Hoc jacet in tumulo secura Glyconis honesto. _Dulcis_ nomine erat, anima quoque dulcior usque. On that of Floridus, inscribed, it should seem, with a flower,[79]-- Quod vixi, flos est. Servat lapis hoc mihi nomen. Noli Deos Manes; flos satis est titulo. What our writers on heraldry call _canting_ and the French, _armes parlantes_, _i. e._ figures allusive to family names, was not unknown to the Romans; it is found on their coins; as a steer (vitulus) on the denarius of Q. Voconius _Vitulus_; a murex, on that of Furius _Purpureo_; a foot, on that of Crassi_pes_, and a flower on that of Aquillius _Florus_.[80] In those inscriptions which enter into a fuller enumeration of public services, one difference is striking to a person accustomed to modern ones, namely, the absence in the former of all mention of acts of social benevolence. It is true that the erection of a fountain, the construction of a road, the dedication of a temple, the exhibition of gladiatorial and floral games, the bequest of a legacy for an annual feast, and similar acts of popular munificence, are often commemorated, as titles of honour; but I do not remember to have met with a record, originating in pagan times, of a life devoted to the alleviation of misery, to the relief of indigence, to the removal of ignorance and vice. Such virtues belong especially to the school of Christianity. The following inscription would be proved by its tenor to relate to a Christian woman, even if the date did not fix it to the middle of the fifth century of our æra. DEO FIDELIS, DULCIS MARITO, NUTRIX FAMILLÆ, CUNCTIS HUMILIS, PLACATO PURO CORDE, AMATRIX PAUPERUM.[81] When parents erect a funeral monument to their children, the inscription very frequently embodies the sentiment of Cato the elder, in Cicero de Senectute (c. 23), the inversion of the order of nature which the performance of such a duty by the parent involves. "Catonem, cujus a me corpus crematum est; quod contra decuit ab illo meum." Thus in an inscription at Naples by Calvidius to his son, who had died at the age of 20; QUOD FILIUS PATRI FACERE DEBUIT PATER FECIT FILIO; and in another; QUOD FILIA PATRI FACERE DEBUERAT MORS IMMATURA FECIT UT FACERET PATER. The sentiment is concisely expressed in the following distich:-- Quod decuit natam patri præstare sepulto Hoc contra natæ præstitit ipse pater.[82] A mother, burying her son, who died at the age of 35, complains, HUNC LEGES LETI PRÆPOSTERÆ ERIPUERE MATRI, QUÆ UT ANNIS MORTE QUOQUE ESSET PRIOR. Parents not only call themselves _infelicissimi_, for the loss of their children, but _impii_ and _crudeles_, because they survive them. Children from their premature grave endeavour to moderate their parents' grief, by laying the blame upon the Fates. Nec tibi nec nobis æternum vivere cessit: Quod pueri occipimus Fata querenda putes.[83]