Author’s Prologue legions.ItisfrustratingthatitremainsthecasethatthenewsituationofItaly,
assomethingwhichapproximatedtoanation-state—whatAugustus,look-
ingbackto..,wastocall‘‘totaItalia’’—isstillbestgraspedthroughlocal
copies oflegespassed by the people in Rome,or, in the case of theTabula
Heracleensis,ofalocalcompilation,theninscribed,ofsectionsfromdiffer-
entlawspassedinRome.Nonetheless,theworkdoneonthesedocuments
inrecentyearsisofprimaryimportance.^43
With the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, we suddenly enter a world
where, in a certain sense, our evidence is transformed in scale and in the
richnessofthemeaningswhichitconveys.Thisistrue,clearlyenough,of
literature,bothLatinandGreek;oftheexplosionof‘‘theepigraphichabit,’’
alsoinbothLatinandGreek;and,asmentionedearlier,ofthehugerange
of local coins mirroring the predominance of the distant and largely un-
seenemperor.Evenif ‘‘Augustan’’literaturehardlyrevealstousthelifeof
the broad masses of the population, its complexityas a cultural, ideologi-
cal,andpoliticalproductissufficienttoensurethatinterpretationandre-
interpretationwillneverrundry.^44 Moreover,thisisonefieldofstudywhich
istruly‘‘inter-disciplinary,’’inthesensethatphysicalandiconographicevi-
dence,alongwithafloodofepigraphicmaterial,canbebroughtintocon-
junction with the literary sources. It is also no surprise that we have ever
moreepigraphic‘‘sidelights’’ontheimperialregimefromtheGreekworld,
fromtherelationsofMiletostoAugustus,toaBosporankingthankingone
oftheGreekcitiesofhiskingdomformaintainingtranquillitywhilehewas
offtoRometoseetheemperor.^45 ButnowolderelementsintheLatinepi-
graphicrecord—forinstance,thetwoinscriptionsfromPisawhichgiveus
thefirstdetailedpictureofthepoliticsofacolonia—arenowjoinedbylong
texts,composedinRome,butdutifullyinscribedinItalyorBaetica,which
completelyrenewoursenseoftheinstitutionsofRomeundertheemperors,
ofcontemporaryconceptionsoftheEmpire(themestouchedoninchapters
andinthisvolume),ofthetoneandlanguageofdeferentialpoliticsina
monarchicsetting,andofthemachineryofcommunicationtoRome’ssub-
jects.Ireferofcoursetothetwonew,infinitelyrichandcomplex,Latinepi-
graphictexts,theTabula SiarensisandTabula Hebana(overlappingepigraphic
. Alltherelevanttextsarere-edited,translated,andcommentedoninM.Crawford,
ed.,Roman StatutesI–II().
. Note,forinstance,K.Galinsky,AugustanCulture:AnInterpretativeIntroduction().
. SeeP.Herrmann,‘‘MiletunterAugustus.C.IuliusEpikratesunddieAnfängedes
Kaiserkults,’’Ist. Mitt.():;H.Heinen,‘‘ZweiBriefedesbosporanischenKönigs
Aspurgos(AE,),’’ZPE():.