The ancient Mediterranean was an imperial world. Great empires had followed one another since the Assyrian Empire. But it was also a world in which the past was an inextricable part of the present. Especially in the 2nd century AD, an increasing number of engagements with the past and reflections on historical identity are visible. Both phenomena are well documented and have been studied extensively. The combination, that is, the presence of pre- and non-Roman imperial histories in reflections on identities in the Roman present, has rarely been discussed. In this dissertation, I examine the role of pre-Roman imperial histories and their influences on the construction of local and regional identities in the public space of cities of the eastern provinces within the Roman Empire. As case studies, firstly, Lydian Sardis in the province of Asia is discussed and secondly Gerasa in the province of Syria/Arabia, which was founded in the Hellenistic period by Alexander the Great or the Seleucids. To this end, the following questions are asked: First, I will examine to what extent pre-Roman imperial histories were a meaningful category for the construction of collective urban identities and what their relative value was compared to myths. Second, I will examine to what extent imperial administrative structures and political and cultural networks influenced the construction and representation of urban identities. Finally, the role of the city as space and especially the spatiality of inscriptions as an actor will be included. I will show that pre-Roman imperial histories of cities in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire were important elements for the construction and negotiation of collective memories and urban identities, that they were influenced by (changes in) imperial structures, and that the city as space – and the public spaces of the city – played a central role in the transmission of these identities.