ROMAN INSCRIPTIONS, (by which general name are designated, in classical archmology„ 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 by the Germans Awfschriften); the second is that of instruments or charters, public and private (styled by the Romans first /eyes, afterwards instrumenta or &flint; and by the Germans Urkunden).

No ancient Latin authors have professedly collected and explained or handed down to us Roman inscriptipns. Some of the orators and historians, such as Cicero, Livy, Pliny the elder, and Suctonius 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 formula from them, or explain the abbreviations used in them. Juridical instruments, laws, constitutions of emperors, senatus consulta, and the like appear here and there in the various collections of Roman j urisprudence.

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.' From the first revival of classical learning in the Carolingian ago, 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.' In the 15th century large collections of the inscriptions of all countries, or of limited districts, were made by Giovanni Marcanova, 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 Pighins, Rambertus, and Accursius, or antiquarian collectors, like Sigonius, Panvinius, Antonins Augustinus with his collaborators Ursinus and Metcllus, 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 Grievius, 1707), Gudius (about 1660, edited by Hessel, 1731), Reinesius (1682), Fabretti (1699), Gori (1726), Doni (1731), Muratori (1739), Maffei (1749), Donati (1765-75). 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. Bet, 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 Anvil, 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.3 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, vol. iii., with the indispensable Indices, Zurich, 1856), who, with Mommsen and De Rossi, carried out the plan of 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 Neapoldani, Latina: (Leipsic, 1852) and his Inscriptiones Conicederationis Helvetic& Latina (vol. x. of the publications of the Zurich Antiquarian Society, 1854), the publication of the C. I. L., following the similar work on 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 Antiquissimx ad C. Cmsaris mortem, by Mommsen (Berlin, 1863), with the Fasti Consulares by Ilenzen, and the Indices by Hiibner ; itschl's Prise& Latinitatis monnmenta epigrapl2ica (Berlin, 1862, fol.) form the graphic illustration to vol. i., giving all extant monuments of the republican epoch (with five S2bpplementa, Bonn, 1862-65 ; R. Garrucci's Sylloge Inscriptionum, Latinarum Zvi Roman& rcipublica; ?ague ad C. Intim a.T.Sarent plenissima, 2 vole., Turin, 1875-77, must be used with caution); vol. ii., loser. Hispaniee by Iiiibner (1869) ; vol. iii., Inscr. Asian, provincictrum Europss Grtecarum, PlyriT, by Mommsen ; vol. iv., Inscr. parietarix Pompeian& Herculanenses Stabian& (the scratched and painted inscriptions chiefly of Pompeii) by Zangemeister (1871); vol. v., loser. Galli& cisalpinx, that is, regionis decim& and undecima; et 91011W (1872-77); vol. vi., part i., Inscr. urbis Bowie, by Henzen (part ii. in the press) ; vol. vii., loser. Britannia', by Hubner (1873) ; vol. viii., loser. Africa, by Wilmanus and Mommsen (to be published in 1881 ; here Renier's Inscriptions Romaines de l'Alyerie, Paris 1855-1860, though not finished, may be consulted) ; vols. ix. and x., Laser. inferioris, by Mommsen (to be published in 1881 or 1882); vol. xi., Inscr. superioris, by Bormaun, vol. xii., Inscr. by Hirschfeld (a subject partly treated in W. Brambach's Corpus Inseriptionuni RhenanarWM, Elberfeld, 1866), vol. xiii., Inscr. Italics media-, by Dessau, and a concluding volume of general indexes are either in the press or in preparation. The arrangement observed in the Corpus is the geographical (as in Apianus) ; within the single towns the order of subjects (titidi sacri, ma gist raiment, privatorum, 1,7c., as in Smetius) is followed, with some few exceptions, where the monuments are so numerous (as in the forum of Rome - see H. Jordan, "Sylloge inscr. Pori Romani,".Ephem. epigr., iii. p. 237 sq.--and at Pompeii and Lambalsis) that they can be assigned to their original places. Running supplements to the C. I. L. are given in the Ephemeris epigraphtcce, Corporis Inger. Latinarum Supplementunt (4 vole., Berlin, 1872-80). The inscriptions in the other Italian dialects have been published by Aufrecht and Kirchhoff (Die umbrischen ASPrachdenkmdler, 2 vols., Berlin, 1849-51), Mommsen (Die unterilalischen Dialeete, Leipsic, 1850), Fabretti (Corpus Inscriptionum Italicarunt antiquioris mat, Turin, 1867, with three supplements, ibid., 1872-77), Coresen (Ueber die Sprache der Etrusker, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1874-75 ; see also Deecke, Etroskische Forschungen, i. to iv., Stuttgart, 1875-80); for farther particulars on the Italian dialects see Hiibner's Grundriss Z26 Vorlesungen fiber die lateinische Grammatik, 2d ed., Berlin, 1880, p. 9). For the Christian inscriptions of Rome, and of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, see De Rossi's Inscr. Christiana" urbis Roma- septimo sxculo antiquiores, vol. i. (Rome, 1857), and the same author's Roma sotterranea (3 vole., Rome, 1861-77), with the Eullettino cli Areheologia cristiana (Rome, 1873- 80), the Inscriptions Cltraiennes de to Genie of Le Blant (2 vols., Paris, 1857-65), and the loser. Hispania! Christian& and „fuser. Britanithe Christian& 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, 1846-51), Ch. Robert's Epigraphic rontaine de to 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) gives a general synopsis of the materials.

