Current Epigraphy
ISSN: 1754-0909

The only titles that leap out at me as being of specifically epigraphic interest from this month’s BMCR Books received list are both Etruscan:

*Benelli, Enrico (ed.). Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae. I. Indice lessicale. seconda edizione completamente riveduta sulla base della prima edizione pubblicata nel 1978 da Massimo Pallottino. Pisa: Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2009. xxxiv, 580 p. € 445.00. ISBN 9788862271356.

*Wallace, Rex E. Zikh Rasna: a manual of the Etruscan language and inscriptions. Ann Arbor; New York: Beech Stave Press, 2008. xxiii, 271 p. $64.95 (pb). ISBN 9780974792743.

As always contact classrev@brynmawr.edu to express your interest and qualifications in either of these titles.

Today’s BMCR distribution includes Claire Taylor’s review of the Philip Harding Festschrift (BMCR 2009.05.23):

Craig Cooper (ed.), Epigraphy and the Greek Historian. Phoenix Supplementary Volume, 47. Toronto/Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2008. Pp. xvii, 197. ISBN 9780802090690. $75.00.

It is worth reproducing here the thoughtful last paragraph of this review, which, while not overly critical of the volume per se, does provide a challenge to epigraphers, and especially to historians in their perceptions of epigraphy:

What is clear from this book is that every Greek historian should also be an epigrapher. But it is equally clear that every historian should be able to interpret literary and archaeological evidence as well; this is as true of places like Keos or Thera where the epigraphic or literary evidence is meagre, as it is of larger cities like Athens. Isolating epigraphy to serve only the narrow confines of ‘what the literary sources leave out’ neglects its true value to the historian. Festschriften naturally look back to a scholar’s contribution to the field—and the honorand has contributed a great deal—and (quite rightly) are defined by that scholar’s interests; the discipline of epigraphy however needs to look forward to embrace a wider range of questions than those offered here.

The value of epigraphy is of course something that exercises all of us in this sub-discipline, and comments like Taylor’s are an important reminder that open-mindedness is a two-way street. As frustrating and damaging as it is to hear a historian ignore epigraphic evidence out of disciplinary short-sightedness, it is just as alienating to see epigraphers refuse to familiarize themselves with papyrological, ethnographic, art-historical, or digital discipines and conventions. We cannot all be masters of all trades, but no Classicist works in a vacuum.

Some selected epigraphic titles from the latest BMCR list:

BMCR Books Received (January, 2009)

Qualified volunteers should indicate their interest by a message to classrev@brynmawr.edu, with their last name and requested author in the subject line. They should state their qualifications (both in the sense of degrees held and in the sense of experience in the field concerned) and explain any previous relationship with the author.

An updated version of this list may be found at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/booksavailable.html.

*Bartels, Jens. Städtische Eliten im römischen Makedonien: Untersuchungen zur Formierung und Struktur. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, Bd. 242. Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2008. x, 258 p. $137.00. ISBN 9783110195002.

*Draycott, Catherine M. and Geoffrey D. Summers. Kerkenes special studies 1: sculpture and inscriptions from the monumental entrance to the palatial complex at Kerkenes Dağ, Turkey. Oriental Institute Publications 135. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2008. xxiv, 87 p., [98] p. of plates. $90.00. ISBN 9781885923578.

*Gleba, Margarita and Hilary Becker (edd.). Votives, places, and rituals in Etruscan religion: studies in honor of Jean MacIntosh Turfa. Religions in the Graeco-Roman world; 166. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2008. xliv, 291 p. $154.00. ISBN 9789004170452.

*Kokkinia, Christina (ed.). Boubon: the inscriptions and archaeological remains; a survey 2004-2006. Meletemata 60. Athens: Diffusion de Boccard, 2008. x, 193 p., [23] p. of plates. € 86.00 (pb). ISBN 9789607905475.

Kropp, Amina. Magische Sprachverwendung in vulgärlateinischen Fluchtafeln (defixiones). ScriptOralia; Bd. 135. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag, 2008. 341 p.; CD-ROM. € 98.00. ISBN 9783823364368
Lefèvre, Eckard. Philosophie unter der Tyrannis. Ciceros Tusculanae Disputationes. Bd. 46. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag WINTER, 2008. 353 p. € 40.00. ISBN 9783825355500.

*Prósper, Blanca María. El bronce celtibérico de Botorrita. Ricerche sulle lingue di frammentaria attestazione; 6. Pisa; Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore, 2008. 97 p. € 38.00 (pb). ISBN 9788862271188.

