374 
On the Expectation of Life in Ancient Rome 
Sex. There is sometimes a difficulty, chiefly with Punic and other native 
names, in determining the sex, and in consequence I have omitted all doubtful 
cases. 
Size of Families. On one inscription, No. 17463, it is stated that the deceased 
were the father and the mother of 12 children, from which it may perhaps be 
inferred that families of this size were unusual. 
Record of Age. The ages are given in the vast majority of cases in years 
only, but occasionally months and days and even hours are added; 12794 gives 
the age with extreme precision : " anno uno M VIII diebus XX noctu una orabus 
IIII." The age of Christians seems to have been stated as a rule with greater 
precision than that of non- Christians : PM (i.e. plus minus) is often prefixed 
to the years, and months and days are relatively more frequently added ; also the 
date of death in terms of the year of the province is often given on the Christian 
inscriptions. 
Centenarians. It will be observed that I have recorded ages up to 132, but 
I have noted four inscriptions giving the ages as 140, 155, 160 and 170 years, 
which I have rejected as being incredible. It is a question whether the symbol 
for a hundred, viz. c, does not in such cases stand for circiter. In one case, 
11902, where the C seems to have been written as a small letter above the 
base-line of the tens, c xxx, I have taken the age as 30. 8008, erected by a father 
in memory of a son, which I have not included, has VA cv, and the editor notes 
" fortasse circiter quinque." Also in 3934 the editor expands CIR xxxv into 
cir(citer) xxxv. 
In 9106 the age of a female is given as 120 years 5 months and 25 days on 
the authority of Wilmanns ; here the interpretation of C as circiter seems to 
be excluded by the completeness of the record and we may accept the age as 
correct. Perhaps I should have taken 120 as the maximum limit of age, but 
the few cases which I have taken above 120 affect the result very slightly. 
As against the probability of those very advanced ages I may quote from 
11594 — the inscription on the tomb of a man who died at the age of 82 years 
7 months — these words: "non digne cito vita caruisti, vivere debueras annis 
fere centu'," which seem to indicate that 100 was popularly considered the 
maximum limit of life. 
Causes of Death are hardly ever assigned, but these two inscriptions are 
interesting: 9048, "duos una dies et pestis acerba abstulit hos pueros"; 18792, 
" O non ut meruit pesti vita functus est." 9050, " quae vixit sine febribus," 
would point to the prevalence of fever. 
Several cases of violent death — interfectus, gladio percussus, a tauru deceptus, 
jugulatus, ferro petitus — have not been included. 
Social Status. In the great majority of cases the social status of the deceased 
is not given. A considerable number were soldiers of various ranks, but their 
