i» 
55 
Lanercost, Hexham, Kirkby Thore, Plumpton Wall, and Carlisle ; 
and by the 1st Cohort of Spaniards, stationed at Axelodunum, at 
Maryport, Netherby, and Ardoch. In such cases, how can we 
hope to have the slightest chance of deciding to which stations we 
shall apply the Notitia names ? 
But, for another reason, this theory is uncertain, for it cannot be 
final. One might well ask, Supposing that within the next few 
years we have discoveries of other important altars, how would the 
allocations be affected thereby? Shall we in such cases have to 
begin the allocations over again? If so, this is not a very cheering 
prospect for those who expect to find “the key that shall unravel 
the mystery” in the altar theory. That this is no fanciful argument, 
we shall see by taking the case of Ribchester. Originally con- 
sidered to be the Rigodunum of Ptolemy, the name next selected 
for it was Coccium (Iter x.), but even this name is now in danger 
of giving place to another, for we are told (Celt, Roman, and Saxon, 
p. 64) that “an altar, now preserved in St. John’s College, Cam- 
bridge, which has only recently been correctly read, seems to 
identify Ribchester with Bremetonacz, in which case the Roman 
topography of this district requires a new investigation and re- 
arrangement.” J. Hodgson Hinde again, suggests that the name 
on the altar is not Bremetonacz, but Bremetenracum. (A7ch. 
liana, vol. iv. pt. 2 0.S., p. 112.) How then are we to secure 
finality ? 
Surely, then, a theory which introduces so many probabilities 
and possibilities, ought to be looked upon with grave suspicion. 
Moreover, we must not expect the Notitia to prove anything and 
everything. When it states that a cohort was present in a certain 
camp, we are surely to infer that such statement refers to a fact 
which was true in Notitia times; but to infer that therefore it was 
true for times far removed from Notitia times, is to put upon it a 
construction that it evidently will not bear. 
As there seems, then, no possibility of proving geographical 
sequence by altars. An ingenious method has been devised to 
account for the apparent failure in the plan. Altars having been 
found at Papcastle, Moresby, and Maryport, apparently identifying 
