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This volume explores the creation of ''written spaces'' through the accretion of monumental inscriptions and non-official graffiti in the Latin-speaking West between c.200 BC and AD 300. The shift to an epigraphic culture demonstrates new mentalities regarding the use of language, the relationship between local elites and the population, and between local elites and the imperial power. The creation of both official and non-official inscriptions is one of the most recognisable facets of the Roman city. The chapters of this book consider why urban populations created these written spaces and how these spaces in turn affected those urban civilisations. They also examine how these inscriptions interacted to create written spaces that could inculcate a sense of ''Roman-ness'' into urban populations whilst also acting as a means of differentiating communities from each other. The volume includes new approaches to the study of political entities, social institutions, graffiti and painting, and the differing trajectories of written spaces in the cities of Roman Africa, Italy, Spain and Gaul. >
About the author
Gareth Sears is a lecturer in Roman History at the University of Birmingham, UK. His research is focused on urbanism, city life and religious change. He is the author of Late Roman African Urbanism and co-author of the forthcoming The City in the Roman West.
Peter Keegan is a lecturer in Ancient History at Macquarie University, Australia. His research interests include Latin epigraphic culture, the history of gender and the body in the Mediterranean world, and Roman historiography. His book Graffiti in Antiquity will be published in 2012.
Ray Laurence is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia). He has been instrumental in re-thinking and re-conceptualising key areas of Roman history, including urbanism, roads and communications, as well as childhood and the family. His work engages with other disciplines and seeks to move Roman historical research into new areas, such as the cultural history of shopping.
