ABSTRACT
At some point in the latter half of the second century, statues clogged the passage through the forum of Cirta, the capital of Numidia, and had to be “straightened up.”2 As the civic center and a central locale of elite competition for honor and prestige, the forum and the immediately adjacent areas contained inscribed statues dedicated to deities, reigning emperors and high-ranking magistrates; others honored benefactors who funded public building projects, established endowments, and distributed cash or other gifts to recipients ranging from the city to private organizations such as collegia (voluntary associations). A statue in the forum, especially in the most prestigious part of the forum, often came with a hefty price tag.3 As such, the forum as a locale for epigraphic display and exhibition of pubic portraits was also intricately connected with the euergetic patterns in the Early Empire. But how long did the forum in the provincial city last as a desirable place for honorific statues, and a place that could confer prestige on the honorands? How would the many changes on the religious, economic, and political horizons after the third century affect the forum as a favored locale for elite representation?
