The Italian prefixes an _i_ to a word which begins with _s_ and a consonant, when it follows one ending with a consonant, as iscambio, iscoglio, ispirito; and we find in inscriptions iscribit, ispiritus.[52] "Poor letter H" was treated with the same barbarous caprice of old as now, being omitted where it should stand, and interpolated where it should not. Thus we meet with ora, ortulus, omo, ospitium, onestus; and on the other hand, hædiculus, helephantus, horiundus, hordini, Hosiris, and post hobitum. Those who omit the aspirate, however, are always more numerous than those who insert it; in Italy they ultimately gained the ascendancy, and it is banished in pronunciation from modern Italian, which follows in this respect the usage of the old Romans, who said ædos and ircos.[53] The frequent substitution of _b_ for _v_ on later monuments, bibi for vivi, bixit for vixit, lebo for levo, habe for ave, was caused by _b_ being pronounced both in Greek and Latin with a slight aspiration,[54] whence we find Greek writers representing Varro by [Greek: Barrhôn], and Flavius by [Greek: Phlabios]. * * * * * The record of the trades and professions of the deceased, which the Roman sepulcral inscriptions contain, often afford a curious insight into the differences of manners and customs between the ancient and the modern world. They supply the deficiencies of the notices in books, or explain obscure and solitary passages in the classics. One difference is obvious. There was no false shame in acknowledging the humble station which the deceased had filled in life. The dealer in pigs is recorded as a "negotiator suarius;" the female greengrocer as a "negotiatrix frumentaria et leguminaria," who kept a stall beside one of the flights of steps descending to the Tiber.[55] It would not be mentioned now on the tomb of a medical practitioner, that he had begun by practising his art in many market-places "fora multa secutus."[56] Perhaps the most remarkable instance of the difference between ancient and modern ideas in this respect is furnished by the tomb of Æmilia Irene, whose husband calls himself "stupidus gregis urbani," the clown of the city company of mountebanks.[57] The profession still finds candidates, but their vocation would hardly be recorded on their funeral monuments. The difference of feeling in ancient times may, perhaps, be accounted for from the circumstance, that these mountebanks exhibited at festivals in honour of the gods, and so acquired a certain respectability. The Christian writer, Arnobius, reproaches the Pagans with this practice. "Mimis dei delectantur stupidorum capitibus rasis, factis et dictis turpibus, fascinorum ingentium rubore."[58] L. Cornelius Januarius is recorded on his monument to have been the _fanaticus_ of the temples of Isis, Serapis, and Bellona, that is, one of those who were hired by the priests to stimulate the zeal of votaries by wild and frantic gestures, supposed to indicate the