En tant que savant et haut-fonctionnaire Ruan Yuan est une figure éminente de la fin de la dynastie Qing (1644-1911). Sa collection, principalement composée d’objets antiques, bronzes rituels, briques et tuiles, est modelée d’après les traditions de l’épigraphie chinoise ou jinshi xue. La première partie de la thèse est consacrée à l’analyse de la collection. Sa typologie et sa formation sont le reflet de l’approche scientifique des objets antiques adoptée par Ruan Yuan. Ses méthodes, qui reposent sur les développements récents de la phonologie, sont liées à l’essor de l’école des « vérifications et des preuves », ou kaozheng xue. Parallèlement, les objets de collection, en particulier les pierres, sont considérés comme des objets de délectation qui peuvent être transformés en encriers ou en écrans qui reflètent l’imagination de Ruan Yuan. La seconde partie de la thèse décrit comment les pratiques de collectionneur de Ruan Yuan s’inscrivent dans un processus de transmission des vestiges culturels. Les méthodes de compilation des textes ont été adaptées par Ruan Yuan afin de publier les inscriptions antiques des provinces où il exerçait en tant que fonctionnaire. Son utilisation des techniques de conservation, comme le montage des peintures, et des techniques de reproduction, comme l’estampage ou la gravure, ont permis de préserver les originaux et de diffuser leur image. Au-delà de la transmission de sa propre collection, principalement conçue comme un héritage familial, la création de bibliothèques dans les temples célèbres, qui dépassent les limites de la propriété privée, est une étape importante vers la définition moderne du patrimoine culturel en Chine. / As a scholar and an official, Ruan Yuan is a prominent figure of the late Qing dynasty (1644-1911). His collection of artifact, which focuses mainly on antiques like ritual bronzes, bricks and tiles, is shaped by the traditions of Chinese epigraphy or jinshi xue. The first part of the dissertation is devoted to the analysis of the collection. Its typology and formation reflect the scientific approach of antiques adopted by Ruan Yuan. His methods, which rely on the recent developments in phonology, are related to the rise of the evidential research school or kaozheng xue in XVIIIth century China. Besides this scientific approach, collected artifacts, especially stones, are also considered as objects of delectation which can be transformed into inkstones or screens which reflect the imagination of their owner. The second part of the dissertation describes how Ruan Yuan’s collecting practices are part of a larger process of conservation and transmission of cultural relics. The methods of collation of texts used to realize encyclopedia have been adapted by Ruan Yuan to publish the ancient inscriptions on metal and stone from the provinces where he served as an official. His use of conservation techniques, like the mounting of paintings, and of reproduction techniques, like the rubbing or carving of steles, allowed to preserve originals and to spread their images among scholars. Beyond the transmission of his own collection, mainly conceived as a family legacy, the creation of libraries in famous temples, which exceeded the boundaries of private property, is an important step toward the assertion of a modern definition of cultural heritage in China.

Between the fourth and the seventh centuries CE, Christian patrons erected thousands of churches, chapels, and monasteries in cities and villages across the Mediterranean, decorating the apses, walls and floors of many of these structures with figural and geometric mosaics. These late antique Christian mosaics have been studied for their iconography, their Graeco-Roman components, and as evidence for the religious beliefs of newly-Christian patrons. However, art historians largely have ignored the ways that texts, inscribed within the visual field and composed of the same mosaic material, functioned as images in Christian spaces. For the first time, this thesis assembles the foundations of a comprehensive catalogue of early Christian mosaic inscriptions, places them back into the physical spaces in which they were meant to be read, and analyzes how these texts functioned both verbally and visually for the late antique reader/viewer, against the backdrop of Graeco-Roman traditions. I first examine the ekphrastic components of Christian inscriptions and look more closely at the different ways in which texts work with and against images and spaces, encouraging the viewer to react physically and mentally. Second, I study the language of light used by the inscriptions, and argue that this language linked text to the material of mosaic and enabled patrons to make complex statements about their cultural erudition and religious affiliation. Third, I investigate the functions and visual forms of short tituli which label scenes or name figures to simplify, authenticate or transform static images into narratives in motion. Finally, I turn to the frames of the inscriptions and contend that different forms conveyed powerful visual arguments. By writing these texts back into their mosaics, this thesis argues that texts and images were inseparable in the period, and that text written into images performed and played in more complex ways than has been previously thought.

