abstractBuilding inscriptions are not a good proxy for building activity or, by extension, prosperity. In the part of Roman North Africa where they are the most common, the majority of surviving building inscriptions document the construction of religious buildings by holders of local priesthoods, usually of the imperial cult. The rise of such texts in the second century a.d., and their demise in the early third century, have no parallel in the epigraphic evidence for other types of construction, and should not be used as evidence for the pace of construction overall. Rather than economic change, these developments reflect shifts in the prospects of aspirational local elites, for whom priesthoods served as springboards to more prestigious positions. These positions were linked to Carthage through administrative arrangements that made this city the metropolis for scores of dependent towns and their ambitious elites.

中文翻译：

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金石与野心：在迦太基腹地建造铭文

摘要建筑铭文不是建筑活动的良好代表，或者，通过扩展，繁荣。在罗马北非最常见的部分，大多数幸存的建筑铭文记录了当地神职人员建造的宗教建筑，通常是帝国崇拜。此类文本在第二世纪的兴起广告.，以及它们在三世纪初的消亡，在其他类型的建筑的碑文证据中没有可比性，也不应该被用作整体建筑速度的证据。这些发展不是经济变化，而是反映了有抱负的地方精英前景的转变，对他们来说，神职人员成为了获得更高声望职位的跳板。这些职位通过行政安排与迦太基联系在一起，使这座城市成为数十个附属城镇及其雄心勃勃的精英的大都市。