FOUND IN BRITAIN. 353 



The third emendation is confirmed by reference to Orelli, n. 3461, 

 where we have PEINCIPALIS BENEPICIAEIVS TEIBVNI, 

 and Henzen, n. 6791, where we find PBP for principalis henejlciarius 

 prcefecti; but in consequence of the collocation of the abbreviations 

 in this inscription, it is doubtful whether we should not here read, 

 Benejiciarius legionis prcBfeeti. 



14. A third stone bore the following inscription : 



M PETEONITS M[arcus] Petronius,* 



,L F MEN L[ucii] f[iliusj, Men[euia] tribu, 



VIC ANN vix[it] ann[is] 



XXXVIII XXXVIII, 



MIL LEG- mil[es] leg[ionis] 



XIIII G-EM XIV gem[in»], 



MILITAVIT militavit 



ANN XVIII annfis] XVIII, 



SIGN FVIT Sign[ifer] fuit, 



H S E h[ic] s[itus] e[st]. 



Mr. Scarth notices the ingenious conjecture of a friend : — 



" That Petronius was a bearer of one of the Signa of the fourteenth legion in 

 the famous victory over Boadieea, A.D. 61. This legion arrived in Britain in 

 A.D. 43, when Petronius being only twenty years old was a Miles gregarius, and 

 subsequently for his valour, perhaps under Ostorius Scapula, raised to the rank of 

 Signifer. It could not have been much later, for in A.D. 68 the fourteenth legion 

 was quartered in Dalmatia, (Tacitus.) He may have died in consequence of his 

 wounds in the year 61." 



It is manifestly impossible to prove the truth of this conjecture 

 for the fourteenth legion, after their recal from the island under 

 Nero, were sent back in the year 69, and Petronius may have come 

 with them then and died before they were again recalled in the year 

 70. The conjecture, however, is countenanced by the coincidence, 

 that his period of service, viz. : 18 years, is the same as the intreval 

 between the first arrival of the legion in A.D. 43, and the battle in 

 A.D. 61. But how shall we account for his burial at "CTrioconium ? 

 We have no evidence that the fourteenth legion was ever stationed 



* It is not unworthy of notice, that in an inscription found in Fritzheim (Orelli, n. 501), 

 we have the same name of another soldier of this legion, a native of Claudia Celeia, in, 

 Noricum. He, however, was the sou of Caius, and had a brother, whose prsenomen was 

 Caius. 



