- 6 Ma(y),luna3 (Diehl 4386).
- Wednesday (?),lu(na)(?) (ICURviii. 21476).
Nearly all these inscriptions are identified by Diehl (1925–31) as Christian, yet
only six have clearly Christian identity markers.^45 No. 12 (in this list) has been
identified as Jewish, although this identification is questionable.^46 No. 1 is not
considered Christian. There is thus no reason to assume thatlunadatings were
specifically Christian in this period. The relatively high representation of
Christian inscriptions in this corpus is probably only a reflection of the
generally high proportion of Christian funerary inscriptions in late Antiquity,
itself indicative of the extent of Christianization in late-antique Rome. The
lunaformula is also common in late-antique and medieval Christian works on
the computus (calculation of the date of Easter, which is based on a lunar
calendar cycle):luna XIV, typically, represents in these sources the date of the
biblical, Passover upon which the date of Easter is based.^47 Still, this does not
mean that thelunaformula had become, in this later period, specifically
Christian.
In the following list, which compriseslunainscriptions from outside Rome
and Italy, no. 15 is Jewish,^48 nos. 16–18 are pagan,^49 and nos. 19–20 are
Christian. Their provenance suggests that in the late Roman period,luna
datings had spread to the entire LatinWest. The relatively high occurrence
oflunainscriptions from Rome (nos. 1–14 above) is probably only a reflection
of the generally high proportion of funerary inscriptions from there.
- Catania (Sicily), Friday 2(0)^50 October 383,luna8(CIJi. 650,AE1984:
439, Noy i. 145). - Apulum (Dacia), Thursday 23 May 205,luna18 (CILiii. 1051,AE1982:
808). - Aquincum (Pannonia), (April, third century),luna2(AE1982: 808).
(^45) These are (from the list above) nos. 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and probably 2.
(^46) It is identified as Jewish by Diehl (1925–7: ii. 491, perhaps on grounds of provenance) and
Noy (1993–5: ii. 331, purely because of thelunaformula); but see discussion in Stern (2001) 135
n. 109. 47
For a good sample, see sources cited by Krusch (1880), E. Schwartz (1905) 29–104, chs. 2–5,
and Strobel (1984). The use oflunae(in the genitive), e.g.XIV lunae, is also attested in these
sources but far less commonly. The computus is discussed below in this and the next chapter; see
also Blackburn and Holford-Strevens (1999) 801–5 and Mosshammer (2008).
(^48) See discussion in Stern (2001) 132–6.
(^49) No. 16 is a dedication to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, 17 a dedication to‘Sun-God Mithras
Invictus’, and 18 to Mercury.
(^50) The text readsXIIkal.Novembres(21 October), but this is incompatible with Friday and
presumably an error (in the context of a Jewish inscription, this is more likely than that Friday is
the error: Stern 2001: 133).
Dissidence and Subversion 315