220 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



The various explanations, that had been proposed up to 1842, were 

 collected by Mr. Wellbeloved in his Eboracum, and are given in my 

 ** Britanno-Roman Inscriptions " in an extract from that work. To 

 these I there added Mr. Kenrick's recent interpretation of GVBER 

 •as Gubernator, soil, pilot or steersman, "having charge of the ves- 

 sels, by means of which the legion communicated with places on the 

 Ouse, or the rivers that fall into it." The only suggestions, which I 

 offered, were — the reading of the first line, as MAT'AFLIA'GAV, 

 i.e. Matribus Afliabus Qavadiis, (see Henzen, nn. 5929, 5937), and 

 the reading of the second line, as M'MINV'NANDE, instead of 

 M-MINV-MVDE or M-MINV-ANDE, which had been proposed 

 by others — with the remark that I regarded Mr. Kenrick's explana- 

 tion of GUBER" as more satisfactory than any of which I was aware. 

 I indicated, however, that I was not satisfied that the correct reading 

 had been found. I have therefore occasionally made other attempts, 

 and now submit the result of these efforts as more satisfactory 

 than the explanations that have hitherto been proposed. As to 

 the first line, I adhere to the reading which I suggested, MAT° 

 AFLIA'GAV, as the most probable of which I am aware ; although 

 it has since occurred to me that the last letters may have been Ci\. or 

 CAM • for Campestribus. The second line I would read also as be- 

 fore — M'MINV'NANDE, but instead of taking Nande for the name 

 of a place, I would separate the letters thus, NAN -DE. GVBER 

 seems to me to be used in the same sense, as it is found in the Fasti 

 Antiatini, ed. Henzen, n. 6445, on which* that able Epigraphist re- 

 marks : [GVBER"] "Ita scriptum pro gibber, gm" ut pumilio (n. 

 Bill,) infamiliis nobilium colebatur, ut ludicro ejus spectaculo delec- 

 taretur." My view then is that this altar was erected by the hunch- 

 back dwarf of the sixth legion, called by the soldiers in fun, from his 

 mzQ,- Minutius\ Nanus ;% and hence we may explain the unusual 



• Mommsen, however, takes GVBER ia that passage for gubernator, for which, ho ob- 

 serves, it is often placed. 



t Similar applications of names were not uncommon amongst the Eomans. It is well 



known that some of the cognomina were derived from personal characteristics, and we are 



. not without examples oinomina given in jest, e. gr. Censorinus, as we learn from Trebellius 



Pollio, Triginta Tyranni, was called Claudius, with reference to his lameness, Scurrarum 



joco. 



t The practice of having pumiliones or nani may he illustrated from Suetonius, Tiberiua, 

 c. 61: — Interrogatum eum subito et dare a quodam nano, adstante mensts inter copreas; 

 Juvenal, viii. 32 Nanum ciijusdam Atlanta vocamus; and Lampridius, Alexander Severug, 

 84.— Nanos et Nanas, et moriones populo donavit. In addition to these, already cited by 

 Faflciolati, see Pliny, vii. 16 ; Suetoni'.is, Augustus, 43 ; Propertius, iv. 8, 41 ; and compare 

 Xiphilinus, Ixvii. 8 ; Horace. Sat. ii. 3, 308; and Statins, Silv. i. 6, 57. 



It may be that NAN was used in jest, as if it were the abbreviation of a tribe, ».«., 

 Marcns Minutius Nania tribu. 



