Conceptions and Sources
ablythebestwaytogainasensebothofone’sownoverwhelmingignorance
and of the excitement of exploring the vast, and ever-expanding mass of
Greekwhichsurvivesininscriptions.^6
Any readerof these publications would also gain a vivid impression of
theimmensegeographicalareaoverwhichGreekandLatininscriptionsare
found,fromAiKhanum,whichliesontheOxusontheborderofAfghani-
stanandtheUSSR,toIranandthePersianGulf,Mesopotamia,theCaucasus,
thenorthcoastoftheBlackSea,^7 Romania,thewholeofEuropewithinthe
DanubeandRhine,andNorthAfricafromtheAtlantictoEgypt.Egyptis
alsoaconspicuouscaseofaphenomenonwhichbytheirverynaturecollec-
tionsandsurveysofGreekandLatininscriptionstendtoobscure—theinter-
penetration of Graeco-Roman culture with a considerable range of other
cultures.ManyoftheGreekinscriptionsof Egyptcomefromtemplesand
monumentsofaspecificallyEgyptiancharacter;^8 inJewishfunerarypractice
in Palestine, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts are closely intermingled.^9
Similarlyitisafundamental(andtosomeextentneglected)factaboutthe
‘‘Romanisation’’ of the Latin-speaking areas of North Africa and theWest
thatneo-Punictexts,sometimeswritteninLatincharacters,continuedtobe
inscribedinNorthAfricaatleastuntiltheendofthesecondcentury..,^10
and extended texts in neo-Punic appear in Sardinia until about the same
.AnindextotheBulletin Épigraphiquehasnowbeenpublishedinvariousparts:Index
duBulletinÉpigraphiquedeJ.etL.Robert,–,I:lesmotsgrecs(Paris,);II:lespublications
(Paris,);III:les mots français(Paris,);Index du Bulletin Épigraphique de J. et L. Robert,
–,IV(Paris,).
. ForAiKhanum,seeL.Robert,‘‘DeDelphesàl’Oxus:Inscriptionsgrecquesnouvelles
delaBactriane,’’CRAI():;fortheBlackSearegion,note,e.g.,V.V.Struve,Corpus
Inscriptionum Regni Bosporani(Leningrad,).
. SeethefullyillustratedcollectionsbyA.Bernand:()(withE.Bernand),Les inscrip-
tions grecques et latines du Colosse de Memnon(Paris,);()Les inscriptions grecques et latines
de PhilaeI–II (Paris, );De Koptos à Kosseir(Leiden, ); ()Le Paneion d’El-Kanais:
les inscriptions grecques(Leiden, );Pan du désert(Leiden, ); E. Bernand,Recueil des
inscriptions grecques du FayoumI(Leiden,),II–III(Leiden,).
. ThedocumentaryevidenceforlinguisticusageinPalestine(whichalsoincludesthe
well-knownpapyriandparchmentsfromtheJudaeandesertandQumran)issummedup
inE.Schürer,History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus ChristII,ed.G.Vermes,F.Mil-
lar,andM.Black(Edinburgh,),–.SeenowH.M.Cotton,W.E.H.Cockle,and
F.G.B.Millar,‘‘ThePapyrologyoftheRomanNearEast:ASurvey,’’JRS():.
. See F. Millar, ‘‘Local Cultures in the Roman Empire: Libyan, Punic and Latin in
RomanAfrica,’’JRS():.