ROMAN PAVEMENTS AND INTRECCI. 165 



Bremenium or High Rochester with the Varduli ; at Borcovicus 

 or Housesteads, with the Tungri, where the inscriptions are 

 INVICTO MITRAE, and DEO SOLI iNVicxo MiTRAE, and where 

 there was a Mithraic cave. At Riechester in Northumberland, 

 was an altar SOLI / HIERON / V.L.M., Hieronymus to the Sun ; and 

 Mithraic monuments have been discovered at Cambeck Fort, in 

 Cumberland. 



Altars to Mithras have been found at Longovicus or 

 Lanchester,* with the first cohort of the Lingones, and at 

 Segedunum or Wallsend, with the fourth cohort of the same 

 troop. The Lingones were a portion of the Legio Secunda 

 Augusta, which also furnished garrisons at York, and, what is 

 more to our purpose, at Caerwent and the stations f between 

 Exeter and Richborough, doubtless including Dorchester. Small 

 sacrificial bulls of bronze have been found in Dorset, and are, 

 probably, of Mithraic import. 



Hadrian devoted himself to Serapis, the divine equivalent of 

 Osiris, who was associated with the nocturnal sun-god of 

 Egypt ; | and Isis and Serapis were usually worshipped in the 

 same temple. 



A college of priests of Isis was founded at Rome, B.C., 80 ; 

 a temple was built there in honour of Osiris and Isis, B.C., 44 ; 

 and soon afterwards their festival was recognised by the official 

 calendar. A portrait exists of Prescennius Niger, who is repre- 

 sented amid the friends of Commodus, as celebrating the 

 mysteries of Isis. ^f 



The bust of Serapis appears on a gem with the legend 

 EIS 0Eos SARADIS. On another, Serapis is seated, whilst before 

 him stands Isis, with the legend H KYRIA isis AFNH, "the Virgin- 

 lady Isis." Her priests practised celibacy, the tonsure, and the 

 surplice ; and the flower she wore was the lotus. 



* On Watling Street. 



f Tamara, Isaca, Voliba, Uxella, Ischalis, Venta Belgarum, &c., Ptolemy. 

 | Vide "Hymn to Isis," Elton's Origins p. 340, and "Hymn to the sun-god 

 Ateu," Petrie's Hist, of EyyptTL. t 215. 



$ Tacitus, Hist. IV., 84. U Spartien. 