From BMCR October 2008:

Titles marked by an asterisk are available for review. Qualified volunteers should indicate their interest by a message to classrev@brynmawr.edu, with their last name and requested author in the subject line. They should state their qualifications (both in the sense of degrees held and in the sense of experience in the field concerned) and explain any previous relationship with the author.

*Dimitrova, Nora M. Theoroi and initiates in Samothrace: the epigraphical evidence. Hesperia Supplement, 37. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2008. xiv, 280 p. $55.00 (pb). ISBN 9780876615379.

*Grammenos, Dimitrios V. and Elias K. Petropoulos (edd.). Ancient Greek colonies in the Black Sea 2 (2 vols.). BAR international series; 1675 (1-2). Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007. viii, 1262 p. £ 140.00 (pb). ISBN 9781407301105.

*Binder, Vera, Martin Korenjak and Beate Noack (ed., trans., comm.). Epitaphien: Tod, Totenrede, Rhetorik; Auswahl, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Subsidia classica, Bd. 10. Rahden/Westf.: Verlag Marie Leidorf, 2007. 358 p. € 39.80 (pb). ISBN 9783867571821.

Seen this morning in BMCR 2008.09.18:

Christos C. Tsagalis, Inscribing Sorrow: Fourth-century Attic Funerary Epigrams. Trends in Classics – Supplementary Volumes 1.   Berlin/New York:  Walter De Gruyter, 2008. Pp. xiv, 368. ISBN 9783110201321. $118.00.

Reviewed by Valentina Garulli, University of Bologna

Garulli gives a generally very positive review of this thorough and intelligent literary reading of a coherent collection of verse inscriptions (a field of growing interest in epigraphy these days). The penultimate paragraph introduces a note of caution, however:

At least for some inscriptions a critical apparatus quoting the main supplements proposed would have been helpful (see e.g. pp. 108f.); the reader would have welcomed also some additional information regarding the place where the stone was found and other standard editions in addition to CEG.

This I think highlights a common problem with the study of these kinds of texts (noted for example by Roueché in last month’s Digital Classicist seminar): that the scholars who look at verse and those who look at inscriptions tend to be different groups. A responsible edition of any text—but especially one that exists in a single, possibly incomplete copy—surely needs to consider not only the literary and historical context, but also the material context, the location, archaeological information, appearance of the text and any decorative features, and especially the history of and grounds for any restorations or emendations.

From this month’s BMCR titles received, those of particular interest to epigraphers include:

Binder, Vera, Martin Korenjak and Beate Noack (ed., trans., comm.). Epitaphien: Tod, Totenrede, Rhetorik; Auswahl, Übersetzung und Kommentar. Subsidia classica, Bd. 10. Rahden/Westf.: Verlag Marie Leidorf, 2007. 358 p. €39.80 (pb). ISBN 9783867571821.

Bodel, John and Saul M. Olyan (edd.). Household and family religion in antiquity. The ancient world: comparative histories. Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 2008. xii, 324 p. $100.00. ISBN 9781405175791.

Dubois, Laurent. Inscriptions grecques dialectales de Sicile. Tome II. Hautes Études du monde gréco-romain 40. Genève: Droz, 2008. 220 p. $82.00 (pb). ISBN 9782600013406.

Hartnett, Matthew. By Roman hands: inscriptions and graffiti for students of Latin. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 2008. xvii, 110 p. $16.95 (pb). ISBN 9781585102945.

Kitchen, K. A. Ramesside inscriptions. Translations. Vol. 5, Setnakht, Ramesses III and contemporaries. Malden, Mass.; Oxford: Blackwell, 2008. xxiv, 523 p. $400.00. ISBN 9780631184317.

Two reviews from BMCR that I’ve been sitting on for a while, far too busy with the EpiDoc Summer School to read and report on here:

(1) BMCR 2008.07.09: Marilynne E. Raybould, Patrick Sims-Williams, A Corpus of Latin Inscriptions of the Roman Empire Containing Celtic Personal Names. Aberystwyth: CMCS Publications, 2007. Pp. vi, 283; b/w ills. 2. ISBN 978-0-9527478-7-1. £18.00 and Marilynne E. Raybould , Patrick Sims-Williams, The Geography of Celtic Personal Names in the Latin Inscriptions of the Roman Empire. Aberystwyth: CMCS Publications, 2007. Pp. i, 210; b/w ills. 3. ISBN 978-0-9527478-6-4. £19.99. Reviewed by Philip Freeman, Luther College.

