i'OUND IN BRITAIN. 113 



to whom the dedication was made), was on the * upper portion of the 

 stone that has been lost. The question is, what that word can have 

 been. Hostibiis or gentibus would be an obvious suggestion, but I am 

 not aware of any example of diffusis used with either of these, and, 

 besides, neither seems to accord with ad utrumque oceanum. I am dis- 

 posed to supply either copiis or praesidiis (which may be supported by 

 Virgil, ^ueid, xi. 465), or castris, stationihus or prsetenturis, and«to 

 regard this stone as a memorial of the completion of the occupation of 

 the isthmus between Solway Firth and the mouth of the Tyne by a 

 chain of military posts. Jarrow church, where the stone was found, 

 was at a short distance from Wallsend, Segedunum, but on the oppo- 

 site side of the Tyne. The stone seems to have been taken across 

 the river. In accordance with these views, I would read the inscrip- 

 tion, (castris or prassidiis) dij-iisis (or diffas. in) provincid Britannid 

 ad utrumque oceanum exercitus, i. e., on the completion of military 

 posts in the province of Britain scattered along the line from one ocean 



to the other, the army of . After exercitus was, I think, the name 



either of the emperor or of the general in command. See Tacitus, 

 Annals, ii. 23. On the stone there is the fragment of a letter that may 

 have been N or M, and under ERCI of EXERCITVS are traces of 

 letters resembling IIV. 



(e) On the same page, we have an improved cut of a stone also found 



at J arrow : 



OMNIVM-FIL 

 HADR 

 ANICESCHAT 

 VATIS INCRR 

 II P ININC 

 II 

 The letters CESC in the third line, V and INC in the fourth line, 

 and the first IN in the fifth hne, are uncertain. Dr. Bruce remarks : 



* There may have been there, for any thing that we know to the contrary, 

 some such terms as MVRO PERFECTO PRAESIDIISQVE ; but this is, of 

 course, mere conjecture. I at one time hoped that the other inscription found in 

 Jarrow church, when more fully deciphered, would throw light on the completion 

 of the Wall ; for, so far as I could trace the characters, it seemed to record some- 

 thing done by Commodus, Severus or Caracalla to something that bore the name 

 of Hadrian. I even ventured to speculate that the word in that inscription after 

 Hadriani might turn out to be cespiiitium, but, from the appearance of the inscrip- 

 tion in Dr. Bruce's improved woodcut, that speculation has not been realized, 

 2 



