Explaining the Epigraphic Habit in the Roman Empire: The Evidence of Epitaphs

Abstract

It is now notorious that the production of inscriptions in the Roman Empire was not constant over time, but rose over the first and second centuries A.D. and fell in the third. Ramsay MacMullen pointed this out more than five years ago, with conclusions more cautionary than explanatory: ‘history is not being written in the right way’, he said, for historians have deduced Rome's decline from evidence that–since it appears only epigraphically–has merely disappeared for its own reasons, or have sought general explanations of decline in theories political, economic, or even demographic in nature, none of which can, in turn, explain the disappearance of epigraphy itself. Why this epigraphic habit rose and fell MacMullen left open to question, although he did postulate control by a ‘sense of audience’. The purpose of this paper is to propose that this ‘sense of audience’ was not generalized or generic, but depended on a belief in the value of romanization, of which (as noted but not explained by MacMullen's article) the epigraphic habit is also a rough indicator. Epitaphs constitute the bulk of all provincial inscriptions and in form and number are (generally speaking) the consequence of a provincial imitation of characteristically Roman practices, an imitation that depended on the belief that Roman legal status and style were important, and that may indeed have ultimately depended, at least in North Africa, on the acquisition or prior possession of that status. Such status-based motivations for erecting an epitaph help to explain not only the chronological distribution of epitaphs but also the differences in the type and distribution of epitaphs in the western and eastern halves of the empire. They will be used here moreover to suggest an explanation for the epigraphic habit as a whole.

Post Processual Economics: The Role of African Red Slip Ware Vessel Volume in Mediterranean Demography

“…Such evidence may perhaps be found in the inscriptions from grave markers and buildings. Meyer (1990: figure I) has calculated that in Roman Africa the number of funerary inscriptions peaks in the later second century and declines to almost nothing in the third century -this parallels the fluctuations identified in the ARS sherd counts. Further, Fentress & Perkins (1988: figure 4) have shown how the number of inscriptions on buildings follows the same pattern as the ARS sherd counts.…”

Act of Vandalism or Memory Communication? Some Thoughts on Polish-Lithuanian Graffiti Writing Tradition

“…That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! (Job 19: 23-24) -complained Job in Old Testament more than 26 centuries ago 22 . Wall, rock, tomb, monument, etc.…”

Family Burial, Family Structure, and The Urbanization of Herodian Jerusalem

“…But iamily struciure in Herodian Jerusalem has nol Ix-en addressed, despite the numerous writien soun es and lhe rich archaeological record, h seems lo me that this is hecause the historieal sources do not help us clarify the issue, and in order lo make use ofthe arehaeologica! evidenee we need a large number of finds and ha\T to perform eomplex and problematic analyses.^ Il6 PALESTINE EXPLORATION OtTARTERLY, I36, 2, 2OO4 Epigraphic and archaeological research inio Roman families have generally led lo the conclusion that family unils were small (Shaw 19B4;Sailer and Shaw 198.4.;Meyer 1990: ci. Morris 1992.…”