[677] See his “Græculus esuriens,” (_Sat._, iii, 78,) and the expression, “In Tiberem defluxit Orontes.”--_Ib._, 62. [678] Sometimes the two languages are strangely blended in the same epitaph; and occasionally we find a Greek inscription in Latin characters, as in the following: PRIMA IRENE SOI. Read: Πρῖμα εἰρήνη σοι--“Prima, peace to thee.” [679] In the dated inscriptions the proportion is less, as the Latin-speaking Christians would be the more likely to employ the consular dates as indications of time. [680] Of the four hundred Gaulish inscriptions in Le Blant few bear dates, and of these none are earlier than the time of Constantine. The first is of the year A. D. 334; the next, at Autun, of the year A. D. 374. They are also more artificial and rhetorical in style than those of Rome. [681] For example, POL · II · ET · APR · II · COS, which, expanded, reads thus: _Pollione iterum et Apro iterum Consulibus_, that is, 176 A. D. L · FAB · CIL · M · ANN · LIB · COS--_Lucio Fabio Cilone, Marco Annio Libone Consulibus_, that is, 204 A. D. To save space we have generally omitted the names of the consuls, giving merely the date. [682] Sometimes we have the forms VVCC., _Viri Clarissimi_; DD. NN., _Domini Nostri_; and AVGG., or AAVVGG., _Augusti_. [683] _Fabiola_, p. 146. [684] _Christian Epitaphs_, Introd., p. xxii, note ✝. We are indebted to this masterly prolegomena for several of the illustrations cited. [685] In one example it is minutely indicated thus: _Ora noctis_ · IIII. ··· VIII _Idus Madias die Saturnis luna vigesima Signo Apiorno_,--“In the fourth hour of the night, the eighth day before the Ides of May, the twentieth day of the Moon, in the sign of Capricorn.” De Rossi regards this as an astrological horoscope--a relic of heathen superstition. [686] The greatest age we have observed in Christian epitaphs is ninety-one years. See Fig. 19. The youngest is three months--_Mens. III_. We have noticed in Muratori (p. 382, No. 5) the following remarkable instance of longevity: _M. Flavius Secundus filius fecit Flavio Secundo patri q. vixit ann. CXII, et Flaviæ Urbanæ matri piæ vixit ann. CV_.--“M. Flavius Secundus, the son, made this to Flavius Secundus, his father, who lived one hundred and twelve years, and to his pious mother, (who) lived one hundred and five years.” Kenrick quotes an epitaph of a child of three and his mother (_mammula_) of eighty; and another of a man of one hundred and two years, ninety of which were passed without disease. The average duration of life, according to Ulpian, was thirty years.