246 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN BRITAIN. 
to this view, the inscription denotes that ‘“ Julius Alexander to his 
most affectionate wife, and Julius Felicianus to his excellent mother, 
caused [this memorial | to be made.” 
48. In 1848, Lord Palmerston presented to the British Museum a 
pig of lead, found at Carthagena in Spain, which bears the follow- 
ing inscription :* 
M:P: ROSCIBIS: M: F: MAIC. 
This inscription is identical with that on the block in the Collec- 
tion of Antiquities at the Bibliotheque Imperiale at Paris, which was 
also found in Spain. Mr. Way (in an excellent article on “The 
Relics of Roman Metallurgy,” im the Journal of the Archeological 
Institute, n. 61) notices a reading in extenso suggested by Mr. New- 
ton, scil. Marcus Publius Roscius, Marci filius, Mecia [tribu]. This 
does not appear to me satisfactory. On comparing it with Henzen’s 
n. 5733, beginning M: P: VERTVLEIEIS: C: F-, I am inclined to 
regard ROSCIEIS as an archaic form of the nominative plural, M*P-« 
as standing for Marcus and Publius, and M:F for Maret filit. 
MAEC: may be an abbreviation of MAECII, for we know that 
Mecius was amongst the names borne by members of the Roscian 
gens e. gr. Orelli, n. 4952: 
L: ROSCIO:M:F: QVI 
AELIANO: MAECIO 
CELERI, 
But I prefer Mr. Newton’s MAEC[IA] ériéu. Thus we have in. 
Fabretti, p. 240. 
L- RVSTICELLIVS: C: SCA [i.e. Scaptia tribe] 
M- CVSINIVS: M: F: VEL [i.e. Velina tribu] 
The omission of the cognomen is an evidence of rare antiquity in Latin 
Epigraphy and the same is indicated by the termination eis. 
Henzen, (in a paper on the inscription n. 5733, published in 
Bulletin dell’ Institut. di Correspond. Arch. Rome, 1845, and 
translated by Mr. Key, in Proceedings of Philological Society, vol. 
vi. p. 179) states that he has not met with this form of the nomina- 
* The interesting character of this inscription will, I trust, be deemed a sufficient apology 
for my introducing some remarks on it, although not found in Britain. Ina future Part I 
purpose taking up the inscriptions on the pigs of lead, of the Roman period, which have 
been found in Britain. 