This thesis presents a historical study of the relationship between the city of ancient Byzantium and the Thracian Bosporus. Structured around the themes of regional particularity and identity, it shows that local studies can be used to gain fresh insights into more general topics. Viewed through the lens of the relationship between strait and city, the history of the Bosporus sheds light on the nature of economic exploitation and ancient imperialism, and on the nature of ancient communities’ local identities. Chapter 1 explores regionally specific geographical features in the strait, which directed and determined responses to life in the area, around which the regional economy revolved, and in response to which the identities of the local communities were created. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the history of economic exploitation of the region, exploring the attitude of the Athenian Empire toward the Bosporus, and the attempt by the local communities of the Bosporus to create a controlled monetary system in the third century BC. These efforts to exploit local opportunities and commodities, I show, transformed the Bosporus into an attractive economic resource. Chapter 4 examines the local fishing industries of the strait, and demonstrates that the extraordinary availability of fish in the region provoked responses which could not be emulated precisely elsewhere. The thesis also shows that the cultural identity of a Greek city could be intensely local. Byzantium, a Greek colony typically characterized by its relationship to its mother-city, had a series of important local identities, explored in chapter 1. From this perspective, chapter 5 re-examines the difficult relationship between Greeks and Thracians in the region, and chapter 6 questions the validity of the traditional view of the relationship between a colony and its mother-city.

This paper deals with Latin inscriptions from Egypt and Nubia apart from Alexandria and its closest surrounds. The analysis of the whole set of inscriptions is followed by synthesis of its results and comprehensive description of latin epigraphic tradition in Egypt. The graffiti are also put in the broader context of the history of Roman Egypt, Roman military presence in this province, places where these inscriptions occur most often, but also other circumstances. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The main aim of this work is to compare the First (478/7 - 404 B. C.) and the Second (378/7 - 338 B. C.) Athenian Maritime League, which were often put together without paying attention to both literary and epigraphical sources. The First League transformed into the Athenian Empire which exploited its own allies and often set about the violence. The Second League is frequently told to had grown into the "second empire". This work compares the evidence about the organisation, the administrative machinery and the relations within leagues to pinpoint common features and to distinguish the differences. The main focus of this work is financial system of both alliances since it was one of the main reasons for allies to defect.

RESUMO Serão investigadas, nesta dissertação, as origens da democracia ateniense através da análise de quatro epigramas de Simônides de Ceos e da contextualização de alguns outros. Partindo do assassinato de Hiparco por Harmódio e Aristogíton e traçando suas conseqüências, tanto do ponto de vista mítico quando político, tentaremos demonstrar como o povo, agora identificado como mesmo ideal de igualdade perante a lei (isonomia), foi capaz de afastar tanto o perigo de uma helotização da Ática, quanto o de uma submissão ao império aquemênida, ao vencer duas batalhas decisivas, cujo relato foi preservado em inscrições que chegaram até nós sob o nome de Simônides por transmissão literária ou epigráfica ou ambas. Também iremos lidar com todos os aspectos relativos à composição, caráter e transmissão de cada um dos quatro epigramas comentados, além de fornecer uma tradução de todos os outros - incluindo os novos fragmentos elegíacos recentemente descobertos - que possam ter alguma relevância para o assunto em questão. / The origins of Athenian democracy are herein surveyed through the analysis of four Simonidean epigrams and the canvassing of several others. Starting from the murder of Hipparchus by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, and following its consequences, both mythic and political, we shall proceed to demonstrate how the people, now identified with the same democratic ideal, was able to eschew both the danger of helotization by Sparta and submission by the Persian Empire by its winning two decisive battles recorded in inscriptions that came down to us either through literary or epigraphical transmission or both. We shall also deal with all aspects surrounding the composition, nature and transmission of each of the four epigrams, besides providing a translation of all other epigrams - including the newly discovered elegiac fragments - that may bear any relevancy to the subject under appreciation.

