Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/741

* INSCRIPTIONS. 655 INSCRIPTIONS. portant Dareste, Haussoullier, and Reinaeh. Re- cueil dcs inscriptions juridiques grccqucs, i., ii. 1 (Paris, 1800-98). Useful collections for the student are: Hicks and Hill, Manual of Greek nistorical Inscriptions (2d ed., Oxford, 1901); ilichel, Recueil d'inscriptions grecqiies (Paris, 1900) ; and, above all, Dittenberger, Sylloge In- scriptionum (Iracarum (2d ed., 3 vols., Leipzig, 189S-1901). The metrical inscriptions have been collected by Kaibcl, Epigrammata (Jrwca ex Lfipidibus Conlccta (Berlin, 1878) and (for the period before B.C. 2.50) by Hoffmann. Sylloge Epigrammatum (Jr(ecorum (Halle, 1893). A col- lection of the Greek Christian inscriptions has been begun by the French Academy. L.Tix. The earliest Latin inscriptions cannot rival the antiquity of the Greek. The gold fibula or brooch of Prieneste is probably of the sixth century B.C., and some have claimed an even greater antiquity for the broken column of the Roman Foriini, though the best authorities con- sider it scarcely older than the middle of the fifth century. Another early example, the so-called 'Duenos inscription' on a curious triple-bodied vase from the Esquiline, is veiy probably of the fourth century, but is still a puzzle to scholars. With very few exceptions, however, the Latin in- scriptions are not older than B.C. 300. In its earliest forms the alphabet shows strongly its connection with the Greek, which reached the Romans from the Chalcidians of Cumse, and. like other early attempts at writing, is marked by crude and variable forms for the letters. Later were develoi^d the large square and handsome monumental characters (scriptura quadrata or lapidaria), which were carefully carved after pre- liminary tracing, and then colored, usually with red. Painted inscriptions, not carved, naturally show freer forms, and these were later often imi- tated in stone, as were sometimes the common cursive hands, which are found in wax tablets in graffiti, and often on domestic utensils of various kinds. The inscriptions are usually divided into two great classes: (1) Tituli, employed to desig- nate some definite object, giving the needed in- formation to distinguish it from similar objects; such are mortuary, dedicatory, and honorary in- scriptions. (2) Acta, or documents, which are engraved for purposes of publication. The for- mer are far more numerous, and show naturally a more stereotyped form. Among the mortuary inscriptions are noteworthy the many metrical epitaphs, often crude in metre and cold in ex- pression, but also not infrequently showing ten- derness and deep family affection. In general the classes of inscriptions are the same as recur in Greece, b)it one or two Roman customs may be mentioned. The person who erected .T. temple or any other public buililing was usually allowed to engrave his name upon it. and these tituli are a much more important class of monuments than in Greece, where this was not a usual habit. Such inscriptions are valuable sources of infor- mation as to the date and circumstances under which these works were constructed. The nu- merous milestones not only mark the course of the ancient roads, but show the distances and names of. the chief towns, and the dates when the roads were built or repaired, and by whom the work was directed. For the acta, bronze seems to have been the favorite material before the time of .ugustus, bit later the Greek use of marble was commonly adopted. Tlicy include treaties (rare), laws, decrees of the Senate and, in great numbers, of various town councils and corporations, the edicts and letters of Roman magistrates, and especially of the emperors, and the numberless documents relating to the ser- vice of the gods. Among the Imperial edicts belong the military diplomas, or formal dis- charges which conferred on the retiring veterans special privileges. In connection with the ser- vice of the gods belong the calendars which were prepared during the early Empire. Here may also bo mentioned the Fasti, or li.sts of consuls and other important magistrates, of which there are many remains. Among these religious in- scriptions an important place is taken by the records of the Arval Brothers (q.v. ), and the account of the great secular games of B.C. 17, with its mention of Horace's Carmen Swculare. A special place is occupied by the great Monu- mentum Ancyranum, the account by Augustus of his deeds (index reruni a se gcstarunt), engraved in Greek and Latin on the walls of the temple of Augustus and Rome at Ancjra, in Asia Minor, after the original bronze tablets on the mauso- leum of the Emperor in Rome. ( See llommsen. Res (lestce divi Augusti, 2d ed., Berlin. 1883; Fairley, Monumentum Ancyranum, Philadelphia, 1898.) The Romans do not seem to have col- lected inscriptions as did the Greeks, though ref- erences to them are not infrequent in the his- tories, as Li'y or Suetonius, and in other writers, from whom no complete collection has yet been made. At the verj' end of the ancient time and the beginning of the Jliddle Ages, when Rome became a place of pilgrimage, during the eighth and ninth centuries, many of the in.scrip- tions were copied by visitors, and several of these compilations have been presented wholly or in part, the most celebrated being the Anonyraus Einsiedelensis. After the ninth century came a long period of neglect of the classical remains, and one of the first to revive these studies was the celebrated tribime of Rome, Cola di Rienzi, who about 1344 prepared a description of Rome in which he used the epigraphic material at his hand. Another collection was prepared in the early fifteenth century by the enthusiastic stu- dent of the past, Poggio Bracciolini. and from that time collectors of inscriptions are numerous, and at times decidedly unscrupulous. Latin epigraphy in the sixteenth century suffered from forgers, at whose head stands Pirro Ligorio, of Naples, and their work deceived many until its character was disclosed by the exact scientific criticism of the nineteenth century. The earliest printed collection seems to have been that of the inscriptions of Ravenna (1489). Gruter's great collection of 1003 has already been mentioned. (See under Greek.) It was followed by collec- tions by Reinesius, Fabretti, and others, till Muratori published his Xovus ThcsaurusVcterum Inscriptionuni (4 vols., !Milan. 1739-42), which his lack of knowledge made of but little real ser- vice. The foundations for the mo<lern study of Latin epigraphy were laid by the careful and minute investigations of Bartolomeo Borghesi (died 1859), who devoted his life to a study of the Fasti of Roman magistrates. A corpus of Latin inscriptions had been planned by the Ber- lin .cademy. and also suggested by the French -Academy; but the project was first realized when after a long period of preparation there appeared in 1863 the first volume, edited by