Deciphering History: How AI Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Voices

For decades, historians have painstakingly reconstructed fragmentary Roman inscriptions—carved texts that chronicle everything from imperial decrees to tavern receipts—like detectives solving puzzles with missing pieces. Now, Google DeepMind's Aeneas artificial intelligence system brings computational muscle to this delicate task, promising to transform how we interpret the ancient Mediterranean world.

The Broken Legacy of Roman Epigraphy

Roman inscriptions are humanity's most direct connection to antiquity's everyday life. Unlike curated historical accounts, these texts—etched in stone, bronze, or pottery—preserve unfiltered voices across social classes: love poems scribbled on walls, merchant inventories, gladiator epitaphs, and imperial propaganda. Yet time has been unkind. An estimated 1,500 new fragments surface annually, often eroded, fractured, or stripped of context after centuries of displacement.

"These aren't histories written by victors," explains Dr. Thea Sommerschield, University of Nottingham historian and Aeneas co-creator. "They're raw testimonies from ordinary people—but gaps in the texts and uncertain origins make interpretation agonizingly difficult."

Inside Aeneas: Neural Networks Meet Ancient Latin

Named after the mythical Trojan hero who carried his father from burning Troy, Aeneas shoulders a different burden: processing 16 million characters from nearly 200,000 known inscriptions spanning 7th century BC to 8th century AD. The system combines:

• Contextual Reconstruction: Using transformer-based models (similar to modern LLMs), it predicts missing words by analyzing linguistic patterns, semantic context, and historical parallels rather than simple keyword matching.
• Spatio-Temporal Attribution: By cross-referencing linguistic quirks and material evidence, Aeneas pinpoints an inscription's origin to 1 of 62 Roman provinces and dates it within ±13 years—critical for establishing historical context.
• Comparative Analysis: The AI surfaces previously overlooked connections between inscriptions, revealing how regional dialects or administrative practices evolved across the empire.

Transformative Results in Action

When tested on Augustus' Res Gestae Divi Augusti—a monumental brag-list of the emperor's achievements—Aeneas proposed two possible creation windows: 10-1 BC or 10-20 AD. This mirrored scholarly debates about revisions to the text. In another breakthrough, it detected subtle linguistic links between a votive altar in Mainz, Germany, and older regional altars, exposing cultural influences invisible to traditional methods.

"Those were jaw-dropping moments. Aeneas helps us see connections that might take years of manual research," says Sommerschield.

In a controlled study with 23 historians, the tool provided useful context in 90% of cases. University of Cambridge classicist Mary Beard calls it "transformative," while Oxford's Jonathan Prag notes it democratizes access: "Previously, this required decades of specialized knowledge or vast libraries. Now, critical analysis becomes more accessible."

The New Frontier of Digital Archaeology

Currently available to researchers via a dedicated platform, Aeneas represents a seismic shift in historical methodology. Its success hints at broader applications: reconstructing fragmentary Greek papyri, analyzing medieval manuscripts, or even interpreting vandalized modern archives. As AI learns to navigate the nuances of ancient languages, it doesn't replace historians—but equips them to hear whispers from the past that were once lost to time.

Source: The Guardian
Images: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alamy