Inscriptions and the Epigraphic Habit : The Epigraphic Cultures of Greece, Rome, and Beyond

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.