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Notes on Some Published Inscriptions of Roman Cyprus

1947; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 42; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1017/s0068245400007322

2045-2403

T. B. Mitford,

Archaeology and Historical Studies

In their preface to Vol. X of the Cambridge Ancient History the editors promise that in Vol. XI will be found a ‘survey of the several provinces during the two centuries that end with the Antonines.’ The student of Roman Cyprus cannot be advised to turn to this volume, because he will there find no mention of Cyprus whatsoever, even as a word in the index. This neglect—for such, indeed, it seems—is indicative not only of the quite literal insularity of this small and in general insignificant province, but also of a long-standing and unwarranted indifference to Cypriot epigraphy. Since the profitable visit of Waddington in 1862, few epigraphists have landed in Cyprus with any higher purpose than the enjoyment of a busman's holiday; and whereas prehistory, archaeology, sculpture, coinage and the literary sources have been the subject of specialised study, the historian of Cyprus under the Empire, when he takes up the only available collection of inscriptions for his period, that still indispensable work Inscriptiones Graecae ad res Romanas pertinentes , finds there sixty-nine inscriptions only, of which several have been poorly published and some again imperfectly edited.