BMCR 2009.01.40, Louis Robert, Choix d'e/crits

Louis Robert, Choix d'e/crits. E/dite/ par Denis Rousset avec la
collaboration de Philippe Gauthier et Ivana Savalli-Lestrade.  Paris:
Les Belles Lettres, 2007.  Pp. 799; figs. 77.  ISBN 978-2-251-38083-4.
EUR 85.00.

Reviewed by Thomas Corsten, University of Heidelberg and University of
Oxford ([email protected];
[email protected])
Word count:  3769 words
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[A list of the publications reprinted in this volume is given at the
end.]

Louis Robert (1904-1985), the greatest Greek epigraphist not only in
the past but also for the foreseeable future, has--together with his
wife Jeanne--left an awe-inspiring oeuvre of numerous books,
innumerable articles and the Bulletin e/pigraphique from 1938 to 1984
of about 100 pages each year. Some of his books have been reprinted,
with or without addenda, and a huge collection of his articles has
appeared between 1969 and 1990, supplemented by a reprint of his last
articles in the Bulletin de correspondance helle/nique.[[1]] The book
under review is a selection of 24 of his most important articles and
shorter publications (including two extracts from books: ch. XV and
XVI), and it shows the broad range of subjects which Robert mastered in
an unrivalled manner, not only in epigraphy. For he was convinced that
inscriptions have to be studied in their historical and geographical
context in order to be fully exploited and to arrive at sound
conclusions. This was the method which he taught--and
preached--throughout his life, as an academic teacher as well as
through his publications. His research was thus not restricted to
inscriptions in isolation, but he knew how to use most of the other
sources available, especially literature, coins, papyri, and the
evidence of historical geography (archaeology was apparently only
rarely considered helpful). For this reason, the selected articles are
not merely or strictly epigraphic: they rather deal with every kind of
evidence a scholar of the ancient world can and will encounter when
trying to explain inscriptions or when using them.

The book begins, after a photograph of Robert following the title page,
with a short biography by Philippe Gauthier. Then come a note on the
book and a bibliography in two parts: first, a complete list of all his
publications in chronological order (almost 500 items), and second, a
list of his articles in alphabetical order of their place of
publication (acts of congresses, collections such as Festschriften, and
periodicals). References to reprints are given in the first list, and a
complete concordance of Robert's reprinted articles, including Choix,
is now available on the web.[[2]] The latter indicates that many of the
articles reprinted here have already been reprinted in Robert's Opera
Minora Selecta. This may seem strange at first, but the Choix is
certainly useful for those (individuals and libraries) who cannot
afford their own copy of the seven volumes of Opera Minora Selecta.
Moreover, the editors have usefully added translations to most of the
inscriptions dealt with and, at the end of some articles, references to
other (and not only later) publications by Robert on related matters.

The 24 articles republished here are arranged in five thematic
sections: (1) methodology, (2) athletes and contests, (3) institutions
and rites, (4) from Asia Minor to the Bactriane, (5) cities, kings, and
the Romans. After this, there are 77 plates with photographs and maps,
and two indexes (ancient sources, general index). Since we have to do
with a reprint of well-known articles, there is no point in evaluating
each of them; I will instead restrict myself to give as brief an
overview as possible of their contents.

The first section (71-171) consists of three opening speeches given by
Robert at epigraphic congresses (ch. I, III, V),[[3]] a chapter about
Greek and Roman epigraphy in an introduction to the study of history
(ch. II) , an article about personal names and Greek civilisation (ch.
IV), and a paper given at the eighth congress of the Association
Guillaume Bude/ in 1968 (ch. VI, which has inadvertently dropped out of
the table des matie\res (797). In the first two chapters he addresses
questions of method, which he does in part through the example of Adolf
Wilhelm and that of his own teacher, Maurice Holleaux. One of Robert's
most important and valuable remarks in this regard and in connection
with the definition of an "epigraphist" is that the restoration of
incompletely preserved inscriptions is only possible with the help of
parallels, and that in order to use those in the right way, a long and
profound experience is required (e.g. 76, 79, 104, 107-114). He also
rightly emphasizes the important contribution of epigraphy to our
knowledge of ancient civilizations, which would be considerably more
restricted without the information gained from inscriptions. As an
example of a field for which most of the evidence is provided by
epigraphical texts, the editors have singled out two of Robert's
articles on onomastics (ch. IV and V). They demonstrate that the study
of personal names is a subject not to be neglected since its results
can have implications which go far beyond onomastics; it is thus not
only a histoire des noms, but can (and  should) lead to a histoire par
les noms (148)--therefore a field in which Robert also took great
interest. Finally, in the short chapter VI (157-171) he shows the value
of a profound knowledge of topography not only for the field of
epigraphy and history, but also for the understanding of antiquity in
general.

