I. Latin or Roman Inscriptions (by which general name are designated, in
classical archaeology, all non-literary remains of the Latin language,
with the exception of coins, letters and journals) fall into two
distinct classes, viz. (1) those which were written upon other objects
of various kinds, to denote their peculiar purpose, and in this way have
been preserved along with them; and (2) those which themselves are the
objects, written, to be durable, as a rule, on metal or stone. The first
class is that of _inscriptions_ in the stricter sense of the word
(styled by the Romans _tituli_, by the Germans _Aufschriften_); the
second is that of instruments or charters, public and private (styled by
the Romans first _leges_, afterwards _instrumenta_ or _tabulae_, and by
the Germans _Urkunden_).
No ancient Latin authors have professedly collected and explained or
handed down to us Roman inscriptions. Some of the orators and
historians, such as Cicero, Livy, Pliny the elder, and Suetonius among
the Latins, and Polybius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Josephus among
the Greeks, occasionally mention inscriptions of high historical
interest. A few grammarians, as, for example, Varro, Verrius Flaccus and
Valerius Probus of Berytus, quote ancient words or _formulae_ from them,
or explain the abbreviations used in them. Juridical instruments, laws,
constitutions of emperors, _senatus consulta_ and the like appear in the
various collections of Roman jurisprudence.
Inscriptions (in the wider sense, as we shall henceforth call them
without regard to the distinction which has been drawn) have been found
in nearly every centre of ancient Roman life, but, like many other
remains of antiquity, only seldom in their original sites. The great
mass of them has to be sought for in the large European museums of
ancient art, and in the smaller local collections of ancient remains
which occur nearly everywhere in the European provinces of the former
Roman empire as well as in the north of Africa, and also here and there
in Asia Minor.
Only those copies of inscriptions are to be received with full
confidence which are furnished by experienced and well-equipped
scholars, or which have been made with the help of mechanical methods
(casts, photographs, moist and dry rubbings), not always applicable with
equal success, but depending on the position and the state of
preservation of the monuments.[36] From the first revival of classical
learning in the Carolingian age attention was paid anew, by pilgrims to
Rome and other places worth visiting, to epigraphic monuments also. In
the time of the Renaissance, from the end of the 14th century downwards,
some of the leading Italian scholars, like Poggio and Signorili, and the
antiquarian traveller Cyriacus of Ancona, collected inscriptions, Greek
and Latin.[37] In the 15th century large collections of the inscriptions
of all countries, or of limited districts, were made by Giovanni
Marcanova, Fra Felice Feliciano, Fra Michele Ferrarino, Fra Giocondo the
architect of Verona, Marino Sanudo the Venetian polyhistor, and others.
At the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th, the first printed
collections can be recorded (Spreti's for Ravenna, 1489; Peutinger's for
Augsburg, 1508; Huttich's for Mainz, 1520; Francesco degli Albertini's
for Rome, printed in 1521 by Jacopo Mazochi), while during the same
century a long list of epigraphic travellers, like Pighius, Rambertus
and Accursius, or antiquarian collectors, like Sigonius, Panvinius,
Antonius Augustinus with his collaborators Ursinus and Metellus, and
many others, were busy in augmenting the stock of epigraphic monuments.
The series of printed epigraphic _Corpora_ begins with that of Apianus
(Ingolstadt, 1534), the only one arranged in geographical order, and is
continued in those of Smetius (1558, but edited only after the author's
death by Justus Lipsius, 1588), Gruter (with Joseph Scaliger's
_Indices_, 1603, and re-edited by Graevius, 1707), Gudius (about 1660,
edited by Hessel, 1731), Reinesius (1682), Fabretti (1699), Gori (1726),
Doni (1731), Muratori (1739), Maffei (1749), Donati (1765-1775). These
collections, manuscript and printed, will never altogether lose their
value, as great numbers of inscriptions known to the ancient collectors
have since been lost or destroyed. But, inasmuch as even towards the
beginning of the 15th century, as well as afterwards, especially from
the 16th down to a very recent period, all sorts of inaccuracies,
interpolations and even downright falsifications, found their way into
the _Corpora_, these can be employed only with the greatest caution.
Modern critical research in the field of epigraphy began with the
detection of those forgeries (especially of the very extensive and
skilful ones of Pirro Ligorio, the architect to the house of Este) by
Maffei, Olivieri and Marini. The last-named scholar opens a new era of
truly critical and scientific handling of Roman inscriptions (especially
in his standard work on the _Atti dei fratelli arvali_, Rome, 1795); his
disciple and successor, Count Bartolomeo Borghesi (who died at San
Marino in 1860), may be rightly called the founder of the modern science
of Roman epigraphy.[38] Orelli's handy collection of Roman inscriptions
(2 vols., Zurich, 1828) is a first attempt to make accessible to a
larger scientific public the results of the researches of Marini and his
successors; but it was not completed, (and thoroughly corrected) until
nearly thirty years later, by Henzen (Orelli, iii., with the
indispensable _Indices_, Zurich, 1856), who, with Mommsen and De Rossi,
carried out the plan of a universal _Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum_,
previously projected by Maffei (1732), by Kellermann and Sarti (1832),
with Borghesi's help, and by Letronne and Egger (1843). After the
appearance of Mommsen's _Inscriptiones regni Neapolitani Latinae_
(Leipzig, 1852) and his _Inscriptiones confoederationis Helveticae
Latinae_ (vol. x. of the publications of the Zurich Antiquarian Society,
1854), the publication of the _C.I.L._ , following the similar work of
the Greek inscriptions, was undertaken by the Royal Academy of Sciences
of Berlin.
