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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est filmd d partir de I'angle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 32 X 1 2 3 4 5 6 ANCIENT LATIN INSCRIPTION, NO'I IMPROIiABLY A CHRISTIAN EPITAPH, FOUND IN NORTHUMBERLAND, ENGLAND. BV TIIF. REV. JOIIX McCAUL, I,[..D., rrvsiiifiit of i'nhvrsity Ci'//iXi\ /i 'v.i/,'. (7,1 ^■' T O R O \ T () : / Vl COl'P, CI,.\I' I S 7 2 , II ANCIENT LATIN INSCRIPTION, N(rr IMPROBARLV A CHRISTIAN EPITAPH, FOUND IN NORTHUMBERLAND, ENGLAND. liY THE REV. JOHN McCAUL, LL.D., Pnsidi'iit of tfnwersity College, Toroi^o. TORONTO: COI'P, CI.ARK AND CO., PRINTF.RS, KINO STREET ICAST. 1872. ANCIENT LATIN INSCRIPTION, FOUND IN NORTHUMBERLAND. At Risingham, in Northumberland, are the remains o a station that durin/a portion of the Roman occu^.tion of the rskivd mu have been of considerable i.uportance. It lu. ^<^^ ;r,^t^ Street between High Rochester (Ih-emenmm) and Colchester (Co,- ItTat the diltanco of about 8 miles from the former and 15 from t£ latter. In the Itinerary of Antoninus, for * some reason asTet undiscovered, it is omitted ; and its ancient name is unknown. Camden, on the authority of an tinscription found there as read by Z, supposed that it had been called HaM^r^un, ^^^^^ tion has been so fully adopted by British Arch.olog. ts, a^ u the maps and descriptions of Horsley, Bruce, MacLauchlan and othoi^ Tm ludin. the Editor of the Monumenta mstoncalrUc..n:^^^^^^^^^ W nthes in his map of BrUar.ua liomana, and Mr. George Long in his Classical Atlas), thisjmm^B intmlucod a^ert^^ « Mr. W. Tl."^;^;;^^;^^-, in an artide " on u.e 10th Iter of tho Bnnsh died, aud A.D. 144, the >ear ^^^ ,,.,„ „fcomniodus, and rebuilt t The altar bearing this inscription was (and. I believe, is) la the vestibnle of the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. tanno-Roman Tnacriptiona, p. IIG, I ili-ow attontion to tho total nbHouco of aueiont authority for tlio (lcsij,'uatiou llahitancum, nnd vontnred to impugn Camden'H intci-prctation of the inscription, in which ho found HABITANCI. Su]>so«iuontIy, liiving ascortaiuod from ail improved wood-cut in tho 3rd edition of Dr. Brucc's llonum Wall, tliat tho tr-io rcadin- was irAlUTANCCIPllIMASTAT, I returned to tho subject (in tho "Canadian Joiu'nal" for April, 1869), and suggested what I heliovo to bo tho true readin'j; and expansion— h((hU(t numhie. diicciinrll (or cubicnlnrii) 2>riina »ialhme. From tliis station nuraerous relics of the Roman period, including many inscribed Btones, have been obtained. A considerable number of them are in the collection of the Society of Anticpiaries of New- castle-upon-Tyne, presented chiefly by Messrs. Richard and William Shanks. In addition to these, there is in tho same collection a por- tion of an inscribed stone also found there, which is thus described in tho Arclueologia ^Wiana, New Series, Vol. i., p. 244. " Pnrt of nn nltnr, which hns boon split down Ihe middle to form a ^nte-post. From IIAIUTANX'UM ; prestnted by Mr. Jmnes Fovsler. Hodgson, who de- scribes the altar (Hist. Nor. pt. ii., vol. 1, p 186), suspects the inscription was in hexameter verse. Mr. Hodgson's copy of the inscription is here placed side by side with the engraving ; a comparison of the two will enable the reader to ascertain on which of the letters he may rely." When I first saw this notice in the Archneologla ^UUnna, with the accomjjanying wood-cut, I at once recognized tho justice of Mr. Hodgson's suspicion that " tho inicription was iit hexameter verse," and I attempted to read it as a poetical dedication to some deity or deities. In this attempt, both as regards the names of the deities and the appropriateness of the language, esiiecially as compared with other insci'i])tions in verse, I was so unsuccessful that I almost aban- doned the expectation of extracting from tho fragments any feasible sense. On receiving, however, from Dr. Bruce, a copy of a very superior twood-cut, by Utting, of Mr. Mossman's drawing of the object, my attention, whilst I was examining it, was arrested by the letters EPOIIIjMR in the second lino and PAG in the eighth. From these, regarding EPO as part of DEPO = Depositits, MR as a f From the readings of this wood-cut tho names of certain deities may be conjectured, but the language nnd tone of tho verses— so far as such may be collected from the fragments— are unlike any votive specimen in Latin epigraphy that I remember having seen, nor can I devise an explanatory theory on the supposition that the inscription is Pagan. miBreading of MAR -- somo case of