NOTES ON LATIN INSCRIPTIONS FOtJNt) IN BRITAIN. 225 



TVTEL^ 



V. S. 



P. NAF.VIVS 



ADIYTOR. 



" The Naevius of the slab found at Bath was a freedman of Augustus, and ao 



assistant or secretary of the procurators of the province. We are not without 



an authority for the reading Adjutor Procuratorum. In Gruter (P. ccclxxi, No. 8) 



the following occurs : 



MEMORI^ AVRELI 



DEMETRI ADIVTORI 

 PROCC 



" The word which I conceive to be principia presents the greatest difficulty. 

 It appears that the stone is damaged in this part. "We are necessarily driveu to 

 conjecture in order to supply the vacuity between the N and the I at the end of 

 the fourth line. The inscription sppal^s of the restoration of something which had 

 become ruinous. If I correctly read the other parts of the inscription which seem 

 to be quite plain, this is the only word left to reveal to us the precise object of the 

 dedicator's exertions. In the station at Lonchester, a slab has been found (Hors- 

 ley, Durham, Fo. sii.), containing on its third and fourth lines the following words : 



PRINCIPIA ET ARMAMEN 



TARIA CONLAPSA RESTITVIT. 

 Here we have evidence that there was a class of buildings called principia^ 

 which, like other buildings, would fall into ruin and require restoration. This 

 word seems best to suit the damaged part of the inscription before us. The only 

 letters that we require to draw upon the imagination for are the first I in the 

 word, which has probably been attached to the top of the left limb of the N, and 

 the C, for which there is sufficient room on that injured part of the stone between 

 the N. and the I. Perhaps the word principia might be translated officers' bar- 

 racks. The remainder of the inscription requires no remarks." 



In the number for June, 1855, Mr. Franks states the grounds of his 



conviction that the tablet should be assigned to the reign of Elaga- 



balus : 



" The uiscription can only apply to Caracalla or Elagabalus, but it does not appear that 

 the epithet Iivoictus was given to the former. There are, however, coins of Elagabalus on 

 which he is thus styled. The inscription may have suffered, mutilation in a slight degree^ 

 and the popular indignation, which defaced or destroyed the memorials of the Emperor, may 

 possibly account for the occurrence of this tablet used as a part of the cover of a sepulchral 

 cist." 



The Rer. H. M. Scarth, by whom the stone was purchased and pre- 

 sented to the Bath Institution, communicated a very interesting 

 paper on the subject to the Somersetshire Archseological and Natural 

 History Society, in which he gives full particulars of the discovery of 

 the coffins and expresses his assent to Dr. Bruce' s interpretation of 

 the inscription. 



The only difficulties in the text of the inscription relate to the 

 prgenomen of Ncevius, and the word or words between PBOCC and 



