15 



but taking all things into consideration, it seems more probable 

 that after driving out the cohort, or such part of it as remained, the 

 enemy set fire to the town, and at the same time mutilated all the 

 altars, &c., that it had been found impossible to hide. 



If it then be granted that the altars have been buried as the 

 result of an impending disaster, what was the approximate date of 

 this disaster ? Was it at an early or a late period of the Roman 

 occupation? From A.D. i8o to A.D. 210 seems to have been a 

 time of unwonted activity on the part of the tribes in the immediate 

 vicinity of "the Wall," and the year A.D. 184 is marked out as a 

 year when great disasters overtook the Roman arms in the north 

 Can this be somewhere about the date when the altars were buried? 

 when the " ruthless Briton " wreaked his vengeance on such altars 

 and sculptures as he could lay his hands upon ? Much that has 

 already been said favours an early, as opposed to a late burial, and 

 Dr. Bruce* favours this view. The coins found also testify appar- 

 ently to a break in continuity. If buried early, then the probability 

 is that the Bsetasians buried them, if late, then the Spaniards may 

 have performed this action, for the ten Spanish altars previously 

 mentioned may represent the later period. Many things, however, 

 seem to point strongly against the probability of a late date. In 

 A.D. 417, the Spaniards, or whoever chanced to be in garrison, 

 apparently withdrew peaceably, knowing that they were not coming 

 back again, and hence need have taken no precautions to bury the 

 altars in the way that they were buried. 



Besides, if buried by the Spaniards, they seem to have been 

 specially solicitous about the Bsetasian and Dalmatian altars, 

 whilst leaving some of their own to be destroyed. This seems con- 

 trary to what we should have expected. It seems more likely that 

 whoever buried them would bury their own first, and after- 

 ►wards those of the other three cohorts. Had they been buried 

 [at different times the burial of the second or third lot would have 

 [revealed the others. Strangely enough, the evidence is very point- 

 edly in favour of the fact that the Bsetasian altars were buried, not 

 only before those of the Dalmatians, but also before those of the 

 * Lapidarium Septentrionale, p. 429. 



