A Report upon the Herculaneum Manuscripts

And upon a brass Sextarius A Roman unit of liquid measure, roughly equivalent to a pint..
D. D. P. P. Herc.
That is, Decurionum Decreto Praefecti ponderibus Herculanensium Latin: By decree of the decurions, the prefects [set] the weights of the Herculaneans..

These three inscriptions inform us of another municipal right enjoyed by the Herculaneans in their Ponderale, or House of Public Weights.

There was an earthquake in the year of Christ 63, sixteen years before that eruption of Vesuvius which destroyed Herculaneum in the year of Christ 79. Seneca declares that in this earthquake, “A part of the town of Herculaneum collapsed, and even what remained stands in doubt. The earthquake occurred on the Nones of February” original: "Herculanensis oppidi pars ruit, dubièque stant etiam, quæ relicta sunt. Nonis Februarii fuit terræ motus.".

In an enclosure behind the great theatre, a heap of tiles, each numbered, along with the trunk of a marble statue and the fragments of several columns, was excavated from beneath the volcanic materials. Another earthquake,