“Sic fautor veterum, ut tabulas peccare vetantes, Quæ bisquinque viri sanxerunt, fœdera regum Vel Gabiis, vel cum rigidis æquata Sabinis, Pontificum libros, annosa volumina vatum, Dictitet Albano Musas in monte loquutas:” Yet he would have done well to have considered, if, amid the manifold improvements of the Augustan poets, they had judged right in rejecting those rich and sonorous diphthongs of the _tabulæ peccare vetantes_, which still sound with such strength and majesty in the lines of Lucretius. There is scarcely a vestige of the Latin language remaining during the two centuries which succeeded the enactment of the twelve tables. At the end of that long period, and during the first Punic war, a celebrated inscription, which is still extant, recorded the naval victory obtained by the Consul Duillius, in 492, over the Carthaginians. The column on which it was engraved, and which became so famous by the title of the _Columna Rostrata_, was, as Livy(91) informs us, struck down by lightning during the interval between the second and third Punic wars. It remained buried among the ruins of Rome, till, at length, in 1565, its base, which contained the inscription, was dug up in the vicinity of the Capitol. So much, however, was it defaced, that many of the letters were illegible. These have been restored in the following manner by the conjectures of the learned: “C. D(92). exemet leciones maximosque magistratus _no_vem castreis exfociunt. Macel_lam_ _pu_cnandod cepet enque eodem macis_tratu_ rem navebos marid consol primos _ceset_ clasesque navales primos ornavit cumque eis navebos claseis pœnicas om_nes_ sumas copias Cartaciniensis præesente _d_ictatored olorum in altod marid puc_nandod_ _vicit_ trigintaque na_veis_ _cepet_ cum socieis septe_m_ triremosque naveis XX captum numei DCC. captom æs navaled prædad poplom(93).” In modern Latin the above inscription would run thus.—“Caius Duillius exemit: legiones, maximusque magistratus novem castris effugiunt. Macellam pugnando cepit; inque eodem magistratu, rem navibus mari Consul primus gessit, classesque navales primus ornavit; cumque iis navibus classes Punicas omnes summas copias Carthaginienses, præsente dictatore illorum, in alto mari pugnando vicit: Trigintaque naves cepit cum sociis septem, triremosque naves decem. Captum nummi, captum æs navali præda, populo donavit.”