The construction of public monuments at personal expenses is a widely spread phenomenon in the Empire and its causes and commemoration may seem, at first glance, quite similar in all cities. Nevertheless, a close case-study reveals that in Aphrodisias the mechanism of benefactions connected to magistracies is here unusually weak and can not account for the motives of benefactors when sponsoring building activities. Public building is usually mentioned as being a family involvement, when local prominence is already achieved, and as a family tradition transmitted from a generation to the other since the time of Aphrodisias first founders. Through the perspective of building activities and their commemoration, an Aphrodisian "model" of local elites' benefactions and aristocratic behaviour can thus be outlined.