Chapter 4

III.—1. Among the inscriptions in the stricter sense (thetituli), perhaps the oldest, and certainly the most frequent, are thesepulchral inscriptions(tituli sepulcrales). Of the different forms of Roman tombs, partly depending upon the difference between burial and cremation, which were in use side by side, a very complete account is given in Marquardt’sHandbuch der römischen Altertümer(vol. vii. part i., Leipzig, 1879, p. 330 seq.). The most ancient examples are those of asepulcretumat Praeneste (C.I.L.i. 74, 165, 1501a-d;Ephem. epigr.i. 25-131; Wil. 153); the oldest of these contain nothing but the name of the deceased in the nominative; those of more recent date give it in the genitive. The oldest and simplest form remained always in use down to Christian times; it is that used on the large tectonic monuments of the Augustan age (e.g.that of Caecilia Metella,C.I.L.vi. 1274) and in themausoleaof most of the emperors, and is still frequent in thetituliof the largecolumbariaof the same age (C.I.L.vi. part ii.). It was early succeeded by the lists of names, given also in the nominative, when more than one individual, either dead or alive, were to be indicated as sharers of a tomb. To distinguish the members still alive, av(vivit,vivos,vivi) was prefixed to their names (e.g.C.I.L.i. 1020, 1195, 1271); the deceased were sometimes marked by theθῆταnigrum(C.I.L.i. 1032; Wil. 158; see alsoC.I.L.vi. 10251 seq.). Only the names in the nominative are shown, too, on thesarcophagiof theTurpleiiandFouriiatTusculum (C.I.L.i. 65-72; Wil. 152), and in the oldest inscriptions on those of theScipiones, painted withminium(C.I.L.i. 29; Wil. 537), to which were added afterwards the insignia of themagistratus curules(C.I.L.i. 31; Wil. 538) and the poeticalelogia. Of a somewhat different kind are the inscriptions scratched without much care on very simple earthen vessels which belonged to asepulcretumof the lower class, situated outside theporta Capenaat Rome, on the Appian road, near the old church of San Cesario (C.I.L.i. 882-1005, 1539, 1539a-d=C.I.L.vi. 8211-8397; Wil. 176); they can be ascribed to the period of the Gracchi. On theseollae, besides the name of the deceased, also for the most part in the nominative, but on the more recent in the genitive, the date of a day, probably that of the death, is noted; here and thereobit(oro.) is added. About the same epoch, at the beginning of the 6th century, along with the growing taste for tectonic ornamentation of the tombs in the Greek style, poetical epigrams were added to the simple sepulchraltitulus, especially amongst the half-Greek middle class rapidly increasing in Rome and Italy; Saturnian (C.I.L.i. 1006), iambic (1007-1010) and dactylic (1011) verses become more and more frequent in epitaphs (see Buecheler,Anthologia Latina, ii.). In prose also short designations of the mental qualities of the deceased (homo bonus,misericors,amans pauperum, oruxor frugi,bona,pudicaand the like), short dialogues with the passer-by (originally borrowed from Greek poetry), asvale salve,salvus ire,vale et tu,te rogo praeteriens dicas“sit tibi terra levis,” &c. (Wil. 180), then indications of his condition in his lifetime, chiefly among the Greek tradesmen and workmen,e.g.lanius de colle Viminale(C.I.L.i. 1011),margaritarius de sacra via(1027) and the like, and some formulae, such asossa hic sita sunt,heic cubat,heic situs est(in republican times mostly written in full, not abridged) were added (J. Church “Zur Phraseologie der lat. Grabinschriften” inArch. lat. Lexikogr.12. 215 sqq.). The habit of recording the measurement of the sepulchre, on the sepulchralcippus, by such formulae aslocus patet in fronte pedes tot,in agro(orin via, orretro)pedes tot, seems not to be older than the Augustan age (C.I.L.i. 1021, with Mommsen’s note; Wil. 188). About the same time also the epitaphs more frequently state how long the deceased lived, which was formerly added only on certain occasions (e.g.in the case of a premature death), and mostly in poetical form. The worship of thedei Manes, though undoubtedly very ancient, is not alluded to in the sepulchral inscriptions themselves until the close of the republic. Here and there, in this period, the tomb is designated as a (locus)deum Maanium(e.g.at Hispellum,C.I.L.i. 1410); or, it is said, as on acippusfrom Corduba in Spain (C.I.L.ii. 2255; Wil. 218),C. Sentio Sat(urnino) co(n)s(ule)—that is, in the year 19B.C.—dei Manes receperunt Abulliam N(umerii) l(ibertam) Nigellam. In the Augustan age thetitulus sepulcralisbegins to be confounded with thetitulus sacer; it adopts the form of a dedicationdeis Manibus, offered to thedei Manes(ordei inferi Manes, thedei parentumbeing theManesof the parents) of the deceased (see Orel. 4351; Wil. 217-228). This formula, afterwards so common, is still very rare at the end of the republic, and is usually written in full, while in later times it is employed, both simply and in many varied forms (asdis manibus sacrum, ord. m. et memoriae,d. m. et genio, ormemoriae aeternae,paci et quieti,quieti aeternae,somno aeternaliand so on; Wil. 246), in thousands of monuments. By similar degrees thetitulus sepulcralisadopts many of the elements of thetitulus honorarius(the indication of thecursus honorum, of the military charges, &c., ase.g.in the inscription of Cn. Calpurnius Piso,C.I.L.i. 598 = vi. 1276, Wil. 1105, on the pyramid of Cestius,C.I.L.vi. 1374, and on the monument at Ponte Lucano of Ti. Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, consulA.D.74, Orel. 750, Wil. 1145 and many others), of thetituli operum publicorum(e.g.monumentum fecit,sibi et suis, &c.), and of theinstrumenta. Testaments (like those of Dasumius of the yearA.D.109.—C.I.L.vi. 10229; Wil. 314; and T. Flavius Syntrophus—C.I.L.vi. 10239; Henz. 7321; Wil. 313), or parts of them (like that on the tomb of a Gaul of the tribe of the Lingones, belonging to Vespasian’s time, Wil. 315), funeral orations (as those on Turia—C.I.L.vi. 1527;Notizie degli scavi(1898), p. 412; Hirschfeld,Wiener Studien Bormannheft, p. 283; Fowler,Classical Review, xix. 261; on Murdia—C.I.L.vi. 10230; Orel. 4860; Rudorff,Abhandlungen der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin(1868), p. 217 seq.; and that of Hadrian on the elder Matidia, found at Tivoli—Mommsen in the sameAbhandlungen(1863), p. 483 seq; Dehner,Laudatio Matidiae, Neuwied (1891), numerous statements relating to the conservation and the employment of the monuments (C.I.L.vi. 10249; Wil. 287-290), to their remaining within the family of the deceased—from which came the frequent formula “h(oc) m(onumentum) h(eredem) n(on) s(equetur)” and the like (Wil. 280; cf. Hor. Sat. i. 8. 13),—and relating to the annual celebration ofparentalia(Wil. 305 seq.), down to the not uncommon prohibition of violation or profanation of the monumentnoli violare, &c., with many other particulars (on which the index of Wil. p. 678 seq. may be consulted), form the text of the sepulchral inscriptions of the later epoch from Augustus downwards. The thoroughly pagan sentimentnon fui non sum non curo, orn. f. n. s. n. c., is common, apparently a translation of the Greekοὐκ ἤμην, ἐγενόμην οὐκ ἔσομαι οὐ μἐλει μοι. Another type of epitaph, much affected by the poorer classes (like our “Affliction sore” &c.), is:noli dolere mater eventum meum, Properavit aetas, hoc voluit fatus(sic)mihi(Lier, “Topica carminum sepulcralium Latinorum” inPhilologus, 62. 445 sqq.). To these are to be added many local peculiarities of provinces (as Spain and Africa), districts (as the much-disputedsub ascia dedicareof the stones of Lyons and other parts of Gaul), and towns, of which a full account cannot be given here.2. Of thededicatory inscriptions(ortituli sacri), the oldest known are the short indications painted (along with representations of wingedgenii, in the latest style of Graeco-Italian vase painting), with white colour on black earthen vessels, by which those vessels (pocula) are declared to be destined for the worship, public or private, of a certain divinity (C.I.L.i. 43-50;Ephem. epigr.i. 5-6; Wil. 2827 a-i); they give the name of the god, as that of the possessor, in the genitive (e.g.Saeturni pocolom,Lavernai pocolom). The proper form of the dedication, the simple dative of the name of a divinity and often nothing else (asApolenei,Fide,Junone, &c., which are all datives), is shown on the very primitive altars found in a sacred wood near Pisaurum (C.I.L.i. 167-180; Wil. 1-14); but also the name of the dedicants (matrona,matrona Pisaurese, which are nomin. plur.) and the formulae of the offering (dono dedrotordedro,donu dat, wheredonoanddonuare accus.) are already added to them. This most simple form (the verb in the perfect or in the present) never disappeared entirely; it occurs not infrequently also in the later periods. Nor did the dative alone, without any verb or formula, go entirely out of use (seeC.I.L.i. 630; Wil. 36;C.I.L.i. 814 = vi. 96; Orel. 1850; Wil. 32;C.I.L.i. 1153; Henz. 5789; Wil. 1775). But at an early date the verbdonum dareand some synonyms (likedonum portare,ferre,mancupio dare,parare) were felt to be insufficient to express the dedicator’s good-will and his sense of the justice of the dedication, which accordingly were indicated in the expanded formuladono dedet lub(e)s mereto(C.I.L.i. 183, cf. p. 555; Wil. 21;C.I.L.i. 190; Wil. 22), or, with omission of the verb,dono mere(to) lib(e)s(C.I.L.i. 182). The dative case and this formula, completely or partially employed (formeritoalone is also used, asC.I.L.i. 562, cf.Ephem. epigr.ii. 353, Wil. 29), remained in solemn use. Tolubens(orlibens) was addedlaetus(so in Catullus 31. 4), and, if a vow preceded the dedication,votum solvit(orvoto condemnatus dedit; seeC.I.L.i. 1175; Henz. 5733; Wil. 142, andC.I.L.ii. 1044); so, but not before the time of Augustus (seeC.I.L.i. 1462 = iii. 1772), the solemn formula of the dedicatory inscriptions of the later period,v. s. l. m.orv. s. l. l. m., arose. To the same effect, and of equally ancient origin with the solemn wordsdareanddonum dare, the wordsacrum(or other forms of it, assacra[ara]), conjoined with the name of a divinity in the dative, indicates a gift to it (e.g.C.I.L.i. 814; Wil. 32;C.I.L.i. 1200-1201; Wil. 33ab); the same form is to be found also in the later period (e.g.C.I.L.i. 1124; Henz. 5624-5637), and gave the model for the numerous sepulchral inscriptions withdis Manibus sacrummentioned before.Sacrumcombined with a genitive very seldom occurs (Orel. 1824; Wil. 34);arais found more frequently (asara Neptuniandara Ventorum, Orel. 1340). Dedications were frequently the results of vows; so victorious soldiers (such as L. Mummius, the conqueror of Corinth—C.I.L.i. 541 seq.; Orel. 563; Wil. 27), and prosperous merchants (e.g.the brothers Vertuleii—C.I.L.i. 1175; Henz. 5733; Wil. 142) vow a tenth part of their booty (de praedad, as is said on the basis erected by one of the Fourii of Tusculum—C.I.L.i. 63, 64; Henz. 5674; Wil. 18) or gain, and out of this dedicate a gift to Hercules or other divinities (see alsoC.I.L.i. 1503; Wil. 24;C.I.L.1113; Wil. 43). Again, what one man had vowed, and had begun to erect, is, by his will, executed after his death by others (as thepropylum Cereris et Proserpinaeon the Eleusinian temple, which Appius Claudius Pulcher, Cicero’s well-known predecessor in the Cilician proconsulate, began—C.I.L.i. 619 = iii. 347; Wil. 31); or the statue that anaedilisvowed is erected by himself asduovir(C.I.L.iii. 500; Henz. 5684); what slaves had promised they fulfil as freedmen (C.I.L.1233,servos vovit liber solvit;C.I.L.816, Wil. 51, “ser(vos) vov(it) leibert(us) solv(it)”), and so on. The different acts into which an offering, according to the circumstantially detailed Roman ritual, is to be divided (theconsecratiobeing fulfilled only by the solemndedicatio) are also specified on dedicatory inscriptions (see for instance,consacrareorconsecrare, Orel. 2503, and Henz. 6124, 6128; fordedicare,C.I.L.i. 1159, Henz. 7024, Wil. 1782, and compare Catullus’shunc lucum tibi dedico consecroque Priape; fordicaresee theaara leege Albana dicatato Vediovis by thegenteiles Iuliei,C.I.L.i. 807, Orel. 1287, Wil. 101). Not exactly dedicatory, but only mentioning the origin of the gift, are the inscriptions on the pedestals of offerings (ἀναθήματα,donaria) out of the booty, like those of M. Claudius Marcellus from Enna (C.I.L.i. 530; Wil. 25, “Hinnad cepit”) or of M. Fulvius Nobilior, the friend of the poet Ennius, from Aetolia (C.I.L.i. 534; Orel. 562; Wil. 26 a, andBullettino dell’ Instituto, 1869, p. 8;C.I.L.vi. 1307; Wil. 26 b, “Aetolia cepit” and “Ambracia cepit”); they contain only the name of the dedicator, not that of the divinity. Of the similar offerings of L. Mummius, already mentioned, two only are preserved in their original poetical form, the Roman in Saturnian verses of acarmen triumphale(C.I.L.i. 541; Orel. 563; Wil. 27a) and that found at Reate in dactylic hexameters (C.I.L.i. 542; Wil. 27b); the rest of them contain only the name of the dedicant and the dative of the community to which they were destined (C.I.L.i. and Wil.l.c.). Of a peculiar form is the very ancient inscription on a bronze tablet, now at Munich, probably from Rome, where twoaidiles, whose names are given at the beginning as in the otherdonaria, “vicesma(m) parti(m)or [ex]vicesmaparti Apalones(that is,Apollinis)dederi(that is,dedere)” (C.I.L.i. 187; Orel. 1433). Many, but not substantial, varieties arise, when old offerings are restored (e.g.C.I.L.i. 638, 632 = Orel. 2135, and Wil. 48;C.I.L.i. 803; Henz. 5669, 6122); or the source of the offering (e.g.de stipe,C.I.L.i. 1105; Henz. 5633 a;ex reditu pecuniae,ex patrimonio suo,ex ludis,de munere gladiatorio, and so on); or the motive (ex jusso,ex imperio,ex visu,ex oraculo,monitu,viso moniti,somnio admonitusand the like), or the person or object, for which the offering was made (C.I.L.i. 188,pro poplod;Ephem. epigr.ii. 208,pro trebibos, in the British Museum;pro se,pro salute,in honorem domus divinae, &c.), are indicated; or, as in thetituli operum publicorum, the order of a magistrate (de senati sententia,C.I.L.i. 560 = vi. 1306; Orel. 5351; i. 632 = vi. 110; Orel. 2135; Wil. 48;decurionum decreto, &c.), and the magistrates or private persons executing or controlling the work, the place where and the time when it was erected, are added. On all these details the indexes, especially that of Wil. (ii. 675), give further information. The objects themselves which are offered or erected begin to be named only in the later period just as in thetituli operum publicorum(“basim donum dant,”C.I.L.i. 1167; “signum basim,”C.I.L.i. 1154; “aram,”C.I.L.i. 1468; Orel. 1466; Wil. 52;C.I.L.i. 1109; Wil. 54); in the later period this custom becomes more frequent. It is hardly necessary to observe that all kinds of offerings have very frequently also been adorned with poetry; thesecarmina dedicatoriaare given by Buecheler,Anthologia Latina, ii.; cf. Wil. 142-151.3. Statues to mortals, whether living or after their death (but not on their tombs), withhonorary inscriptions(tituli honorarii), were introduced into the Roman republic after the Greek model and only at a comparatively late date. One of the oldest inscriptions of this class comes from Greek soil and is itself Greek in form, with the name in the accusative governed by some (suppressed) verb like “honoured” (C.I.L.i. 533; Wil. 649), “Italicei L. Cornelium Scipionem(i.e.Asiagenum)honoris caussa,” lost and of not quite certain reading, belonging to 561 A.U.C. (193B.C.); the same form (in the accusative) appears in other (Latin or Latin and Greek) inscriptions from Greece (C.I.L.i. 596 = iii. 532; Wil. 1103;C.I.L.iii. 365, 7240; compare alsoC.I.L.i. 587, 588; Orel. 3036). The noble house of the Scipios introduced the use of poeticalelogiain the ancient form of thecarmina triumphaliain Saturnian verses (from the 6th century in elegiac distichs). They were added to the shorttituli, painted only withminiumon the sarcophagi, giving the name of the deceased (in the nominative) and his curulian offices (exclusively), which were copied perhaps from the well-knownimaginespreserved in theatriumof the house (C.I.L.i. 29 sq; Orel. 550 sq.; Wil. 537 sq., and elsewhere). They hold, by their contents, an intermediate place between the sepulchral inscriptions, to which they belong properly, and the honorary ones, and therefore are rightly styledelogia. What the Scipios did thus privately for themselves was in other cases done publicly at a period nearly as early. The first instance preserved of such a usage, of which Pliny the elder speaks (Hist. nat.xxxiv. § 17 sq.), is the celebratedcolumna rostrataof C. Duilius, of which only a copy exists, made in or before the time of the emperor Claudius (C.I.L.i. 195 = vi. 1300; Orel. 549; Wil. 609). Then follow theelogiainscribed at the base of public works like theArcus Fabianus(C.I.L.i. 606, 607 and 278, elog. i.-iii. = vi. 1303, 1304; Wil. 610), or of statues by their descendants, as those belonging to asacrarium domus Augustae(C.I.L.i. elog. iv.-vi. =C.I.L.vi. 1310, 1311) and others belonging to men celebrated in politics or in letters, as Scipio, Hortensius, Cicero, &c., and found in Rome either on marble tablets (C.I.L.i. vii.-xii. =C.I.L.vi. 1312, 1279, 1283, 1271, 1273; Wil. 611-613) or on busts (C.I.L.i. xv.-xix. =C.I.L.vi. 1327, 1295, 1320, 1309, 1325, 1326; Wil. 618-621; see alsoC.I.L.i. 40 = vi. 1280; Wil. 1101; andC.I.L.i. 631 = vi. 1278; i. 640 = vi. 1323, vi. 1321, 1322, whereT. Quinctiseems to be the nominative), and in divers other places (C.I.L.i. xiii., xiv.; Wil. 614, 615). This custom seems to have been resumed by Augustus (Suet.Aug.31) with a political and patriotic aim, praised by the poet Horace (Od.iv. 8. 13, “incisa notis marmora publicis, per quae spiritus et vita redit bonis post mortem ducibus”); for he adorned hisforumwith the statues of celebrated men from Aeneas and Romulus downwards (C.I.L.i. xxiv., xxv., xxvii., xxxii. =C.I.L.vi. 1272, 1308, 1315, 1318; Wil. 625, 626, 627, 632), and other towns followed his example (so Pompeii,C.I.L.i. xx., xxii. = Wil. 622, 623; Lavinium,C.I.L.i. xxi.; Wil. 617; Arretium,C.I.L.i. xxiii., xxviii., xxix., xxx., xxxi., xxxiii., xxxiv. = Wil. 624, 625, 629-633). All theseelogiaare written in the nominative. In the same way in the colonies statues seem to have been erected to their founders or other eminent men, as in Aquileia (C.I.L.i. 538 = v. 873; Wil. 650; compare alsoC.I.L.v. 862; Orel. 3827) and Luna (C.I.L.i. 539 = Wil. 651).But along with this primitive and genuine form of thetitulus honorariusanother form of it, equivalent to the dedicatory inscription, with the name of the person honoured in the dative, begins to prevail from the age of Sulla onwards. For the oldest examples of this form seem to be the inscriptions on statues dedicated to the dictator at Rome (C.I.L.i. 584 = vi. 1297; Orel. 567; Wil. 1102a) and at other places (Caieta and Clusium,C.I.L.i. 585, 586; Wil. 1102b,c), in which the whole set of honours and offices is not enumerated as in theelogia, but only thehonores praesentes; compare also the inscription belonging to about the same date, of aquaestor urbanus(C.I.L.i. 636). Within the Greek provinces also, at the same period, this form is adopted (C.I.L.i. 595 = iii. 531; Henz. 5294; Wil. 1104). Similar dedications were offered to Pompey the Great (at Auximum and Clusium,C.I.L.i. 615, 616; Orel. 574; Wil. 1107) and to his legate L. Afranius (at Bologna, but erected by the citizens of the Spanish colony Valentia,C.I.L.i. 601; Henz. 5127; Wil. 1106). They are succeeded by the statues raised to Caesar (at Bovianum,C.I.L.i. 620; Orel. 582; Wil. 1108), and, after his death,iussu populi Romani, in virtue of a special law, at Rome (C.I.L.i. 626 = vi. 872; Orel. 586; Wil. 877). With him, as is well known, divine honours begin to be paid to theprinceps, even during life. In this same form other historical persons of high merit also begin to be honoured by posterity, as, for example, Scipio the elder at Saguntum (C.I.L.ii. 3836; Wil. 653), Marius at Cereatae Marianae, the place which bears his name (C.I.L.x. 5782; Wil. 654). Of statues erected by the community of a municipium to a private person, that of L. Popillius Flaccus at Ferentinum seems to be the oldest example (C.I.L.i. 1164; Wil. 655, and his note). In Rome, Augustus and his successors in this way permitted the erection of statues, especially totriumphatores, in the newfora, including that of Augustus (C.I.L.vi. 1386; Orel. 3187; Wil. 634;C.I.L.vi. 1444; Henz. 5448; Wil. 635) and that of Trajan (C.I.L.vi. 1377; Henz. 5478; Wil. 636; vi. 1549; Henz. 5477; Wil. 639; iv. 1549; Orel. 1386; Wil. 637;C.I.L.1565, 1566; Wil. 640); and this custom lasted to a late period (C.I.L.vi. 1599; Henz. 3574; Wil. 638), as is shown by the statues of Symmachus the orator (C.I.L.vi. 1698, 1699; Orel. 1186, 1187; Wil. 641), Claudian the poet (C.I.L.vi. 1710; Orel. 1182; Wil. 642), Nicomachus Flavianus (C.I.L.vi. 1782, 1783; Orel. 1188; Henz. 5593; Wil. 645, 645a), and many other eminent men down to Stilicho (C.I.L.vi. 1730, 1731; Orel. 1133, 1134; Wil. 648, 648a), who died in the year 408. In similar forms are conceived the exceedingly numerous dedications to the emperors and their families, in which the names and titles, according to the different historical periods, are exhibited, in the main with the greatest regularity. They are specified in detailed indexes by Henzen and Wilmanns, as well as in each volume of theCorpus. In the provinces, of course, the usages of the capital were speedily imitated. Perhaps the oldest example of atitulus honorariusin the form of anelogium(but in the dative), with the fullcursus honorumof the person honoured, is abilinguisfrom Athens, of the Augustan age (C.I.L.iii. 551; Henz. 6456a; Wil. 1122); the honours are here enumerated in chronological order, beginning with the lowest; in other instances the highest is placed first, and the others follow in order.41In the older examples the formula “honoris causa,” orvirtutis ergo(Hermes, vi., 1871, p. 6), is added at the end, as in an inscription of Mytilene belonging to the consul of the year 723 A.U.C.,i.e.31B.C.(C.I.L.iii. 455; Orel. 4111; Wil. 1104b); the same, abbreviated (h.c.), occurs on an inscription of about the same age from Cirta in Africa (C.I.L.viii. 7099; Wil. 2384). Shortly afterwards the honour of a statue became as common in the Romanmunicipiaas it was in Athens and other Greek cities in the later period. Each province furnishes numerous examples, partly with peculiar formulae, on which the indexes of Wilmanns (pp. 673, 696 sq.) may be consulted. Special mention may be made of the numerous honorary inscriptions belonging toaurigae,histrionesandgladiatores; for those found in Rome seeC.I.L.vi. 10,044-10,210.He who erects a temple or a public building, or constructs a road, a bridge, an aqueduct or the like, by inscribing his name on the work, honours himself, and, as permission to do so has to be given by the public authorities, is also honoured by the community. Therefore thetituli operum publicorum, though in form only short official statements (at least in the older period) of the origin of the work, without any further indications as to its character and purpose, partake of the style of the older honorary inscriptions. Of the ancient and almost universally employed method of erecting public buildings by means of thelocatio censoriaone monument has preserved some traces (Ephem. epigr.ii. 199). The oldest instance of this class is that commemorating the restoration of the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter, begun, after its destruction by fire in the year 671 (83B.C.), by Sulla and continued five years later by the well-known orator and poet Q. Lutatius Catulus, but completed only about twenty years afterwards. Here, after the name of Catulus in the nominative and the indication of the single parts of the building (as, for example,substructionem et tabularium), follows the solemn formulade s(enati) s(ententia) faciundum coeravit eidemque probavit(C.I.L.i. 592 = vi. 1314; Orel. 31, 3267; Wil. 700). With the same formula the praetor Calpurnius Piso Frugi (of about the same period) dedicated an unknown building (C.I.L.i. 594 = vi. 1275), restored afterwards by Trajan. On a work executed by thecollegium tribunorum plebis(C.I.L.i. 593 = vi. 1299; Wil. 787), perhaps the public streets within the town, the sum employed for it is also inscribed. Precisely similar is the oldest inscription of one of the bridges of Rome, theponte dei quattro capi, still preserved, though partly restored, on its original site, which commemorates its builder, the tribune of the year 692(62B.C.), L. Fabricius (C.I.L.i. 600 = vi. 1305; Orel. 50; Wil. 788); it was restored by the consuls of the year 733 (21B.C.).42On privately erected buildings the founder after his name puts a simplefecit(as also on sepulchral inscriptions); so, possibly, did Pompey, when he dedicated his theatre as a temple of Venus Victrix and, on Cicero’s clever advice, as Varro and Tiro had it from Cicero himself, inscribed on itcos. tert(nottertiumortertio) (see Gellius,Noct. Att.x. 1). So Agrippa, when he dedicated his Pantheon in the year 727 (27B.C.), inscribed on it only the wordsM. Agrippa, L. f. cos. tertium fecit(C.I.L.vi. 896; Orel. 34; Wil. 731), as all who visit the Eternal City know. Of municipal examples it will be sufficient to name those of the majestic temple of Cora (C.I.L.i. 1149-1150; Wil. 722, 723), of Ferentinum, with the measurements of the foundation (C.I.L.i. 1161-1163; Wil. 708), of the walls and towers at Aeclanum (C.I.L.i. 1230; Orel. 566; Henz. 6583; Wil. 699), of the theatre, amphitheatre, baths and other structures at Pompeii (C.I.L.i. 1246, 1247, 1251, 1252; Orel. 2416, 3294; Henz. 6153; Will. 730, 1899-1901). At Aletrium a munificent citizen gives an enumeration of a number of works executed by him in the period of the Gracchi, in his native town (“haec quae infera scripta sunt de senatu sententia facienda coiravit,”C.I.L.i. 1166; Orel. 3892; Wil. 706); and, more than a century later, the same is done at Cartima, a small Spanish town near Malaga, by a rich woman (C.I.L.ii. 1956; Wil. 746). Military works, executed by soldiers, especially frequent in the Danubian provinces, Africa, Germany and Britain, give, in this way, manifold and circumstantial information as to the military administration of the Romans. On a column found near the bridge over the Minho at Aquae Flaviae, the modern Chaves in northern Portugal, ten communities inscribed their names, probably as contributors to the work, with those of the emperors (Vespasian and his sons), the imperial legate of the province, the legate of the legion stationed in Spain, the imperialprocurator, and the name of the legion itself (C.I.L.ii. 2477; Wil. 803); and similarly, with the name of Trajan, on the famous bridge over the Tagus at Alcántara, in Spanish Estremadura, the names of themunicipia provinciae Lusitaniae stipe conlata quae opus pontis perfeceruntare inscribed (C.I.L.ii. 759-762; Orel. 161, 162; Wil. 804).As in some of the already-mentioned inscriptions of public works the measurements of the work to which they refer (especially, as may be supposed, in the case of works of great extent, such as walls of towns or lines of fortification, like the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius in Britain) are indicated, so it early became a custom in the Roman republic to note onmilestonesthe name of the founder of the road and, especially at the extremities of it and near large towns, the distances. So in theval di Dianain Lucania P. Popillius Laenas, the consul of the year 622 (132B.C.), at the end of a road built by him, set up themiliarium Popilianum(C.I.L.i. 551; Orel. 3308; Wil. 797), which is a general elogium to himself, in which he speaks in the first person (viam fecei ab Regio ad Capuam, &c.). One of the singlemiliariaset up by him is also preserved (C.I.L.i. 550; Henz. 7174d; Wil. 808), which contains only his name and the number of miles. In the same brief style are conceived the other not very frequent republican miliaria found in Italy (C.I.L.i. 535-537; Henz. 5348; Wil. 567;C.I.L.i. 540; Henz. 5350, 6226; Wil. 807;C.I.L.i. 558, 559; Henz. 5353; Wil. 808;C.I.L.i. 561; Henz. 5180; Wil. 811;C.I.L.i. 633; Wil. 812) down to the time of Augustus (C.I.L.x. 6895, 6897, 6899; Wil. 813), and also the even more rare specimens from the provinces (from Asia—C.I.L.i. 557 = iii. 479, Wil. 826,C.I.L.i. 622 = iii. 462, Wil. 827; from Spain—C.I.L.i. 1484-1486 = ii. 4920-4925, 4956, Wil. 828, 829). Augustus inscribed on each milestone on his road across Spain “a Baete et Jano Augusto ad Oceanum” (e.g.C.I.L.ii. 4701; Wil. 832), Claudius on those of a road in Upper Italy founded by his father Drusus “viam Claudiam Augustam quam Drusus pater Alpibus bello patefactis derexserat munit ab Altino(ora flumine Pado)ad flumen Danuvium” (C.I.L.v. 8002, 8003; Orel. 648, 708; Henz, 5400; Wil. 818). The later milestones vary greatly in form, but all contain most precious materials for ancient geography and topography; in the volumes of theCorpusthey are taken together under the special headviae publicae(and here and thereprivatae) at the end of each chapter.A similar character, resulting from the combination of a mere authentic record with the peculiar form of the honorary inscription, belongs to the kindred classes ofinscriptions of the aqueductsand of the differentboundary-stones. The large dedicatory inscriptions of the celebrated aqueducts43of Rome (as the Aquae Marcia, Tepula and Julia,C.I.L.vi. 1244-1246, Orel. 51-53, Wil. 765; the Virgo,C.I.L.vi. 1252, Orel. 703, Wil. 763; the Claudia, &c.,C.I.L.vi. 1256-1258. Orel. 54-56, Wil. 764) have quite the character of honorary inscriptions, while the variouscippi terminales, which mark the ground belonging to the aqueduct, show the greatest analogy to the milestones (e.g.C.I.L.vi. 1243a-g; Henz. 6635, 6636; Wil. 775-779). The other Italian and provincial varieties cannot be specified here. Of boundary-stones, orcippi terminales, some very ancient specimens have been preserved. To the age preceding the Second Punic War belong two, found at Venusia and erected by municipal magistrates (C.I.L.i. 185, 186; Orel. 3527, 3528; Wil. 863); they give a short relation of a decree, by which certain localities were declared to be sacred or public (“aut sacrom aut poublicom locom ese”). Then follow thecippi Gracchani, by which Gaius Gracchus and his two colleagues, astres viri agris iudicandis adsignandis, measured theager Campanus, for its division among the plebs. They contain the names of thetres viriin the nominative, and in addition, on the top, the lines and angles of thecardoanddecumanus, according to the rules of theagrimensores, or the boundary lines between theager publicusandprivatus(C.I.L.i. 552-556; Henz. 6464; Wil. 859-861). From the age of Sulla we still have various boundary-stones giving the line of demarcation between different communities (between Fanum and Pisaurum—C.I.L.i. 583, Orel. 570, Wil. 861; between Ateste, Vicetia and Patavium—C.I.L.i. 547-549, Orel. 3110, Henz. 5114, 5115, Wil. 865, 866). To the town of Rome belong thetermini ripae Tiberis(C.I.L.i. 608-614 = vi. 1234a-l), beginning in the Augustan age, and thetermini of the pomoeriumof Claudius and Vespasian as censors, and of thecollegium augurumunder Hadrian (C.I.L.vi. 1231-1233; Orel. 710, 811; Wil. 843, 844), while others, of the consuls of the yearA.D.4 (C.I.L.vi. 1263; Orel. 3260; Wil. 856), of Augustus (C.I.L.vi. 1265; Henz. 6455; Wil. 852), &c., show the boundary between theager publicusandprivatus. With similar objects boundary-stones were erected by the emperors, or, under their authority, by magistrates, mostly military, in the rest of Italy also (as in Capua—C.I.L.x. 3825, Orel. 3683, Wil. 858; at Pompeii—C.I.L.x. 1018, Wil. 864) and in the provinces (as in Syria—C.I.L.iii. 183; and Macedonia—C.I.L.iii. 594; in Dalmatia—C.I.L.iii. 2883; in Africa—C.I.L.viii. 7084-7090, 8211, 8268, 10,803, 10,838, Wil. 869, 870; in Spain—C.I.L.ii. 2349, 2916, Wil. 871—where thepratumof a legion is divided from the territory of amunicipium; in Gaul—Wil. 867; in Germany, in the column found at Miltenberg on the Main,Bonner Jahrbücher, vol. lxiv., 1878, p. 46, &c.). Private grounds (pedaturae) were unfrequently marked off by terminalcippi. To this class oftitulimust be added also the curious inscriptions incised upon the steps of Roman circuses, theatres and amphitheatres (see Hübner,Annali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. xxviii., 1856, p. 52 sq., and vol. xxxi., 1859, p. 122 sq.), as, for instance, upon those of the Coliseo at Rome (C.I.L.vi., 1796, 1-37; compare R. Lanciani,Bullettino archeologico municipale, 1881).4. We now come to the last class oftituli, viz. those which in theCorpusare arranged, at the end of each volume, under the head ofInstrumentum. By this very comprehensive term are designated objects which vary greatly among themselves, but which are of such a character as not to fall within any of the classes oftitulidescribed before, or the class of theinstrumentain the proper sense of that word,—the laws, &c. Thetituliof theinstrumentumembrace movable objects, destined for public and private use, and illustrate almost every side of the life of the ancient Romans. As systematic treatment of them is hardly possible, a simple enumeration only of their different classes can be given, without citing special examples. The first species of them is metrological, comprehending the inscriptions on measures and weights. The gold and silver plate used in the best Roman houses was also always marked with a note of its weight,—as is seen, for instance, on the different objects belonging to the Hildesheim find (seeHermes, iii., 1868, p. 469 sq.;Philologus, xxviii., 1869, p. 369), the Corbridgelanxin Northumberland House (C.I.L.vii. 1268) and many others. A second species is formed by thetesserae, tokens or marks, mostly in bronze, bone and ivory, but also earthen, of which the most interesting are the so-calledtesserae gladiatoriae, little staves of bone with holes at the top, and with names of slaves or freedmen and consular dates upon them, the relation of which to themunera gladiatoriais by no means certain (seeC.I.L.i. 717 sq., andHermes, xxi. p. 266;Rhein. Mus.xli. p. 517; xlii. p. 122;Berl. phil. Woch., 1888, p. 24). The other circulartesserae(the so-calledtesserae theatrales) of ivory or bone, with emblems and short inscriptions, partly Greek and Latin, used to be attributed to theludi scaenici(see Henzen,Annali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. xx., 1848, p. 273 sq., and vol. xxii., 1850, p. 357 sq.) and to otherludi; but this account has been questioned (Huelsen,Bullett. dell’ Instituto, 1896, p. 227). A third species is that of inscriptions carved, inscribed, painted or stamped upon various materials, raw or manufactured, for trade or household use. Such are, to begin with, the most solid and heavy, the inscriptions carved or painted on masses of stone, mostly columns, in the quarries, and preserved either on the rocks themselves in the quarries or on the roughly hewn blocks transported to the Romanemporiumon the Tiber bank. Curious specimens of the first kind are preserved in Lebanon, and in the north of England, near Hadrian’s Wall and elsewhere; on the second may be consulted a learned treatise by Padre L. Bruzza (“Iscrizioni dei marmi grezzi,” in theAnnali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. xlii., 1870, pp. 106-204). Of a kindredcharacter are the inscriptions, mostly stamped or engraved in the mould, of pigs of silver, bronze and lead (and pewter), found in the Roman mines in Spain and England (see Hübner, “Römische Bleigruben in Britannien,” inRheinisches Museum für Philologie, vol. xi., 1857, p. 347 sq., andC.I.L.vii. 220 sq.; A. Way,Archaeological Journal, vol. xvi., 1859, p. 23, and vol. xxiii., 1866, p. 63). A fourth species oftituliof this class is strictly related to the military institutions of the Roman empire. Many of the weapons are marked with the names of the bearer and of the military corps to which he belonged,—so, for example, the buckles of their shields (see Hübner, “Römische Schildbuckel,” inArchäologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Österreich, vol. ii., 1878, p. 105 sq.; by far the best extant specimen is the umbo of a legionary soldier of the eighth legion found in the Tyne near South Shields,C.I.L.vii. 495), and sometimes