La cité de Cyrène offre un visage différent selon le point de vue qu’on adopte pour la considérer : elle est tout à la fois colonie et métropole, tout à la fois capitale régionale de la Cyrénaïque et simple cité du royaume hellénistique des Lagides, tout à la fois cité située aux confins du monde méditerranéen et cité dont la présence en Grèce continentale et en Égée est manifeste.Les études antérieures ayant principalement porté sur l’examen de l’histoire politique de la cité et des modifications du cadre urbain, ce travail se propose donc d’étudier l’évolution du statut de la cité de sa fondation en 631 par des colons venus de Théra à son don par Ptolémée Apion en 96 av. J.-C. à la République romaine, au prisme des relations qu’elle entretint avec le reste du monde grec : nous avons donc cherché Cyrène et les Cyrénéens à l’extérieur de la cité, l’étranger et les étrangers à l’intérieur de la cité, en nous fondant sur les données épigraphiques, numismatiques, papyrologiques et archéologiques. Organisé en trois parties coïncidant avec les trois grandes phases de l’histoire cyrénéenne, ce travail examine les rapports économiques, diplomatiques et culturels existant entre Cyrène et les autres cités grecques et s’attache à en dégager les grandes tendances et à mesurer leur influence sur la cité elle-même. / The city of Cyrene provides different faces depending on the perspective adopted to consider it : it is both a colony and a metropol, both the capital city of Cyrenaica and a mere city in the Hellenistic kingdom of the Ptolemies, both a city situated on the borders of the Mediterranean world and a city whose presence incontinental Greece and in Aegea is clear.Since the previous studies focused on the city’s political history and the transformation of the urban landscape, we intend in this work to study the evolution of the city’s status from its foundation in 631 B.C. by colonists fromThera to its gift by Ptolemy Apion to the Roman Republic in 96 B.C., by focusing on the relations which it maintained with the rest of the Greek world : we searched then Cyrene and the Cyrenaeans outside of their city, foreign objects and foreigners inside the city, relying on epigraphical, numismatical, papyrological and archaeological data.Organised in three parts which coincide with the three major phases of Cyrenaean history, this work investigates the economic, diplomatic and cultural relations between Cyrene and the other Greek cities and strives to detect the main trends of those and to measure their influence on the city itself.

This thesis examines the relationship between language and Roman identity, defined in the broadest sense as the political and cultural practices involved in being Roman. It focuses on evidence of multilingualism: Roman identity was defined through opposition and interaction, and it is at points of contact that these debates are cast into relief. It looks predominantly at evidence of Greek-Latin bilingualism, but also considers evidence of other languages to consider how their relationship to Roman identity differs. It combines historical and sociolinguistic approaches to multilingualism. Understanding bilingual language practices requires close sociolinguistic reading of evidence to understand how languages interrelate and analysis of the historical factors and contexts that determine language choices and their social, cultural and political implications. The thesis responds especially to the use of bilingualism as a model for Roman cultural relations, arguing that a closer engagement with sociolinguistic terminology and with linguistic evidence is necessary if we are to use language and bilingualism as a way into broader issues of politics and identity. Language is simultaneously a model for identity that works across ancient and modern thought and a central part of this identity. It frequently plays into other markers of Roman identity and a range of themes and concerns surrounding it including integration, migration and citizenship. The thesis examines three case studies in detail: the different layers of bilingualism in Suetonius' biographies; Greek in the graffiti of Pompeii; epigraphic and literary evidence for different languages in the city of Rome. These case studies demonstrate the politics of language in different types of practice and at different levels of society: the thesis argues that the overlaps between them are greater than has sometimes been appreciated. The case studies also show that the boundaries of Roman identity did not develop in a progressive or linear fashion but were continually defined and redefined through ongoing processes of absorption and rejection.

