The archæology and prehistoric annals of Scotland

by Sir Daniel Wilson

In the same collection are also preserved a bronze stamp, discovered near the village of Carrington, Mid-Lothian, bearing the inscription, which is reversed, in bold relief, TVLLIAE TACITAE; and a bronze key of undoubted Roman workmanship, found within a camp-kettle, in a moss near North-Berwick Law,—probably the same locality where a quantity of bronze vessels were recently dug up, as already described. In addition to these must be noted the exceedingly beautiful bronze lamp four and three-fifth inches in length, figured on a previous page, found along with a small and rudely executed bronze eagle, at Currie, Mid-Lothian. These remarkable Roman relics will probably be considered sufficient to establish the fact, that the Roman road had passed through that line of country. They will add, however, only a very slight addition to the unsatisfactory evidence on which the last named place has been assumed to be the site of the Roman Curia—heretofore on little better authority than the correspondence between the ancient and modern names. Gordon describes another "most curious Roman lamp of brass, adorned with a variety of engravings," found at Castlecary.[434]

"As you very well notice," writes Sir John Clerk to his friend and correspondent Mr. Roger Gale, "Ptolemy mistook several Latin names when he rendered them into Greek. Of this kind, as I suspect, is his Πτερωτον Στρατοπεδον, Castrum Alatum, which our antiquarians have applied to Edinburgh. I rather believe that the place designed by Ptolemy is an old Roman station on the sea-coast, which we call Cramond, and that it was anciently called, not Castra Alata but Alatervum, or Castra Alaterva." To this Mr. Gale replies, with equally cogent arguments for restoring the Castra Alata to the winged heights of Edinburgh, on which we need not enter here, having already sufficiently discussed the question of the latter's claims as a Roman site. While, however, Edinburgh has undergone the ceaseless changes which centuries bring round to a densely populated locality, Cramond was in all probability abandoned to solitude, or at most occupied by a few fishermen's huts when deserted by its Roman founders. Hence the traces of its ancient colonists have been discovered in great abundance in recent times. An almost incredible number of coins and medals, in gold, silver, and bronze, have been found at different periods, of which Gordon mentions between forty and fifty of special note which he examined in Sir John Clerk's possession. Sibbald, Horsley, and Wood, all refer in similar terms to the valuable numismatic treasures gathered on this Roman site, including an almost unbroken series of imperial coins from Augustus to Diocletian; and thereby proving that the ancient Alaterva had not been abandoned to utter solitude on the retreat of Severus. Some rare and valuable medals have also been discovered among its ruins, including one of the Emperor Septimius Severus, inscribed on the reverse, FVNDATOR PACIS, and supposed to have been struck to give the character of a triumph to the doubtful peace effected by him with the Caledonians.[435] Three altars have been found at Cramond; one sacred to Jove, one to the Deæ Matres of Alaterva, and the third, figured by Horsley, and assigned by him, as well as by later writers, to the favourite forest deity Silvanus. The obvious resemblance, however, of the sculpture on the last altar to an Anglo-Roman mosaic, now in the British Museum, representing the sea-god Neptune with horns of lobster's claws, and dolphins proceeding from his mouth, leaves little room for doubt that the colonists of the chief Roman port on the Bodotrian Frith had more appropriately dedicated their altar to the ruler of the waves.[436] The large altar found at Cramond, dedicated to the Supreme Jove, formerly in the Advocates' Library, and now deposited in the Scottish Antiquarian Museum, has been frequently engraved. It is thus inscribed,—

I O M
COH · V · GALL ·
CVI · PRÆEST
IMINE · HONV^IS
TERTVLLVS
PRAEF · V · SL
L · M

Its well-known inscription is repeated here, in order to associate it with another relic found at Cramond, probably prior to the discovery of this altar, which attests the presence of the same Roman Prefect, Imineus Honorius Tertullus, at the station of Alaterva. Among the numerous Roman remains acquired by Sir John Clerk from this interesting locality, and now preserved at Penicuick House, is a bronze stamp, measuring two and three-eighths by one and a half inches. It is surmounted by a crescent, and bears the words, in raised letters of half an inch in height, TERTVLL. PROVINC. The inscription is reversed, having evidently been designed for use as a stamp, and on the back is a ring handle in form of a bay leaf. A centurial inscription of the Second Legion, Augusta, a sculptured figure of the imperial eagle grasping the lightning in its talons, with numerous carved stones, bricks, flue-tiles, and pottery, have from time to time been recovered on the same Roman site. To these may be added another inscription, derived from the Morton MS., presented in 1827 to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, by Susan, Countess-Dowager of Morton.

It is indorsed, "Ancient inscriptions on stones found in Scotland," and is supposed to have been written by James, Earl of Morton, president of the Royal Society, who died in 1786. Some of the inscriptions appear to have been derived from Camden and other well-known authorities; but others, including the following imperfect relic, are probably nowhere else preserved. Even in its extremely mutilated and fragmentary state, it is, perhaps, not altogether unworthy of preservation. It is thus described,—"This inscription is on a stone on the east end of the church of Cramond, in West-Lothian, [Mid-Lothian,] being three foot long, and one foot and a half broad, having four lyons drawn on it, all being almost worn out,"

. . . . G PVBLIVS CR. . .
. . . IN POMPONIAN . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. PAT · P · D · D . . . .

This inscription escaped the notice of Wood when preparing his history of the parish, or was perhaps thought to be too imperfect to be worth recording, and it now no longer exists.

Another Scottish stream bearing the name of the Almond forms a tributary of the Tay, and is also associated, by the remarkable discoveries on its banks, with the memory of the legionary invaders. A Roman camp, once in good preservation, has been nearly obliterated by the encroachment of the stream on its banks; but the changes which destroyed its entrenchments have brought to light still more satisfactory traces of their constructors. The most interesting of these is a bar of lead of 73 lbs. weight, marked thus—