This work, in which the previous literature is fully described and
utilized, consists of the following parts:--vol. i., _Inscriptiones
antiquissimae ad C. Caesaris mortem_ (1863; 2nd ed., part i., 1893);
Ritschl's _Priscae Latinitatis monumenta epigraphica_ (Berlin, 1862,
fol.) form the graphic illustration to vol. i., giving all extant
monuments of the republican epoch (with five _Supplementa_, Bonn,
1862-1865; R. Garrucci's _Sylloge inscriptionum Latinarum aevi Romanae
reipublicae usque ad C. Iulium Caesarem plenissima_, 2 vols., Turin,
1875-1877, must be used with caution); vol. ii., _Inscr. Hispaniae_
(1869; with Supplement, 1892); vol. iii., _Inscr. Asiae, provinciarum
Europae Graecarum, Illyrici_ (1873; with Supplements and Index,
1889-1902); vol. iv., _Inscr. parietariae Pompeianae Herculanenses
Stabianae_ (the scratched and painted inscriptions chiefly of Pompeii)
(1871; with Supplement, part i., 1898; part ii., 1909); vol. v.,
_Inscr. Galliae cisalpinae_ (1872-1877; with Suppl., Et. Pais, _C.I.L.
suppl. Italica_); vol. vi., _Inscr. urbis Romae_ (1876-1902; with
Supplement, 1902); vol. vii., _Inscr. Britanniae_ (1873); vol. viii.,
_Inscr. Africae_ (1881; with Supplement, 1891-1894, 1904); vol. ix.,
_Inscr. Calabriae, Apuliae, Samnii, Sabinorum, Piceni_ (1883); vol.
x., _Inscr. Bruttiorum, Lucaniae, Campaniae, Siciliae, Sardiniae_
(1883); vol. xi., _Inscr. Aemiliae, Umbriae, Etruriae_ (1888; part
ii., 1901 sqq.); vol. xii., _Inscr. Galliae Narbonensis_ (1888); vol.
xiii., _Inscr. trium Galliarum et duarum Germaniarum_ (1899 sqq.; part
ii., 1905 sqq.); vol. xiv., _Inscr. Latii antiqui_; vol. xv., _Inscr.
laterum_ (1891; part ii., i. [_vasa, lucernae, fistulae_], 1899). The
arrangement observed in the _Corpus_ is the geographical (as in
Apianus); within the single towns the order of subjects (_tituli
sacri_, _magistratuum_, _privatorum_, &c., as in Smetius) is followed,
with some few exceptions, where the monuments are so numerous (as in
the _forum_ of Rome and at Pompeii and Lambaesis) that they can be
assigned to their original places. Running supplements to the _C.I.L._
are given in the _Ephemeris epigraphica, Corporis inscr. Latinarum
supplementum_ (Berlin, 1872 sqq.); and the new discoveries of each
year are recorded in Cagnat's _L'Annee epigraphique_.
The inscriptions in the other Italian dialects have been published by
Conway, _Italic Dialects_ (Cambridge, 1897); cf. vol. ii. of von
Planta, _Grammatik der oskisch-umbrischen Dialekte_ (Strassburg,
1897). A Corpus of the Etruscan inscriptions was begun in 1893 by
Pauli and is now nearly complete. The inscriptions of the Veneti, a N.
Italian people of the Illyrian stock, will be found in vol. iii. of
Pauli, _Altitalische Forschungen_ (Leipzig, 1891). For the Christian
inscriptions see De Rossi's _Inscr. Christianae urbis Romae septimo
saeculo antiquiores_, vol. i. (Rome, 1857), vol. ii. (1888); the
_Inscriptions chretiennes de la Gaule of Le Blant_ (2 vols., Paris,
1857-1865; new edition, 1892); the _Altchristliche Inschriften der
Rheinlande_ of Kraus (1890); the _Christliche Inschriften der Schweiz
vom IV.-IX. Jahrhundert_ of Egli (1895); and the _Inscr. Hispaniae
Christianae and Inscr. Britanniae Christianae_ of Hubner (Berlin,
1871, 1876). As splendidly illustrated works on the Latin inscriptions
of some districts Alphonse de Boissieu's _Inscriptions antiques de
Lyon_ (Lyons, 1846-1854), Ch. Robert's _Epigraphie romaine de la
Moselle_ (Paris, 1875), and J. C. Bruce's _Lapidarium septentrionale_
(London and Newcastle, 1875) can be recommended. Besides the
above-mentioned Orelli-Henzen collection, G. Wilmanns's _Exempla
inscriptionum Latinarum_ (2 vols, Berlin, 1873, with copious indexes),
and Dessau's _Inscriptiones Latinae selectae_ (vol. i., 1892; vol.
ii., 1903; ii., 1906) give a general synopsis of the materials.
Inscriptions of interest to students of history are collected in
Rushforth's _Latin Historical Inscriptions_ (Oxford, 1893); Leroux,
_Revue des publications epigraphiques relatives a l'antiquite
romaine_, records those which bear on antiquities. Of other works may
be mentioned Ruggiero, _Dizionario epigrafico di antichita romane_
(1886); Olcott, _Thesaurus linguae Latinae epigraphicae_ (1904 sqq.).
II. Information regarding the forms of letters used on Roman
inscriptions will be found under the articles LATIN LANGUAGE,
PALAEOGRAPHY and WRITING (cf. Hubner, _Exempla scripturae_
_epigraphicae Latinae_, 1895). The forms of the single letters vary not
inconsiderably according to the material of the monuments, their age and
their origin. Carefully cut letters, especially when on a large scale,
naturally differ from those scratched or painted on walls by
non-professional hands, or hewn on rocks by soldiers; and small incised
(or dotted) letters on metal or ivory and bone, and those painted on
earthenware, or impressed on it or on glass before burning, are also
necessarily of a different character. The letters, ordinarily drawn with
_minium_ on the monument before being cut (and also often painted, after
having been cut, with the same colour), sometimes have been painted with
a brush, and thence receive a peculiar form. To save space, on coins
first and afterwards in inscriptions also, two or three or even more
letters were joined, especially at the end of the lines, to a _nexus_ or
a _ligatura_. This system of compendious writing, very rare in the
republican epoch, and slowly extending itself during the 1st century,
became rather frequent in the 2nd and 3rd, especially in Spain and
Africa. There is no constant system in these _nexus litterarum_, but
generally the rule is observed that no substantial element of a single
letter is to be counted for twice (thus e.g. [cross] is _it_ or _ti_,
not _Titi_). Numerals are usually distinguished from letters in the
ancient period, down to the end of the republic, by a stroke drawn
through them, as in ++VIR, _duo(m) vir(om)_ ++S _duo semis_
(_sestertius_), [D with line-through] 500; it was afterwards put above
them, as in IIVIR, XVIR, I[1111]IVIR, _duovir_, _decemvir_, _sevir_.[39]
The direction of the writing is in the very oldest inscriptions from
right to left and from left to right in alternate lines, an arrangement
technically called [Greek: boustrophedon] (D. Comparetti, _Iscrizione
arcaica del Foro Romano_, Florence, 1900; H. Jordan, _Hermes_, vol. xv.
