Chapter IV: Latin Inscriptions (2)

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.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Winckler in Schrader's _Keilinschr. Bibl._ v. (Berlin, &c.,
1896).

[2] A nearly complete text has been made from these with the help of
a squeeze taken before its destruction. See the handbooks mentioned
below.

[3] Published with other fragments in the _Jew. Quart. Review_, xvi.
1.

[4] _Zeitsch. f. Aegypt. Spr._ (1879). These were the first specimens
found. See also Erman and Krebs, _Aus den Papyrus d. kgl. Mus._ p.
290 (Berlin, 1899).

[5] _Mittheilungen ... Rainer_, i. 38 (Wien, 1886).

[6] Those in France were collected by Schwab in _Nouvelles archives_,
xii. 3. See also Chwolson, _Corpus Inscr. Hebr._ (St Petersburg,
1882).

[7] These have been collected by J. H. Stevenson, _Babyl. and Assyr.
Contracts_ (New York, 1902). A more complete collection has been
prepared by Professor A. T. Clay.

[8] For the literature see Kalinka, _Tituli Lyciae_, No. 152 (Vienna,
1901).

[9] _Repertoire d'epigr. sem._, No. 438.

[10] So Bacher in _J. Q. R._ xix. 441.

[11] In _Mem. Acad. inscr._ 1^(re) ser. xi. 297. See also _Rep.
d'epigr. sem._, for some smaller fragments, Nos. 244-248.

[12] Sayce and Cowley, _Aramaic Papyri_ (London, 1906).

[13] Sachau, "Drei aram. Papyrusurkunden" _Abh. d. kgl. Preuss.
Akad._ (Berlin, 1907).

[14] See _P.S.B.A._ (1907), p. 260.

[15] See Lidzbarski, _Ephemeris_, ii. 247.

[16] _J.Q.R._ xvi. 7.

[17] ed. E. O. Winstedt (Cambr. 1909), p. 154.

[18] A view revived by C. Forster, even after Beer, in _The
Israelitish Authorship of the Sinaitic Inscriptions_ (London, 1856)
and other works.

[19] The cross and other Christian symbols often found with the
inscriptions have been added later by pilgrims.--_C.I.S._ ii. 1, p.
352.

[20] _Reise in Syrien_ (Leipzig, 1883).

[21] _Inscriptions sem. de la Syrie, &c._ i. (Paris, 1907).

[22] J. H. Mordtmann, "Beitr. zur Minaischen Epigraphik," in
_Semitistische Studien_, 12 (Weimar, 1897).

[23] In Bent's _Sacred City of the Ethiopians_ (London, 1893).

[24] _Revue semitique_ (1901).

[25] _Journ. As._ x., xvii., xix.

[26] _Zur Entzifferung d. Safa-Inschr._ (Leipzig, 1901).

[27] It may be remarked that there are about twelve different views
regarding the date of Kanishka and the origin of the Vikrama era.
Some writers hold that Kanishka began to reign in A.D. 78: one writer
would place his initial date about A.D. 123: others would place it in
A.D. 278. The view maintained by the present writer was held at one
time by Sir A. Cunningham; and, as some others have already begun to
recognize, evidence is now steadily accumulating in support of the
correctness of it.

[28] The legends on coins form part of numismatics, though closely
connected with inscriptions.

[29] The amphorae which conveyed the wine and other products of
various localities have imprinted on their handles the name of the
magistrate and other marks of the place and date. Large collections
have been made of them, and they repay inquiry. See Dumont,
_Inscriptions ceramiques_ (1872); Paul Becker, _Henkelinschriften_
(Leipzig, pt. i. 1862, pt. ii. 1863); Hiller v. Gaertringen, _I.G._
xii. 1065-1441.

[30] e.g. Treaty between Elis and the Heraeans, about 550-500 B.C.,
from Olympia (Boeckh, _C.I.G._ 11, Hicks, 29, and others in
Dittenberger-Purgold, _Inschr. v. Olympia_, 1-43); a similar bronze
treaty from the Locri Ozolae (Dittenberger, _I.G._ ix. 334); bronze
plate from Dodona, recording the victory of Athens over the
Lacedaemonians in a sea-fight, probably 429 B.C. (Dittenberger,
_Syll._ 2. 30).

[31] See Wunsch _I.G._ iii., App.; Audollent, _Defixionum Tabellae_
(1904).

[32] See Karapanos, _Dodone et ses ruines_; Hoffman, Gr. _Dial.
Inschr._ 1558-1598.

