NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN BRITAIN. 285 
I:0:M-TANARO 
T:- ELVPIVS: GALER 
PRAESENS : GVNTIA 
PRI- LEG: XxX:-V:V 
COMMODO ET 
LATERANO COS 
VS die MM 
Of the interpretations which have been proposed, the most extrae 
ordinary is that given by De Wal, in his Mythologie Septentrionalis 
Monumenta. He expands it thus : 
“ Jovi Optimo Maximo Tanaro, 
Titus Elupius, Galeria tribu, 
et Presens, Guntia trzbu, 
Primipilares legionis xx Valerie Victricis, 
Commodo et 
Laterano consulibus, 
Votum solvunt lubenter merito.”’ 
The obvious objections to this rendering are, that there is no 
eround for supposing that the altar was erected by two persons, 
and that there is no authority for a tribe called Guntia. I can 
see no reason for rejecting the opinion adopted by Horsley (Bri- 
tannia Romana, p. 315), and Orelli (n. 2054), that GVNTIA is the 
name of the birth-place of Titus Elupius Presens, scil. Guntia, 
a town in Vindelicia. The legitimus ordo nominum, from the pre- 
nomen to the patria, is thus preserved, with the exception, indeed, of 
the nomen patris, but that is omitted in the inscription. Gough’s 
objection (Camden's Britannia, vol. iv. p. 89) to the position of the 
tribe (Galeria) between the names (Elupius and Presens), with his 
consequent preference of Galerius, is not worth considering ; for it 
is plain that he was not aware that, in the normal arrangement of 
Latin names, the nomen patris and tribus come between the nomen 
gentilicium and the cognomen. And yet Mr. Wright (Celt, Roman, 
and Saxon, p. 260), influenced perhaps by the objection, gives 
Galerius. 
Horsley suggests a doubt whether we should read PRI for prim- 
pilus, or PRE for prefectus ; but there seems no ground for ques- 
tioning the received reading. With Henzen, however, I think it 
uncertain whether we should regard it as standing for primipilus or 