The section on athletes and contests (173-278) consists of three
articles, the last of which was also an opening address (Eighth
International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy at Athens 1982).
The first one (175-246) deals, however, not with inscriptions on stone,
but with epigrams on athletes by the poet Lucillius (1st century AD),
preserved in the Anthologia Palatina. This chapter is not only witness
to Robert's profound knowledge of Greek literature, but it also
indicates the importance of having a sound knowledge of Greek poetry in
order to understand and interpret epigrams on stone which are not
always easy to tackle--and there are a great number of them.[[4]] On
the other hand, epigrams on stone enrich our image of Greek poetry to a
great extent. The next chapter (247-266) treats two contests at Rome,
and it comprises the editio princeps of an inscription from Delphi
where for the first time the Antoninia Pythia in Rome are mentioned. In
addition, the article provides a brief introduction to the terminology
of Greek contests and their system. This finds a kind of a continuation
in the following article, the opening address at Athens (267-278).
There, Robert gives a very valuable overview of the expansion of Greek
"games" (a term which he avoided and replaced by "concours") in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods throughout the Greek world.

In the third section (Institutions et rites, 279-387), four articles on
inscriptions concerning administrative procedures and aspects of
ancient religion are reprinted (chapters X-XIII). Chapter X (281-298)
is the publication of two stelai in the sanctuary of Ares and Athena in
the Attic deme of Acharnai, one of which contains a decree about the
erection of an altar for the two gods. The second stele bears the texts
of two oaths, the ephebic oath and the oath of the Greeks before the
battle of Plataiai. Robert's commentary focusses on the problems of
epigraphical texts, which have their counterparts in literature, and on
the question of forgeries and/or mutual influence between the two
genres. The next chapter (XI: 299-314) contains one of the most
important and influential articles by Robert: Les juges e/trangers dans
la cite/ grecque of 1973. The institution of foreigns judges,
arbitrating controversies within a city, differs from that handling
quarrels between cities, a fact which was unequivocally established
only by Robert; its first instances are known from the late 4th century
B.C. in Asia Minor and on the Aegean Islands, from where it spread to
mainland Greece in the 2nd century. The article demonstrates again the
importance of epigraphy, since this institution is known from only two
passages in Greek literature (and these are not very clear), but there
are (in Robert's time) about 200 inscriptions. The last two chapters in
this section deal with religion, or rather superstition, in that they
have funerary curses (XII: 315-356) and amulets (XIII: 357-387) as
their subjects, and they are thus witness to the diversity of material
with which an epigraphist is confronted. Of these, ch. XII focuses on
curses the origin of which he finds in Asia Minor,[[5]] and the first
part (360-375) of ch. XIII, devoted to the explanation of the text on a
magical gem, is an example not only of Robert's method but also of his
wide range of knowledge and the talent of combining different pieces of
evidence: by quoting relevant passages of the Bible and by adducing
other magical texts as parallels he is able to demonstrate the Jewish
influence on this magical text.

As the previous sections demonstrate, Robert was, in terms of
geography, far from being restricted to what he is mostly known for,
i.e., Asia Minor. That this was nevertheless his favourite area, has
resulted in the last two sections containing for the most part
important publications on Anatolia. In five of the six articles (one of
them in co-authorship with his wife, Jeanne Robert) in section IV (the
longest section: 389-565), texts from Asia Minor are commented upon,
the majority of them coming from southern parts of the country, Caria
and Lycia. The sixth publication ventures even beyond this in that
Greek inscriptions from the outer limits of the Greek world, Bactria
(roughly the northern part of modern Afghanistan), are dealt with. The
section starts with an important article about the persistence of place
names in Asia Minor from antiquity through modern times (XIV: 391-428),
in which Robert points to the fact that many ancient toponyms are still
preserved in a changed form. This is, however, not without possible
pitfalls: the place of the settlement can have moved, taking the name
with it; the mere, and often only supposed, resemblance of a modern and
an ancient toponym is frequently misleading, especially when the
Turkish name is common; and, most importantly, the persistence of names
applies after all only to a minority of places.

