19
Expanded by Dr. Surridge.
GENIO ET SIGNIS COH[ORTIS] PRIMÆ F[AVENTIBVS] AR[AM] D[IS] V[NIVERSIS] L[OCI] C[ONDIDIT] R[OMANVS] EQ[VES] MILLE [HOMINVM] T[ITVS] LICINIVS VALERIANVS TRIB[VNVS][errata 1].
Translated.
Titus Licinius Valerianus, (a Roman Knight) Tribune of one thousand men, built this Altar to the Genius and all the Gods of the Place, who were favourable to the Standards of the First Cohort.
Expanded by Mr. Bruce.
GENIO ET SIGNIS COH[ORTIS] I F[IDÆ] [V*] ARDVL [ORVM] C[IVIVM] R[OMANORVM] †EQ[VITATÆ] T[ITVS] LICINIVS VALERIANVS TRIB[VNVS].
Translated by Mr. Bruce.
To the Genius and Standards of the First Cohort, the faithful of the Varduli Roman Citizens, Cavalry,† a thousand strong.‡ Titus Licinius Valerianus Tribune erected this.
* V is not in the original, and can legitimately have no place here. The Varduli, therefore are neither mentioned nor intended.
† In what language does Equitatæ stand for Cavalry? Certainly not in Latin—in which it is merely a participle.
‡ A Cohort's proportion of Cavalry was only about thirty men before they were augmented by auxiliaries, being the tenth part of three hundred, the number originally attached to a legion. How, then, could the horse of this Cohort be 1000? The first Cohort in later times had sometimes 120.
Each Cohort was commanded by a Tribune (or Colonel), to which office a knight became eligible after five years' services, and a plebeian after ten.
Remark.—There is much difficulty in the above inscription, the letters C. R. EQ. being capable of being variously expanded, but the interpretation which I have above given I consider the most correct. None gives the name of the Varduli or any bordering on it.—T.S.
The inscriptions inserted in the appendix of the Roman Wall, pages 457 and 460, have already appeared in the Newcastle Journal. The following is taken from a broken and designedly mutilated stone, of which Mr. Bruce gives a copy, with his explanation, page 458 appendix.
Broken Inscription taken by Dr. S.
Vide Fig. 4 and 5.
Plate 1.
PP
CH IF VA RD
BALLIS A SOLO RE T
SVBC · CL · APLoLINI LEG AVG
INSTANTE AVR QVINTO TR
Errata
