ANCIENT CARVED STONE. 3 



The learned editor then cites the principal parts of Mr. Hodgson's 

 remarks, as given above. On comparing the two representations of 

 the carvings on the stone, it appears that the twisted snake-like form 

 of the tail of the bird, as given in the sketch supplied by Mr. Hodgson, 

 is not observable in Dr. Bruce's wood-cut. Nor can there be, in my 

 judgment, any reasonable doubt that the bird ^was intended to 

 represent a cock. As to the circular object in the right hand angle, 

 with intersecting lines, it seems to me to be nothing more than the 

 representation of an ordinary loaf of ancient Italian bi'ead, which, W8 

 know, was thus divided into four -psa^ts—quadrce. Thus we have in 

 Yii-gil, JUn. vii., vv. 114, 115 — 



^t violare mamt malisque midacihus orbem 

 Fatalis crusti, f-atulis nee parcere quadris. 



And in his Moretum, vv. 48, 49 — 



Lcevat opus, pahnisque suum dilatat in orbem 

 Et notat, impressis cequo discrimine quadris. 



Quadra tYms, may be used here for quarta, and the two objects — the 

 gallus (standing for Galli,) and the quadra (standing for quarta^ — 

 may symbolize the Gallorum Quarta, the ^ 4th cohort of Gauls. Now, 

 from the Notitia we learn that this cohort was stationed in Britain, 

 "jaer lineam valli" at Vindolana, and two altars (with a commemorative 

 slab), erected by commanding officers of this cohort (see Lajndarium, 

 nn. 244, 251, 262), that were foimd at Chesterholm, identify the two 

 places. So far there can, I think, be little or no doubt of the meaning 

 of the symbols. But wliat are the objects represented at the vertical 

 angle ] 



Mr. Hodgson regarded them as the sun, the moon, and the cross ; 

 and his opinion seems to be correct as to the first two, so that the 

 only question regai-ding them is — What do they symbolize 1 A refer- 

 ence to the use of the representations of chese celestial bodies on 

 ancient Roman coins will prove that they were on them the symbols 

 of eternity. Thus on a coin desciibed by Eckhel, vii., p. 181, we 

 find the heads of Severus and Julia Domna, the first radiatum, the 



^ On an ancient monumental stone of the Roman period, lately found at Sea 

 Mills, near Clifton, in Somersetshire (for a drawing of which I am indebted to 

 the Rev. H. M. Scarth), a similar bird is represented. 



* We have memorials of three regiments of Gauls in Britain — Ala 11 Gallorum 

 rSehosiana, Cohors II Gallorum, and Gohors 1111 Gallorum. 