Martins, the naino of tho month, and PAC part of Konio caso of pax, I fornioil tho oonjcctui'o tliat tho inscriptio" was a jChmtian epitapli, not inipiohal.ly, as I fiirtlicr vonturod to infor from tho i-omains of %pro /iinere luaern voluit red- dere vike in tho 12th, 13th antl 14th lines, of onoulioso life had boon taken by violence, and, possibly, on account of liis profession of Christianity. This conjecturo was countenanced by tho appiiront imitation in tho Otli and lOtli lines of a well-kno\vn passage in tho ^neid — At tibl pro see/ere, cxdamat, pro lalibm am'u, £>i, si ijua cut ctelo j.iehm, quce lalia curet, Penolvant gratea dli/nas, el prninia rediknt— a poem, which has been also drawn on l)y several ancient writers of epitaphs, e. (jr., in tho celebrated verses on I'lipus Antinuo, in Do Rossi's fnscript. Christiann', n. 103. Soo my remarks in "Christian Epita[)hH of the first six centuries," p. 27. Possessed, as I now am, of fcjur copies of tho insci'iption — *a wood- cut of Mr. Mossman's drawing, and a photogmph (for both of which I am indebted to Dr. Bruce), in addition to the two given in tho Archmolwjia ^Eliana — I propose examining each line, with a view to tho development of all that can l)o read or reasonably inferred. In this examination I dare not hope to attain to more than some degree of probability ; the data are not sutlicient to war r; nit any expectation of certainty. The first step is, of course, to determine the text as accurately as we can. With this view, I subjohi the 14 lines as they appear in the four copies, premising that in photographs of worn inscriptions we often find illusory semblances of letters, and consequently such readings should bo received with great caution. X The use of diposilus with the day of the month, and iti pace either iramedi- aiely after deposilus or in some other part of tho inscription, ia characteristic of early Christian epitaphs. See " Christian Epitaphs of tlie First Six Centuries." § A doubt suggested itself to me whether this frrm of expression might not have been used to denote the erection of a mom ment or statue, as in Cicero, Philipp. ix — Reddita est ei turn a majoribun slatua pro vita, and Ileddite igitur, patres conacripli, ei vitam, cui adetnistii; vita enim mortuormn in memoria est posila vivorum. The objections, however, to this view, arising from the character of the object, and from tlie phraseology of the inscription, seemed so strong that I soon rejected it. * Through Dr. Brace's kiadaess, I am able to present the reader ,vith a copy of this excellent illustration. I. I. i in. V. 0) INII IN INIIVCNG RKE8 V ? SAC (2) E IMR ED EPOIIIMR EPO???MAR (3) IP ERG EI RGEL EMPERGEL EMPERGEL (4) FERVINI VINE PERVINII RV Nl (6) I IN VRVERINI (6) D FIIS VS (7) EFICINE FICIN EFICENE PICTITINIE (8) AVEFPAC EFPAG AVEFPAC ?VEPPAC?? (9) IIBIPRO IBIPRO TICIPRO VTIBIPRO (10) IGEPR LVCEPRO NCEPRC ? VCEPR ? ? (11) EMINMVS FLAMINIVS LMINIVSV VLAMINIVS? (12) EPROFVISP ETPROFVNE lEPROFVNE EPROFVNE (13) VGEMVOEV CEMVOLV VCEMVOLV VCEMVOLV (14) DEREVITAE DEREVITAE OEREVITAE DEREVITAE I. According to wood-cut in Archccol. yEllana. II. According to Mr. Hodgson's exauiinution of tlie stouo. III. According to Mr. Mossman's drawing. IV. According to photograpli. On comparison of the iirst tlu'ee readings witli the photograph, the following are the results at wliicli I have uirived. In the 1st lino, tlio only letters (and tho.so shadowy) that I can discover in the i)hotograi)h ;iro RKS or RKES and SAC : the inter- mediate are illegible. In the '2nd line, EP preceded by the semicircular part of D are certain, O after P probable, and MAIl almost certoin, but the characters between O and M ore illegible. In the 3rd line, EMPERGEL are certain. In the 4th line, RV N and I are certain, but the rest illegible. In the 5th line, the only characters that I can disco\er look like ESTE. In the 6th line, no letter is legible but S, followed by one or two other letters at the end. In the 7tli line, the first two characters are very indistinct. Of these the second resembles E or F. After these, FICT or PICT are clear, tlion a ligatured character, representing TINI tied, the same apparently as that which appears in an inscription, of the date A.D. 205-208, that was found here. See Dr. Bruco's Roman Wall, 3rd edn., p. 336, and Britanno-Roman Inscriptions, p. 149. There is this difference, Iiowever, that the prolongation of the first upright of the N in this inscription resembles a cross (or an I on TI) rather than f As some of the eharaeters and fragments of letters in this reading cannot be represented by ordinary