FOUND IN BRITAIN. 313 



but the evidence does not seem sufficient to prove that he was ever 

 in the island. 



From Capitolinus, in his lives of Pertinax and Alhinus, we learn 

 that they also were legates under C^mmodus, and that Junius Sevei'us 

 was sent as successor to Albinus. It is not probable, however, that 

 he succeeded to him, for from Xiphiline, Ixxiii., we find that Albinus 

 held the command in Britain in the time of the Emperor Didius Julian, 

 and, after his death, being appointed Csesar by Severus, he administered 

 the government of the island until A.D. 196, when he passed over to 

 Gaul, where he was defeated and put to death in the following year. 



The position of aifairs at this time is thus described by Lingard? 

 Hist, of England, i., p. 39 : — 



" Severus was now undisputed master of the empire. To abolish the exorbi- 

 tant power of the prefect of Britain, he divided the island into two governments, 

 bestowing the one on Heraclianus, and the other on Virius Lupus." 



There is no authority for these two simultaneous governors of 

 Britain, although Lingard refers, in his note, to "Herod., iii., 24, 

 Spartian in Sever., p. 320, Inscriptions in Speed, p. 139." There is 

 evidence in Herodian, that Severus divided the island into two gov- 

 ernments. Spartian also states that he sent Heraclitum ad obtinendas 

 JBritannias s but here we should read Bithynias, as Salmasius has 

 suggested. And no inscriptions notice any other governor of the time 

 except Virius Lupus, mentioned by Ulpian, Digest, xxvii., 6, 2, and 

 named in the following inscriptions, found in Yorkshire, and given by 

 Horsley, Brit. Eom., pp. 192, n. 62, 311 :— 



(1) DAE FORTVNAE 



VIRIVS LVPVS 

 LEG • AVG PR • PR • 

 BALINEVM VI 

 IGNIS EXVST 

 VM • COH • I • THR 

 ACVM REST 

 ITVIT • CVRAN 

 TE • VAL • FRON 

 TONE PRAEF 

 EQ-ALAE VETTO- 



BecB Fortunes Virius Lupus Legatus Augusti Pro Prcetore ialine- 

 um vi ignis exustum CoTiors prima Thracum restituit curante Talerio 

 Frontone Prcefecfo Fquitum Alee Vettonum. 