p. 5, 1880), and in the Sabellic inscriptions similar arrangements are
not infrequent. In all others it is from left to right. Each word is
separated from the other by a sign of interpunction, which is not
wanted, therefore, at the end of lines or of the whole text. Exceptions
to this rule occur only in the later period (from the 2nd century
downwards), and sometimes under special conditions, as when abridged
words form the end of the line. Here and there even the different
syllables of each word are separated by interpunction. The interpunction
is formed by a single dot (except in some very ancient inscriptions,
such as the recently found Forum inscription of the regal period and
those of Pisaurum, where, as in Greek and other Italian monuments, three
dots [:.] are used). According to the technical skill of the different
periods in stone-cutting this dot is in some very ancient inscriptions
quadrangular, or similar to an oblique cross (X), or oblong (as a bold
stroke), but, as a rule, triangular, and never circular. This triangular
dot changes, by ornamentation, into a hook [Symbol] or a leaf [Symbol];
the ivy-leaf-shaped dot is especially frequent in inscriptions from
about the 2nd century downwards. The dot is always placed at the middle
height of the letters, not, as now, at the foot of the line. In large
texts of instruments the interpunction is often omitted; in the later
period it is often entirely wanting; and in short texts, in the
disposition of the lines, in the varying sizes of the letters employed,
in the division of words at the end of the lines, &c., certain rules are
observed, which cannot be detailed here. In some instances older
inscriptions have been cancelled and more recent ones substituted (e.g.
on milestones), especially in the case of the _damnatio memoriae_ (in
cases of high treason), in consequence of which the names of consuls and
emperors are often cancelled; but in modern times also inscriptions have
been deliberately destroyed or lost ones restored.
For understanding the texts of the inscriptions an accurate knowledge of
the system of abbreviations used in them is necessary (see Cagnat,
_Cours d'epigraphie latine_, 3rd ed., 1898). These are almost invariably
_litterae singulares_; that is to say, the initial letter is employed
for the entire word (in all its grammatical forms), or if one initial,
as belonging to more than one word, is not sufficiently clear, the first
two or even the first three letters are employed; rarely more than
three. Abbreviations in the true sense of the word (by dropping some
letters at the end) are to be found, in the older period, only at the
end of lines, and not frequently. In the later period some instances of
them have been observed. The _litterae singulares_, as Valerius Probus
taught, are either generally employed (_usus generalis_) in all classes
of written documents (and so in literature also), as, for instance,
those of the individual names (the _praenomina_), the names of days and
feasts (_kal._ for _kalendae_), and those of the chief magistrates
(_cos._ for _consul_) and the like; or they belong chiefly (but not
exclusively) to certain classes of documents, such as those used in
juridical acts (_l._ for _lex_, _h._ for _heres_, _s. d. m._ for _sine
dolo malo_, and so on), in sepulchral inscriptions (_h. s. e._, _hic
situs est_) or in dedicatory inscriptions (_v. s. l. m._, _votum solvit
libens merito_), &c.[40]
It may be observed here that the _praenomina_ are, as a rule, always
written in the universally known abbreviations (in the few instances
where they are written in full it is a consequence of Greek influence or
of peculiar circumstances). The _gentilicia_ in -_ius_ are abridged, in
the republican period, in -_i_ (in the nominative, perhaps for -_is_).
In the always abbreviated indications of ancestors or patrons (in the
case of slaves and freedmen), as _C.f._, _Gai filius_, _M.l._, _Marci
libertus_ (_s._ for _servus_ is not frequent), the feminine gender is
sometimes indicated by inversion of the letters. Thus [Symbol]. _l._ (or
_lib._) or W (an inverted M) _l._ designates a _mulieris libertus_;
[Symbol] and [Symbol] are used for _filia_, _pupilla_. On the _tribus_
and their abbreviations, and on the so-called military _tribus_ (which
are names of colonies collocated, for the sake of symmetry, at the place
usually occupied, in the nomenclature, by the _tribus_), and on the
other indications of origin used in the designation of individuals, the
indexes to the above-named works give sufficient information; on the
geographical distribution of the _tribus_ see Grotefend's _Imperium
Romanum tributim descriptum_ (Hanover, 1863). For the abbreviations of
official charges, urban and municipal, and, in the imperial period,
civil and military (to which, beginning with the 4th century, some
Christian designations are to be added), see also the explanations given
in the indexes. Among these abbreviations the first instances are to be
found of the indication of the plural number by doubling the last
letter; thus _Augg._, _Caess._, _coss._, _dd._ _nn._ (_domini nostri_),
are used from the 3rd century downwards (see De Rossi's preface to the
_Inscriptiones Christ. urbis Romae_) to distinguish them from _Aug.,
Caes._, as designating the singular. In the later period, a dot or a
stroke over the abridged word, like that upon numerals, here and there
indicates the abbreviation.
