368 
On the Expectation of Life in Ancient Rome 
Status of the Deceased. A considerable number of the inscriptions record the 
statvis of the deceased, and a somewhat rough examination gives the following 
results for males*: 
Servi 121 
Vernae ... ... ... ... 164 
Alumni ... ... ... ... 65 
Liberti 390 
Officiales and Artifices ... ... 290 
Agitatores and Histrioties ... 20 
Patroni 64f 
Ordinis equestris ... ... ... 19 
Ordinis senatorii ... ... . . 8 
Sacerdotes, haruspices and calatores 17 
1158 
The mere fact that a person was considered worthy of a gravestone and 
inscription at all, would seem to indicate that the deceased did not belong at 
all events to the dregs of the people, and I am therefore inclined to believe 
that we are here dealing with a population which in status was above the 
very poorest and consisted largely of the slaves and freedmen, with their wives 
and families, of the well-to-do classes of Rome. 
Expectation of Life. A reference to Table I will show how this is calculated. 
By way of illustration I will take Roman males. I start with a population of 
4575, which I call l 0 , using the actuarial symbol; of these 74 died before 
completing their first year, therefore 4501, or l lt completed their first year; 
of the 4501, there died before completing their second year 197, therefore 4304, 
or l 2 , completed their second year, and so on. Then the complete expectation of 
life at any year x is defined as 
1 , sv» (0 
2+ l x ■ 
For example, at the year 1 it is 
1 4304 + 408 6+ . .. +1 _ 1 95185 
2 + ~ "4501" _ "2 + 450T " 21 ' b5 ' 
The values of the expectation are shown by the curves on Fig. 1, and for 
purposes of comparison I have added the curves showing the complete expectation 
of life in modern England and Wales, based on the mortality of the general 
population, not of healthy lives only, in the years 1891—1900. These data 
are of course smoothed by the Registrar-General's officers before publication. 
* When the indices to Vol. vi. of the Corjms are published it will no doubt be possible to extend and 
correct these figures. 
f It is worth noting that these seem to have been a long-lived class, the average age of the 64 being 
G2 — 63 years. 
