the following: how did the political presence of the Romans in Thessaloniki translate to the mortuary record