Roman Provinces?

[Spedius]

Ave,

Statements.
01. All of the Roman Provinces had histories.
02. All of the Roman Provinces had Governors.
03. Most, if not all, of the Roman Provinces had garrisons.
04. Most, if not all, of the Roman Provinces provided units and recruits for the Roman army
05. Numerous websites have the history of the Roman Legions.
06. No websites have the history of the auxiliaries.

Question.
Where on the internet are these details in a usable form?
Answer.
With the exception of items 01 & 05, nowhere?

Questions
01. Would you want these details to be in a usable form?
02. Would you support a project that provided these details?
03. Would you provide data for inclusion in this project?
04. Would you provide knowledge and skills for this project?
05. Do you already have details that you would wish to be included?
06. Do you have the skills needed to bring this project to fruition?
07. In what form would you want these details presented?
08. Would these details be in a stand-alone website?
09. Would these details be in an adjunct to an existing website?

More statements.
01. Roman Military Diplomas provide details for items 02. & 03.
02. Numerous other Latin inscriptions provide details for items 02. & 03.
03. Numerous Greek inscriptions provide details for items 02. & 03.
04. The ancient writings provide details for items 02. & 03.

Each Province could be accessed by clicking on a basic Roman Empire map.

Each province could contain:
01. A history or all links to all sites that provide a history
02. A list of Governors with all sources for each, linked to the source
03. A list of the garrison with all sources for each unit, linked to the source
04. A lists of all units raised in that province, linked to the source
05. A database of all sources
06. A bibliography of all references used
07. A Cursus Honorum for each Governor
08. A regimental history for each unit
09. A map of that Province detailing sites of interest etc.

I'm sure there are a lot of other items that could be included, but the above is more that enough for starters.

I would be most interested to read the collective views of the members of this Forum.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[Praefectusclassis]

Great idea, I'll help you with facilities on Romanarmy.com, but it's a BIG project. In fact, it's prolly worth a couple of PhD's if you completed it in an academically satisfying way and for me, completing one this year is quite enough.

[Carlton Bach]

A most worthy plan, and one that a German publisher (I believe it is Phillipp von Zabern, but I might misremember) has undertaken in book form. And that is the point where you will hit the wall, I'm afraid.

Far too little is known about most provinces. Far from being able to provide a biography of every governor, we would be glad if we could document even a succession of governors for most places. Garrisons are usually documtened by a process of "There is a Julio-Claudian inscription identifying the unit in province A, and one of Trajanic date from province B, so it must have been moved in the meantime". There just isn't the data to do it, and cpollecting what there is will be a huge undertaking (it *is* under way in Germany, so ask again in fifty years :-) ) ).

A translation of the Realencyclopaedie articles for each province might be a good start, though. I trust they have not been retroactively re-copyrighted under the Lex Mickey Mouse?

[Praefectusclassis]

Speaking of the Realencyclopaedie, it's time to give the Ritterling project a boost again... And if someone wants to do it, I'll gladly host a translation of Cichorius' Cohors article.

[Arahne]

Some aspects of such idea have been already undertaken. These two databases
http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/institute/sonst/adw/edh/
http://compute-in.ku-eichstaett.de:8888 ... epigraphik
are very useful and I believe that they go in this direction. http://www.ubi-erat-lupa.org/site/index ... rage.shtml was created with similar idea as far as I know. In any case I believe that problem is not with the written sources, but with visual data. Lots of institutions wont give you permission for publishing photos on the web, or they will demand some sum of money for that.

[Spedius]

Some aspects of such idea have been already undertaken. These two databases
http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/institute/sonst/adw/edh/
http://compute-in.ku-eichstaett.de:8888 ... epigraphik
are very useful and I believe that they go in this direction. http://www.ubi-erat-lupa.org/site/index ... rage.shtml was created with similar idea as far as I know. In any case I believe that problem is not with the written sources, but with visual data. Lots of institutions wont give you permission for publishing photos on the web, or they will demand some sum of money for that.

Ave Arahne,

Thank you so very much for the links, most helpful.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[Spedius]

Ave

The profile of a person who could undertake the task.

01. Must be multi-lingual
02. Must have access to all resources
03. Must have knowledge of web design
04. Must have organisational skills
05. Must be relatively young
06. Must be prepared to devote a lot of time to the project
07. Must have a clear picture of the end product in mind
08. Must be able to motivate others
09. Must have access to up-to-date data
10. Must have access to the research of others

A possible website which could be expanded

www.romancoins.info already has some of the building blocks needed for this project. Check it out and you will see what I mean.

I wonder what databases people like Dr. Werner Eck etc. have built up over the years? His first article for ZPE was published in 1969!

Just a collection of random thoughts on the subject. None of the items in the above list would apply to me.

What do you think?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

[Arahne]

Let's put digital technology aside for the moment. You are talking about a person which is called editor - responsible for the corpus (we could call it corpus). When you create such large projects You need team of persons responsible for all the data incorporated.
About digital aspect. You need few PC-s for collecting, processing data and server for hosting the site. And allways back-up hdd's if you dont want to end like classics.mit.edu site.
I believe that You can try applicating for funds in EU's culture 2000 project. Good luck.

[Spedius]

A most worthy plan, and one that a German publisher (I believe it is Phillipp von Zabern, but I might misremember) has undertaken in book form. And that is the point where you will hit the wall, I'm afraid.
Far too little is known about most provinces. Far from being able to provide a biography of every governor, we would be glad if we could document even a succession of governors for most places. Garrisons are usually documtened by a process of "There is a Julio-Claudian inscription identifying the unit in province A, and one of Trajanic date from province B, so it must have been moved in the meantime". There just isn't the data to do it, and cpollecting what there is will be a huge undertaking (it *is* under way in Germany, so ask again in fifty years :-) ).
A translation of the Realencyclopaedie articles for each province might be a good start, though. I trust they have not been retroactively re-copyrighted under the Lex Mickey Mouse?

Ave Carlton,

I fear that you are right.

Trying to find usable data is an extremely tortuous task, akin to the twelve labours of Hercules sometimes.

I keep on digging up snippets here and there but not in a centralised source or website.

My article was more in the way of what I would like to have available.

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo