Ancient Epigraphic Culture on the Aegean and Ionian Islands
Through a series of case-studies of nine Aegean and Ionian islands, the contributors examine the ancient epigraphic culture of each island's political, social and religious history from the archaic age until late antiquity. These Mediterranean islands – Delos, Thera, Crete, Chis, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Amorgos and the Ionian islands – were a world in themselves with their own dialects, cults, customs and political structures. Through a careful reading of a range of inscriptions, new interpretations arise concerning our understanding of their constitutional history, economic transformation, relationship with major powers, as well as notions of identity and connectivity.

Inscribing for public display was a feature of Greek civilization that was carried out not only by priests, politicians and the elite, but also by individual citizens. The Greeks developed a plethora of distinct categories of inscriptions, going beyond the standard of epitaphs and dedications to the gods, to include decrees of the people, honorific inscriptions cut into the bases of statues and monuments dedicated to benefactors and athletes. However, the intensity of inscribing varied from one century to the other, and these fluctuations can be represented from a quantative approach as epigraphic curves. The significance of this volume is that it offers an overview of the history of these lesser states, which are not necessarily well documented in literary evidence to the degree comparable with Athens or Sparta.

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Ancient Epigraphic Culture on the Aegean and Ionian Islands
Through a series of case-studies of nine Aegean and Ionian islands, the contributors examine the ancient epigraphic culture of each island's political, social and religious history from the archaic age until late antiquity. These Mediterranean islands – Delos, Thera, Crete, Chis, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Amorgos and the Ionian islands – were a world in themselves with their own dialects, cults, customs and political structures. Through a careful reading of a range of inscriptions, new interpretations arise concerning our understanding of their constitutional history, economic transformation, relationship with major powers, as well as notions of identity and connectivity.

Inscribing for public display was a feature of Greek civilization that was carried out not only by priests, politicians and the elite, but also by individual citizens. The Greeks developed a plethora of distinct categories of inscriptions, going beyond the standard of epitaphs and dedications to the gods, to include decrees of the people, honorific inscriptions cut into the bases of statues and monuments dedicated to benefactors and athletes. However, the intensity of inscribing varied from one century to the other, and these fluctuations can be represented from a quantative approach as epigraphic curves. The significance of this volume is that it offers an overview of the history of these lesser states, which are not necessarily well documented in literary evidence to the degree comparable with Athens or Sparta.

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Ancient Epigraphic Culture on the Aegean and Ionian Islands

Ancient Epigraphic Culture on the Aegean and Ionian Islands

by Krzysztof Nawotka (Editor)
Ancient Epigraphic Culture on the Aegean and Ionian Islands

Ancient Epigraphic Culture on the Aegean and Ionian Islands

by Krzysztof Nawotka (Editor)

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Overview

Through a series of case-studies of nine Aegean and Ionian islands, the contributors examine the ancient epigraphic culture of each island's political, social and religious history from the archaic age until late antiquity. These Mediterranean islands – Delos, Thera, Crete, Chis, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Amorgos and the Ionian islands – were a world in themselves with their own dialects, cults, customs and political structures. Through a careful reading of a range of inscriptions, new interpretations arise concerning our understanding of their constitutional history, economic transformation, relationship with major powers, as well as notions of identity and connectivity.

Inscribing for public display was a feature of Greek civilization that was carried out not only by priests, politicians and the elite, but also by individual citizens. The Greeks developed a plethora of distinct categories of inscriptions, going beyond the standard of epitaphs and dedications to the gods, to include decrees of the people, honorific inscriptions cut into the bases of statues and monuments dedicated to benefactors and athletes. However, the intensity of inscribing varied from one century to the other, and these fluctuations can be represented from a quantative approach as epigraphic curves. The significance of this volume is that it offers an overview of the history of these lesser states, which are not necessarily well documented in literary evidence to the degree comparable with Athens or Sparta.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781350447653
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date: 04/16/2026
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Krzysztof Nawotka is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Wroclaw, Poland. His recent books include Boule and Demos in Miletus and its Pontic Colonies (2014), The Alexander Romance by Ps.-Callisthenes: A Historical Commentary (2017) and Epigraphic Culture in the Eastern Mediterranean in Antiquity (2020).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Contributors

Introduction – Krzysztof Nawotka (University of Wroclaw)

1. The Epigraphic Curve on Delos: The Attic-Delian Dualism Dominika Grzesik (University of Wroclaw, Poland)
2. Thera Aleksandra Kubiak-Schneider (Leiden University, Germany)
3. Crete Adam Paluchowski (University of Wroclaw, Poland)
4. Chios Michal Halamus (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan)
5. Samos Agnieszka Wojciechowska (University of Wroclaw, Poland)
6. Kos Joanna Wegner (York University, UK)
7. Rhodes Krzysztof Nawotka (University of Wroclaw, Poland)
8. Amorgos Joanna Porucznik (University of Opole)
9. Ionian Islands Wojciech Pietruszka (University of Wroclaw, Poland)

Conclusion Krzysztof Nawotka (University of Wroclaw)

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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