EpiDoc follows TEI practice in marking line beginnings on the support (as opposed to verse lines) using the lb. lb is an empty element to mark the point at which the line begins.
Because there is no containing element encapsulating lines, any information about the numbering, rendition, or condition of an entire line needs to be marked in an attribute in the lb. For this reason, therefore, it is our convention to place an lb at the beginning of every epigraphic line in the edition, including the first. Any rend or numbering attributes on that lb refer to all text between the current and the following line-begin. (See example below.)
according to london: 5