The accompanying wood-cut represents a subject which is supposed to be connected with the mysteries of Mithraic worship. The slab was found at Cilurnum, and is now at Alnwick Castle. Though not satisfied with Hodgson’s description of it, I am unable to supply a better. He says;—
The sculpture is in two compartments: that on the left seems to contain a lion, statant, raising the head of a naked and dead man: that on the right, a figure of Mithras seated on a bench, and having a flag in one hand, a wand in the other, and on its head the Persian tiara.(?) I would hazard a conjecture that the whole relates to the Mithraic rites called Leontica; for the lion, in the zodiac of the ancient heathens, stood for Mithras, or the sun, which threw its greatest heat upon the earth during its course through the constellation Leo.
ALTAR TO APOLLO.
Numerous as are the altars on the line of the Wall to the Persian god, only one has been found dedicated to Apollo, the Grecian representative of the luminary of day. It was discovered in the summer of 1850, lying near a spring in the vicinity of the Cawfield mile-castle, about midway between the Wall and the Vallum, and is now preserved in the collection of antiquities at Chesters. The following reading must be regarded as, in a great measure, conjectural; no doubt, however, can exist as to the deity to which it is dedicated.
DEO APOL
INI ET O[MNIBVS] N[VMINIBV]S
SINIS[TRA] EXPL[ORATORVM]
CVI PR[AEEST] SVLP[ICIVS]
VOTVM S[OLVIT]