54 



The combination Seviro Colonic is also justified by other in- 

 scriptions. ' 



Marcus Verecundus Diogenes was the son of a slave ; for his 

 father's name is not recorded. This is the invariable distinction 

 on monuments. Further we learn that he was a citizen of the 

 Gallic people called Bituriges Cubi. The nation of the Bituriges 

 had been the mostpowerful in Celtic Gaul,and had exercised sove- 

 reignty over the whole of that portion of the country, as far back 

 as the reign of Tarquinius Priscus. ^ In the time of Csesar they 

 had lost this predominance, and were themselves subordinate to 

 the JEdui, but they still retained a considerable extent of territory. 

 The Bituriges Cubi, who seem to have remained in the original 

 seat of the nation, occupied the modern provinces of Berri and 

 Bourbonnois ; ' the Bituriges Vivisci had settled near the mouth 

 of the Garonne ; and Burdigala (Bourdeaux) was within their 

 territory. They were thus, as Strabo remarks, Celtic interlopers 

 among an Aquitanian population.* As Verecundus Diogenes was 

 not a military man, we may presume that he had come to York 

 for commercial purposes, and I think it not difficult to conjec- 

 ture in what he dealt. Pliny ^ mentions it as an invention of 

 the Gauls, to cover articles of brass with tin, so that they could 

 scarcely be distinguished from silver. The inhabitants of Alesia 

 (Alise in Burgundy, not far from the country of the Bituriges 

 Cubi) were the first who covered bronze horse trappings and the 

 yokes of beasts of burden with a coating of silver ; the Bituriges 

 improved on their invention, and with the progress of luxury 

 not only silvered but gilded ornaments were placed upon the 



1 OreUi, 309, 200. 



2 Livy, 5, 34, Cses. Bell. Gall. 7, 5. Their chief town, Avaricum, (Bourges), 

 "pulcherrima prope totius Galliae urbs," was stormed by him. lb. 15. 27. 



3 D'AnvUle Notice de la Gaule, p. 170. * Lib. 4, p. 190. 



5 Album incoquitur aereis operibus Galliarum invento ita ut vix discemi possit 

 ab argento, eaque incoctilia vocant. Deinde et argentum incoquere simili mode 

 csepere equorum maxime omamentis, jumentorumque jugis, in Alesia oppido: 

 reliqua gloria Biturigum fuit. Csepere deinde et esseda et vehicula et petorrita 

 exomare ; similique modo ad aurea quoque, non modo argentea staticula inanis 

 luxuria pervenit. N. H. 34, 48. Staticidum appears to have been a little image, espe- 

 cially used as an ornament of horses or carriages. Comp. Plin. 37, 54, 2. 



