So Dudo, De Actis Normannorum, lib. v. p. 111.:
"Transacta denique duarum Herarum intercapedine, mirabilibusque incrementis augmentata profusus Ricardo Infante, cœpit Dux Willelmus de Regni commodo salubriter tractare."
It is also remarkable that we find it in use only in those places under the domination of the Goths, as in the southern provinces of France,—the Council of Arles, for instance.—V. Mansi Collect. Concil., t. xiv. col. 57.
The earliest inscription in which it has been found was at Lebrija, in the kingdom of Seville, and the date corresponds with that of the year 465 from the birth of Christ. It runs thus:
ALEXANDRA . CLARISSIMA . FEMINA
VIXIT . ANNOS . PLVS . MINVS . XXV
RECESSIT . IN . PACE. X . KAL . IANVAR
ERA . DIII . PROBVS . FILIVS . VIXIT
ANNOS . DVOS . MENSEM . VNVM.
It is possible there may be some error even here, for no other inscription yet recorded is so early by eighty years.