The Birth of Epigraphic Culture in the Western Mediterranean: Sicilian Epigraphic Culture in the Later Hellenistic Period
Professor Jonathan Prag
Professor of Ancient History
Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History, Merton College
01865 276281
Qualifications: BA MA (Oxon) PhD (London)
Link to college page: https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-jonathan-prag
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Academic Background
I read classics at Oxford for my first degree, before moving to the history department at UCL (mostly working in the Institute of Classical Studies) to do my doctorate on the provincialisation of Sicily under the Roman Republic. I intermitted for one year during my doctorate to spend a year in the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) following the MA course in archaeology. My first teaching post was at the University of Leicester, in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, as a lecturer in ancient history. I have worked on excavations in Germany, Italy and Sicily. As a result I am a text-based classicist by training, with a strong grounding in material culture, and I have spent time in classics, history and archaeology departments. My increasing focus on epigraphy, which bridges textual and material culture has been strongly influenced by this career path. I moved to my current post in Oxford in 2005.
Research Interests
My doctorate was on the transformation of Sicily into the first Roman province and understanding Hellenistic and Roman Sicily remains a core focus of my research, alongside wider interests in Roman Republican imperialism and political culture, Hellenistic and Roman epigraphy, and a growing involvement in the digital humanities. Many of these interests come together in one of my current major projects, I.Sicily, building a digital corpus of the inscriptions of ancient Sicily (sicily.classics.ox.ac.uk). The project is a leading example of the application of digital techniques to the publication of inscriptions, and is also developing an extensive network of collaborations with museums and scholars across the island, and I am involved in multiple epigraphic projects on the island, including curation of an exhibition at the Museo Civico di Catania, cataloguing the collection of the Syracuse museum, co-editing the Taormina financial inscriptions, publishing the Egadi rostra inscriptions, and co-curating a new lapidarium at the site of Halaesa. I am also now co-directing an archaeological excavation at the Hellenistic/Roman site of ancient Halaesa in northern Sicily (halaesa.web.ox.ac.uk). I have, additionally, been collaborating for a number of years on a French project to produce a new edition (text, translation, commentary) of Cicero's Verrines.
Beyond Sicily my interests in Roman Republican imperialism have been focused in particular on the phenomenon of 'auxilia externa', the use by Rome of non-Italian soldiers across the Republican empire (which in turn entails a wider engagement in Roman military history); and on the application of data visualisation techniques to the analysis of Roman Republican history (vre.web.ox.ac.uk) in an attempt to challenge the existing narrative framework (part of a broader engagement with the problems of 'Roman imperialism' in general). The co-edited volume 'The Hellenistic West' (Cambridge 2013) exemplifies my wider concerns with Sicilian, Hellenistic and Roman history and challenging established frameworks.
Research Keywords
Ancient Sicily, Roman Republic, Roman provinces, Roman imperialism, Hellenistic history, epigraphy, digital humanities.
Teaching
Undergraduate teaching: primarily papers relating to Roman Republican history (period papers 241-146 BC, 146-46 BC, 46 BC - AD 54; Cicero and Catiline) and I regularly teach the final year class on Cicero: Politics and Thought.
Masters teaching: Roman Republican and hellenistic history, and epigraphy (including digital methods).
PhD supervision: I have supervised and am currently supervising doctoral students in Roman Republican history (including Polybius, republican provinces, and the Roman army) and ancient Sicily (including Agathokles and religious identity in western Sicily) and would welcome students in these areas and others, including epigraphy and in the application of digital humanities to classical studies.
Publications
Full Publications: prag_publications.pdf
Selected Publications:
Selected Publications
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The Birth of Epigraphic Culture in the Western Mediterranean: Sicilian Epigraphic Culture in the Later Hellenistic Period
2018|Chapter|El nacimiento de las culturas epigráficas en el Occidente mediterráneo. Modelos romanos y desarrollos locales (III-I a.E.)Sicily has a vibrant and individual epigraphic culture from the Archaic period onwards. Using the data available from the I.Sicily project, this paper surveys the epigraphic culture of the island in order to contextualise and analyse epigraphic practice on the island in the Hellenistic period. The material is predominantly Greek in this period, with a minor presence of Punic, Oscan, and Latin. Analysis concentrates on lapidary epigraphy, but includes a discussion of bronze epigraphy and honorific practices on bronze, which show distinctive local features. Epigraphic practices on the island, and the linguistic evidence in particular, suggests an independent and distinctively Sicilian epigraphic tradition that belongs within the wider Hellenistic Mediterranean context and is almost wholly unaffected by Roman practices until the Augustan period.Sicily, epigraphy, romanisation, historial linguistics, latin epigraphy, Hellenistic -
A new bronze honorific inscription from Halaesa, Sicily, in two copies
2018|Journal article|Journal of Epigraphic StudiesThis paper presents a full critical edition of two bronze tablets from the ancient city of Halaesa (Tusa, ME, Sicily), excavated in 2004, and only partially published in earlier editions. The two tablets are near identical copies of the same text, recording honours for an individual (Nemenios) awarded by a previously unknown association of the priests of Apollo. The paper presents the archaeological context, Greek text, English translation of the bronzes, together with extended discussion of key aspects and problems of the texts within the context of Hellenistic Sicilian epigraphy. The texts contain a number of features, linguistic and cultural, without clear parallels, as well as one of the earliest references in Greek to a basilica; in particular the relationship of the association of priests to the city of Halaesa is unclear and various possibilities are considered.Sicily, epigraphy, hellenistic epigraphy, Greek epigraphy -
I.Sicily: Building a Digital Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient Sicily
2018|Chapter|Crossing Experiences in Digital Epigraphy From Practice to DisciplineThis paper presents the I.Sicily project. We focus first upon its original rationale and construction, since this provides explanations for the particular choices and approaches adopted, before exploring some of the challenges faced, as well as current and future developments. We believe that I.Sicily offers an interesting case study of a deliberately open-ended, continuous work-in-progress corpus. The project is constructed on the assumption that collaboration is key to its success, and that collaboration will only increase. We examine the potential for the creation of linked open data, which we consider essential to creating the primary point of reference for the study of Sicilian epigraphy, and to the creation of a resource to support and facilitate research while simultaneously enhancing and supporting the accessibility of Sicilian epigraphy. This last aim is served both directly through the project’s web interface, and indirectly by supporting and facilitating the work of the institutions which curate the majority of the material: we conclude with an illustration of a wideranging, museum-based, community collaboration.Ancient Sicily, EpiDoc, Museums, Linked Data, Onomastics, Epigraphy -
Una collaborazione tra museo, enti di ricerca e scuola: l'epigrafia digitale e l'alternanza scuola lavoro
2018|Journal article|Umanistica digitale
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