III.--1. Among the inscriptions in the stricter sense (the _tituli_),
perhaps the oldest, and certainly the most frequent, are the
_sepulchral 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's _Handbuch der romischen Altertumer_
(vol. vii. part i., Leipzig, 1879, p. 330 seq.). The most ancient
examples are those of a _sepulcretum_ at Praeneste (_C.I.L._ i. 74,
165, 1501 _a-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 the _mausolea_ of
most of the emperors, and is still frequent in the _tituli_ of the
large _columbaria_ of 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, a _v_ (_vivit_, _vivos_, _vivi_) was prefixed to their names
(e.g. _C.I.L._ i. 1020, 1195, 1271); the deceased were sometimes
marked by the [Greek: theta] _nigrum_ (_C.I.L._ i. 1032; Wil. 158; see
also _C.I.L._ vi. 10251 seq.). Only the names in the nominative are
shown, too, on the _sarcophagi_ of the _Turpleii_ and _Fourii_ at
Tusculum (_C.I.L._ i. 65-72; Wil. 152), and in the oldest
inscriptions on those of the _Scipiones_, painted with _minium_
(_C.I.L._ i. 29; Wil. 537), to which were added afterwards the
insignia of the _magistratus curules_ (_C.I.L._ i. 31; Wil. 538) and
the poetical _elogia_. Of a somewhat different kind are the
inscriptions scratched without much care on very simple earthen
vessels which belonged to a _sepulcretum_ of the lower class, situated
outside the _porta Capena_ at Rome, on the Appian road, near the old
church of San Cesario (_C.I.L._ i. 882-1005, 1539, 1539 _a-d_ =
_C.I.L._ vi. 8211-8397; Wil. 176); they can be ascribed to the period
of the Gracchi. On these _ollae_, 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 there _obit_ (or _o._) 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 sepulchral _titulus_, 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_, or _uxor frugi_, _bona_, _pudica_ and the like),
short dialogues with the passer-by (originally borrowed from Greek
poetry), as _vale 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 as _ossa 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" in _Arch. lat.
Lexikogr._ 12. 215 sqq.). The habit of recording the measurement of
the sepulchre, on the sepulchral _cippus_, by such formulae as _locus
patet in fronte pedes tot_, _in agro_ (or _in via_, or _retro_) _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 the _dei 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
a _cippus_ from Corduba in Spain (_C.I.L._ ii. 2255; Wil. 218), _C.
Sentio Sat_(_urnino_) _co(n)s(ule)_--that is, in the year 19
B.C.--_dei Manes receperunt Abulliam N(umerii) l(ibertam) Nigellam_.
In the Augustan age the _titulus sepulcralis_ begins to be confounded
with the _titulus sacer_; it adopts the form of a dedication _deis
Manibus_, offered to the _dei Manes_ (or _dei inferi Manes_, the _dei
parentum_ being the _Manes_ of 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
(as _dis manibus sacrum_, or _d. m. et memoriae_, _d. m. et genio_, or
_memoriae aeternae_, _paci et quieti_, _quieti aeternae_, _somno
aeternali_ and so on; Wil. 246), in thousands of monuments. By similar
degrees the _titulus sepulcralis_ adopts many of the elements of the
_titulus honorarius_ (the indication of the _cursus honorum_, of the
military charges, &c., as e.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, consul A.D. 74, Orel. 750, Wil. 1145 and
many others), of the _tituli operum publicorum_ (e.g. _monumentum
fecit_, _sibi et suis_, &c.), and of the _instrumenta_. Testaments
(like those of Dasumius of the year A.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 Konigl. Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Berlin_ (1868), p. 217 seq.; and that of Hadrian on
the elder Matidia, found at Tivoli--Mommsen in the same _Abhandlungen_
(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 of _parentalia_ (Wil. 305 seq.), down to the not uncommon
prohibition of violation or profanation of the monument _noli
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 sentiment _non fui non sum non curo_, or _n. f. n. s.
n. c._, is common, apparently a translation of the Greek [Greek: ouk
emen, egenomen ouk esomai ou melei moi]. 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" in
_Philologus_, 62. 445 sqq.). To these are to be added many local
peculiarities of provinces (as Spain and Africa), districts (as the
much-disputed _sub ascia dedicare_ of the stones of Lyons and other
parts of Gaul), and towns, of which a full account cannot be given
here.
2. Of the _dedicatory inscriptions_ (or _tituli sacri_), the oldest
known are the short indications painted (along with representations of
winged _genii_, 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 (as _Apolenei_, _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 dedrot_ or _dedro_, _donu dat_, where _dono_ and _donu_ are
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 (see _C.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 verb _donum
dare_ and some synonyms (like _donum 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 formula _dono 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 (for _merito_ alone is also used, as _C.I.L._ i.
562, cf. _Ephem. epigr._ ii. 353, Wil. 29), remained in solemn use. To
_lubens_ (or _libens_) was added _laetus_ (so in Catullus 31. 4), and,
if a vow preceded the dedication, _votum solvit_ (or _voto condemnatus
dedit_; see _C.I.L._ i. 1175; Henz. 5733; Wil. 142, and _C.I.L._ ii.
1044); so, but not before the time of Augustus (see _C.I.L._ i. 1462 =
iii. 1772), the solemn formula of the dedicatory inscriptions of the
later period, _v. s. l. m._ or _v. s. l. l. m._, arose. To the same
effect, and of equally ancient origin with the solemn words _dare_ and
_donum dare_, the word _sacrum_ (or other forms of it, as _sacra
[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. 33 _a_ _b_); 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 with _dis Manibus
sacrum_ mentioned before. _Sacrum_ combined with a genitive very
seldom occurs (Orel. 1824; Wil. 34); _ara_ is found more frequently
(as _ara Neptuni_ and _ara 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 also _C.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 the _propylum Cereris et
Proserpinae_ on 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 an
_aedilis_ vowed is erected by himself as _duovir_ (_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 (the _consecratio_ being
fulfilled only by the solemn _dedicatio_) are also specified on
dedicatory inscriptions (see for instance, _consacrare_ or
_consecrare_, Orel. 2503, and Henz. 6124, 6128; for _dedicare_,
_C.I.L._ i. 1159, Henz. 7024, Wil. 1782, and compare Catullus's _hunc
lucum tibi dedico consecroque Priape_; for _dicare_ see the _aara
leege Albana dicata_ to Vediovis by the _genteiles 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 ([Greek: anathemata], _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,
and _Bullettino 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 a
_carmen triumphale_ (_C.I.L._ i. 541; Orel. 563; Wil. 27 _a_) and that
found at Reate in dactylic hexameters (_C.I.L._ i. 542; Wil. 27 _b_);
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 two _aidiles_,
whose names are given at the beginning as in the other _donaria_,
"_vicesma(m) parti(m)_ or _[ex] vicesma_ _parti 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 admonitus_ and 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 the _tituli 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 the _tituli 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; these _carmina dedicatoria_
are 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), with _honorary 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. (193 B.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 also _C.I.L._ i. 587, 588; Orel. 3036). The noble house of the
Scipios introduced the use of poetical _elogia_ in the ancient form of
the _carmina triumphalia_ in Saturnian verses (from the 6th century in
elegiac distichs). They were added to the short _tituli_, painted only
with _minium_ on the sarcophagi, giving the name of the deceased (in
the nominative) and his curulian offices (exclusively), which were
copied perhaps from the well-known _imagines_ preserved in the
_atrium_ of 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 styled _elogia_. 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. S
17 sq.), is the celebrated _columna rostrata_ of 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 the
_elogia_ inscribed at the base of public works like the _Arcus
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 a _sacrarium 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 also _C.I.L._ i. 40 = vi. 1280; Wil. 1101; and _C.I.L._
i. 631 = vi. 1278; i. 640 = vi. 1323, vi. 1321, 1322, where _T.
