Ricerc@Sapienza

This paper aimes to analyze the architectural and symbolic apparatus of the agora of Iasos
in Caria, as reorganized between 135 and 139, that means in the last years of the reign of Hadrian and
in the first years of the reign of Antoninus Pius. The new architectural feature makes use of a refined
decorative pattern and polychromy, deriving from various qualities of marble. The dedicatory inscriptions
illuminate the evergetic activity of private citizens, the tribute to the emperor, the relationship with the
tutelary deities of the polis. From an epigraphic and architectural analysis also emerges a symbolic
program that manifests the prestige of the client, a political aim and the value of the new architectural
complex in the context of the polis.