Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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While Graham and Ruff<strong>in</strong>i acknowledged that most of their analysis is still fairly speculative, they also
conv<strong>in</strong>c<strong>in</strong>gly argued that the unique nature of their results derived from network analysis of ancient
evidence suggests that there are many <strong>in</strong>terest<strong>in</strong>g avenues of future work.
Relational Databases and Model<strong>in</strong>g Prosopography
Perhaps the most extensive prosopographical database onl<strong>in</strong>e is the Prosopography of the Byzant<strong>in</strong>e
World (PBW). 539 This website, formerly known as the Prosopography of the Byzant<strong>in</strong>e Empire (PBE),
provides access to a database that attempts to <strong>in</strong>clude details on every <strong>in</strong>dividual mentioned <strong>in</strong> both
Byzant<strong>in</strong>e textual and seal sources 540 between 641 and 1261 AD. The database of the PBW is large
and complex and, as described by the website, is composed of thousands of “factoids”:
Its core is made up of nearly 60,000 factoids (small pieces of <strong>in</strong>formation classified under
different categories), each of which is l<strong>in</strong>ked to an owner and (generally) at least one other
secondary person by a hypertext l<strong>in</strong>k. More than a third of the factoids are of the narrative type,
and these are organised <strong>in</strong>to narrative units by further l<strong>in</strong>ks. There are 2,774 such units. The
units are <strong>in</strong> turn l<strong>in</strong>ked to dates and reigns, and some of them to larger events and problems.
There are, <strong>in</strong> addition, around 7,500 seals, with l<strong>in</strong>ks to matrices which number 5,000. Each
seal is l<strong>in</strong>ked to a museum or private collection and at least one edition, and each set of
matrices to an owner, certa<strong>in</strong> or hypothetical, <strong>in</strong> the core of the database. 541
As of April 2010, approximately 10,000 named <strong>in</strong>dividuals were <strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> the PBW. A variety of
search<strong>in</strong>g and brows<strong>in</strong>g options are available for this database. The entire prosopography can be
browsed alphabetically, and click<strong>in</strong>g on an <strong>in</strong>dividual name br<strong>in</strong>gs up a record for that person that can
<strong>in</strong>clude vary<strong>in</strong>g levels of detail, depend<strong>in</strong>g on the number and specificity of attestations <strong>in</strong> the sources.
For example, a record for “Kissiane 101” <strong>in</strong>cludes a Greek representation of the name, place of
residence, and a k<strong>in</strong>ship l<strong>in</strong>k to her husband, whereas the record for her husband, “Nikephoros 148,”
also <strong>in</strong>cludes a textual description, four k<strong>in</strong>ship relations (all of which are hyperl<strong>in</strong>ked to the records
for these <strong>in</strong>dividuals), and a list of possessions. Every “factoid” <strong>in</strong> each <strong>in</strong>dividual record <strong>in</strong>cludes the
source where this attestation was found. For historically significant <strong>in</strong>dividuals such as emperors, even
more extensive sets of factoids are available. For example, the record for “Michael 7” <strong>in</strong>cludes 307
narrative factoids, seven education factoids, and three alternative names, among extensive other detail.
The PBW offers an extensive level of detail by often <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the full text of the various “factoids”
from primary sources <strong>in</strong> each <strong>in</strong>dividual record. One feature that is unfortunately not available but
would likely be very useful is the ability to l<strong>in</strong>k to <strong>in</strong>dividual person records with<strong>in</strong> the PBW with
permanent URLs.
While the entire PBW can be browsed alphabetically by <strong>in</strong>dividual names, a user can choose to browse
the <strong>in</strong>dividuals found with<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>dividual sources (rather than all), such as the Alexiad by Anna Comnena
or the Epitome by Joannes Zonaras. The user can also browse lists of <strong>in</strong>dividuals classified by factoids
their records conta<strong>in</strong> (only one factoid may be chosen at a time), <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g narrative, authorship,
description, dignity/office, education, k<strong>in</strong>ship, language skill, occupation, possession, or religion. In
addition to these brows<strong>in</strong>g options, the PDB database search allows the user to keyword search with<strong>in</strong>
all factoids, with<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong>dividual factoids, or with<strong>in</strong> a comb<strong>in</strong>ation of factoid categories us<strong>in</strong>g Boolean
operators.
539 http://www.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/content/<strong>in</strong>dex.html
540 A full list of the primary sources used and their abbreviations is provided at http://www.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/content/<strong>in</strong>dex.html; a list of the editions used for
the text of the seals can be found at http://www.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/content/reference/sealedit.html
541 http://www.pbw.kcl.ac.uk/content/reference/full.html