﻿76 THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 



interpreted by Boeckh,* written in a running hand, may be supposed to have settled 

 the question, and proved that the Greeks possessed, at least a hundred years before the 

 Christian era, a smaller and more convenient alphabet. There seems to be no reason 

 for doubting the existence of a convenience among the Romans which was enjoyed by 

 the Greeks, the existence of which among the Greeks was known to the Eomans, and 

 which is in itself so natural. 



While I assume, then, without hesitation, that the Romans used, as early as the 

 times of Sulla and Marius, if not earlier, two alphabets, one for inscriptions (" literae 

 quadratae") and one for common use, I find in the expression no indication of a par- 

 ticular period to which the work of Petronius belongs. On the other hand, if weighty 

 considerations should lead to the adoption of a specific time posterior to the above 

 limit, this expression, " quadrata litera," would present no obstacle. 



8. C. 30. 2: "VI viro Augustali." It is scarcely necessary to observe that the 

 Augustales mentioned in this and seA'cral other passages (c. 57. 6 and c. 65. 5) are not 

 the Sodales Augustales, a college of priests established by Tiberius, 14 A. D. (767 

 U. C.}, in honor of the Julian family (Tacit. Hist. 2. 95), consisting of twenty-one 

 members chosen from among the most distinguished men of the state (Tacit. Ann. 

 1. 54). The Augustales of Petronius may be traced to an mstitution of Servius 

 TuUius, who established the worship of the Lares, "praestiles" as well as " compitales," 

 and ordered, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus (4. 14) relates, that slaves should perform 

 the service on festal days. Augustus re-established this worship when he undertook 

 the reorganization of the state in all its departments, 28 B. C. (722 U. C). He assigned 

 the service to freedmen,f appointed two principal festivals,^ and added to the worship 

 of the Lares that of Genius Augusti, which latter naturally became the more important 

 and prominent, and accounts for the name Augustales. 



There are different opinions, however, as to the origm as well as the organization 

 and duties of the Augustales, and the relation of the Seviri to the Augustales. Some 

 have considered the Augustales a municipal imitation of the Sodales Augustales. A. 



* A. Boeckh, Erklarung einer agyptischen Urkunde auf Papyrus. Berlin. 1821. 



f Schol. Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. 2. 3. 281 : " Ab Augusto enim Lares, i. e. dii domestici, in compitis positi 

 sunt ; ex libertinis sacerdotes dati, qui Augustales sunt appellati." Schol. Acr. to the same place : " Jusse- 

 rat enim Augustus in compitis deos Penates constitui, ut studiosius colerentur. Erant autem libcrtini sacer- 

 dotes, qui Augustales dicuntur." 



I Suetonius (Oct. 31), after mentioning that Augustus restored some ceremonies which had fallen into 

 disuse, among them " ludos Seculares et Compitalicios," goes on : " Compitales Lares ornari bis anno insti- 

 tuit vernis florlbus et aestivis." 



