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.
Rebecca R. Benefiel, Ph.D. (2005), Harvard University, is Abigail Grigsby Urquhart Professor of Classics at Washington & Lee University. She is Director of the Ancient Graffiti Project and has authored numerous articles on Latin epigraphy and Roman social history. She is co-editor of
Inscriptions in the Private Sphere in the Greco-Roman World (Brill, 2016).
Catherine M. Keesling, Ph.D. (1995), University of Michigan, is Professor of Classics at Georgetown University. Her publications include articles and book chapters on the epigraphical evidence for ancient Greek sculpture as well as the monographs
The Votive Statues of the Athenian Acropolis (Cambridge 2003) and
Early Greek Portraiture: Monuments and Histories (Cambridge 2017).
Contributors are: Rebecca R. Benefiel, Gianmarco Bianchini, John Bodel, Sarah Brucia Breitenfeld, Jan-Mathieu Carbon, Jeffrey Easton, Marta Fernández-Corral, Gian Luca Gregori, Jessica L. Lamont, Kathryn A. Langenfeld, Elizabeth A. Meyer, Morgan E. Palmer, Cameron G. Pearson, Joanna Porucznik, Susan Rahyab, Jane Sancinito, Caterina A. Stripeikis, Holly M. Sypniewski, Michael Zellmann-Rohrer, Sebastian Zerhoch.
Preface Catherine M. Keesling and Rebecca R. Benefiel
List of Figures, Graphs, Maps, and Tables Notes on Contributors
1
Epigraphic Culture and the Epigraphic Mode John Bodel
Part 1: Epigraphy and Regional Trends
2
Reader-Oriented Strategies in Attic Funerary Monuments from the Fourth Century BCE Caterina A. Stripeikis
3
Artemis Kindyas and the Traveling Tombs of Bargylia Jan-Mathieu Carbon
4
Roman Voting Tribes, Citizenship, and Epigraphic Habit: The Case Study of Hispania Citerior Marta Fernández-Corral
5
The Epigraphic Habit of the Northwestern Black Sea Region during the Roman Period Joanna Porucznik
Part 2: Epigraphy and Civic Life
6
A Deceptively Simple Ritual: Libation in Greek Inscriptions Sebastian Zerhoch
7
The Keepers of the Agora: Contracts and the Office of Agoranomos in the Epigraphic Record Susan Rahyab
8
Writing on Columns: Graffiti in the Campus of Pompeii Rebecca R. Benefiel and Holly M. Sypniewski
Part 3: Epigraphy and Collective Identity
9
The Fictores and the Epigraphic Habit in the Atrium Vestae Morgan E. Palmer
10
Viae Appiae multorum annorum negotians: Place in Merchant Funerary Inscriptions Jane Sancinito
11
Servi empticii and Manumission in the Roman Municipal familia publica Jeffrey A. Easton
12
Epigraphic Permanence and Ephemerality: The Augusteum Assemblage and Memory Construction at Ostia’s Caserma dei Vigili Kathryn A. Langenfeld
Part 4: Epigraphy and the Individual
13
New Evidence for Slave Names and Social Mobility in Archaic Greece Cameron G. Pearson
14
Curse-Writing and the Epigraphic Habit in Athens Jessica L. Lamont
15
Semitic Loanwords and Transcriptions in the Greek Epigraphy of Judaea-Palestine Michael Zellmann-Rohrer
16
The Epigraphic Habit in a Pompeian House: Rules of Good Manners Gianmarco Bianchini and Gian Luca Gregori
17
May the Thief Become as Liquid as Water: Persuasion and Power in a Curse Tablet from Roman Bath Sarah Brucia Breitenfeld
Conclusion: Epigraphic Habits and Epigraphic Communities Elizabeth A. Meyer
Index
Institutes, university libraries, graduate students, advanced undergraduates. Subject areas: Classics, History, Ancient Languages