A New Initiative to Edit and Translate All RPC Coin Inscriptions

Initiated by Dr Jerome Mairat, this project has received funding from the John Fell Fund at Oxford for a 12-month period (June 2024 to June 2025).

With assistance from Dr Joe Sheppard and Jonathan Setzer, the aim is to edit and translate over 100,000 coin inscriptions documented in the Roman Provincial Coinage (RPC) reference work.

Expanding Access to Ancient Texts

RPC will become the first major reference work for ancient coins to fully expand and translate all inscriptions into English. By structuring coin records according to the EpiDoc guidelines—a standard for annotating ancient texts—this initiative will enhance public access and provide a valuable resource on local forms of Greek and Latin. This will benefit a wide scholarly audience, including epigraphers, linguists, papyrologists, philologists, historians, and interested non-specialists. For an explanation of epigraphic notation, please visit the conventions page on the RPC website.

The index of the Epidoc files can be found at https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/epidoc.

Artificial Intelligence for Efficient Translation

Editing and translating such a vast number of inscriptions is a monumental task. To accomplish this efficiently, Jerome Mairat has fine-tuned an OpenAI model capable of:

  • Editing inscriptions in Koine Greek
  • Translating them into English
  • Encoding the texts in EpiDoc, the standard digital format in epigraphy

      This approach accelerates the process while ensuring accuracy and consistency across the dataset.

      Introducing the Audio Feature (beta)

      With the texts available, a new audio feature has been implemented. Users can listen to the full inscriptions by clicking the speaker icon next to any Greek or Latin text, using available (but still very imperfect) AI models.

      • Latin inscriptions: Read using the Ecclesiastical (Church) pronunciation, which aligns more closely with modern Italian. This method differs from classical pronunciations, with letters like C, G, and V pronounced as in Italian

      • Greek Inscriptions: Read with modern Greek pronunciation, which may not have significantly diverged from how Koine Greek was spoken in eastern cities like Antioch. Features include silent rough breathings, diphthongs shortened to pure vowels, and letters beta and phi pronounced as fricatives

      For more information on the evolution of Latin and Greek pronunciations in the Koine period, you can consult Luke Ranieri's and Ben Kantor's Koine Greek websites.

      A few interesting examples

      RPC I, 4982 (Caesarea Maritima): 

      • Inscription: ΟΡΚΙΑ ΒΑΣ ΜΕ ΑΓΡΙΠΠΑ ΠΡ ΣΕΒ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΑ Κ ΣΥΝΚΛΗΤΟΝ Κ ΔΗΜΟ ΡΩΜ ΦΙΛΙ Κ ΣΥ(Ν)ΜΑΧΙ ΑΥΤΟΥ
      • Edition: ὅρκια βασ(ιλέως) Με(γάλου) Ἀγρίππα πρ(ὸς) Σεβ(αστὸν) Καίσαρα κ(αὶ) σύνκλητον κ(αὶ) δῆμο(ν) Ῥωμ(αίων) φιλί(α) κ(αὶ) σύνμαχί(α) αὐτοῦ
      • Translation: oaths of King Agrippa the Great to Augustus Caesar, and the Senate and People of Rome, his friendship and alliance

      RPC II, 1337 (Philadelphia): 

      • Inscription: ΕΠΙΜΕΛ ΦΛ ΠΡΑΞΕΟΥ ΑΡΧ ΠΡ ΙΕΡΕΩΣ ΙΕΡΩΣΥΝ Ε ΔΙΑ ΒΙΟΥ, ΦΛΑΒΙ ΦΙΛΑΔΕΛΦΕΩΝ
      • Edition: ἐπιμελ(ηθέντος) Φλ(αβίου) Πραξέου ἄρχ(οντος) πρ(ώτου) ἱερέως ἱερωσυν(ῶν) ε' διὰ βίου Φλαβί(ων) Φιλαδελφέων
      • Translation: under the supervision of Flavius Praxeas, first archon, priest of the five priesthoods for life, of the Flavian Philadelphians

      RPC IV, temp. 853 (Attuda): 

      • Μ ΟΥΛ ΚΑΡΜΙΝΙΟΣ ΚΛΑΥΔΙΑΝΟΣ ΥΙΟΣ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ ΑΤΤΟΥΔΕΩΝ ΑΝΕΘΗΚΕ
      • Edition: Μ(ᾶρκος) Οὔλ(πιος) Καρμίνιος Κλαυδιανὸς υἱὸς πόλεως Ἀττουδέων ἀνέθηκε
      • Translation: Marcus Ulpius Carminius Claudianus, son of the city of the Attudeans, dedicated (this)

      RPC VI, temp. 4668 (Smyrna):

      • ΣΜΥΡΝΑΙΩΝ Γ ΝΕΩΚΟΡΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΩΝ ΑΣΙΑΣ ΚΑΛΛΕΙ ΚΑΙ ΜΕΓΕΘΕΙ
      • Edition: Σμυρναίων γʹ νεωκόρων τῶν Σεβαστῶν πρώτων Ἀσίας κάλλει καὶ μεγέθει
      • Translation: of the Smyrnaeans, thrice neocorate of the Augusti, the first of Asia, in beauty and in size