32 
of ih.e iiilQ pontifex maximus. There was formerly an inscrip¬ 
tion, also imperfect, in the chmeh of Bowes with which onrs, 
most probably, was, in the beginning at least, nearly, if not 
entirely, identical. It ran as follows, in an extended and 
amended- form :— Imperatori Ccesari divi Trajani Farthici filio, 
divi Nervce nepoti, Trajano Hadriano Augusto^ pontijici maximo^ 
tribuniciapotentate —ponstdi —^patripatrioe ; and then followed, 
probably, for the rest is nncertain, the name of the cohort which 
set the stone np, the imperial legate, and the commanding 
officer. Of some such nature, I doubt not, was the inscription 
of which we have here only a fragment. It will be observed 
that Hadrian calls himself by the name of Trajan, styling him¬ 
self at the same time his son and the grandson of Nervja. The 
relationship was that of succession—not of birth. It was the 
fashion of the time to do this. Hadrian and his assumed 
ancestors were W'orthy of one another. It was very different 
with some of those unworthy wearers of the imperial purple 
who took to themselves the honoured names of Antoninus Pius. 
There are only two memorials of Hadrian in Yorkshire, and 
this is one of them. 
Mr. Wellbeloved has stated in his Ebnracmn” that Hadrian 
sent over the sixth legion in the first year of his reign (A.H. 117), 
and under the command of M. Pontius Laelianus, and that he 
came himself in A.I). 120. This is given on the authority of an 
inscription recorded by G-riiter and Orelli. It has since been 
discovered by Henzen that this insciiption is made of .parts of 
two, which have been put together. We must therefore dismiss 
M. Pontius LEelianus as alien to the sixth legion. The fact, 
however, remains that some unknown person, in the latter, not 
the earlier, part of the reign of Hadrian crossed from Germany to 
Britain with the sixth legion victorious, as tribune of the soldiers, 
and that he lived to return to Pome, where, in the days of M. 
Aurelius, he was honoured with a statue. It is quite possible 
that this legion first touched the British shore at South Shields. 
An altar, which it dedicated to Neptune, the sea-god, has been 
recently found in the Tjme, at Newcastle. 
It has also been stated that the sixth legion took the place 
of the ninth, which had been at Eburacum for some time. We 
