FOUND IN BRITAIN. 305 



for we know from Dio, Ix., 19, 21, tbat -he was sent over by Claudius 

 to the island, in the year when the Emperor was Consul, for the third, 

 time, with Vitellius for his colleague = A.D. 43. It would seem, 

 too, as if there were no doubt as to the year in which his administra- 

 tion ended; for Dio, Ix., 30, mentions the triumph of Plautius on his 

 return to Rome, and from c. 29 we learn that the year was that in 

 which Claudius was Consul for the fourth time, and Vitellius for the 

 third = A.D. 47. 



On the supposition that there was no, or but a short, interval between 

 the end of one administration and the commencement of the next 

 that succeeded, this same year may be regarded as the date of the 

 beginning of the government of Ostorius Scapula. We are, at all 

 events, certain, from Tacitus, Ann. xii., 25, that he had command in 

 Britain in the consulship of Antistius and Suillius = A.D. 50. 



There is, also,* no doubt as to the year in which Pefronius TurpiU 

 ianus succeeded Suetonius PauU?ius, for we learn from Tacitus, Ann. 

 xiv,, 39, that it was the year after his consulship, i.e. A.D. 62. Now, 

 from Tacitus, Ann. xiv., 29, 31, it is clear that Suetonius was in 

 Britain in A.D. 59, 60, and 61. 



The statements of Tacitus, Hist, ii., 65, that Trebellius Maximus 



in Britain, it is scarcely credible that there were two of that name who were both legati 

 and comites of that Emperor in the island, especially as Tacitus mentions but one. And 

 yet there are objections to this identification. The Plautius named in the inscription 

 was Ti. Plautius M. F.—Silvanus ^lianus ; but this change of prcenomen, from Aulus 

 to Tiberius, may have been the consequence of adoption. A much more grave difficulty 

 is found in the words of the inscription : HVNC IN EADBM PRAEFECTVRA VRBIS • 

 IMP- CAESAR -AVG-VESPASIANVS ITERVM COS FECIT. Orelli's note on iterum 

 cos is : — " Consulem suffectum anni incerti. Primum fuerat cos. suffectus V. C. 800 p., 

 Chr. 47." Henzen agrees as to the first consulship, but gives A.D. 76 as the date of the 

 second. But if we accept the identification, how can we reconcile this with the words of 

 Tacitus : " Consularium primus Aulus Plautius prcBpositus," and of Suetonius, Vespas. 4, 

 " Auli Plautii Consularis ?" If he had been Consul before A.D. 43, and was also Consul in 

 A.D. 47, then his Consulship in A.D. 76 must have been his third, not his second. It seems 

 as if we must either interpret Consularis, in both these passages, as meaning " possessed of 

 consular dignity and authority, without having filled the office,"— a sense in which the word 

 is frequently applied to Governors of Provinces— and regard this Plautius as different from 

 the Aulus Plautius who had been consul suffectus in A.D. 29, or we must reject the identi- 

 fication with the Plautius, who was consul suffectus in A.D. 47. Of the two solutions, I 

 prefer the first, but I am not satisfied. 



• The words of Tacitus are : " Suetonius * • ♦ trader e exercitum Petronio Turpilicmo, 

 qui jam consulatu abierat, jubetur" Prom this I infer that Turpilianus crossed over to the 

 island in the year after his consulship, which we know to have been in A.D. 61. Horsley, 

 p. 37, takes the same view : " Here," he remarks, " we are also sure, because Tacitus says 

 that Petronius Turpilianus had first finished his consulate; Turpilianus must, therefore, 

 have entered upon the government in Britain in the year 62." And yet Orelli gives A.TJ.C, 

 814=A.D. 61, for the commencement of his government, and in this is followed by other 

 editors of the Agricola. Mr. Merivale, History of Vie Romans under the Umpire, vii., 

 p. 79, also gives the date A.D. 61. 



