Migration, Mobility and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean is the first volume to show the different ways in which surviving linguistic evidence can be used to track movements of people in the ancient world. Eleven chapters cover a number of case studies, which span the period from the seventh century BC to the fourth century AD, ranging from Spain to Egypt, from Sicily to Pannonia. The book includes detailed study of epigraphic and literary evidence written in Latin and Greek, as well as work on languages which are not so well documented, such as Etruscan and Oscan. There is a subject index and an index of works and inscriptions cited.

Contents

1. Introduction James Clackson, Patrick James, Katherine McDonald, Livia Tagliapatra and Nicholas Zair
2. Inter-ethnic mobility in pre-Roman Etruria: the contribution of onomastics Daniele F. Maras
3. Elusive migrants of ancient Italy Elena Isayev
4. The language of mobile craftsmen in the Western Mediterranean Katherine McDonald and James Clackson
5. Lost – and found – in transmission: the creation of the Oscan alphabet Karin W. Tikkanen
6. Mobility and orthography: a contextualisation of variant spellings in the Oscan inscriptions in the Greek alphabet Livia Tagliapietra
7. The Mamertini in Messina: mobility, migration and mercenaries Nicholas Zair
8. Migration, identity, and multilingualism in Late Hellenistic Delos Francesco Rovai
9. Interpretes, negotiatores and the Roman army: mobile professionals and their languages Rachel Mairs
10. 'HOC PRIMVS VENIT': Italians and others in Egypt before the Caesars Patrick James
11. Population, migration and language in the city of Rome Olivia Elder.