II. The alphabet used by the Romans is identical with that of the Chalcidian colonies in southern Italy and Sicily (viz., Cyme, Neapolis, Rhegium, Zancle, Naxos, and 'Entera), except the three aspirates 0,43, x; these, being of no use in ancient Latin, which had no such aspirates, were employed as numerals. The old Z, which occupied the seventh place in the alphabet, being of rare employment, was replaced, as early as the 4th century A.U.C., by G, a letter formed by the addition of a stroke out of the old gamma c, which became identical in sound with K, though remaining in use as an abbreviation for Gains and G22Mus. To that standard alphabet of twenty-one letters were appended, in Cicero's time, the Greek letters v and In this alphabet (ABCDEFG HI KLMNOPQ RSTVXYZ, in this form found written on the walls of Pompeii, on tiles and other monuments) 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 Mini21111 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. A, in the most ancient period (before the Second Punic War), appears in these forms, A A A; L, in the same epoch, is acute-angled (as in the Chalcidian alphabet), I.; P is rectilineal, r ; Q has a perpendicular stroke, 9; B, D, R, a are often not rounded, but acute-angled (13 t R. 4); 0 and Q appear sometimes not closed (c), Q). Besides E and F (which usually have their horizontal strokes of equal length and not as in modern printing), there were in use some quasi-cursive forms, 11 and 11; and besides M (which, at the best periods, has its two exterior strokes inclined, not perpendicular, and the middle point extended to the foot of the line), a cursive 1111 is to he found. In later periods, F is sometimes elevated above the other letters (and afterwards not F only), G assumes the form H appears as h , and L as I. , - to mention only some prominent diversities, for a complete history of the palteographic changes of the Roman alphabet has not yet been written. In general, the old quadrate forms of the letters, with equal breadth of strokes above and below, become, by degrees, more slender and elegant, the tops and angles being slightly curved, &e. Additions to the Roman alphabet were made, but without permanent success, by the emperor Claudius (A for V the consonant, to distinguish it from V the vowel, 0 for the Greek tp, 1- for the sound between i and a, as in bybliotheca; he wrote also ai fur ae). To distinguish, after the later Greek usage, long from short vowels, in the course of the 7th century A.U.C. the plan of doubling them was introduced for a, e, and o (not u), while the long i was written ei, and afterwards indicated by the prolonged form I. At the end of the republic these distinctions disappear, and long vowels are distinguished, when at all, by an apex (a stroke or a curved line upon them --' not an accent), down to the epoch of the emperor Marcus Aurelius. In some very rare instances the doubling of consonants is indicated by a sieiticus, a hook (') upon them. The double i indicates, in some examples, from Caesar down to Domitiau, the consonantal j (as in cuiins, eiius). 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 ligature. This system of compendious writing, very rare in the republican epoch, and slowly extending itself during the 1st century, became rather frequent in the 2d and 3d, 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.; 1- is it or ti, not Titi). In the republican period, the numbers from one to nine arc mostly written in the additive form (I II 10 nil V VI VII VIII VIM), and similarly in combination with X, XX, and so on (XXXX, LXXXX); V, for five, seems to be a graphic division of X. The x of the Chalcidian alphabet, j,, is the numeral for fifty (afterwards 1 and L, which has originally nothing to do with the letter L); the a, 0, is that for a hundred (replaced early by the initial of the word centaur, C); the Q, (1), is that for a thousand (afterwards M, the initial of mule), of which (f),00 are only slight graphic alterations. The multiples of a thousand by 10 are written thus n) (10,000), (ft (100,000). Fromm came, by graphic division, D (not D the letter) for 500 (with F) 5000, 50,000). A peculiar mark ((ID) appears rarely for 500,000 (Hermes, iii., 1868, p. 467). 