Reading Roman inscriptions

Abbreviations, ligatures, and how to expand IMP CAES without guessing.

Roman inscriptions abbreviate ruthlessly: IMP (Imperator), COS (consul), VSLM (votum solvit libens merito — 'fulfilled the vow willingly and deservedly'), D M on tombstones. Letters join in ligatures, words separate with midline dots, and numerals follow titles (COS III — consul for the third time).

Imperial titles are a dating machine: an emperor's name plus his tribunician power number (TR P with a numeral) can date a stone to a single year. Even fragments help — three letters of a governor's name may match a known career.

Transcribe exactly what survives, marking uncertain letters with dots and lost text with brackets, before attempting expansion. Photograph in raking light. Epigraphy is a deep specialty with excellent references — your honest transcription is the contribution; the board or a specialist can do the expanding.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on religious objects

Seals and seal matrices — Reading a reversed device.

Identifying pilgrim badges and ampullae — Lead-tin devotional souvenirs.

Identifying scarabs and amulets — Egyptian protective forms.

Identifying cuneiform tablets — Wedge-marks in clay.

Identifying reliquaries and devotional objects — Containers for the sacred — from enkolpia to house shrines.

Identifying ushabti figures — The mummiform servants of Egyptian burials — and their million imitations.

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