This is a study of the rebuilding of the unfished temple at Sardis as a cult center under the emperor Hadrian and a general consideration of the planning of Hellenistic and Roman temples in Asia Minor.

Chapter 7 offers concluding thoughts on the afterlives of architectural terracottas and on their lingering symbolic power even after they had fallen from use in Italic temple architecture.

Chapter 4 explores the case-studies of Cosa and Minturnae in detail and assesses the ways in which 3rd–1st century Italic towns sought to emphasize a specifically local identity through their temple roofs. Each site is examined within its regional context to show how colonists and other inhabitants made use of local networks in order to create a distinctive visual identity that was nevertheless readable for a broad spectrum of viewers.

Chapter 2 addresses one of the primary impediments to the study of 3rd–1st century Italic architectural terracottas: questions regarding their chronology and the problematic ways in which they have traditionally been bound up in assumptions regarding so-called “Romanization.” Terracottas from Cosa and Rome are discussed in particular, in order to argue that there is no evidence for a “Roman” point of origin for most terracotta types and that the field must shed the lingering baggage derived from “Romanization” theory.

Chapter 6 examines the legacy of architectural terracottas during the period of the Augustan Principate and the rise of the so-called “Campana” reliefs. While architectural terracottas had long been used to define and assert specific local identities, they were now employed to express an idealized Augustan vision of a unified, pious Italic past.

Chapter 1 introduces the scope and organization of the study. It traces the history of scholarship on Italic architectural terracottas and highlights a number of lingering problems and uncertainties that will be taken up in the subsequent chapters.

Chapter 5 asks why new colonies turned so invariably to old-fashioned motifs and to the visual culture of their conquered enemies. This phenomenon is discussed in terms of the heterogenous makeup of colonial populations, which had no single visual culture to import, and is then related to broader issues of collective memory, identity formation, and the invention of tradition.

Chapter 3 examines the five most widespread decorative roofing elements in 3rd–1st century central Italy, which are referred to collectively as the “standard temple kit.” Each type is shown to derive from earlier models, suggesting a conscious act of archaizing in their use which likely relates to notions of antiquity and deeply rooted religious authority.

The Introduction provides an in-depth exploration of how late antique Christian communities in the Mediterranean reconciled their Roman and Christian identities through baptismal art. It raises pivotal questions: did such art serve to confirm both Roman and Christian identities? Could this art reflect a form of Christianity less orthodox due to its Roman cultural influences? Various case studies are presented, each spotlighting a different aspect of Roman cultural affiliation in baptismal spaces – ranging from the absence of explicitly Christian imagery to the inclusion of ‘pagan’ iconographies and classical motifs. Whether in Numidia, Lusitania, or Ravenna, these communities reveal a complex relationship with their Roman heritage, often challenging ecclesiastical norms. Despite the political disintegration of the western Roman Empire, the chapter underscores the extensive interconnectedness of the Mediterranean world, pointing out the shared cultural elements in baptismal art from the East to the far West. The chapter argues that these artistic choices are not mere coincidences but are indicative of a shared Roman culture that transcends geographical and political boundaries.

‘The differences have become smaller and, especially among the young generation, they have actually completely vanished.’ In 2015, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of German unification, then German president Joachim Gauck described the situation of East and West Germans with these words. The president believed that the younger generation, those born after the fall of the wall in 1989, were completely alike, whether they were born in former West Germany or in the area which used to be the GDR. As has subsequently become apparent, the opinion of many young East Germans today differs from that of President Gauck on this point.