Aslak Rostad, Associate Professor of Classics at Norwegian University of Technology and Science in Trondheim, presents here his revised dissertation, submitted to the University of Bergen in 2006, which investigates the Lydian and Phrygian confession inscriptions with the aim of considering “how the ancient world dealt with religious transgressions” (p. 4). Rostad had suggested to call these inscriptions “reconciliation inscriptions” (“Confession or Reconciliation? The Narrative Structure of the Lydian and Phrygian ‘Confession Inscriptions,’” Symbolae Osloenses 77, 2002, 145–64) in an attempt to translate the term “Sühne-Inschriften” used by Franz S. Steinleitner in 1913, but now accepts the suggestion of C. E. Arnold that “propitiatory” or “appeasement inscriptions” would be a better term (pp. 8–9, with reference to C. E. Arnold, NTS 51, 2005, 433). The basis for Rostad’s comparison of these inscriptions with Greek cultic regulations are forty texts collected by Franciszek Sokolowski (Lois sacrées de l’Asie Mineure;...
