Although there are specialist studies on the mobility of the inhabitants
of the cities and regions of the Black Sea, we lack a comprehensive
prosopography of those of them active abroad. This work, containing 3347
entries, is a first attempt, casting light on the mobility of different
social and professional groups, not only mercenaries and merchants but
also itinerant philosophers and artists. It demonstrates that the Black
Sea was well integrated into the main circles of the Greek, Roman and
Early Byzantine world. Chronologically, the work starts with the
earliest attestations and finishes with the end of the 6th century AD.
It includes not only people attested by external documents but also
persons mentioned by internal inscriptions as having travelled or died
outside their country. The area of investigation covers the entire Black
Sea coast. The Prosopographia Ptolemaica is used as a model. Each
entry follows a set form: name; family relationships (father/mother,
son/daughter, brother/sister); type of inscription or category of
papyrus; profession or further data on the person's activity; form of
the ethnic; dating; testimonies and bibliographical references. For each
heading the geographical order of attestations is that of the SEG.
There are very detailed indexes (names, cases of double or multiple
citizenship, proxenies or other honours awarded abroad, professional
categories, etc.).