Freeman offers a very brief, summary review of these texts (the first a corpus of 800+ inscriptions, the second a geographical companion volume), partly justifying his brevity with the final comment:

Since it is not the intention of either of these volumes to offer a linguistic analysis of, an argument about, or any discussion of the Celtic names they contain, there is little to debate in them aside from whether or not a particular name is genuinely Celtic. I believe Raybould and Sims-Williams on the whole have adopted an admirably minimalist standard in rejecting questionable names and including only those with a defensible Celtic etymology. Scholars without a background in Celtic linguistics may find the volumes frustrating in their lack of explanation of name meanings and cognates, such as brog (“territory” — Old Irish mruig, Welsh bro, Latin margo) and mara (“great” — Old Irish mór, Welsh mawr), but these are easily available in standard etymological dictionaries. Others whose interests include the Celtic lands to the east of the Bosporus will lament the exclusion of many revealing Galatian names from these works. Nevertheless, the authors have provided scholars of the ethnic makeup of the Roman Empire an admirable and much-needed tool for exploring the distribution of Celtic names throughout Roman Europe.

(2) BMCR 2008.07.25: Pantelis Nigdelis, Epigraphika Thessalonikeia, Symvole sten politike kai koinonike historia tes archaias Thessalonikes. Thessaloniki: University Studio Press, 2006. Pp. 646. ISBN 960-12-1550-6. €40.00. Reviewed by Paraskevi Martzavou, École Pratique des Hautes Études, IVème Section, Paris.

Martzavou gives a detailed and engaged summary of this volume of 140 inscriptions, a selection of those of most historical and geographical interest from the forthcoming IG volume on Thessalonika, particularly the more recent discoveries. As a final summary M. notes:

N. écrit dans un grec moderne extrêmement précis et clair, les références sont fouillées et à jour. Signalons seulement une petite inadvertence: à la p. 478, le donateur de l’inscription IG X, 2, 1 no 259 n’est pas une prêtresse de Dionysos mais un certain Iulius Bessartes. Il convient aussi de dire au passsage que cet ouvrage est caractérisé par la clémence des jugements sur les tentatives malheureuses de suppléer aux lacunes du matériel épigraphique. Ce volume ne sera pas intéressant seulement pour quelques spécialistes mais sera précieux pour les historiens de l’empire romain plus généralement.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.07.36
Filippo Canali De Rossi, Le relazioni diplomatiche di Roma, Vol. II: dall’intervento in Sicilia fino alla invasione annibalica (264-216 a.C.). Roma: Herder, 2007. Pp. 148. ISBN 978-88-89670-20-0. €28.00.

Reviewed by Sandra Péré-Noguès, Université Toulouse II (perenog@univ-tlse2.fr)
Word count: 580 words

Ce livre fait suite à la parution en 2004 d’un premier volume consacré aux relations diplomatiques de Rome de l’époque royale à la conquête de l’Italie. Dans le même esprit Filippo Canali de Rossi (pour simplifier FCR) propose une nouvelle recension de toutes les sources littéraires grecques et latines qui concernent la diplomatie romaine à un moment clé de son histoire: les guerres puniques et l’intermède durant lequel Rome fut impliquée dans les guerres illyriques. L’ouvrage qui compte 148 pages (indices compris) s’organise en trois parties chronologiques: la première guerre punique (chapitre X); les guerres illyriques et l’expansion carthaginoise en Ibérie (chapitre XI); la seconde guerre punique (chapitre XII). Un appendice est consacrée à une étude plus approfondie du supplice de Regulus et à sa relation éventuelle avec la “tombe de Calatinus” (tombe “Arieti”) trouvée près de la Porta Esquilina (Rome).
Etc. at BMCR

Reviewed in BMCR 2008.06.28:

Silvia Orlandi, Epigrafia anfiteatrale dell’occidente romano. VI. Roma. Anfiteatri e strutture annesse con una nuova edizione e commento delle iscrizioni del Colosseo. Vetera, 15. Roma: Quasar, 2004. Pp. 600; pls. 28. ISBN 978-88-7140-265-9. €84.00 (pb).

Reviewed by R.T. Scott, Bryn Mawr College (dscott@brynmawr.edu)
Word count: 833 words

Scott provides a short but glowing review of this volume of over 300 texts, focussing on the subtleties and historical focus of the study. The review ends with the words:

Orlandi’s teacher, Silvio Panciera, is fond of reminding his students that the real task of the epigraphist is to study not inscriptions but the world that has created them. In this splendid and authoritative volume Silvia Orlandi has done just this with great credit to him and to the memory of Patrizia Sabbatini Tumolesi.

