The Roman Wall / A historical, topographical, and descriptive account of the barrier of the lower isthmus, extending from the Tyne to the Solway, deduced from numerous personal surveys

by J. Collingwood Bruce

Est honor et tumulis: animas placate paternas;

Parvaque in extinctas munera ferte pyras.

Parva petunt MANES: pietas pro divite grata est

Munere: non avidos Styx habet ima Deos.

Tegula projectis satis est velata coronis;

Et sparsæ fruges, parcaque mica salis.

Some of the ceremonies here referred to by the Latin poet, are still in use, as all know who have visited the cemetery of Père la Chaise, in Paris. On the sepulchral slab, death is rarely mentioned; but the number of years, months, and days, that the deceased lived, is recorded with great particularity. The altar, of which an engraving is here introduced, was found at Cilurnum, and is now in the Library of the Dean and Chapter at Durham. It bears the following inscription—

D[IIS] M[ANIBVS] S[ACRVM]

FABIÆ HONOR