80 SYLtA CRITICA CANADEKSllTM. 



Blagabalus was slain by the infuriated soldiery at Eome, and the second ala of 

 Asturians, at Ciliirnum, sympathizing with them, erased, though not entirely, 

 the second G at the end of the first line, and that at the end of the inscription 

 (VIRTVS AVGG) in the hands of the standard-bearer, as well as the whole of 

 the third line of the principal inscription, Which was probably an epithet which 

 the ala had been permitted to assume, by favour of the unfortunate Emperor 

 when he was a popular idol." 



I now subjoin the remarks wliicli appeared in the Journal in 1873 : 



"The inscription, given by Orelli,* n. 864, confirms Dr. Bruce's view of the 

 meaning:— 2 AABQ KQMMOAQ $HAlS $AY2TE1NA, i. e., Salvo Commodo 

 felix Faustina, but his reference of AVGG to Elagabalus and Severus Alexander 

 is certainly incorrect. So far as we are aware, there is no example of the 

 application of the term Augusti to those two Emperors. Nor is there any 

 evidence that they were united under that name. To us it seems highly pro- 

 bable that the two Augusti were Caracalla and Geta, that the date is A.D. 211, 

 after the death of Severus, and that the second G was erased after the murder 

 of Geta, in A. D. 212. But the most interesting result of this discovery is, that 

 the inscription throws light on another which unfortunately is lost. It is given 

 from Horsley, in the Lapidarimn Septentrionale, n. 27, and in Britanno- Roman 

 Inscriptions, p. 133 : 



"VIOTORIAE 

 * * GGALEE 

 N S SENECIO 

 N COS FELIX 

 ALA I ASTO 

 [RV]M PEA 



"Of the true reading of the main part of the inscription there can be but 

 little doubt. It is — Victorice Augustorum Alfenus Senecio Vir Clarissimus 

 Gonsularis Felix Ala prima Astorum. ALA has been regarded as standing for 

 ALAE, the letters RVM as the final three of Astorum for Asturum, and PRA 

 as the first three of Prcefectus. Thus Felix was regarded as Prsefect of the first 

 Ala of Asturians. With others we have accepted this view, but it has always 

 appeared strange to us that Felix had neither prcEuomen nor nomen. Now it 

 seems most probable that Felix is used as it is in n. 943, and Baxter's reading, 

 ALFENO SENECIONE, is not so unHkely. What the letters at the side were 

 that were crowded out can scarcely be conjectured with probability ; they may 

 have been something like Curam Agente, or Curante Prcefecto." i 



I believe the AYG-G of the two iiascriptions to be the same — Severus 

 and Caracalla (or Caracalla and Geta) — and that the date of these in- 

 scriptions was A.D. 209^ — before Geta was declared Augustus, on the 

 hews reaching the army in Britam, that although the expedition into 



* See also Eokhel, viii. 11. 



t There is a strange mistake relative to this PrKfeet in Dr. Bruce's General Index to the 

 Lapidarium Septentrionale : " Alfenius Senicio, Prefect of the Ala Prima Asturum, 31 ; his titles 

 on other inscriptions, 31." 



