Conceptions and Sources
onlyin.^22 Itrepresentsnotonly,initssecondpart,animmenselydetailed
accountofthereligiouspositionandactivitiesofanearlySassaniankingbut,
initsfirstpart,theonlydetailedaccountofaRomanwarwhichwehavefrom
anon-Graeco-Romansource.Moreimportant,liketheothermajordocu-
ments just mentioned—the Rosetta stone, the tri-lingual inscription from
Xanthos,andtheedictsofAsoka—itgivessomehintofthecomplexityof
themixtureofculturesintheseareasofAsiawhichweretouched(atleast)by
Hellenisation.Foranyscholarswho—individuallyorincollaboration—can
deploythevariedlinguisticskillsrequired,therearewholeareaswhosesocial
andculturalhistoryintheGraeco-Romanperiodhashardlyyetbeguntobe
written.We have only to think of Egypt at almost any period, Hellenistic
Phoenicia,HellenisticBabylonia,withitscombinationofGreekandcunei-
formdocuments,^23 MesopotamiaintheperiodoftheRomanoccupation,or
NabataeaasakingdomandastheRomanprovinceofArabia.
Itmaybenotedinpassing,sincethisareaiswhollybeyondthecompe-
tence of the author, that inscriptions are inevitablyof the greatest impor-
tanceforthestudyofthehistoryoflanguage—notonlyGreekandLatinbut
alltheothersusedwithintheorbitofGraeco-Romancivilisation—asthey
arealsoforgrammar,spelling,orthography,andpronunciation.Thesesub-
jectsthemselveshavegreathistoricalsignificance.Thesixteenhundredorso
fifth-century..ostracafromtheAgoraandKerameikosofAthenssofar
published—andpotentiallytheseveralthousandfoundintheKerameikosin
thesandnotyetpublished—giveuniquelyimportantevidenceforthe
letterforms,spelling,andgrammarused(inveryvariedways)byordinary
Atheniansoftheclassicalperiod.Ifandwhentheseostracaarepublishedand
properly studied they would in principle allowan attempt to reconstitute
thetextof(say)Aeschylus’Persaeof,withtheletteringandgrammatical
forms which would actually then have been in use. If that seems too far-
fetchedapossibility,itisstillworthpointingoutthattheAtheniandecree
relatingtoChalcisof(probably)thesremainstheearliestdocumentarily
attestedpieceofcontinuousAtticprose.^24 Itwouldbeagreeabletothinkthat
itisoftenintroducedassuchtostudentsofclassics.
. A.Maricq,‘‘ResGestaeDiviShaporis,’’Syria():;theGreektextisrepro-
duced inSEGXX, . Note M. G. Bertinelli Angeli, ‘‘In margine alle Res Gestae Divi
Saporis,’’Parola del Passato():.
. Note,e.g.,M.Rostovtzeff,‘‘SeleucidBabylonia:BullaeandSealsofClaywithGreek
Inscriptions,’’YCS():;A.K.Grayson,AssyrianandBabylonianChronicles(LocustVal-
ley,N.Y.,);G.J.P.McEwan,Priest and Temple in Hellenistic Babylonia(Wiesbaden,).
Thereisconsiderablefurtherevidenceinbothlanguages.
.Syll.^3 ;IGI^2 ,;R.MeiggsandD.M.Lewis,Greek Historical Inscriptions(Oxford,