88 ROLFE— THE USE OF DEVICES FOR 



that in the M. A. twenty-six such vowels are marked, but they amount 

 to only about 20 per cent, of the 138 hidden quantities in the whole 

 inscription. The only repetitions are lustrum and lustro, which occur 

 three times each. A vowel before ns is marked four times, but is 

 left unmarked sixty-nine times. These results in themselves are 

 almost enough to show that " hidden quantities " are no more fre- 

 quently marked than others. In fact, in nine words in which hidden 

 quantities are not marked we find other long vowels marked; thus 

 consuldtil occurs four times. 



Although, of course, the apex did not designate the accent, it 

 naturally occurs frequently on accented syllables, since an accented 

 penult often contains a long vowel, which is sometimes the only long 

 vowel of the word. In the M. A. 214 accented syllables are marked, 

 while there are 208 accented syllables containing long vowels which 

 are not marked ; the count is confined to words which have apices, 

 and monosyllables are not included. 



Quintilian's rule is observed in seventy-eight cases, while in forty 

 instances marks are omitted which would differentiate words or 

 forms. These figures, however, are the result of giving the rule the 

 most liberal interpretation possible, including, for example, all cases 

 of Is and not merely those from words which also have forms in -is, 

 and adverbs like antca as well as ablatives in -a. If we confine the 

 count to forms which could actually be mistaken for others, we have 

 thirty-nine marked vowels and twenty-three unmarked. 



Considering next the syllables on which the marks are found, 

 there are two instances of marks on the sixth syllable from the end, 

 which in each case is the first syllable of the word: frumentationes 

 and provincialibus. The former is one of two words in the entire 

 inscription which have three marks. The latter has only one mark, 

 although it contains another long vowel. 



Eight words have marks on the fifth syllable from the end, includ- 

 ing insaliare and mconsulatu, in which the preposition is treated as 

 a part of the word. The mark on hiconsulatu is one of the very few 

 errors in the main body of the inscription. Only two words have 

 additional marks, universorum and municipi/s; in one other only the 



