550 LAPIDARIUM SEPTENTEIONALE. 



Dr. Brace expands it : — [lovi Optimo Maximo] Conservatori pre 



salute Marci Aurelii Antonini Augiisti Britannici Maximi ■ ■ 



lihens merito oh reditiijm — and offers the following remarks : 



" The formula at the close of the inscription, libens merito oh reditum, may 

 refer to the emperor for whose well-being the altar was reared, or to the dedi- 

 cant after his own return from some expedition or journey. It seems, however, ■ 

 most natural to regard the words as relating to the safe return of the emperor. 



" The emperor, in acknowledgment of whose safe return the altar was raised, 

 was probably Caracalla. As there is no mention on it of Severus or of G-eta, we 

 may safely infer that the occasion referred to was not the return to York from, 

 the Caledonian expedition, but the safe arrival of the emperor at Rome; and 

 that the altar was not carved until after the death of Geta. As the brothers did 

 not leave Britain until the summer of A.D. Ill, and the younger was murdered 

 in February, 112, the news of the arrival of the emperors in Rome would not 

 long anticipate the tidings of Geta's death. The sixth and seventh lines of the 

 inscription have been intentionally removed. 



" They no donbt contained the name and ofi&ce of the dedicator, who, not- 

 withstanding this piece of flattery, seems subsequently to have incurred the 

 tyrant's wrath. Neither friend nor foe was safe against his capricious cruelty. 



" At High Rochester we shall presently encounter a slab bearing a dedication 

 to Caracalla, when he was in possession of the tribunitian power for the nine- 

 teenth time (A.D. 216). From this inscription the name of the imperial legate 

 and propraetor, who had caused its erection, has purposely been removed. He 

 was probably the person who dedicated the altar we have now been examining." 



Dr. Bruce's reading of the inscription is different from that of 

 Hiibnerj who himself saw the stone. If IT MAX be correct, we 

 may supply BE, (i.e., Britannici Maximi), and it may be assumed 

 that the Emperor was Caracalla, when he was sole Augustus. But 

 even on this assumption, Dr. Bruce's view of the occasion of the 

 erection of the altar- seems highly improbable. It would be better 

 to refer the reditum to "the return" from Gaul, probably in January, 

 214 A.D. See Clinton's Fasti Romani, p. 224. But I much prefer 

 interpreting reditum as "the return" of the individual, whose names 

 are erased. It may be proper to notice that such violations of 

 syntax as oh reditu, pro victoriam, &c., are sometimes found, and that 

 the dates in Dr. Bruce's remarks should be A.D. 211 for "A.D. 

 lll,"t and A.D. 212 for "A.D. 112." 



In n. 551, an altar found at Bremsnium (High Bochester), is 

 figured. It bears the following inscription : — 



■)■ Even in " Notes and Emendations " mistakes have been overlooked. ' In 

 "Page 130, n. 253," we have Postumus for Postumius, and in "Page 335, el 

 643," Maximits occurs twice instead of Maximinus, 



