Messrs. Buckman and Newmarch read MINERVALIS as signifying “pertaining to Minerva;” but it is no doubt the name, as in other specimens, of the oculist who was the proprietor of the stamp. And from the inscriptions left us upon Roman tombs, we know that Minervalis was a Roman cognomen.[568]
The two inscriptions are easily read; they are as follow:—
1. MINERVALIS DIALEBANUM AD IMPETum LIPPitudinis EX OVO.—Minervalis' frankincense Collyrium for attacks of Ophthalmy; to be used with an egg.
We have already had occasion to discuss the nature of the Collyrium Dialibanum (p. 269), and it is unnecessary to recur to it. On a previous occasion, also (p. 284), the signification of the common expression, ex ovo, was adverted to.
2. MINERVALIS MELINUm AD OMNEM DOLOREM.—Minervalis' yellow Collyrium for every pain or disease of the eye.
More than once we have had occasion to allude to the Collyrium Melinum (pp. 250, 257). The only singularity in the present instance is, that we have here the Melinum offered as a panacea for every painful affection to which the eyes of the colonists and natives of Cirencester might be subject, at the time that Minervalis practised amongst them. One of the forms of the Collyrium Melinum given by Galen is professed by him to be efficacious “ad omnem oculorum hebetudinem.”—(Kühn’s edit. vol. xii. p. 786.)
SECTION XIII.
STAMP NO. XII.—FOUND IN IRELAND.
A Roman medicine-stamp has lately turned up in these islands, in a locality in which its presence could be little expected—viz., in the county of Tipperary, in Ireland. It has been described by Mr. Albert Way in an interesting paper, published after the first part of the present essay appeared in the Monthly Journal of Medical Science.[569] Dr. Dowsley, of Clonmel, who now possesses this stone, has kindly furnished me with a wax impression of its inscription, and with the following note relative to the locality in which it was discovered:—“It was found (he says) near the village of Golden, parish of Relig-Murry, in the county of Tipperary, in a field near the ruins of an old hospital, or at least what was supposed to be such; but it was built at so remote a period, that there is now no record of what the building was for, nor of the founder of it, and so little of the walls are at present standing, that even the style of architecture cannot be known. The seal was discovered by a labourer when digging. There was no pottery nor coin found; but near it was a human skeleton much decayed, the position of which in the ground was not noticed. The soil in this field is peculiarly rich and very deep; it is frequently carted away for manure; most likely it was an ancient burial-ground. The village of Golden is about a mile from the old Abbey of Athassel.”
It is unnecessary to discuss here how such a Roman relic reached this part of Ireland,[570] and whether it was conveyed there or not when the Romans were colonising Britain; or, what is probable, at a later period. But I may merely remark, there can be no doubt that Roman civilisation and Roman practices spread in the earlier centuries of the Christian era to parts beyond the precise line of Roman conquest. Other Roman relics have been found in Ireland,[571] though Ireland was never subject to the Roman arms; and Roman vases, ornaments, and coins, have been discovered even in those more distant and northern Scandinavian settlements, to which the Roman power never penetrated.[572]