Book Description

Over the past decades, studies devoted to the prosopography and onomastic on of specific regions have become a valuable means for students of the ancient world seeking to attain a fuller knowledge of a society, its composition and development over the centuries; and their importance seems even greater in cases where these societies exhibit distinctive features, or where our knowledge of them remains only limited. This dimension was the main reason for writing a monograph devoted to the prosopography and onomasticon of Aegean Thrace; lying at the margins of the ancient Greek world, though at the same time at a vital point where different cultures met and made contact, this part of the north Aegean coast, bounded by the lower course of the Nestos and Hebros rivers, attracted peoples of different ethnological origins from an early date. Study of the personal names has much of value to offer for the society and history of the area: the origin of the colonists, the presence of the former inhabitants, the later, sporadic settlement here of Macedonians and Romans, and even matters relating to changes in naming habits or the appearance and dissemination of new religious beliefs. This objective, and the nature of the material itself, which, with very few exceptions, consists of names whose formation is clear and which are already known to scholarship, largely dictated the social and historical rather than philological and linguistic approach adopted in this work. Invaluable experience in the assembling and study of the material was gained from my participation in the publication of the Greek and Latin inscriptions of Aegean Thrace, recently completed by the north Greek programme of the Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity, under the direction of Prof. Louisa D. Loukopoulou and in collaboration with the XIX Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Komotini. This work made it possible not only to assemble the onomastic material found in inscriptions from the region -which, in Aegean Thrace, as in most areas of the ancient world, are a valuable source of relevant information- but also to check the readings at the primary level, on the stone itself.