Ancient Epigraphic Culture on the Aegean and Ionian Islands

Through a series of case-studies of nine Aegean and Ionian islands, the contributors examine the ancient epigraphic culture of each island's political, social and religious history from the archaic age until late antiquity.These Mediterranean islands - Delos, Thera, Crete, Chis, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Amorgos and the Ionian islands - were a world in themselves with their own dialects, cults, customs and political structures.Through a careful reading of a range of inscriptions, new interpretations arise concerning our understanding of their constitutional history, economic transformation, relationship with major powers, as well as notions of identity and connectivity. Inscribing for public display was a feature of Greek civilization that was carried out not only by priests, politicians and the elite, but also by individual citizens.The Greeks developed a plethora of distinct categories of inscriptions, going beyond the standard of epitaphs and dedications to the gods, to include decrees of