Quincti_ seems 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 his _forum_ with 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 these _elogia_ are
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 also _C.I.L._
v. 862; Orel. 3827) and Luna (_C.I.L._ i. 539 = Wil. 651).
But along with this primitive and genuine form of the _titulus
honorarius_ another 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.
1102_a_) and at other places (Caieta and Clusium, _C.I.L._ i. 585,
586; Wil. 1102_b_, _c_), in which the whole set of honours and offices
is not enumerated as in the _elogia_, but only the _honores
praesentes_; compare also the inscription belonging to about the same
date, of a _quaestor 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 the
_princeps_, 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 to _triumphatores_, in
the new _fora_, 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 the
_Corpus_. In the provinces, of course, the usages of the capital were
speedily imitated. Perhaps the oldest example of a _titulus
honorarius_ in the form of an _elogium_ (but in the dative), with the
full _cursus honorum_ of the person honoured, is a _bilinguis_ from
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.[41] In the older examples the
formula "_honoris causa_," or _virtutis 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. 31 B.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 Roman _municipia_ as 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 to _aurigae_, _histriones_
and _gladiatores_; for those found in Rome see _C.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 the
_tituli 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 the _locatio censoria_ one 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 (83 B.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
formula _de 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 the _collegium 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, the _ponte dei quattro capi_, still preserved, though partly
restored, on its original site, which commemorates its builder, the
tribune of the year 692 (62 B.C.), L. Fabricius (_C.I.L._ i. 600 =
vi. 1305; Orel. 50; Wil. 788); it was restored by the consuls of the
year 733 (21 B.C.).[42] On privately erected buildings the founder
after his name puts a simple _fecit_ (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 it COS. TERT (not
_tertium_ or _tertio_) (see Gellius, _Noct. Att._ x. 1). So Agrippa,
when he dedicated his Pantheon in the year 727 (27 B.C.), inscribed on
it only the words _M. 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 imperial
_procurator_, 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 Alcantara, in Spanish Estremadura, the names
of the _municipia provinciae Lusitaniae stipe conlata quae opus pontis
perfecerunt_ are 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 on _milestones_ the name of the founder of the
road and, especially at the extremities of it and near large towns,
the distances. So in the _val di Diana_ in Lucania P. Popillius
Laenas, the consul of the year 622 (132 B.C.), at the end of a road
built by him, set up the _miliarium 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 single _miliaria_ set up by him is also preserved (_C.I.L._
i. 550; Henz. 7174 _d_; 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 (or a 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 the _Corpus_ they are taken together under the special head
_viae publicae_ (and here and there _privatae_) 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 of _inscriptions of the aqueducts_ and
of the different _boundary-stones_. The large dedicatory inscriptions
of the celebrated aqueducts[43] of 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 various _cippi terminales_, which
mark the ground belonging to the aqueduct, show the greatest analogy
to the milestones (e.g. _C.I.L._ vi. 1243 a-g; Henz. 6635, 6636; Wil.
775-779). The other Italian and provincial varieties cannot be
specified here. Of boundary-stones, or _cippi 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 the _cippi Gracchani_, by which Gaius Gracchus and
his two colleagues, as _tres viri agris iudicandis adsignandis_,
measured the _ager Campanus_, for its division among the plebs. They
contain the names of the _tres viri_ in the nominative, and in
addition, on the top, the lines and angles of the _cardo_ and
_decumanus_, according to the rules of the _agrimensores_, or the
boundary lines between the _ager publicus_ and _privatus_ (_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 the _termini ripae Tiberis_ (_C.I.L._ i. 608-614 = vi.
1234 _a-l_), beginning in the Augustan age, and the _termini of the
pomoerium_ of Claudius and Vespasian as censors, and of the _collegium
augurum_ under Hadrian (_C.I.L._ vi. 1231-1233; Orel. 710, 811; Wil.
843, 844), while others, of the consuls of the year A.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 the _ager publicus_
and _privatus_. 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 the _pratum_ of a
legion is divided from the territory of a _municipium_; in Gaul--Wil.
867; in Germany, in the column found at Miltenberg on the Main,
_Bonner Jahrbucher_, vol. lxiv., 1878, p. 46, &c.). Private grounds
(_pedaturae_) were unfrequently marked off by terminal _cippi_. To
this class of _tituli_ must be added also the curious inscriptions
incised upon the steps of Roman circuses, theatres and amphitheatres
(see Hubner, _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 of _tituli_, viz. those which in the
_Corpus_ are arranged, at the end of each volume, under the head of
_Instrumentum_. 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 of _tituli_ described before,
or the class of the _instrumenta_ in the proper sense of that
word,--the laws, &c. The _tituli_ of the _instrumentum_ embrace
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 (see _Hermes_, iii., 1868, p. 469 sq.;
_Philologus_, xxviii., 1869, p. 369), the Corbridge _lanx_ in
Northumberland House (_C.I.L._ vii. 1268) and many others. A second
species is formed by the _tesserae_, tokens or marks, mostly in
bronze, bone and ivory, but also earthen, of which the most
interesting are the so-called _tesserae 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 the _munera
gladiatoria_ is by no means certain (see _C.I.L._ i. 717 sq., and
_Hermes_, xxi. p. 266; _Rhein. Mus._ xli. p. 517; xlii. p. 122; _Berl.
phil. Woch._, 1888, p. 24). The other circular _tesserae_ (the
so-called _tesserae theatrales_) of ivory or bone, with emblems and
short inscriptions, partly Greek and Latin, used to be attributed to
the _ludi scaenici_ (see Henzen, _Annali dell' Instituto
archeologico_, vol. xx., 1848, p. 273 sq., and vol. xxii., 1850, p.