the swords, as that of Tiberius from Mainz (now in the British Museum, seeBonner Winckelmannsprogrammof 1848). The leadenglandesused by thefunditores, the slingers, in the Roman army bear curious historical inscriptions (seeC.I.L.i. 642 sq.,Ephem. epigr.vi. and, on the question of the authenticity of many of them, Zangemeister,C.I.L.ix., 35* sqq.). Special mention must be made also of the leaden seals or marks (bullae), evidently of military origin (perhaps to be borne by the soldiers as a countersign), which have been found in many parts of England (C.I.L.vii. 1269;Ephem. epigr.iii. 144, 318, iv. 209, vii. 346). Of the highest interest are the manifold productions of the Roman tile and brick kilns (C.I.L.xv.Inscriptiones laterum; cf. Descemet in theBibliothèque des écoles françaises, vol. xv.). Next to the tiles with consular dates made at Veleia (C.I.L.i. 777 sqq.), those signed with the name of legions or other military corps, and employed in the various military buildings of these, are especially worthy of mention; they form an important chapter in every geographical part of theCorpus. But private persons, too, especially the rich landed proprietors, and afterwards the emperors and their kinsmen, kept largefigulinae, and their manufactures—tiles of every description and other earthenware—were spread over the Roman empire (Dressel,Untersuchungen über die Chronologie der Ziegelstempel der Gens Domitia, 1888;C.I.L.xv.). The different sorts of earthen vessels and lamps, the fragments of which are found in great quantities wherever Roman settlements occurred, are arranged at the end of each volume of theCorpusand are collected in vol. xv part ii. p. i. On the maker’s marks on earthenware, see Habert,La Poterie antique parlanté(1893); Dragendorf, “Terra Sigillata,” inBonn. Jahrbüch.xcvi. 18. On Roman lamps and their inscriptions the accurate catalogue of the Vienna collection by Kenner (“Dicantiken Thonlampen des K. K. Münz- und Antiken-Cabinetes und der K. K. Ambraser Sammlung,” in theArchiv für Kunde österreichischer Geschichtsquellen, vol. xx., Vienna, 1858) may be consulted with advantage. The chief deposit of earthenware fragments, theMonte testaccioin Rome, has been explored by Dressel (“Ricerche sul Monte testaccio,” in theAnnali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. i., 1878, p. 118-192). Inscriptions are found on various classes of vessels, painted (as the consular dates on the largedoliafor wine, oil, &c., see Schöne,C.I.L.iv. 171 sq., andEphem. epigr.i. 160 sq.), stamped on the clay when still wet or in the mould, and scratched in the clay when dry, like those on the walls of ancient buildings in Pompeii, Rome and other places of antiquity. Like the corresponding Greek ware, they contain chiefly names of the makers or the merchants or the owners, and can be treated in a satisfactory manner only when brought together in one large collection (C.I.L.xv. part ii.), inasmuch as, besides being made in many local potteries, they were exported principally from some places in Italy (e.g.Arezzo) and Spain, in nearly every direction throughout northern and western Europe, the countries outside the Roman frontiers not excluded. Vessels and utensils of glass and of metal (gold, silver and especially bronze) were also exported from Italy on a large scale, as is being more and more readily recognized even by those antiquaries who formerly were wont to assume a local origin for all bronze finds made in the north of Europe. These utensils, ornaments and other objects made of precious metals (such as cups, spoons, mirrors,fibulae, rings, gems), not unfrequently bear Latin inscriptions. On the very ancient silver and bronze caskets, for holding valuable articles of the female toilet, which have been found at Praeneste, are inscribed, in addition to the names of the artist and of the donor, occurring once, the names of the persons in the mythical representations engraved upon them (C.I.L.i. 54-60, 1500, 1501; Jordan,Kritische Beiträge zur Geschichte der lateinischen Sprache, Berlin, 1879, p. 3 sq.). In the ancient well of theAquae Apollinares, near Vicarello in Tuscany, three silver cups have been found with circumstantial itineraries “a Gades(sic)usque Romam” engraved upon them, evidently gifts to the divinity of the bath for recovered health presented by travellers from the remote city named (Henzen 5210). Similar is the Rudge Cup, found in Wiltshire and preserved at Alnwick Castle, which contains, engraved in bronze, an itinerary along some Roman stations in the north of England (C.I.L.vii. 1291). The inscriptions of the Hildesheim silver find and others of a similar character have been already mentioned; and many examples might be enumerated besides. On the ancient glass ware and the inscriptions on it the splendid works of Deville (Histoire de l’art de la verrerie dans l’antiquité, Paris, 1873) and Froehner (La Verrerie antique, description de la collection Charvet, Paris, 1879) may be consulted; on the Christian glasses that of Garrucci (Vetri ornati di figure in oro trovatinei cimiteri dei cristiani primitivi di Roma, Rome, 1858); on the makers’ marks on bronze objects, Mowat,Marques de bronziers sur objets trouvés ou rapportés en France(1884) (extracted fromBulletin épigraphique, 1883-1884). The last species oftituliis formed by the stamps themselves with which the inscriptions on many of the objects already named are produced. They are mostly of bronze, and contain names; but it is not easy to say what sort of objects were marked with them, as scarcely any article stamped with a still existing stamp has been found. Amongst the materials stamped leather also is to be mentioned. One class only of stamps differs widely from the rest,—the oculists’ stamps, engraved mostly on steatite (or similar stones), and containing remedies against diseases of the eyes, to be stamped on the glass bowls in which such remedies were sold, or on the medicaments themselves (see Grotefend,Die Stempel der römischen Augenärzte gesammelt und erklärt(Göttingen, 1867); de Villefosse and Thédenat,Cachets d’oculistes romains(1882); Espérandieu,Recueil des cachets d’oculistes romains(1894).IV. The other great class of inscriptions above referred to, theinstrumentaorleges, the laws, deeds, &c., preserved generally on metal and stone, from the nature of the case have to be considered chiefly with regard to their contents; their form is not regulated by such constant rules as that of thetituli, so far as may be inferred from the state of completeness in which they have been preserved. The rules for each special class therefore, though, generally speaking, maintained—as was to be expected of Roman institutions—with remarkable steadiness from the earliest times down to a late period, must be based upon a comprehensive view of all the examples, including those preserved by ancient writers, and not in the monumental form. These documents are, as a rule, incised on bronze plates (only some private acts are preserved on wood and lead), and therefore have their peculiar form of writing, abbreviation, interpunction, &c., as has been already explained. The older Roman laws are now collected, in trustworthy texts, in theCorpus, vol. i.; of the documents belonging to the later period a very comprehensivesyllogeis given in C. G. Bruns’sFontes juris Romani antiqui.1. Among the earliest occasions for committing to writing agreements, which may be supposed to have been originally verbal only, must certainly be reckoned international transactions (leges foederis or foedera). At the head of the prose records written in the Latin language we find the treaties of alliance of Tullus Hostilius with the Sabini (Dionysius Halic. iii. 33), of Servius Tullius with the Latini (Dionysius iv. 26; Festus p. 169; this was, partly, at the same time, as will afterwards appear, the oldest document of the sacred class), of the second Tarquinius with Gabii (Dionysius iv. 58; Festus,Epit.p. 56). They are followed, in the oldest republican period, by the celebratedfoederawith Carthage; by the pacts of Sp. Cassius Vecellinus with the Latini of the year 261 (493B.C.), which Cicero seems to have seen still in theforumbehind therostra, written on a bronze column (Pro Balbo, 23, 53; see also Livy ii. 33; Festus p. 166; and Mommsen’sRömische Forschungen, ii. 153 sq.); and by thefoedus Ardeatinumof 310 (444B.C.) mentioned by Livy (iv. 7). Of all these documents nothing has been preserved in an authentic form, save some few words quoted from them by the ancient grammarians. Of onefoedusonly is there a fragment still in existence, relating to the Oscancivitas liberaBantia (C.I.L.i. 197); it contains theclausulaof thefoedus, which was written in Latin and in Oscan (seeApulia). On account of this peculiar circumstance, the document gave occasion to Klenze, and afterwards to Mommsen, to resume (for the sake of Roman jurisprudence, in the first instance) inquiry into the Oscan and other Italian dialects. Some other Romanfoederaare preserved only in Greek,e.g.that with the Jews of the year 594 (160B.C.)(Josephus,Ant.xii. 6. 10). Some others, made with the same nation between 610 and 615 (144 and 139B.C.) (Jos.Ant.xiii. 5. 6 and 7. 8), are mentioned in an abridged form only, or given in that of asenatus consultum, to which they must formally be ascribed. Amongst thefoederamay be reckoned also the curious oath, sworn, perhaps, according to a general rule obtaining for allcivitates foederatae, by the citizens of a Lusitanianoppidum, Aritium, to Gaius Caesar on his accession to the throne inA.D.37 (C.I.L.ii. 172; Wil. 2839).Closely related to thefoederaare the pacts between communities and private individuals, respectingpatronatusorhospitium(tabulae patronatus et hospitii), also, when in small portable form,tesserae hospitales; cf. Plautus,Poen.1047, of which many specimens from the end of the republic down to a late period of the empire have been preserved (see Gazzera,Memorie dell’ Academia di Torino, vol. xxxv., 1831, p. 1 sq., and Mommsen,Römische Forschungen, i. 341 sq.). Of the numerous examples scattered through the different volumes of theCorpusmay be quoted thetessera Fundana, containing the pact of hospitality between the community of Fundi and a certain Ti. Claudius (who cannot, with certainty, be identified), the oldest hitherto known, in the form of a bronze fish (C.I.L.i. 532; Henz. 7000; Wil. 2849); thetabulaof thepagus Gurzensiumin Africa, delivering the patronate to L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero’s grandfather, in 742 (12B.C.), in the afterwards solemn form of atabella fastigata, to be fixed in theatriumof the person honoured (Orel. 3693; Wil. 2850); that of thecivitas Pallantinawith aperegrinusnamedAcces Licirniof the year 752 (2B.C.) (Ephem. epigr.i. 141;Hermes, v., 1871, p. 371 seq.); that ofLacilbula, in Spain, with one Q. Marius Balbus, ofA.D.5 (C.I.L.ii. 1393); that of theBocchoritanion the island of Majorca, ofA.D.6 (C.I.L.ii. 3695; Wil. 2851); the four relating to C. Silius Aviola, dating fromA.D.27 to 28, all found at Brescia (C.I.L.v. 4919-4922); that of thecolonia Julia Aug. legionis vii. Tupusuctu, in Africa, with the imperial legate Q. Julius Secundus, ofA.D.55 (C.I.L.viii. 8837; Wil. 2851); that of twogentilitates, theDesonciandTridiavi, of thegensof theZoelae, in Spain, now in the museum of Berlin, which contains an older act of the year 27, and another more recent of the yearA.D.127 (C.I.L.ii. 2633; Orel. 156); that of therespublica Pompelonensis(Pampeluna in Spain) ofA.D.185 (C.I.L.ii. 2960; Wil. 2854); that of theSegisamonenses, in Spain, ofA.D.239, now in the museum at Burgos (Ephem. epigr.ii. 322); that of thefabri subidiani(i.e.subaediani, qui sub aede consistunt) of Cordova, ofA.D.348 (C.I.L.ii. 2211; Wil. 2861); and, in addition to many others, those found together at Rome, on the site of the palace of Q. Aradius Valerius Proculus, and belonging to him and other members of his family, from divers African cities and executed inA.D.321 and 322 (C.I.L.vi. 1684-1688; Orel. 1079, 3058).2. Hardly inferior in antiquity, and of superior value, are the remains of laws in the stricter sense of the word (legesandplebiscita), preserved to us in the originals, although unfortunately only in fragments more or less extensive. Of those laws the oldest and most important are thelex Acilia(for so it is in all probability to be styled)repetundarumof the year 631 (C.I.L.i. 198), which is incised on a bronze table about 2 metres broad, in 90 lines of about 200 to 240 letters each, and therefore extremely inconvenient to read, and thelex agrariaof 643 (111B.C.), written on the reverse of the table of the Acilia, abrogated shortly afterwards (C.I.L.i. 200); this is the third of the celebrated laws of C. Gracchus bearing upon the division of public lands. Then follow thelex Cornelia de viginti quaestoribus, a fragment of Sulla’s legislation, the eighth table only, of the whole set, being preserved (C.I.L.i. 202); theplebiscitum de Thermensibus, on the autonomy of Termessus in Pisidia, proposed by thetribuni plebis, in 682 (72B.C.), one of four or five large bronze plates (C.I.L.i. 204); thelex Rubria de civitate Galliae cisalpinaeof 705 (49B.C.), written in a new and more convenient form (belonging as it does to Caesar’s legislation), in two columns, with numbered divisions, being the fourth out of an unknown number of plates (C.I.L.i. 205); thelex Julia municipalis, or, from the place where it was found, thetabulae Heracleensesof 709 (45B.C.), written on the reverse of the much older Greek law of that community, preserved partly at Naples, partly in the British Museum (C.I.L.i. 206), also a fragment of Caesar’s general municipal institutions; it contains a curious passage relating to the public promulgation of laws (v. 15). These are the laws of the Roman republic preserved in important fragments; some minor ones (brought together inC.I.L.i. 207-211) may be left out of account here. In the imperial age, laws in general were replaced bysenatus consultaor by imperial decrees. It was also in the form of asenatus consultumthat theleges de imperio, on the accession of the emperors, seem to have been promulgated. An example of such a law, preserved in part on a bronze tablet found at Rome, is thelex de imperio Vespasiani(C.I.L.vi. 930; Orel. i. 567). There is, besides, one special category of imperial constitutions which continued to be namedleges, viz. the constitutions given by the emperors to the divers classes ofcivitates, based upon the ancient traditional rules of government applied to Rome itself as well as to thecoloniaeandmunicipia. Of this sort oflegessome very valuable specimens have come from Spanish soil, viz. thelex coloniae Juliae Genetivae Urbanorum sive Ursonis(now Osuna), given to that colony by Caesar in 710 (44B.C.), but incised, with some alterations, in the time of Vespasian, of which three bronze tables out of a much larger number remain (Hübner and Mommsen,Ephem. epigr.ii. 150 sq. and 221 sq.); thelex Salpensanaand thelex Malacitana, given to these twomunicipiaby Domitian, betweenA.D.81 and 84, each on a large bronze plate, written respectively in two and in five columns, with the single chapters numbered and rubricated (C.I.L.ii. 1963, 1964; compare Mommsen, “Die Stadtrechte der lateinischen Gemeinden Salpensa und Malacca in der Provinz Baetica,” in theAbhandlungen der sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philol.-histor. Classe, vol. iii., 1857, p. 363 sq.); thelex metalli Vipascensis, given, with all probability, by one of the three Flavii, as a constitution to a mining district of southern Portugal, one bronze plate numbered iii.—three or more, therefore, being lost (see Hübner,Ephem. epigr.iii. 165 sq. and, for a popular account, theDeutsche Rundschau, August 1877, p. 196 sq.). The so-called military diplomas, although in certain respects nearly related to thelegesof the later period, are better placed along with the imperial decrees.3. A third species of official documents is formed by decrees of the senate of Rome, of the analogous corporations in thecoloniaeandmunicipia, and of the diverscollegiaandsodalicia, constituted, as a rule, after a similar fashion and debating in nearly the same way as the Roman and the municipal senates. The oldest Romansenatus consultaare those translated into the Greek language and containing treaties of alliance, as already mentioned. They are preserved either on monuments or by ancient authors, as Josephus:e.g.the fragment found at Delphi, from the year 568 (186B.C.), and thesenatus consultum Thisbaeum, from Thisbe in Boeotia, 584 (170B.C.) (Ephem. epigr.i. 278 sq., ii. 102, and Joh. Schmidt,Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung, vol. iii., 1881), those of 616, 619, 621, 649 (138-105B.C.) (C. I. Graec.2905, 2908, ii. 2485, 2737; Le Bas and Waddington iii. 195-198;Annali dell’ Instituto, vol. xix. 1847, p. 113;Ephem. epigr.iv. 213 sq.), and those relating to the Jews, dating from 615, 621 and 710 (139, 133 and 44B.C.) (Josephus,Ant.xiii. 9. 2, xiv. 8. 5 and 10. 9). The two oldestsenatus consultawritten in Latin are also preserved in a more or less complete form only by ancient authors; they are thesc. de philosophis et rhetoribusof 593 (161B.C.) (Gellius,Noct. Att.xv. 11. 1) and thatde hastis Martiisof 655 (99B.C.) (Gellius iv. 6. 2). The only one belonging to the oldest period preserved in the original Latin form, of which only a part exists, together with the Greek translation, is thesc. Lutatianum, relating to Asclepiades of Clazomenae and his companions, dating from 676 (77B.C.) (C.I.L.i. 203). The rest, belonging to the later epoch from Cicero downwards, about twenty in number, are mostly preserved only in an abridged form by ancient writers,—such as Cicero, Frontinus, Macrobius,—or in Justinian’sDigesta(see Hübner,De senatus populique Romani actis, Leipzig, 1859, p. 66 sq.); a few exist, however, in a monumental form, complete or in fragments—as the two sc. on theludi saeculares, dating from 17B.C.andA.D.47, preserved on a marble slab found at Rome (C.I.L.vi. 877); the fragments of two sc. in honour of Germanicus and the younger Drusus, from Rome, on bronze tablets (C.I.L.vi. 911-912; Henz. 5381-5282); the twosc.HosidianumandVolusianum, containing regulations for the demolition and rebuilding of houses in Rome, incised on the same bronze plate, found at Herculaneum, dating from Nero’s time, betweenA.D.41 and 46 and from 56 (Orel. 3115; Mommsen,Berichte der sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philol.-histor. Classe, 1852, p. 272 sq.); and, of a later period, thesc.CassianumorNonianumofA.D.138, containing a market regulation for thesaltus Beguensisin Africa, where it has been found preserved in two examples on stone slabs (Ephem. epigr.ii. 271 sq., not complete in Wil. 2838), and the fragment of that for Cyzicus, belonging to the reign of Antoninus Pius (Ephem. epigr.iii. 156 sq.). There exists, besides, a chapter of a sc., relating to thecollegia, inserted in the decree of acollegiumat Lanuvium, to be mentioned below. Of the municipal decrees, of which a greater number is preserved (see Hübner,De sen. populique Rom. actis, p. 71 sq.), only a few of the more important may be mentioned here: thelex Puteolana de parieti faciundoof 649 (105B.C.) (C.I.L.i. 577; Orel. 3697; Wil. 697); the twodecreta(or so-calledcenotaphia)Pisanain honour of Lucius and Gaius Caesar, the grandsons of Augustus, ofA.D.3 (C.I.L.xi. 1420, 1421; Orel. 642, 643; Wil. 883); thedecretum LanuvinumofA.D.133, containing the regulations of acollegium funeraticium, styledcollegium salutare Dianae et Antinoi(Orel. 6086; Wil. 319); and thedecretum Tergestinum, belonging to the time of Antoninus Pius (C.I.L.v. 532; Henz. 7167; Wil. 693). There are, however, more than thirty others preserved, some of them, such as those from Naples, written in the Greek language. Of the third speciality, thedecreta collegiorum, only thelex collegii aquaeof the 1st century (Marini,Atti de’ fratelli arvali, p. 70; Rudorff and Mommsen,Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte, vol. xv., 1850, pp. 203, 345 sq.), and thelex collegii Aesculapii et Hygiae, of 153 (C.I.L.vi. 10,234; Orel. 2417; Wil. 320) need be mentioned here; many more exist. One of them, thelex collegii Jovis Cerneni, dating fromA.D.167, found at Alburnus major in Dacia, is preserved on the originaltabella cerataon which it was written (C.I.L.iii. 924; Henz. 6087; Wil. 321).4. The fourth species ofinstrumentaare the decrees, sometimes in the form of letters, of Roman and municipal magistrates, and of the emperors and their functionaries, incised, as a rule, on bronze tablets. The oldest decree in the Latin language which has been preserved is that of L. Aemilius Paulus, when praetor in Hispania Baetica, dating from 189B.C., for the Turris Lascutana in southern Spain (C.I.L.ii. 5041; Wil. 2837); of the same date is a Greek one of Cn. Manlius, consul of the year 565, for the Heracleenses Cariae (Le Bas and Waddington n. 588). Then follow the famousepistula consulum(falsely styledsenatus consultum)ad Teuranos de bacchanalibus, dated 568 (186B.C.) (C.I.L.i. 196); the sentence of the two Minucii, the delegates of the senate, on a dispute concerning the boundaries between the Genuates and Viturii, 117B.C.(C.I.L.i. 199; Orel. 3121; Wil. 872); and theepistulaof the praetor L. Cornelius (perhaps Sisenna), the praetor of 676 (78B.C.)ad Tiburtes(C.I.L.i. 201). These belong to the republican age. From the imperial period a great many more have come down to us of varying quality. Some of them are decrees or constitutions of the emperors themselves. Such are the decree of Augustus on the aqueduct of Venafrum (C.I.L.x. 4842; Henz. 6428; Wil. 784); that of Claudius, found in the Val di Nona, belonging toA.D.46 (C.I.L.v. 5050; Wil. 2842); of Vespasian for Sabora in Spain (C.I.L.ii. 1423), and for the Vanacini in Corsica (Orel. 4031); of Domitian for Falerii (Orel. 3118); the epistles of Hadrian relating to Aezani in Phrygia, added to a Greek decree of Avidius Quietus (C.I.L.iii. 355; Henz. 6955), and relating to Smyrna, in Greek, with a short one of Antoninus Pius, in Latin (C.I.L.iii. 411; Orel. 3119); the decrees of Commodus relating to thesaltus Burunitanusin Africa (C.I.L.viii. 10,570; cf.Eph. epigr.v. 471); of Severus and Caracalla for Tyra (Akkerman in Moesia), Latin and Greek (C.I.L.iii. 781; Henz. 6429); of Valerian and Gallienus for Smyrna, also Latin and Greek (C.I.L.iii. 412); of Diocletiande pretiis rerum venalium, containing a long list of prices for all kinds of merchandise,preserved in divers copies more or less complete, in Latin and Greek (C.I.L.iii. 801 sq.; compareEphem. epigr.iv. 180, and, as similar monuments, thelex portusof Cirta, ofA.D.202 Wil. 2738, and the fragment of a regulation for the importation of wines into Rome, Henz. 5089, Wil. 2739); and some of the age of Constantine, as that relating to Hispellum in Umbria (Henz. 5580; Wil. 2843), that of Julian found at Amorgos (C.I.L.iii. 459; Henz. 6431), and some others, of which copies exist also in the juridical collections. Of two imperial rescripts of a still later ageA.D.413, fragments of the originals, written on papyri, have been found in Egypt (see Mommsen and Jaffé,Jahrbüch des gemeinen deutschen Rechts, vol. vi., 1861, p. 398; Hänel,Corpus legum, p. 281). Imperial decrees, granting divers privileges to soldiers, are thediplomata militariaalso, mentioned above, incised on two combined bronze tablets in the form ofdiptycha(L. Renier, “Recueil de diplômes militaires”;C.I.L.iii. 842 sqq., 1955 sqq.; Wil. 2862-2869), belonging to nearly all emperors from Claudius down to Diocletian. Though not a decree, yet as a publication going back directly to the emperor, and as being preserved in the monumental form, the speech of the emperor Claudius, delivered in the senate, relating to the Roman citizenship of the Gauls, of which Tacitus gives an abstract (Ann.xi. 23), ought also to be mentioned here; it was engraved on large bronze slabs by the public authority of Lugudunum (Lyons), where a large fragment of it is still preserved (Boissieu,Inscriptions antiques de Lyon, p. 132 sq.). Another sort of decrees, relating to a great variety of subjects, has to be mentioned, emanating, not directly from the emperors, but from their functionaries. Such are the decree of the proconsul L. Helvius Agrippa, of the yearA.D.68, on the boundaries of some tribes on the island of Sardinia (C.I.L.x. 7852; Wil. 872 a); that of the prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Julius Alexander, written in Greek, the same year (C. I. Graec.4957); that of C. Helvidius Priscus, on a similar question relating to Histonium, belonging perhaps to the end of the 1st century (Wil. 873); that of the legate of Trajan, C. Avidius Nigrinus, found at Delphi, in Greek and Latin (C.I.L.iii. 567; Orel. 3671; Wil. 874); a rescript of Claudius Quartinus, perhaps the imperial legate of the Tarraconensis, of the yearA.D.119, found at Pampluna (C.I.L.ii. 2959; Orel. 4032); the epistle of thepraefecti praetorioto the magistrates of Saepinum, of aboutA.D.166-169 (C.I.L.ix. 2438; Wil. 2841); the decree of L. Novius Rufus, another legate of the Tarraconensis, whoex tilia recitavit, ofA.D.193 (C.I.L.ii. 4125; Orel. 897; Wil. 876); the sentence of Alfenius Senecio, then subprefect of theclassis praetoria Misenensis, belonging to the beginning of the 3rd century, formerly existing at Naples (C.I.L.x. 3334); and some others of the 4th and 5th centuries, not requiring specific mention here. Quite a collection of epistles of high Roman functionaries is found in the celebrated inscription of Thorigny (Mommsen,Berichte der sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1852, p. 235 sq.). The letter of a provincial functionary, a priest of Gallia Narbonensis, to thefabri subaedianiof Narbonne, of the year 149, may also be mentioned (Henz. 7215; Wil. 696 a). To these must be added thetabulae alimentariae, relating to the well-known provision made by Trajan for the relief of distress among his subjects, such as that of the Ligures Baebiani (C.I.L.ix. 1455; Wil. 2844) and that of Veleia near Parma (Wil. 2845); while evidence of similar institutions is furnished by inscriptions at Tarracina, at Sicca in Africa, and at Hispalis in Spain (Wil. 2846-2848;C.I.L.ii. 1174). At the close of this long list of official documents may be mentioned thelibellusof theprocurator operum publicorum a columna divi Marciof the year 193 (C.I.L.vi. 1585; Orel. 39; Wil. 2840) and theinterlocutionesof thepraefecti vigilumon a lawsuit of thefullonesof Rome, ofA.D.244, inscribed on an altar of Hercules (C.I.L.vi. 266; Wil. 100). These documents form a most instructive class ofinstrumenta.5. Many documents, as may be supposed, were connected with religious worship, public and private. The oldestlex templi, which continued in force until a comparatively late period, was the regulation given by Servius Tullius to the temple of Diana on the Aventine, after the conclusion of the federal pact with the Latini, noticed above. Mention is made of this ancient law as still in force in two later documents of a similar character, viz. the dedication of an altar to Augustus by the plebs of Narbo in southern France, ofA.D.764, but existing only, at Narbonne, in a copy, made perhaps in the 2nd century (C.I.L.xii. 4333; Orel. 2489; Wil. 104), and that of an altar of Jupiter, dedicated at Salonae in Dalmatia inA.D.137, still existing in part at Padua (C.I.L.iii. 1933; Orel. 2490; Wil. 163). Anotherlex fanistill existing is that of a temple of Jupiter Liber at Furfo, avicusof southern Italy, of the year 696 (58B.C.), but copied, in vernacular language, from an older original (C.I.L.i. 603; Orel. 2488; Wil. 105; compare Jordan inHermes, vol. vii., 1872, pp. 201 sq.). The lists of objects belonging to some sanctuaries or to the ornaments of statues are curious, such as those of theDiana Nemorensisat Nemi (Henz.Hermes, vol. vi., 1871, pp. 8 sq.), and of a statue of Isis in Spain (Hübner,Hermes, vol. i., 1866, pp. 345 sq.; compareC.I.L.ii. 2060, 3386, Orel. 2510, Wil. 210), and twosynopsesfrom a temple at Cirta in Africa (Wil. 2736, 2737). Thesortesgiven by divinities may also be mentioned (seeC.I.L.i. 267 sq.; Wil. 2822). To a temple also, though in itself of a secular character, belonged a monument of the highest historical importance, viz. theIndex rerum a se gestarum, incised on bronze slabs, copies of which Augustus ordered to be placed, in Latin and Greek, where required, in the numerous Augustea erected to himself in company with the Dea Roma. This is known as theMonumentum Ancyranum, because it is at Angora in Asia Minor that the best preserved copy of it, in Greek and Latin, exists; but fragments remain of other copies from other localities (seeC.I.L.iii. 779 sq., and the special editions of Mommsen, Berlin, 1865, and Bergk, Göttingen, 1873). Among the inscriptions relating to sacred buildings must also be reckoned the numerous fragments of Roman calendars, orfasti anni Juliani, found at Rome and other places, which have been arranged and fully explained by Mommsen (C.I.L.i., 2nd ed., part ii.; compare for those found in Rome,C.I.L.vi. 2294-2306). Local, provincial or municipalcalendariahave likewise been found (as theferiale Cumanum,C.I.L.i. part ii. p. 229, and theCapuanum,C.I.L.x. 3792). Many other large monumental inscriptions bear some relation, more or less strict, to sacred or public buildings. Along with the official calendar exhibited on the walls of the residence of thepontifex maximus, the list of the eponymous magistrates, inscribed by the order of Augustus on large marble slabs, was publicly shown—thefasti consulares, the reconstruction and illustration of which formed the life-work of Borghesi. These have been collected, down to the death of Augustus, by Henzen, and compared with the additional written testimonies, by Mommsen, in theCorpus(vol. i., 2nd ed., part ii.), along with theacta triumphorumand other minor fragments of fasti found in various Italian communities, while thefasti sacerdotum publicorum populi Romani, together with thetabula feriarum Latinarum, are given in the volume devoted exclusively to the monuments of Rome (vol. vi. 441 sq.; compareHermes, vol. v., 1870, p. 379, andEphem. epigr.ii. 93, iii. 74, 205 sq.). Documents of the same kind, as, for example, thealbum ordinis Thamugadensisfrom Africa (C.I.L.viii. 2403, 17903), and a considerable mass of military lists (latercula, of which those belonging to the garrison of the metropolis are brought together inC.I.L.vi. 651 sq.), are given on many dedicatory and honorary monuments, chiefly from Lambaesis in Africa (C.I.L.viii.). As those documents, though having only a partial claim to be ranked with the sacred ones, derive, like many other dedicatory monuments, their origin and form from that class, so also the protocols (acta), which, from Augustus downwards, seem to have been preserved in the case of all importantcollegia magistratuum, now survive only from one of the largest and most distinguishedcollegia sacerdotum, in theacta collegii fratrum Arvalium, to which Marini first drew the attention of epigraphists; they form one of the most important masses of epigraphic monuments preserved to us in the Latin language (seeC.I.L.vi. 459 sq.,Ephem. epigr.ii. 211 sq., and Henzen’sActa fratrum Arvalium, Berlin, 1874).6. Another species of instruments is formed by private documents. They have been incidentally preserved (inserted, for instance, into sepulchral and honorary inscriptions), in the later period not unfrequently in monumental form, as the testaments, given partly or in full, mentioned above (viz. that of Dasumius and the Gaul,C.I.L.vi. 10229, Wil. 314, 315, and somecapita testamentorumorcodicilli, as that of M. Meconius Leo found at Poetelia—C.I.L.x. 113, 114; Orel. 3677, 3678; Wil. 696), and the donations, such as those of T. Flavius Syntrophus (C.I.L.vi. 10239; Wil. 313), of T. Flavius Artemidorus (Wil. 310), of Statia Irene and Julia Monime (C.I.L.vi. 10231, 10247; Wil. 311, 318). Of a peculiar description is thepactum fiduciae, found in Spain, engraved on a bronze tablet, and belonging, in all probability, to the 1st century (C.I.L.ii. 5042), which seems to be a formulary. Other documents relating to private affairs exist in their original form, written ontabellae ceratae. Those found together in a mining district of Dacia have been arranged and explained by Mommsen and Zangemeister (C.I.L.iii. 291 sq., with facsimiles); those found at Pompeii in 1875, containing receipts of the banker L. Caecilius Jucundus, have been published inC.I.L.iv. (suppl.). These documents are written in cursive letters; and so mostly, too, are some other curious private monuments, belonging partly to the sacred inscriptions—thedefixiones(cf. Tac.Ann.ii. 69), imprecations directed against persons suspected of theft or other offences, who, according to a very ancient superstition, were in this way believed to be delivered to punishment through the god to whom thedefixiowas directed. The numerous Greek and Latin (and even Oscan) examples of this usage have been brought together by Audollent,Defixionum tabellae quotquot innotuerunt tam in Graecis Orientis quam in totius Occidentis partibus praeter Atticas(Paris, 1904); compareC.I.L.i. 818-820,C.I.L.vii. 140). Only a few of them are incised on stone (as that to theDea Ataecinafrom Spain,C.I.L.ii. 462); for the most part they are written, in cursive letters, or in very debased capitals, on small bronze or lead tablets (soC.I.L.i. 818, 819; Henz. 6114, 6115; Wil. 2747, 2748), to be laid in the tombs of the “defixi,” or deposited in the sanctuaries of some divinity.7. Many of the private documents just alluded to have not a monumental character similar to that of the other inscriptions in the wider sense of the word, as they are written on materials not very durable, such as wood and lead—in the majority of cases, in cursive characters; but, nevertheless, they cannot be classed as literature. As a last species, therefore, ofinstrumenta, there remain some documents, public and private, which similarly lack the strict monumental character, but still are to be reckoned among inscriptions. These are the inscriptions painted or scratched (graffiti) onthe walls of the buildings of ancient towns, like Pompeii, where, as was to be expected, most of them have been preserved, those from other ancient cities buried by the eruptions of Vesuvius and from Rome being very small in number. All the various classes of these inscriptions—public and private advertisements, citations for the municipal elections, and private scribblings of the most diverse (and sometimes most indecent) character, one partly collected by Chr. Wordsworth (Inscriptiones Pompeianae, &c., London, 1837, 1846)—are now arranged by Zangemeister in theCorpus, vol. iv. with supplement (some specimens in Wil. 1951 sq.), whence their peculiar palaeographic and epigraphic rules may be learned. And, lastly, as related to some of these advertisements, though widely differing from them in age and character, may be mentioned the so-calleddiptycha consularia, monuments, in the first instance, of the still very respectable skill in this branch of sculpture to be found at this late period. They are carved-ivory tablets, in the form ofpugillaria, and seem to have been invitations to the solemnities connected with the accession of high magistrates, especially to the spectacles of the circus and amphitheatre; for they contain, along with representations of such spectacles, the names, and often the portraits, of high functionaries, mostly of the 5th and 6th centuries. Since Gori’s well-known work on this class of monuments (Thesaurus veterum diptychorum, &c., 3 vols., Florence, 1759) no comprehensive collection of them has been published, but a full list is given by H. de Villefosse in theGazette Archéologiqueof 1884; as specimens seeC.I.L.ii. 2699, and v. 8120, 1-9.Bibliography.—As a “Textbook” of Roman epigraphy R. Cagnat,Cours d’épigraphie latine(3rd ed., Paris, 1898, with supplement, 1904) can be heartily recommended. But students must be warned against Zell’sHandbuch der römischen Epigraphik(2 vols., Heidelberg, 1850-1852), an unsatisfactory work which is open to serious criticism. J. C. Egbert’sIntroduction to the Study of Latin Inscriptions(1896) is designed for American and English students. For Christian inscriptions Le Blant’sManuel d’épigraphie chrétienne d’après les marbres de la Gaule(Paris, 1869) may still be consulted with advantage.

