The Roman Inscriptions of
Britain
By Guy de la Bédoyère
Corpus of writing tablets (including
curses, by Project Directors - Dr. A.K. Bowman FBA, Prof. J.M. Brady FRS
FEng., Dr. R.S.O. Tomlin FSA, Prof. J.D. Thomas FBA Research Assistant - Dr J. Pearce)
One of
the most important sources for Roman Britain is the series of inscribed stones
which record buildings, events, people and places. There aren't very many (less
than 3000) and most are brief and/or damaged. They're scattered all over the
museums of Britain but some are long lost and known only from drawings made
hundreds of years ago.
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in 1965 R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright published all the inscribed stones
found up to the end of 1954 in The Roman Inscriptions of Britain Volume 1,
and always known as RIB. Every stone is illustrated and enormous efforts
had been made to restore the complex texts and understand their contents. The
vast majority come from northern Britain, mainly the forts of Cumbria,
Northumberland and along Hadrian's Wall. Very few of the great Roman towns of
the south, such as Verulamium (St Albans) and Calleva Atrebatum
(Silchester) have produced more than a handful. Even when they do, a
substantial proportion turn out to have belonged to the early history of the
towns when they were forts. In other words, the Roman army in Britain was
keener on inscriptions than anyone else in this remote province.
Since
then, new discoveries have appeared in the Journal of Roman Studies
(1955-69) and Britannia (1970 on). Collingwood and Wright’s great volume
has been reissued, with an essential appendix of revisions by R.S.O. Tomlin, by
Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd ISBN 0 7509 0917 X. It's a bit pricey but try http://www.oxbowbooks.com for a
discounted copy. You can e-mail them too at oxbow@oxbowbooks.com
Also
available are all the various day-to-day items like graffiti on pots, military
diplomas, and metal ingots, in a series of fascicules in the series RIB Volume
2.
The
inscriptions are such an important source I have transcribed the texts of
Volume I into the computer. You can access them at INSCRIPTIONS. These are the texts of
the stones only. You need to see the book for all the editorial matter.
If you are interested in the lead ‘curse’ tablets these can be accessed
on the web at this site: Corpus of writing tablets
The texts run in
geographical order in a numbered series. The more interesting post-1954
discoveries have been added in the geographical order with references to the
journals.
Gods
and Goddesses
However
you can also access my catalogue of the Gods and Goddesses of
Roman Britain , which is based on Chapter 8 of my Companion to
Roman Britain (Tempus 1999)
The
Roman army
Full
details of the evidence for each unit of the Roman army in Britain are at Legions and Auxilia, based on
Chapter 2 of my Companion to Roman Britain (Tempus 1999).
RIB
66, an altar dedicated to Neptune by L. Aufidius Pantera, prefect of the Roman
fleet in Britain, the classis Britannica. Now on display at the British Museum,
the altar was found at the late-third-century fort of Lympne in Kent but it had
been reused. Pantera is known from a military discharge certificate to have
commanded a cavalry unit in the province of Upper Pannonia in the year 133
(during the reign of Hadrian) at a different point in his career, proving the
Lympne altar to be much earlier than the late fort.
People
People of Roman Britain provides brief biographies of the most significant emperors, governors,
soldiers, and ordinary people of the province.
For
more information about books go to Roman Britain
Anther
useful link is http://www.archaeology.co.uk for the
magazine Current Archaeology
And
try Anne Dicks’ useful site with a special page devoted to Roman inscriptions
at http://www.pyrrha.me.uk/
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