of the civil forms which prevailed in the various
countries in which they resided. In Rome the common date was that of
the consular year. The common use of the Christian era as a note of
time began, as is well known, later than the sixth century, at which
M. de Rossi's series terminates. In M. de Rossi's collection one
inscription bears date from the year A.D. 107, and another from 111.
Of the period from the year 204, in which the next inscription with a
date occurs, till the peace of the church in 312, twenty-eight dated
inscriptions have been found; after the peace of the church the number
of dated inscriptions increases rapidly. Between the accession of
Constantine and the close of the fourth century, his collection
contains 450 dated inscriptions, and the fifth century presents about
the same number; but in the sixth, the number again declines, that
century producing little more than 200.

In those cases where no note of time is marked, M. de Rossi has
availed himself of other chronological indications and tests, founded
on the language, on the style, on the names, and on the material
execution of the inscription, in determining the date. Out of the
11,000 extant Roman inscriptions anterior to the seventh century, M.
de Rossi finds chronological evidence of the date of no fewer than
1374.

There are also varieties in inflection, such as "spiritu sancta" for
"spiritu sancto," "pauperorum," for "pauperum," "vocitus" for
"vocatus," "requiescent" for "requiescunt," etc.

There are also new or unusual terms, or new familiar words in new or
unusual meanings, such as "pausavit, rested, bisomus, trisomus,
quadrisomus," holding two, three, four bodies; compar and conpar
(husband and wife); fecit for egit, _passed_; "percepit," received,
_scil._ baptism, as also "consecutus est," in the same sense, etc.

Sometimes Latin is written in Greek characters and sometimes Greek in
Latin.

The age is expressed by "vixit," or "vixit in saeculo," "annos" (or
"annis") "menses," "dies" (or "diebus") ----, with the number of hours
sometimes stated. Sometimes "qui fuit" stands for "vixit;" sometimes
neither is expressed, and we have the form in the genitive, "sal.
annorum," etc.

Frequently the time passed in married life is mentioned, and we find
such phrases as "vixit mecum, duravit mecum, vixit in conjugio, fecit
mecum, fecit in conjugio, fecit cum compare," with a precise statement
of the number of years, etc., and often with s