Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/145

 ROMAN.] INSCRIPTIONS 133 Avcntine, 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 dedi cation of an altar to Augustus by the plebs of Narbo in southern France, of 764 A. p., but existing only, at Narbonnc, in a copy, made perhaps in the 2d century (Orel. 2489 ; &quot;VVil. 104), and that of an altar of Jupiter, dedicated at Salona3 in Dalmatia in 137 A. P., still existing in part at Padua (C. I. L., Hi. 1933 ; Orel. 2490 ; Wil. 163). Another Icxfani still existing is that of a temple of Jupiter Liber at Furfo, a viciis 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, p. 201 sq. ). The lists of objects belonging to some sanctuaries or to the ornaments of statues are curious, such as those of the Diana, Ncmorcnsis at Nemi (Henz., Hermes, vol. vi. , 1871, p. 8sq. ), and of a statue of Isis in Spain (Hubner, Hermes, vol. i., 1866, p. 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 sortcs given by divinities may also be mentioned (see C. L L., i. p. 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 rcrum a se gestarum, incised oil 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 Monu- mentum Ancyranum, because it is at Angora in Asia Minor that the best preserved copy of it, in Greek and Latin, exists ; but frag ments remain of other copies from other localities (see 0. I. L., iii. p. 779 sq., and the special editions of Mommsen, Berlin, 1865, and Bergk, Gb ttingen, 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. p. 293 sq. ; compare Ephcm. cpigr., i. p. 33, ii. p. 93, iii. p. 5, 85, iv. p. 1 sq., and for those found in Rome, 0. 1. L., vi. 2294-2306). Local, provincial, or municipal kalendaria have like wise been found (as the feriale Cumanum, C. I. L., i. p. 310, and the Capuanum, Mommsen, /. N., 3571). Many other large monu mental 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 pontifcx maximus, the list of the eponymous magistrates, inscribed by the order of Augustus on large marble slabs, was publicly shown, the fasti consulares, the recon struction 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. p. 293 sq. ; see also Ephem. epigr., i. p. 154, ii. p. 210, 285, iii. p. 11 sq. ; compare Hirschfeld and Mommsen in Hermes, vol. iii., 1874, pp. 93, 2G7 sq.), along with the acta triumphorum and other minor fragments of fasti found in various Italian communities (C. I. L., i. p. 453 sq. ; Ephem. cpigr., i. p. 157, iii. p. 16), while the fasti saccrdotum publicorum populi Romani, together with the tabula, fcriarum Latinarum, are given in the volume devoted exclusively to the monuments of Rome (vol. vi., p. 441 sq. ; compare Hermes, vol. v. , 1870, p. 379, &ud. JEphem. epigr., ii. p. 93, iii. pp. 74, 205 #7.). Documents of the same kind, as, for example, the album ordinis Thamugadensis from Africa (Ephcm. epigr., iii. p. 77 sq.), and a considerable mass of military lists (latcrcula, of which those belonging to the garrison of the metropolis are brought together in C. I. L., vi. p. 651 sq. ), are given on many dedicatory and honorary monuments, chiefly from Lambcesis in Africa (0. 1. 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 saccrdotum, in the acta collcgii 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 G. I. L., vi. p. 459 sq., Ephcm. epigr., ii. p. 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 uu- frequently in monumental form, as the testaments, given partly or in full, mentioned above (viz., that of Dasumius and the Gaul, G. I. L., vi. 10229, Wil. 314, 315, and some capita tcstamcntorum or codicilli, as that of M. Meconius Leo found at Petelia Mom msen, I. A r ., 78, 79 ; Orel. 3677, 3678 ; Wil. 696), and the dona tions, such as those of T. Flavins Syntrophus (C. I. L., vi. 10239 ; Wil. 313), of T. Flavins 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 fiducise, 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 tabclUe ccratie. Those found together in a mining dis trict of Dacia have been arranged and explained by Mommsen and Zangemeister (G. I. L., iii. p. 291 sq., with facsimiles); those found at Pompeii in 1875, containing receipts of the banker L. Csecilius Jucundus, have been published by De Petra (&quot;Le tavo- lette cerate di Pompei,&quot; Atti dell Acadcmia do Lined, vol. iii., 1876) and explained by Mommson (Hermes, vol. xii., 1877, p. 88 sq. ). These documents are written in cursive letters ; and so mostly, too, are some other curious private monuments, belonging partly to the sacred inscriptions, the dcjixioncs, 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 dcfixio was directed. The numerous Greek and Latin (and even Oscan) examples of this usage have been brought together by Wachsmuth (Rhcinisches Museum, vol. xviii., 1863, p. 559 sq. ; Henz., Bullct- tino dell Instituto, 1866, p. 252 ; 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 At&cina 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 ; Hen/. 6114, 6115 ; Wil. 2747, 2748), to bo laid in the tombs of the &quot;defixi,&quot; or deposited in the sanctuaries of some divinity. Some new specimens of this class have been lately added from Pa via and Arezzo in Italy (Mommsen, Hermes, vol. iii., 1868, p. 302, and vol. iv., 1869, p. 282 sq. ; Wil. 2749, 2753, 2754) ; one ,was lately found at Bath (Zaugemeister, Hermes, vol. xv., 1880, p. 588 sq. ). 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 instrumcnta, 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 on the walls of the buildings of ancient towns, like Pompeii, where, as was to be expected, most of them have been pre served, 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 advertise ments, citations for the municipal elections, and private scribblings of the most diverse (and sometimes most indecent) character, once partly collected by Chr. Wordsworth (Inscriptioncs Pompeianaz, &c., London, 1837, 1846) are now arranged by Zangemeister in the Corpus, vol. iv. (see also Eplicin. cpigr., i. pp. 49, 177 sq., and some specimens in Wil. 1951 sq.), whence their peculiar palffiographic 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 diptyeha 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, as is generally known, carvcd-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 cen turies. Since Gori s well-known work on this class of monuments (Thesaurus vctcrum diptychorum, &c., 3 vols., Florence, 1759) no comprehensive collection of them has been published ; as speci mens see C. I. L., ii. 2699, and v. 8120, 1-9. . Bibliography. There is no &quot;Textbook&quot; of Roman epigraphy which can be recommended to the student. Brissonius, in Lis work DC formulis et solcmnibus populi Romani vcrbis libri VIII. (first published at Paris, 1583 ; edited, with additions by Conradi and Bach, at Frankfort and Lcipsic, 1754), gives some useful information about the instrumcnta ; Maffei, in his Ars critica lapidaria (published, after his death, in Donati s Supplement to Muratori, 1765), goes too far in his suspicions about forgeries ; Morcelli s Lexicon cpigraphicum (in his Opera cpigraphica, 5 vols., Padua, 1819) is made for use in the composition of modern Latin inscriptions. Zaccaria s Instiluzionc antiquario-lapidaria osia in- troduzionc olio studio dcllc antichc latino iscrizioni (Rome, 1770. and Venice, 1793) has its merits, though it is somewhat anti quated, and is, besides, a rather scarce book. But students must lie warned against Zcll s Handbuch dcr romischcn Epigraphik (2 vols., Heidelberg, 1850-1852), which is a work in every respect thoroughly unsatisfactory. For Christian inscriptions Le Blant s Manuel d epigram/hie chrelicnne d apres les marbrcs dc la Gaulc (Paris, 1869), on which the article in Martigny s Didionnaire dcs antiquites chrt ticnnes (2d ed., Paris, 1877, p. 357 sq.) is based, and that in Smith and Cheetham s Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (vol. i., London, 1875, p. 841 sq.), maybe consulted with advan tage. CE- HU.)