216 THE ROMAN EMPIRE
languages (not the same thing) was a rarity, worth boasting about on an
inscription or in a public speech.^16 Finally, there was an enormous gap
between an Apuleius and the average townsman, who had no access to the
educational system, and who could only have attained a smattering of Latin.
Metropolitan architecture and art, along with the language and
educational system of the Romans, were exported through governmental
initiative to the underdeveloped western provinces. New foundations,
cities promoted to Roman status, and tribal capitals were equipped, not
usually all at once, with an orthogonal street grid, and a selection of public
buildings for administrative, political and religious ends, and for
entertainment.^17 However, urban construction and renovation were a quite
general phenomenon. Nowhere was urban embellishment undertaken so
enthusiastically as in the Greek world, where long- established cities sought
to outstrip one another in ambitious building projects, fi nanced for the most
part by the local elite through offi cial payments and donations, supplemented
by the generosity of ostentatious philanthropists like Herodes Atticus of
Athens or Opramoas of Rhodiapolis in Lycia in the middle of the second
century.^18 Direct imperial initiative can sometimes be traced. Hadrian’s
travels prompted a rash of new building wherever he went; in particular, he
transformed the urban landscape of Italica in Spain, his place of origin, and
of Athens, his spiritual home. Septimius Severus refurbished his city of origin,
Lepcis Magna. In general, however, the example and general inspiration
provided by emperors was suffi cient to stimulate the local elites into activity
that was in any case in tune with their political aspirations, systems of values
and life- styles.
In areas of rapid urban growth such as southern France and southern and
eastern Spain, the metropolitan and Italian infl uence was very pronounced,
as imported artists and craftsmen created replicas in miniature of Roman
public buildings, artefacts in clay and metal from Italian workshops circulated,
and crafts hitherto unknown such as mosaic and wall- painting took root.
Provincial styles and art forms were sometimes scarcely affected by
foreign importations or adapted only late. In other instances, there was free
borrowing, and essentially derivative crafts grew up and fl ourished, as for
example the pottery industry of Gaul which produced the red- glazed Samian
ware, a development of Hellenistic ceramic art. In still other cases, the
blending of foreign and native elements produced a distinctive local style.
Thus in British sculpture, a basic classical structure is combined with a
stylized, ‘conceptual’ Celtic treatment. In mosaic, which was established in
the north- western and African provinces by the middle of the second century,
African craftsmen show an inventiveness unrivalled anywhere else in the
empire. While Italy never broke away from the black and white mosaic with
traditional, purely ornamental, design, mosaicists in Africa were employing
from the Severan period free composition combined with polychromy, and
favouring realistic scenes that refl ected the pursuits and interests of their
patrons (hunting, circus and amphitheatre, rural life).^19