FOUND IN BRITAIN. 101 



disposed to attach much weight. Altars both to known and unknown 

 deities might be expected in that part of the island, where there was 

 so large a concentration of troops to guard the wall and its outposts ; 

 and here, too, it is reasonable to suppose that there would be traces of 

 the conflicts between old and new religions. 



Of all such altars, the most interesting is one found at Chester-le- 

 Street, and now preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiqua- 

 ries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It is figured in the Illustrated Cata- 

 logue^ n. 151, and Dr. Bruce offers the following remarks upon it : 



" The inscription is indistinct. It has probably been addressed — 



DEABVS 



VET[ERI]BVS 



V-S-L-M." 



The letters, as they appear in the woodcut, are, — 



DEABS 



VITBVS 



VIAS 



VADRI. 



There can, I think, be no reasonable doubt of the correctness of the 

 expansion of the first two lines, as given by Dr. Bruce : but I can see 

 no ground for the reading V'S'L'M. I am inclined to regard VIAS as 

 standing for for VIA-S[TRATA] or VlA[E]-S[TRATiE], and VADRI 

 for VADR[A]E. VADRAE seems to be another form of VEDRAE, 

 the name of the river believed by Horsley to be the Tyne, and by 

 others to be the Wear. But what is the construction ? If it be taken 

 as Via Strata Vedrce, and this be regarded as the designation in the 

 Roman period of " Chester-le-Street," this altar may have been erected 

 " to the ancient goddesses," by the town. But this is not probable. 

 I prefer * Vi<z Stratce, as referring to the paved road — most probably 

 that leading to Pons ^lii. Then Vice Stratce and Vedrce may be either 

 in the genitive or the dative. If we take them as the latter, then "the 

 ancient goddesses" were the Road [and] the River ; if as the former, then 

 the deities are the ancient goddesses of the Road [and] of the River. 

 Another construction may be suggested, whereby Vice Stratce vcidiY be 



* When via is used in composition as the name of a town, it is placed last, e. gr. 

 Vinovia, JBovium. I am not aware of any example of the combination of via and 

 strata in this sense, except, probably, Stravinia, a town in Pannonia, mentioned in 

 the Itinerary of Antoninus. 



