Epigraphy collectingevidencewhichcannotinanyrealsensebeinterpreted.Allseri-
ousworkonancienteconomichistoryusinginscriptionswouldhavetobe
conductedwiththeconsciousnessthatallthatcanbeachievedispreliminary
collectionandanalysisofgroupsofrelevantdata.^56
TheCaseoftheGreekCity
Significant historical work with inscriptions, leading to results which are
morethanmerelypreliminaryorindicative,must(Iwouldsuggest)satisfy
twoconditions:thatthereisasufficientconcentrationofevidenceeitherby
locality, type,or theme; and that it can be placed within some intelligible
framework.Giventheformalityofnearlyalltypesofinscription,andthere-
forethealltooclearlydefinedandlimitednatureofwhattheyaredesigned
tosay,theprospectsofserioushistoricalanalysisaregreatlyimprovedifthe
inscriptionscanberelatedtootherevidence—literatureaboveall,butalso
(incertainareas)papyri,andalsocoins,archaeologicalevidence,andstudies
oftopography.Grantedtheseconditions—thatis,grantedthatinmanyareas
the concentration of evidence will be too thin to allow any coherent re-
sults—the study of the history, topography, and institutions of particular
areasorcitieswillalwaysbeanavenueworthexploring.TheworkofLouis
Robert, heavily emphasised at the beginning of this chapter, provides in-
numerableexamplesofstudiesofcitiesandareasinAsiaMinor,usingthe
evidenceofinscriptions.^57 Butwemaynotealso,asexamples,studiesofthe
historyandcultsofThasos,^58 ofCos,^59 andofGonnoiinThessaly.^60 Itisnot
anaccidentthatalltheseareplacesintheGreekEast,whoseinscriptionstend
both to be fullerand more revealing individually (i.e., to be, as suggested
already, a minor form of literature in themselves), and to come in denser
concentrations.PerhapstheonlytwotownsintheLatinWestofwhichreal
‘‘histories’’canbewrittenarePompeiiandOstia,bothbeingcaseswherea
. Forinstance,theinvaluableworkofR.Duncan-Jones,TheEconomyoftheRomanEm-
pire: Quantitative Studies^2 (Cambridge,),ismoreaccuratelycharacterisedbythesecond
thanthefirsthalfofitstitle.
. E.g.,L.Robert,Étudesanatoliennes(Paris,);LaCarieII(Paris,)(byL.Robert
andJ.Robert);Villes d’Asie Mineure^2 (Paris,);À travers l’Asie Mineure(Paris,).
. J. Pouilloux and C. Dunant,Recherches sur l’histoire et les cultes de ThasosI–II (Paris,
–).
.S.M.Sherwin-White,AncientCos:AnHistoricalStudyfromtheDorianSettlementtothe
Imperial Period(Göttingen,).
. B.Helly,GonnoiI–II(Amsterdam,).