W. R. Macdonell 
377 
took place in the time of Caesar and the early Empire* — for we may reasonably 
suppose that the colonists were a selected class, possessed of vigour and enterprise, 
qualities which would be inherited more or less by their descendants — and also to 
the fact that a large proportion of the population must have been engaged in 
the healthy occupation of agriculture, for we know that Africa rivalled Egypt as 
a source of supply of grain for the markets of ancient Romef. 
Note. After preparing the material for the Roman and Spanish part of this 
inquiry I found from the Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift, Vol. 24, p. G04 
(7 May 1904) that Professor A. de Marchi published a paper in the Atti dell' 
Accademia di Padova, 1903 J, on the average duration of human life in antiquity 
based on the inscriptions in Vol. VI. of the Corpus. He seems to have gone over 
the same ground as I have done as regards Rome, and has also dealt with Gallia 
Gisalpina, where he has found a much smaller mortality amongst children than 
in Rome ; in this respect it is interesting to find another province agreeing with 
Hispania and Lusitania and Africa. I regret that I have not seen Professor 
de Marchi's paper ; comiug from so distinguished a scholar it carries an authority 
to which the present essay cannot lay claim. 
* Even before Caesar's time, ever since Home subdued Carthage, a sporadic emigration of Italians 
into North Africa had been going on (J. S. Reid, The Municipalities of the Roman Empire, 
Cambridge, 1913). Professor Reid points out, however, that "emigration on anything like the 
modern scale, or even on the ancient Greek scale, was unknown to the Romans," and with regard to 
Roman Africa he writes : "The impression that must be produced by a scrutiny of the evidence is that 
but a minute fraction of the population could claim Roman descent." (See page 316 of his book.) 
t Mommsen, Romische Oeschichte 3 , v. 647, 631. 
J The reference appears to be incorrect as no such paper could be found in the Atti in a careful 
search of the volumes at the British Museum. 
