THE FIRST SIX CENTURIES 11 



are found in Pagan inscriptions, from ■which, also, fJomus seterna, 

 although inconsistent with belief in the' resurrection, has been inadver- 

 tently borrowed. See De Eossi, nn. 159, 173. 



VII. Those ^hich contain Cyclic marks of time. 



(tr) Day of the month, day of the week, and day of the moon -with- 

 out the year : — 



86. 



BALEXTIXE QYE YIXIT AXXOS XXXYI I 



DECESSIT • YIKAL • MAR • DIEBEXERIS » 



LNAXVII. 



{1)1 coem. Priscilke ; De Eossi, n. 597.) 



Balentine (Yalentinge), que (quae) vixit annos XXXYI. Decessit 

 VI Kalendas Martias, die Beneris (Yeneris), luna XVII. 



"To YalentiDa, ■who lived thirty-six years. She departed on tlie sixth day 

 before the Calends of March, Friday, the seventeenth day of the Moon," i. e. 

 February 24th, 411 or 327 a.d. 



In this inscription the Consuls are not mi^ntioned; nor is there any 

 other form of espression for the year used ; and yet the full date may 

 be inferred from what is therein stated. It is plain that it must be a 

 year in which February 24th and the ITth day of the 3Ioon fell on 

 Friday. Marini's comments are : — '' ITujus inscriptionis ckaracieres, 

 si aucfor veterem ecclesise cyclum annonim LXXXIV seqnutus est, 

 pertinere possunt ad annos 327,411, 495, qui rycli XXX sunt, atqve 

 exordiuntur die solis luna XXII ; proindeqve noviluniiim Janiiarii 

 coiitigit die X, Fehruarii die VIIT, a qua ad VI Kal Martias, sen 

 ad diem XXIV Fehruarii dies sunt XVII" 



De Rossi discusses the subject, and shows that the choice lies 

 between 327 and 411, as in 495 the Yictorian canon was in use at 

 Rome, according to which we should have had luna XV, not XVII 

 Of the two the first, 327, is preferable, as the characteristics of the 

 inscription, i. e. the absence of contractions and the use of the ancient 

 term df^ress^it, point to the earlier date. 



f This form or domv.s ce/enialis is unnsually common in the epitaphs of Pomaria 

 in Algeria. See Eenier, n. 456. In different localities, as might be expected, 

 different forms were popular. Thus phis often occurs in African, and cants suis 

 in Spanish epitaphs. 



