Introduction

The idea of linking the chronological distribution of inscriptions with political events and constitutional transformation in antiquity was first raised by Benjamin Meritt, while the term ‘epigraphic habit’ owes its enormous following in modern scholarly literature to a 1982 article by Ramsay MacMullen. After the pioneering studies of Jean-Marie Lassere on epitaphs in Roman Africa and Stanislaw Mrozek on the frequency of inscriptions throughout the early Empire, the real interest of scholarship in understanding the temporal distribution of ancient inscription has been generated by the classical paper of Ramsay MacMullen, which circulated the term “epigraphic habit”. Methodological premises of a fruitful study of the epigraphic habit, as formulated by Chaniotis, contain a preference for qualitative over quantitative research, including taking into account the nature of the documents; their spatial distribution within the region under consideration; their spatial distribution within a community.