Inscribed Roman Stonks ok Dumfriesshire. 119 



Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq. " (Wilson, Frehist., A?tn. of Scot., 1st ed., 

 1851) ; " deposited in the Museum of the University of Edin- 

 burg-h" (Stuart, Cal. Rom., 2nd ed., 1852); deposited by the 

 Senatus of the University in the National Museum, Edinburg-h, 

 180 a 



An altar, 4?, ft. high and 1 ft. 6 in. broad. The symbol 00 

 at the commencement of the last line is regarded as a graphic 

 alteration of the Greek letter Chi used to represent a thousand by 

 the Chalcidian colonists of Southern Italy. There are heavy 

 mouldings on the base and pedestals of this altar. The top is not 

 hollowed out as in most of the other Birrens altars ; but its sides, 

 cylindrical in form, are connected by a notched 

 FORTVNAE 01" uiidulatiug broad border, the enclosed space 



coH . T . being occupied by a flat rectangular focus. It is 



^^5Yf^^„ dedicated to Fortune. Pennant has not copied 



■55 . EQ . the inscription with much care, and an expansion 



of it in two lines is what he gives. 



Expand thus : Forttmae Coh(ors) I. Nervana Germatior(tim) 

 milliaria eq(uitata) \dedicavii\ ; and translate : "To J'ortune, the 

 First Cohort of Germany, (called) the Nervana, a thousand strong 

 including its complement of cavalry, (dedicated this)." 



The epithet MIL {iaria) was applied to those cohorts that 

 numbered about 1000 men. They were called F,Q(ia'/afa) when 

 they contained a certain number of horse, the proportion generally 

 being 760 foot soldiers formed into 10 centuries and 240 horse in 

 10 tiirmae. Bodies of troops of this mixed character, the composi- 

 tion of which the Eomans are said to have borrowed from the 

 Germans, " were particularly well adapted for the g-arrisoning of a 

 station situated in an open country, and liable to frequent inroads 

 of the enemy." * 



A difference of opinion exists as to the meaning of the epithet 

 JVervana. Some are of opinion that it has reference to the 

 emperor Nerva as being- the first to organise the cohort. Others 

 think that it was so named because it had been levied among the 

 Nervii, one of the bravest tribes of Belgic Gaul. 



11. *■' Found near the Roman encampment on Burnswark 

 Hill, Dumfriesshire, parish of Hoddam or Middlebie " {Arch(vologia 



*Thomiis Hodgson, Arch'polofjia jEliana (1st series), vol. ii. p. 83. 



