Is There a Book on Roman Tombstones?

[Matt Lukes]

The Romanarmy.com Imagebase is wonderful to be sure, but I'm not sure just how comprehensive it is- does anyone know of any specific texts on the subject of tombstones?

[Praefectusclassis]

There are several - albeit not very many - books on the subject, mostly in German. None is comprehensive as in "all encompassing" though. Jon Coulston is the leading authority on the subject and is said to be planning a book, although I'm not sure it would include photos of each and every tombstone with image. The total number of surviving tombstones depicting the soldier and/or his equipment lies around 750 (both complete and incomplete ones).

[Matt Lukes]

Thanks Jasper. Boy a book with images of all 750 would be awesome... maybe if we asked him reeeeallly nicely? LOL

[Praefectusclassis]

I think until that time, btw, the Imagebase is actually your best bet for ease of access and a very good sample of the available total. And if I hadn't been so busy lately, there would be a good few dozen more in there, actually.

[Matt Lukes]

Oh I check it out regularly- I was just thinking that there might be other significant ones not in the Imagebase that might be published someplace. It's a shame there isn't, but then it's pretty cool that the RAT Imagebase is possibly the most comprehensive source on the subject at the moment... :wink:

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

The one I have checked out from the library is Roman Military Tombstones by Alastair Scott Anderson, published in 1984.

[Matt Lukes]

Cool, thanks Alex

[Praefectusclassis]

That's one of the few publications, but hardly comprehensive.

[Matt Lukes]

Well if it's got even one good 1st century stone that's not in the imagebase, it'd be useful...

[M. CVRIVS ALEXANDER]

I checked, and it does not.

[Praefectusclassis]

See, we are pretty good. :wink:

[lisa]

It would be hard for there to be just one comprehensive book. But, tombstones are actually pretty frequently published (with images or drawings) as part of historical articles if not in monographs of their own. Probably the best way to go, besides the image database here, is to look at large published collections.

A couple recent monographs that I can recommend (off my bookcase), aside from the standards like CIL or RIB:

S.L. Tuck, 2005, Latin Inscriptions in the Kelsey Museum: The Dennison and De Criscio Collections

and a little more military
S.J. Malone, 2006, Legio XX Valeria Victrix: Prosopography, archaeology and history BAR Int. Ser. 1491

M. Mosser, 2003, Die Steindenkmaler der legio XV Apollinaris

Those monographs are comprehensive in respect to the scope they've chosen (a collection or a particular legion) but won't cover every aspect of funerary epigraphy. You should also check out V. Hope's work, references in this thread: [url:314dd5pp]http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?p=122174[/url]

[Peroni]

Michael Spiedel "Die Denkmäler de kaisereiter"

The tombstones of the Equites Singulari Augusti. Excellent book! :wink:

[Arahne]

very good site that might help, browse for pictures, maintained by Ortolf Harl.
http://www.ubi-erat-lupa.org/site/index ... aender.asp

[Muzzaguchi]

Well I did pick up a copy of F. Haverfield's Catalogue of the Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in the Grosvenor Museum (Chester, 1900) which has 214 inscriptions with plates and line drawings.

Cheers

Murray