A01.031.0.pdf

ROMAN PELOPONNESE I
IL PROBLEMS OF ORGANISATION AND METHOD
The catalogue of the Roman names of the
Péloponnèse should not be confused with the
general prosopographies that usually collate
the names of all individuals in a given region or
period, or with onomastic studies such as A.
Mocsy's Nomenclator. 22 In contrast to these,
the philosophy of the present volume comes
closer to that of works which possess a more
specific goal and select for presentation only
those individuals belonging to a specific social
category or profession. 23 The catalogue
includes Roman citizens but also peregrini who
used Roman names because of kinship ties
through marriage or simply current fashion. In
this catalogue the reader will not find purely
Greek names, that is, names of peregrini who
remained untouched by Roman name-giving
practices. Such persons are discussed in the
comments on certain names, when it seemed
helpful to elucidate extended relationships,
whether of blood or marriage. Also excluded
from the catalogue, but appearing sometimes
in the comments, are individuals - even those
with Roman names - who are refered to in literary
sources or in the inscriptions of other
regions.
1. The source material for personal names.
Onomastic research of all varieties depends
upon epigraphical material. Generally speaking,
any investigation of personal names is
incomplete unless it exploits the material
inscriptions can offer. 24 Even though the
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wealth of epigraphical material often depends
on the existence of organised excavations, it is
commonly the case that the distribution of
inscriptions adheres closely to the new political
and economic geography imposed by Roman
occupation. This fact helps to explain the striking
abundance of inscriptions at some large
urban centres that enjoyed Rome's favour
(Corinth, Patrai, Argos, Sparta, Messene), or at
panhellenic sanctuaries (Olympia and
Epidauros), and the negligible presence at cities
that found themselves marginal to political and
economic developments. Epigraphical activity
in the Péloponnèse, as in many other regions,
was especially robust in the first and second
centuries, experiencing a gradual decline from
the middle of the third century A.D. 25 As a rule,
the epigraphical habit is an urban one, possessed
mainly by the upper classes. The rural
and lower urban classes are only thinly represented,
26 but the significance even of this dim
presence is enormous, for in this way we get to
know thousands of individuals belonging to
these social groups who never crop up in our
literary sources. 27
Even though the bulk of our evidence is
drawn from inscriptions on stone, coins too,
particularly those of the colonies, provide
information of great interest about the elites,
since in many cases they preserve the names of
duumviri. 28 Personal names found on vessels,
lamps or tiles (instrumentum domesticum) are
numbered continuously with the corpus, but