Classics - Literature: Epigraphy

The CIL is a comprehensive collection of Latin inscriptions. The print collection is available at the Epigraphy Room in Davis Library in several volumes.

A work on Greek inscriptions published in four volumes including: public, private, and scared inscriptions, as well as an overview and history of Greek epigraphy. Housed in the Epigraphy room at Davis Library.

Greek inscriptions form a valuable resource for the study of every aspect of life and death in the Greco-Roman world. They are primary witnesses to society's laws and institutions; social structures; public cults and private associations; and, of course, language. An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy provides students and classicists with the tools to take advantage of the social and historical weight of these treasures. The book begins by examining letter forms, ancient names, and ancient calendars, knowledge of which is essential in reading inscriptions of all kinds. B. H. McLean discusses the classification of inscriptions into their various categories and analyzes particular types of inscriptions, including decrees, honorary inscriptions, dedications, funerary inscriptions, and manumission inscriptions. Finally, McLean includes special topics that bear upon the interpretation of specific features of inscriptions, such as Greek and Roman administrative titles and functions. Well-organized and clear as well as insightful and original, McLean's Introduction to Greek Epigraphy is an excellent source for beginners, nonspecialists, and specialists alike. The volume will be useful to students and scholars studying epigraphy and to those who study politics, governmental organization, archaeology, and ancient history or culture. B. H. McLean is Professor of New Testament, Knox College, University of Toronto.

Epigraphy, or the study of inscriptions, is critical for anyone seeking to understand the Roman world, whether they regard themselves as literary scholars, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, religious scholars or work in a field that touches on the Roman world from c. 500 BCE to 500CE and beyond. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy is the fullest collection of scholarship on the study and history of Latin epigraphy produced to date.Rather that just a collection of inscriptions, however, this volume seeks to show why inscriptions matter and demonstrate to classicists and ancient historians how to work with the sources. To that end, the 35 chapters, written by senior and rising scholars in Roman history, classics, and epigraphy,cover everything from typograph to the importance of inscriptions for understanding many aspects of Roman culture, from Roman public life, to slavery, to the roles and lives of women, to the military, and to life in the provinces. Students and scholars alike will find the Handbook a crritical toolfor expanding their knowledge of the Roman world.