49 
tically the same. There have been as many as seventeen altars 
discovered in the North of England which are dedicated to this 
deity, one of which, from the Roman Wall, has been for many 
years in our Museum. There are thirteen others which are 
dedicated to the Bei Veferes^ or the Niimina Vitira. All these 
words are parts, I doubt not, of the adjective Vehcs, although 
it is quite possible that ignorant people from long and indis- 
criminating use coined at last a deity of the name of Viteris or 
Veteris. On an altar at Netherby, in Cumberland, Vetus or 
Viteris is associated with an obscure deity of the name of 
Mogon, but as there is no doubt as. to the reading of this inscrip¬ 
tion, it is unnecessary to dwell upon it. Dr. Bruce, and other 
scholars, are struck by the prevalence of altars, with these 
curious dedications, in the North of England. It is plain that 
the faith of many was in a curious state, when, amid the host 
of new deities which thronged the Roman pantheon, they 
could burn incense and pay their vows to the ancient deity or 
deities, without apparently being able to remember and record 
their names. It is comparatively easy to understand who were 
the Bei Veteres, but who, par excellence^ was the Bens Vetus ? 
Dr. Bruce seems to think that Mithras, the Sun-god, was the 
deity intended. Dr. McCaul, of Toronto, a very distinguished 
epigraphist, makes the general remark that altars with such 
dedications were a protest, probably by Britons, against the 
flock of new divinities by which the old were being gradually 
thrust out. 
II. An altar, 17 inches in height, and very nicely wrought 
and ornamented. The sides are fluted, as with reeds, and 
retain traces of red paint or minium. The inscription is as 
follows, given at length— 
C.IVLIVS 
CRESCENS 
MATRI 
BVS DO 
MESTICIS 
V. S. M. L. 
The four last letters, one of which is out of its accustomed place, 
constitute the formula Vofiim Solvit lubens merito. It is also 
unusual to find the name of the divinity placed after that of the 
D 
