Horsley, PI. 49, and p. 280), Marcus Censorius Cornelianus centurio legionis dccimce Fre-
tensis, pratfectus coh. primce Hispanorum.
On the front side is a basso-relievo of Apollo reposing upon his lyre, better designed
than any work of a Roman-British artist which I have ever seen. On a second are the
figures of two priests in long robes, holding the head of some horned animal between them ;
on the third is the inscription ; the fourth is rough, having been originally attached to a
wall. The stone is so large, that it appears to have had a distinct base and capital, which
accounts for there being no appearance of a focus.
It now turns out to be a dedication to Apollo Aponus, or the indolent Apollo, the god
of medicine, who restores health by relaxation or repose, 1 on behalf of an emperor who
1 The classical reader will scarcely deem his attention too severely taxed by the length of the following remarks,
much less by that of their attendant citations, when he is told that, according to the most probable conjecture, the Fons
Aponi was the birthplace of Livy, and that this is the only inscription ever discovered to the Apollo Aponus. That
warm springs were usually dedicated to the Sun our own Aqua Solis, the modern Bath, affords one example, supported
by many others. The Fount of Aponus is, I believe, first mentioned by Suetonius, in the Life of Tiberius ; and
mentioned not for its healing, but its oracular powers : " Quum Illyricum petens juxta Patavium adisset Geryonis
Oraculum, sorte tracta, qu& monebatur, ut de consultationibus in Aponi fontem talos aureos jaceret, evenit, ut summum
numerum jactu ab eo ostenderent ; hodieque sub aqua visuntur hi tali." (Tiber, c. xiv.)
The Piscina Neroniana (which appears to have been the name of one of the baths at this place) proves it to have
been frequented by that Emperor ; and his contemporary Lucan describes a hill in the Euganean country : " Aponus
HISTORY OF WHALLEY.
[BOOK I. CHAP. II.
unfortunately is not mentioned. This accounts for the reposing attitude of the principal
figure. But, as watering-places are the scenes where such cures are generally effected, the
ten-is ubi fumifer exit." (Phars.'l. vii. i. 193.) By Martial these fountains are described as " Fontes Aponi rudes
puellis." (L. vi. Epigr. xlii.)
A long and elegant Idyllium of Claudian, entitled " Aponus," proves that these salutary springs were equally
celebrated in the time of Honorius ; and the following lines are a direct address to Apollo, the tutelar Deity :
" Salve, Pffionije largitor nobilis undse;
Dardauii, salve, gloria magna soli,
Publica morborum requies, commune medentum
Auxilium, prasens numen, inempta salus. 1. 67 to 70.
Felices, proprium qui tc meruere, coloni,
Fas quibus est Aponon juris habere sui." 1. 89, 90. (Idyll, vi.)
But, as the human constitution is the same under every change of religion and manners, the fountain of Aponus
continued to be equally celebrated under the Gothic kings ; and a tumid and half-barbarous Epistle of Theodoric de-
scribes the place and its accommodations in a very curious and lively manner. I shall abridge the passage, for it is very
long, as much as is consistent with the sense:
" Delcctat enim salutiferi Aponi meminisse potentiam. Cicruleum fontem vidimus in formam dolii concavis
hiatibus astuantem. Ore plenissimo, in sphoBra similitudinem, supra terminos suos aquarum dorsa turgescunt
[37 words omitted]. Unde latex tanta quicte defluit, tanta quasi stabilitate decurrit, ut eum non putes crescere nisi
quia inde aliquid rauco murmure sentis exire [17 lines omitted]. A cautibus unda descendens et aera sua qualitate
succendit ct tactu fit habilis, quum reccpta fuerit in lavacris : undo non tantum deliciosa voluptas acquiritur, quantum
blanda medicina confertur. Scilicet sine tormcnto cura, sine horrore remedia, sanitas impunita balnea contra diversos
dolores corporis attriluta. Qua? idco Aponum, Grrcca linguu, beneficialis nominavit antiquitas * [19 words omitted].
