ABSTRACT
When putting together the history of the life of an individual person, the expected outcome of such an endeavour is a biography – but what comes of a similar study which concerns more than one person? In the study of a group of people, is it possible to write a ‘group biography’? e answer to that question is a resounding ‘yes’ and the technical term for this approach to the study of the life, or communal experience, of a group of people is known as prosopography. As a methodology, or more specically, as an approach to research, prosopography focuses on the links and similarities between individuals within a broader group. In this way, it diers from biography which studies the lives, personal circumstances, motivations and personalities of individuals alone. Instead, prosopographers are interested in the collective experiences of the members of a strictly dened group. erefore it can be said that where biography is concerned with the extraordinary and unique qualities of the individual, prosopography is concerned with the ordinary and common characteristics of a group of people.