III.—1. Among the inscriptions in the stricter sense (thetituli), perhaps the oldest, and certainly the most frequent, are thesepulchral inscriptions(tituli sepulcrales). Of the different forms of Roman tombs, partly depending upon the difference between burial and cremation, which were in use side by side, a very complete account is given in Marquardt’sHandbuch der römischen Altertümer(vol. vii. part i., Leipzig, 1879, p. 330 seq.). The most ancient examples are those of asepulcretumat Praeneste (C.I.L.i. 74, 165, 1501a-d;Ephem. epigr.i. 25-131; Wil. 153); the oldest of these contain nothing but the name of the deceased in the nominative; those of more recent date give it in the genitive. The oldest and simplest form remained always in use down to Christian times; it is that used on the large tectonic monuments of the Augustan age (e.g.that of Caecilia Metella,C.I.L.vi. 1274) and in themausoleaof most of the emperors, and is still frequent in thetituliof the largecolumbariaof the same age (C.I.L.vi. part ii.). It was early succeeded by the lists of names, given also in the nominative, when more than one individual, either dead or alive, were to be indicated as sharers of a tomb. To distinguish the members still alive, av(vivit,vivos,vivi) was prefixed to their names (e.g.C.I.L.i. 1020, 1195, 1271); the deceased were sometimes marked by theθῆταnigrum(C.I.L.i. 1032; Wil. 158; see alsoC.I.L.vi. 10251 seq.). Only the names in the nominative are shown, too, on thesarcophagiof theTurpleiiandFouriiatTusculum (C.I.L.i. 65-72; Wil. 152), and in the oldest inscriptions on those of theScipiones, painted withminium(C.I.L.i. 29; Wil. 537), to which were added afterwards the insignia of themagistratus curules(C.I.L.i. 31; Wil. 538) and the poeticalelogia. Of a somewhat different kind are the inscriptions scratched without much care on very simple earthen vessels which belonged to asepulcretumof the lower class, situated outside theporta Capenaat Rome, on the Appian road, near the old church of San Cesario (C.I.L.i. 882-1005, 1539, 1539a-d=C.I.L.vi. 8211-8397; Wil. 176); they can be ascribed to the period of the Gracchi. On theseollae, besides the name of the deceased, also for the most part in the nominative, but on the more recent in the genitive, the date of a day, probably that of the death, is noted; here and thereobit(oro.) is added. About the same epoch, at the beginning of the 6th century, along with the growing taste for tectonic ornamentation of the tombs in the Greek style, poetical epigrams were added to the simple sepulchraltitulus, especially amongst the half-Greek middle class rapidly increasing in Rome and Italy; Saturnian (C.I.L.i. 1006), iambic (1007-1010) and dactylic (1011) verses become more and more frequent in epitaphs (see Buecheler,Anthologia Latina, ii.). In prose also short designations of the mental qualities of the deceased (homo bonus,misericors,amans pauperum, oruxor frugi,bona,pudicaand the like), short dialogues with the passer-by (originally borrowed from Greek poetry), asvale salve,salvus ire,vale et tu,te rogo praeteriens dicas“sit tibi terra levis,” &c. (Wil. 180), then indications of his condition in his lifetime, chiefly among the Greek tradesmen and workmen,e.g.lanius de colle Viminale(C.I.L.i. 1011),margaritarius de sacra via(1027) and the like, and some formulae, such asossa hic sita sunt,heic cubat,heic situs est(in republican times mostly written in full, not abridged) were added (J. Church “Zur Phraseologie der lat. Grabinschriften” inArch. lat. Lexikogr.12. 215 sqq.). The habit of recording the measurement of the sepulchre, on the sepulchralcippus, by such formulae aslocus patet in fronte pedes tot,in agro(orin via, orretro)pedes tot, seems not to be older than the Augustan age (C.I.L.i. 1021, with Mommsen’s note; Wil. 188). About the same time also the epitaphs more frequently state how long the deceased lived, which was formerly added only on certain occasions (e.g.in the case of a premature death), and mostly in poetical form. The worship of thedei Manes, though undoubtedly very ancient, is not alluded to in the sepulchral inscriptions themselves until the close of the republic. Here and there, in this period, the tomb is designated as a (locus)deum Maanium(e.g.at Hispellum,C.I.L.i. 1410); or, it is said, as on acippusfrom Corduba in Spain (C.I.L.ii. 2255; Wil. 218),C. Sentio Sat(urnino) co(n)s(ule)—that is, in the year 19B.C.—dei Manes receperunt Abulliam N(umerii) l(ibertam) Nigellam. In the Augustan age thetitulus sepulcralisbegins to be confounded with thetitulus sacer; it adopts the form of a dedicationdeis Manibus, offered to thedei Manes(ordei inferi Manes, thedei parentumbeing theManesof the parents) of the deceased (see Orel. 4351; Wil. 217-228). This formula, afterwards so common, is still very rare at the end of the republic, and is usually written in full, while in later times it is employed, both simply and in many varied forms (asdis manibus sacrum, ord. m. et memoriae,d. m. et genio, ormemoriae aeternae,paci et quieti,quieti aeternae,somno aeternaliand so on; Wil. 246), in thousands of monuments. By similar degrees thetitulus sepulcralisadopts many of the elements of thetitulus honorarius(the indication of thecursus honorum, of the military charges, &c., ase.g.in the inscription of Cn. Calpurnius Piso,C.I.L.i. 598 = vi. 1276, Wil. 1105, on the pyramid of Cestius,C.I.L.vi. 1374, and on the monument at Ponte Lucano of Ti. Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, consulA.D.74, Orel. 750, Wil. 1145 and many others), of thetituli operum publicorum(e.g.monumentum fecit,sibi et suis, &c.), and of theinstrumenta. Testaments (like those of Dasumius of the yearA.D.109.—C.I.L.vi. 10229; Wil. 314; and T. Flavius Syntrophus—C.I.L.vi. 10239; Henz. 7321; Wil. 313), or parts of them (like that on the tomb of a Gaul of the tribe of the Lingones, belonging to Vespasian’s time, Wil. 315), funeral orations (as those on Turia—C.I.L.vi. 1527;Notizie degli scavi(1898), p. 412; Hirschfeld,Wiener Studien Bormannheft, p. 283; Fowler,Classical Review, xix. 261; on Murdia—C.I.L.vi. 10230; Orel. 4860; Rudorff,Abhandlungen der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin(1868), p. 217 seq.; and that of Hadrian on the elder Matidia, found at Tivoli—Mommsen in the sameAbhandlungen(1863), p. 483 seq; Dehner,Laudatio Matidiae, Neuwied (1891), numerous statements relating to the conservation and the employment of the monuments (C.I.L.vi. 10249; Wil. 287-290), to their remaining within the family of the deceased—from which came the frequent formula “h(oc) m(onumentum) h(eredem) n(on) s(equetur)” and the like (Wil. 280; cf. Hor. Sat. i. 8. 13),—and relating to the annual celebration ofparentalia(Wil. 305 seq.), down to the not uncommon prohibition of violation or profanation of the monumentnoli violare, &c., with many other particulars (on which the index of Wil. p. 678 seq. may be consulted), form the text of the sepulchral inscriptions of the later epoch from Augustus downwards. The thoroughly pagan sentimentnon fui non sum non curo, orn. f. n. s. n. c., is common, apparently a translation of the Greekοὐκ ἤμην, ἐγενόμην οὐκ ἔσομαι οὐ μἐλει μοι. Another type of epitaph, much affected by the poorer classes (like our “Affliction sore” &c.), is:noli dolere mater eventum meum, Properavit aetas, hoc voluit fatus(sic)mihi(Lier, “Topica carminum sepulcralium Latinorum” inPhilologus, 62. 445 sqq.). To these are to be added many local peculiarities of provinces (as Spain and Africa), districts (as the much-disputedsub ascia dedicareof the stones of Lyons and other parts of Gaul), and towns, of which a full account cannot be given here.