357 sq.) and to other _ludi_; 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 Roman _emporium_ on 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 the _Annali dell' Instituto
archeologico_, vol. xlii., 1870, pp. 106-204). Of a kindred character
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 Hubner, "Romische Bleigruben in Britannien," in
_Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie_, vol. xi., 1857, p. 347 sq., and
_C.I.L._ vii. 220 sq.; A. Way, _Archaeological Journal_, vol. xvi.,
1859, p. 23, and vol. xxiii., 1866, p. 63). A fourth species of
_tituli_ of 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 Hubner,
"Romische Schildbuckel," in _Archaologisch-epigraphische Mitteilungen
aus Osterreich_, 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, see
_Bonner Winckelmannsprogramm_ of 1848). The leaden _glandes_ used by
the _funditores_, the slingers, in the Roman army bear curious
historical inscriptions (see _C.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 the _Bibliotheque des
ecoles francaises_, 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 the _Corpus_. But
private persons, too, especially the rich landed proprietors, and
afterwards the emperors and their kinsmen, kept large _figulinae_, and
their manufactures--tiles of every description and other
earthenware--were spread over the Roman empire (Dressel,
_Untersuchungen uber 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 the _Corpus_ and are collected in vol. xv part ii. p. i. On
the maker's marks on earthenware, see Habert, _La Poterie antique
parlante_ (1893); Dragendorf, "Terra Sigillata," in _Bonn. Jahrbuch._
xcvi. 18. On Roman lamps and their inscriptions the accurate catalogue
of the Vienna collection by Kenner ("Dicantiken Thonlampen des K. K.
Munz- und Antiken-Cabinetes und der K. K. Ambraser Sammlung," in the
_Archiv fur Kunde osterreichischer Geschichtsquellen_, vol. xx.,
Vienna, 1858) may be consulted with advantage. The chief deposit of
earthenware fragments, the _Monte testaccio_ in Rome, has been
explored by Dressel ("Ricerche sul Monte testaccio," in the _Annali
dell' Instituto archeologico_, vol. i., 1878, p. 118-192).
Inscriptions are found on various classes of vessels, painted (as the
consular dates on the large _dolia_ for wine, oil, &c., see Schone,
_C.I.L._ iv. 171 sq., and _Ephem. 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 Beitrage zur Geschichte der
lateinischen Sprache_, Berlin, 1879, p. 3 sq.). In the ancient well of
the _Aquae 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'antiquite_, 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 trovati_ _nei cimiteri dei cristiani
primitivi di Roma_, Rome, 1858); on the makers' marks on bronze
objects, Mowat, _Marques de bronziers sur objets trouves ou rapportes
en France_ (1884) (extracted from _Bulletin epigraphique_, 1883-1884).
The last species of _tituli_ is 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 romischen Augenarzte
gesammelt und erklart_ (Gottingen, 1867); de Villefosse and Thedenat,
_Cachets d'oculistes romains_ (1882); Esperandieu, _Recueil des
cachets d'oculistes romains_ (1894).
IV. The other great class of inscriptions above referred to, the
_instrumenta_ or _leges_, 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 the _tituli_, 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 the _Corpus_, vol. i.; of the documents
belonging to the later period a very comprehensive _sylloge_ is given
in C. G. Bruns's _Fontes 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
celebrated _foedera_ with Carthage; by the pacts of Sp. Cassius
Vecellinus with the Latini of the year 261 (493 B.C.), which Cicero
seems to have seen still in the _forum_ behind the _rostra_, written
on a bronze column (_Pro Balbo_, 23, 53; see also Livy ii. 33; Festus
p. 166; and Mommsen's _Romische Forschungen_, ii. 153 sq.); and by the
_foedus Ardeatinum_ of 310 (444 B.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
one _foedus_ only is there a fragment still in existence, relating to
the Oscan _civitas libera_ Bantia (_C.I.L._ i. 197); it contains the
_clausula_ of the _foedus_, which was written in Latin and in Oscan
(see APULIA). 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 Roman _foedera_ are
preserved only in Greek, e.g. that with the Jews of the year 594 (160
B.C.)(Josephus, _Ant._ xii. 6. 10). Some others, made with the same
nation between 610 and 615 (144 and 139 B.C.) (Jos. _Ant._ xiii. 5. 6
and 7. 8), are mentioned in an abridged form only, or given in that of
a _senatus consultum_, to which they must formally be ascribed.
Amongst the _foedera_ may be reckoned also the curious oath, sworn,
perhaps, according to a general rule obtaining for all _civitates
foederatae_, by the citizens of a Lusitanian _oppidum_, Aritium, to
Gaius Caesar on his accession to the throne in A.D. 37 (_C.I.L._ ii.
172; Wil. 2839).
Closely related to the _foedera_ are the pacts between communities and
private individuals, respecting _patronatus_ or _hospitium_ (_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, _Romische Forschungen_, i. 341
sq.). Of the numerous examples scattered through the different volumes
of the _Corpus_ may be quoted the _tessera 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); the _tabula_ of the _pagus Gurzensium_ in Africa,
delivering the patronate to L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero's
grandfather, in 742 (12 B.C.), in the afterwards solemn form of a
_tabella fastigata_, to be fixed in the _atrium_ of the person
honoured (Orel. 3693; Wil. 2850); that of the _civitas Pallantina_
with a _peregrinus_ named _Acces Licirni_ of the year 752 (2 B.C.)
(_Ephem. epigr._ i. 141; _Hermes_, v., 1871, p. 371 seq.); that of
_Lacilbula_, in Spain, with one Q. Marius Balbus, of A.D. 5 (_C.I.L._
ii. 1393); that of the _Bocchoritani_ on the island of Majorca, of
A.D. 6 (_C.I.L._ ii. 3695; Wil. 2851); the four relating to C. Silius
Aviola, dating from A.D. 27 to 28, all found at Brescia (_C.I.L._ v.
