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of them was that he named a basin after Oceanus, whereas Trajan 'had dedicated the basins to the Days.' Presumably by this he means the seven deities of the week. If we took the statement as it stands, it would be of some importance. The most mysterious fact about the spread of week-observance is that it was apparently accomplished without official recognition, and here we might seem to have some semblance of official recognition. But I fear it cannot be relied on. By Lampridius' time the planetary week was universal and if Trajan had recognized the seven planets or planetary gods Lampridius would naturally suppose that this involved recognition of the week-days over which in his time they presided. But this is not necessarily the case. It is all-important to remember that reverence for the great Seven does not involve the idea that time is measured by them. The implication in Lampridius' statement could only be proved if we knew that Trajan arranged the basins, which no doubt were distinguished by planetary statues or symbols, in week-order instead of normal order, and this we do not know.
When we add to these a coin of the time of Antoninus Pius found in Egypt and bearing, among other figures, seven, which are supposed to represent the seven planets in week-order[1], we shall, I believe, have exhausted the evidence which may with any certainty be assigned to the
- ↑ Vide Schürer, p. 23.
