Epigraphy In the same way the vast body of Hellenistic inscriptions is the essen-
tialsourcefortheevolutionofthekoineorcommonGreeklanguageofthe
post-Alexander period (which did not exclude the preservation of dialect
forms in some cities, for instance, Doric in Rhodes or Cyrene),while the
localinscriptionsof Italyaretheonlybasisforourknowledgeofthevari-
ousItalictongues,andthegradualspreadof Latin—itselfakeyelementin
theRomanisationof Italy.^25 Similarly,survivingLatininscriptionsprovide
ouronlyevidenceof howLatinwaswrittenandspokenineasternEurope
intheRomanimperialperiod.^26 Whereasmonumentalinscriptionsneces-
sarilypresentaformalisedlanguagewhichmayyieldlittletraceofthatused
in ordinary life, graffiti on walls (best known,of course, at Pompeii), and
potteryprovideameansofaccess,comparabletothatoftheostracaforthe
GreekofclassicalAthens,tothegrammaticalformsandpronunciationsactu-
allyusedbyordinarypeople.^27 FortheevolutionofvulgarLatin,thethird-
century..ostracawrittenbysoldiersstationedatthefrontierpostofBu
Ngem inTripolitania will be of exceptional importance.^28 Beyond that, in
favourablecircumstances,thegraffitiofatownsuchasPompeiimaybeex-
tensiveenoughtoallowanattempttodefinetheelementsofapopularcul-
ture.^29 Allofthisissimplytopointouttheobvious,thattheinscriptionsof
theclassicalworldarefirstandforemostabodyoftexts,anever-increasing
massoflanguage,whichinevitablyoutstripsallattemptsatlexicalorgram-
maticalanalysis.Inoneparticularareaof language,thehistoryofnomen-
clature,theimportanceofinscriptions—aboveallbecauseoftheirprimarily
localcharacter—haslongbeenobvious.Amajorconferencewasdevotedto
Latin onomastics,^30 and theLexicon of Greek Proper Names, currently being
prepared under the direction of P. M. Fraser, has required the efforts of a
wholeteamofresearchersandtheuseofacomputer.Fromthisitisquite
),no.;nowre-editedbyD.M.LewisinIGI^3 (),no..PhotographinB.D.
Merritt,H.T.Wade-Gery,andM.F.McGregor,The Athenian Tribute ListsII(Cambridge,
Mass.,),pl..
. See,e.g.,E.Pulgram,The Tongues of Italy: Prehistory and History(Cambridge,Mass.,
),andItalic,Latin,Italian,..–..: Texts and Commentaries(Heidelberg,);
E.Vetter,Handbuch der italischen DialekteI(Heidelberg,);P.Poccetti,Nuovi documenti
italici(Pisa,).
. SeeH.Mihaescu,La langue latine dans le sud-est de l’Europe(Bucharest,).
. See,e.g.,V.Väänänen,Le latin vulgaire des inscriptions pompéiennes^3 (Berlin,),and
Introduction an latin vulgaire^2 (Paris,).
. SeeR.Marichal,Les ostraca de Bu Njem(Tripoli,).
. SeeM.Gigante,Civiltà delle forme letterarie nell’ antica Pompeii(Naples,).
.L’onomastique latine,Coll.Int.duCNRS,no.().