Roman Inscriptions of Britain

Roman Inscriptions of Britain is a 3-volume corpus of inscriptions found in Britain from the Roman period. It is an important reference work for all scholars of Roman Britain. This monumental work was initiated by Francis J. Haverfield, whose notebooks were bequeathed to the University of Oxford. The first volume, Inscriptions on Stone, was then edited by R.G. Collingwood and R.P. Wright with an addendum by R.S.O. Tomlin. It was first published in 1965, with a new edition in 1995.

Volume II contains, broadly speaking, the inscriptions found on instrumentum domesticum (domestic utensils).

Volume III (edited by R.S.O. Tomlin, R.P. Wright, and M.W.C. Hassall) is a continuation of Volume I, containing all the lapidary inscriptions found from the closing date of Volume I up to 31 December 2006.

There are also indexes published to the volumes allowing the scholar quickly to reference nomina and cognomina, military units, imperial titles, emperors and consuls, deities and so forth. Entries are also cross-referenced to the CIL and other indexes and journals as necessary.

References to RIB entries are usually written in the simple form: for example, RIB 1726 refers to entry 1726 in volume I, which in this particular case is a part of an altar with the inscription "[I(ovi)] O(ptimo) M(aximo) D(olicheno)". This inscription is shown here with the critical marks from the RIB intact.