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) -Ft S duo semis (sestertius), 43 500 ; it was afterwards put above them, as in TM, XVIR, duovir, decemvir, sevir.1 The direction of the writing is, even in the oldest inscriptions, from left to right ; there exists only one very ancient example of an inscription, found at the lake Fueinus, written in a kind of fiovo-rpockaOv arrangement (H. Jordan, Hermes, vol. xv., 1880, p. 5), while in the Sabellic inscriptions similar arrangements are not infrequent. Each word is separated from the other by a sign of interpuuction, 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 2d 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 sonic very ancient inscriptions, such as those of Pisaurnm, where, as in Greek and other Italian monuments, three dots are used), which, according to the technical skill of the different periods in stone-cutting, 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 ( 7) or a, leaf ( i); the ivy-leaf-shaped dot is especially frequent in inscriptions from about the 2c1 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 memorix (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 accu_•ate knowledge of the system of abbreviations used in them is necessary. These are almost invariably litte•te 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 arc 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 litteiw 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 prwnomino), the names of days and feasts (kal. for kalendx), 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 (1. for lex, hi. for heres, s. d. m. for sine Bolo malo, and so on), in sepulchral inscriptions (11. s. e., hic sites est) or in dedicatory inscriptions (v. s. L m., votum solvit libens merito), &c.2 it may be observed here that the przrnomina 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 -ins 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 film s, 111. 1., illarci libertus (s. for serves is not frequent), the feminine gender is sometimes indicated by inversion of the letters. Thus 0. 1, (or lib.) or w (an inverted M) 1. designates a mulieris libertus; and '1 are used for .fitie, pepilla. On the tribes and their abbreviations, and on the so-called military tribes (which are names of colonies collocated, for the sake of symmetry, at the place usually occupied, in the nomenclature, by the to bus), 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 tribes, see Grotefend's Iniperium 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 Avg., Caess., toss., dd. 2? (domini nostri), are used from the 3d century downwards (see De Rossi's preface to the Inscriptiones Christ. urbis Rowe) to distinguish them from Aug., Coes., 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 Utzt/i), perhaps the oldest, and certainly the most frequent, are the sepulchral inscrigions sepulerales). Of the different forms of Rosman tombs, partly depending upon the difference between burial and cremation, which were in use side by side, the latest and a very complete account is given in Marquardt's Handbuch der rontisehen Alterthiimer (vol. vii. part i., Leipsie, 1879, p. 330 sq.). The most ancient examples are those of a sepulerclum at Prnneste (C. I. L., i. 74, 165, 1501 a-d; Ephene. 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 Giecilia MeteIla, C. I. L., vi.1274) and in the mausolea of most of the emperors, and is still frequent in the tittili of the large eolumbaria of the same age (C. I. L., 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 vices, vini) was prefixed to their names (e.g., C. I. L., i. 1020, 1195, 1271); the deceased were sometimes marked by the Kira migrant (C. I. L., i. 1032; Wil. 158; see also C. I. L., vi. 10251 sq.). Only the names in the nominative are shown,too, on the sarcophagi of the Turldcii and Fourii at Tuseulum (C. I. L., i. 65-72 ; Wil. 152), and in the oldest inscriptions on those of the Seipiones, painted with in Mil (C. I. L., i. 29 ; Wil. 537), to which were added afterwards the insignia of the magistralus curates (C. I. L., i. 31; Wil., 53S) 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 sepulerelum 