NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN BRITAIN. 223 



The only other point which deserves attention, is the name of the 

 Praefect, CS L AVSPEX. Instead of the reading which has been 

 proposed. Cuius Lucius Auspex, I should suggest that I between S 

 and L has been overlooked, that SIL is an abreviation of SILVIVS, 

 and that the full names of the officer mentioned in this and the 

 other inscriptions, were Caius Silvius Auspex. 



According to my views, the inscription may be translated thus : 

 "To the goddess Minerva, the second cohort of the Tungrians, a 

 thousand strong, furnished with cavalry, consisting of Latin citizens, 

 under the command of Caius Silvius Auspex, Prsefect," — have erected 

 this altar. 



6. In December, 1854, two coffins, evidently of the Roman period, 

 were found at Combe Down, near Bath. One of these was partly 

 covered by a stone bearing the following inscriptions : 

 PRO SALVTE IMP- CES- M- AYR 

 ANTONINI PII FELICIS INVIC 

 TI AVG . . NAEVIVS AVG 

 LIB ADIVT PROCC PR. . I 

 PIA RVINA OPRESSA SOLO RES 

 TITVIT. 

 Mr. Hunter (Archaeological Journal, March, 1855,) supplies M 

 after I in the 4th line and gives the following explanation : 



" For the safety, — or whatever salus in this connection, where we forever find it, 

 may mean, — of the Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius, happy, invin- 

 cible (or uneonquered) Augustus, (supply a prenomen where the stone is damaged, 

 probably one represented by two letters, as CN.) Naevius, a freed man of Augus- 

 tus, the adjutor of the procurators, (then comes the doubtful word, which perhaps 

 may be PROVINCIE,) restored from its foundations, (this building, temple, or 

 whatever it was, for the edifice was there to speak for itself,) when it had been 

 thrown down by an impious act of ruination. 



" Another reading of the doubtful word may be PRIMARIVS, and I think some 

 one suggested PRETORIVM. I fear the word is too far gone for any one to ven- 

 ture to pronounce conclusively what the reading of it is. 



"A question arising upon this inscription is, which of the emperors calling 

 themselves Antoninus, it commemorates. It is a question of about fifty years, A. . 

 180-230. On a first view one would refer it to Marcus Aurelius, the immediate 

 successor of Antoninus Pius, the first of the Antonines, and I see not why it should 

 not belong to his reign, imless it can be shown (a point I have not examined) that 

 his name is never found in inscriptions with the additions Felix and Invictus. If 

 it shall appear that his name does not occur with these additions, then undoubtedly 

 it may be assigned to the three years' reign of Heliogabalus, or to any intermediate 

 emperor who called himself Antoninus, and who is known to have used those 

 additions. But at present I see no improbability in assignia it to the emperor 

 so well known by his name of Marcus Aurelius," 



