Acropolis of Cyrene
About
Cyrene's acropolis crowned the western ridge where Greek colonists from Thera first settled around 630 BCE, holding the old royal palace and the spring feeding the Sanctuary of Apollo below. Augustus's proconsul Lucanius Proculus restored its buildings in the early 1st century CE. The hilltop had anchored the city for more than 700 years by the time Trajan died in 117 CE. Violence from the recent Jewish revolt had reached its slopes only months earlier.
What happened here
It was put up to be argued with. Public monuments carry an inscription at eye height naming who paid, what for, and by whose authority, because being read is the whole return on the investment. People meet at them, give directions by them, and shelter under them. Children climb them. The bronze fittings are stolen often enough that they are re-attached with lead. On anniversaries the base is garlanded and the local council makes a short speech nobody listens to. Monuments also date the town for you: a run of them along one street shows which families were rising in which decade, and which ones stopped. When a family falls out of favour, the name is chiselled out and the stone is quietly reused.
Sources
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Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →