Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Vol. 1 - The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution

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Imperial Ideology

in the Tabula Siarensis

*

The importance of the Tabula Siarensis is first of all, quite simply, that it
presentsanextensivenewtextinLatinfromtheearlyEmpire.Moreover,as
atext,itcanbeconsideredasasingledocumentalongwiththatcontainedin
theTabulaHebana,andthethreesmallerfragmentsfromRome.^1 For,aswas
evident from the outset, the last nine lines of theTabula Siarensis contain
the beginnings of the first six lines of theTabula Hebana.We thus have at
ourdisposalasingle,butnotcontinuous,textofsomelines;ittherefore
representsoneofthemostsubstantialpiecesof Latinprosefromtheearly
imperialperiodtobepreservedindocumentaryform.
Iemphasisetheuseoftheword‘‘text.’’Thecreationofatextisonething,
whichinthiscaseisafunctionofthecentralorgansoftheRomanres publica.
Thecreationoftheinscriptionisaseparatequestion,whichinvolvesarangeof
differentissues:theseincludethedespatchofthetexttoaparticularlocality,
orthespontaneousacquisitionofitbythecommunityconcerned;thenature
ofthepoliticalcommunitywhichgaveinstructionsfortheinscribingofthe
bronzetablets;themotivationforthisactionand(wherepossible)thenature
oftheurbansettinginwhichthetabletsweretobedisplayed;theavailability
ofpersonstechnicallyqualifiedtocarryouttheworkofincisingthetexton
bronze;andthewiderquestionsofliteracy,andthepublic,orsocial,function
ofextensivetextsdisplayedinLatininaprovincialcontext.
Iemphasisethedistinctionbetweentextandinscriptioninordertomake
clearthatwhatIproposetodiscussisthetext;andbytextImeanthecom-

*FirstpublishedinJ.GonzálezandJ.Arce,eds.,Estudios sobre laTabula Siarensis(Madrid,
),–.Iamgratefulforcommentsandimprovementstothemembersofthesym-
posium,andespeciallytoProf.J.S.Richardson.

.CILVI,;nowinM.Crawford,ed.,Roman StatutesI(),no./.

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