In ch. XV (429-470) is reprinted a chapter of the (re)publication of
the inscriptions in the Collection Froehner, in which Robert, after
discussing the identification of Theangela in Caria, comments upon
three texts from the site which were first edited by M. Rostovtzeff.
The first inscription is a treaty between the city of Theangela and the
dynast Eupolemos, which is discussed by Robert especially in regard to
the identity of Eupolemos, to the historical context, and to the
topography of Theangela. Second, a decree of Troizen for a citizen of
Theangela. Here, Robert limits his commentary to references to the
editio princeps which he corrects briefly in some points. To the
commentary on the last inscription, a decree of Theangela, he adds
several texts from or mentioning the city or its citizens, which do not
appear in the list of inscriptions in Ruge's article in Pauly-Wissowa.
This chapter gives a good idea of how Robert worked and how
inscriptions are best commented upon and used as historical sources: by
comparing (and supplementing, if necessary) them with other texts and
by placing them in an historical and geographical context, in order to
gain new insights.

We remain in Caria with ch. XVI (471-499; this is only a part of
Robert's article in BCH Suppl. I) on an honorific decree from Delos
concerning a proxenos from an Antiocheia. This article is a typical
piece of Robertian scholarship and method. It is not an exhaustive
commentary on each detail of the text but is almost solely concerned
with two problems emerging from the honorand's ethnic. First, starting
from the ethnic Antiocheus, Robert discusses at great length (472-481)
the problems of identifying a city with a dynastic name among the many
homonymous cities (such as Antiocheia, Herakleia, Laodikeia etc.). He
then goes on to identify the Antiocheia in the Delian inscription with
the Carian city of Alabanda and elaborates on the period during which
Alabanda was called Antiocheia, using also numismatic evidence and
correcting several mistaken ideas on the way. He has thus used the
inscription, which has otherwise nothing unusual, as a starting point
for a general discussion of two problems with which historians often
have to deal.

Next come two further chapters about Asia Minor, this time dealing with
Lycia (ch. XVII, 501-518, and XVIII, 519-531). In the first, Robert
explains an epigram from Xanthos on the dynast Arbinas (4th cent. BC)
who boasts of having conquered three Lycian cities in one month. By
making extensive use of the historical geography as well as several
travel accounts from the last centuries, he concludes that Arbinas must
have resided in and started his conquests from Tlos and not from Kaunos
as was believed previously.[[6]] Another, this time early hellenistic,
epigram is at the center of the short ch. XVIII. Preserved not on stone
but in Stephanus of Byzantium, it honors the Ptolemaic general
Neoptolemos, who was not a Pisidian (as was understood so far, starting
from a misunderstanding by Stephanus himself) but helped the citizens
of Tlos against the Galatians in alliance with Pisidians and Thracians.
Stephanus' misinterpretation of the epigram has also induced him
--mistakenly--to suppose a second Tlos in Pisidia.

The last chapter in this section (XIX: 533-565) deals with inscriptions
from the eastern frontier of the Greek world, Baktriane, found during
the French excavations of Ai Khanoum, a city on the Oxus river. Robert
publishes two texts, the first of which is a dedication to Hermes and
Herakles, the gods of the gymnasium; it was found in a building complex
which was identified as such. The other inscription contains the last
five of what must have been a long series of principles of the Seven
Sages, introduced by an epigram of the dedicant, the philosopher
Klearchos of Soloi. These two texts are witness again of the importance
of the gymnasium and of philosophy for the hellenization of a formerly
'barbarian' region. And their treatment by Robert demonstrates again
his methods as well as his wide and varied knowledge: He takes the name
Kineas in the epigram as a starting point of a long and exhaustive
examination of its distribution in order to elucidate the origin of
this particular Kineas; he then proceeds to a long study of the the
life and the philosophy of Klearchos to which this comparatively short
inscription can contribute considerably--if one can exploit it as
(only?) Robert could.

The last section (V, 567-703), with five items, concerns inscriptions
with a wider historical significance, i.e. texts which give insight
into the relation between cities, the Hellenistic kings, and finally
the Romans. In addition, one article (no. XXIII) is about coins, a
field in which Robert was also very knowledgeable.

The first chapter (no. XX, 569-601) treats a decree of Ilion. As a
parallel, Robert adduces a papyrus of the same period since both
documents concern the same matter, i.e. royal cult (569-601); either
one can thus be used to explain the other, and this is what Robert does
in a masterly fashion. However, as often, he begins with something
else: the inscription was first thought to come from Sigeion, and this
presents him with the opportunity to give a brief overview of the
evidence for this city and to correct the first few lines of an
inscription from there (which has nothing to do with the subject of the
article). The chapter provides also a good example of another
characteristic of Robert's publications: he can fill pages with
parallels--and if it is only to rule most of them out again as not
applicable--when restoring a single word in an inscription, as is here
the case for lines 31-32 (577-584).

