2023 recipient of the James R. Wiseman Book Award of the Archaeological Institute of America

'The Painted Tetrarchic Reliefs of Nicomedia. Uncovering the Colourful Life of Diocletian’s Forgotten Capital' by Tuna Şare Ağtürk was awarded the 2023 James R. Wiseman Book Award of the Archaeological Institute of America

This ground-breaking volume offers the first publication of a major new monument of Roman power in Asia Minor: sixty-six painted marble frieze panels from the city of Nicomedia with an excellent archaeological and architectural context from the Tetrarchic period. During the rule of Diocletian, Nicomedia was the centre of the Late Roman Empire in the east, and the reliefs of the frieze, which decorate an imperial complex built at this time, represent an astonishing combination of imperial, mythological, and agonistic scenes. The reliefs found in Nicomedia fill an important gap in our knowledge between the Severan and Constantinian periods, and provide the East Roman Empire with a defining monument that can be set beside — and in striking counterpoint to — the Arch of Constantine in Rome. Published here in full colour and fully documented, the Nicomedia Frieze is, in this hugely important scholarly monograph, brought to the public for the very first time.