VOL. XLIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. ' 175 



size of the tripos is somewhat more than a Turin foot, which. Dr. Bruni says, 

 is equal to 20 English inches. 



EQ. ROM. Ea. PVB. 



These words imply that Lucius Pompeius, the person to whose honour this 

 plate is inscribed, was a Roman knight, who had a stipend from the public. The 

 Roman knights served at their own expence till the year of Rome 451, when 

 their horses began first to be maintained at the expence of the commonwealth ; 

 and it appears, from various inscriptions under the emperors, that the words, 

 eques publicus, equo publico donatus, or ornatus, &c. always mean a military 

 dignity, and must be distinguished from the Roman knights towards the end of 

 the commonwealth, who were a degree of citizens between the senators and the 

 plebeians. 



Q. MR. PET. ALIM. 



It hence appears that Lucius Pompeius was quaestor aerarii, though only of the 

 finances of the city Industria, and not of the emperor under whom he lived. Several 

 other inscriptions are also produced, to prove the office of quaestor alimentorum ; 

 and a great deal of reading is introduced, to show that the quaestor alimentorum 

 was sometimes understood to be an officer having the care of the public allow- 

 ance for bringing up children ; and that at other times his office was understood 

 to be the procuring all sorts of provisions for the use of the emperor's troops. 



Passing by his office of aedilis and duumvir, we find he presided likewise over 

 the receipt of the taxes, by this address to him, 



CVRATORI 

 KALENDARIORVM. REI. P. 



The days fixed for payment of the taxes and debts were registered in the pub- 

 lic calendars ; and creditors usually demanded their interest on the kalends, or 

 first day of every month : whence the register of the debtors, and the sums due^ 

 or the tribute to be paid by particulars to the public, and indeed the general 

 state of the debts, and credit of every community, came to be called calendarium. 



COLLEGIVM PASTOPHOROHVM. 



The college of priests called Pastophori, a name taken, as some suppose, from 

 a very rich and ornamental upper garment termed pastes. As Pastophorus was 

 a name given to Venus, these priests may have belonged to her, or else to the 

 goddess Isis, whose chief priests, as Lucius Apuleius informs us, were called 



pastophori, by way of pre-eminence, " Unus caetu Pastophororum, quod 



sacrosancti CoUegii nomen est, velut in concionem vocato, indidem de sublimo 



suggestu renunciat, &c." He says also, that the god Osiris had a college of 



them. His words are, " Osiris in collegium me Pastophororum suorum, 



imo inter ipsos decurionum quinquennales elegit." This body of priests had va- 

 rious offices ; one might probably be the conferring honours on persons of great 