Illud quoque stupendum esse didicimus, quod una fluentorum natura diversis ministeriis videatur accommoda. Nam
protinus saxo suscipiente collisa, inhalat prima; cellula; sudatoriam qualitatem ; deinde in solum mitigata descendens,
minaci ardore dcposito, suavi temperatione mollescit [11 words omitted] ; postrem6, ipso quoque tepore derelicto, in
Piscinam Neronianam i'rigida tantum efficitur quantum prius ferbuisse sentitur [23 words omitted]. Sed ut ipsum
quoque lavacrum mundius redderetur, stupenda, qufidam continentije disciplina, in undam, qua viri recreantur, si mulier
descendat incenditur." Does this explain the rudes puellis of Martial ? This continentia; exemplum was very like a
Christian superstition of the age of Theodoric, but very unlike one of the second century, and under the tutela of Apollo,
who was non usque adco rvdis puellis.
The description now becomes more turgid and tedious ; but the passage ends with an order to repair a place so
salutary and delightful: "Palatium longa senectute quassatum reparatione assidua corrobora." (Cassiodorus, in Variar.
1. ii. epist. xxxix.) Aloisio Architecto Thcodoricus Rex.
I learn, from Cluver's Ital. Antiq. v. i. p. 148-153, together with much of what has here been given, that in his
time, about two centuries ago, these fountains were not deserted.
Such, then, is the Fans Aponi, the subject of this curious and singular Dedication. From the classical style of the
sculpture, this altar must be referred to one of the earliest Emperors, who bore the style of Dominus Noster ; in other
words, to the beginning of the Lower Empire.
* This explains the word Aponns: "Health restored, without pain or effort." Compare this with Clandian's lines on the same
subject:
" Quod si forte mains membris exuberat humor,
Langnida vcl nimio viscera felle virent,
Non venas reserant, nee vulncre vnlncra sanant,
Pocnla nee tristi gramine mista bibnnt,
Amissum lymphis reparant impnne vigorem,
Pacaturquc itgro luxuriante dolor." Idyl. vi. 95-100.
BOOK I. CHAP. II.]
ROMAN HISTORY.
25
QSALVED'N
god of health was the Apollo Aponi as well as Aponus, and some highly saluhrious warm
springs in the neighbourhood of Padua, long frequented by the Romans under the name of
Fontes Aponi, and still retaining the denomination of Poni, were unquestionably the waters
from which a cure was supplicated on behalf of this unknown emperor.
[Dr. "Whitaker published some further remarks on this inscription in his Richmond-
shire, vol. ii. p. 461 ; but the investigations of subsequent antiquaries have given it
another interpretation. The altar 1 was bequeathed by Dr. Whitaker to St. John's college,
Cambridge, where it is now preserved ; and when the Archa5ological Institute met at that
university in 1854, it received the attentive consideration of Dr. Bruce, the experienced
historian of the Roman Wall, who remarks that " it is without doubt the most elaborately
carved altar which the Romans resident in Britain have left us." Dr. Bruce came to the
conclusion that, " Instead of APONO, which Dr. Whitaker conceived to be an epithet of
Apollo, MAPONO is probably the true reading. We nowhere else meet with Aponus
(indolent) as an epithet of this deity.' At Plumpton, in Cumberland, an altar has been
found which is inscribed : DEO MAPONO ET N. AVG., &c. (Lysons, Cumberland, p. civ.) To
Mr. Roach Smith I am indebted for the reading now suggested, as well as for the idea
that Maponus may be the British name of Apollo, as Belatucader is of Mars. It is nothing
uncommon to address a god both by his classical and local name. The first letter in the
fourth line appears to be N (numerus) rather than A (ala) ; both designations, as applied to
a troop of cavalry, are common. * * * The chief value of the inscription depends
upon the fifth line. Mr. Hodgson Hinde, in a paper read before the Society of Antiquaries
1 [For the loan of these engravings the publishers are indebted to the Rev. Dr. J. Collingwood Bruce, the historian
of the Roman Wall, who is now, at the instance of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle, preparing a corpus of all
he Roman inscriptions found in the north of England.]
E
26
HISTORY OF WHALLEY.
[Boon I. CHAP. II.
of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and published in their Transactions, 1 conjectured (without
having seen the altar) that Dr. Whitaker's reading of Breeten. should he Bremeten.
Such, as is shown in the woodcut, appears to be the fact. He further argues that the
station (Ribchester) at which the Sarmatian cavalry were located was the Bremetenracum
of the Notitia. He does so upon the same principle that High Rochester is conceded to be
Bremenium, and Risingham Habitancum.
" The Emperor for whose welfare this altar was erected does not appear ; but, judging
from the excellence of the design of the altar, and from the clearness of its lettering, he
must have been one of the earlier series.