2. Of thededicatory inscriptions(ortituli sacri), the oldest known are the short indications painted (along with representations of wingedgenii, in the latest style of Graeco-Italian vase painting), with white colour on black earthen vessels, by which those vessels (pocula) are declared to be destined for the worship, public or private, of a certain divinity (C.I.L.i. 43-50;Ephem. epigr.i. 5-6; Wil. 2827 a-i); they give the name of the god, as that of the possessor, in the genitive (e.g.Saeturni pocolom,Lavernai pocolom). The proper form of the dedication, the simple dative of the name of a divinity and often nothing else (asApolenei,Fide,Junone, &c., which are all datives), is shown on the very primitive altars found in a sacred wood near Pisaurum (C.I.L.i. 167-180; Wil. 1-14); but also the name of the dedicants (matrona,matrona Pisaurese, which are nomin. plur.) and the formulae of the offering (dono dedrotordedro,donu dat, wheredonoanddonuare accus.) are already added to them. This most simple form (the verb in the perfect or in the present) never disappeared entirely; it occurs not infrequently also in the later periods. Nor did the dative alone, without any verb or formula, go entirely out of use (seeC.I.L.i. 630; Wil. 36;C.I.L.i. 814 = vi. 96; Orel. 1850; Wil. 32;C.I.L.i. 1153; Henz. 5789; Wil. 1775). But at an early date the verbdonum dareand some synonyms (likedonum portare,ferre,mancupio dare,parare) were felt to be insufficient to express the dedicator’s good-will and his sense of the justice of the dedication, which accordingly were indicated in the expanded formuladono dedet lub(e)s mereto(C.I.L.i. 183, cf. p. 555; Wil. 21;C.I.L.i. 190; Wil. 22), or, with omission of the verb,dono mere(to) lib(e)s(C.I.L.i. 182). The dative case and this formula, completely or partially employed (formeritoalone is also used, asC.I.L.i. 562, cf.Ephem. epigr.ii. 353, Wil. 29), remained in solemn use. Tolubens(orlibens) was addedlaetus(so in Catullus 31. 4), and, if a vow preceded the dedication,votum solvit(orvoto condemnatus dedit; seeC.I.L.i. 1175; Henz. 5733; Wil. 142, andC.I.L.ii. 1044); so, but not before the time of Augustus (seeC.I.L.i. 1462 = iii. 1772), the solemn formula of the dedicatory inscriptions of the later period,v. s. l. m.orv. s. l. l. m., arose. To the same effect, and of equally ancient origin with the solemn wordsdareanddonum dare, the wordsacrum(or other forms of it, assacra[ara]), conjoined with the name of a divinity in the dative, indicates a gift to it (e.g.C.I.L.i. 814; Wil. 32;C.I.L.i. 1200-1201; Wil. 33ab); the same form is to be found also in the later period (e.g.C.I.L.i. 1124; Henz. 5624-5637), and gave the model for the numerous sepulchral inscriptions withdis Manibus sacrummentioned before.Sacrumcombined with a genitive very seldom occurs (Orel. 1824; Wil. 34);arais found more frequently (asara Neptuniandara Ventorum, Orel. 1340). Dedications were frequently the results of vows; so victorious soldiers (such as L. Mummius, the conqueror of Corinth—C.I.L.i. 541 seq.; Orel. 563; Wil. 27), and prosperous merchants (e.g.the brothers Vertuleii—C.I.L.i. 1175; Henz. 5733; Wil. 142) vow a tenth part of their booty (de praedad, as is said on the basis erected by one of the Fourii of Tusculum—C.I.L.i. 63, 64; Henz. 5674; Wil. 18) or gain, and out of this dedicate a gift to Hercules or other divinities (see alsoC.I.L.i. 1503; Wil. 24;C.I.L.1113; Wil. 43). Again, what one man had vowed, and had begun to erect, is, by his will, executed after his death by others (as thepropylum Cereris et Proserpinaeon the Eleusinian temple, which Appius Claudius Pulcher, Cicero’s well-known predecessor in the Cilician proconsulate, began—C.I.L.i. 619 = iii. 347; Wil. 31); or the statue that anaedilisvowed is erected by himself asduovir(C.I.L.iii. 500; Henz. 5684); what slaves had promised they fulfil as freedmen (C.I.L.1233,servos vovit liber solvit;C.I.L.816, Wil. 51, “ser(vos) vov(it) leibert(us) solv(it)”), and so on. The different acts into which an offering, according to the circumstantially detailed Roman ritual, is to be divided (theconsecratiobeing fulfilled only by the solemndedicatio) are also specified on dedicatory inscriptions (see for instance,consacrareorconsecrare, Orel. 2503, and Henz. 6124, 6128; fordedicare,C.I.L.i. 1159, Henz. 7024, Wil. 1782, and compare Catullus’shunc lucum tibi dedico consecroque Priape; fordicaresee theaara leege Albana dicatato Vediovis by thegenteiles Iuliei,C.I.L.i. 807, Orel. 1287, Wil. 101). Not exactly dedicatory, but only mentioning the origin of the gift, are the inscriptions on the pedestals of offerings (ἀναθήματα,donaria) out of the booty, like those of M. Claudius Marcellus from Enna (C.I.L.i. 530; Wil. 25, “Hinnad cepit”) or of M. Fulvius Nobilior, the friend of the poet Ennius, from Aetolia (C.I.L.i. 534; Orel. 562; Wil. 26 a, andBullettino dell’ Instituto, 1869, p. 8;C.I.L.vi. 1307; Wil. 26 b, “Aetolia cepit” and “Ambracia cepit”); they contain only the name of the dedicator, not that of the divinity. Of the similar offerings of L. Mummius, already mentioned, two only are preserved in their original poetical form, the Roman in Saturnian verses of acarmen triumphale(C.I.L.i. 541; Orel. 563; Wil. 27a) and that found at Reate in dactylic hexameters (C.I.L.i. 542; Wil. 27b); the rest of them contain only the name of the dedicant and the dative of the community to which they were destined (C.I.L.i. and Wil.l.c.). Of a peculiar form is the very ancient inscription on a bronze tablet, now at Munich, probably from Rome, where twoaidiles, whose names are given at the beginning as in the otherdonaria, “vicesma(m) parti(m)or [ex]vicesmaparti Apalones(that is,Apollinis)dederi(that is,dedere)” (C.I.L.i. 187; Orel. 1433). Many, but not substantial, varieties arise, when old offerings are restored (e.g.C.I.L.i. 638, 632 = Orel. 2135, and Wil. 48;C.I.L.i. 803; Henz. 5669, 6122); or the source of the offering (e.g.de stipe,C.I.L.i. 1105; Henz. 5633 a;ex reditu pecuniae,ex patrimonio suo,ex ludis,de munere gladiatorio, and so on); or the motive (ex jusso,ex imperio,ex visu,ex oraculo,monitu,viso moniti,somnio admonitusand the like), or the person or object, for which the offering was made (C.I.L.i. 188,pro poplod;Ephem. epigr.ii. 208,pro trebibos, in the British Museum;pro se,pro salute,in honorem domus divinae, &c.), are indicated; or, as in thetituli operum publicorum, the order of a magistrate (de senati sententia,C.I.L.i. 560 = vi. 1306; Orel. 5351; i. 632 = vi. 110; Orel. 2135; Wil. 48;decurionum decreto, &c.), and the magistrates or private persons executing or controlling the work, the place where and the time when it was erected, are added. On all these details the indexes, especially that of Wil. (ii. 675), give further information. The objects themselves which are offered or erected begin to be named only in the later period just as in thetituli operum publicorum(“basim donum dant,”C.I.L.i. 1167; “signum basim,”C.I.L.i. 1154; “aram,”C.I.L.i. 1468; Orel. 1466; Wil. 52;C.I.L.i. 1109; Wil. 54); in the later period this custom becomes more frequent. It is hardly necessary to observe that all kinds of offerings have very frequently also been adorned with poetry; thesecarmina dedicatoriaare given by Buecheler,Anthologia Latina, ii.; cf. Wil. 142-151.

