499 
and Britain were generally united in one hand, whether in 
case of usurpation, or of a legitimate division of power 
among the Caesars. Indeed, it was hardly possible that if 
Gaul, which possessed all the ports opposite to Britain, was 
hostile, Britain could be retained by a power seated at Rome. 
Whether any of them ever visited this island is uncertain, 
but inscriptions to Postumus, Victorinus, and Tetricus have 
been found in Britain,* and their presence here is not impro- 
bable. The abundance of their coins is a proof of the active 
intercourse which was carried on between Britain and Gaul. 
Although, as we have already remarked, the coins of the 
Nunburnholme find are not very valuable in the estimation of 
the numismatist, they are not without interest for the historian, 
as throwing light upon the events and ideas of the age. 
Several circumstances indicate the increase of solar worship 
among the Romans. This was the result of increasing inter- 
course with Asia, and especially with Syria, the chief seat 
of this species of superstition. On several of the coins re- 
cently found, the sun appears in a human form, holding a 
scourge or the globe in his hand, with the legend Oriens 
Aug. [Augusti] or Augg. [Augustorum] oriens being used 
for the rising sun, without the addition of Sol, as in the line 
of Virgil, Georg. i., 250 :— 
Nosquc ubi primus equis Oriens adflavit anhelis, 
Illic sera rubens accendit lumina Vesper. 
The Augustus was the associate and apparent heir of the 
reigning emperor, and was appropriately represented by the 
rising sun. We first find this figure and inscription on the 
coins of Hadrian. He spent much time in the east, and 
during the century to which our coins belong, many circum- 
stances favoured the increase of solar worship. The Emperor 
Elagabalus was a high priest of the solar god, whose name 
he bore. Alexander Severus was a Syrian, and as a portent 
* Archseol. Vol. 4, p. 7. Winchester Congress, p. 163. 
