A laterculus was, in late antiquity or the early medieval period, an inscribed tile, stone or terracotta tablet[1] used for publishing certain kinds of information in list or calendar form. The term thus came to be used for the content represented by such an inscription, most often a list, register, or table, regardless of the medium in which it was published. A list of soldiers in a Roman military unit, such as of those recruited or discharged in a given year, may be called a laterculus,[2] an example of which is found in an inscription from Vindonissa.[3] The equivalent Greek term is plinthos (πλίνθος; see plinth for the architectural use).[4]
A common type of laterculus was the computus, a table that calculates the date of Easter, and so laterculus will often be equivalent to fasti.[5] Isidore of Seville said that a calendar cycle should be called a laterculus "because it has the years put in order by rows," that is, in a table.[6]