INSCRIBED RoMAN STONES OF DUMFRIESSHIRE. 129 
a 
anctum and Bremenium on the east. Whether it was used as a 
basis for carrying on operations beyond, is another and a different 
question. The fact that both the northern Iters extended but a 
short distance north of the wall is significant. The Romans cer- 
tainly pushed their arms much further, even beyond the Vallum 
raised by Lollius Urbicus, the Preetor of Pius, across the Upper 
or Forth and Clyde Isthmus. But so far as there is any evi- 
dence bearing on the point it goes to shew that they generally 
advanced northwards, having York as their headquarters, and 
taking an easterly rather than a westerly route. Moreover, it 
would seem as if they looked upon the territory between the 
Walls as a protectorate rather than an integral part of the empire, 
subject to its administrative rules. It was the policy of Hadrian 
and some of his successors to strengthen the more exposed frontiers 
by cultivating friendly relations with the neighbouring tribes, who 
thus became first exposed to attack. Such an arrangement would be 
the more easily effected for the frontier of the province of Britain, 
if, as is possible, racial differences and antipathies could be utilised 
for the purpose.* At all events, by accepting this view of the 
relation of the Romans to the country north vf the Southern Wall, 
several diffculties disappear, and we need feel no surprise that the 
official Iters seem to end somewhat abruptly. 
During the occupation of Birrens by the Romans its garrison, 
so far as we can judge from the evidence before us, was mainly 
composed of the Second Cohort of Tungrians, a people of Germanic 
origin that had settled in Gaul, and whose name survives in the 
modern Tongres, or Tongern, in the province of Limberg, Belgium. 
The First Cohort of Germans, called ‘‘ Nervana,” or a portion of it, 
was there for a short time, as well as a detachment, likely a small 
one, of the Sixth Legion. The fact that foreign auxiliaries consti- 
tuted so large a proportion of the defenders of Birrens accounts for 
so many of the altars being dedicated to unknown divinities, such 
as Harimella. Brigantia was probably a native deity worshipped 
by the Brigantes, a powerful tribe in possession of the greater part 
of the north of England at the time of the Roman invasion. 
To the question, how.long the Romans occupied Birrens, 
the inscribed stones, in the absence of dates, give no answer. All 
* See Map of Britain, ‘‘ showing the relative positions of its chief peoples 
during the Roman occupation,” in Prof. Rhys’s Celtic Britain. 
