Hellenistic and Roman Military Epitaphs on Stone and on Papyrus

Abstract

Chapter 10 studies Hellenistic and Roman military epitaphs and addresses a number of interconnected issues: the unpopularity of epitaphs for individual soldiers in the Greek Anthology (only a dozen of such epigrams are present, leaving side fictitious pieces for literary or historical figures); the near absence of inscribed epitaphs in literary sources, despite the fact that they are often of good literary quality; and the question of their authorship: there is no evidence that any epigrammatist known from the Greek Anthology also acted as a professional writer of military epitaphs, as Simonides did. Epitaphs for common soldiers were usually commissioned to professional poets, most of whom now remain anonymous; in some cases the deceased, especially when he presents himself as a veteran belonging to the local elite, may have had his say on the contents and form of his future epitaph.