RIB III indices

Further to a couple of earlier posts:

The Journal of Roman Archaeology currently has a number of pdf copies of recent reviews available on its website. Of particular interest is the review of RIB III by Antony Birley. Of much interest in itself in fact, but of particular interest in that he has gone to the effort of producing a series of indices, lacking from the volume itself.

Find it here, at least for the time being. Probably best save yourself a copy. My earlier link to a review by Hurst (on Roman Gloucester) seems still to be live even though it no longer appears on the JRA page, but who knows for how much longer...

Inveresk - finally this time

The latest issue of Britannia (Vol. 42 2011) arrived at my door this week and with it more detail of the Inveresk inscriptions. 'To the unconquered god Mithras, C Cas(sius) Fla(vianus) (dedicated this altar)'. That is, Flavus or Flavinus or Flavianus, or indeed possibly Flaccus (Tomlin 2011, 441-4). Still not to be seen in other than an uncleaned state (paint evidently survives and further work will be sensitive). Work towards full publication is ongoing.

Of particular interest from my point of view is the potential link to the Twentieth Legion. Entirely from the form of the letter A, but convincing nonetheless as this is distinctive on the Antonine Wall distance slabs of the legion, So, welcome C Cassius Flavus to the roster of the legion.

I am slightly less convinced by the parallels from Chester (neatly though that might tie things up), at least without seeing them again. RIB461 and RIB497 are referenced, the latter clearly shown with this letter form in RIB I, the former less clearly so.

RIB461 is in Greek in any case, so the choice of letter form may be less relevant. Unfortunately the photographs in the 1955 corpus (Wright and Richmond The Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester) are in neither case very clear. 497 is cracked across close to the relevant point (but as drawn would indeed seem to be a clear example). Of the three letter As on 461 the first has no clear crossbar at all, the final one only a medial mark which isn't convincingly part of the letter, leaving only the third which doesn't appear entirely clear either and in the photograph the stone surface appears damaged at the relevant point. A reason for another visit to the Grosvenor Museum, I think.

Newly Published - RIB III

Roman Inscriptions of Britain III

Landed on my desk yesterday, and well worth the wait. The definitive publication of Roman inscriptions discovered in Britain over the last 50+ years. Handsomely produced, with photographs as well as drawings of (virtually) all of the inscriptions, as is now standard practice in such corpora. Discussion is rather more comprehensive than in RIB I with extensive critical apparatus. The longer entries and additional illustration have led to some odd layout decisions with acres of white space leading to illustrations over the page but on the whole the expansive treatment makes RIB I now seem rather compressed (by contrast it dispenses with its first 550 entries in 183 pages).

The only real quibble? No indices (other than place of discovery). With only 550 entries (compared to the 2400 items in RIB I) it wouldn't seem a vast labour (unless of course someone's working on a consolidated index as we speak!).

Expect some further comment on individual entries as I work my way through...

Available now from Oxbow. Although as of today it's still listed as Not Yet Published!

RIB III - coming soon?

Roman Inscriptions of Britain Volume III: Inscriptions on Stone.
Not so nearly here, after all.

July publication became August publication becomes now 'Not yet published'. Shall just have to exercise some patience (it's Oxbow, after all...)

The pre-publication offer survived into August but if you didn't get in there while you had the chance, hard luck.

RIB III - Nearly here

Been waiting for this for a long while! Expected soon...

Roman Inscriptions of Britain Volume III: Inscriptions on Stone

Sign up for a copy while it's cheap(ish). Of course this will mean updating a lot of references (but I shall want to go through all the new entries anyway; my idea of fun.)

(Almost) New inscriptions

I add here two inscriptions which have been found or come to light in recent years (but which have yet to make it into the online database). The first was discovered after submission of my thesis, but made it into the publication. The second came to my notice later, courtesy of Andreas Schaub, city archaeologist for Aachen. It was apparently found as long ago as 1974, but never previously shown to an historian or an archeologist and I am not sure if it has even yet been formally published (over to someone with better access to recent editions of L'Annee Epigraphique than myself). [now to be found in AE2006; this entry edited in accordance]

L(uci) Octavi / L(uci fili) Pol(lia) / Martialis / Eporedia /
m(ilitis) leg(ionis) XX
‘Lucius Octavius Martialis, son of Lucius, of the Pollian
voting tribe, from Eporedia, soldier of the Twentieth legion’
Britannia 36 (2005), 476 no. 3 (Gloucester)

numinibus / divor(um) Aug(ustorum) in / [h]onorem domus /
[d]ivinae Iul(ia) Tiberina Q(uinti) Iul(ii) / [.]avi uxo(r)
c(centurionis) l[e]g(ionis) XX Val(eriae) Vic(tricis) ae/
des Matri d[eu]m et Isidi ex voto / de [s(ua) p(ecunia)?] s(oluit) l(ibens) m(erito)
'To the divine spirits of the deified emperors and in honour of the divine house, Julia Tiberina, wife of Quinus Iulius [Fl]avus centurion of the Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix, [dedicated? set up?] this altar to the Mother godesses and to Isis (out of her own funds), willingly and deservedly fulfilling vow'
AE2006.864 (Aachen in the area of the Bücheltherme Roman baths)
5 [N]avi? The name is less usual. A Q. Iulius Flavus, centurion of leg I Minerva, is known from the Rhine CIL XIII 8172; AE 1930.23