Roman Lives, Corrected Edition: Ancient Roman Life Illustrated by Latin Inscriptions

Roman Lives approaches Roman society through the words Romans left on stone and other durable materials. Brian K. Harvey gathers translated Latin inscriptions that illuminate the lives of people across the social spectrum, using epitaphs, dedications and public records to explore family, work, slavery, religion, status, the army and the structures of everyday life.

The sourcebook shows how historians use epigraphic evidence to recover experiences that literary texts written by Rome’s elite often overlook. Introductions and contextual material explain what inscriptions can—and cannot—tell us about Roman civilisation. The evidence is fragmentary, but the voices preserved in names, memorials and public notices widen the picture of who inhabited the Roman world.