Description

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This book examines neglected architectural decoration from the late antique city of the East Mediterranean. It addresses the omission in scholarship of discussion about the embellishment of non-monumental secular buildings (public porticoes, small public baths, shops/workshops, and non-elite houses). The finishing of these structures has been overlooked at the expense of more lofty buildings and remains one of the least known aspects of the late antique city. The author surveys the archaeological evidence for decoration in the region, with the maritime sites of Ostia and Ephesus selected as case studies. Drawing upon archaeological, written, and visual sources, it attempts to reconstruct how such buildings appeared to late antique viewers and investigates why they were decorated as they were.