A New Edition of the Corpus of the Personal names in the Greek and Latin Inscriptions from Syria and Lebanon
Final Report Abstract
The Near East was, as is well known, the cradle of literacy, and the multiplicity of texts which issued from there between 2800 BC and the Islamic era are a basic guideline for the study of the region’s ancient history. Among the different items of information provided by such texts are the proper names of the peoples who successively inhabited the area: these names are thus very significant for the historical, cultural, religious and linguistic study of the various historical population groups. The majority of personal names in Ancient Near Eastern texts come from texts in Semitic languages. Unlike what one might think, all proper names have in origin a clear meaning, even proper names in contemporary Europe, although in this case their meaning is now almost always opaque. Semitic proper names are usually still characterized by semantic transparency, i.e. their etymology is mostly still clear, and some of them may still be found in Europe, for example John (“Yahweh was merciful”), Michael (“Who is like El?”), Thomas (“Twin”), Anne (“Grace”). All proper names have moreover a further meaning, which is not linguistic, but rather social and cultural. A number of factors influence name-giving: meaning, euphony, family traditions, religion, ideological and political matters, fashion. The project investigated proper names in the Greek and Latin inscriptions from Syria and Lebanon, mostly from the Roman and Byzantine period. It was the first attempt since 1930 to collect together all of this material, which includes thousands of inscriptions and names. A monograph has been devoted to the etymological analysis of the Semitic proper names, with parallels with other corpora of Semitic names. Whereas the book deals mainly with the linguistic aspect of proper names, a database contains the relevant data for social and cultural investigations. For each name – not only Semitic, but also of other linguistic origins (mainly Greek and Latin) – are provided details about the name itself (Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek etc.), the bearer of the name (profession, religion, names of relatives etc.), and the inscription(s) in which the name occurs (language, provenance, date, genre etc.). It was thus possible to provide an updated etymological analysis of the Semitic names, as well as an evaluation of their evolution, for some names were “inherited” from most ancient Semitic traditions, whereas others are new, partially because of the spread of Christianity in the region. Moreover, the study identified several trends in name-giving. For example: Greek and Latin names are more widespread in the cities, whereas country dwellers maintained Semitic names; very few Semitic names are recorded in all regions; most are attested only in one or two areas; there is a strong tendency to name children after their grandparents and other members of the family; Semitic names are the most varied: they contain many elements, structures and patterns, and few of them (c. 8%) are attested five or more times. Specific regions have been covered so far, and the others will be included in the database in the next few years, thus providing a valuable tool for historical, social and cultural investigations into the Roman Near East.
Publications
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Il dio Bethel e i ‘betili’, in S. Graziani, G. Lacerenza (a cura di), Egitto e Vicino oriente Antico tra passato e futuro. The Stream of Tradition: la genesi e il perpetuarsi delle tradizioni in Egitto e nel Vicino oriente Antico, Napoli 2022, 397-405.
G. F. Grassi
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Die semitischen Personennamen in den griechischen und lateinischen Inschriften aus Syrien und dem Libanon. De Gruyter.
Grassi, Giulia Francesca
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Religious Interactions in Achaemenid Elephantine and Syene as Reflected in the Aramaic Documents. Contact Zones in the Eastern Mediterranean, 49-82. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Grassi, Giulia Francesca
