Twenty-two years after the previous volume of concordances of the Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum (SEG), which covered volumes XXXVI–XLV, we now have a new volume. It makes available under one cover the concordances of 15 more years of SEG, volumes XLVI–LX, corresponding to publications that appeared between 1996 and 2010. The previous issuance of concordances was as part of a general volume of indices for the years 1986–1995, and followed another one in the general volume of indices for the years 1976–1985. In the present case, we find in a thick printed book only the concordances, not the indices (e.g., of Proper Names, Religious Terms, Important Greek Words, Selected Topics).
After a brief preface (pp. V–VI) and an index, in order of appearance, of the collections to which concordances are here given (pp. VII–XII), the bulk of the book is made up, first, of a dense list of abbreviations (pp. XV–CXXVI), preceded by minimal instructions, and, second, by 520 pages of concordances, ranging from the first volume of Inscriptiones Graecae to Palmyrene Aramaic Texts. The book closes with an Index of Epigraphical Publications, which lists again the collections, but now in alphabetical order.
As usual in SEG, the corpora whose concordances are listed here are arranged by geographic area. Within each area, general corpora are listed first, followed by those of specific places in alphabetical order. This traditional arrangement is facilitated by the aforementioned final index.
At the head of the volume, before the concordances, is the valuable list (also present in SEG Online) of more than 100 pages with all the abbreviations that have been used in SEG since volume XXVI, with one caveat. When a given collection appears with a different abbreviation in the new List of Abbreviations of Editions and Works of Reference for Alphabetic Greek Epigraphy (GrEpiAbbr), recently recommended by the Association Internationale d’Épigraphie Grecque et Latine, both the old and the new abbreviations are given together with cross-references. This is because the old one is still in use through volume LXVI, both in the printed books and SEG Online. This mixed list is a laudable and necessary effort for SEG and SEG Online users and for epigraphists in general.
The first striking thing about this book is the enormous increase in the number of pages in relation to the number of years covered. The concordance for the 10 years between 1976 and 1985 covered 81 pages (ca. 15,000 equivalences) and the concordance for the 10 years between 1986 and 1995 had 169 pages (ca. 31,000 equivalences), while the concordance for the 15 years between 1996 and 2010 occupies, also in three columns, 520 pages (ca. 93,000 equivalences). A simple calculation allows us to deduce that the ratio of pages per year is more than double that of the previous issue: 8.1 pages of concordances per year in 1976–1985, 16.9 pages per year in 1986–1995 and now, in 1996–2010, 34.6 pages per year.
We may wonder about the reasons for this remarkable increase. The most objective reason is necessarily that many more collections have now been taken into consideration. If we group all volumes of F.Delphes or TAM, for example, under the same heading, we find that the 1976–1985 concordances dealt with about 50 corpora and those of 1986–1995 with about 60, whereas the number has now risen to 110. At first glance, we all are aware that SEG volumes are becoming more and more extensive and the information they offer is becoming more and more detailed. But this increase, in my opinion, is above all a clear indication of the great vitality of this discipline, which translates not only into the appearance of many important collections of inscriptions, but also into the publication of numerous articles and monographs of great relevance. The one goes with the other.
First of all, it is useful to clarify the concept of concordance as it is used in SEG. In most inscription collections, the final concordance or comparatio numerorum usually includes the equivalences between previous editions of an inscription and its new edition. But the concordances at the end of the SEG volumes are not exactly that, but something more and at the same time something less. They are, as we are told in the preface (p. V), “a list of references to inscriptions grouped by corpus.” This means that a reference to a given inscription can either refer to a new edition reproduced in SEG or, in most cases, to a simple mention where the text is not reproduced.[1] Thus, for example, the equivalences
IGDS 134 = SEG LVII 905
IGLS 718 = SEG LIV 1625
refer to entries where new editions are reproduced based on an improved reading, while the equivalences
IGDS 134 = SEG LV 959
IGLS 718 = SEG LI 1427
refer to entries with a simple mention of the inscription in the commentary on another text. In turn, the following two equivalences refer to entries with the concordances of I.Kallatis and Tabbernee, Montanist Inscriptions. By resorting to them we can locate the equivalence with the new edition.
IGR I 650 = SEG XLIX 1012 (= I.Kallatis 73)
MAMA X 8 = SEG XLVII 2323 (= Tabbernee, Montanist Inscriptions 28)
All this, which is extremely useful, is logically due to the nature of SEG, which echoes, with greater or lesser detail, every kind of epigraphic publication, both editions of new texts and reprints of already known texts, as well as more or less extensive commentaries, from a monograph on one or more texts to a brief marginal mention in a broader work. The aim is to follow the trail of any study that pertains, directly or indirectly, to a specific inscription.
A second significant difference between the SEG concordances and the traditional comparationes numerorum lies in the fact that the former usually include references to inscriptions previously published in a corpus, usually local, but also in general (e.g. SIG, OGIS) or thematic collections (e.g. CEG, LSAM). They do not include references to other inscriptions edited or cited in isolated publications, such as journals or collective volumes. This is a significant difference with, for example, the indices of the Bulletin Épigraphique, to which it is usual to turn to locate, for example, the entry corresponding to the editio princeps of an inscription published in a given issue of the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik or in an article included in a collective volume.