" Besides the inscription, the altar is sculptured upon two of its sides. The subject of
one of these carvings is the youthful Apollo resting upon his lyre. The figure, notwith-
standing the hard usage it has met with in the course of centuries, exhibits considerable
grace. Two females, the one fully draped, the other only partially so, are shown on the
other side of the altar. They hold some object between them which is so much injured
as to be undistinguishable ; it may have been a basket of fruit or an offering of flowers.
Dr. Whitaker is surely wrong in describing these figures as two priests holding in their
hands the head of a victim." (Archaeological Journal, vol. xii. p. 226. 1855.)
This altar is now at St. John's college, Cambridge, standing at the entrance to the
New Bridge, fixed on a pedestal which bears this inscription : " Apollinis aram, prope
Coccium in agro Lancastriensi repertam, testamento legavit Thomas Dunham Whitaker,
LL.D. hujus Collegii alumnus."]
II. [On " a votive altar to Mars Pacifer : "Horsley, p. 303 :]
PACIFE
EO MARTI
ELEGAVR
BA POS
VIT. EXVO
TO.
[" We meet with Mars Pacifer in several coins of the lower emperors." Horsley.]
The word Elegaurba is very ingeniously read, by Professor Ward, ap. Horsley, p. 303,
Elcgans Aurelius Bassus?
III. [On the pedestal of a pillar seen by Camden at Salesbury Hall] :
DEO
MARTI ET
VICTORIAS
DD AVGG
ET CC NN.
Here were two Augusti and two Ccesars at the same time, which corresponds with
Dioclesian and Maximian, Augg. and Constantino and Galerius, Casss.
1 Archaeologia ^Eliana, vol. iv. p. 109.
2 [Elegans is not known as a prsenomen. It occurs three times in Grater and twice in Kellermann's Vigiles, but
always as a cognomen or agnomen. P. A. L.]
BOOK I. CHAP. II.]
ROMAN HISTORY.
27
IV. Camden's second visit to Ribchester, in 1603, 1 was rewarded by the discovery of
' a very fair altar," with this inscription :
DEIS MATRIBVS
M. INGENVI
VS. ASIATICVS
DEC. AL. AST.
SS. LL. M.
The Asti, or Astce, were a people of Thrace, 'Ao-rot Spaxuv e'foo?, Strabo, 1. 7. Steph-
Bizan. 'Ao-rat e'0z/o? pa/ci/cov. Deis, instead of Deabus, is held to be pure Latin, where there
is another word expressive of the sex. (Vossius de Anal. 2, 4.)
[Dr. Whitaker is here mistaken. The inscription plainly relates to the Astures, a
people of the north-west of Hispania Tarraconensis (whence the well-known royal title in
Spain of Prince of the Asturias), several of whose inscriptions have occurred at the stations
on the Roman Wall. 2
1 [" When I was here again in 1603, 1 met with the largest and fairest altar I ever saw, with this inscription, in the
house of Thomas Rhodes." The engraving here inserted is from a drawing made in 1850, and lent to this work by the
British Archaeological Association.]
2 [See Brace's Boman Wall, 3rd edit. pp. 64, 109, 159, 235. One, like that at Whalley, is to the Deee Matres:
" Matribus Campestribus et Genio Ate Primse Hispanorum Astur[um]," &c. Another, a monumental stone : " Aventino
Curatori Alse II. Astururn." A third, this remarkable record of the rebuilding of a barn : " Imp. Cses. M. Aur.
Severus Alexander Pii F. Aug. Horreum conlabsum Coh. II. Asturum S[everiane] A[lexaudrian] a solo restituerunt,"
c.]
E 2
28
HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK I. CHAP. II.
The altar now stands in the garden at Stonylmrst, having been removed thither about
1822 from Dinkley, where it served for a cheese-press, as before mentioned from Stukeley
(p. 22). " It is 33 inches high by 22 broad ; the inscription has become obliterated from
exposure to the weather." Baines.~\
[V. " Here was also lately dug up a stone, on which was carved a naked figure on
horseback without saddle or bridle, brandishing a spear in both hands, and insulting over
a naked man on the ground holding in his hand something square. 1 Between the horse
and the prostrate figure are D. M. ; under the figure GAL SARHATA. The rest of the many
letters are so decayed as not to be read, nor can I form any conjecture about them."
(Camden, edit. Gough.)]
