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victory in Asia, he says, the statues of the gods, previously made of terracotta and wood,
came to be replaced with new images of marble and bronze. 227
Only a few decades later further events granted Rome unrestricted access to the
widest range of white and colored marbles known in the entire Mediterranean. The
definitive conquest of Carthage (146 B.C.) opened up the renowned quarries of giallo
antico located in Tunisian Simitthus (modern Chemtou). These quarries provided a
wonderful yellow marble that was widely appreciated in antiquity; Diocletian’s Edict on
142
Maximum Prices relates that it was worth 200 denarii per Roman foot in A.D. 310. 228 In the
same year that Carthage was conquered, Corinth fell to the army of L. Mummius. With
Greece pacified and increasingly integrated into the Roman provincial system, the famous
sources of Pentelic, Hymettian, Parian, Naxian, and Thasian marbles also became part of
Rome’s new economic system. The kingdom of Pergamon was bequeathed to Rome in 133
B.C., and with it came the Docimium production centers in Phrygia, where most of the
artifacts from the Punta Scifo A shipwreck were quarried. After the battle of Actium in 31
B.C., Egypt was integrated into the emperor’s personal patrimony, unlocking the
porphyries and granites that had been the symbol of autocratic, divine power since
Pharaonic times.
However, while these acquisitions were being finalized, autocratic power and
oriental ceremonies were still seen contrary to the long-established Roman traditions of
Republican frugality. How could Roman senators reconcile their appetite for decadent
227 Plin. H 35, 34.
228 For more information regarding giallo antico see Lazzarini 2002, 243-4; for its price in Diocletian’s Edict
see Giacchero 1974, 210.