bus | arfuise velent, nisei de pr(aetoris) urbani senatuosque sententiad, 22. utei suprad | scriptam est. 23. Haice utei in coventionid exdeicatis ne minus trinum | noundinum contione 24. senatuosque sententiam utei scientes esetis--eorum | sententia ita fuit: 25. Sei ques esent, quei arvorsum ead fecisent, quam suprad | scriptum adversum ea 26. est, eeis rem caputalem faciendam censuere--atque utei | hoce in 27. tabolam abenam inceideretis, ita senatus aiquom censuit; | uteique eam aequum 28. figier ioubeatis ubei facilumed gnoscier potisit;--atque | utei ea Ba- 29. canalia, sei qua sunt, exstrad quam sei quid ibei sacri est | ita utei suprad scriptum est, in diebus x. quibus vobis tabelai datai 30. erunt, | faciatis utci dismota sient--in agro Teurano." Tauriano We notice that there are in this decree no doubled consonants, no ablatives without the final _d_ (except the two last words, which are probably by a later hand), and few instances of _ae_ or _i_ for the older _ai, ei; oi_ and _ou_ stand as a rule for _oe, u_; _ques, eeis_, for _qui, ii_. On the other hand _us_ has taken the place of _os_ as the termination of _Romanus, Postumius_, &c., and generally _u_ is put instead of the older _o_. The peculiarities of Latin syntax are here fully developed, and the language has become what we call classical. At this point literature commences, and a long succession of authors from Plautus onwards carry the history of the language to its completion; but it should be remembered that few of these authors wrote in what was really the speech of the people. In most cases a literature would be the best criterion of a language. In Latin it is otherwise. The popular speech could never have risen to the complexity of the language of Cicero and Sallust. This was an artificial tongue, based indeed on the colloquial idiom, but admitting many elements borrowed from the Greek. If we compare the language and syntax of Plautus, who was a genuine popular writer, with that of Cicero in his more difficult orations, the difference will at once be felt. And after the natural development of classical Latin was arrested (as it already was in the time of Augustus), the interval between the colloquial and literary dialects became more and more wide. The speeches of Cicero could never have been unintelligible even to the lowest section of the city crowd, but in the third and fourth centuries it is doubtful whether the common people understood at all the artificially preserved dialect to which literature still adhered. Unfortunately our materials for tracing the gradual decline of the spoken language are scanty. The researches of Mommsen, Ritschl, and others, have added considerably to their number. And from these we see that the old language of the early inscriptions was subjected to a twofold process of growth.