The study of epigraphy is a substantial and ever-growing resource for archaeologists and historians. It can be estimated that over 300,000 inscriptions of the great Roman world alone are known; this mass of evidence grows at upwards of 1000 items per year, and the volume of new discoveries shows no sign of diminishing. Inscriptions provide valuable confirmation and amplification of our often meagre and selective literary sources. They can provide details of events of the past empires, or can attest the careers and activities of officials and officers otherwise completely unknown. Inscriptions are a major source of information, which seeks to reconstruct administrative hierarchies and family relationships, and thereby illuminate ancient societies. Inscriptions cover a wide, though by no means complete, socio-economic spectrum of the community, bringing before us a vast number of people of the ancient civilizations, their activities and their rituals. The evidence of inscriptions is especially useful in reconstructing the story of the provinces of past empires. Avove all they provide an enormous reservoir of incidental information on the world of their empire.
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