The value of inscriptions as historical material is so great that it

can hardly be exaggerated. Apart from modern forgeries, which

are rare and in general easily detected, they are contemporary and
authoritative documents, whose text if legible cannot be corrupt,
and whose cumulative value, in the hands of scholars accustomed
to handling them in the mass, is astonishing. They are the most
important single source for the history and organisation of the
Roman Empire.
(R.G.Collingwood)1

First, a definition. The term ‘Roman

inscriptions’ is used in modern times to denote the
texts inscribed on a variety of materials which have
survived from antiquity. The study of inscriptions
has come to be known as epigraphy, from a Greek
word, epigraphe, meaning literally an ‘inscription’.
Latin terms for an inscribed text are inscriptio2 and
titulus,3 the latter word encompassing both the text
and the panel on which it is inscribed.

Inscriptions provide valuable confirmation and

amplification of our often meagre and selective
literary sources. [...]Inscriptions of the latter type are a major source
of material for the scholarly pursuit of
prosopography, which seeks to reconstruct
administrative hierarchies and family relationships,
and thereby illuminate ancient society. Equally
important, inscriptions cover a wide, though by no
means complete, socio-economic spectrum of the
community, bringing before us a vast number of
people who have no place as individuals in the
pages of the Roman historians. The evidence of
inscriptions is especially useful in reconstructing
the story of provinces far from Rome. Above all
they provide an enormous reservoir of incidental
information on the world of the Romans and the
organization of their empire.

Today, in light of the reasoning outlined above, and in an effort to provide a more positive
formulation, I would propose to regard as an ‘inscription’ any particular type of written human
communication of the sort that we would today call unidirectional, in the sense that it does not
anticipate that a response will be provided to the sender, and which has the characteristic of not being
addressed to a person or to a group but to a collectivity, and which for this reason is made with the
location, writing technique, graphic form and impagination, mode and register of expression chosen
because they are most suitable to the attainment of its intended goal, and which differentiates itself
in this manner from other forms of contemporary verbal communication (oral, literary, or
documentary). With this I reaffirm the concept of epigraphic writing as writing that is deviant
(according to the time and place, naturally) in that it adopts a form of writing that is different, in its
medium or technique or both, according to its intended purpose. At the same time, however, I also
want to call greater attention to the other essential and peculiar characteristic of an inscription, namely
its address to a collectivity. (PANCIERA, 2012, p. 8)
Hoje, à luz do raciocínio traçado acima, e num esforço para oferecer uma formulação mais positiva,
eu proporia considerar como uma ‘inscrição’ qualquer tipo de comunicação escrita humana do tipo
que hoje chamaríamos unidirecional, no sentido de que ela não antecipa que uma resposta será
providenciada ao emissor, e que possui a característica de não ser endereçada a uma pessoa ou grupo,
mas a uma coletividade, e por essa razão é feita com a localização, técnica e escrita, forma gráfica e
marcação, modo e registro de expressão escolhidos porque eles são os mais adequados para a
obtenção de seu objetivo intencionado e que diferencia a si própria de outras formas de comunicação
verbal contemporânea (oral, literária ou documentária). Com isso eu reafirmo o conceito de escrita
epigráfica como a escrita que é desviante (de acordo om o tempo e lugar, naturalmente) no que ela
adota uma forma de escrita que é diferente, em seu meio ou técnica ou ambos, conforme a finalidade
pretendida. Ao mesmo tempo, porém, eu também quero chamar a atenção para outra característica
essencial e peculiar de uma inscrição, ou seja, seu endereço a uma coletividade.

The texts of inscriptions are frequently

presented in books as neat lines of typescript. This
gives a doubly false impression, firstly of a
uniformity in script and lettering, and also of easy
legibility, to produce a sanitized version of the text,
which deprives it of much that would be
interesting. The most important fact to remember
about any Roman inscription is that it is inscribed
on something. The text may easily not be the only
decoration on the stone. The smallest and
seemingly most insignificant slab can be set into the
handsomest of monuments.