VI. The last of Carnden's inscriptions, which he transcribed out of the papers of
Lambard, who had most probably received it from his friend Lawrence Nowell, is in a very
peculiar style, and has been justly conjectured, by Mr. Ward, to belong to a very low
period in the Empire.
HIS. TERRIS. TEGITVR
AEL. MATRONA. QV . . . .
VIX. AN. XXVIII. M. II. D. VIII.
ET M. IVLIVS. MAXIMVS. FIL.
VIX. AN. VI. M. III. D. XX. ET. CAM
PANIA. DVBBA. MATER
VIX. AN. L. IVL. MAXIMVS
.... ALAE. SAR. CONIVX
COXIVGI. INCOMPARABILI
ET. FILIO. PATRI. PIEXTIS
SIMO. ET. SOCERAE. TENA
CISSIMAE MEMORIAE. P.
Here the words mater and socera intimate the same person in two relations ; pien-
tissimo patri, for in patrcm, is very barbarous ; and tenacissimce memories, in a passive
sense, is altogether unauthorised. But the style of this inscription is not only late, but
deformed by provincial barbarisms. Antiquaries, while they employ their time and talents
in elucidating monuments of fifteen hundred years old, are apt to forget that the objects
of their criticism are often compositions of no higher rank than the frail memorials of our
own churchyards, " with uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deckt.'"
1 [This monument, noticed by Camden in 1607, was accidentally omitted by Dr. Whitaker. It presented a bas-
relief of not unfrequent occurrence as the sepulchral memorial of a Eoman knight or cavalry soldier. Two such found at
Littlemoor near Cirencester in 1835 and 1836 were shortly after engraved in the Gentleman's Magazine, and again
represented in History and Antiquities of Cirencester, T. P. Baily, 1842, 12mo. p. 201. Another, found at Stanwix,
will be seen in Brace's Roman Wall, p. 292.]
* Doctor Leigh, the historian of Lancashire, was not content with republishing these inscriptions, but, in pure
compassion to the unlearned, favoured them with his own translations, of which I select the following as a specimen :
" Acel, a matron who lived 28 years two months and eight days, in this earth lies entombed ; and Marcus Julius
BOOK I. CHAP. II.]
ROMAN HISTORY.
29
VII. The foregoing are from Camden : the next was, I believe, first copied by Leigh
(book iii. p. 8), and from him transcribed [and modified] by Dr. Gale, who made one
happy conjecture concerning the etymology of Coccium, but proposed it with a degree of
diffidence which a visit to the place would certainly have removed, as it must have con-
vinced him that he was in the right. I had long since made the same guess, and was
happy to find it confirmed by the authority of so great a man.
DEO MARTI ET
VICTORIAE DEC
ASIATIC. AL. SARMAT.
SLLMIITCCNN.
This is reasonably conjectured by Horsley to have been compounded, by misapprehen-
sion, of Nos. III. and IV.
VIII. This imperfect votive stone was first transcribed by Horsley (Lancashire, ii.) and
IMP . CA
IMP . CA
VEX . J3C
SVB . SEX
is now remaining (though the letters are more than half effaced) in a garden wall within
the village. Who the two emperors were to whom it was inscribed it is now impossible to
discover, but the form of the letters seems to point at Scverus and Caracalla.
[IX. A rude miliary stone, engraved by Horsley (Lancashire, iii.)
[At its head these three lines :
IMP CAES
MA
CO.
[At its foot these three :
OM
C . GA
SEIFL.
" The form of this looks somewhat like a miliary pillar. It was lying in a garden at
the west end of the town, and near the river. So much of the inscription is quite effaced
as makes it hard to guess at the meaning of the whole." (Horsley, p. 302.)
Maximus her son, who lived six years three months and twenty days; and Campania Dubba, her mother, who lived
50 years. Julius Maximus, and Alee, a Sarmatian, wife to her incomparable husband, erects this to perpetuate the
memory of Simo, the son of a pious father, and his father-in-law." Book iii. p. 5. The following are a few more
flowers of his criticism: Coccium from Coccius Nerva ; CONN. Coccio Nervce ; IETCCNN. imperatori triumphanti
Ccesari Coccio Nervce, for Imperatori et Ccesaribus nostris. Had this Doctor filled his whole book, as he has done
nearly one half of it, with medical cases, it might have been of some use ; but how, with all possible allowances for the
blindness and self-partiality of human nature, a man should have thought himself qualified to write and to publish
critical remarks on a subject of which he understood not the elementary principles, it is really difficult to conceive.
