35 
the Divinity of the shrine, It might be too much to say that this inscription in 
so many words indicates the object of the building, or establishes the name of the 
god, to whom it is presumably dedicated. Yet the burden of it, taken in con- 
nection with the three votive tablets already mentioned, goes far to settle the 
question. The inscription runs thus :— 
DA. . . FLAVIUS SENILIS, PR. REL, EX STEPIBVS 
POSSVIT 0... . . ANTE VICTORINO INTER.... ATE. 
Here the two first letters are in all probability the prenomina of Flavius Senilis, 
who may well have been owner of the villa, as in the inscription he claims to have 
dedicated the temple. The abbreviated words PR. REL have been taken to stand 
for “‘ preeses religionis,” an ecclesiastical title, for which there is no authority or 
warranty, whilst it is highly probable that they may more aptly represent the 
Latin words, ‘‘ pretio relato,” which, taken in conjunction with those next follow- 
ing, viz., “ex stepibus,” or, ‘‘ex stipibus,” would signify that the altar or shrine 
was paid for by the “penny subscriptions,” the small coins paid freely by the 
votaries at the instance of the priests. There is no lack of illustration of such 
spellings as ‘stepibus’ for ‘stipibus,’ ‘ possuit’ for ‘ posuit,’ and the like from 
other examples of later Roman epigraphy. In fact, bad orthography is rather a 
confirmation of a genuine inscription, Dr. Mc.Caul, too, the Principal of 
University College, Toronto, has parelleled the practice of defraying the cost of 
sacred buildings among the Romans -by small contributions with an extant 
inscription to Mercurius Augustus in Switzerland. Itis to Dr. Mc.Caul indeed 
and his Britanno-Roman inscriptions that we owe most of our light upon this 
_at first puzzling inscription. From what has been already made out, and the 
filling up of the lacuna between O and Ante with the letters pvs ovr (h.e. opus 
curante) a text will have been reconstructed thus translateable :—“ Flavius Senis, 
set up this temple at a cost defrayed by small money offering, Victorinus being the 
builder, or clerk of the works.” Victorinus, it should be noted, was a name not 
uncommon among the Silures, and it is obvious that we have yet to connect with 
it in somewise the defective INTER. . . ATE. The most plausible filling up 
of the ‘lacurna’ is that of Dr. Mc.Caul, AMN = ‘ Interamnate,’ a word to be 
regarded as an adjective of place: so that Victorinus will thus be further identi- 
fied as a local builder, ‘ Victorinus the Interamnian, or native of a country ~ 
between two rivers,’ “the eye between the Severn and the Wye,” of which a 
later local proverb tells. This adjective of the birthplace is quite classical, for, in 
Cicero’s oration for Milo, one Cassinius, by cognomen Scola, Interamnas, an 
Interamnian, is mentioned. He was of Interamna in the mother-country, not 
that in the province of Britain. 
Against this ingenious restoration militates the fact that the fragment of 
the first missing letter, which is still visible, is unlike the top of any other A in 
the temple inscription ; but perhaps exact uniformity is no more to be looked for 
in written characters than strictness of orthography. What makes the suggestion 
of Interamnate more ingenious, is that it will help to unriddle the puzzle of 
