“Sacred to Hercules Invictus" 'A very curious inscription' in the collection of Thomas Hollis
Résumé
This chapter considers an inscription acquired by the Grand Tourist Thomas Hollis, in 1753. It claims to have been dedicated to Hercules Invictus by the Republican military general L. Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus, but an analysis of its text reveals that it is almost certainly a forgery. Hollis’ belief in its authenticity demonstrates the awkward liminal nature of epigraphic material in the eighteenth century, and the prevailing antiquarian interest in identifying facts and figures of a historical nature in their texts