Imagining Roman Port Cities: From Iconographic Evidence to 3D Reconstruction

This paper investigates how ancient iconographic evidence can support the digital reconstruction of Roman Mediterranean port cities whose waterfront architectures are now largely lost or fragmentary. The study combines archaeological data, historical texts, and a corpus of more than 260 ancient visual sources—including frescoes, mosaics, coins, reliefs, engraved stones, and glass flasks—to identify recurring symbols, urban forms, and architectural typologies associated with Roman ports. Rather than treating images as literal depictions, the authors interpret them critically as coded representations that can still reveal elevations, monuments, warehouses, piers, and scenographic waterfront compositions absent from surviving remains. To translate this knowledge into spatial hypotheses, the research employs parametric and generative modelling tools capable of producing multi-scale urban simulacra and testing alternative reconstructions. User-friendly modelling interfaces are developed to enable archaeologists to directly manipulate hypotheses without relying exclusively on technical specialists. The project demonstrates how procedural 3D environments can become analytical instruments for understanding vanished port landscapes, urban morphology, and the role of harbours in the Roman imperial world.