Articles

1. Boatwright, MT. "Agrippa’s Building Inscriptions." Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik  vol. 189   255-264.

   Abstract:
   The building inscriptions of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, Augustus’ colleague and confidant (64/63–12 BCE), have not been assessed as a group, particularly not with regard to their appearance and materials. About a dozen building inscriptions of Agrippa survive. Found from Mérida, Spain, to Olympia, Greece, they present numerous difficulties. Most are now quite fragmentary and all seem to have been so terse originally as to confound their chronology. They are often dated by Agrippa’s known movements in Rome’s territories, although an emperor or close associate of the imperial family did not have to be in situ to initiate or complete construction of a public building. The building inscriptions have also been used to substantiate theories about Agrippa’s – and Augustan – interest in urbanization, regional development, and the like. This paper turns directly to the inscriptions themselves. Their comprehensive survey as artifacts, focusing on physical aspects and arranged chronologically when possible, disentangles some problems related to individual inscriptions and the buildings they identified. The examination of this corpus, moreover, illuminates both the public persona of Agrippa, and epigraphic practices in and outside of Rome during the transformation from Republic to Principate,3 contributing to our understanding of self-representation and public benefaction in this pivotal period.