A collection of papers on various aspects of Boiotian epigraphy: Imperial letters, decrees of proxenia, military catalogues, manumissions, statue dedications, tombstones and graffiti. The texts discussed come from many parts of Boiotia but with a certain concentration from the Kopaïs. A few of the papers are reprinted from previous publications but many are here published for the first time and they are extensively illustrated. In addition to discussions of the various genres of text there are full onomastic and prosopographic comments on all names cited.

In Epigraphica Boeotica II John Fossey continues to treat results of his nearly 50 years of research into the archaeology and inscriptions of Ancient Boiotia (Epigraphica Boeotica I, Amsterdam, 1991). The first part of the volume discusses the relations between Boiotia and other parts of the Greek world as seen in acts of proxenia and agonistic victor lists. After a section on dedications both religious and civic, there follows a series of studies of ancient tombstones, many of them spolia used in more recent buildings, with prosopographic and onomastic commentary on the names contained in them. Discussion throughout features letter forms and one specific example of this is an epigramme by the Roman philhellene emperor Hadrianus. An unusual rupestral text concludes the volume.

This book investigates the epigraphic habit of the Eastern Mediterranean in antiquity, from the inception of alphabetic writing to the seventh c. CE, aiming to identify whether there was one universal epigraphic culture in this area or a number of discrete epigraphic cultures. Chapters examine epigraphic culture(s) through quantitative analysis of 32,062 inscriptions sampled from ten areas in the Eastern Mediterranean, from the Black Sea coast to Greece, western to central Asia Minor, Phoenicia to Egypt. They show that the shapes of the epigraphic curves are due to different factors occurring in different geographical areas and in various epochs, including the pre-Greek epigraphic habit, the moment of urbanization and Hellenization, and the organized Roman presence. Two epigraphic maxima are identified in the Eastern Mediterranean: in the third c. BCE and in the second c. CE. This book differs from previous studies of ancient epigraphic culture by taking into account all categories of inscriptions, not just epitaphs, and in investigating a much broader area over the broadly defined classical antiquity. This volume is a valuable resource for anyone working on ancient epigraphy, history or the cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean.

The results of over 50 years of research into the History and Topography of Boiotia, the early development of its League and its coinage, the confrontation with Sparta and the battle of Leuktra, discussion of some cults and myths, especially those of Artemis, Herakles and the Horseman Hero.

The Hellenistic age witnessed a dynamic increase of cultural fusion and entanglement across the Mediterranean and Eurasian worlds. Amid seismic changes in the world writ large, the regions of central Greece and the Peloponnese have often been considered a cultural space left behind. Localism in Hellenistic Greece explores how various processes impacted the countless small-scale, local communities of the Greek mainland. Drawing on notions of locality, localism, local tradition, and boundedness in place, Sheila L. Ager and Hans Beck delve into some of the main hubs of Hellenistic Greece, from Thessaly to Cape Tainaron. Along with their contributors, they explore how polis and ethnos societies positioned themselves in a swiftly expanding horizon and the meaning-making force of the local. The book reveals how local discourses were energized by local sentiments and, much like an echo chamber, how discourses related back to the community and the place it occupied, prioritizing the local as the critical source of communal orientation. Engaging with debates about cultural connectivity and convergence, Localism in Hellenistic Greece offers new insights into lived experience in ancient Greece.