types, the reader is referred to the wood-cut prefixed to this article. merely TI. After this composite character there is E, or there are two letters that look like IE. In the 8th line, the lirst two letters are uncertain, especially the tirst. Tiie second mny be N or A and V tied. The thii-d is certainly E, the fourth F or P followed by PA certainly, after which come C or G and possibly E. In the 9th line, the first letter is illegible, but an oblique stroke looks like the relic of a V, whence hcit, may be conjectured. TIBIPllO seoui to bo certain, but the letter after O is very indis- tinct. It may have been M. , In the 10th line, the lirst letter is very indistinct. It was possibly I or L. The second letter may have been N or V, the third certainly C followed after a longer space than usual by EPR, after which two letters are lost. In the 11th line, the letters are almost certa ' LAMINIVSV. Of these, A and the last V are not as clear as the others, but of the two a small A is distinct in the photograph. Before L seem to be the remains of the bars of F. In the 12tli lino, the letters are certainly EPROFVNE. In the 13th line, the letters are certainly VCEMVOLV. In the Uth line, the letters are certainly DEREVITAE, As we have now considered the text, so for as relates to the extant letters, we may proceed in the investigation of the lines and verses. The first two liires seem to have contained the names of the deceased with the date of his burial (in March or February) as is usual in ancient Christian ei)itaphs. The verses, most probably, commenced in the 3rd line, and, as the stone has been nearly bisected, we may assume that the lost portion of each line was equal to that which remains, generally, if not always, containing four syllables. These twelve lineS; then, may be represented somewhat thus : (3) [ _ u V — S ] EMPERGEL (4) [ u — w u ] PERVENIE (5) [ CO ] NRVERINT (6) [ u u — u ] rilS ? VSu (7) [ ] EFFICENE (8) [ u u — ? ] VEPPACE (9) [u JTIBIPRO '.■ (10) [ ]NECEPRO (11) [ vj u F ] LAMINIVSV (12) L yj-yj-i] EPROFVNE (13) [RE L ] VCEMVOLV (14) [IT RED ] DEREVITAE. The Hexameters may accordingly be - u o - semper gelid - i. o pervenie - - - conruerint u o - « piJs ? m -^ - - - «^'ce we u o - v'p pace o — - VM pro necc pro o u - - Flamunm v - - ^To te pro funere - - - lucem voluit rcddere vi'OB. Of the sLx verses tlie last is marked by a peculiarity that requii-es notice In order that we may have the six feet, it is necessary either that the penultimate line should have had six syllables before lucem [saL _^E - - - ) ,nd the last line three or four before dere (soil. 11 Kj yj KED), or the penultimate-four {scil. RE ) and the ast-five or six {scil. IT - - ^'^ RED). But there does not seem to have been room in the lost portion of either line for at most more than four syllables. How then can the requii-ements of the verse be si! b Vpf vf"'*r^ '^"'^"'''^' ""'^^ "^" ^•''°^°- the difficulty, T .. , 'rf ' "■ *'" """-""- ""'^^^ '^^^---tions of CMstl: Ihe 5th and 6th versus may then be represented somewhat thus : tlaminim vivitper te : profu-nere *duro ffaic lutem volivC 2^8 nic reddere vHce. Now these conjectures, ia themselves reasonable, are supported by the authority of similar ver.es, e. gr. Aviutli h's Covolm dHis pa'chn-.rvf luros, Qu^mp'at-dwi voluit v, , ;, j.-j; recl(]ere Cln-istus Pro mentk famulom majivs et honorlbus auxit. Ai^rn^T"*T 'T ^"'' "^ "^ '^'''^'^ °" Charlemagne, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and are by some ascribed to Alcuin Again, the following Elegiac distich closes the epitaph of the celc- brated Goglenius at Louvain : PrcBmia sed voluit Chriatus tibi dlgna More El festinatai reddere delicias. In Prudcntius, Perlstephan. xiv. w. 56-58, we have somewhat similar phraseology but diffe; nt sense— Sunt qui rogatam rctulerint prcces Fudisse Christo, redderet ut reo Lucem jacenti. Lucretius uses the expression -reddita vitai ,«o..