This slim collection of inscriptions from Latium adiectum complements the 259-page Studi storico-epigraphici sul Lazio antico (Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae 15, ed. H. Solin [1996]) and the forthcoming publication of this area's inscriptions in the new edition of Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum X. As such the volume may seem marginal, a notion deepened by the fragmentary nature of most of the 116 catalogued inscriptions. Yet there is great value in this, an outgrowth of over 40 years of study and collaboration between the editor S., numerous scholars from Italy and Finland, and devoted local studiosi. The quality of the presentation is high: each piece has a complete and accurate lemma, and almost all are accompanied by photographs, with those taken by S. and his associates including a photo scale. The full and careful discussion is especially insightful on onomastics, for which S. is justly famous. Most lemmas offer at least tentative inferences for an inscription's date, history, type and the like, but S. does not push the evidence, concluding (e.g.) about a milestone of the Via Appia known only from a sketch: ‘Non liquet. Videant fortunatiores’ (p. 81). Furthermore, the rich commentary rewards anyone engaged in Roman history. In its presentation and discussion of seemingly mundane inscriptions from Latium adiectum – very few even touch on the imperial family, high-level Roman officials or gods and goddesses – this volume underscores the importance of the regional and local for Roman history.
The inscriptions come from southern Latium, roughly from Anzio (Antium) to the Garigliano (Liris) River, but also some found in Sessa Aurunca in Campania (Suessa Aurunca). This target has S. and his colleagues often probe the proper origin of inscriptions earlier attributed to Anzio, Rome or elsewhere. Palaeography and formulaic expressions lead the editors to date catalogued pieces from the last century of the Republic into the third century of the principate, but later material can surface in analyses: for example, an unusual milestone of Jovian, attested on the back of CIL X 6837, is noted in the fascinating discussion of milestones from the Pontine marshes (p. 78). Most items are epitaphs, and individuals recorded range from slaves through liberti to minor functionaries, whose names can include Latin, ‘Greekish’ (grecanico) and/or Oscan elements. Emperors feature mainly on the milestones from the Via Appia (pp. 65–82, including nn. 67–72) and in the discussion (by P. Tuomisto) of the brick stamps of the villa of Domitian at Sabaudia. The illustrated inscriptions are often beautifully lettered, sometimes with remarkable relief portraits or other ornamentation on white marble or another fine stone. A few extraordinary entries include a Greek didactic or magical text scratched into a tile (n. 114, from Torre Astura near Anzio) and a now-lost painting of a seaside city with labelled buildings such as the Balneum Faustines, a piece whose Antium origin S.'s archival work resolves (n. 93; see CIL VI 29830 = 36613 = X 985* = EE VIII 646, the future CIL X2 58*).
The volume has already been excerpted for the Epigraphik-Datenbank Clauss-Slaby (http://www.manfredclauss.de/gb/index.html), a testament to the quality of the publication. Dedication to accuracy, detail and context is clear throughout, from the record of personal examinations by S. and his collaborators to the nine-page section detailing the errors in over 25 inscriptions from Roman Antium recently published by L. Chioffi (in Antium [2017] and Antium. Noterelle [2018]). This last struck this reviewer as the least successful part of the volume. Although in S.'s own lemmas Chioffi's publications are cited when pertinent, in this section, which serially treats her flawed entries, no correlation is made to S.'s catalogue; the caption of Fig. 100 could make clearer that ‘Iscrizione n. 24’ is from Chioffi 2017; and a seventeen-line segment is repeated on pp. 157–8. Other typos in the volume are minor and not confusing, even the substitution once of TIBICINVM in the lemma of n. 74 for LITICINVM of the stone.
As announced in the title, these studies are historically significant. The concise commentaries illuminate, inter alia, the history of the region, various attempts to drain the Pontine marshes and move across them, and Roman nobility's creation and embellishment of holiday homes in Anzio and other coastal spots from the late 1600s onwards. For example, the first chapter, on inscriptions from Minturnae associated with the Torre di Pandolfo at the Capodiferro alla Foce del Garigliano, provides a brief history of the area while noting the German destruction of this Lombard tower in 1943 and the dispersal of its spoliated Roman material. The section on the Pontine marshes addresses the perplexing frequency of milestones between Tor Tre Ponti and Mesa, which contrasts with their scarcity between Rome and Tor Tre Ponti, an endeavour necessitating S.'s ordering of the known milestones of the Via Appia. His discussion includes an example of what could be seen as Trajan's public deference to Nerva (p. 69), and an intriguing survey of varied attempts, including the Fascist one, to drain and render usable this swampy area. Throughout, especially while examining epigraphe aliene or migrating stones, S. and his colleagues exhibit great facility with antiquarian documents and more recent Italian history.
Such historical contributions would be more accessible had the publication not followed epigraphic conventions so exclusively. Besides the epigraphic indexes (Gentilicia; Cognomina; Emperors and the Imperial House etc.), a more general index would be welcome. Referring to some of the topics noted above, it might also include more unfamiliar epigraphic ‘tips’, such as the late Republican/early Imperial tendency in this region to record a gentilicium ending in -ius simply as ending in -i (p. 16) or the doubling of f(ilius) in epitaphs (pp. 38–9). Barring such an index, a comprehensive bibliography could have usefully gathered the wide-ranging, up-to-date scholarship. Most helpful would have been more maps of the areas discussed: even the Barrington Atlas does not show Tor Tre Ponti (Tripontium) and some other locales discussed in the text.
Ultimately such desiderata simply highlight the great interest of this publication. The volume whets our appetite for the forthcoming second edition of CIL X as it reveals the fascination and rewards of detailed, expert epigraphic study of one area of the Roman world.
