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Page 197:-
if lord Preston was spoken to he would order some of these
ruins to be digged up. I myself have bespoke some workmen at
Midleby."
Another letter of sir J. Clerk's relating to the same, Oct.
29, 1734:
"Sir, I cannot but be satisfied with your reading of the
inscription on the Netherby altar, but I still state to you
my reasons for what I sent you: I know very well that the
first cohort of a legion used sometimes to be called
Mliliaria, for so Rosinus and Vegetius, and before
them Modestus had taught me. I know it consisted both of
horse and foot, but I thought it a tautology to add after
Ima cohors, the letters ∞ EQ. wherefore I
imagined it was intended to signify that the whole cohort
consisted of horse in number 1000, and that there belonged
to the cohort 1000 horse, who were quartered at Netherby.
But what was of greater weight with me, I believed that in
the latter times of the Roman empire there were cohorts
intirely of horse."
The inscriptions found here both make mention of Marcus
Aurelius Salvius, tribune of the cohors I. AElia Hispanorum
milliaria equitata. The first moreover points out the
particular emperor M. Aurelius Severus Alexander, in whose
reign it was engraved, and almost directs us to the very
year also, which must have been either the 226th or 229th of
the Christian aera, for in those years was that emperor
consul. The title of Dominus is here also
given to this emperor, notwithstanding his averseness to it
mentioned by his historian Lampridius [y]. This stone served
to cover a drain of no considerable age, and is about five
feet seven inches by four feet four inches and an half. The
altar was found in a room belonging to a large building, not
long before discovered, but since pulled to pieces for the
sake of the materials, where there appears to have been an
hypocaust, and possibly the Basilica mentioned in the
other inscription was thereabouts. Basilica here
signifies a portico or colonnade for exercising horses or a
riding school; Basilica equestris exercitatoria. The
cohors I. Hispanorum is mentioned in many inscriptions found
hereabouts, but only on these two called AElia. The
monogram stands for milliaria, and the term
equitata signifies that the auxiliaries exercised on
foot, some of the regiments being lined or flanked with
horse, and therfore called equitatae, not, as Mr.
Horsley and others understood it, promoted from the foot
service to the horse. This inscription gives a new
legate and propraetor Valerianus, as the copper inscription
before-mentioned in Yorkshire [z] affords another, and that
a very remarkable personage under the emperor Hadrian and
one much known in the Roman history.
IMP CAES M AVRELIO
SEVERO ALEXANDRO PIO FEL AVG
PONT MAXIMO TRIB POT COS PP COH I AEL
HISPANORVM ∞ EQ DEVOTA NVMINI
MAIESTATIQVE EIVS BASELICAM
EQVESTREM EXERCITATORIAM
IAMPRIDEM A SOLO COEPTAM
AEDIFICAVIT CONSVMMAVTIQVE
SVB CVRA MARI VALERIANI LEG
AVG PR PR INSTANTE M AVRELIO
SALVIO TRIB COH IMP D N
SEVERO ALEXANDRO PIO FEL
AVG COS
Imperatori Caesari Marco Aurelio
Severo Alexandro Pio Felici Augusto
Pontifici Maximo Tribunitiae Potestatis Consuli
Patri
Patrie Cohors Prima AElia
Hispanorum Miliaria Equitatata devota Numini
Majestatique ejus Basilicam
Equestrem exercitatoriam
Jampridem a solo coeptam
AEdificavit consummavitque
Sub cura Marii Valeriani Legati
Augusti Propraetoris instante Marco Aurelio
Salvio Tribuno Cohortis Imperatore Domino Nostro
Severo Alexandro Pio Felici Auguste Consule [a].
At Netherby has been found every thing that denotes it a
fixed Roman station. A fine hypocaust was discovered 1745,
contiguous to the old bath opened 1732, and the present
shrubbery was the burial place, in which some gardeners
found the statue in Pl.XII. The hypocaust was supported by
54 pillars of solid stone, marked in the plane E E E, 36 of
which were covered with flags and cement as shown at I. The
communication between the two divisions of this hypocaust
was maintained by three hollow tiles or pipes through the
wall marked D D D. West of these was another hypocaust
supported by 20 pillars of square tiles laid on each other
with a little cement between marked B B, and west of these
were four pillars of similar construction. Through the room
B B passed a conduit or air pipe marked C, as did another
through an adjoining room H H, full of tiles both hollow and
plain. The antiquities discovered here, with others from
different parts of the county, collected and arranged by sir
Richard Graham, bart. grandfather of the late lord viscount
Preston [14], are preserved in the greenhouse [b]. The
inscription given by Mr. Camden is missing, probably lost
when part of the house was taken down, as are the two in the
additions, which do not seem very faithfully copied.
IMP. COMM. COS.
ET DEO MARTI
BELATVCADRO
RO. VR. RP. CAII
ORVSII. M.
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The conclusion of the last may be Gallorum V.S.L.L.M.
and it may be a fragment Deo Belatucadro. Horsley found only
one inscription here to the god Mogon [c], and some
sculpture [d]. Mr. Pennant saw here that about the Basilica,
and the altar to Fortune. An altar three feet high,
inscribed:
Deo sancto Cocidio Paternus Maternus Tribunus
Coh. I. Nervane ex evocato palatino V.S.L.M.
probably to a local deity as on that at Scaleby [e], The
altar to Astarte found at Corbridge with the Greek
inscription, which it was reserved for Mr. Tyrwhitt to
explain most happily [f]. A small altar DEO VETERI SANCTO
--- V.S.L.M. A fragment DEO BELATUCA. The inscription found
at Cambeck [g], a figure of Nehalennia, a groupe of Deae
Matres, another of three hooded figures like Genii, some
delicate bronze figures, terms and rondeaux
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