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 ollm, 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 out (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 tenths 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, compare Annali dell' Institute Archeologico, vol. xxxvii., p. 308) verses become more and more frequent in epitaphs (see Wil. 543 sq.). In prose also short designations of the mental qualities of the deceased (home bonus, MiSeriCM, anions paupentm, or uxor frugi bona pudica, and the like), short dialogues with the passer-by (originally borrowed from Greek poetry), as vale-salrc, salmis ire, vale el tee, tie. (Wil. 180), then indications of his condition in his lifetime, chiefly among the Greek tradesmen and workmen, e.g., lanius de cone Vintinale (C. I. L., i. 1011), margaritarius de scent via, 1027, and the like), and some formulae, such as ossa hie silo stint, heic cabal, heie salts est (in republican times mostly written in full, not abridged) were added. The habit of recording the measurement of the sepulchre, on the sepulchral eippus, by such formulas as locus _valet in !rode pales tut, in agro (or in via, or retro) pales lot, seems not to be older than the Augustan age (C. I. L., i. 1021, with Momnmsen's note ; Wil. 188). About the same time also the epitaphs more frequently state how long the deceased lived, which was formerly added only ou 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) deune Maanium (e.g., at Hispellum, C. I. L., i. 1410); or it is said, as on a eippus from Corduba in Spain (C. I. L., ii. 2255; Wil. 218), C. Senile Sat(urnino) co(n)s(rule)-that is, in the year 19 B. C. -clef Manes receperunt Ahilham N(umerii) 1(ibe•tam) Nigellam. In the Augustan age the titulus sepuleralis begins to be confounded with the titulus saver ; it adopts the form of a dedication clefs Manibus, °fired. to the dei Manes (or del infant Manes, the clef pareittant 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 din ?minibus saerain, or d. att. et mentorite, d. in. et genie, or inemorix teterntr, peel et quiet•, quiet?: trterntv, 80712220 teternali, and so on ; Wil. 246), in thousands of monuments. By similar degrees the militias sepuleralis adopts many of the elements of the titulus honorarias (the indication of the eltrsas honontin, of the military charges, he., as, e.g., in the inscription of en. Calpurnius Piso, a 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 YElianus. consul 74 A.D. , L., vi. 10229, Vtril. 314, and T. Flavius Syntrophus-C. I. L., vi. 10239, Hens. 7321, Wil. 313), or parts of them (like that On the tomb of a Gant of the tribe of the Lingones, belonging to Yespasian's time, Wil. 315), funeral orations (as those on Turia, the wife of Q. Lucretius Vespillo, consul 19 B. C. -C./. L., vi. 1527, in Orel. 4859 incomplete ; on Murdia-C. I. L., vi. 10230, Orel. 4860, Rmlortf, Abhandlangen der Konigl. .zaadentie der Wissenschaften rut Perlin, 1868, p. 217 sq.; and that of Hadrian on the elder Matidia, found at Tivoli-Mommsen in the same Abhandhenrien, 1863, p. 483 sq.), 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.) an(outtmeiduin) h(eredem) n(on) s(equctur)" and the like (Wil. 280),-and relating to the annual celebration of parentalia (Wil. 305 sq.), down to the not uncommon prohibition of violation or profanation of the monument (compare, for instance, C. I. L., i. 1241, Wil. 267, from Naples, " clefs ivferum parentum sacrum, ni viodato ;" C. I. L., iii. 3955, from Siscia, "rue Tub in hoe poreos agi flame relit ;" C.LL., IL 2703, from Portugal, in a distich, "quisquis honorem agitas, ita to tua gloria servel, przeeipias puero ate lined lame lapidenz;" C. I. L., vi. 2357, "hospes ad hum bin 2741W771. sue males ossa preeantar," he. ; and Wit. 271-273), and the addition of the name of the stone-cutter (C'. I. L., v. 7670; Wil. 2490 ; Orel. -Hens. 6344) and of the writer of the titulus (De Rossi, falser. Christ., i. p. 9, 5; Wil. 1285, 2490), with many other particulars (on which the index of Wil. p. 678.1., may be consulted), form the text of the sepulchral inscriptions of the later epoch from Augustus downwards. 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 ]sere.

