Auf den zweiten Blick: ein neuer Rekonstruktionsvorschlag für den ›Dionysostempel‹ in Side

Abstract

The ›Temple of Dionysus‹ in Side, Pamphylia, is one of the few pseudoperipteroi on a podium in the Eastern Mediterranean. As such, it has frequently been considered an indicator for Roman influence in Southern Asia Minor. Its reconstruction by the excavator A. M. Mansel and the architect M. Beken with a long cella, published in 1963, has been labeled exceptional by later scholars, but hardly ever questioned. However, new excavations by F. Soykal-Alanyalı from 2009 till 2012 and, based on that, a careful new study of the architecture by the author in 2011/12 allow for a remarkably different reconstruction of the initial late-Hellenistic temple, an idea for its Roman imperial modifi cation – due to the construction of the neighbouring theatre, and for its dismantling and afteruse in late Roman and early Byzantine times.

This paper concentrates on the initial structure that can be dated to the second half of the 1^st century B.C. based on a stylistic analysis of the architectural decoration and because of the peculiar combination of elements in the temple’s design. It discusses the repercussions of this early date of a presumed typical Roman temple layout that challenges established concepts of ›Romanization‹ in Asia Minor.