3. Statues to mortals, whether living or after their death (but not on their tombs), withhonorary inscriptions(tituli honorarii), were introduced into the Roman republic after the Greek model and only at a comparatively late date. One of the oldest inscriptions of this class comes from Greek soil and is itself Greek in form, with the name in the accusative governed by some (suppressed) verb like “honoured” (C.I.L.i. 533; Wil. 649), “Italicei L. Cornelium Scipionem(i.e.Asiagenum)honoris caussa,” lost and of not quite certain reading, belonging to 561 A.U.C. (193B.C.); the same form (in the accusative) appears in other (Latin or Latin and Greek) inscriptions from Greece (C.I.L.i. 596 = iii. 532; Wil. 1103;C.I.L.iii. 365, 7240; compare alsoC.I.L.i. 587, 588; Orel. 3036). The noble house of the Scipios introduced the use of poeticalelogiain the ancient form of thecarmina triumphaliain Saturnian verses (from the 6th century in elegiac distichs). They were added to the shorttituli, painted only withminiumon the sarcophagi, giving the name of the deceased (in the nominative) and his curulian offices (exclusively), which were copied perhaps from the well-knownimaginespreserved in theatriumof the house (C.I.L.i. 29 sq; Orel. 550 sq.; Wil. 537 sq., and elsewhere). They hold, by their contents, an intermediate place between the sepulchral inscriptions, to which they belong properly, and the honorary ones, and therefore are rightly styledelogia. What the Scipios did thus privately for themselves was in other cases done publicly at a period nearly as early. The first instance preserved of such a usage, of which Pliny the elder speaks (Hist. nat.xxxiv. § 17 sq.), is the celebratedcolumna rostrataof C. Duilius, of which only a copy exists, made in or before the time of the emperor Claudius (C.I.L.i. 195 = vi. 1300; Orel. 549; Wil. 609). Then follow theelogiainscribed at the base of public works like theArcus Fabianus(C.I.L.i. 606, 607 and 278, elog. i.-iii. = vi. 1303, 1304; Wil. 610), or of statues by their descendants, as those belonging to asacrarium domus Augustae(C.I.L.i. elog. iv.-vi. =C.I.L.vi. 1310, 1311) and others belonging to men celebrated in politics or in letters, as Scipio, Hortensius, Cicero, &c., and found in Rome either on marble tablets (C.I.L.i. vii.-xii. =C.I.L.vi. 1312, 1279, 1283, 1271, 1273; Wil. 611-613) or on busts (C.I.L.i. xv.-xix. =C.I.L.vi. 1327, 1295, 1320, 1309, 1325, 1326; Wil. 618-621; see alsoC.I.L.i. 40 = vi. 1280; Wil. 1101; andC.I.L.i. 631 = vi. 1278; i. 640 = vi. 1323, vi. 1321, 1322, whereT. Quinctiseems to be the nominative), and in divers other places (C.I.L.i. xiii., xiv.; Wil. 614, 615). This custom seems to have been resumed by Augustus (Suet.Aug.31) with a political and patriotic aim, praised by the poet Horace (Od.iv. 8. 13, “incisa notis marmora publicis, per quae spiritus et vita redit bonis post mortem ducibus”); for he adorned hisforumwith the statues of celebrated men from Aeneas and Romulus downwards (C.I.L.i. xxiv., xxv., xxvii., xxxii. =C.I.L.vi. 1272, 1308, 1315, 1318; Wil. 625, 626, 627, 632), and other towns followed his example (so Pompeii,C.I.L.i. xx., xxii. = Wil. 622, 623; Lavinium,C.I.L.i. xxi.; Wil. 617; Arretium,C.I.L.i. xxiii., xxviii., xxix., xxx., xxxi., xxxiii., xxxiv. = Wil. 624, 625, 629-633). All theseelogiaare written in the nominative. In the same way in the colonies statues seem to have been erected to their founders or other eminent men, as in Aquileia (C.I.L.i. 538 = v. 873; Wil. 650; compare alsoC.I.L.v. 862; Orel. 3827) and Luna (C.I.L.i. 539 = Wil. 651).

