578 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1755. 



as Severus resided here for about 3 of his last years, and died at York ; it seems 

 most probable that this monument was set up within that time. And to this 

 both the form of the letters on the inscription very well agree, and the ligature of 

 the two letters G and A at the end of it. Fabretti observes, that these equites 

 singulares had a burying-place allotted them at Rome, in the Via Labicana, not 

 far from the sepulchre of the empress Helena. Several of their monuments have 

 been found in that cemetery, adorned at the top with a human figure, lying on 

 a couch ; and below the inscription, a horse with trappings, and a boy holding 

 a whip. And if any such are met with elsewhere, they have, as he supposes, 

 been removed from thence. Montfaucon has given a draught of one of those 

 monuments, which contains the inscription recited above, and answers to this 

 description of Fabretti, both as to the human figure, and that of the horse ; 

 the former of which has a patera in the left hand, and a mask is suspended at 

 each end of the couch ; and the boy, who is there wanting, he found on an- 

 other. Those ornaments might very probably be omitted on such monuments, 

 when erected in the provinces ; and it is plain there could not be room for the 

 human figure above the inscription in this of Mai ton. At which place, as Mr. 

 Borwick says in his letter, many urns, coins, and other remains of antiquity, 

 have been found, in and about the Pye Pits ; whence he supposes it to have been 

 a cemetery for some Roman garrison. 



In one inscription the emperor Commodus is himself called eques singularis, 

 for the explication of which character recourse must be had to the accounts given 

 by historians of his life and actions. And among other instances of his base and 

 infamous conduct, he is said to have demeaned himself to that degree, as to act 

 a part in most of the public games that were celebrated at Rome. Thus, one 

 of his diversions was to attack wild animals in the amphitheatre ; at which ex- 

 ercise he was so expert, as never to miss his aim in killing them, either with a 

 javelin or an arrow. He would often combat with the gladiators, and was so 

 fond of that character, that he assumed the name of one of them, who had been 

 very famous. At other times he would act as a charioteer in the Circus. He 

 joined also in the athletic exercises, and was at last strangled by a champion, 

 with whom he had formerly engaged. Dr. W. does not find indeed, that he is ever 

 mentioned by historians as a racer on a single horse, which is the character given 

 him in the inscription ; as appears from Isidore, who calls them equites singu- 

 lares, as distinguished from the desultores. But that horse-racing was also one of his 

 recreations, we learn from a passage in Dion Cassius ; who says that Commodus 

 came once to Rome on a sudden, when he was not expected, and exhibited a race of 

 30 horses in the space of 2 hours. It is not improbable therefore, that he might 

 sometimes take a part in that exercise, as well as in those above mentioned. And 

 as he affected to have all his actions, however shameful or ridiculous, publicly 