4919-4922); that of the _colonia Julia Aug. legionis vii. Tupusuctu_,
in Africa, with the imperial legate Q. Julius Secundus, of A.D. 55
(_C.I.L._ viii. 8837; Wil. 2851); that of two _gentilitates_, the
_Desonci_ and _Tridiavi_, of the _gens_ of the _Zoelae_, in Spain, now
in the museum of Berlin, which contains an older act of the year 27,
and another more recent of the year A.D. 127 (_C.I.L._ ii. 2633; Orel.
156); that of the _respublica Pompelonensis_ (Pampeluna in Spain) of
A.D. 185 (_C.I.L._ ii. 2960; Wil. 2854); that of the _Segisamonenses_,
in Spain, of A.D. 239, now in the museum at Burgos (_Ephem. epigr._
ii. 322); that of the _fabri subidiani_ (i.e. subaediani, qui sub aede
consistunt) of Cordova, of A.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 in A.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 (_leges_ and
_plebiscita_), preserved to us in the originals, although
unfortunately only in fragments more or less extensive. Of those laws
the oldest and most important are the _lex Acilia_ (for so it is in
all probability to be styled) _repetundarum_ of 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 the _lex agraria_ of 643 (111 B.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
the _lex 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); the _plebiscitum de Thermensibus_, on the autonomy
of Termessus in Pisidia, proposed by the _tribuni plebis_, in 682 (72
B.C.), one of four or five large bronze plates (_C.I.L._ i. 204); the
_lex Rubria de civitate Galliae cisalpinae_ of 705 (49 B.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); the _lex
Julia municipalis_, or, from the place where it was found, the
_tabulae Heracleenses_ of 709 (45 B.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 in _C.I.L._ i. 207-211) may be left out
of account here. In the imperial age, laws in general were replaced by
_senatus consulta_ or by imperial decrees. It was also in the form of
a _senatus consultum_ that the _leges 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 the _lex de
imperio Vespasiani_ (_C.I.L._ vi. 930; Orel. i. 567). There is,
besides, one special category of imperial constitutions which
continued to be named _leges_, viz. the constitutions given by the
emperors to the divers classes of _civitates_, based upon the ancient
traditional rules of government applied to Rome itself as well as to
the _coloniae_ and _municipia_. Of this sort of _leges_ some very
valuable specimens have come from Spanish soil, viz. the _lex coloniae
Juliae Genetivae Urbanorum sive Ursonis_ (now Osuna), given to that
colony by Caesar in 710 (44 B.C.), but incised, with some alterations,
in the time of Vespasian, of which three bronze tables out of a much
larger number remain (Hubner and Mommsen, _Ephem. epigr._ ii. 150 sq.
and 221 sq.); the _lex Salpensana_ and the _lex Malacitana_, given to
these two _municipia_ by Domitian, between A.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 the _Abhandlungen der
sachsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philol.-histor. Classe_,
vol. iii., 1857, p. 363 sq.); the _lex 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 Hubner, _Ephem.
epigr._ iii. 165 sq. and, for a popular account, the _Deutsche
Rundschau_, August 1877, p. 196 sq.). The so-called military diplomas,
although in certain respects nearly related to the _leges_ of 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 the _coloniae_ and
_municipia_, and of the divers _collegia_ and _sodalicia_,
constituted, as a rule, after a similar fashion and debating in nearly
the same way as the Roman and the municipal senates. The oldest Roman
_senatus consulta_ are 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 (186 B.C.), and the
_senatus consultum Thisbaeum_, from Thisbe in Boeotia, 584 (170 B.C.)
(_Ephem. epigr._ i. 278 sq., ii. 102, and Joh. Schmidt, _Zeitschrift
der Savigny-Stiftung_, vol. iii., 1881), those of 616, 619, 621, 649
(138-105 B.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 44 B.C.) (Josephus, _Ant._
xiii. 9. 2, xiv. 8. 5 and 10. 9). The two oldest _senatus consulta_
written in Latin are also preserved in a more or less complete form
only by ancient authors; they are the _sc. de philosophis et
rhetoribus_ of 593 (161 B.C.) (Gellius, _Noct. Att._ xv. 11. 1) and
that _de hastis Martiis_ of 655 (99 B.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 the _sc. Lutatianum_, relating to Asclepiades of
Clazomenae and his companions, dating from 676 (77 B.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's _Digesta_ (see Hubner, _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 the _ludi
saeculares_, dating from 17 B.C. and A.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 two _sc._
_Hosidianum_ and _Volusianum_, 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, between
A.D. 41 and 46 and from 56 (Orel. 3115; Mommsen, _Berichte der sachs.
Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philol.-histor. Classe_, 1852, p. 272
sq.); and, of a later period, the _sc._ _Cassianum_ or _Nonianum_ of
A.D. 138, containing a market regulation for the _saltus Beguensis_ in
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 the _collegia_, inserted in the decree of a
_collegium_ at Lanuvium, to be mentioned below. Of the municipal
decrees, of which a greater number is preserved (see Hubner, _De sen.
populique Rom. actis_, p. 71 sq.), only a few of the more important
may be mentioned here: the _lex Puteolana de parieti faciundo_ of 649
(105 B.C.) (_C.I.L._ i. 577; Orel. 3697; Wil. 697); the two _decreta_
(or so-called _cenotaphia_) _Pisana_ in honour of Lucius and Gaius
Caesar, the grandsons of Augustus, of A.D. 3 (_C.I.L._ xi. 1420, 1421;
Orel. 642, 643; Wil. 883); the _decretum Lanuvinum_ of A.D. 133,
containing the regulations of a _collegium funeraticium_, styled
_collegium salutare Dianae et Antinoi_ (Orel. 6086; Wil. 319); and the
_decretum 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, the _decreta
collegiorum_, only the _lex collegii aquae_ of the 1st century
(Marini, _Atti de' fratelli arvali_, p. 70; Rudorff and Mommsen,
_Zeitschrift fur Rechtsgeschichte_, vol. xv., 1850, pp. 203, 345 sq.),
and the _lex 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, the _lex collegii Jovis Cerneni_, dating from A.D. 167,
found at Alburnus major in Dacia, is preserved on the original
_tabella cerata_ on which it was written (_C.I.L._ iii. 924; Henz.
6087; Wil. 321).