But along with this primitive and genuine form of thetitulus honorariusanother form of it, equivalent to the dedicatory inscription, with the name of the person honoured in the dative, begins to prevail from the age of Sulla onwards. For the oldest examples of this form seem to be the inscriptions on statues dedicated to the dictator at Rome (C.I.L.i. 584 = vi. 1297; Orel. 567; Wil. 1102a) and at other places (Caieta and Clusium,C.I.L.i. 585, 586; Wil. 1102b,c), in which the whole set of honours and offices is not enumerated as in theelogia, but only thehonores praesentes; compare also the inscription belonging to about the same date, of aquaestor urbanus(C.I.L.i. 636). Within the Greek provinces also, at the same period, this form is adopted (C.I.L.i. 595 = iii. 531; Henz. 5294; Wil. 1104). Similar dedications were offered to Pompey the Great (at Auximum and Clusium,C.I.L.i. 615, 616; Orel. 574; Wil. 1107) and to his legate L. Afranius (at Bologna, but erected by the citizens of the Spanish colony Valentia,C.I.L.i. 601; Henz. 5127; Wil. 1106). They are succeeded by the statues raised to Caesar (at Bovianum,C.I.L.i. 620; Orel. 582; Wil. 1108), and, after his death,iussu populi Romani, in virtue of a special law, at Rome (C.I.L.i. 626 = vi. 872; Orel. 586; Wil. 877). With him, as is well known, divine honours begin to be paid to theprinceps, even during life. In this same form other historical persons of high merit also begin to be honoured by posterity, as, for example, Scipio the elder at Saguntum (C.I.L.ii. 3836; Wil. 653), Marius at Cereatae Marianae, the place which bears his name (C.I.L.x. 5782; Wil. 654). Of statues erected by the community of a municipium to a private person, that of L. Popillius Flaccus at Ferentinum seems to be the oldest example (C.I.L.i. 1164; Wil. 655, and his note). In Rome, Augustus and his successors in this way permitted the erection of statues, especially totriumphatores, in the newfora, including that of Augustus (C.I.L.vi. 1386; Orel. 3187; Wil. 634;C.I.L.vi. 1444; Henz. 5448; Wil. 635) and that of Trajan (C.I.L.vi. 1377; Henz. 5478; Wil. 636; vi. 1549; Henz. 5477; Wil. 639; iv. 1549; Orel. 1386; Wil. 637;C.I.L.1565, 1566; Wil. 640); and this custom lasted to a late period (C.I.L.vi. 1599; Henz. 3574; Wil. 638), as is shown by the statues of Symmachus the orator (C.I.L.vi. 1698, 1699; Orel. 1186, 1187; Wil. 641), Claudian the poet (C.I.L.vi. 1710; Orel. 1182; Wil. 642), Nicomachus Flavianus (C.I.L.vi. 1782, 1783; Orel. 1188; Henz. 5593; Wil. 645, 645a), and many other eminent men down to Stilicho (C.I.L.vi. 1730, 1731; Orel. 1133, 1134; Wil. 648, 648a), who died in the year 408. In similar forms are conceived the exceedingly numerous dedications to the emperors and their families, in which the names and titles, according to the different historical periods, are exhibited, in the main with the greatest regularity. They are specified in detailed indexes by Henzen and Wilmanns, as well as in each volume of theCorpus. In the provinces, of course, the usages of the capital were speedily imitated. Perhaps the oldest example of atitulus honorariusin the form of anelogium(but in the dative), with the fullcursus honorumof the person honoured, is abilinguisfrom Athens, of the Augustan age (C.I.L.iii. 551; Henz. 6456a; Wil. 1122); the honours are here enumerated in chronological order, beginning with the lowest; in other instances the highest is placed first, and the others follow in order.41In the older examples the formula “honoris causa,” orvirtutis ergo(Hermes, vi., 1871, p. 6), is added at the end, as in an inscription of Mytilene belonging to the consul of the year 723 A.U.C.,i.e.31B.C.(C.I.L.iii. 455; Orel. 4111; Wil. 1104b); the same, abbreviated (h.c.), occurs on an inscription of about the same age from Cirta in Africa (C.I.L.viii. 7099; Wil. 2384). Shortly afterwards the honour of a statue became as common in the Romanmunicipiaas it was in Athens and other Greek cities in the later period. Each province furnishes numerous examples, partly with peculiar formulae, on which the indexes of Wilmanns (pp. 673, 696 sq.) may be consulted. Special mention may be made of the numerous honorary inscriptions belonging toaurigae,histrionesandgladiatores; for those found in Rome seeC.I.L.vi. 10,044-10,210.

He who erects a temple or a public building, or constructs a road, a bridge, an aqueduct or the like, by inscribing his name on the work, honours himself, and, as permission to do so has to be given by the public authorities, is also honoured by the community. Therefore thetituli operum publicorum, though in form only short official statements (at least in the older period) of the origin of the work, without any further indications as to its character and purpose, partake of the style of the older honorary inscriptions. Of the ancient and almost universally employed method of erecting public buildings by means of thelocatio censoriaone monument has preserved some traces (Ephem. epigr.ii. 199). The oldest instance of this class is that commemorating the restoration of the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter, begun, after its destruction by fire in the year 671 (83B.C.), by Sulla and continued five years later by the well-known orator and poet Q. Lutatius Catulus, but completed only about twenty years afterwards. Here, after the name of Catulus in the nominative and the indication of the single parts of the building (as, for example,substructionem et tabularium), follows the solemn formulade s(enati) s(ententia) faciundum coeravit eidemque probavit(C.I.L.i. 592 = vi. 1314; Orel. 31, 3267; Wil. 700). With the same formula the praetor Calpurnius Piso Frugi (of about the same period) dedicated an unknown building (C.I.L.i. 594 = vi. 1275), restored afterwards by Trajan. On a work executed by thecollegium tribunorum plebis(C.I.L.i. 593 = vi. 1299; Wil. 787), perhaps the public streets within the town, the sum employed for it is also inscribed. Precisely similar is the oldest inscription of one of the bridges of Rome, theponte dei quattro capi, still preserved, though partly restored, on its original site, which commemorates its builder, the tribune of the year 692(62B.C.), L. Fabricius (C.I.L.i. 600 = vi. 1305; Orel. 50; Wil. 788); it was restored by the consuls of the year 733 (21B.C.).42On privately erected buildings the founder after his name puts a simplefecit(as also on sepulchral inscriptions); so, possibly, did Pompey, when he dedicated his theatre as a temple of Venus Victrix and, on Cicero’s clever advice, as Varro and Tiro had it from Cicero himself, inscribed on itcos. tert(nottertiumortertio) (see Gellius,Noct. Att.x. 1). So Agrippa, when he dedicated his Pantheon in the year 727 (27B.C.), inscribed on it only the wordsM. Agrippa, L. f. cos. tertium fecit(C.I.L.vi. 896; Orel. 34; Wil. 731), as all who visit the Eternal City know. Of municipal examples it will be sufficient to name those of the majestic temple of Cora (C.I.L.i. 1149-1150; Wil. 722, 723), of Ferentinum, with the measurements of the foundation (C.I.L.i. 1161-1163; Wil. 708), of the walls and towers at Aeclanum (C.I.L.i. 1230; Orel. 566; Henz. 6583; Wil. 699), of the theatre, amphitheatre, baths and other structures at Pompeii (C.I.L.i. 1246, 1247, 1251, 1252; Orel. 2416, 3294; Henz. 6153; Will. 730, 1899-1901). At Aletrium a munificent citizen gives an enumeration of a number of works executed by him in the period of the Gracchi, in his native town (“haec quae infera scripta sunt de senatu sententia facienda coiravit,”C.I.L.i. 1166; Orel. 3892; Wil. 706); and, more than a century later, the same is done at Cartima, a small Spanish town near Malaga, by a rich woman (C.I.L.ii. 1956; Wil. 746). Military works, executed by soldiers, especially frequent in the Danubian provinces, Africa, Germany and Britain, give, in this way, manifold and circumstantial information as to the military administration of the Romans. On a column found near the bridge over the Minho at Aquae Flaviae, the modern Chaves in northern Portugal, ten communities inscribed their names, probably as contributors to the work, with those of the emperors (Vespasian and his sons), the imperial legate of the province, the legate of the legion stationed in Spain, the imperialprocurator, and the name of the legion itself (C.I.L.ii. 2477; Wil. 803); and similarly, with the name of Trajan, on the famous bridge over the Tagus at Alcántara, in Spanish Estremadura, the names of themunicipia provinciae Lusitaniae stipe conlata quae opus pontis perfeceruntare inscribed (C.I.L.ii. 759-762; Orel. 161, 162; Wil. 804).

As in some of the already-mentioned inscriptions of public works the measurements of the work to which they refer (especially, as may be supposed, in the case of works of great extent, such as walls of towns or lines of fortification, like the walls of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius in Britain) are indicated, so it early became a custom in the Roman republic to note onmilestonesthe name of the founder of the road and, especially at the extremities of it and near large towns, the distances. So in theval di Dianain Lucania P. Popillius Laenas, the consul of the year 622 (132B.C.), at the end of a road built by him, set up themiliarium Popilianum(C.I.L.i. 551; Orel. 3308; Wil. 797), which is a general elogium to himself, in which he speaks in the first person (viam fecei ab Regio ad Capuam, &c.). One of the singlemiliariaset up by him is also preserved (C.I.L.i. 550; Henz. 7174d; Wil. 808), which contains only his name and the number of miles. In the same brief style are conceived the other not very frequent republican miliaria found in Italy (C.I.L.i. 535-537; Henz. 5348; Wil. 567;C.I.L.i. 540; Henz. 5350, 6226; Wil. 807;C.I.L.i. 558, 559; Henz. 5353; Wil. 808;C.I.L.i. 561; Henz. 5180; Wil. 811;C.I.L.i. 633; Wil. 812) down to the time of Augustus (C.I.L.x. 6895, 6897, 6899; Wil. 813), and also the even more rare specimens from the provinces (from Asia—C.I.L.i. 557 = iii. 479, Wil. 826,C.I.L.i. 622 = iii. 462, Wil. 827; from Spain—C.I.L.i. 1484-1486 = ii. 4920-4925, 4956, Wil. 828, 829). Augustus inscribed on each milestone on his road across Spain “a Baete et Jano Augusto ad Oceanum” (e.g.C.I.L.ii. 4701; Wil. 832), Claudius on those of a road in Upper Italy founded by his father Drusus “viam Claudiam Augustam quam Drusus pater Alpibus bello patefactis derexserat munit ab Altino(ora flumine Pado)ad flumen Danuvium” (C.I.L.v. 8002, 8003; Orel. 648, 708; Henz, 5400; Wil. 818). The later milestones vary greatly in form, but all contain most precious materials for ancient geography and topography; in the volumes of theCorpusthey are taken together under the special headviae publicae(and here and thereprivatae) at the end of each chapter.

A similar character, resulting from the combination of a mere authentic record with the peculiar form of the honorary inscription, belongs to the kindred classes ofinscriptions of the aqueductsand of the differentboundary-stones. The large dedicatory inscriptions of the celebrated aqueducts43of Rome (as the Aquae Marcia, Tepula and Julia,C.I.L.vi. 1244-1246, Orel. 51-53, Wil. 765; the Virgo,C.I.L.vi. 1252, Orel. 703, Wil. 763; the Claudia, &c.,C.I.L.vi. 1256-1258. Orel. 54-56, Wil. 764) have quite the character of honorary inscriptions, while the variouscippi terminales, which mark the ground belonging to the aqueduct, show the greatest analogy to the milestones (e.g.C.I.L.vi. 1243a-g; Henz. 6635, 6636; Wil. 775-779). The other Italian and provincial varieties cannot be specified here. Of boundary-stones, orcippi terminales, some very ancient specimens have been preserved. To the age preceding the Second Punic War belong two, found at Venusia and erected by municipal magistrates (C.I.L.i. 185, 186; Orel. 3527, 3528; Wil. 863); they give a short relation of a decree, by which certain localities were declared to be sacred or public (“aut sacrom aut poublicom locom ese”). Then follow thecippi Gracchani, by which Gaius Gracchus and his two colleagues, astres viri agris iudicandis adsignandis, measured theager Campanus, for its division among the plebs. They contain the names of thetres viriin the nominative, and in addition, on the top, the lines and angles of thecardoanddecumanus, according to the rules of theagrimensores, or the boundary lines between theager publicusandprivatus(C.I.L.i. 552-556; Henz. 6464; Wil. 859-861). From the age of Sulla we still have various boundary-stones giving the line of demarcation between different communities (between Fanum and Pisaurum—C.I.L.i. 583, Orel. 570, Wil. 861; between Ateste, Vicetia and Patavium—C.I.L.i. 547-549, Orel. 3110, Henz. 5114, 5115, Wil. 865, 866). To the town of Rome belong thetermini ripae Tiberis(C.I.L.i. 608-614 = vi. 1234a-l), beginning in the Augustan age, and thetermini of the pomoeriumof Claudius and Vespasian as censors, and of thecollegium augurumunder Hadrian (C.I.L.vi. 1231-1233; Orel. 710, 811; Wil. 843, 844), while others, of the consuls of the yearA.D.4 (C.I.L.vi. 1263; Orel. 3260; Wil. 856), of Augustus (C.I.L.vi. 1265; Henz. 6455; Wil. 852), &c., show the boundary between theager publicusandprivatus. With similar objects boundary-stones were erected by the emperors, or, under their authority, by magistrates, mostly military, in the rest of Italy also (as in Capua—C.I.L.x. 3825, Orel. 3683, Wil. 858; at Pompeii—C.I.L.x. 1018, Wil. 864) and in the provinces (as in Syria—C.I.L.iii. 183; and Macedonia—C.I.L.iii. 594; in Dalmatia—C.I.L.iii. 2883; in Africa—C.I.L.viii. 7084-7090, 8211, 8268, 10,803, 10,838, Wil. 869, 870; in Spain—C.I.L.ii. 2349, 2916, Wil. 871—where thepratumof a legion is divided from the territory of amunicipium; in Gaul—Wil. 867; in Germany, in the column found at Miltenberg on the Main,Bonner Jahrbücher, vol. lxiv., 1878, p. 46, &c.). Private grounds (pedaturae) were unfrequently marked off by terminalcippi. To this class oftitulimust be added also the curious inscriptions incised upon the steps of Roman circuses, theatres and amphitheatres (see Hübner,Annali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. xxviii., 1856, p. 52 sq., and vol. xxxi., 1859, p. 122 sq.), as, for instance, upon those of the Coliseo at Rome (C.I.L.vi., 1796, 1-37; compare R. Lanciani,Bullettino archeologico municipale, 1881).

