" In short, this is a reference work of the best kind. For the beginner, it is indispensable. And for those who already know something about its subject matter, the book is in many ways useful, informative, and interesting. We all owe a debt to the author] for undertaking this significant project, and for completing it so well." - Michael Peachin, Classical World " . . . provides invaluable road maps for non-epigraphers faced with passages of inscribed Greek." - Graham Shipley, Bryn Mawr Classical Review Greek inscriptions form a valuable resource for the study of all aspects of the Greco-Roman world. They are primary witnesses to society's laws and institutions, religious habits, and language. This volume provides students with the tools to take advantage of the historical value of these treasures. It examines letter forms, ancient names, and ancient calendars, knowledge of which is essential in reading inscriptions of all kinds. B. H. McLean discusses the classification of inscriptions into their various categories and analyzes particular types of inscriptions, including decrees, honorary inscriptions, dedications, funerary inscriptions, and manumissions. Finally, McLean includes special topics that bear upon the interpretation of specific features of inscriptions, such as Greek and Roman administrative titles and functions.

As the first extensive survey of the ancient Greek painters’ practice of writing nonsense on vases, The So-called Nonsense Inscriptions on Ancient Greek Vases by Sara Chiarini provides a systematic overview of the linguistic features of the phenomenon and discusses its forms and contexts of reception. While the origins of the practice lie in the impaired literacy of the painters involved in it, the extent of the phenomenon suggests that, at some point, it became a true fashion within Attic vase painting. This raises the question of the forms of interaction with this epigraphic material. An open approach is adopted: “reading” attempts, riddles and puns inspired by nonsense inscriptions could happen in a variety of circumstances, including the symposium but not limited to it.

The city of Konya (ancient Iconium) has long been one of the most important Anatolian centres. In the late first century BC it was refounded as a Roman colony, and the centuries of the Roman Empire were among the most prosperous for the region. This volume provides texts and commentaries for the 231 Greek and ten Latin inscriptions now housed in the city's archaeological museum. The collection comprises 92 inscriptions from Konya itself and 149 from the surrounding region, nearly two thirds of them previously unpublished. Almost two hundred further inscriptions from Konya are listed and indexed at the end of the volume, so that for the first time there is a complete index of all people known from the ancient city of Iconium. The texts here shed an irreplaceable light on city and country society around a major centre from the early Roman to the Byzantine period, and the photographs at the end of the volume illustrate most of the characteristic inscribed monuments for the first time.