Abstract:

Alföldy’s epigraphic studies on Tarraco laid the foundations for research on the so-called implementation of the “epigraphic habit” in Hispania. The ius Latii concession, the imperial official worship reform and the huge urban transformation which affected the provincial capitals from Vespasian onwards changed monumental building in many ways and shapes and the led to an unprecedented boom in of massive and serial epigraphic manufacture in the case of Tarraco. Of the more than one and a half thousand inscriptions preserved, only a hundred can be dated to a period prior to the Flavian boom, and a very low number can be dated to the arc running from the late Republican period to the early Principiated. The aim of this paper is to review this small but important epigraphic ensemble produced by workshops in Tarraco in terms of the stone resources used and the epigraphic execution techniques. Late Republican inscriptions reveal two stages: the first runs from Romans arrival in Tarraco to when it was colony status under Caesar, and the second was under the Julio-Claudio emperors, when epigraphic production was became firmly established and marks the beginning of monumental urban landscape in public spaces of the city. This evolution can be followed through the workshops located in Tarraco, whose techniques were imported by the craftspeople who came from Italy with the first military contingents, who produced as much for themselves as natives.