4. We now come to the last class oftituli, viz. those which in theCorpusare arranged, at the end of each volume, under the head ofInstrumentum. By this very comprehensive term are designated objects which vary greatly among themselves, but which are of such a character as not to fall within any of the classes oftitulidescribed before, or the class of theinstrumentain the proper sense of that word,—the laws, &c. Thetituliof theinstrumentumembrace movable objects, destined for public and private use, and illustrate almost every side of the life of the ancient Romans. As systematic treatment of them is hardly possible, a simple enumeration only of their different classes can be given, without citing special examples. The first species of them is metrological, comprehending the inscriptions on measures and weights. The gold and silver plate used in the best Roman houses was also always marked with a note of its weight,—as is seen, for instance, on the different objects belonging to the Hildesheim find (seeHermes, iii., 1868, p. 469 sq.;Philologus, xxviii., 1869, p. 369), the Corbridgelanxin Northumberland House (C.I.L.vii. 1268) and many others. A second species is formed by thetesserae, tokens or marks, mostly in bronze, bone and ivory, but also earthen, of which the most interesting are the so-calledtesserae gladiatoriae, little staves of bone with holes at the top, and with names of slaves or freedmen and consular dates upon them, the relation of which to themunera gladiatoriais by no means certain (seeC.I.L.i. 717 sq., andHermes, xxi. p. 266;Rhein. Mus.xli. p. 517; xlii. p. 122;Berl. phil. Woch., 1888, p. 24). The other circulartesserae(the so-calledtesserae theatrales) of ivory or bone, with emblems and short inscriptions, partly Greek and Latin, used to be attributed to theludi scaenici(see Henzen,Annali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. xx., 1848, p. 273 sq., and vol. xxii., 1850, p. 357 sq.) and to otherludi; but this account has been questioned (Huelsen,Bullett. dell’ Instituto, 1896, p. 227). A third species is that of inscriptions carved, inscribed, painted or stamped upon various materials, raw or manufactured, for trade or household use. Such are, to begin with, the most solid and heavy, the inscriptions carved or painted on masses of stone, mostly columns, in the quarries, and preserved either on the rocks themselves in the quarries or on the roughly hewn blocks transported to the Romanemporiumon the Tiber bank. Curious specimens of the first kind are preserved in Lebanon, and in the north of England, near Hadrian’s Wall and elsewhere; on the second may be consulted a learned treatise by Padre L. Bruzza (“Iscrizioni dei marmi grezzi,” in theAnnali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. xlii., 1870, pp. 106-204). Of a kindredcharacter are the inscriptions, mostly stamped or engraved in the mould, of pigs of silver, bronze and lead (and pewter), found in the Roman mines in Spain and England (see Hübner, “Römische Bleigruben in Britannien,” inRheinisches Museum für Philologie, vol. xi., 1857, p. 347 sq., andC.I.L.vii. 220 sq.; A. Way,Archaeological Journal, vol. xvi., 1859, p. 23, and vol. xxiii., 1866, p. 63). A fourth species oftituliof this class is strictly related to the military institutions of the Roman empire. Many of the weapons are marked with the names of the bearer and of the military corps to which he belonged,—so, for example, the buckles of their shields (see Hübner, “Römische Schildbuckel,” inArchäologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen aus Österreich, vol. ii., 1878, p. 105 sq.; by far the best extant specimen is the umbo of a legionary soldier of the eighth legion found in the Tyne near South Shields,C.I.L.vii. 495), and sometimes the swords, as that of Tiberius from Mainz (now in the British Museum, seeBonner Winckelmannsprogrammof 1848). The leadenglandesused by thefunditores, the slingers, in the Roman army bear curious historical inscriptions (seeC.I.L.i. 642 sq.,Ephem. epigr.vi. and, on the question of the authenticity of many of them, Zangemeister,C.I.L.ix., 35* sqq.). Special mention must be made also of the leaden seals or marks (bullae), evidently of military origin (perhaps to be borne by the soldiers as a countersign), which have been found in many parts of England (C.I.L.vii. 1269;Ephem. epigr.iii. 144, 318, iv. 209, vii. 346). Of the highest interest are the manifold productions of the Roman tile and brick kilns (C.I.L.xv.Inscriptiones laterum; cf. Descemet in theBibliothèque des écoles françaises, vol. xv.). Next to the tiles with consular dates made at Veleia (C.I.L.i. 777 sqq.), those signed with the name of legions or other military corps, and employed in the various military buildings of these, are especially worthy of mention; they form an important chapter in every geographical part of theCorpus. But private persons, too, especially the rich landed proprietors, and afterwards the emperors and their kinsmen, kept largefigulinae, and their manufactures—tiles of every description and other earthenware—were spread over the Roman empire (Dressel,Untersuchungen über die Chronologie der Ziegelstempel der Gens Domitia, 1888;C.I.L.xv.). The different sorts of earthen vessels and lamps, the fragments of which are found in great quantities wherever Roman settlements occurred, are arranged at the end of each volume of theCorpusand are collected in vol. xv part ii. p. i. On the maker’s marks on earthenware, see Habert,La Poterie antique parlanté(1893); Dragendorf, “Terra Sigillata,” inBonn. Jahrbüch.xcvi. 18. On Roman lamps and their inscriptions the accurate catalogue of the Vienna collection by Kenner (“Dicantiken Thonlampen des K. K. Münz- und Antiken-Cabinetes und der K. K. Ambraser Sammlung,” in theArchiv für Kunde österreichischer Geschichtsquellen, vol. xx., Vienna, 1858) may be consulted with advantage. The chief deposit of earthenware fragments, theMonte testaccioin Rome, has been explored by Dressel (“Ricerche sul Monte testaccio,” in theAnnali dell’ Instituto archeologico, vol. i., 1878, p. 118-192). Inscriptions are found on various classes of vessels, painted (as the consular dates on the largedoliafor wine, oil, &c., see Schöne,C.I.L.iv. 171 sq., andEphem. epigr.i. 160 sq.), stamped on the clay when still wet or in the mould, and scratched in the clay when dry, like those on the walls of ancient buildings in Pompeii, Rome and other places of antiquity. Like the corresponding Greek ware, they contain chiefly names of the makers or the merchants or the owners, and can be treated in a satisfactory manner only when brought together in one large collection (C.I.L.xv. part ii.), inasmuch as, besides being made in many local potteries, they were exported principally from some places in Italy (e.g.Arezzo) and Spain, in nearly every direction throughout northern and western Europe, the countries outside the Roman frontiers not excluded. Vessels and utensils of glass and of metal (gold, silver and especially bronze) were also exported from Italy on a large scale, as is being more and more readily recognized even by those antiquaries who formerly were wont to assume a local origin for all bronze finds made in the north of Europe. These utensils, ornaments and other objects made of precious metals (such as cups, spoons, mirrors,fibulae, rings, gems), not unfrequently bear Latin inscriptions. On the very ancient silver and bronze caskets, for holding valuable articles of the female toilet, which have been found at Praeneste, are inscribed, in addition to the names of the artist and of the donor, occurring once, the names of the persons in the mythical representations engraved upon them (C.I.L.i. 54-60, 1500, 1501; Jordan,Kritische Beiträge zur Geschichte der lateinischen Sprache, Berlin, 1879, p. 3 sq.). In the ancient well of theAquae Apollinares, near Vicarello in Tuscany, three silver cups have been found with circumstantial itineraries “a Gades(sic)usque Romam” engraved upon them, evidently gifts to the divinity of the bath for recovered health presented by travellers from the remote city named (Henzen 5210). Similar is the Rudge Cup, found in Wiltshire and preserved at Alnwick Castle, which contains, engraved in bronze, an itinerary along some Roman stations in the north of England (C.I.L.vii. 1291). The inscriptions of the Hildesheim silver find and others of a similar character have been already mentioned; and many examples might be enumerated besides. On the ancient glass ware and the inscriptions on it the splendid works of Deville (Histoire de l’art de la verrerie dans l’antiquité, Paris, 1873) and Froehner (La Verrerie antique, description de la collection Charvet, Paris, 1879) may be consulted; on the Christian glasses that of Garrucci (Vetri ornati di figure in oro trovatinei cimiteri dei cristiani primitivi di Roma, Rome, 1858); on the makers’ marks on bronze objects, Mowat,Marques de bronziers sur objets trouvés ou rapportés en France(1884) (extracted fromBulletin épigraphique, 1883-1884). The last species oftituliis formed by the stamps themselves with which the inscriptions on many of the objects already named are produced. They are mostly of bronze, and contain names; but it is not easy to say what sort of objects were marked with them, as scarcely any article stamped with a still existing stamp has been found. Amongst the materials stamped leather also is to be mentioned. One class only of stamps differs widely from the rest,—the oculists’ stamps, engraved mostly on steatite (or similar stones), and containing remedies against diseases of the eyes, to be stamped on the glass bowls in which such remedies were sold, or on the medicaments themselves (see Grotefend,Die Stempel der römischen Augenärzte gesammelt und erklärt(Göttingen, 1867); de Villefosse and Thédenat,Cachets d’oculistes romains(1882); Espérandieu,Recueil des cachets d’oculistes romains(1894).

IV. The other great class of inscriptions above referred to, theinstrumentaorleges, the laws, deeds, &c., preserved generally on metal and stone, from the nature of the case have to be considered chiefly with regard to their contents; their form is not regulated by such constant rules as that of thetituli, so far as may be inferred from the state of completeness in which they have been preserved. The rules for each special class therefore, though, generally speaking, maintained—as was to be expected of Roman institutions—with remarkable steadiness from the earliest times down to a late period, must be based upon a comprehensive view of all the examples, including those preserved by ancient writers, and not in the monumental form. These documents are, as a rule, incised on bronze plates (only some private acts are preserved on wood and lead), and therefore have their peculiar form of writing, abbreviation, interpunction, &c., as has been already explained. The older Roman laws are now collected, in trustworthy texts, in theCorpus, vol. i.; of the documents belonging to the later period a very comprehensivesyllogeis given in C. G. Bruns’sFontes juris Romani antiqui.

1. Among the earliest occasions for committing to writing agreements, which may be supposed to have been originally verbal only, must certainly be reckoned international transactions (leges foederis or foedera). At the head of the prose records written in the Latin language we find the treaties of alliance of Tullus Hostilius with the Sabini (Dionysius Halic. iii. 33), of Servius Tullius with the Latini (Dionysius iv. 26; Festus p. 169; this was, partly, at the same time, as will afterwards appear, the oldest document of the sacred class), of the second Tarquinius with Gabii (Dionysius iv. 58; Festus,Epit.p. 56). They are followed, in the oldest republican period, by the celebratedfoederawith Carthage; by the pacts of Sp. Cassius Vecellinus with the Latini of the year 261 (493B.C.), which Cicero seems to have seen still in theforumbehind therostra, written on a bronze column (Pro Balbo, 23, 53; see also Livy ii. 33; Festus p. 166; and Mommsen’sRömische Forschungen, ii. 153 sq.); and by thefoedus Ardeatinumof 310 (444B.C.) mentioned by Livy (iv. 7). Of all these documents nothing has been preserved in an authentic form, save some few words quoted from them by the ancient grammarians. Of onefoedusonly is there a fragment still in existence, relating to the Oscancivitas liberaBantia (C.I.L.i. 197); it contains theclausulaof thefoedus, which was written in Latin and in Oscan (seeApulia). On account of this peculiar circumstance, the document gave occasion to Klenze, and afterwards to Mommsen, to resume (for the sake of Roman jurisprudence, in the first instance) inquiry into the Oscan and other Italian dialects. Some other Romanfoederaare preserved only in Greek,e.g.that with the Jews of the year 594 (160B.C.)(Josephus,Ant.xii. 6. 10). Some others, made with the same nation between 610 and 615 (144 and 139B.C.) (Jos.Ant.xiii. 5. 6 and 7. 8), are mentioned in an abridged form only, or given in that of asenatus consultum, to which they must formally be ascribed. Amongst thefoederamay be reckoned also the curious oath, sworn, perhaps, according to a general rule obtaining for allcivitates foederatae, by the citizens of a Lusitanianoppidum, Aritium, to Gaius Caesar on his accession to the throne inA.D.37 (C.I.L.ii. 172; Wil. 2839).

Closely related to thefoederaare the pacts between communities and private individuals, respectingpatronatusorhospitium(tabulae patronatus et hospitii), also, when in small portable form,tesserae hospitales; cf. Plautus,Poen.1047, of which many specimens from the end of the republic down to a late period of the empire have been preserved (see Gazzera,Memorie dell’ Academia di Torino, vol. xxxv., 1831, p. 1 sq., and Mommsen,Römische Forschungen, i. 341 sq.). Of the numerous examples scattered through the different volumes of theCorpusmay be quoted thetessera Fundana, containing the pact of hospitality between the community of Fundi and a certain Ti. Claudius (who cannot, with certainty, be identified), the oldest hitherto known, in the form of a bronze fish (C.I.L.i. 532; Henz. 7000; Wil. 2849); thetabulaof thepagus Gurzensiumin Africa, delivering the patronate to L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero’s grandfather, in 742 (12B.C.), in the afterwards solemn form of atabella fastigata, to be fixed in theatriumof the person honoured (Orel. 3693; Wil. 2850); that of thecivitas Pallantinawith aperegrinusnamedAcces Licirniof the year 752 (2B.C.) (Ephem. epigr.i. 141;Hermes, v., 1871, p. 371 seq.); that ofLacilbula, in Spain, with one Q. Marius Balbus, ofA.D.5 (C.I.L.ii. 1393); that of theBocchoritanion the island of Majorca, ofA.D.6 (C.I.L.ii. 3695; Wil. 2851); the four relating to C. Silius Aviola, dating fromA.D.27 to 28, all found at Brescia (C.I.L.v. 4919-4922); that of thecolonia Julia Aug. legionis vii. Tupusuctu, in Africa, with the imperial legate Q. Julius Secundus, ofA.D.55 (C.I.L.viii. 8837; Wil. 2851); that of twogentilitates, theDesonciandTridiavi, of thegensof theZoelae, in Spain, now in the museum of Berlin, which contains an older act of the year 27, and another more recent of the yearA.D.127 (C.I.L.ii. 2633; Orel. 156); that of therespublica Pompelonensis(Pampeluna in Spain) ofA.D.185 (C.I.L.ii. 2960; Wil. 2854); that of theSegisamonenses, in Spain, ofA.D.239, now in the museum at Burgos (Ephem. epigr.ii. 322); that of thefabri subidiani(i.e.subaediani, qui sub aede consistunt) of Cordova, ofA.D.348 (C.I.L.ii. 2211; Wil. 2861); and, in addition to many others, those found together at Rome, on the site of the palace of Q. Aradius Valerius Proculus, and belonging to him and other members of his family, from divers African cities and executed inA.D.321 and 322 (C.I.L.vi. 1684-1688; Orel. 1079, 3058).

2. Hardly inferior in antiquity, and of superior value, are the remains of laws in the stricter sense of the word (legesandplebiscita), preserved to us in the originals, although unfortunately only in fragments more or less extensive. Of those laws the oldest and most important are thelex Acilia(for so it is in all probability to be styled)repetundarumof the year 631 (C.I.L.i. 198), which is incised on a bronze table about 2 metres broad, in 90 lines of about 200 to 240 letters each, and therefore extremely inconvenient to read, and thelex agrariaof 643 (111B.C.), written on the reverse of the table of the Acilia, abrogated shortly afterwards (C.I.L.i. 200); this is the third of the celebrated laws of C. Gracchus bearing upon the division of public lands. Then follow thelex Cornelia de viginti quaestoribus, a fragment of Sulla’s legislation, the eighth table only, of the whole set, being preserved (C.I.L.i. 202); theplebiscitum de Thermensibus, on the autonomy of Termessus in Pisidia, proposed by thetribuni plebis, in 682 (72B.C.), one of four or five large bronze plates (C.I.L.i. 204); thelex Rubria de civitate Galliae cisalpinaeof 705 (49B.C.), written in a new and more convenient form (belonging as it does to Caesar’s legislation), in two columns, with numbered divisions, being the fourth out of an unknown number of plates (C.I.L.i. 205); thelex Julia municipalis, or, from the place where it was found, thetabulae Heracleensesof 709 (45B.C.), written on the reverse of the much older Greek law of that community, preserved partly at Naples, partly in the British Museum (C.I.L.i. 206), also a fragment of Caesar’s general municipal institutions; it contains a curious passage relating to the public promulgation of laws (v. 15). These are the laws of the Roman republic preserved in important fragments; some minor ones (brought together inC.I.L.i. 207-211) may be left out of account here. In the imperial age, laws in general were replaced bysenatus consultaor by imperial decrees. It was also in the form of asenatus consultumthat theleges de imperio, on the accession of the emperors, seem to have been promulgated. An example of such a law, preserved in part on a bronze tablet found at Rome, is thelex de imperio Vespasiani(C.I.L.vi. 930; Orel. i. 567). There is, besides, one special category of imperial constitutions which continued to be namedleges, viz. the constitutions given by the emperors to the divers classes ofcivitates, based upon the ancient traditional rules of government applied to Rome itself as well as to thecoloniaeandmunicipia. Of this sort oflegessome very valuable specimens have come from Spanish soil, viz. thelex coloniae Juliae Genetivae Urbanorum sive Ursonis(now Osuna), given to that colony by Caesar in 710 (44B.C.), but incised, with some alterations, in the time of Vespasian, of which three bronze tables out of a much larger number remain (Hübner and Mommsen,Ephem. epigr.ii. 150 sq. and 221 sq.); thelex Salpensanaand thelex Malacitana, given to these twomunicipiaby Domitian, betweenA.D.81 and 84, each on a large bronze plate, written respectively in two and in five columns, with the single chapters numbered and rubricated (C.I.L.ii. 1963, 1964; compare Mommsen, “Die Stadtrechte der lateinischen Gemeinden Salpensa und Malacca in der Provinz Baetica,” in theAbhandlungen der sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philol.-histor. Classe, vol. iii., 1857, p. 363 sq.); thelex metalli Vipascensis, given, with all probability, by one of the three Flavii, as a constitution to a mining district of southern Portugal, one bronze plate numbered iii.—three or more, therefore, being lost (see Hübner,Ephem. epigr.iii. 165 sq. and, for a popular account, theDeutsche Rundschau, August 1877, p. 196 sq.). The so-called military diplomas, although in certain respects nearly related to thelegesof the later period, are better placed along with the imperial decrees.

