The King Who Would Be Prefect: Authority and Identity in the Cottian Alps

This paper examines the language of power and authority in the Italian Alps, after the Roman pacification of the area in 14b.c.The focus of the examination is an arch set up at Segusio to Augustus by a local dynast named Cottius, which allows us to consider how the incorporation of the region into the Roman Empire was perceived and presented from a ‘local’ point of view, and how we might use our interpretations to construct ideas of identity and power relationships integral to early imperial provincial administration.