THE TEST. 147 



mans to latinize vernacular names, and Antona is so 

 like what they would probably have formed from 

 Hampton, that it may be reasonably suspected 

 that those places were called by that name as early 

 as the British times, and that, of course, its etymo- 

 logy must be traced to some higher source, com- 

 mon both to the British and Saxon. 



Be that as it may, I think that I shall be able to 

 show that the Romans called the Nen, which runs 

 by Northampton, the Anton; and the Test, on 

 which Southampton stands, the Anton ; and again, 

 the Arun which falls into the sea at Little Hamp- 

 ton, the Anton also. 



Tacitus, in his Annals, says that Ostorius esta- 

 blished a line of forts along the rivers Sabrina and 

 Antona. The Sabrina is no doubt the Severn, but 

 there has been a diversity of opinion about the 

 Antona. Lipsius pronounced decidedly that the 

 Antona was the Nen. Camden was likewise of 

 opinion that Tacitus meant the Nen, but he sus- 

 pected that the word Antona was an error of trans- 

 scription for Aufona. In this he was probably 

 mistaken, for Aufona is surely the Avon ; and as 

 Camden agrees with Lipsius, that Ostorius' forts 

 were along the Nen, it seems gratuitous to call 

 the Nen by the name appropriate to the Avon, 

 contrary, I believe, to all the MSS. of Tacitus. 



Richard of Cirencester (who wrote long before 

 either Lipsius or Camden, but who was unknown 



