A [among the Romans]

was used as an Abbreviation of the Word Absolvo, i.e. I acquit: The Judges being wont to give their Sentence upon Persons, by casting Tables into a Box or Urn, on which Tables were the Letters A. C. or N L. If they acquitted the Person try’d, they cast into the Urn a Table with the Letter A marked on it; if they condemned, with the Letter C, for Condemno, i.e. I condemn; if the Matter was hard to be determined, with the Letters N L, for Non liquet, i.e. It does not appear plain. Hence Cicero calls the Letter A Litera salutaris, i.e. the saving Letter. A was also used by the Romans, as the first of the Litteræ Nundinales, in Imitation of which, the Dominical Letters in our Julian Kalendar.