Feeling at Home: Notes of a Journey by a Roman Traveller in the 2nd Century Pergamon

Abstract

Western Anatolia was one of the first regions to come under the rule of the Roman Empire. For the region, the 2nd century AD was marked by urban development that accelerated thanks to the ongoing period of peace under the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean. Without the burden of wars, cities concentrated all their efforts on trade and urbanization. While implementing a certain program envisaged by the empire, the ancient Greek cities of Anatolia preserved their identity and culture, while they welcomed the new elements of the Roman identity. Thus, the Roman cities of 2nd century AD in western Anatolia were not created from nothing but rather adapted from a Greek past to a Roman future. In this respect, becoming Roman was equivalent to the creation of a Mediterranean identity through integrating the fragmented identities of the pre-Roman world into a unity. This paper discusses the transformation of post-Hellenistic western Anatolia into the Roman Imperial period with the help of an imaginary journey based on historical facts. The discussion focuses on 2nd Century AD Pergamon to examine urbanization and architecture as transformation tools.