The paradox is that most of the inscriptions whose full text appears in SEG come, precisely, not from “major corpora,” but from this more ephemeral type of publication. For these texts, the SEG concordances are of no help. This has been true since the beginning of SEG, but it is worth remembering.
Apart from this, the concept of a corpus is open to debate. For instance, in these concordances we find entries for various compilations of inscriptions published by Italian epigraphists in the 1940s and 1950s in the Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene, such as Tit.Calymnii, Tit.Camirenses or Suppl.Rodio. However, traditionally they do not include other comparable corpora that have not been published as independent books. This is the case, for example, of the corpus of the dialect inscriptions of Pamphylia, published by C. Brixhe as a chapter of his 1976 book Le dialecte grec de Pamphylie (Brixhe, Dialecte Pamphylie in GrEpiAbbr), and later completed, continuing the numbering, in several book chapters and articles of the journal Kadmos. Some of his inscriptions are cited, e.g., in SEG XLVI 1683 or LIII 1596.[2]
It must be understood, therefore, that what this book (and SEG Online) does not intend to do is to modify or complete the already published entries and concordances[3] of SEG, thereby giving the status of a corpus to books that did not have it in their day. What it does offer is the possibility of finding the abbreviation current since volume LXVII. But going forward, SEG Online users should be aware that the same corpus may appear with two different abbreviations. See, for example, Lefebvre, Recueil versus I.Chr.Egypte or RECAM II versus I.North Galatia.
It is clear that the main “rival” of this book is SEG Online itself (for those who have access to it). This resource offers the possibility of searching by “Concordances.” If one wants, for example, to locate the references in SEG XLVI–LX to the Rosetta Stone (in the Dittenberger edition), instead of going to the corresponding entry on page 476 of this volume it is possible to directly search “OGIS 90” in the “Concordances” box of SEG Online. The same 15 results appear, with the advantage, on the one hand, that you will get 26 more results from SEG volumes other than XLVI–LX and, on the other hand, that from all of them direct access to the corresponding entry is possible without referring to the printed volumes.
A working tool that should always be consulted in parallel to SEG when tracing any inscription, old or new, is obviously the Bulletin Épigraphique (BE), published annually in the Revue des Études Grecques. Unfortunately, for the years 1996–2010 we have at the moment only the index volume for the years 1987–2001 published by S. Aneziri and N. Giannakopoulos (Athens 2005). For instance, if looking for the inscription IG XIV 1184 in the concordances of SEG and in the first volume, Les publications, of the Index to BE, we will find two references (SEG XLVI 1345 and BE 1997, 32) referring in parallel to two entries on the same article by H. de Marcellus in ZPE 110 (1996) 69–76.[4]
Another online resource that also partly reduces the usefulness of the book under review here is the database CLAROS. Concordance of Greek inscriptions, for which I have been responsible for years. Its philosophy was, from the beginning, to collect only references to new editions or translations of the texts, although with two notable exceptions, namely SEG and BE. CLAROS, in its latest version, includes the BE indexes for the years 1922–2010 and the SEG concordances from vols. I–LIX. This means that, of all the years covered by this book, only those of volume LX are currently missing; in the near future, more records, along with references to the new abbreviations of GrEpiAbbr, will be added.
Finally, I would like to make a few suggestions so that in the future this type of concordance, whether on paper or online, is more complete and operative. I have no doubt that it would involve a great deal of work, but, from my experience, I believe that the effort, with the support of the Brill publishing house, would be worthwhile.
- Consideration should be given in the future to the possibility of offering not only corpora concordances, but also, as BE does, indices of the studied publications.
- It would be very useful to identify at a glance the entries including reproductions of the Greek text. A simple asterisk (*) after the reference could suffice. Another indication, for example (+), could identify items referring to concordances.
IGDS 134 = SEG LVII 905 (*)
IGR I 650 = SEG XLIX 1012 (+)
- Why not put these concordances in this very same format on SEG Online? I would even suggest offering two versions, one in open access and a second that includes links to SEG entries in the paid version. The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae follows a similar policy, and I have no doubt that it helps to increase its subscriptions.
As a final thought, I would recommend that users of this book have SEG Online at hand, if they have access to it, and that users of SEG Online not to forget the existence of this book. For example, it will prove useful by saving some work when looking for a very specific piece of information or for the abbreviation used before and after SEG LXVII. But I would also like to remind readers that the CLAROS database can offer, in a fast and efficient way, most of the information gathered here, along with other relevant information (other editions of the same text, both ancient and modern, translations, references to BE, links to online publications, etc.). Naturally, epigraphists will consult the book reviewed here as well as the aforementioned resources and more, in accord with their specific needs.
Notes
[1] A minor, but unexplained, difference compared with the printed volumes is that the indication “app.cr.”, which accompanied many references, has disappeared.
[2] Apart from such cases, there are numerous thematic collections that have never been considered as a corpus in SEG. This is the case, for example, of Jaccotet, Dionysos (Zürich 2003) or the book by L. Darmezin, Les affranchissements par consécration en Béotie et dans le monde grec hellénistique (Nancy 1999), which is also absent from GrEpiAbbr. Inscriptions collected in both are cited in SEG.
[3] With the exception of various simple errors in the references, detected during the preparation of the book (cf. SEG LXVI 2569).
[4] Regarding the Inscriptiones Graecae it is worth noting that an IG Konkordanz of the inscriptions published in IG and cited in SEG through volume LXVII can also be consulted on the IG web page.