Ancient Roman Inscriptions: What Can they Tell Us?

Ancient Romans loved to write stuff down. They etched into stone countless decrees, transactions, laws, and more, because that was the tradition of the time. But, what can they really tell us about the ways of life, the things that were held important, or were they just a tool of the elite to keep everyone in line?

The inscription I chose hails from Crete, a medium-sized island south of modern-day Italy, that was a hotbed for Greek and Roman activity.

From the Epigraphic Database Heidelberg, there seems to be a rough transcription of the text that was etched into the stone. When run through an Ancient Latin translator, the translation comes out to the following:

Emperor Domitan

Caesar Augustus Germanicus, tenth consul

between the colony Flavia Augusta Felice

Capua and Plotius Plebeius

by the decision of Emperor Titus Augustus also

According to the decree of the colony of Capua

by agreement of both

The boundaries of the party have been set.

under the direction of Publius Messius Campanus

the procurator of Caesar.

The letters that are present in the etching are etched very deeply into the stone, and are relatively easy to make out overall. Because of this, this script seems to be translated correctly, and reads as if the borders of the Roman camps were redrawn and agreed upon, based on the Emperor’s orders.

Truly, I’m surprised that this type of stone has last as long as it has. There are a handful of other inscriptions that are also found in the same area from similar time periods, though the inscription specifically that I chose does not have a date. It was photographed in 1993 initially, and the high-resolution image lends a lot to the processing and fills in some of the gaps that are present throughout history.

It seems, as far as I can tell, that type of inscription sems fairly common overall. When there was a new law that was enacted, or a border that was changed, the Romans wanted it set in stone and shared to the masses. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the general public would read it, but like was discussed in class it speaks to the power of the government and the hold that it had over its people. The regulations that were expected to be followed, and lack of lawless nature, shows how smoothly that the Empire was running. We can also see this when considering the additional surviving manuscripts of criticism that were published around the same eras of those emperors. When an empire is doing well, anyone is welcome to criticize what is happening at will. When that changes, suddenly the criticism dries up.

This type of law inscription would have been common for the areas around Crete, placed in main towns where it would be seen by the most amount of people. The Romans had their “epigraphic habit” because they wanted to cement their legacies, and because they had the time and the inclination to do so.

This sort of high-resolution imagery helps us read and understand what was previously interpreted as this specific trend. When we plot more and more points on a map, especially when considering the date that they were inscribed or the time that they’re referring to in general, we can get a much nicer big picture.

When we have this information laid out on a map or a timeline, suddenly it’s much easier to draw conclusions about the sorts of daily life that were either speculated exclusively or not known in the slightest. This is of course a massive change when we look at the small traditions like the “epigraphic habit” that is mentioned so thoroughly throughout, but it is merely a piece in the puzzle of the traditions and practices of this specific group of people.