RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 247 



coins, and a Roman silver ring." Again, I find mentioned " A 

 Roman vessel of copper in which, a number of copper coins were 

 found." This last was exhibited at Penzance,*' by the Anti- 

 quarian Society of that town, on the occasion of the visit of the 

 British Archaeological Association. " Brass pots " full of coins, 

 — (by which perhaps copper vessels are meant), are stated to 

 have been found also in other localities.! 



The pewter bowl or cup (B) is the most interesting of the 

 Bossens relics. The inscription is on the flat interior of the 

 base, and has hitherto been wrongly given by those writers who 

 have published it. J 



In my address, at the Spring Meeting, 1887, I remarked 

 that it would be very desirable to obtain, if possible, the loan of 

 this cup, |] in order that we might inspect it, and exhibit it at one 

 of our ensuing Royal Institution Meetings. Hoping to effect 

 such an arrangement, I wrote to Mr. Arthur J. Evans, M.A., 

 F.S.A., the keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. He replied that he 

 regretted not being able to lend the cup, — the laws being absolute, 

 which prevent objects from being sent out of the Museum, — but 

 he offered me every facility if I would come to examine it, and 

 further, very kindly forwarded to me a copy of the legend which 

 corrects the reading hitherto received. 



Dr. Borlase was the first to publish a version of the lettering, 

 his words being: — ''The inscription, till better information, I 

 read thus, 



LIVIVS MODESTVS DRIVLI (or DqIVLI) FILIVS DEO MARTI. 



He explained that there was the letter f for filius, and that 

 the third word might be douiuli or duilii, its second letter being 

 either a Greek Rho or perhaps the Greek dipthong for ou, and 

 he considered that many of the characters in this Latin legend 

 were of Greek form. 



* Journal of the Brit. Archseological Assoc, Vol. 33, p. 203. 



f By the river Camel (Harrison). At Treryn (Leland). Borlase's Antiq., 

 2nd Ed., p. 300. 



J Borlase's Antiq., 2nd edition, p. 316, pi. 28. Philos. Transac, 51, p. 1, 

 1759, p. 13, &c. (and see other references in Hiibner, p. 13), Polwhele, Lysons, 

 &c. History of Cornwall (Lake). Vol. 1, p. 364, &c. 



|| Boyal Institution of Cornwall Journal, Vol. 9, p. 130. 



