VOL. XLIX.] rHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 62/ 



which has been already published in the 48th vol. of the Philos. Trans. The 

 altars, which contain them, are in the possession of Dr. William Oliver, physi- 

 cian at Bath, who has placed them in his garden, and who transmitted draughts 

 of them, with their inscriptions, taken by the Rev. Mr. Borlase, f.r.s. And 

 after that, Mr. Prince Hoare sent casts of the inscriptions in plaster of Paris. 



The inscTiption on the higher altar may, Dr. W. thinks, be thus read in words 

 at length: 



Peregrinus Secundijilius, civis Trever, Jovi Cetio, Marti, et Nemetona, votum 

 solvit libens merito. 



The person, who dedicated this altar, calls himself Peregrinvs Secvndi 

 FiLivs ; each of which names occurs several times in Gruter, as a cognomen, 

 which often stands alone, when the person named is sufficiently distinguished by 

 it. Having given us his own name, and that of his father, he proceeds to ac- 

 quaint us with his country, and stiles himself Civis Trever, a people who in- 

 habited that part of Belgic Gaul between the Maese and the Rhine, which is 

 now the electorate of Triers; and were conquered by Caesar, with the rest of 

 the Gallic nations. Their chief city, which was situated on the Moselle, being 

 made a Roman colony in the reign of Augustus, is by Tacitus called Colonia 

 Treverorum, but by others more frec^uently Augusta Treverorum, and now 

 Triers. 



The 3 following lines of the inscription contain the names of 3 deities, to 

 whom this altar was dedicated. The first of these is here called Ivpiter Cetivs. 

 Ptolemy makes mention of a large mountain in Germany, which he calls Kino?, 

 and describes as the eastern boundary of Noricum, by which it was separated 

 from Pannonia, now Hungary. From this mountain it seems highly probable, 

 that the name Cetius might be given to Jupiter, as its tutelar deity. 



The 3d and last name here mentioned, is Nemetona, which Dr. W. had no 

 where else met with ; but as it stands connected with the two former by the par- 

 ticle ET, it must, he thinks, denote some deity, and by the termination a god- 

 dess. The last line of the inscription acquaints us with the cause of erecting 

 this altar, which was the performance of some vow, formerly made by Peregrinus. 

 And it is not improbable, that he had laboured under some bodily disorder, 

 which occasioned his going to Bath for the benefit of the waters, which in the 

 time of the Romans were in so high esteem. And the good success which he 

 met with by the use of them, may be concluded from the tenor of the inscrip- 

 tion, wherein he makes his acknowledgement to the deities above-mentioned, 

 for the benefit he had received through their favour, in consequence of his ad- 

 dresses to them for that purpose. For as it was a common notion of the ancient 

 pagans, that all human affairs were under the direction of their deities; so in 

 any danger or misfortune they used to solicit them for relief, with vows and pro- 



4l'2 



