The Late Milestones of Asia Minor
The impressive corpus of milestones recently edited by the late David Henry French and set online by the British Institute at Ankara provides an extensive and in-depth knowledge of more than 1200 stones erected alongside the Roman roads of Asia Minor from the late Republic to the Later Empire. Even...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Akdeniz University
2018-11-01
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| Series: | Gephyra |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/gephyra/issue/39893/480120?publisher=nalan-eda-akyurek-sahin |
| Summary: | The
impressive corpus of milestones recently edited by the late David Henry French
and set online by the British Institute at Ankara provides an extensive and
in-depth knowledge of more than 1200 stones erected alongside the Roman roads
of Asia Minor from the late Republic to the Later Empire. Even if milestones
were the commonest epigraphic display of power in the Roman world, modern
activity tends to obliterate them, and consequently it was more than urgent to
collect the remains before they vanish. This paper studies the unbalanced
geographical and chronological distribution of milestones. They seem to be more
or less scattered throughout Asia Minor, but they are mainly concentrated in
the north-western part of the Anatolian plateau. Besides most of them were
built, inscribed or frequently reused in Late Antiquity, especially between the
late third century and the early fourth century, that is from Diocletian to
Constantine, both emperors overrepresented in this medium although they rarely
journeyed in Asia Minor. According to the study of late milestones found in the
region, it did exist a close relation between the advent of a ruler and the
multiplication of milestones, which had merely become dynastic monuments
erected by local communities in honour of a new emperor. For this reason, they
lost any practical purpose and completely disappeared from Asia Minor at the
beginning of the sixth century. |
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| ISSN: | 1309-3924 2651-5059 |