Despite the inherently problematic nature of modern document collections, it is fair to say that the massive work of cataloguing inscriptions has transformed the discipline of ancient history. Without these collections, we would be left with a literary tradition that is heavily biased in terms of class, gender, and location. For all their limitations, epigraphic corpora make it possible to engage in studies of ancient society that would be impossible otherwise (Syme 1973: 585).
Volumes one and two of Karl August Boeckh’s Corpus Tnscriptionum Graecarum initiated the modern study of epigraphy between 1828 and 1844. These two volumes represented the first systematic effort to collect all known Greek inscriptions from the Mediterranean world. Although there were earlier collections of inscriptions, as well as of coins and ancient art, these had only minimal impact on the way history was written prior to the emergence of set curricula for the study of the ancient world in German universities during the first part of the nineteenth century (Rives, this volume; Matthews, this volume). Boeckh understood that the evidence of inscriptions could only be fully exploited if they could be read in bulk through organized corpora. Even though CIG, as Boeckh’s project is known, was badly out of date by the time the last two volumes (including the indices) were published in 1878, it established the basic principle that comprehensive collections of inscriptions should be organized according to location. Within each location inscriptions are generally subdivided according to date and the bodies responsible for the text, with inscriptions connected with civic administration preceding those connected with cults and then those erected by private associations or individuals.
Boeckh’s work on Greek inscriptions had an immediate impact on the study of Latin epigraphy. Theodor Mommsen began work on the great corpus of Latin inscriptions, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL) in 1853. Work on CIL continues to this day, and at the time this chapter is being written (April 2005), there are 17 volumes in 70 fascicles containing a total of 180,000 inscriptions, along with 13 supplemental volumes of tables and indices (Www. cil. bbaw. de/ dateien/forschung. html). The organization of the series reflects basic problems in epigraphy - namely how best to present the information. Mommsen decided, quite reasonably, that it was best to handle different topics in different ways. Thus, while the bulk of CIL (volumes 2-14) are organized by location, volume 1 is devoted to all Latin inscriptions prior to Augustus, and volumes 15-17 deal, respectively, with instruments of daily use (instrumenta domestica), military diplomata (on which see Pollard, this volume), and milestones. The regional volumes are organized as follows: volume 2: Spain
Volume 3: central Europe and the eastern provinces volume 4: Pompeii and other places buried by Vesuvius volume 5: northern Italy
Volume 6: Rome itself (this volume contains nearly a third of all known Latin inscriptions) volume 7: Britain volume 8: Africa
Volume 9: Calabria, Apulia, Samnium, Sabine territory, and Picenum
Volume 10: Bruttium, Lucania, Campania, Sicily, and Sardinia
Volume 11: Aemilia, Etruria, and Umbria
Volume 12: Gallia Narbonensis
Volume 13: the three Gauls and Germany
Volume 14: Latium
In a number of cases the volumes of CIL were superseded by other projects: CIL 7 was replaced in 1965 by The Roman Inscriptions of Britain; volume 8 by Rene Cagnat, et al. Inscriptions latines d’Afrique; and the volumes for Italy by the series Inscriptiones Italiae, begun in 1931, though only two volumes, one of them Atilio Degrassi’s invaluable work on the Fasti, were published, and, since 1981 the series Supplementa Italiae has filled in the gap.
As the efforts to update CIL show, print collections tend to be dated by the time they appear. Even as CIL was underway, Mommsen realized that the aim of comprehensive treatment was futile, and in 1873 began to publish supplements to CIL in the series Ephemeris Epigraphica. This series died out after nine volumes were published in two series, the last in 1909. By that time the French project, L’Annee epigraphique (AE), initiated under the direction of Rene Cagnat in 1888 as an appendix to the Revue archeologique, had filled the need for an annual review of new publications of Latin inscriptions (albeit in a less than systematic way at first). As is appropriate to a series that began life as a supplement to CIL, the organization of texts in AE is by location. This principle is also maintained in the two publications that offer annual reviews of newly discovered or re-edited Greek inscriptions, the Bulletin epigraphique (BE), which appears as a regular section in the Revue des etudes grecques and the Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (SEG), which began publication in 1923. The publication of SEG was interrupted in 1971, and resumed, with a new editorial team, in 1979 (beginning with publications from 1976-7). The very high current standard for all three reviews was established by BE, which was, from 1938 to 1984, edited by Jean and Louis Robert.
In 1903 the Akademie der Wissenschaften at Berlin, which also oversees the ongoing work on CIL, undertook a systematic publication of inscriptions from the Greek world in the series Inscriptiones Graecae (IG). The project was originally envisaged in 15 volumes; although several of these volumes were never completed, the project currently runs to 49 fascicles with around 50,000 texts (information on the current state of the project may be obtained at Www. bbaw. de/forschung/ig/index. html): volumes 1-3: Attica
Volume 4: the Argolid
Volume 5: Laconia, Messenia, and Arcadia
Volume 6: Achaea and Elis
Volume 7: the Megarid and Boeotia
Volume 8: Delphi
Volume 9: northern Greece
Volume 10: Macedonia
Volume 11: Delos
Volume 12: islands of the Aegean other than Delos
Volume 13: Crete volume 14: Sicily and Italy volume 15: Cyprus
Many of these volumes are in multiple fascicles (especially volume 12) and many of the older ones are badly out of date, and, at major sites, easily surpassed by volumes produced in conjunction with ongoing excavations. Most notable in this regard, for mainland Greece, are the series for Delphi and for Delos (Fouilles de Delphes [FD], Inscriptions de Delos [ID]). Volumes of IG for areas outside of Europe were never produced at all, so scholars must work from a number of regional corpora. The most notable of these are, for Asia Minor, Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiquae (MAMA), now in ten volumes; Tituli Asiae Minoris (TAM), five volumes in 12 fascicles with five supplemental volumes, and the ever expanding series of Inschriften grieschischer Stadte aus Kleinasien (IK followed by the name of the city); and, for Syria, the excellent Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie (IGLS). These corpora, as Louis Robert has observed, enable a partial reconstruction of the life of a region in antiquity, especially when used, as they must be, with the evidence from coins, literary texts, monuments and of geography (Robert 1961: 26).
World History
