676 Appendix. Explanation of a Roman Inscription. 
of sufficient authority to establish the interpretation. 
He read it 
Cohortis prima Frisianorum Centurio ValeriusVitalis. — 
- This Valerius perhaps might not only belong to the 
first Frisian Cohort, but be the first centurion, or com~ 
mander of an hundred men, placed there at the erec- 
‘tion of the castle, and the stone fixed up in memory 
thereof at his own request. 
It appears likely the stone was fixed over the centre 
of the arched gateway of the castle, it being found in the 
ground where the principal entrance into the fortress was 
situated; and Mr. Watson’s stone was discovered in the 
gateway at Melandra Castle, This at Manchester was 
probably thus placed when the gate was erected, or at 
least when it might undergo a repair in the time of Trajan 
or Hadrian, coins of both emperors being found at the 
place where the gate stood. 
. This castle was in a ruinous state about the year goo: 
history says that Edward the elder, king of the West 
Saxons and afterwards of the Mercians, sent an army 
of the latter into Northumberland, which then hada 
king of its own, to repair the castle at Manchester, and 
put a garrison intoit, asa defence against the Danes, whe 
were ravaging the kingdom with fire and sword, 
