_Ib._—Potitus: _Confession_, 357₅ (Armagh MS. _Potiti presbyteri_, and in the margin _filii Odissi_ added in the same hand. It is to be noted that the copy of the _Confession_ used by Muirchu seems to have had simply _Potiti presbyteri_, 494₇. Hence the inference is suggested that _filii Odissi_ was not in the original text of St. Patrick’s work, but was added in the margin from some other source, and inserted by the scribe of the Cotton MS. in the wrong place—before, instead of after, _presbyteri_. Potitus, not Odissus, was the presbyter. In the hymn _Genair Patraicc_, l. 4, Odissus is described as a deacon). Potitus was a common cognomen in the Roman empire; examples will be found in almost any volume of the _C.I.L._ (_e.g._ v. 834, 970, 6125, 7436; ii. 1172, 3799, 4006; xiv. 1332₁₁,₇, 3964, etc.). P. 16.—Calpurnius a decurion: _Corot._ 377₂₀ decorione patre nascor. That Patrick’s family were British provincials and lived in Britain there can be no question: _Confession_, 370₁₀,₁₂, and 364₁,₂ (cp. _Corot._ 375₂₃), passages which prove that Patrick regarded Britain as his native land, and that his family lived there continuously from the time of his captivity till his old age. There is no evidence whatever that they had come and settled in Britain during his boyhood, and his biographer in the seventh century writes unhesitatingly that he was _Brito natione, in Britannis natus_ (Muirchu, 494, 6). Patrick does not say himself that he was of British descent, but the presumption that his family was British is confirmed by his Celtic name Sucat (see below, 291). P. 17.—Decurions in smaller towns. The evidence is collected in Kübler’s article _Decurio_ in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft_. The _canabae_ which grew up at military stations sometimes received self-governing privileges and had decurions (the evidence is for Apulum in Dacia, Moguntiacum, and Brigetio). There is also evidence for decurions in _pagi_, but only for Africa. _Vici_ and _castella_ were attributed to the larger towns near which they were situated, and had no _ordo decurionum_ (see _Cod. Just._ 5. 27. 3. 1; 10. 19. 8). We can therefore infer that Calpurnius was a member of the municipal senate of some town in the neighbourhood of the _vicus_ Bannaventa. _Ib._—The condition of decurions or _curiales_ in the fourth and fifth centuries. Chief source: _Codex Theodosianus_, esp. xii. 1. The subject is well treated and elucidated in Professor Dill’s _Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire_, Bk. iii. chap. 2 (On the Decay of the Middle Class). P. 18.—“Sixteen acres or upwards”: _ultra uiginti quinque iugera priuato dominio possidens_, _Cod. Th._ xii. 1, 33. _Ib._—“Sinews of the republic”: _nerui reipublicae_, _Novell. Maioriani_, vii. 1. P. 19.—Curials who took orders. Julian’s rescript: _Cod. Th._ xii. i, 50. Enactments of Theodosius I., _ib._ 121 (A.D. 390); 123 (A.D. 391; cp. esp. § 5).