Ricerc@Sapienza

From the end of the third century BC, Rome became Hellenized at an accelerated pace. The conjunction of the Etruscan-Italian and Greek-Eastern traditions produced an extraordinary phase of experimentation that saw the development of the synthetic language characteristic of Greco-Roman architecture. But while the new urban image of Rome was to become the ideal model for Roman cities until Augustus’ “re-foundation”, the material and symbolic gigantism of constructions in the Urbs could not be directly emulated in Italian cities, not even in those with well-developed urban traditions. Even so, the cities of Latium and the Roman colonies of the peninsula more generally participated actively in this experimentation of architectural and urban forms, using the same Hellenistic language, but on a scale that was smaller than in the Urbs and therefore more readily transposable to other places. This transposition was all the easier because the vectors of Romanization were for the most part Latin people who travelled or emigrated to the provinces. The article paints a picture of these experiments, drawing heavily on new discoveries or little-known examples particularly with regard to architecture outside the Urbs.