So far as extant writings go, Gaius is the first to assert that Rome was owner of the soil in the provinces. It seems, however, to be the general belief that the doctrine of state-ownership was invented long before the Empire. Mommsen attributed it to Gaius Gracchus, basing his view upon the Gracchan censoria locatio in Asia. Klingmüller, who has more recently examined the evidence, believes that the theory is even older; that in fact Rome had from the earliest times claimed ownership of conquered territory. Rostovtzeff, rejecting Klingmüller's arguments, asserts that Rome adopted the theory from the Hellenistic practices found embodied in the Hieronic law which Rome used for the collection of tribute in Sicily.

The cursive writing of Latin is known mainly from papyri and from the wax tablets of Pompeii and Dacia (A.D. 131-167), but there is another class which has been overlooked, and this belongs mainly to a period intermediate between the Pompeian and Dacian examples, but is more closely akin to the Pompeian script. The Gaulish potters of Terra Sigillata (the so-called Samian ware) were occasionally addicted, especially in the Hadrianic period, to the practice of writing their names with a stylus in the clay of their moulds before baking them in the kiln. Naturally these signatures are reversed on the vases formed in the moulds, but for the sake of clearness I have in all cases reproduced them as originally written. This writing has sometimes been destroyed or obscured by the addition of the footstand, since the signatures usually occur below the decoration. These reversed signatures were formerly often misunderstood ; in one museum in this country they are described as written in Greek and they have even been regarded as Oriental script. Thus Roach Smith states that a signature (which we now know to be CRICIRO reversed) ‘had been interpreted by Mr. Foster “Daoud made me.”’

When Vespasian sought to give new vitality to the decadent aristocracy of Rome by admitting the local gentry of the Italian towns to the senate, he was drawing upon a class which was destined to play an important part in the government and defence of the Empire. The municipal nobility, first of Italy and later of the provinces, not only managed the affairs of all the smaller communities, but also came to fill most positions of authority, both military and civil, in the imperial administration. To understand the Empire, therefore, we must know something of this aristocracy, and must study it in that local setting which our literary authorities despise. Here Pompeii affords valuable evidence, through the comparative abundance of the material presented, and through the tragic definiteness of its chronological lower limit. It is true that this evidence, for all its copiousness, is defective, since a large part of Pompeii remains unexcavated; and our lists of magistrates and of candidates for office are compiled from casual finds, not from official sources, so that negative evidence cannot safely be used. It is true also that Pompeii, owing to its unusually favourable economic conditions, is less representative of other Italian municipia than could be wished. Within these limits, however, a study of its ruling Ordo should throw some light upon the character of these bodies in and even beyond Italy.

It may be of interest to describe examples of small round buildings found in exploring Roman forts in this country, adding for comparison notes on others recorded in connexion with forts on the German Limes ; for in many cases the purpose of these buildings has been misunderstood, and in some cases the misunderstanding appears still to persist. The buildings in question are generally about 15-20 feet in internal diameter, and they either stand close beside the bath-buildings of the fort to which they belong, or form part of these buildings. In the last century, when bath-buildings of this kind were habitually described- as ‘villas’ and mistaken for official residences, the circular structures were often described as temples or shrines. But this theory has never been borne out by the discovery of altars, inscriptions, votive objects, or anything whatever pointing to a religious function ; and, on the other hand, even apart from the now universally recognised purpose of the bath-houses with which they are associated, finds have been made in the round buildings themselves pointing towards their use as baths.