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 ('crew's et Proserpimx on the Eleusinian temple, which Appius Claudius Pulcher, Cicero's well-known predecessor in the Cilieian proconsulate, began-C. I. L., i. 619 =iii. 347 ; Wil. 31) ; or the statue that an te,clais vowed is erected by himself as duovir (C. I. L., iii. 500 ; Henz. 5684) ; what slaves had promised, they fulfil as lhedmen (C. I. L., 1233, servos veva fiber solvit ; C. I. L., 816, W. 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 couseeratio being fulfilled only by the solemn dedieatio) are also specified on dedicatory inscriptions (see, for instance, eensacrare or conseerare, Orel. 2503, and Henz. 6124, 6128 ; for dedicare, C. I. L., i. 1159, Henz. 7024, Wil. 1782, and compare Catullus's hone lue-um ifbi dedico conseeroque Priape, fragm. 2 ap. Lachmann and Muller ; for dicare, see the aura leege Albana dicata to Vediovis by the genteiles Alia, 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 (avaBlip,ava, donaria) out of the booty, like those of M. Claudius Marcellus from Enna (C. I. L., (C. I. L., i. 542 ; Wil. 27b) ; the rest of them contain only the name of the dedieant and the dative of the community to which they were destined (C. I. L., i. and Wil. 1.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 es in the other clonaria, "vicesma(m) parti(m) or [ex] vicesma peril Apolones (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 ; llenz. 5638a ; ex reditu peennia, ex patrimenio suo, ex laths, de munere gladiatorio, and so on) ; or the motive (ex jugs°, eximperio, ex visit, ex °mule, monitn, rise 9noniti, 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. p. 30S, pro trehibos ; pro se, pro salute, in honorem domus divines, Szo.), are indicated ; or, as in the tituli operant 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, ke.), 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. p. 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 °permit publieorura (" basin?, donum dent," C. I. L., i. 1167 ; "signum hegira," C. I. .L., i. 1154 ; "arum," 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 ; some of these carmine dedicaturia are given by Wil. 142-151.

i. 1708 ; Wil. 1227). But at an earlier date, at the end of the 5th century A. U. C. , the noble house of the Seipios had already introduced the use of poetical elogia, in the ancient form of the cambia triumphalia in Saturnian verses (from the 6th century in elegiac distichs). As has been stated above, they were added to the short tita/i, painted only with mini um 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 eases done publicly at a period nearly as early. The first instance preserved of such a usage, of which Pliny the elder speaks (Mist. Nat., xxxiv. a 17 sq.), is time celebrated columna rostrata of C. Duilius, of which only a copy exists, made in 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 Areas Fabianus (C. I. L., i. 606, 607, and p. 278, clog. i.-iii. = vi. 1303, 1304 ; Wil. 610), or of statues by their descendants, as those belonging to a sacrarium doortis Augusta (C. I. L., i. clog. iv.-vi. = C. I. L., vi. 1310, 1311) and others belonging to men celebrated in politics or in letters, as Scipio, Hortensins, Cicero, ke., and found in Rome either on marble tablets (C. I. L., i., vii.-xii. = C. L 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; seealso i. 40= vi. 1280; Wil. 1101; and C.I.L., i. 631= vi. 1278; i. 640 vi. 1323 ; vi. 1321, 1322, where 7'. Quin& 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 with a political and patriotic aim, praised by the poet Horace (Oil., iv. 8, 13, " incisa nulls 971aTMOra publicis, per qua spirit us et vita rcdit bonis post mortent clueibus"); for he adorned his forum with the statues of celebrated men from Ailneas and Romulus downwards (C. I. I., 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., 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. 624, 625, 629-633). All these elogia are written in the nominative. In the same way in the colonies But along with this primitive and genuine form of the Willits honorariu.s 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. 1102a) and at other places (Caieta and Clusiuin, C. I. L., i. 585, 586 ; Wil. 1102b, c), in which the whole set of honours and offices is not enumerated as in the elogia, but only the honores prresentes ; compare also the inscription belonging to about the seine date, of a gicastor urhanits, C. I. L., i. 636). Within the Greek provinces also, at the same period, this form is adopted (C. I. L., i. 595 = 531; Henz. 5294 ; Wil. 1104). Similar dedications were offered to Pompey the Great (at Auximum and Clusinin, 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 Valentin, C. I. L., i. 601; Ileuz. 