An Overview of: Prosopographic Digital Data in Classics (Persons and Names)

The here offered compilation forms the basis for an article within the Brill’s Companion to Roman Prosopography (Horster, M., Hurlet, F., Fower, R., Mathisen, R. edd., forthcoming 2025), on the topic of “Data Repositories and Sustainability: Their Significance for Prospographical Data Archives” by Feraudi-Gruénais, F. and Grieshaber, F.
There is only a comparatively modest number of online-accessible digital collections concerning personal names from the ancient world, especially if we consider only the segment that concerns Roman names. Yet a detailed comparison of the databases, projects, portals and tools for this topic presents a very heterogeneous picture, making it difficult at first glance to gain an overview and so to evaluate their usefulness as a whole.
As always, the reasons for this are complex and arise primarily from the different historical genesis of the data collections, but also from the variety of ways they are designed in terms of content, and the different kinds of ancient sources on which they are based. Other issues are the non-homogeneous origin and creation of the digital data (were they born digital or not?), the often thoroughly non-uniform project goals (genuinely prosopographic or not? relating more to persons or more to names?) and the variety of focuses chosen in date, geography or cultural regions; and also the degrees of digital depth pursued in metadata, inconsistency in including normed and/or controlled vocabularies and the selectively implemented allocation of unique person-IDs. Finally, a factor not to be underestimated is that time and funding for projects are usually limited, with effects on the afterlife of the data (is it active, paused, completed?).
The here presented compilation therefore pursues two goals: It aims firstly to review the variety, characteristics and differences of the digital data archives on persons or personal names in the Roman empire that are currently well known and accessible online, and secondly to visualize at a glance the existing potentials and the needs for optimisation in the efforts made so far in the sphere of digital prosopographical data collections.

本次提供的汇编素材，是即将于2025年出版的《布瑞尔罗马人物志学术指南》（Brill’s Companion to Roman Prosopography）中某篇论文的基础文本，该指南由Horster, M.、Hurlet, F.、Fower, R.、Mathisen, R. 担任编纂者，待刊论文主题为《数据仓储（data repositories）与可持续性：其对人物志数据档案（prosopographical data archives）的意义》，作者为Feraudi-Gruénais, F.与Grieshaber, F.。
目前，可在线获取的古代世界人名类数字馆藏数量相对有限，若仅聚焦罗马人名相关的细分领域，这一缺口更为显著。然而，针对该主题的各类数据库、项目、门户与工具进行细致比对后，会呈现出高度异质化的图景，初览之下难以形成整体概览，进而难以全面评估其整体应用价值。
究其根源，情况向来复杂：一方面源于各数据馆藏的历史起源各不相同，另一方面则因它们在内容设计维度存在差异，且依托的古代史料类型亦有所区别。此外还存在诸多其他问题：数字数据的来源与生成方式并不统一（是否原生为数字格式？）、项目目标往往差异显著（是否真正属于人物志范畴？更侧重人物还是人名？）、在时间、地理或文化区域的选取上各有侧重、元数据的数字化深度参差不齐、规范/受控词汇表的收录标准不一，且仅选择性地为部分条目分配唯一人物标识符（unique person-IDs）。最后，一个不容忽视的因素是，项目往往受限于时间与经费，这会对数据的后续存续状态产生影响（是否处于活跃维护、暂停还是已完成的状态？）。
因此，本次呈现的汇编文集旨在达成两大目标：其一，系统梳理当前可在线获取、广为人知的罗马帝国人物/人名类数字数据档案的类型、特征与差异；其二，直观呈现当前数字人物志数据馆藏领域已有的发展潜力，以及现有工作中亟待优化的方向。