178 Andrew Stuart on the ancient 
Obscurata diu populus bonus eruet atque 
Proferet in lucem speciosa vocabula rerum 
Quz priscis memorata Catonibns atque Cethegis 
Nunc situs informis premit et deserta vetustas. 
Epist: IL. 2. 
Ponere is a verbum solenne, and there can 1 think, be no 
doubt, that the word Poni in the inscription is used in the 
sense of the Latin word. Its being used here, serves also 
further to confirm the cohjecture, that the inscription was 
one of a Votive tablet. 
Non ego victrices lauro redimere Tabellus 
Et Veneris media Ponere in aede morer. 
Subscribam, Verieri fidds tibi Naso ¢abellas 
Dedicat. Ovid. Amor, I. i1+ 
So also Propertius, 
Magna ego dona, tua figam Cytherea colimna 
Taleque sub nostro munere carmen erit ; 
Has pono ante tuam tibi Diva Propertius Adem 
Exuvias tota nocte receptus amans, 
El. 11. 
‘All the ancient. inseriptions upon stones abound with the 
words Donum Dedit, or Donum Posuit, but more frequent- 
ly with the initials of these words D. D. or D.P. 
The word naratu—may be the supine of the word zarro, 
1 conjecture that the two first words of this inscription are 
compound words— Lar or Lars or Larts is an Etruscan word, 
and signified in that language Dominus. At least so it is said 
in the Viaggie di Platone nell’Italia dal Signor Cuoco ; 
and tho’ he does not cite his authority, yet he could not have 
been mistaken upon a point like this. 
The Romans confined this term to their household Gods. 
But they were iu the habit of prefixing the words Dominus 
and Domina to the names of their other Gods and Godesses. 
Ovid gives them this epithet in the 11th Elegy of the 3d 
book Amor. Petronius Arbiter (Satyr.) says, Timidissimo 
murmure volun fect et Domina inquam Venus. 
So 
a 
