Table Of ContentWritten Space in the Latin West, 200 bc to ad 300
Written Space in the Latin
West, 200 bc to ad 300
Gareth Sears, Peter Keegan and Ray Laurence
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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www.bloomsbury.com
First published 2013
Introduction and editorial arrangement © 2013 by
Gareth Sears, Peter Keegan & Ray Laurence
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Gareth Sears, Peter Keegan & Ray Laurence have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury
Academic or the authors.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-44118-876-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Written space in the Latin West, 200 BC to AD 300 / [edited by] Peter Keegan, Ray
Laurence & Gareth Sears.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-4411-2304-6 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-8876-2 (epdf) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-
6162-8 (epub) 1. Inscriptions, Latin--Rome. 2. Public spaces--Rome--History. 3. Rome--Social
life and customs. 4. Inscriptions, Latin--Europe, Western. 5. Inscriptions, Latin--Africa,
Northwest. I. Keegan, Peter. II. Laurence, Ray, 1963- III. Sears, Gareth, 1977-
CN525.W75 2013
411'.7093763--dc23
2013002703
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
Contents
List of Contributors vii
List of Figures ix
Abbreviations xi
1 Written Space 1
Ray Laurence and Gareth Sears
Part 1 Writing, Reading, Movement and Time
2 Writing in Roman Public Space 13
Mireille Corbier
3 Reading Epigraphic Culture, Writing Funerary Space in the Roman City 49
Peter Keegan
4 Movement, Rhythms, and the (Re)production of Written Space 65
David J. Newsome
5 Time in Written Spaces 83
Robert Hannah
Part 2 Written Space and Social Groups
6 Graffiti’s Engagement. The Political Graffiti of the Late Roman Republic 105
Tom Hillard
7 Writing in Public Space from Child to Adult: The Meaning of Graffiti 123
Renata Senna Garraffoni and Ray Laurence
8 Inscribed in the City: How Did Women Enter ‘Written Space’? 135
Emily Hemelrijk
9 Slaves and Children in a Roman Villa: Writing and Space in the Villa San
Marco at Stabiae 153
Eamonn Baldwin, Helen Moulden and Ray Laurence
vi Contents
Part 3 Written Space and Building Type
10 Text, Space, and the Urban Community: A Study of the Platea as
Written Space 169
Francesco Trifilò
11 Writing Up the Baths: Reading Monumental Inscriptions in Roman Baths 185
Alison E. Cooley
Part 4 Regional Written Spaces?
12 A New Era? Severan Inscriptions in Africa 201
Gareth Sears
13 The City as Preferred Written Space: The Case of Aquitania 217
Simon Esmonde Cleary
14 The Written City: Political Inscriptions from Roman Baetica 231
Louise Revell
15 Afterword 247
Peter Keegan
Bibliography 257
Index 287
List of Contributors
Eamonn Baldwin is a Research Associate in Remote Sensing at the IBM VISTA Centre
in the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, Birmingham. He specializes in archaeo-
logical survey methods including: geophysical, topographical and terrestrial laser
scanning surveys and standing building recording. His research interests lie in the
investigation, interpretation and presentation of archaeological landscapes through
remote sensing technologies.
Alison E. Cooley is a Reader in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at
the University of Warwick. She has published extensively upon topics relating to Latin
epigraphy and Roman Italy, most recently The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy.
Mireille Corbier is presently a Directeur de recherche emerita at the Centre
National de Recherche Scientifique and Director of L’Année épigraphique since 1992.
She is a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure (1966) and a former member of the
École Française de Rome (1972–5). She has taught ancient history at the University
of Paris X Nanterre and at the École Normale Supérieure, as well as anthropology
in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Paris VIII. She received
her doctorate in 1972 and published her thesis in 1974: L’ ‘Aerarium Saturni’ et
L’ ‘Aerarium Militaire’. Administration et Prosopographie Sénatoriale (coll. EFR, n° 24).
She has published extensively on various aspects of Roman history, and a complete
bibliography of her work can be found on the web at http://www.anneeepigraphique.
msh-paris.fr
Simon Esmonde Cleary is Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of
Birmingham. His research interests include the late Roman period in Britain and
Western Europe and in particular the relationship between archaeology and textual
sources, Roman urbanism, Roman numismatics and Roman funerary archaeology. He
has excavated in south-western France at Éauze and St-Bertrand-de-Comminges.
Renata Senna Garraffoni is a Lecturer at Paraná Federal University (Curitiba,
Brazil). She works on Roman history and archaeology and in particular on gladi-
ators and Pompeiian graffiti. She held a visiting British Academy Fellowship from
December 2008 to March 2009 at the University of Birmingham, UK, to study Roman
graffiti from Pompeii.
Robert Hannah is Professor of Classics at the University of Otago, New Zealand,
and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He has written extensively
on the uses of astronomy in Greek and Roman culture, particularly in relation to
calendars and the perception of time. His most recent publications include the books
Greek and Roman Calendars: Constructions of Time in the Classical World (2005), and
Time in Antiquity (2009).
Emily A. Hemelrijk is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Amsterdam.
She has published numerous works on Roman women including: Matrona Docta.
viii List of Contributors
Educated Women in the Roman Elite from Cornelia to Julia Domna (1999; paperback
2004). She is currently preparing a book on women’s public roles in the cities of the
Latin West: Hidden lives – Public Personae. Women and Civic Life in Italy and the Latin
West during the Roman Principate.
