Architettura e decorazione architettonica in marmo dall’area centrale urbana di Copia/Thurii

Abstract

This research examines some architectural elements in marble from the central area of Copia/Thurii and conserved in
large part at the National Archaeological Museum of Sibaritide. The need for this research stems from the almost total
absence of studies on the Baudekoration of the Roman age in the Bruttium area. Of the material, largely fragmentary,
information was recovered, where possible, relating to the contexts of discovery, in the hope of being able to bring back,
at least a part, to stratigraphies to which to link for a more precise definition of the chronologies. A catalog is proposed
of the pieces, followed by a typological study and a stylistic analysis of the architectural elements, from which it was
possible to develop a series of reflections, some of which are functional to a proposal for reconstruction and relocation
of the pieces. The study shows how the use of marble in Copia/Thurii, as well as being part of a broader urban reorganization
and witnessing a period of a certain prosperity crossed by the municipium, is likely to be related to local
phenomena of euergetism, perhaps aimed at the adherence of the ruling class to urban models proposed by the imperial
ideology.