"Few Greek inscriptions are preserved complete and easy to read. Much labour goes into deciphering the letters and conjecturing restorations to fill in what is no longer preserved at all. Such efforts encourage overvaluing what is said, as if the detective work of the epigrapher, designed to discover"
"The decision of Ban Gu to adopt for his own Hanshu and abbreviated version of the Shiji’s system of categorisation set a pattern that would inform official dynastic histories down to the end of imperial times. The retrospective habit by which writers of a newly risen regime sought to document the im"