5127 ; Wil. 1106). They are succeeded by the statues raised to Cmsar (at Bovianum, C. I. L., i. 620 ; Orel. 582 ; Wil. 1108), and, after his death, bissit populi Remnant, in virtue of a special law, at Rome (C. I. I., i. 626=vi. 872 ; Orel. 5S6 ; Wil. 877). With him, as is well known, divine honours begin to be paid to the pm-biceps, even daring 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., , laser. Neap., 1984 ; Henz. 5347), Marius at Cereatfe Mariana', the place which bears his name (Mommsen, Riser. Neap., 4487 ; Wil. 654). Of statues erected by the community of a municipium to a private person, that of I,. Popillius Flaecus nt Ferentinuni 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 triumpliatorcs, in the new fora, inch-Aim; that of Augustus (C'. I. L., vi. 13S6 ; Orel. 3187 ; Wil. 634 ; C. I. L., vi. 1444 ; Benz. 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. 1., 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), Clauditin the poet (C. I L., vi. 1710 ; Orel. 1182 ; Wil, 642), •icomachus 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 cf.S.. 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 Ilenzen and Wiliniums, its well as in eaall volume of the ,..urptis. In the provinces, of course, the usages of the capital were speedily imitated. Perhaps the oldest example of a Utulus honorarius in the form of an elogium (but in the dative), with the full curses h0aO•lEat of the person honoured, is a bilinguis from Athens, of the Augustan age (C. I. L., iii. 551 ; Hertz. 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.I In the older examples the formula "honoris cause," or virtutis ergo (Hermes, vi., 1871, p. 6), is added at the end, as in an inscription of Mytilenc belonging to the consul of the year 723 A.u.c., i.e., 31 B.C. (C. I. L., iii. 455 ; Orel. 4111 ; Wil. 11045) ; the same, abbreviated (h.e.), 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 manic/pia as it was in Athens and other Greek cities in the later period. Each province furnishes numerous examples, partly with peculiar fortnuhc, on which the indexes of Wilmanns (p. 673, 696 sq.) may be consulted. Special mention may be made of the numerous honorary inscriptions belonging to aurigee, histriones, and glacliatores ; for those found in Rome see C. I. L.,,vi. 10044-10210.

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 Mull operatic publieorum, 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 (Epicene. 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 Sella 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 tabulariwm.) follows the solemn formula de s(enati) s(ententia)faciundum coeravit cidemque probavit (C. I. L., i. 592 =vi. 1314 ; Ore]. 31, 3267 ; Wil. 700). With the same formula the prsetor M. 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 tribunorunt plebis (C. I. L., i. 593 = vi. 1299 ; Wit. 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 pride dei guattro capi, still preserved, though partly restored, on its original site, which commemorates its builder, the tribune of the year 692 (62 n.c.), L. Fabrieius (C. I. L., i. 600= vi. 1305 ; Orel. 50; Wil. 788)-; it was restored by the consuls of the year 733 (21 n.e.).2 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 Vietrix 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 Genius, Noct. AU., x. 1). So Agrippa, when he dedicated his Pantheon in the year 727 (27 mu.), inscribed on it only the words AI. Agrippa L. f. cos. tertium fait (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. 72'2, 723), of Fcrentinum, with the measurements of the foundation (C. I. L., i. 1161-1163 ; Wil. 708), of the walls and towers at 1iclanum (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 ; Wil. 730, 1S99-1901). At Alatrimn a munificent citizen gives an enumeration of a number of works executed by ldm in the period of the Gracchi, in his native town ("haw glue infcra sempta suet de scsatu sentential 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 This observation, applied to a large number of monmnents, gave rise to many of the splendid epigraphical labours of Borghesi (see e.g., his dissertation upon the inscription of the consul L. Burbuleius, CEurres, iv. p. 103 sq.).

Pliny also (Hist. g 130) records. and those of the other emperors at !tome, of which only that of Claudius, the conqueror of Britain (C. vi. 920, 921 ; Orel, 715; Wit, 899), with the statues of himself and his family, need be mentioned.

Aquas Flavin, 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 L L., ii. 2477 ; Wil. 803) ; and similarly, with the name of Trajan, on the famous bridge over the Tagus at Aletintara, in Spanish Estremadura, the names of the municipia provincite Lusitanite stipe conlata yaw opus ponds pea feeerunt arc inscribed (C. I. L.,