[33] What was done by Themistocles under stress of public necessity
(Thucyd. i. 93) was done by others with less justification elsewhere;
and from Byzantine times onward Greek temples and inscriptions were
found convenient quarries.

[34] It appears from Cicero, _De Legibus_, ii. 26, 27, that the size
of Athenian gravestones was limited by law.

[35] An index to the four volumes was long wanting; it was at length
completed and appeared in 1877.

[36] See E. Hubner, _Uber mechanische Copieen von Inschriften_
(Berlin, 1881).

[37] Compare De Rossi, _Bullettino dell' instituto archeologico_
(1871), p. 1 sq.

[38] His works have been published by the French government in
several volumes 4to (Paris, 1862 sqq.).

[39] For other details of numerical notation, fractions, &c., see the
manuals of metrology.

[40] On the system of Roman nomenclature and the abbreviations
employed in it see Cagnat's textbook, and for more detail Mommsen in
_Romische Forschungen_, i. 1 seq., and in _Hermes_, iii. (1869), p.
70, W. Schulze, _Zur Geschichte lateinischen Eigennamen_ (Berlin,
1904); on the _cognomina_ (but only those occurring in ancient
literature), Ellendt, _De cognomine et agnomine Romano_ (Konigsberg,
1853), and on the local _cognomina_ of the Roman patriciate, Mommsen,
_Rom. Forsch_, ii. 290 seq.; on the _nomina gentilicia_, Hubner
(_Ephem. epigr._ ii. 25 seq.). The indexes to Orelli, Wilmanns, and
the volumes of the _Corpus_ may also be consulted.

[41] This observation, applied to a large number of monuments, gave
rise to many of the splendid epigraphical labours of Borghesi (see
e.g. his dissertation upon the inscription of the consul L.
Burbuleius, _[OE]uvres_, iv. 103 sq.).

[42] The character of an _elogium_ is assumed in a special way by the
inscriptions on triumphal arches, such as that of Augustus on the
arch of Susa in Piedmont, dating from the year 745 (9 B.C.) (_C.I.L._
v. 7231; Orel. 626), and the similar one on the _tropaea Augusti_
(_la Turbia_) (_C.I.L._ v. 7817) of the year 747 (7 B.C.), which
Pliny also (_Hist. Nat._ iii. S 136) records, and those of the other
emperors at Rome, of which only that of Claudius, the conqueror of
Britain (_C.I.L._ vi. 920, 921; Orel. 715; Wil. 899), with the
statues of himself and his family, need be mentioned.

[43] See the important work of R. Lanciani, _Commentari di Frontino
intorno le acque e gli acquedotti, &c._ (Rome, 1880).

INSECT, the anglicized form of the Late Lat. _insectum_, used by Pliny in his _Natural History_ as the equivalent of the Gr. [Greek: entomon]. Aristotle had included in one class "Entoma" the six-legged arthropods which form the modern zoological class of the Hexapoda or Insecta, besides the Arachnida, the centipedes and the millipedes. The word was introduced to English readers in a translation (1601) of Pliny's _Natural History_ by Philemon Holland, who defined "insects" as "little vermine or smal creatures which have (as it were) a cut or division betwene their heads and bodies, as pismires, flies, grashoppers, under which are comprehended earthworms, caterpilers, &c." Few zoological terms have been more loosely used both by scientific and popular writers. The definition just quoted might include all animals belonging to the groups of the Arthropoda and Annelida, and U. Aldrovandi in _De animalibus insectis_ (1602) almost contemporaneously distinguished between "terrestrial insects," including woodlice, earthworms and slugs, and "aquatic insects," comprising annelids and starfishes. Perhaps the widest meaning ever attached to the word was that of R.A.F. de Reaumur, who "would willingly refer to the class of insects all animals whose form would not allow them to be placed in the class of ordinary quadrupeds, in that of birds, or in that of fishes. The size of an animal should not suffice to exclude it from the number of insects.... A crocodile would be a terrible insect; I should have no difficulty, however, in giving it that name. All reptiles belong to the class of insects, for the same reasons that earthworms belong to it."

The class Insecta of Linnaeus (1758) was co-extensive with the Arthropoda of modern zoologists. The general practice for many years past among naturalists has been to restrict the terms "Insecta" and "insect" to the class of Arthropods with three pairs of legs in the adult condition: bees, flies, moths, bugs, grasshoppers, springtails are "insects," but not spiders, centipedes nor crabs, far less earthworms, and still less slugs, starfishes or coral polyps.