4. The fourth species of _instrumenta_ are 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 189 B.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 famous _epistula
consulum_ (falsely styled _senatus consultum_) _ad Teuranos de
bacchanalibus_, dated 568 (186 B.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, 117 B.C.
(_C.I.L._ i. 199; Orel. 3121; Wil. 872); and the _epistula_ of the
praetor L. Cornelius (perhaps Sisenna), the praetor of 676 (78 B.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 to A.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 the _saltus Burunitanus_ in 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 Diocletian _de 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.; compare _Ephem. epigr._ iv.
180, and, as similar monuments, the _lex portus_ of Cirta, of A.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 age A.D. 413,
fragments of the originals, written on papyri, have been found in
Egypt (see Mommsen and Jaffe, _Jahrbuch des gemeinen deutschen
Rechts_, vol. vi., 1861, p. 398; Hanel, _Corpus legum_, p. 281).
Imperial decrees, granting divers privileges to soldiers, are the
_diplomata militaria_ also, mentioned above, incised on two combined
bronze tablets in the form of _diptycha_ (L. Renier, "Recueil de
diplomes 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 year A.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 year A.D. 119, found at
Pampluna (_C.I.L._ ii. 2959; Orel. 4032); the epistle of the
_praefecti praetorio_ to the magistrates of Saepinum, of about A.D.
166-169 (_C.I.L._ ix. 2438; Wil. 2841); the decree of L. Novius Rufus,
another legate of the Tarraconensis, who _ex tilia recitavit_, of A.D.
193 (_C.I.L._ ii. 4125; Orel. 897; Wil. 876); the sentence of Alfenius
Senecio, then subprefect of the _classis 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 sachs. Gesellschaft
der Wissenschaften_, 1852, p. 235 sq.). The letter of a provincial
functionary, a priest of Gallia Narbonensis, to the _fabri subaediani_
of Narbonne, of the year 149, may also be mentioned (Henz. 7215; Wil.
696 a). To these must be added the _tabulae 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 the _libellus_ of the _procurator
operum publicorum a columna divi Marci_ of the year 193 (_C.I.L._ vi.
1585; Orel. 39; Wil. 2840) and the _interlocutiones_ of the _praefecti
vigilum_ on a lawsuit of the _fullones_ of Rome, of A.D. 244,
inscribed on an altar of Hercules (_C.I.L._ vi. 266; Wil. 100). These
documents form a most instructive class of _instrumenta_.
5. Many documents, as may be supposed, were connected with religious
worship, public and private. The oldest _lex 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, of A.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 in A.D. 137, still existing in part
at Padua (_C.I.L._ iii. 1933; Orel. 2490; Wil. 163). Another _lex
fani_ still existing is that of a temple of Jupiter Liber at Furfo, a
_vicus_ of southern Italy, of the year 696 (58 B.C.), but copied, in
vernacular language, from an older original (_C.I.L._ i. 603; Orel.
2488; Wil. 105; compare Jordan in _Hermes_, 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 the _Diana
Nemorensis_ at Nemi (Henz. _Hermes_, vol. vi., 1871, pp. 8 sq.), and
of a statue of Isis in Spain (Hubner, _Hermes_, vol. i., 1866, pp. 345
sq.; compare _C.I.L._ ii. 2060, 3386, Orel. 2510, Wil. 210), and two
_synopses_ from a temple at Cirta in Africa (Wil. 2736, 2737). The
_sortes_ given by divinities may also be mentioned (see _C.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. the _Index 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 the _Monumentum 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 (see _C.I.L._ iii. 779 sq., and the special editions
of Mommsen, Berlin, 1865, and Bergk, Gottingen, 1873). Among the
inscriptions relating to sacred buildings must also be reckoned the
numerous fragments of Roman calendars, or _fasti 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 municipal
_calendaria_ have likewise been found (as the _feriale Cumanum_,
_C.I.L._ i. part ii. p. 229, and the _Capuanum_, _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 the _pontifex
maximus_, the list of the eponymous magistrates, inscribed by the
order of Augustus on large marble slabs, was publicly shown--the
_fasti 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 the _Corpus_ (vol. i., 2nd ed.,
part ii.), along with the _acta triumphorum_ and other minor fragments
of fasti found in various Italian communities, while the _fasti
sacerdotum publicorum populi Romani_, together with the _tabula
feriarum Latinarum_, are given in the volume devoted exclusively to
the monuments of Rome (vol. vi. 441 sq.; compare _Hermes_, vol. v.,
1870, p. 379, and _Ephem. epigr._ ii. 93, iii. 74, 205 sq.). Documents
of the same kind, as, for example, the _album ordinis Thamugadensis_
from 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 in _C.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 important _collegia
magistratuum_, now survive only from one of the largest and most
distinguished _collegia sacerdotum_, in the _acta 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 (see _C.I.L._ vi. 459 sq.,
_Ephem. epigr._ ii. 211 sq., and Henzen's _Acta 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 some _capita testamentorum_ or
_codicilli_, 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 the _pactum 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 on _tabellae
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 in
_C.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--the _defixiones_ (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 the _defixio_ was 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); compare _C.I.L._ i. 818-820, _C.I.L._ vii.
140). Only a few of them are incised on stone (as that to the _Dea
Ataecina_ from 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 (so _C.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, of _instrumenta_, 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_) on the 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 the _Corpus_, 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-called _diptycha 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 of _pugillaria_, 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 the
_Gazette Archeologique_ of 1884; as specimens see _C.I.L._ ii. 2699,
and v. 8120, 1-9.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--As a "Textbook" of Roman epigraphy R. Cagnat, _Cours
d'epigraphie latine_ (3rd ed., Paris, 1898, with supplement, 1904) can
be heartily recommended. But students must be warned against Zell's
_Handbuch der romischen Epigraphik_ (2 vols., Heidelberg, 1850-1852),
an unsatisfactory work which is open to serious criticism. J. C.
Egbert's _Introduction to the Study of Latin Inscriptions_ (1896) is
designed for American and English students. For Christian inscriptions
Le Blant's _Manuel d'epigraphie chretienne d'apres les marbres de la
Gaule_ (Paris, 1869) may still be consulted with advantage.
(E. Hu.; W. M. L.)