372 On the Expectation of Life in Ancient Rome 
In very few of the inscriptions are the months and days recorded, and the 
same piling up of frequencies at ages represented by multiples of 5 occurs as in 
Rome. 
There is a very marked paucity of deaths in childhood, and a relatively large 
number of deaths in very old age — two at 115 and one at 125 are specially 
noticeable. The result is that the expectation of life in these provinces, both 
for males and females, is far higher than in Rome for the first 30 years of life, the 
difference decreasing in the case of males from 17^-, and in the case of females 
from 13 at birth to 5^ at the age of 30; from 30 to 45 years of age it continues 
to decrease, and in the period 45 — 75 it is about the same, the small difference 
being in favour of Rome, but after 75 it is again higher. 
Up to 60 years of age the expectation of life of females is less than that of 
males, the difference varying from about 6 to 2 ; it is then about the same for the 
next 15 years, but from 75 to 95 it exceeds that of the males. From 90 onwards, 
however, no weight can be placed on the figures, as only five females lived beyond 
90. (See Fig. 2.) 
As compared with modern lives the expectation in the case of males is very 
much less up to 40, a little less from 40 to 50, about the same from 50 to 60, and 
from 60 onwards it is higher ; in the case of females it is very much less up to 50, 
considerably less from 50 to 60, about the same from 60 to 70, and from 70 onwards 
it is higher. (See Fig. 2.) 
A frica. 
Here, fortunately, the data are more plentiful, there being 6238 males and 
4459 females, and in consequence the polygons of expectation are much smoother, 
but before discussing the latter I have to make a few preliminary remarks which 
raise points of some interest. 
Differences of Reading. As usual the ages are almost always given in Roman 
numerals (rarely in words), and when the stones have been injured or weathered 
or lie in inaccessible positions, naturally the numbers are difficult to read and are 
variously given by different observers. I have usually adopted the latest reading, 
or the one that seems attested by the best authority. 
These discrepancies may arise in various ways ; the most common in the 
African inscriptions are the following : 
I and X in excess or defect, of frequent occurrence 
I for 
V, e.g. 
XI for 
XV 
I „ 
X, „ 
LXI „ 
LXX 
I „ 
L, „ 
IX „ 
LX 
V „ 
X, „ 
XXV „ 
XXX 
x „ 
v, „ 
LXX „ 
LXV 
V and L in excess or defect, rare. 
