5
THE ROMAN ALTAR AT ROCHESTER.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEWCASTLE JOURNAL.
Sir,—Your impression of last week contains a very erroneous reading and translation, by the Rev. Thomas Surridge, LL.D. of the inscription on an altar lately discovered at Rochester, in Northumberland, and I feel that to allow such a reading and translation to pass without observation, and without correction, would afford good ground for reflection on the Archæological Institute so lately assembled at Newcastle. If your correspondent had been present at the meeting of the Institute, he might have avoided the errors into which he has fallen by studying the readings of this inscription by Mr. Bruce and Mr. Clayton, which (as stated by the Hon. Mr. Liddell, who presided over the section,) having been made separately and distinctly, were found, on comparison, to be identical. The letters on the stone are—
C O H I V A R D V M
E T N E X P L O R A
T O R B R E M C O R
E G N A T L V C I L I
A N V S L E G A V G R R
C V R A N T E C A S S I
S A B I N I A N O R B
The reading of these letters by the two gentlemen above-named—
Signorum,
Cohortis primæ Vardulorum,
Et numeri Exploratorum Bremenii
Corignatus Lucilianus
Legatus Augustolis Proprætor
Curante Cassio Sabiniano Tribuno,
Aram posuit.
