LA DECORAZIONE ARCHITETTONICA IN PIETRA LOCALE A LEPTIS MAGNA TRA IL I E IL II SEC. D.C. MAESTRANZE E MODELLI DECORATIVI NELL'ARCHITETTURA PUBBLICA

To a greater degree than other towns of Roman Africa, Leptis Magna still has numerous remarkable remains of architecture in local stones, though their study has till now been neglected for buildings of marble. The object of this research is to analyse the distinctive features of the local architectural decoration of the principal public buildings of the first two centuries of the Empire. The study finds that in the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods, both ruling class and craftsmen were still tied to Punic and Hellenistic-Alexandrian cultural traditions, although a gradual opening to Roman cultural, architectural, and decorative patterns can be seen. Evidence comes from the market, the theatre, the calcidicum, and the temples of the Forum Vetus, all completed between the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. with a good local stone, similar to travertine. This stone, used until the middle of the 2nd century A.D., replaced sandstone, which had fallen out of use in the early Augustan period. It has also been possible note a connection between the activity of local craftsmen of different levels of artistic and technical skill level under the early Imperial period and the ideological value of the buildings.