A Mirror on the World : Roman Architecture in Tergeste in the First and Second Centuries AD and the Reproduction of Social Order and Identity

Abstract: This thesis will investigate how Roman monumental architecture in Tergeste dating to the first and second centuries AD reflected and reaffirmed the social order of the city, and how it was used in the creation and maintenance of identities. The material used will be two select structures, the basilica and theater, located in the eastern and north-eastern sections of Tergeste, respectively. By using theories of social architecture, agency, identity, and compounding them with the ideology of Roman urbanism, focus will be placed on how movement within a structure and the occupation of its different locales influenced the adoption of particular roles and self-conceptions. A number of statues and dedicatory inscriptions associated with the architectural structures will serve to further corroborate these points, and to add information about whether a specific type of identity was favored above others in the city. The results will provide a first overview of how architecture responded to the social reality in Roman Tergeste, in the hope to encourage further research in this direction.