day and planetary weekday, but also the zodiac sign—distinctive of astrologi-
cal dating.^71 Thefirst of these two inscriptions (no. 5 above) reads:
VIII Idus Madias die Saturnis luna vigesima sicno apiorno (8 from the Ides of May,
Saturday, lunar day 20, sign of apiorno).The termapiornois a corruption ofcapricorno;^72 as can be astronomically
verified, the moon was in this zodiac sign at the date of the inscription,
Saturday 8 May 364.^73 The second inscription (no. 7 above) reads:
...s Honorio [...]v.c.conss.[...di]e Solis [...lu]na XII signo [capricor]nusThe mention of a‘sign’is beyond doubt, but the rest of the inscription is
fragmentary and the wordcapricornus(which, incidentally, would be gram-
matically incorrect) is only a conjecture. The date of the inscription is uncer-
tain, because of its fragmentary state; any other zodiac sign would equally be
possible.^74 Although the astrological interpretation of the term‘sign’in both
inscriptions is plausible, it would be risky to infer from these inscriptions that
lunadates were generally invested with astrological meaning.
The use of planetary weekdays in most of thelunainscriptions is also no
evidence of any astrological intent.Weekdays could simply have served as a
dating method, just as they are today. In the Christian context of the later
Roman Empire, they could also have been invested with religious
significance.^75
Support for the astrological interpretation oflunadates has further been
sought from thelunaria(lunar astrological texts, preserved in medieval Latin
manuscripts), at least in connection with inscription no. 13 (although a similar
argument could be extended also to other inscriptions). This is the funerary
memorial of Samsacius, a child who was born onluna III.We know from a
(^71) Eriksson (1956) 27–9, plausibly arguing that the inclusion of the zodiac sign could not have
been purely for calendrical dating purposes.
(^72) As noted by the editor ofICURvi. 15587.
(^73) How this would have been known to the authors of the inscription is unclear.Parapegmata
such as that of Trajan’s baths may have been used to track the zodiac sign of the moon (Eriksson
1956: 27), but this is very debatable (Lehoux 2007: 170). 74
The date conjectured by Diehl, 23 Aug. 386, is perhaps unlikely because it assumes a lunar
month beginning one day after conjunction (see discussion below). However, there are many
possible dates that combine Honorius asfirst consul, Sunday, andluna XIIassuming a lunar
month beginning from the conjunction: 26 Apr. 386, 14 Feb. 398, 10 Jan. 404, 5 May 407, 14 Mar.
409, 10 Mar. 412, 1 Dec. 412, etc. I have not checked the position of the moon in the zodiac on all
these dates, but they are surely not con 75 fined to Capricorn.
Eriksson (1956) 31–3 claims that the astrologically favourable days of Jupiter and Venus
(Thursday and Friday) are more frequent in late antique funerary inscriptions, which suggests a
planetary astrological intention. However, his statistical evidence is not convincing: it only really
shows the prevalence of Friday, which as he himself acknowledges, would have been significant
to Christians as the day of the Crucifixion. On the significance of Thursday in late pagan culture
see Blackburn and Holford-Strevens (1999) 578.
Dissidence and Subversion 321