366 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I7I8. 



Per Maecilium Fuscum Lepatum 



<• Augustalem Propraetoren) curante Marco Aurelio 



^i Quirino Praefecto Cohortis primae Legionis Gordianas. 



From these two inscriptions compared togetiier, it will be apparent, that 

 they were not only erected under the same emperor, but by the care of the very 

 same person Aurelius Quirinus, though not in the same year. The emperor 

 can be no other than Gordianus the youngest, or third of that name : the two 

 former having been slain so very soon after they had assumed the purple, that 

 it is improbable they should have given any orders or commands for the erecting 

 of new, and repairing of ancient buildings, in so remote a province as Britain 

 was from Africa, where they were murdered after a short joint reign of scarce 

 7 weeks. 



The first inscription informs us, that the Emperor Gordian built the balneum 

 and basilica, a solo, from the ground ; whereas, by the second he appears to 

 have been only the repairer of the principia and armamentaria. As this emi- 

 nent building was erected by the emperor's command, it is an undeniable argu- 

 ment of the splendour of this town, as are the great heaps of rubbish, and 

 ruins, where this inscription was found, of its size and extent. 



The second inscription equally puts the being of the castrum stativum out of 

 dispute, when it acquaints us with the rebuilding of the armamentaria and 

 principia there, that is the arsenals and quarters either of the legionary soldiers, 

 called the principes, or the place where the eagles and other military ensigns 

 were kept. It is probable they did not belong to one particular legion, but to 

 several, as they had occasion to be employed here ; though the legio sexta 

 victrix seems to have the best title to them, as being constantly quartered in the 

 north ; whereas, the legio secunda, and vicesima were generally garrisoned, the 

 first at Caerleon in Wales, and Richburrow in Kent, and the other at and about 

 Chester ; so that the monuments they have left in the north were erected by 

 them, when the wars, and other works, as particularly the walls carried cross 

 the island, called them thither ; which being finished, they returned home to 

 their more southern quarters, and continued in them till commanded abroad on 

 new services. I will not pretend to determine when these armamentaria and 

 principia first fell to ruin ; perhaps it might be when Adrian, Lollius Urbicus, 

 and Severus had carried their conquests farther into the enemy's country, and 

 having built those famous walls, the relics of which we still see in the shire of 

 Stirling in Scotland, and in Northumberland and Cumberland in England, that 

 this camp might be thought useless, the Roman forces being drawn nearer to, 

 and quartered on the frontiers ; and so this fortress abandoned and suffered to 



