The British Epigraphy Society would like to celebrate the work of Barbara Levick, a founding member of the BES who continued to support the society for decades, distinguished epigrapher, inspirational teacher, and generous colleague. Barbara's epigraphic research as represented by MAMA IX and X (1988: Monuments from the Aezanitis; 1993, Monuments from the Upper Tembris Valley, Cotiaeum, Cadi, Synaus, Ancyra, and Tiberiopolis) along with The Customs Law of Asia (2008) a collaborative volume that owed much to her leadership, laid the foundation for much of our understanding of the society, culture, and economy of Asia Minor. Her ground-breaking book Roman Colonies in Southern Asia Minor (1967) was the fruit (via a D.Phil. thesis) of courageous epigraphic fieldwork which she undertook more or less single-handedly in Turkey in the 1950s, cutting an indomitable figure that could evoke memories of an earlier generation of pioneers such as Gertrude Bell or Freya Stark. It was typical of her generosity of spirit that she also produced two sourcebooks, The Government of the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook (Routledge 1985; 2nd edn 2000) and The High Tide of Empire: Emperors and Empire AD 14-117 (LACTOR 2002), as well as contributing her expert comment on Velleius and Tacitus for The Age of Augustus (LACTOR 2003) and Tiberius to Nero (LACTOR 2011). In this way, she made accessible to students the arcana of epigraphic material and also helped to elucidate major historical writers of the imperial age. Her biographies of Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius, and Vespasian were over time complemented by biographies of the Faustinas and Julia Domna, offering an unsurpassed interpretative sweep of Roman imperial history.

A BES Appreciation of Barbara Levick (1931-2023)