Latin Epigraphy - Syllabus - Fall 2010

Sciences and the Landesmuseum Kärnten, under the patronage of the Association Internationale de l'Épigraphie Grecque et Latine, to discuss Latin ordinary epigraphy and the role of new technologies, such as electronic databases. The meeting put together a host of scholars from several countries, with different approaches and encouraged theoretical and methodological discussion.

Main types of Latin inscriptions

Roma Epigraphic Habit or Epigraphic Culture

C. Bruun and J. Edmondson (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 2015

This chapter shows the importance of inscriptions for the study of life in the ancient city of Rome. Because of the richness of the epigraphic evidence, the city is crucial for understanding the Roman empire as a whole.

in Rebecca Benefiel and Catherine Keesling, eds., Inscriptions and the Epigraphic Habit (Brill: Leiden and Boston), 2023

Over the past half century the field of epigraphic studies has shifted away from a quasi-exclusive focus on the editing and interpretation of ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions to broader consideration of the place of inscribed writing in classical culture. Discussions of an “epigraphic habit” and of the relevance of inscriptions for evaluating ancient levels and types of literacy have developed independently and have followed different courses, to the extent that the very definition of “inscription” has once again been opened. This paper proposes a new way of assessing the “epigraphic” quality of any type of ancient writing along a scale of modality measured by the degree to which it takes advantage visually of its location, material support, language, writing technique, layout, or register of expression to enhance its meaning for its targeted audience. Various types of the form are illustrated, exempli gratia, with inscriptions drawn predominantly from Pompeii.

2017

The aim of this book – and of the conference on which it was based – is to document and discuss the diversity and wealth of the epigraphic cultures of Late Antiquity. It is an attempt at understanding the various political, cultural and religious structures that characterized this period, and the special place occupied by inscriptions in the societies that produced and lived with them. Our goal is, therefore, to put these inscribed artefacts in their wider socio­political and physical contexts, illustrating the ways in which monuments and texts were related to the world around them. The chapters that follow propose to explore the geographic and typological diversity of late antique epigraphy as well as the many textual forms and material supports through which these epigraphic practices have come down to us. One of the central arguments pursued here is that, although marked by essential continuities, late antique epigraphy differed from that of previous periods in many important way...

2023

Inscriptions are a major feature of the Greek and Roman worlds, as inhabitants around the Mediterranean chose to commit text to stone and other materials. How did the epigraphic habit vary across time and space? Once adopted, how was the epigraphic habit variously expressed? The chapters of this volume analyze the epigraphic cultures of regions, cities, and communities through both large-scale analyses and detailed studies. From curse tablets in Britain to multilingual communities in Judaea-Palestine, from Greece to Rome to the Black Sea, and across nearly a millennium, the epigraphic outputs of cities and individuals underscore a collective understanding of the value of inscribed texts.