Marmor Numidicum and Urban Boom

The aim of this paper is to examine the use and distribution
of marmor Numidicum in a comparative study
of the Roman provinces in Hispania and Africa during
their urban booms in the Roman Empire. The use of
imported colored marble is a significant and comparable
characteristic of the urban booms; however, it
must be considered with certain spatial, temporal, and
material limitations. For a long period in Antiquity,
colored marble was used not only by the emperor, but
also by urban and provincial elites as a medium of
self-representation to show wealth, contacts, splendor,
and taste. In this paper, primarily marmor Numidicum
but also the most widespread other colored marbles are
used to investigate both developments within the
cities, regions, and provinces as well as the responsible
actors and agencies. The consideration of contexts and
actors involved enables overarching perspectives on
local, regional, and provincial processes, and also
allows interprovincial comparisons. Altogether, the
imperial marble trade as a general indicator of the
urban boom is investigated for the Hispanic and
African provinces.