[ 3+ 1 2 ] 
it was judged highly criminal and impious for other 
perfons, upon any account, to difturb the allies of the 
dead (i). But 1 (hall now proceed with the infcri- 
ption. 
3. The next words, virtvti et nvminiav- 
‘gvsti r epvrg atvm reddidit, acquaint us 
with the method, which was taken to redrefs this 
ruinous Bate of the burying ground. And this, I pre- 
fume, by the word repurgatum here ufed, was done 
by removing the rubbifh ; repairing the fepulchers, 
which had either been plundered, or in any meafure 
demolifhed ; and very probably renewing the fence, 
which in fuch places was ufually a wall of hones, 
laid clofe upon one another without mortar, called 
by them maceria. 
But this, it feems, was not thought fufficient for its 
future fecurity, without puting it under the immediate 
protection of the emperor, as its tutelar deity j for 
nothing lefs than this could, I think, be meant by 
the words, virtuti et numini Augufti reddidit. 'The 
word numen in its primary fenfe lignifies the divine . 
power, as when Cicero fais : Omnes naturae numini 
divino parent (2). And elfewhere he thus addrefles 
himfelf to the body of the Roman citizens : Vos, quo- 
rum potejias pr oxime ad deorum numen accedit (3 ). But 
foon after, upon the change of the government, when 
the emperors were revered as deities, their power is 
likewife expreffed by the term numen , as rivaling that 
of 
(1) See Kircbmann. Defuner. Rom. Lib. ill. cap. 24. 
(2) De natur. dear. Lib. 1. cap. 9. 
(2) Pro Rabir. cap. 2. 
2 
