C. MANNIVS
C. F. POL . SECV
NDVS . POLLEN
MIL . LEG . XX
ANORV . LII
STIP . XXXI
BEN . LEG . PR
H . S . E.
intimating that it marked the grave of a soldier of the twentieth legion (which was stationed at Chester, the Roman Deva) named Caius Mannius, of the Pollian tribe. Another commemorated a soldier of the fourteenth legion, and has been supposed to belong to a very early period, as that legion was withdrawn from Britain before A.D. 68. It was the legion which suffered so much in the war against Boadicea, and this soldier may perhaps have been engaged in that war, although his having died in Britain does not necessarily imply that the legion to which he had belonged was there at the time, or indeed that it had ever been there, unless we had some other reasons for supposing that it had been there. His name was Marcus Petronius, the son of Lucius, of the Menenian tribe, and the inscription may be read as follows:—
M. PETRONIVS
L. F. MEN
VIC . ANN
XXXVIII
MIL. LEG
XIIII . GEM
MILITAVIT
ANN. XVIII
SIGN . FVIT
H . S . E.
The third of these inscribed monuments was divided into three columns or tables, commemorating three members of the family of a citizen of Uriconium, named Deuccus. The inscription on the third column is entirely erased, but the two others may be read as follows:
| D. M PLACIDA AN . LV CVR . AG CONI . A XXX | D. M DEVCCV S . AN . XV CVR . AG RATRE |
Another sepulchral stone, also preserved in the Library of Shrewsbury School, was found in 1810, and bore an inscription commemorative of Tiberius Claudius Terentius, a soldier of the cohort of Thracian cavalry, which may be read as follows:—
TIB . CLAVD . TRE
NTIVS . EQ . COH
THRACVM . AN
ORVM . LVII. STIP
ENDIORVM
H . S.
In the excavations on the site of the cemetery, in the autumn of 1862, a sepulchral stone was found, which had not improbably been placed over the door of a sepulchral chamber of masonry. There had been a figure above, the lower part of the legs and feet of which alone remain. The slab bears the following inscription, which from the damage the stone has sustained is very difficult to decipher, but I owe this reading to the knowledge and acuteness of my friend Mr. Roach Smith. I may add that some of the letters are extremely doubtful
AMINIVS . T . POL . F . A
NORVMXXXXVSTIPXXII . MIL . LEG.
IIGEM . MILITAVITAQNVNC HIC SII
LEGITE . ET . FELICES . VITA . FLVS . MINV
IVSTAVINIERAQVATIEGIIIE . INTV
TANARA . DITIS . VIVITE . DVMSPI . . .
VITAE . DAT . TEMPVS . HONESTE.
It is clear, at a glance, that the latter part of this inscription contains three lines in hexameter verse; unfortunately they are the lines most rubbed and most difficult to make out. Dr. Mc. Caul, president of the University of Toronto, in Canada, in his recent work on “Britanno-Romano Inscriptions,” suggests that they may be—