The following new reviews may be of interest to epigraphers:

BMCR 2008.04.36: Review of: Sergio Daris, Dizionario dei nomi geografici e topografici dell’ Egitto greco-romano. Supplemento 4 (2002-2005). Biblioteca degli “Studi di Egittologia e di Papirologia” – 5. Pisa-Roma: Fabrizio Serra, 2007. Pp. 147. ISBN 978-88-6227-004-5. EUR 165.00 (pb).
[The reviewer, J.A. Straus, makes several useful suggestions and bibliographic additions.]

BMCR 2008.04.32: Review of: G. Cruz Andreotti, P. Le Roux, P. Moret, La invención de una geografía de la Península Ibérica. I. La época republicana. (Actas del Coloquio Internacional celebrado en la Casa de Velázquez de Madrid entre el 3 y el 4 de marzo de 2005). Málaga-Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones del Centro de Ediciones de la Diputación de Málaga (CEDMA)-Casa de Velázquez, 2006. Pp. 250. ISBN 84-95555-91-3. ISBN 84-7785-744-X. €13.00.
And: G. Cruz Andreotti, P. Le Roux, P. Moret, La invención de una geografía de la Península Ibérica. II. La época imperial. (Actas del Coloquio Internacional celebrado en la Casa de Velázquez de Madrid entre el 3 y el 4 de abril de 2006). Málaga-Madrid: Servicio de Publicaciones del Centro de Ediciones de la Diputación de Málaga (CEDMA)-Casa de Velázquez, 2006. Pp. 377. ISBN 978-84-7785-122-6. ISBN 978-84-96820-06-7. €18.00.
[Volume 2 includes a paper by Joaquín Gómez-Pantoja, "Una visión 'epigráfica' de la geografía de Hispania central," (no pp. refs.).]

BMCR 2008.04.20: Review of: Sinclair Bell, Glenys Davies, Games and Festivals in Classical Antiquity. Proceedings of the Conference held in Edinburgh 10-12 July 2000. BAR International Series, 1220. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2004. Pp. vi, 153; figs. 37, tables 7. ISBN 1-84171-580-8. $27.95 (pb).
[Some of the contributions appear to make use of epigraphical sources, e.g. Geoffrey Sumi, "Civic Self-Representation in the Hellenistic World: The Festival of Artemis Leukophryene," 79-92.]

In BMCR 2008.03.10 there is a short review by Georges Rougemont of SEG 2002 (published last year):

A. Chaniotis, T. Corsten, R.S. Stroud, R.A. Tybout, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Volume 52 (2002). Leiden: Brill, 2006. Pp. xxxvi, 905. ISBN 90-04-15508-2. €168.00 / $250.00.

After a brief discourse on the history of SEG, after which R. claims (perhaps strangely in a review publication) that most epigraphers have no use for a detailed review of any issue of SEG because they will already have seen them in major libraries, he states:

C’est donc, sans doute, aux non épigraphistes (littéraires, linguistes, numismates, historiens peu familiers avec les inscriptions) qu’il faut d’abord signaler ce volume, et plus généralement le SEG. L’épigraphie n’a pas toujours bonne réputation auprès d’eux; et, dans beaucoup de publications estimables ou excellentes, on trouve encore trop de passages dont on ne peut pas ne pas penser qu’ils n’auraient pas été écrits, ou pas de la même façon, si l’auteur avait eu une familiarité même superficielle avec les inscriptions, ces documents grecs dont le nombre (faut-il le rappeler?) s’accroît tous les jours. Or le SEG serait pour eux un moyen commode de se tenir au courant de cette croissance. Il est écrit dans une langue pratiquée par tout le monde. Il reproduit le texte grec des inscriptions nouvelles et celui de beaucoup d’inscriptions anciennes, des lors qu’une publication nouvelle modifie l’aspect de ce texte. Il est pourvu d’index et de tables de concordance substantiels. Il est facile non seulement à consulter, mais aussi à parcourir, à cause de sa typographie aérée et claire et des titres en caractères gras donnés à chaque notice.

The review therefore contains no detailed discussion of the content or the quality of this volume in particular.

Some titles of possible interest to epigraphers available for review, exerpted from BMCR 2008.03.01:

Titles marked by an asterisk are available for review. Qualified volunteers should indicate their interest by a message to classrev@brynmawr.edu, with their last name and requested author in the subject line. They should state their qualifications (both in the sense of degrees held and in the sense of experience in the field concerned) and explain any previous relationship with the author.