This thesis sheds first light on the complex narrative behind the earliest appearance of writing in Europe. A radical new framework of interpretation, recognising art and writing as different ends of a single mode of graphic expression, is applied to the material culture of Early to Middle Bronze Age Crete as a context-conscious alternative to the strict and anachronistic divisions imposed by traditional models. This allows for a novel way of viewing and identifying structures of meaning embedded in otherwise familiar evidence. A comprehensive synthesis of the archaeological evidence for the undeciphered Bronze Age Cretan writing systems is offered, contextualising the thesis and its arguments within a new narrative of mostly autonomous script formation on Crete. Detailed analysis of the material record is started in the Early Bronze Age, where a previously unrecognised system of Prepalatial glyptic iconography is demonstrated to have maintained uniform distribution and presentation for roughly eight centuries, appearing in the exact contexts, and ostensibly fulfilling similar functions, as later writing. This newly identified system is argued to have provided the conceptual background against which later writing emerged. The thesis subsequently discusses the Archanes Script, the first accepted ‘true’ writing to appear west of Egypt, which has been severely understudied and highly ill-understood. Redefining the Archanes Script completely, a first signary is constructed, and new documents discovered. A further chapter argues for the possible existence of other, as of yet unidentified, linear writing systems on Crete. This is followed by a study of the Cretan Hieroglyphic writing system; the unjustified omission of supposedly ‘decorative’ signs in many of its documents is identified, the script’s corpus nearly doubled, and ‘a complete turnaround in the way in which we approach and define Cretan Hieroglyphic’ proposed.

Cette thèse porte sur la figure historique de la reine tamoule Cempiyaṉ-Mahādevī, épouse de Gaṇḍarāditya-Cōḻa (r. c. 949-57) et mère d'Uttama-Cōḻa (r. 971-87). Restée dans l'Histoire comme la plus formidable patronne de temples de l'Inde méridionale, elle est célébrée comme un modèle de dévotion à son dieu et à son époux. L'ensemble du savoir sur la souveraine se fondant sur la production épigraphique qui enregistra son activité sur les sites śivaïtes du pays tamoul durant une période estimée à six décennies, la présente recherche se concentre sur ces sources premières. Présentées de façon indifférenciée comme des « inscriptions de la reine », elles n'avaient jamais été rassemblées, ni intégralement éditées, en dépit de la réputation dont elles jouissent depuis leurs premiers signalements par l'agence de recensement archéologique de l'Inde britannique. La thèse établit le corpus des mentions épigraphiques de Cempiyaṉ-Mahādevī sur lequel s'appuyer pour mettre en évidence la part jouée par cette somme d'épigraphes dans l'écriture de l'histoire d'une reine Cōḻa dont l'élaboration se fit dans le contexte de l'émergence des histoires régionales au XXe siècle. À l'issue d'une analyse structurale de la titulature épigraphique de la patronne royale enregistrée au cours des trois phases identifiées au sein de son activité, l'on montre que cette titulature constitue la trame d'un itinéraire biographique reconstruit. En confrontant ces inscriptions aux interprétations reçues dans plus d'un siècle de publications, l'étude livre une illustration de la notion de « personnage épigraphique ». / This thesis examines the historical figure of the Tamil queen Cempiyaṉ-Mahādevī, the spouse of Gaṇḍarāditya-Cōḻa (r. c. 949-57) and mother of Uttama-Cōḻa (r. 971-87). This woman, who went down in history as Southern India’s greatest patron of temple-building, is celebrated as a model of devotion to both her god and her husband. Since current knowledge on the queen appears to be based entirely on the epigraphic production that recorded her activity at Śaiva sites in the Tamil country during an estimated six–decade period, this study focuses on these primary sources. Indiscriminately conceived of as “inscriptions of the queen,” they have never been gathered together, nor edited in their entirety, despite the renown they have acquired from the time they were first reported by the Archaeological Survey of British India. The thesis draws up the corpus of Cempiyaṉ-Mahādevī’s epigraphical mentions. This will serve as the basis for examining the role played by this body of epigraphs in the writing of the history of a Cōḻa queen in the context of the twentieth-century rise of regional histories. Following a structural analysis of the royal patron’s epigraphic titulature recorded over the three identified phases within her activity, it is shown that this titulature serves as a framework for a reconstructed biographical itinerary. By confronting these inscriptions with the interpretations they received over more than a century of publication, the study provides an illustration of the concept of an “epigraphic persona.”