The Latin funerary formula, and the African signature of Sacrum · 拉丁丧葬套语与“Sacrum”之非洲印记
Almost every Roman epitaph opens D M — Dis Manibus. Some add a third letter, S for Sacrum. Where? Among epitaphs whose formula is legible, the share that adds Sacrum, by province — and it draws the map of the Latin West: Baetica, Africa, and Numidia almost always; the Danube and Rhine almost never.
Dated epitaphs by century — the commemorative habit rising to a 2nd-century peak and fading through late antiquity, the private mirror of the public epigraphic curve.