114 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS 



" All that caa be said of this inscription (which is still more imperfect) is, that 

 it seems to have been erected in honour of all the adopted sons of Hadrian, of 

 whom Antoninus Pius, his successor, was one." 



The expansion that has been adopted by Dr. Bruce is, of course, 

 omnium filiorum Hadnani. The obvious question is, who were all 

 these sons of Hadrian ? He had none of his own, so that reference 

 must be made to his sons by adoption, one of whom and the best known 

 was Antoninus Pius. But who were the others ? We know L. JElius 

 Vanis, but there our knowledge ends. It is plain that omnes cannot 

 have been applied to two, and the only way to get over the difficulty is 

 to supplement the adoption of Verus and Antoninus by the addition of 

 M. Annius Verus and Lucius Verus, who were chosen by Hadrian for 

 adoption by Antoninus. Again, another question arises — how does it 

 happen that Hadrian has none of the usual imperial titles ? Even if 

 the letters after ANI be CES, they cannot be regarded as standing for 

 CAES = Csesaris, for this title would not have been placed in such a 

 position. It seems probable to me that FIL is a misreading for EEL, 

 the first three letters of FELICISSIMI. The name and titles of the 

 emperor were on the upper part of the stone, which has been lost, and 

 that emperor was, not improbably, Gommodus, Severus, or Caracalla. 



(/) In p. 401, we have a copy of an inscription in Iambics, found 

 at Carvoran. The last three verses are-^ 



"//a intellexit numine inductus tuo, 

 Marcus CcecUius Donatianus militans 

 Tribunus in Prcefecto dono Principis." 



Dr. Bruce translates it thus : 



" Thus hath understood, overspread by thy protecting influence, Marcus Cseci- 

 lius Donatinus, a warfaring tribune acting as prefect by favour of the emperoi\" 



The translation is the same as that in the second edition, with the 

 exception of the words, " acting as prefect by favour," which are sub- 

 stituted, as stated by Dr. Bruce in a note, in accordance with the inter- 

 pretation proposed by me in Brit. Rom. Inscrip., p. 298. Numine 

 inductus tuo does not mean " overspread by thy protecting influence," 

 but " led to this conclusion," ■'' persuaded" "by thy divine influence." 

 Again, militans does not mean "warfaring," but simply "serving," 

 so that the meaning of militans Trihunus in Prsefecto may be more 

 clearly expressed by " serving not only as prsefect, but also as tribune." 

 Donatianus (not Donatinus'), whilst he was prmfectus equitum, was 

 allowed by the emperor also to hold the rank of tribunus militum, as 



