444 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



falling away of the inflexions, and the bustrophedon character of the 

 last). 



If the monument at Llansadwrn had, as is almost certain, the 

 title episcopus, this also would be nearly paralleled by the Ardmore 

 monument : — 



coinuc&y eg/smon^]' Ltigti'oecc&f iha<]i ■oot&ci bigoerrobi. 



I leave to those who have fuller acquaintance than I have with the 

 Irish inscriptions, whether such designations as fabri, medici, have 

 also their parallels. The former seems to be represented by the 

 Gaulish inscription at Gueret, sacer peroco ietjrtt duorico, " Faber 

 Peroco fecit porticus" ; and by another monument, Gaulish, though 

 raised in England, nomlne sacri rrvsci fili civis senont. Perhaps it 

 is also contained in the Briclell inscription neccA p^-jiti. 4 



Bude as these monuments are, they belong undoubtedly to the 

 noble and princely class, to those whose names would appear in the 

 history of their times if that history were before us. 5 So, if we 

 find upon some of them names which appear in the fragments which 

 remain of that history, there is at least a probability that we may 

 have before us monuments of historic personages ; and probability 

 with regard to a particular monument may be confirmed by compari- 

 son with other monuments. 



Fortunately we have one monument which presents names, of the 

 identity of which there can be no reasonable doubt. It is that at 

 Clydai, Pembrokeshire, erected by Plavius Victor to the memory of 

 Ettern. Now Flavius Victor was the son of the Emperor Maximus, 

 proclaimed emperor by his father a. d. 383, and slain in Gaul a. d. 388. 

 According to the British traditions, Maximus was a son of Leolinus r 

 who was a son of Coel Goedhebawg, and Eddeyrn married a daughter 

 of Coel named Gwawl. By this marriage, Eddeyrn would be the 

 great-uncle of PI. Victor. But this monument must be earlier than 

 the five years' duration of his reign, all which years were spent in 

 Gaul ; and for many years previous his father, and probably himself, 

 were absent from Britain. 



Zosimus says that Maximus was engaged in Britain under Theodo- 

 sius in the war which was begun a. d. 364 and ended in a. d. 369 ;, 

 and whilst the Roman writers, narrating the events of that war, 

 ascribe everything to Theodosius, the British writers very naturally 

 make Maximus the hero, as the descendant of their ancient princes. 

 Pordun, the Brut, and Bocce, each has a distinct story to tell of these 

 events ; each must have been indebted to an independent source of in- 

 formation, for each has many differences in detail, yet all agree as to 

 the leading facts ; and these which strikingly illustrate the narrative 

 of Ammianus Marcellinus we may accept. 



See note (d) added in press. 5 See note (r) added in press. 



