VOL. XLVia.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 419 



LI. An Attempt to explain an /Ancient Roman Inscription, cut on a Stone lately 

 found at Bath. By John JVard, LL.D., F.P.R.S. p. 332. 



The stone was discovered on the 2'2d of June last, about 5 feet under ground, 

 in digging the cellar of a house, rebuilding at the lower end of Stall-street. 

 Among the rubbish of the old house, when it was pulled down, was a large 

 quantity of walling stone, which had on it the marks of fire : so that probably 

 some building had formerly stood there, which was burnt. And in sinking the 

 ground about 4 or 5 feet lower th^n the stone, they found 2 coins of the em- 

 peror Carausius, in base metal, and very much defaced. In July 1727 the 

 beautiful gilt head, which is now preserved in the town house, was dug up at 

 the other end of this street, not far from the King's bath, about 16 feet below 

 the surface of the earth, as they were making a common sewer through the 

 town. 



The stone, on which this inscription is cut, has been generally taken for a 

 pedestal, either of a statue, or some other solid body, which it once supported. 

 Though from the appearance of the horizontal plane at the top Mr. Prince 

 Hoare, the ingenious statuary at Bath, is of opinion, that nothing was formerly 

 placed on it ; and supposes that the sinking in the middle, with the 2 lines 

 erased, one on each side, might be made merely for ornament. Besides, the 

 face and 2 sides only are finished ; the back being flat, as if it was designed to 

 stand against a wall. The height of it, which is very near 3 feet ; as also the 

 form both of the stone itself, and the plane above mentioned ; appear by the 

 draughts of them taken by Mr. Hoare. From a careful examination of the 

 whole inscription, as it appeared in the cast taken by Mr. Hoare, Dr. W. copied 

 it in the draught of the stone ; and endeavoured to express the several letters in 

 their proper form and proportional size, with the ligatures, divisions of the 

 words, and their situations in each line, in the most exact manner he was capable 

 of doing it. And on considering the whole in this view, he offers the following 

 reading in words at length, as what appears to him the most probable : 

 Locum religiosum, per insolentiam erutum, 

 virtuti et numini Augusti repurgatum 

 reddidit Caius Severius Emeritus, centurio, 

 sua pecunia. 

 Dr. Ward thinks this a monumental stone, brought from some Roman burial 

 place. 



But who the reigning emperor was, at the time this stone was set up, no in- 

 timation is given in the inscription. Though, if one may be allowed to conjec- 

 ture, the form of the letters suits very well with some others in the reign of 



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