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18
Introduction
applicable).Inthissituation,itisdimculttoassumethatthecollectionof
by-lawsregulatingcorporatelifewhichisatourdisposaliscompleteand
reliable.Mostimportantly,theimageofthislifecontainedintheCodeand
theDigestdepictedtherealityinLateAntiquityratherthanthefirstcen-
turiesoftheEmpire.45Kornemannalreadynotedthattherewasavery
cleardissonancebetweenthevisionofRomancorporationsemerging
fromnormativetextsandepigraphicsources.46Whileitishardtodisagree
withthisstatement,theconsequencesofthisfactcanbeappraisedinvar-
iousways.AccordingtoKornemann,itisonlylegaltextsthatońerusthe
opportunitytocorrectthevisionofRomancorporationswhichisbased
onanalysingepigraphicinscriptions.Inmyopinion,thehundredsofin-
scriptionsfoundedbycollegesandtheirmembersarethebestproofofthe
incompletenessoftheimageofthefenomenoassociativowhichnormative
sourcesimposeonus.Naturally,epigraphicsourcesalsohavetheirlimita-
tions.Tediscussionontherepresentativenessofepigraphicmaterial
goesbackalmosttotheoriginsofepigraphyitselfandhassofarnotpro-
ducedresultswhichwouldbeacceptedbyallhistorianswhostudyancient
Rome.47Here,Iwouldonlyliketopointouttheriskswhichcouldhave
particularlystronglydistortedtheresultsofstudiesonthefenomenoas-
sociativo.Someofthemareevident.Eventhemostoutstandingscholars
inthehistoryofepigraphyfacedtheriskofmisreadinganinscription,
resultingfromthenecessitytoreconstructthemissingfragmentsofthe
text.Howfar-reachingtheconsequencesofsuchmistakesmightbeisbest
illustratedbythealreadymentionedlectionofthetwelfhverseofthefa-
mousLanuviuminscription,proposedbyMommsen.Tissortofriskis,
inaway,partandparcelofepigraphicstudies,asitfollowsfromthena-
tureofthesourcematerial.Tehistoryofepigraphyislargelyahistoryof
Ccorrecting)thepredecessors)lections.Asaresult,singlemistakesander-
rorsarenotthebiggestthreattothereliabilityoftheresultsofstudiesrely-
ingonepigraphicmaterialasthemainortheonlysource.Ignoringthe
specificnatureofthesource,whichleadstoaliteralreadingofinscription
45Rohdecorrectlynotedthatthecorporationswhichplayedaparticularlyimpor-
tantroleinLateAntiquityweremostfrequentlyreferredtointheby-laws(2012,27);
cf.Liu2009,26.
46Kornemann1901,411.
47SeeWojciechowski2005,16-17;id.2007,pass.
