Textual Permanence: Roman Elegists and the Epigraphic Tradition by Teresa R. Ramsby

188 PHOENIX chapter reviews inscriptions from Ephesus and E. Forbis-Mazurek's work on honorifics in Italian inscriptions. Morgan includes as a proverb only the material that is overtly marked as such by the ancient reporter (those introduced by "they say.. .")• This efficient criterion ignores questions of form, a difficulty not helped by the decision to exclude the original Greek and Latin. On the other hand, Morgan richly uses papyrological evidence—excellent for her demonstration of the breadth of themes. Her treatment of the practice and pleasure of reading a miscellany is commendable. Much remains to be done, especially in the relation of key terms to popular morality. Abstract virtues are here said to be widely held, demonstrated by a variety of citations, and at the book's end distinguished from philosophical usages. Yet there is hardly any lexicography and scant reference to important, helpful bibliography (more positively, the footnotes are filled with references to the ancient evidence). The TLL, Hellegouarc'h on moral terms, a host of studies on particular terms (e.g., humanitas), any number of studies on the particular authors vital to this study, Phaedrus and Valerius Maximus in particular, are ignored or under-utilized. Habinek on the social meaning of bonus or Henderson on the political and literary context of Phaedrus, for example, cannot be dismissed for tying a moral term to a social group. Their work inter alios has much to say about the structure and categories of understanding and presentation of the authors Morgan is mining. A small example: when Phaedrus uses the word improbus, one cannot decide that he is communicating a popular moral truth about the wicked without considering that the improbi are at least also a literary category. An imperial reader would know Virgil's and Horace's use of the term, and Phaedrus' allusions. And the review of bibliography given in the first chapter is summary. Dover is rightly credited for treating Athenian morality, but he is presented as an item in a list. His contribution or the grounds for real debate and disagreement about moral terms (e.g., Adkins versus Lloyd-Jones) do not emerge. University of Notre Dame W. Martin Bloomer Textual Permanence: Roman Elegists and the Epigraphic Tradition. By Teresa R. Ramsby. London: Duckworth. 2007. Pp. ix, 197. Sexy was perhaps one of the last adjectives many classicists would have reached for in past years to describe Latin epigraphy. The worm, however, has turned. Today a growing number of individuals conducting research in different fields within Roman studies have begun to rely on inscriptions as a fundamental component of their work. This in part stems from, and in turn contributes to, a more integrated approach to our interpretation of ancient culture. But it also no doubt develops from a renewed and growing recognition, especially among the previously neglectful, of the numerous ways inscriptions intersect with various aspects of Roman culture. Ramsby's study of the use of inscriptions by Roman elegists is an important contribution to this larger trend. Over the course of six chapters she explores the role and function of epitaphs, votive inscriptions, graffiti, and tituli in the works of Catullus, Propertius, Tibullus, and, at greatest length, Ovid. In her introduction and first chapter Ramsby reviews the relevant historical background for an analysis of elegy and inscribed text and establishes the theoretical foundations of her study. The defining characteristic of Ramsby's approach is her emphasis on the need to understand these literary inscriptions within the context of contemporary Roman culture. She fully acknowledges the debts Roman elegists owed to hellenistic poets in the matter of BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 189 inscribed verses, but also rightly argues that we must interpret examples provided by Latin authors within the framework of why and for what ends Romans of the late republic and early principate employed inscriptions. This viewpoint, Ramsby argues, helps to reveal the extent to which the use of inscriptions by the elegists reflects Roman social practice. Her analysis of Catullus and Propertius in Chapter Two provides specifics and fleshes out her approach. In her discussion of Catullus 65 and 68a-b, for instance, Ramsby illustrates how the poet's incorporation of epitaphic elements, particularly...

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