Rome Awards: Greek funerary epigrams from Rome in context

In the last stage of my doctoral studies, which focused on Hellenistic epigram, I became increasingly interested in inscribed poetry, especially of the funerary type. I therefore started to undertake some preliminary investigation into Greek inscribed epitaphs from different geographic areas. As a first avenue of research, I chose the Greek verse inscriptions of Rome, which consist of c. 350 inscriptions. Most of them are epitaphs dating to the Imperial age (first—fourth centuries AD), and they are collected and published in the third volume of the excellent edition of L. Moretti (Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae, vol. Ill, 1979). The inscriptions themselves are mostly preserved in the collections of museums, palazzi and Ville of Rome, though some are preserved in museums abroad and some are lost or missing. The British School at Rome, then, was the perfect place to undertake such research. My research project consisted of a survey of this material and of a study of small groups of inscriptions united by their thematic coherence (mostly epitaphs for teachers and poets).