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concentr<strong>at</strong>ed his efforts on the effective control <strong>of</strong> the Roman St<strong>at</strong>e, including the<br />
administr<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> marble quarries. In the case <strong>of</strong> Docimium imperial administr<strong>at</strong>ion is<br />
certain: Strabo mentions an expanded productivity in Augustan times and implies a<br />
reorganiz<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> the quarries administered by the procur<strong>at</strong>ors in Synnada. 241 New beds<br />
d<strong>at</strong>ing to this time have also been found <strong>at</strong> the quarries themselves. 242 In Italy, the quarries<br />
<strong>of</strong> Luna (modern Carrara) received particular <strong>at</strong>tention. Loc<strong>at</strong>ed in Tuscany, they were the<br />
only source <strong>of</strong> white marble th<strong>at</strong> rivaled the most notorious and expensive Greek varieties<br />
in color and texture. Augustus initi<strong>at</strong>ed the exploit<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> these quarries on a system<strong>at</strong>ic<br />
basis, using Carrara marble for the largest Roman monuments. 243 In the first century A.D.,<br />
Luna marble was exported on a large scale also outside <strong>of</strong> Italy, reaching southern France,<br />
Mauritania, and Crete. 244 It may be possible, however thin the connection is, th<strong>at</strong> with the<br />
help <strong>of</strong> his son-in-law Agrippa the emperor Augustus gained control <strong>of</strong> the quarries <strong>of</strong><br />
giallo antico in Tunisia. An inscription found <strong>at</strong> Chemtou mentions an Officina Agrippae,<br />
147<br />
but it is d<strong>at</strong>ed to A.D. 150. Thus, Agrippa may have been remembered more than a century<br />
after his de<strong>at</strong>h for his ownership or for having improved the quarries’ production, but this<br />
is far from certain. 245<br />
Tiberius (A.D. 14-37) appears to have proceeded a step further. According to<br />
241 Strabo 12.8.14.<br />
242 Fant 1993, 75-6.<br />
243 A Corinthian capital with the inscription “N XX […] / CAES A […] was used in the Forum <strong>of</strong> Augustus.<br />
A block <strong>of</strong> Luna marble bearing the name <strong>of</strong> an imperial freedman working <strong>at</strong> the quarries is still visible in<br />
the temple <strong>of</strong> Apollo Sosianus, completed between 32 and 20 B.C. The first consular d<strong>at</strong>e on marble from<br />
Luna d<strong>at</strong>es to A.D. 27, in line with the inform<strong>at</strong>ion Suetonius (Tib. 49.2) provides. (Pensabene 2002a, 15).<br />
For the Ara Pacis, built between 13 and 9 B.C., Luna marble was used extensively. (Amadori, Lazzarini,<br />
Mariottini, Pecoraro, and Pensabene 1998, 48).<br />
244 Amadori, Lazzarini, Mariottini, Pecoraro and Pensabene 1998, 51.<br />
245 Fant 1993, 75, n. 80.
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