Titus

A pocket companion for Greek and Latin epigraphy and antiquities.

Here you will find some quick instructions for playing with Titus on your pocket PC device. As the program is very simple, most of the functions should be self-explanatory, and for most of the tutors (see below) you can refer to the antiquities section of this site and try them online without installing anything.

Main screen

Titus main screen allows you to take short generic notes. Typically they will be the transcription of an inscription. To ease typing, personally I use Beta code when typing Greek with my pocket PC. You can then use converters like Ibis to get Unicode Greek or any non-standard Greek (SuperGreek, Greek, etc.) text from it.

Notes are saved into an XML file, whose structure is so simple that it does not deserve explanations. Each file can contain any number of notes, each identified by a unique number assigned by Titus. Also, a note has a short title you type at the bottom of the screen, and an optional number associated with it: typically I enter here the number of the first photo I take of an inscription using my camera. E.g. if you shoot a photo and your camera tells you its name is DSC7344.JPG, then you can enter 7344 here. This allows you to quickly link photos and texts later. Finally you can attach a GPS position (latitude, longitude and altitude) to each note: just enable (=check) the GPS command in Menu, and after your GPS gets a fix (see the top bar) you can walk to the exact position and select Take position from Menu/Note.

Notes

To create a new note or save the current note select the corresponding command from Menu/Note. To manage the notes in a file, select Menu/Notes, and use the menu functions to create a new notes file, open an existing one or close the currently opened file, and to delete or edit a note in it.

Sigla

The left menu in the main screen allows you to quickly lookup any Latin (or Greek) standard epigraphic abbreviation. You can just type the letters of the abbreviation in the top box and you will get all the matching sigla listed (their number is shown to the right); or you can browse the sigla by their initial letter selecting it from the dropdown list. In both cases, when you select an abbreviation by tapping onto it you will get its details and all its solutions in the box just above the list.

Tutors

Titus also comes with a set of tutors. You can switch among them using the main (right) menu (Menu/Tutors) or quickly access the next tutor using the left menu. Available tutors are: eras converter, emperors finder, Roman calendar, measurement units converter. To try each of these functions just navigate to the corresponding page in this site antiquities section: it's worth notice that with minimal modifications the same software component works under a standalone Windows application, an ASP.NET web site like this, and a Windows Mobile application like Titus.

The gallery below shows some screens from the tutors.

Calendar

• calendar: use the converter to convert between eras, emperors and numeric systems. Type your source value in From, select a conversion type and click the > button. Conversion results are listed in the bottom list view.
• browse: browse a perpetual sample Julian calendar. Just select month and year (negative for B.C.).

Emperors

• list: emperors list, filtered according to the find tab.
• find: find an emperor according to any combination of praenomen, nomen, cognomen, filiation, acclamatio imperatoria, tribunicia potestas, consulatum or typical attribute (in the list select the attribute and then check the enabled box if you want all the emperors with it, uncheck it if you want all the emperors without it, or disable (grayed) if you don't care about that attribute in your search. Click > to filter the list and X to clear all the filters.
• details: see the details about an emperor picked from the list. To pick an emperor just long click onto it in the list and choose Details from the popup menu. Here you can see the full emperor's name and its changes throughout his reign (pick the year to the left); his reign period(s) and dates; his names in time (original, after adoption, etc.); and the dated attributes like imperator, tribunicia potestas, consul etc. (just select the desired attribute).

Units

Select a source unit, type your value and click the > button. You will get all the corresponding converted values in each of the selected target units. To change units family (linear, surface, weight, etc.) use the Menu. To change target units click Targets: you will be presented with the Select Units screen, which allows you to pick a set of units by group or culture, and choose which units from this set you want to use as your targets.