After all, his errors might have slept with himself, had not his vanity and petulance been at least equal to his want of
literature.
30
X.
HISTORY OF WHALLEY.
LEG XX V V.
FECIT.
[BOOK L CHAP. II.
This has been the corner-stone of a building, and is now remaining in an outhouse
near the church. 1 It has two sides exposed, and on the second is a rude figure of a boar,
the well-known cognizance of the Twentieth legion, which, though usually stationed at
Chester, might be quartered here at intervals. 2 It has never been published before.
Beside inscriptions, 3 the smaller antiquities discovered here are innumerable. The
coins, of which many are found of the large brass, are generally so much corroded as to be
scarcely legible. Denarii of the upper empire are not uncommon. A very pretty intaglio
[" of Mars "] in a ruby is engraved by Leigh (Tab. I. fig. i.) ; and I have a gold ring,
found here some years since, set with a cornelian of many faces, with a dove in the centre,
and round it the words AVE MEA VITA, the present, as it should seem, of a lover to his
mistress. Tradition also records a singular discovery at Ribchester, viz. the skull of an ox,
covered with some remains of leather, and studded with gold. It is very possible that such
a preparation might have been used for some sacrificial purpose, and it was an idea not
likely to occur to an inventor. 4
1 It has since been removed to Browsholme, [and thence to Holme. It is the same which is represented in the
miscellaneous plate introduced where the former place occurs in a subsequent page, and again in the History of Rich-
mondslu're, ii. 462.]
- [The Twentieth Roman Legion, Legio XX Valeria Victrix, is first heard of in Illyria A.D. 6, when Valerius
Messalinus defeated with it, though much under its full strength (semiplena), more than 20,000 enemies. ( Velleius
Palcrc. ii. 112.) There can be no doubt, as Pauly says (Real Encycl. iv. p. 897), that it thence won the name Valeria
Victrix. After the defeat of Varus it was sent to Germany. Its winter quarters were at Bonn; where it joined, on the
death of Augustus, in the mutiny of the German legions which was appeased by Gerrnanicus, under whom it afterwards
took part in the campaigns against the Germans, and has left many inscriptions in Lower Germany. Under Claudius
the legion came to Britain and fought under Suetonius Paulinus. After the death of Nero their vexillarii formed part
of the army which accompanied Vitellius to Rome. Vespasian made Agricola legate of the legion. Its head-quarters
were in Chester; but inscriptions in Scotland, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Durham, &c. show the presence of
detachments throughout the North of Britain, and tombstones of its members have been found at Bath and London. As
it is not mentioned in the Notitia Imperil there is reason to suppose that when that work was compiled it had just been
withdrawn from Britain. (Pauly, Real Enci/c. art. Legio (Geschichte). Hiibner, Die romischen Heeresabtheilungen in
Britannien in Rheinisches Museum fur Philolorjie, Neue Folge, Jahr. ii, 1856.) Sculptures representing the boar
(usually running) as the device of the Twentieth Legion have been found at various places in this country, as at
Chesterholm, High Rochester, Lanchester, and Maryport, on the Roman Wall (see Bruce, pp. 217, 327, 347, 369) ; in
Scotland (No. v.) and Durham (No. xvi.) as engraved by Horsley. Near Great Chesters in Northumberland has
been found a very curious sculpture without inscription, representing in relief two winged genii, two eagles with wings
spread, settled on the branches of trees, and two boars, running, facing each other. (Horsley, Northumberland, Ixiii.)]
3 [We should perhaps not wholly pass unnoticed the circumstance that Mr. Thomas Wright, in his Celt, Roman, and
Saxon (second edit. p. 299, followed by Mr. H. Godwin, in his Archceological Handbook), has asserted that among the
altars found at Ribchester was one to the goddess Jalouna. This is altogether a misapprehension. An altar inscribed
DEO JALONO, a male deity, supposed to personify the River Lune, was found at Lancaster, and is described by Dr.
Whitaker in his Richmondshire, i. 214. Mr. Wright also states (ubi supra) that an inscription DEO HERCVLENTI occurs
at Ribchester, which is an error for Riechester, in Northumberland ; see Horsley, p. 241.]
4 It was most probably one of the ancient encarpia. There is also in the possession of Dr. St. Clare, of Preston, a
Roman cyathus or diota of silver, found at Ribchester, not inelegantly embossed, and containing about half a gill.
Dostları ilə paylaş: |