492 NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN BRITAIN. 
has yet been published. The most comprehensive catalogue, of 
which J am aware, is to be fuund in Henzen’s Index to Orelli’s 
Inscriptions, Vol. III, but even it, although very carefully prepared, 
and giving information up to 1856, is defective. There are some 
deities, named in inscriptions found in Britain, that are not 
mentioned in it. Amongst these is a god, whose name appears 
in three inscriptions found on the site of a Roman villa at Lydney, 
in Gloucestershire. The name in one is NODONTTI, in the dative 
ease ; in another NVDENTEH, which seems to be used for NVDENTL 
in the dative case; and in the third NODENTI, also in the dative 
case, and NODENTIS in the genitive case. The only explanation,* 
which I have seen relative to this deity, is contained in “ ‘he Romans 
in Gloucestershire,” a Lecture by the Rev. Samuel Lysons, M. A., 
London, 1860. Mr. L. regards the name of the deity as NODONS 
or NODENS, and identifies him with Aisculapius, on the following 
grounds: 
“The remains of a very considerable Roman building were discovered on an 
eminence in Lidney Park, on the forest side of our county, and carefully explored 
by the late Right Hon. Charles Bragge Bathurst. A very good series of interest- 
ing coins was then discovered, which is, I believe, still in possession of the present 
proprietor: but what adds great interest to that discovery was the finding of 
several votive tablets to a divinity, —which has caused no little speculation among 
antiquaries,—the god Nodens or Nodons. The difficulty was, to identify his name 
with the statues of the god himself, which were discovered at the same place, and 
bore all the characteristics of Aisculapius, viz. :—a dog, a cock, and serpents twining 
round a rod or staff, reminding one of Moses’ contest with the magicians of Egypt. 
Pausanias relates that Aisculapius was represented in his temple at Epidaurus, as 
leaning on a serpent with a dog at his feet ; and Plato, in his Phaedo, mentions the 
cock as sacred to the god of Medicine. * * * But a little reflection shows us how the 
Romans in their later occupation of this island had perverted Aisculapius’ Greek 
attribute of dyvédvuvos, the alleviator of pain (whence our term anodyne) into the 
deity, Nodons.’ 
The explanation offered by Mr. Lysons, does not commend itself 
tome. In the first place, there seems to be doubt as to the statues 
which were discovered. A learned correspondent, well versed in arch- 
xological investigations, informs me that the statues found there were 
terminal figures, one of Pan and the other probably of Diana. But, 
* The inscriptions are, I believe, given in Lysons’ Reliquie, but 1 am not able to consult 
that work. 
