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vast quantities <strong>of</strong> marble, and Rome was absorbing almost the entire production <strong>of</strong> the<br />

eastern quarries. It is not coincidental th<strong>at</strong> wall paintings in the Vesuvian cities tried to<br />

imit<strong>at</strong>e, with their multicolored frescoes, those fancy marbles th<strong>at</strong> must have been hard to<br />

find outside <strong>of</strong> the capital, <strong>at</strong> least in large quantities.<br />

The Middle and L<strong>at</strong>e Empire: Peak and Decline <strong>of</strong> Marble Trade<br />

149<br />

At the beginning <strong>of</strong> the second century A.D. a radical change took place in Roman<br />

quarry organiz<strong>at</strong>ion. Under Trajan (A.D. 98-117) the first complex quarry inscriptions<br />

appear on blocks and column shafts, testifying to a new, reorganized method <strong>of</strong> extraction<br />

and inventory. 251 This coincides with a Roman architectural revival; it will suffice to<br />

mention th<strong>at</strong> the Forum and Markets <strong>of</strong> Trajan were considered a true wonder in antiquity.<br />

These buildings were covered with paintings, stuccoes, sculptures, and such an astonishing<br />

quantity <strong>of</strong> marble th<strong>at</strong> they surprised the emperor Constantius the Second during his visit<br />

in A.D. 356, and remained until L<strong>at</strong>e Antiquity one <strong>of</strong> the gre<strong>at</strong>est marvels <strong>of</strong> Rome. 252 The<br />

brick walls visible today, stripped in medieval times <strong>of</strong> their marble veneering, represent<br />

nothing but the skeletons <strong>of</strong> those once luxurious buildings esteemed so highly by ancient<br />

authors.<br />

Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), the Antonines (A.D. 138-192), and the Severan Dynasty<br />

(A.D. 193-235) provided new direction to the marble trade; during their reigns marble was<br />

imported in massive quantities not only to Rome but to the outlying provinces. Septimius<br />

251 The earliest recorded d<strong>at</strong>e is A.D. 107. (Ward-Perkins 1951, 97).<br />

252 Amm. Marc. 16.10.15; Bianchi Bandinelli 1995, 238.

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