58 
Two facts are brought very prominently under our notice in the 
account that is given us respecting the discovery of these altars 
in the Lapidarium Septentrionale. They were not buried each in 
a separate pit, but in some cases two and three in one pit, one 
above the other. Nor do the altars interred in the same pit all 
belong to the same cohort. But the question as to who buried 
them is apparently set at rest, for in one case at least, a Spanish 
altar is buried adove a Beetasian one, from which we must infer 
that the Beetasians at least buried the altars in that pit, for the 
Spaniards could not bury their altars adove those of their successors. 
In the same way, we have a Dalmatian altar buried above a 
Beetasian altar ; and this apparently points to the conclusion that 
the Beetasians buried this lot also. Moreover, they must all have 
been buried, almost certainly, at the same time, else the second 
burial would have discovered those of a previous one. 
If this be so, then we have the sequence of cohorts as—first 
Spaniards, then Dalmatians, and after these Bzetasians ; and, indeed, 
the general appearance of the altars bears out this theory, as I 
have attempted to show in an earlier paper (“The Maryport Camp 
—What was its Name?” Zransactions, No. xii.) As certainly the 
date of the interment must have been an early one. Strangely, 
the list of coins found shows a break in continuity between 
A.D. 200 and A.D. 240. Can the interment have taken place 
somewhere between these two dates? Dr. Bruce agrees that it 
was so, for he says (Zrans. C. and W. Arch. and Antig. Assoc., 
1870, p. 175), “The latest of these altars probably belongs to the 
reign of Antonius Pius,” and “they were buried at least two 
centuries before Stilicho.” 
It is evident that, if buried by either Dalmatians or Beetasians, 
the date could not have been in Notitia times, for then the Dal- 
matians were at Brancaster and Broughton, and the Beetasians 
at Reculver (Ce/t, Roman, and Saxon, p. 307). But if it be held 
that they were buried by Spaniards, then it must have been by 
a returned cohort. But where are the altars that prove this point? 
for those found in 1870 and 1880—and almost as certainly those 
found previously—are clearly out of evidence, 
