284 



but if there were, they have perished ; or they are concealed in 

 the foundations of old buildings, or lie buried in the ground. 

 One only remains, so far as I can learn, to contend with our tablet 

 for priority of date. I refer to the inscription found above a 

 century ago (April 1723) at Chichester, the Regnum, probably, 

 of the Itinerary. It is also a fragment, figured in PI. 76 of the 

 Britannia Romana ; fully described by the learned antiquary, 

 Roger Gale, and referred by him to the reign of the Emperor 

 Claudius. The letters are beautifully cut, and indicate an 

 early period of the Roman occupation of Britain ; but there is 

 good reason to believe that it is not older than the time of 

 Hadrian, or of Antoninus Pius.^ 



But if the claim of our tablet to be considered as the most 

 ancient be disputed or denied, I may safely assert, on the 

 authority of a remark by Mr. Horsley, the learned and accurate 

 author of the Britannia Romana, which I believe has not been 

 contradicted by any discoveries since his time, that it is the 

 onli/ Roman inscription extant of the period of Roman-British 

 history to which it belongs : a period of 30 years, concerning 

 which all the Roman historians are silent. " The silence of 

 the Roman historians with relation to Britain," observes Hors- 

 ley, *' may justly be extended from the year 85, when Agricola 

 was recalled by Domitian, to the year 120, when Hadrian is said 

 to have come over to Britain. This long chasm" he adds, "is 

 a great disadvantage; and the more so because we cannot 

 borrow any light or assistance as to this part of it from any 

 Roman inscription in Britain, there being none now extant 

 which we can be certain are so ancient as this."^ To this period 

 of historical silence this tablet manifestly belongs. It was 

 executed in the reign of Trajan, the immediate predecessor of 



1 See An Account of this inscription by Eoger Gale, Esq., with. Mr. "Ward's 

 Eemarks, transcrihed &om the Philosophical Transactions, ia Horsley' s Brit. Eom., 

 pp. 332 — 338. Besides the objections to Gale's interpretation of it suggested by 

 Mr. Ward, the occurrence of several liter(e ligata, or "complicated letters" affords 

 a strong presumption against the earlier date. 



2 See Brit. Rom., pp. 41, 48, 49. In another place he observes : " Hadrian is 

 the first Emperor whose name occurs in any of our British inscriptions, and we 

 have not many of his." lb., p. 183. 



