Dove onorare gli imperatori nel IV secolo? Il caso di Flaminia et Picenum

Over the two last decades, several scholars in classics and archaeology have been committed to an investigation of the patterns of the late antique cities. Their studies bring into focus the idea that a substantial continuity from both the topographic and institutional point of view remained at least until the end the 4th c. AD. To the contrary, the statues erected in honor of emperors in the fora decreased heavily from the Tetrarchy on, although these urban public spaces were still lively, as news buildings and restauration works testify. As it can be seen in the neighboring provinces Venetia et Histria and Tuscia et Umbria, this phenomenon is well documented in Flaminia et Picenum too. It is not due to budgetary constraints of the municipalities but is mainly the mirror of a deep change in the so-called epigraphic habit of the contemporaries, who found the squares in the downtowns no longer attractive to show their loyalty to the ruler and rather set up a lot of milestones along the roads with propagandistic and honorific aim.