354 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



there, and it is far distant from the scene of the battle, wMcli proba- 

 bly took place not far from London. Can it have been that the 

 fourteenth legion was with Suetonius when he crossed over to Mona 

 (Anglesey), and that on his htirried march back from Wales, Petro- 

 nius was killed, or died of fatigue, at or near TJrioconium, by which 

 route it is probable that Suetonius proceeded to London ? But it 

 is scarcely worth while to dwell on conjectures formed on such 

 slight foundations ; it is more important to observe that this in- 

 scription is the only extant British memorial of the " domitores 

 Britannise."* 



15. Of the many inscriptions found at Risingham, (the ancient 

 name of which is supposed to have been I£abifaneum,)f one of 

 the most interesting is an ornamented slab, six feet in length- 

 having an inscription which it is more than usually difficult to deci- 

 pher in consequence of the great number of ligulate letters, and the 

 injuries which the stone has sustained It is figured in Dr. Bruce's 

 Soman Wall, p. 287, and in Dr. Surridge's Notices of Soman In- 



* This stone has escaped the notice of Mr. "Wellbeloved, for he states (Eburacum, p. 33), 

 witli reference to the fourteenth legion, Uiat " it is not mentioned on any tile or in any in- 

 scription found in Britain." 



t This supposition originated with Camden, who formed it on the authority of an altar 

 which was found there, with HABITANCI on it. His conjecture derives support from 

 Mr. Ward's reading of the words that follow HABITANCI, as PRIMA STA[TIONE], 

 •which accord with the position of Risingham, north of the wall on Watling Street. It 

 must be borne in mind, however, that there is no notice in any ancient author of any 

 place in Britain called Hahitancum. But Horsley {Britannia Eomana, p. 354) remarks :— 

 "It may sometimes so happen, that the name of a place may be in an inscription which we 

 meet with no where else. And of this there is in fact an instance or two in Britain ; name- 

 ly, Bracchium at BrugJi in Kichmondshire, and Ilahitancwm at Hisingham in Northumber- 

 land. To these perhaps may be added Apiatorium, in the inscription now in the library at 

 Durham, which is probably Neivcastle, if the altar was found there, and also Alaterva for 

 Oramond in Scotland." The examples, cited by Horsley, prove the danger of depending on 

 such authority for names otherwise unknown. Braochio, which occurs in the inscription 

 given by Horsley, p. 313, is plainly not the name of a place, but the designation of " a line 

 of communication," as Mr. Gale correctly explained it. Vide Camden, ed. Gough, iii. p. 331. 

 and add to the references given there, Livy, iv, 9; xxii. 52; and xxxviii. 5. Apiatorio, in 

 n. Ixxvii, Northumberland, is also not the name of a place, but of a person, for it should 

 toe read A- PLATORIO ; and tlie individual named in it is Aulus Platorius Nepos, who 

 was Legate under Hadrian. ALATERVIS, in n. xxix, Scotland, is an epithet of the Dem 

 Matres, and seems to me derived from abroad, probably from the neighbourhood of the 

 Meuse or the Rhine, for the altar was erected by a Tungrian cohort. Possibly there was 

 some connection between them and the goddess Alateivia, worshipped amongst the 

 Ougerni. Vide Henzen, n. 5865. It is scarcely necessary to add, that there is no ground 

 for the conjecture of Sir J. Clark (Stuart's Caledonia Romana, p. 171,) "that Ptolemy 

 ' probably made a mistake, when translating Alatervum or Alaterva castra into Greek, 

 and that the latter is the true reading of his irTepwrhv iTTpaT6Tre5oi'." 