*Bagnall, Roger S. (ed.), Egypt in the Byzantine World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. xv, 464; figs. 74. $99.00. ISBN 978-0-521-87137-2.

*Bispham, Edward, From Asculum to Actium. The Municipalization of Italy from the Social War to Augustus. Oxford Classical Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xvii, 566. $180.00. ISBN 978-0-19-923184-3.

*Dobbins, John J., and Pedar W. Foss (edd.), The World of Pompeii. The Routledge Worlds. London/New York: Routledge, 2007. Pp. xli, 662; maps 4; figs. passim. $240.00. ISBN 978-0-415-17324-7.

*Howgego, Christopher, Volker Heuchert, and Andrew Burnett (edd.), Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. xv, 228; maps 5, pls. 32. $70.00 (pb). ISBN 978-0-19-923784-5.

*Larrañaga, Koldo, El hecho colonial romano en el área circumpirenaica Occidental. Anejos de Veleia. Series maior, 12.
Vitoria: Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del Pai/s Vasco, 2007. Pp. 773; maps 12. EUR 60.00 (pb). ISSN 0213-2095.

*Lightfoot, J.L. (trans. and comm.), The Sibylline Oracles. With Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on the First and Second Books. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xxiii, 613. $220.00. ISBN 978-0-19-921546-1.

*Matthews, Elaine (ed.), Old and New Worlds in Greek Onomastics. Proceedings of the British Academy, 148. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. xii, 241. $70.00. ISBN 978-0-19-726412-6.

*Oltean, Ioana A., Dacia. Landscape, Colonisation, Romanisation. Routledge Monographs in Classical Studies. London/New York: Routledge, 2007. Pp. xii, 248; figs. 79. $120.00. ISBN 978-0-415-41252-0.

*Sgarlata, Mariarita, and Grazia Salvo, La Catacomba di Santa Lucia e l’Oratorio dei Quaranta Martiti. Siracusa: Pontificia Commissione di Archeologia Sacra, 2006. Pp. 113. (pb). ISBN 88-7260-171-1.

*Sundell, Michael G., Mosaics in the Eternal City. ACMRS Occasional Publications, 3. Tempe, AZ: ACMRS, 2007. Pp. ix, 211; figs. 71. $39.00 (pb). ISBN 978-0-86698-376-1.

[See full list to be sure, as this selection was exerpted by one epigrapher whose conceptions of the interests of the epigraphic community as a whole may be eccentric.]

Appeared in BMCR 2008.01.61 a few days ago, Jonathan Strang’s relatively brief review of the second edition of this important student primer:

P.J. Rhodes, The Greek City States: A Source Book. Second edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. xiii, 339. ISBN 978-0-521-85049-0. $85.00 (hb). ISBN 978-0-521-61556-3. $29.99 (pb).

(Worldcat record)

Strang highlights the value of this tome for the novice undergraduate and praises Rhodes’ “lucid commentary”. He summarises the structure of the volume, and notes the addition of three new chapters on “Women and Children”, “Economic Life” and religion, as well as several important new texts. This is an important new edition of the 1986 sourcebook, and Strang notes that it has been thoroughly updated throughout. While noting weaknesses of the work (many of which arise from the unfortunate but inevitable need in a student text to generalize and gloss over some important variations in antiquity), the reviewer concludes:

Despite my reservations about the Hellenistic content, The Greek City States remains an excellent resource for the Greek history instructor. Indeed, it is superior in content, form and design to the comparable sourcebooks by Crawford and Whitehead, and the volumes by Fornara and Harding in the Translated Documents of Greece & Rome series. It is a welcome addition to any class concerning Greek social history of the Archaic and Classical periods.

• BMCR 2008.01.05 = Adam Lajtar, Deir el-Bahari in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods: A Study of an Egyptian Temple Based on Greek Sources. The Journal of Juristic Papyrology, Suppl. IV.   Warsaw:  Institute of Archaeology, Warsaw University and Fundacja im. Rafala Taubenschlaga, 2006.  Pp. xviii, 462; ills. 28.  ISBN 10: 83-918250-3-5.  ISBN 13: 978-83-918250-3-7.  $119.00. Reviewed by Gil Renberg.

• BMCR 2008.01.29 = Zahra Newby, Ruth Leader-Newby, Art and Inscriptions in the Ancient World. Cambridge: 2007. Pp. xvii, 303. $120.00. ISBN 978-0-521-86851-8. Reviewed by Natalie Boymel Kampen.