80 SYLVA CRITICA CANADENSIUM. 
Elagabalus was slain by the infuriated soldiery at Rome, and the second ala of 
Asturians, at Cilurnum, sympathizing with them, erased, though not entirely, 
the second G at the end of the first line, and that at the end of the inscription 
(VIRTVS AVGG) in the hands of the standard-bearer, as well as the whole of 
the third line of the principal inscription, which was probably an epithet which 
the ala had been permitted to assume, by favour of the unfortunate Emperor 
when he was a popular idol.” 
T now subjoin the remarks which appeared in the Journal in 1873 : 
‘‘The inscription, given by Orelli,* n. 864, confirms Dr. Bruce’s view of the 
meaning: —SAABQ KQMMOAQ @HAIZ @PAY=ETEINA, i.e., Salvo Commodo 
feliz Faustina, but his reference of AVGG to Elagabalus and Severus Alexander 
is certainly incorrect. So far as we are aware, there is no example of the 
application of the term Augusti to those two Emperors. Nor is there any 
evidence that they were united under that name. To us it seems highly pro- 
bable that the two Augusti were Caracalla and Geta, that the date is A.D, 211, 
after the death of Severus, and that the second G was erased after the murder 
of Geta, in A.D. 212. But the most interesting result of this discovery is, that 
the inscription throws light on another which unfortunately is lost. It is given 
from Horsley, in the Lapidariwm Septentrionale, n. 27, and in Britanno-Roman 
Inscriptions, p. 133: 
*“VICTORIAE 
* * GGALFE 
N 8 SENECIO 
N COS FELIX 
ALA I ASTO 
[RVIM PRA 
**Of the true reading of the main part of the inscription there can be but 
little doubt. It is—Victorie Augustorum Alfenus Senecio Vir Clarissimus 
Consularis Felix Ala prima Astorum. ALA has been regarded as standing for 
ALAE, the letters RVM as the final three of Astorwm for Asturum, and PRA 
as the first three of Prefectus. Thus Felix was regarded as Preefect of the first 
Ala of Asturians. With others we have accepted this view, but it has always 
appeared strange to us that Felix had neither prenomen nor nomen. Now it 
seems most probable that Felix is used as it is in n. 943, and Baxter’s reading, 
ALFENO SENECIONE, is not so unlikely. What the letters at the side were 
that were crowded out can scarcely be conjectured with probability; they may 
have been something like Curam Agente, or Curante Prefecto.” + 
I believe the AVGG of the two inscriptions to be the same—Severus 
and Caracalla (or Caracalla and Geta)—and that the date of these in- 
scriptions was A.D. 209—before Geta was declared Augustus, on the 
news reaching the army in Britain, that although the expedition into 
* See also Eckhel, viii. 11. 
+ There is astrange mistake relative to this Prefect in Dr. Bruce’s General Index to the 
Lapidariwm Septentrionale: “ Alfenius Senicio, Prefect of the Ala Prima Asturum, 31; his titles 
on other inscriptions, 31.” 