-for the ex- change of life for death. / be::^1tr^^tS *° °^^- ^pr^op^ate^;-;;:^-;^;;^^ 9 As to lucem vitoe, the phrase is not common in Classical authors ; it is used by Cicero onco or twice, but not with a similar significa- tion. We may compare, liowever, the same words in a Latin trans- lation of St. John's Gospel, chap. viii. v. 12; and the use of lux in Christian inscriptions is common. Thus in Mai, Collect. Vatic, i., 450, jEtertui tihi lux; in De Rossi, Tnscript. Christiance, v.. 127, qui lucem t \enehris mutavit\ and n. 412, In Ohrislum credent premia lucia abet (sic) ; and in Bosio, p. 49, Bottari, i., p. 53. Luce nova frairis, lux tibi Chr-sius adesl. In the 5th verse, the reading Flaminius seems to be almost certain, but the meaning is not clear. Is it the ordinary Latin nomen ? Or can it be an adjective derived from Flamen, and used in the sense " Episcopal T See Flamines, Flaminium, and Flamineus, in Du Cange's Gloss. Med. et Injim. Latinitatis, and compare MandevU's "the Archi- flamyn, or the Flamyn, or our Echebishopp or Bishopp," Geoffrey of Monmouth's statement, B. iv„ chap. 19, and the criticisms of Fuller, "Church History of Britain," i., p. 23; Bingham, "Christian Anti- quities," vol. iii., p. 178, ed. Straker; and Stillingfleet, Origines BritanniccB, p. 82, ed. Straker. Another question also presents itself as to construction. Is Fla- minius in the nominative, with some substantive (vir ?) forming the subject to a verb or used for the vocative ? To me it seems more probable that Flaminius — in the nominative as subject to a verb beginning with v, such as vivit — was the name of the deceased, and this is countenanced by INII, the first letters in the first line of the wood-cut. In this verse e is almost certain, but t (te) is conjectural. It is possible tliat e and t were tied (as is not unusual), tlie character read as e thus being et. We may then suggest viveiis vivet, or vivit' vivet, as in Velleius Paterculus relative to Antony and Cicero — Rapidsii tu M. Ciceroni lucem solicitam, &c. Vivit vivet que per omnem scecidorum memm-iam. The meaning of p'o seems to be " in retm-n for." If it be taken in the sense " instead of," the inscription may be regarded as a dedication for some remarkable cure. But, so far as I recollect, there is nothing similar to the phraseology used here in any such epigraphic record, and the meaning of pro with reddo may be assumed to be " in return for." Funere appears to be used in the sense " death," as is not uncommon. In the 4th verse, tihi may refer either to the person who committed the deed (as in the quotation from Virgil), or to the deceased. The 10 reading nece confirms, of convsp, the hy|iotliPsis of death by violence, but it cannot be received except on tlie supposition that E was tied to the N and that tlio N was rovei-sed. In the 3rd verse, Mr. Mossnian's reading suggests avet or avit for tlie iinintelligible i!pp. Pace, also, in this verse is doubtful. In the 2nd verse, conruerhit may bo regarded arj almost certain, but in the wood-cut there seem to be the remains of an E tied to the N. Piis is not improbable, but there is not a trace of the letter that was between the final S in PIIS and V in VS ; nor of that which followed VS. In the 1st verse, semper seems to be certain, and there is but little doubt that it was followed by some case of gelklus, possibly gelida followed by nive. Fervenie, a portion of some pei'son oi perveniam, may be justified by the reading in the woodcut. As I have now completed the examination of the remains of the text and the formation of the verses, it remains to consider the ques- tion as to the age of the inscription. On this subject, however, I can offer no probable conjecture. I am, afraid (a^ I have stated else- where, citing as my authorities Maffei and Morcelli) of mulertaking to determine the century iii which letters were cut, from their form ; my impression, however, is that this inscription is not later than the Roman occupation of the island. If PICTITINIE be really on the stone, and we resolve this group of letters into PICTI=Picts and TINIE=TINIAE=TINAE=Tyne, it may be inferred that the deceased lost his life in an insurrection of the Picts, and the date may, probably, be between A.D. 342 and 446. The third centuiy is suggested by the composite chai-acter standing for TINI, but this, howevfn*, seems scarcely consistent with the use of a * heathen altar (if it were such, as it is stated to have been) for a Christian epitaph, and is otherwise liable to objection. The prosecution of this finteresting enquiry must bo left to those who have better opportunities than I have of consulting large libra- ries, and who, perhaps, may learn, on the .spot where the stone was found, some local tradition. All that I have attempted in this article is to state and explain the grounds of the opinion that I have formed that the inscription is more probably sepulchral than -otive, and Christian than Pagan. * A peculiar epitaph (if genuine, possibly Christian, even though beginning with D'M') found, I believe, at Chcster-le-Street, Durham, was cut on an altar, A copy of it will be found in Part III. of tlie Lapidarium Septentrionale. t No unquestionably Christian titidus of the Roman period has hitherto been found in Britain.