Inscribed Komax Stones of Dr.MFRiEssHiEE. 129 



ancinni and Bremenium on tlie east. ^Yhethe^ it was used as a 

 T)asis for canying on operations be3'oiid, is another and a different 

 question. The fact that both the northern Iters extended but a 

 short distance north of tlie wall is significant. The Romans cer- 

 tainly pushed their arms much further, even beyond the Vallum 

 raised by Lollius Urbicus, the Pr?etor of Pius, across the Ui^per 

 or Forth and Clyde Isthmus. But so far as there is anj^ evi- 

 dence bearing on the point it goes to shew that they generally 

 advanced northwards, having York as their headquarters, and 

 taking an easterly rather than a westerly route. Moreover, it 

 would seem as if they looked upon the territory between the 

 Walls as a protectorate ratlier than an integral part of the empire, 

 subject to its administrative rules. It was the policy of Hadrian 

 and some of his successors to strengthen the more exposed frontiers 

 by cultivating friendly relations with the neighbouring tribes, who 

 thus beoame first exposed to attack. Such an arrangement would be 

 the more easily effected for the frontier of the province of Britain, 

 if, as is possible, racial differences and antipathies could be utilised 

 for the purpose.* At all events, by accepting this view of the 

 relation of the Romans to the country north of the Southern Wall, 

 several diffculties disappear, and we need feel no surprise that the 

 official Iters seem to end somewhat abruptly. 



During the occupation of Birrens \>y the Romans its garrison, 

 so far as we can judge from the evidence before us, was mainly 

 composed of the Second Cohort of Tungrians, a people of Germanic 

 origin that had settled in Gaul, and whose name survives in the 

 modern Tongres, or Tongern, in the province of Limberg, Belgium. 

 The First Cohort of Germans, called " Nervana," or a portion of it, 

 was there for a short time, as well as a detachment, likely a small 

 one, of the Sixth Legion. The fact that foreign auxiliaries consti- 

 tuted so large a proportion of the defenders of Birrens accounts for 

 so many of tlie altars being dedicated to unknown divinities, such 

 as Harimella. Brigantia was probably a native deity worshipped 

 by the Brigantes, a powerful tribe in possession of the greater part 

 of the north of England at the time of the Roman invasion. 



To the question, how long the Romans occupied Birrens, 

 the inscribed stones, in the absence of dates, give no answer. All 



* See Map of Britain, ' ' .showing the relative jwfitions of its chief peoijles 

 during the Roman occupation," in Prof. Rhys's Gdtk Britain, 