3. A third species of official documents is formed by decrees of the senate of Rome, of the analogous corporations in thecoloniaeandmunicipia, and of the diverscollegiaandsodalicia, constituted, as a rule, after a similar fashion and debating in nearly the same way as the Roman and the municipal senates. The oldest Romansenatus consultaare those translated into the Greek language and containing treaties of alliance, as already mentioned. They are preserved either on monuments or by ancient authors, as Josephus:e.g.the fragment found at Delphi, from the year 568 (186B.C.), and thesenatus consultum Thisbaeum, from Thisbe in Boeotia, 584 (170B.C.) (Ephem. epigr.i. 278 sq., ii. 102, and Joh. Schmidt,Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung, vol. iii., 1881), those of 616, 619, 621, 649 (138-105B.C.) (C. I. Graec.2905, 2908, ii. 2485, 2737; Le Bas and Waddington iii. 195-198;Annali dell’ Instituto, vol. xix. 1847, p. 113;Ephem. epigr.iv. 213 sq.), and those relating to the Jews, dating from 615, 621 and 710 (139, 133 and 44B.C.) (Josephus,Ant.xiii. 9. 2, xiv. 8. 5 and 10. 9). The two oldestsenatus consultawritten in Latin are also preserved in a more or less complete form only by ancient authors; they are thesc. de philosophis et rhetoribusof 593 (161B.C.) (Gellius,Noct. Att.xv. 11. 1) and thatde hastis Martiisof 655 (99B.C.) (Gellius iv. 6. 2). The only one belonging to the oldest period preserved in the original Latin form, of which only a part exists, together with the Greek translation, is thesc. Lutatianum, relating to Asclepiades of Clazomenae and his companions, dating from 676 (77B.C.) (C.I.L.i. 203). The rest, belonging to the later epoch from Cicero downwards, about twenty in number, are mostly preserved only in an abridged form by ancient writers,—such as Cicero, Frontinus, Macrobius,—or in Justinian’sDigesta(see Hübner,De senatus populique Romani actis, Leipzig, 1859, p. 66 sq.); a few exist, however, in a monumental form, complete or in fragments—as the two sc. on theludi saeculares, dating from 17B.C.andA.D.47, preserved on a marble slab found at Rome (C.I.L.vi. 877); the fragments of two sc. in honour of Germanicus and the younger Drusus, from Rome, on bronze tablets (C.I.L.vi. 911-912; Henz. 5381-5282); the twosc.HosidianumandVolusianum, containing regulations for the demolition and rebuilding of houses in Rome, incised on the same bronze plate, found at Herculaneum, dating from Nero’s time, betweenA.D.41 and 46 and from 56 (Orel. 3115; Mommsen,Berichte der sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philol.-histor. Classe, 1852, p. 272 sq.); and, of a later period, thesc.CassianumorNonianumofA.D.138, containing a market regulation for thesaltus Beguensisin Africa, where it has been found preserved in two examples on stone slabs (Ephem. epigr.ii. 271 sq., not complete in Wil. 2838), and the fragment of that for Cyzicus, belonging to the reign of Antoninus Pius (Ephem. epigr.iii. 156 sq.). There exists, besides, a chapter of a sc., relating to thecollegia, inserted in the decree of acollegiumat Lanuvium, to be mentioned below. Of the municipal decrees, of which a greater number is preserved (see Hübner,De sen. populique Rom. actis, p. 71 sq.), only a few of the more important may be mentioned here: thelex Puteolana de parieti faciundoof 649 (105B.C.) (C.I.L.i. 577; Orel. 3697; Wil. 697); the twodecreta(or so-calledcenotaphia)Pisanain honour of Lucius and Gaius Caesar, the grandsons of Augustus, ofA.D.3 (C.I.L.xi. 1420, 1421; Orel. 642, 643; Wil. 883); thedecretum LanuvinumofA.D.133, containing the regulations of acollegium funeraticium, styledcollegium salutare Dianae et Antinoi(Orel. 6086; Wil. 319); and thedecretum Tergestinum, belonging to the time of Antoninus Pius (C.I.L.v. 532; Henz. 7167; Wil. 693). There are, however, more than thirty others preserved, some of them, such as those from Naples, written in the Greek language. Of the third speciality, thedecreta collegiorum, only thelex collegii aquaeof the 1st century (Marini,Atti de’ fratelli arvali, p. 70; Rudorff and Mommsen,Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte, vol. xv., 1850, pp. 203, 345 sq.), and thelex collegii Aesculapii et Hygiae, of 153 (C.I.L.vi. 10,234; Orel. 2417; Wil. 320) need be mentioned here; many more exist. One of them, thelex collegii Jovis Cerneni, dating fromA.D.167, found at Alburnus major in Dacia, is preserved on the originaltabella cerataon which it was written (C.I.L.iii. 924; Henz. 6087; Wil. 321).

4. The fourth species ofinstrumentaare the decrees, sometimes in the form of letters, of Roman and municipal magistrates, and of the emperors and their functionaries, incised, as a rule, on bronze tablets. The oldest decree in the Latin language which has been preserved is that of L. Aemilius Paulus, when praetor in Hispania Baetica, dating from 189B.C., for the Turris Lascutana in southern Spain (C.I.L.ii. 5041; Wil. 2837); of the same date is a Greek one of Cn. Manlius, consul of the year 565, for the Heracleenses Cariae (Le Bas and Waddington n. 588). Then follow the famousepistula consulum(falsely styledsenatus consultum)ad Teuranos de bacchanalibus, dated 568 (186B.C.) (C.I.L.i. 196); the sentence of the two Minucii, the delegates of the senate, on a dispute concerning the boundaries between the Genuates and Viturii, 117B.C.(C.I.L.i. 199; Orel. 3121; Wil. 872); and theepistulaof the praetor L. Cornelius (perhaps Sisenna), the praetor of 676 (78B.C.)ad Tiburtes(C.I.L.i. 201). These belong to the republican age. From the imperial period a great many more have come down to us of varying quality. Some of them are decrees or constitutions of the emperors themselves. Such are the decree of Augustus on the aqueduct of Venafrum (C.I.L.x. 4842; Henz. 6428; Wil. 784); that of Claudius, found in the Val di Nona, belonging toA.D.46 (C.I.L.v. 5050; Wil. 2842); of Vespasian for Sabora in Spain (C.I.L.ii. 1423), and for the Vanacini in Corsica (Orel. 4031); of Domitian for Falerii (Orel. 3118); the epistles of Hadrian relating to Aezani in Phrygia, added to a Greek decree of Avidius Quietus (C.I.L.iii. 355; Henz. 6955), and relating to Smyrna, in Greek, with a short one of Antoninus Pius, in Latin (C.I.L.iii. 411; Orel. 3119); the decrees of Commodus relating to thesaltus Burunitanusin Africa (C.I.L.viii. 10,570; cf.Eph. epigr.v. 471); of Severus and Caracalla for Tyra (Akkerman in Moesia), Latin and Greek (C.I.L.iii. 781; Henz. 6429); of Valerian and Gallienus for Smyrna, also Latin and Greek (C.I.L.iii. 412); of Diocletiande pretiis rerum venalium, containing a long list of prices for all kinds of merchandise,preserved in divers copies more or less complete, in Latin and Greek (C.I.L.iii. 801 sq.; compareEphem. epigr.iv. 180, and, as similar monuments, thelex portusof Cirta, ofA.D.202 Wil. 2738, and the fragment of a regulation for the importation of wines into Rome, Henz. 5089, Wil. 2739); and some of the age of Constantine, as that relating to Hispellum in Umbria (Henz. 5580; Wil. 2843), that of Julian found at Amorgos (C.I.L.iii. 459; Henz. 6431), and some others, of which copies exist also in the juridical collections. Of two imperial rescripts of a still later ageA.D.413, fragments of the originals, written on papyri, have been found in Egypt (see Mommsen and Jaffé,Jahrbüch des gemeinen deutschen Rechts, vol. vi., 1861, p. 398; Hänel,Corpus legum, p. 281). Imperial decrees, granting divers privileges to soldiers, are thediplomata militariaalso, mentioned above, incised on two combined bronze tablets in the form ofdiptycha(L. Renier, “Recueil de diplômes militaires”;C.I.L.iii. 842 sqq., 1955 sqq.; Wil. 2862-2869), belonging to nearly all emperors from Claudius down to Diocletian. Though not a decree, yet as a publication going back directly to the emperor, and as being preserved in the monumental form, the speech of the emperor Claudius, delivered in the senate, relating to the Roman citizenship of the Gauls, of which Tacitus gives an abstract (Ann.xi. 23), ought also to be mentioned here; it was engraved on large bronze slabs by the public authority of Lugudunum (Lyons), where a large fragment of it is still preserved (Boissieu,Inscriptions antiques de Lyon, p. 132 sq.). Another sort of decrees, relating to a great variety of subjects, has to be mentioned, emanating, not directly from the emperors, but from their functionaries. Such are the decree of the proconsul L. Helvius Agrippa, of the yearA.D.68, on the boundaries of some tribes on the island of Sardinia (C.I.L.x. 7852; Wil. 872 a); that of the prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Julius Alexander, written in Greek, the same year (C. I. Graec.4957); that of C. Helvidius Priscus, on a similar question relating to Histonium, belonging perhaps to the end of the 1st century (Wil. 873); that of the legate of Trajan, C. Avidius Nigrinus, found at Delphi, in Greek and Latin (C.I.L.iii. 567; Orel. 3671; Wil. 874); a rescript of Claudius Quartinus, perhaps the imperial legate of the Tarraconensis, of the yearA.D.119, found at Pampluna (C.I.L.ii. 2959; Orel. 4032); the epistle of thepraefecti praetorioto the magistrates of Saepinum, of aboutA.D.166-169 (C.I.L.ix. 2438; Wil. 2841); the decree of L. Novius Rufus, another legate of the Tarraconensis, whoex tilia recitavit, ofA.D.193 (C.I.L.ii. 4125; Orel. 897; Wil. 876); the sentence of Alfenius Senecio, then subprefect of theclassis praetoria Misenensis, belonging to the beginning of the 3rd century, formerly existing at Naples (C.I.L.x. 3334); and some others of the 4th and 5th centuries, not requiring specific mention here. Quite a collection of epistles of high Roman functionaries is found in the celebrated inscription of Thorigny (Mommsen,Berichte der sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1852, p. 235 sq.). The letter of a provincial functionary, a priest of Gallia Narbonensis, to thefabri subaedianiof Narbonne, of the year 149, may also be mentioned (Henz. 7215; Wil. 696 a). To these must be added thetabulae alimentariae, relating to the well-known provision made by Trajan for the relief of distress among his subjects, such as that of the Ligures Baebiani (C.I.L.ix. 1455; Wil. 2844) and that of Veleia near Parma (Wil. 2845); while evidence of similar institutions is furnished by inscriptions at Tarracina, at Sicca in Africa, and at Hispalis in Spain (Wil. 2846-2848;C.I.L.ii. 1174). At the close of this long list of official documents may be mentioned thelibellusof theprocurator operum publicorum a columna divi Marciof the year 193 (C.I.L.vi. 1585; Orel. 39; Wil. 2840) and theinterlocutionesof thepraefecti vigilumon a lawsuit of thefullonesof Rome, ofA.D.244, inscribed on an altar of Hercules (C.I.L.vi. 266; Wil. 100). These documents form a most instructive class ofinstrumenta.

5. Many documents, as may be supposed, were connected with religious worship, public and private. The oldestlex templi, which continued in force until a comparatively late period, was the regulation given by Servius Tullius to the temple of Diana on the Aventine, after the conclusion of the federal pact with the Latini, noticed above. Mention is made of this ancient law as still in force in two later documents of a similar character, viz. the dedication of an altar to Augustus by the plebs of Narbo in southern France, ofA.D.764, but existing only, at Narbonne, in a copy, made perhaps in the 2nd century (C.I.L.xii. 4333; Orel. 2489; Wil. 104), and that of an altar of Jupiter, dedicated at Salonae in Dalmatia inA.D.137, still existing in part at Padua (C.I.L.iii. 1933; Orel. 2490; Wil. 163). Anotherlex fanistill existing is that of a temple of Jupiter Liber at Furfo, avicusof southern Italy, of the year 696 (58B.C.), but copied, in vernacular language, from an older original (C.I.L.i. 603; Orel. 2488; Wil. 105; compare Jordan inHermes, vol. vii., 1872, pp. 201 sq.). The lists of objects belonging to some sanctuaries or to the ornaments of statues are curious, such as those of theDiana Nemorensisat Nemi (Henz.Hermes, vol. vi., 1871, pp. 8 sq.), and of a statue of Isis in Spain (Hübner,Hermes, vol. i., 1866, pp. 345 sq.; compareC.I.L.ii. 2060, 3386, Orel. 2510, Wil. 210), and twosynopsesfrom a temple at Cirta in Africa (Wil. 2736, 2737). Thesortesgiven by divinities may also be mentioned (seeC.I.L.i. 267 sq.; Wil. 2822). To a temple also, though in itself of a secular character, belonged a monument of the highest historical importance, viz. theIndex rerum a se gestarum, incised on bronze slabs, copies of which Augustus ordered to be placed, in Latin and Greek, where required, in the numerous Augustea erected to himself in company with the Dea Roma. This is known as theMonumentum Ancyranum, because it is at Angora in Asia Minor that the best preserved copy of it, in Greek and Latin, exists; but fragments remain of other copies from other localities (seeC.I.L.iii. 779 sq., and the special editions of Mommsen, Berlin, 1865, and Bergk, Göttingen, 1873). Among the inscriptions relating to sacred buildings must also be reckoned the numerous fragments of Roman calendars, orfasti anni Juliani, found at Rome and other places, which have been arranged and fully explained by Mommsen (C.I.L.i., 2nd ed., part ii.; compare for those found in Rome,C.I.L.vi. 2294-2306). Local, provincial or municipalcalendariahave likewise been found (as theferiale Cumanum,C.I.L.i. part ii. p. 229, and theCapuanum,C.I.L.x. 3792). Many other large monumental inscriptions bear some relation, more or less strict, to sacred or public buildings. Along with the official calendar exhibited on the walls of the residence of thepontifex maximus, the list of the eponymous magistrates, inscribed by the order of Augustus on large marble slabs, was publicly shown—thefasti consulares, the reconstruction and illustration of which formed the life-work of Borghesi. These have been collected, down to the death of Augustus, by Henzen, and compared with the additional written testimonies, by Mommsen, in theCorpus(vol. i., 2nd ed., part ii.), along with theacta triumphorumand other minor fragments of fasti found in various Italian communities, while thefasti sacerdotum publicorum populi Romani, together with thetabula feriarum Latinarum, are given in the volume devoted exclusively to the monuments of Rome (vol. vi. 441 sq.; compareHermes, vol. v., 1870, p. 379, andEphem. epigr.ii. 93, iii. 74, 205 sq.). Documents of the same kind, as, for example, thealbum ordinis Thamugadensisfrom Africa (C.I.L.viii. 2403, 17903), and a considerable mass of military lists (latercula, of which those belonging to the garrison of the metropolis are brought together inC.I.L.vi. 651 sq.), are given on many dedicatory and honorary monuments, chiefly from Lambaesis in Africa (C.I.L.viii.). As those documents, though having only a partial claim to be ranked with the sacred ones, derive, like many other dedicatory monuments, their origin and form from that class, so also the protocols (acta), which, from Augustus downwards, seem to have been preserved in the case of all importantcollegia magistratuum, now survive only from one of the largest and most distinguishedcollegia sacerdotum, in theacta collegii fratrum Arvalium, to which Marini first drew the attention of epigraphists; they form one of the most important masses of epigraphic monuments preserved to us in the Latin language (seeC.I.L.vi. 459 sq.,Ephem. epigr.ii. 211 sq., and Henzen’sActa fratrum Arvalium, Berlin, 1874).

6. Another species of instruments is formed by private documents. They have been incidentally preserved (inserted, for instance, into sepulchral and honorary inscriptions), in the later period not unfrequently in monumental form, as the testaments, given partly or in full, mentioned above (viz. that of Dasumius and the Gaul,C.I.L.vi. 10229, Wil. 314, 315, and somecapita testamentorumorcodicilli, as that of M. Meconius Leo found at Poetelia—C.I.L.x. 113, 114; Orel. 3677, 3678; Wil. 696), and the donations, such as those of T. Flavius Syntrophus (C.I.L.vi. 10239; Wil. 313), of T. Flavius Artemidorus (Wil. 310), of Statia Irene and Julia Monime (C.I.L.vi. 10231, 10247; Wil. 311, 318). Of a peculiar description is thepactum fiduciae, found in Spain, engraved on a bronze tablet, and belonging, in all probability, to the 1st century (C.I.L.ii. 5042), which seems to be a formulary. Other documents relating to private affairs exist in their original form, written ontabellae ceratae. Those found together in a mining district of Dacia have been arranged and explained by Mommsen and Zangemeister (C.I.L.iii. 291 sq., with facsimiles); those found at Pompeii in 1875, containing receipts of the banker L. Caecilius Jucundus, have been published inC.I.L.iv. (suppl.). These documents are written in cursive letters; and so mostly, too, are some other curious private monuments, belonging partly to the sacred inscriptions—thedefixiones(cf. Tac.Ann.ii. 69), imprecations directed against persons suspected of theft or other offences, who, according to a very ancient superstition, were in this way believed to be delivered to punishment through the god to whom thedefixiowas directed. The numerous Greek and Latin (and even Oscan) examples of this usage have been brought together by Audollent,Defixionum tabellae quotquot innotuerunt tam in Graecis Orientis quam in totius Occidentis partibus praeter Atticas(Paris, 1904); compareC.I.L.i. 818-820,C.I.L.vii. 140). Only a few of them are incised on stone (as that to theDea Ataecinafrom Spain,C.I.L.ii. 462); for the most part they are written, in cursive letters, or in very debased capitals, on small bronze or lead tablets (soC.I.L.i. 818, 819; Henz. 6114, 6115; Wil. 2747, 2748), to be laid in the tombs of the “defixi,” or deposited in the sanctuaries of some divinity.

7. Many of the private documents just alluded to have not a monumental character similar to that of the other inscriptions in the wider sense of the word, as they are written on materials not very durable, such as wood and lead—in the majority of cases, in cursive characters; but, nevertheless, they cannot be classed as literature. As a last species, therefore, ofinstrumenta, there remain some documents, public and private, which similarly lack the strict monumental character, but still are to be reckoned among inscriptions. These are the inscriptions painted or scratched (graffiti) onthe walls of the buildings of ancient towns, like Pompeii, where, as was to be expected, most of them have been preserved, those from other ancient cities buried by the eruptions of Vesuvius and from Rome being very small in number. All the various classes of these inscriptions—public and private advertisements, citations for the municipal elections, and private scribblings of the most diverse (and sometimes most indecent) character, one partly collected by Chr. Wordsworth (Inscriptiones Pompeianae, &c., London, 1837, 1846)—are now arranged by Zangemeister in theCorpus, vol. iv. with supplement (some specimens in Wil. 1951 sq.), whence their peculiar palaeographic and epigraphic rules may be learned. And, lastly, as related to some of these advertisements, though widely differing from them in age and character, may be mentioned the so-calleddiptycha consularia, monuments, in the first instance, of the still very respectable skill in this branch of sculpture to be found at this late period. They are carved-ivory tablets, in the form ofpugillaria, and seem to have been invitations to the solemnities connected with the accession of high magistrates, especially to the spectacles of the circus and amphitheatre; for they contain, along with representations of such spectacles, the names, and often the portraits, of high functionaries, mostly of the 5th and 6th centuries. Since Gori’s well-known work on this class of monuments (Thesaurus veterum diptychorum, &c., 3 vols., Florence, 1759) no comprehensive collection of them has been published, but a full list is given by H. de Villefosse in theGazette Archéologiqueof 1884; as specimens seeC.I.L.ii. 2699, and v. 8120, 1-9.

Bibliography.—As a “Textbook” of Roman epigraphy R. Cagnat,Cours d’épigraphie latine(3rd ed., Paris, 1898, with supplement, 1904) can be heartily recommended. But students must be warned against Zell’sHandbuch der römischen Epigraphik(2 vols., Heidelberg, 1850-1852), an unsatisfactory work which is open to serious criticism. J. C. Egbert’sIntroduction to the Study of Latin Inscriptions(1896) is designed for American and English students. For Christian inscriptions Le Blant’sManuel d’épigraphie chrétienne d’après les marbres de la Gaule(Paris, 1869) may still be consulted with advantage.


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