Tom Hillard teaches Roman history in the Department of Ancient History at
Macquarie University. He has also excavated on archaeological sites in Greece, Israel
and Syria.
Dr Peter Keegan is a Senior Lecturer in Roman History in the Department
of Ancient History at Macquarie University. His fields of research and teaching
include Latin epigraphic culture, the history of gender, sexuality and the body in
the Mediterranean world, late Republican and early Imperial Roman historiography
and historical theory. He is currently working on a survey of non-official epigraphic
practices in the ancient Mediterranean (Graffiti in Antiquity, forthcoming 2013).
Ray Laurence is Professor of Roman History and Archaeology at the University of
Kent. His publications include: Roman Pompeii: Space and Society (2nd edition 2007);
Roman Passions (2009); The City in the Roman West (with Gareth Sears and Simon
Esmonde Cleary 2011); Rome, Ostia, Pompeii: Movement and Space (with David
Newsome 2011); and Roman Archaeology for Historians (2012).
Helen Moulden is a Research Associate in Artefact Scanning, Modelling and
Reconstruction for IBM VISTA at the University of Birmingham. She specializes
in the application of 3D scanning technologies (both object and terrestrial), with
particular focus on the convergence of 3D object representations and digital archiving
as a means to enhance accessibility and research practices.
David J. Newsome completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2010
on the relationship between movement, the representation of space, and fora in Rome
and Roman Italy. With Professor Ray Laurence, he edited the volume Rome, Ostia,
Pompeii: Movement and Space (2011). His primary research interest is the examination
of movement as a key variable in the development of both the Roman city and Roman
social relations.
Louise Revell is lecturer in Roman Archaeology at the University of Southampton.
She works mainly on Roman architecture and inscriptions, focusing on questions of
imperialism and identity. She is author of Roman Imperialism and Local Identities.
Gareth Sears is lecturer in Roman History at the University of Birmingham. He
works on Roman urbanism, particularly in North Africa, and the Christianization of
the city. He is the author of the Cities of Roman Africa and The City in the Roman West
with Ray Laurence and Simon Esmonde Cleary.
Francesco Trifilò is a Research Associate at the University of Kent. He specializes in
Roman Archaeology and History, particularly urbanism, architecture, epigraphy, and
everyday life, the subject of his latest publication: ‘Movement, Gaming and the Use of
Space in the Forum’ in: Newsome, D. and Laurence, R. (eds), Rome, Ostia, Pompeii.
Movement and Space (2011).
List of Figures
Figure 2.1 Relief with a representation of the Temple of Concord (the sign of a farmer
of weights and measures?) Rome, Musei Vaticani
Figure 2.2 Arch of Titus: Triumph against the Jews. Rome
Figure 2.3 Triumphal Cortege on a relief from Cherchel, Algiers, Musée National des
Antiquités
Figure 2.4a–b Arch of Septimius Severus. Rome, Forum
Figure 2.5 ‘Plutei Triani’: The burning of the archives, Rome, Curia
Figure 2.6 Scene of a census from the relief called ‘of Domitius Ahenobarbus’
Figure 2.7 Base of the ‘decennals’, ad 303: ‘Caesarum decennalia feliciter’, Rome, forum
Figure 2.8 Inscription on the Arch of Titus, Rome
Figure 2.9 Lex Antonia de Termessibus (fragment), 68 bc? Naples, National
Archaeological Museum
Figure 2.10 Lex de imperio Vespasiani, Rome, Musei Capitolini
Figure 2.11 Funerary monument of the Haterii. Detail. Rome, Musei Vaticani (photo
Musei Vaticani. Archivio fotografico)
Figure 2.12 Dedication of the aqueduct of Claudius; restorations of Vespasian and
Titus. At the front, the tomb of Eurysaces. Rome, Porta Majora
Figure 2.13 The mutilated and reinscribed inscription of the Arch of Septimius Severus
Figure 2.14 Homage to the family of Septimius Severus from a group of milites, Rome,
Musei Capitolini
Figure 2.15 Fragment of the Fasti Ostienses (ad 94–96), Ostia
Figure 2.16 The album of Canusium (CIL 10.338 = ERCanosa 35) ad 223
Figure 2.17 Edict of Cn. Pompeius Strabo, 89 bc, Musei Capitolini, Rome
Figure 2.18 Graffiti on the wall of an Augustan edifice discovered under the Basilica
of Santa Maria Maggiore
Figure 3.1 The extra-mural epigraphic environment – Isola Sacra
Figure 3.2 The extra-mural epigraphic environment – Via Appia Antica
Figure 4.1 Piazza di Pasquino, Rome
Figure 4.2 Pedestrians read from a banner stretched across statue bases. From the
Praedia Iuliae Felicis, Pompeii (II.4.3)
Figure 4.3 A seated figure copying from an equestrian statue. From the Praedia Iuliae
Felicis, Pompeii (II.4.3)
Figure 5.1 Fasti Praenestini, ad 6–9. Rome, Museo Nazionale Archeologico, Palazzo
Massimo
Figure 5.2 Fasti Antiates Maiores, 84–55 bc. Rome, Museo Nazionale Archeologico,
Palazzo Massimo
Figure 5.3 Rome, Piazza di Montecitorio: obelisk of Augustus’ ‘horologium’
Figure 5.4 Rome, Via Campo Marzio 48: part of the meridian of Augustus’ ‘horologium’
