Aims

The course attempts to familiarize the students with one of the most important and direct sources of our knowledge of public and private life in Ancient Rome.

Main themes

Content: bibliography of Latin epigraphs. Introduction to CIL. Scripts (capitals, cursive, "actuarial"), ligatures, abbreviations, "interponction," figures, etc.
Common elements to different kinds of inscriptions: tria nomina, signum, agnomen, affiliation, mentioning the tribe, etc. Transmission of the denomination by legitimate, natural, or adoptive affiliation, by emancipation, etc.
The careers: senator, equestrian, mixed, administrative, military, municipal, colonial, etc. Names and titles of emperors and of members of the imperial family. Different types of inscriptions: funerary, sacred, on public buildings, elegies, eulogy ["elogia" must be one or the other: "elegies"= poem about death, while "eulogy" = praise; I suspect it is "eulogy," though the Latin is actually "eulogia"], on instruments, calendars, etc.

Content and teaching methods

Presentation of ancient roman inscriptions written in latin.
Bibliography and initiation to sources. The different ways used for texts written on stone and on other materials not very perishable. The processes in ligature, abbreviations, punctuation numbers expressions,…
The commun elements to those different grades of inscriptions, tria nomina, nicknames, mention of filiation or of the tribe. Name's transmission by legitimate filiation, natural, adoption, freeing.
Emperors's names and titles and those of the imperial family members.
Brief careers survey: senatorial, equestrial, mixt, administrative, military, municipal, religious. The different grades of inscriptions, funerary, sacred, on public buildings, elogias, splendours and calendars. Miltaries, miliaries, diploma on instrumentum domesticum (ceramic, tiles, bricks, glass ).
Reading exercices, interpretation and datation.

Other credits in programs