Epigraphy ofconceptualconfusion,forwemaybeimposingirrelevantandanachronis-
ticcategoriesonthebusinessofholdingpublicoffice,whichmayhavebeen
aprizetobewonandexploited,arecognitionofwealthandsocialstatus,or
aburdentobeavoided.Allthatisclearisthatthegenreofthemonumen-
talinscription,formallylistingaman’ssuccessiveoffices,isaverydistinctive
featureofthesocietyandcultureoftheHighEmpire.Itwouldwelldeserve
studyassuch,inparticularbecauseitisnot,toanythinglikethesamedegree,
characteristicofeithertheprecedingorthefollowingperiod.
Itisworththeemphasisgivenherepartlybecauseitisaspecificinstance
ofthewiderphenomenonoftheplaceofinscriptionsinthecultureofthe
ancientworld,andpartlybecauseitoffersaparticularlyclearexampleboth
of the extensive information which inscriptions can make availablewhen
treated collectively and of the dangers which lurk everywhere as soon as
wegobeyondtheformalanalysisandarrangementofthatinformationand
attemptwiderhistoricalandsocialjudgements.Totakeonlyoneexample,
there is no harm in pursuing the much-practised genre of assembling the
names,dates,andcareersofthosewhoheldofficeinaparticularprovince.^118
Suchastudywillalwaysbeusefulasaworkofreference.Butassoonaswe
ask—andattempttoanswerfromthecareerinscriptions—(say)whatsortof
men the emperor sent to Britain and on what principles his selection was
based,weenterissueswhichtouchonthevaluesoftheentiresociety,and
whichwecansolve,ifatall,onlybytheconsiderationofalltheotherevi-
dence.
Verysimilarproblemswouldemergeifweweretolookindetailatthevast
epigraphic(andpapyrological)documentationnowavailableforthestruc-
ture and working of the Roman army in the High Empire. A significant
proportion of the evidence owes its existence to the samevery important
elementinimperialculture,thehonorificinscription.Thisgenreofinscrip-
tion,forinstance,providesouronlysubstantialbodyofevidenceforwhat
was evidentlya highly important class of office-holders whose rank came
just below—and overlapped with—that ofequites, namely the centurions
and‘‘firstcenturions’’whomightrisefromtheranksormightbedirectly
commissioned,andmightproceedfurtherinaformofcareerknownonly
frominscriptions,toimportantequestriancivilpositions.Theframeworkof
asignificantelementintheRomanstateisthusrevealed—but,equally,basic
questions about functions, social background, and criteria for promotion
mustremainunanswered.^119
. See,e.g.,A.R.Birley,The Fasti of Roman Britain(Oxford,).
. SeeB.Dobson,‘‘TheSignificanceoftheCenturionand‘Primipilaris’intheRoman