The Image of Rome in Fourth Century Thessaloniki.

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2016-06-15
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en
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The aim of this thesis is to investigate the way the image of Rome is represented in 4th century Thessaloniki, by examining the archaeological evidence. For this it is important to identify the characteristics of imperial architecture and imagery implemented by Galerius in order to promote the Tetrarchic ideology as well as his own individuality as one of the emperors. More specifically, the Galerian palace complex will be used as the main primary source and focus centre, as it is the main reason why the city is regarded by many archaeologists as a Roman city. Another ambitious attempt will take place, that of discussing whether Thessaloniki was indeed a Roman city and not a mere Romanized Greek city or a Greek city with remains of Roman rule, and maybe propose a result. The literature on this subject is very wide but is either too general or too particular, meaning the monuments would be all briefly referred as a whole or would be extensively scrutinized as individual but with no further inspection of the special connection between them and therefore there has not ever been a collective research on the matter. Therefore in this thesis a thorough investigation will examine monumental characteristics which embody the city’s memory. Using local and international data the study is designed to investigate the various aspects of how monuments change a city’s view and memory, and how a specific ruler can contribute to this alteration. The first part of this thesis outlines the importance of Thessaloniki and the reasons why it was chosen as Galerius’s capital and also gives a historical background of the political situation of the Roman Empire during the 4th century. This will help in understanding the significance of the Galerian complex. The second part, based on empirical study and extensive secondary literature, demonstrates how the building program of Galerius gave shape to the city and what his intentions were, as well as how the image of Rome is so uniquely represented in a city outside the italic peninsula.
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