THE ST. HILARY INSCRIBED STONE. 369 



true interpretation, by showing what is to be looked for ; the 

 official style of reciting the names and dignities of each Emperor 

 being pretty closely uniform. Thus the following inscription on 

 a similar stone found at Ancaster, in Leicestershire, is almost 

 identical with ours : — 



IMP. C 



PL. V. 



CONSTANTINO 



P. F. INV 



AUG 



DIVI 



CONSTANTI 



PII AVG 



FILIO. 



Date A.D. 308—337. 



This may have suggested the heading of the legend, which was ' 

 not conjectured by the previous enquirers, although really quite 

 the clear. It is not of great moment to which of the Constantines 

 stone belongs, as far as its more important bearing is concerned 

 but the father is the great figure in our minds in his association 

 with Christianity and the Eastern Empire. It is something too 

 that the date is thrown back some 25 years. 



Some portions of the lettering must be admitted to be very 

 obscure, but all that is of m^lch importance seems to me quite 

 clear ; the accompanying print represents the rubbing very faith- 

 fully ; and there can be no longer any hesitation in assigning the 

 inscription to the reign of Constantine the Glreat, early in the 

 fourth century. The stone is considered by Professor Hiibner to 

 be, without question, a Roman milestone ; and, while expressing 

 his wonder that in a district certainly much frequented by the 

 Romans so few traces of their occupation should have been 

 found, he adds that this miliary stone clearly proves the existence 

 of roads. This brings me to the consideration of this evidence. 



It would appear strange that so very few of these milestones, 

 which are believed to have been fixed under the Emp)ire, after 

 Hadrian, along the whole line of principal roads, should have 

 been discovered ; and, if they were indeed so numerous, their 

 present rarity must be attributed, in great 23art, to the convenience 

 of their form for building and farming purposes — the introduc- 

 tion of a new scale of measxirement having made them useless 

 for their original intention. The inscription would also be gen- 

 erally all but effaced by weathering ; as it has been entirely in 



