Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire/

Prosopography of the Byzantine World

Charlotte Roueché, London 31 March 2014

Theodor Mommsen

1817-1903

The first volume of CIL was published in 1853; work continues to this day

The ProsopographiaImperii Romani(PIR) developed from the work on CIL, with the vast majority of the entries coming from inscriptions.

The first volumes of PIR appeared in 1897/1898; a second, revised series was begun in 1915, and is nerly complete.

People are organised by nomen, and you have to be of a decent class (or an academic!) to get in

PIR

PIR ended at the end of the third century; Mommsen had envisaged a later extension, but this meant confri-nting a very great deal of material - more literary and less documentary. At the end of the war the files were extracted from East Germany; it was agreed to undertake the propography of the later Empire. The French and the Italians were to udenrtake the ecclesiastical world, the British the secular.

The secular part - the Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, PLRE - was published between 1971-1992 in 3 volumes, each covering a different period. Each volume was larger than the last.

From PLRE III

After the successful conclusion of PLRE, it was agreed to continue with the prosopography of the Eastern Empire, with the same editor (John Martindale) but using new digital tools.

This meanti. Including everyoneii. A new approach to the evidence. John

Bradley was the architect of a database of ‘factoids’, ‘assertions’ - what the sources say about someone

PBE I (641-867) was published in 2001 - just too early for web publication!

The Berlin Academy has a parallel project, published in book form, covering 641-1025. Copyright restricts collaboration.

Because of the Berlin project, the British moved to the period 1025-1204. One challenge has been the fluctuating boundaries of this period, whence Prosopography of the Byzantine World (PBW). Materials are still being added