In chapter XXI (604-621) Robert publishes an honorary inscription for
Theophanes of Mytilene which was found in Istanbul but must, as he can
show, have been transported there in late antiquity. His commentary
concentrates on the growing role of benefactors in the Hellenistic
period, and he places Theophanes and his honors in the context of
similar men of the 1st century B.C.

Chapter XII (623-645) is only a part of an article which appeared in
L'Antiquite/ Classique 35, 1966 (pp. 401-431 of 377-432). Robert
republishes an inscription from Aphrodisias which serves him again as
an example of how and how not to publish inscriptions by calling
attention to conventions of editing and commenting, the prerequisite of
which is to understand the text first and to place it in the right
context (and, of course, to work from parallels).

The next chapter (XXIII, 647-671) demonstrates that Robert was also a
brilliant numismatist--or perhaps rather a brilliant historian who knew
how to make the most use of all kinds of sources, including coins. He
deals here with coins (and inscriptions) of the Imperial period from
Lydia in two paragraphs, the first and longer one of which concerns
coin types of Hypaipa. In this context, he studies the cult of Persian
Artemis (Anahita) and Persian personal names, both of which survived
the end of Persian rule in this region for a long time. He does this by
comparing the coins and inscriptions of Hypaipa with those of several
other cities in Lydia, especially Hierokaisareia, and concludes that
there was not one single cult of Persian Artemis in Lydia, but
different manifestations of it in different cities. In the second
paragraph, Robert explains the foundation of a festival celebrated at
Sardis for the new god Elagabalus, who was introduced by the emperor
named after this god.

The last chapter (XXIV, 673-703), about city rivalries in Asia Minor in
the Imperial period by way of the example of Nikomedeia and Nikaia in
Bithynia, is fundamental for the understanding of civic life and civic
pride in the provinces of the East. It is not only important for its
conclusions but also--like so many others of Robert's articles--for his
method. The basis for the examination of city rivalries are, again,
inscriptions, coins, and literature (Dio Chrysostom and Cassius Dio,
both natives of Bithynia, and Herodian). As Robert makes quite clear at
the end of the article, each of the three genres has its shortcomings
which can only be remedied by the help of the others: coins were not
minted under every emperor, literature is often full of allusions which
can be made understandable for us only with the help of coins and
inscriptions, and the preservation of inscriptions is subject to
chance. It is in most cases only the combination of all of these which
can lead to a reliable reconstruction of past events, and that is what
Robert demonstrates brilliantly in this last chapter.

In sum, this book--like each individual publication by Robert--shows
clearly the method every epigraphist or, rather, every historian should
follow, i.e., to start from the evidence (not from theories), that is
from all available sorts of evidence, in this case inscriptions, coins
and literature, and from there to move to drawing conclusions. It is
true that theories nowadays have, not without reason, been assigned a
greater value than in Robert's times (although this was not so long
ago), but his oeuvre shows that primary evidence has to be the basis
from which to work. There are, however, differences. The corpus of
ancient literature hardly grows anymore, but its interpretation can
considerably be advanced not only by the application of theories
(sometimes rather lofty theories, and one doubts whether in those cases
the result has to be considered progress) but by placing it in the
context of other kinds of primary sources: inscriptions, coins, papyri
(and also archaeological evidence). It is these sources, whose number
is still constantly growing, which in this way provide new insights
into the ancient world. Robert's Choix d'e/crits as well as everything
he has written should be compulsory reading for every student and
scholar of antiquity--and especially for the many in our times who are
busy destroying the foundation on which all serious research is based:
the study of ancient documents.

List of reprinted articles:

I. "L'oeuvre d'Ad. Wilhelm. L'e/pigraphie et ses me/thodes."
Communication inaugurale au IIe congre\s international d'e/pigraphie
grecque et latine Paris 1952, in Actes IIe Congre\s Intern. E/pigraphie
Paris 1952. Paris 1953, 1-20.

II. "Les e/pigraphies et l'e/pigraphie grecque et romaine", L'histoire
et ses me/thodes. Encyclope/die de la Ple/iade, Paris 1961, 453-497.

III. "Situation des e/tudes classiques." Discours d'introduction au VIe
congre\s international d'e/pigraphie grecque et latine Munich 1972, in
Bull. Assoc. Guillaume Bude/ 1973, 167-184.

IV. "Noms de personnes et civilisation grecque. I. Noms de personnes
dans Marseille grecque", in Journal des Savants 1968, 197-213.

