LAPIDARIUM SEPTENTRIONALE. 547 



a station as Cilurnum would be destitute of an amphitheatre for the entertain- 

 ment of the military. On the bank of the river, between the station and the 

 ' Oxclose,' there are some semicircular recesses well adapted for the formation of 

 an amphitheatre. The stone before us was found in this locality ; when entire 

 it would be a fitting head-stone for the principal entrance. For the view here 

 given the author is indebted to Signor Montiroli, of Rome, the designer of the 

 internal decorations of Alnwick Castle." 



In tlie Canadian Journal, Vol. XII, 1873, p. 2, we find the fol- 

 lowing note referring to these observations : — 



" Many memorials of the worship of Mithras have been found in Britain, and 

 some of them are symbolical. In the Lapidarium Septenlrionale, n. 150, a scene 

 of this class is represented. A lion stands over a human figure lying down, with 

 one paw raised to the head of the figure, and at the side is another human figure 

 seated, with apparently a flag in one hand and a wand in the other. Mr. Hodg- 

 son regards the seated figure as representing Mithras, and adds, ' I would hazard 

 a conjecture that the whole relates to the Mithraic rites called Leontica.' This 

 conjecture is certainly well-founded, for this scene of a lion standing over a 

 human figure lying down is often represented on Mithraic stones. See Mr. 

 King's Gnostics, Plate II, 1, and XI, 4. The term Leo was the designation of a 

 person admitted to the fourth step among Mithraists, and part of the ceremonial 

 of initiation was for the neophyte to simulate death. 



" The seated figure I take to be a representation of the officer under whose 

 supervision the candidates for the fourth step passed through the preliminary 

 rites ; and I identify him with the pater leomim, or, it may be, pater patrum or 

 pater sacronmi, under whom prosedente the ceremonial took place. See Henzen, 

 nn. 5846, 6038, 6042«, 60426. Part of a similar figure seems to be on a fragment 

 figured D. 68, Lapidarium Septentrionale. The pater patrum may be regarded 

 as=Grand Master, or his deputy, pater ^eom<'/i=Master of the Lion Lodge, and 

 pater s acrorioji^Chaplain. In n. 65 of the same work, an altar is figured, bear- 

 ing an inscription DEO, 'To the God.' Dr. Bruce properly refers it to Mithras, 

 but has not noticed that the palm-branch on each side, with the wreath or crown 

 in which the letters DEO are cut, are symbols of INVICTO, a term frequently 

 applied to this god. We have also an example of the single word INVICTO, 

 ' To the unconquered one' — denoting Mithras. See Henzen, n. 5846." 



And yet there is no mention in the " Additions, Notes, and Emen- 

 dations," in Part V., of this most satisfactory interpretation of the 

 scene represented in the sculpture. 



Again, we have another omission of a similar kind; in n. 270, a 

 sculpture, found at Vindolana, Chesterholm, is figured, and the 

 following are Dr. Bruce's observations on it : — 



" This is a triangular stone, of which the left-hand corner has been broken off 

 and lost. The carving has been rudely executed. Hodgson says that when he 

 first saw it, it was in the wall of the farm-house of Low Foggerish, which is 

 about half a mile south of Chesterholm. 