For a general account of the structure, development and relationships
of insects, see ARTHROPODA and HEXAPODA, while details of the form,
habits and classification of insects will be found in articles on the
various orders or groups of orders (APTERA, COLEOPTERA, DIPTERIA,
HEMIPTERA, HYMENOPTERA, LEPIDOPTERA, NEUROPTERA, ORTHOPTERA,
THYSANOPTERA), and in special articles on the more familiar divisions
(ANT, BEE, DRAGON-FLY, EARWIG, &c.). The history of the study of
insects is sketched under ENTOMOLOGY. (G. H. C.)

INSECTIVORA, an order of non-volant placental mammals of small size, with a dentition adapted to an insect-diet. In nearly all cases these creatures are nocturnal, and the majority are terrestrial, many burrowing in the ground, although a few are arboreal and others aquatic. They have plantigrade or partially plantigrade feet, that is to say, they apply the whole or the greater portion of the soles to the ground when walking; and there are generally five toes, each terminating in a claw, and the first never being opposable to the others in either the fore or hind limb. A full series of differentiated teeth, including temporary or deciduous milk-molars, is developed, and the cheek-teeth have distinct roots and are crowned with sharp cusps, which in some instances are three in number and arranged in a triangle. Very frequently the number of the teeth is the typical forty-four, arranged as _i._ 3/3, _c._ 1/1, _p._ 4/4, _m._ 3/3, but occasionally there is a fourth pair of molars, while the incisors may be reduced to two pairs above and one below, and the canine is frequently like an incisor or a premolar. The skull is of a primitive type, often with vacuities on the palate, as in marsupials, with a small brain-chamber, and the tympanic bone generally ring-like instead of forming a bladder-shaped bulla; except in the African _Potamogale_, clavicles, or collar-bones, are always present; the humerus generally has a perforation on the inner side of its lower extremity; and a centrale bone is usually present in the carpus. In the brain the smooth hemispheres are so short as to leave the cerebellum and sometimes even the corpora quadrigemina exposed. The uterus is two-horned; the placenta, so far as known, is deciduate and discoidal; the testes are abdominal or inguinal; and the teats usually numerous. The body in several instances is covered with sharp spines in place of hair.

The great majority of the Insectivora are nocturnal in their habits, and their whole structure indicates an extremely low grade of organisation, fully as low as that of marsupials. It is noteworthy that the dentition in several of the groups approximates to that of the extinct mammals of the Jurassic epoch (see MARSUPIALIA), and exhibits more or less distinctly the primitive tritubercular type. Although the past history of the group is very imperfectly known, it seems probable that the Insectivora are nearly related to the original primitive mammalian stock. Indeed, it has been stated that were it not for the apparently advanced type of placenta, they might easily be regarded as the little modified descendants of the ancestors of most other mammals. Probably they are in some way related to the creodont carnivores (see CREODONTA), but if, as has been suggested, the latter are akin to the primitive ungulates, the connexion would seem to be less close than has been sometimes supposed.

Representatives of this order are found throughout the temperate and tropical parts of both hemispheres, with the exception of South America (where only a few shrews have effected an entrance from the north) and Australia, and exhibit much variety both in organization and in habit. The greater number are cursorial, but some (_Talpa_, _Chrysochloris_, _Oryzorictes_) are burrowing, others (_Limnogale_, _Potamogale_, _Nectogale_, _Myogale_) aquatic, and some (_Tupaiidae_) arboreal. To the great majority the term insectivorous is applicable, although _Potamogale_ is said to feed on fish, and the moles live chiefly on worms. Notwithstanding the nature of their food, much variety prevails in the form and number of the teeth, and while in many cases the division into incisors, canines, premolars and molars may be readily traced, in others, forming the great majority of the species, such as the shrews, this is difficult.

In most cases the brain-cavity is of small relative capacity, and in no instance is the brain-case elevated to any considerable extent above the face-line. The facial part of the skull is generally much produced, and the premaxillary and nasal bones well developed; but the cheek, or zygomatic arch, is usually slender or deficient, the latter being the case in most of the species, and post-orbital processes of the frontals are found only in the _Tupaiidae_ and _Macroscelididae_. The number of dorsal vertebrae varies from 13 in _Tupaia_ to 19 in _Centetes_, of lumbar from 3 in _Chrysochloris_ to 6 in _Talpa_ and _Sorex_, and of caudal from the rudimentary vertebrae of _Centetes_ to the 40 or more well-developed ones of _Microgale_.