V. "L'onomastique grecque". Discours d'ouverture au VIIe congre\s
international d'e/pigraphie grecque et latine Constantza 1977, in Actes
du VIIe Congre\s intern. d'e/pigr. gr. et lat. Constantza 1977. 1979,
31-42.

VI. "Ge/ographie et philologie ou la terre et le papier", in Actes du
VIIIe Congre\s de l'Association Guillaume Bude/ 1968. 1969, 67-86.

VII. "Les e/pigrammes satiriques de Lucillius sur les athle\tes.
Parodie et re/alite/s", in Entretiens sur l'Antiquite/ classique, XIV.
L'e/pigramme grecque. 1969, 179-295.

VIII. "Deux concours grecs a\ Rome", in Comptes rendus Acad. Inscr.
1970, 6-27.

IX. "Les concours grecs." Discours d'ouverture au VIIIe congre\s
international d'e/pigraphie grecque et latine Athe\nes 1982, in Actes
du VIIIe Congre\s intern. d'e/pigr. gr. et lat. Athe\nes 1982. 1984,
35-45.

X. "Inscriptions du de\me d'Acharnai", in E/tudes e/pigraphiques et
philologiques 1938, 293-316.

XI. "Les juges e/trangers dans la cite/ grecque", in Xenion.
Festschrift fuer Pan. I. Zepos. 1973, 765-782.

XII. "Male/dictions fune/raires grecques", in Comptes rendus Acad.
Inscr. 1978, 241-289.

XIII. "Amulettes grecques" in Journal des Savants 1981, 3-44.

XIV. (with J. Robert) "La persistance de la toponymie antique dans
l'Anatolie", in La toponymie antique. Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg
12-14 juin 1975. 1977, 11-63.

XV. "Inscriptions de The/ange/la en Carie", in Collection Froehner I
Inscriptions grecques. 1936, 65-101.

XVI. "Sur une proxe\ne d'Antioche de Carie", part of "Sur des
inscriptions de De/los", in Bull. Corr. Hell. Supple/ment I. E/tudes
de/liennes. 1973, 435-466.

XVII. "Les conque^tes du dynaste lycien Arbinas", in Journal des
Savants 1978, 3-34.

XVIII. "Une e/pigramme helle/nistique de Lycie", in Journal des Savants
1983, 241-258.

XIX. "De Delphes a\ l'Oxus. Inscriptions grecques nouvelles de la
Bactriane", in Comptes rendus Acad. Inscr. 1968, 416-457.

XX. "Sur un de/cret d'Ilion et sur un papyrus concernant des cultes
royaux", in  Amer. Stud. Papyrology I. Essays in honor of C. B. Welles.
1966, 175-211.

XXI. "The/ophane de Mytile\ne a\ Constantinople", in Comptes rendus
Acad. Inscr. 1969, 42-64.

XXII. "Inscriptions d'Aphrodisias: C. Julius Zoilos", part of
"Inscriptions d'Aphrodisias", in L'Antiquite/ Classique 35, 1966,
401-432.

XXIII. "Monnaies grecques de l'e/poque impe/riale", in Revue
numismatique 1976, 25-56.

XXIV. "La titulature de Nice/e et de Nicome/die. La gloire et la
haine", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 81, 1977, 1-39.


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Notes:


1.   Louis Robert, Opera Minora Selecta, Amsterdam, 1969-1990, and
Documents d'Asie Mineure. Paris 1987.

2.   http://www2.ephe.sorbonne.fr/enseignants/4rousset.htm.

3.   These are the Second, Sixth and Seventh International Congress(es)
of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (Paris 1952, Munich 1972, and Constanza
1977 respectively).

4.   The Greek inscriptions in verse from the East are now conveniently
assembled (with German translations) in R. Merkelbach - J. Stauber,
Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten. 5 volumes, Stuttgart-Leipzig
1998, Munich 2001-2004.

5.   See now J. H. M. Strubbe, Arai Epitymbioi. Imprecations against
Desecrators of the Grave in the Greek Epitaphs of Asia Minor. A
Catalogue (Inschriften griechischer Staedte aus Kleinasien 52, Bonn
1997)

6.   Cf., however, W. Tietz, Der Golf von Fethiye. Politische,
ethnische und kulturelle Strukturen einer Grenzregion vom Beginn der
nachweisbaren Besiedlung bis in die roemische Kaiserzeit, Bonn 2003,
93-99, who thinks that Arbinas first ruled Termessos, but after being
exiled from there, fled to Daidala and (re)conquered Telmessos and the
other cities from there.