Gents Mag 1759 p.407
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introduction | ||
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list, 3rd qtr 18th century | ||
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Gentleman's Magazine 1759 p.407
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roman altar Overborough |
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Roman Altar,
Overborough
Mr URBAN, MR Rauthmell, in his Antiquitates Bremetonacenses, seems to have sufficiently proved, that Overborough is the Bremetonaca, or Bremetonacae, of Antoninus. Amongst his others proofs, he has produced a Roman altar, found in an old building near Overborough, and given to him by Mr Fenwick, which is exceeding a propos, since Mr Cambden, who first imagined this place might be Bremetonaca, had vouched, in proof of it, certain inscriptions upon stones, and Dr Gale and Mr Horsley, from Cambden, had taken notice of the same. The inscription upon this altar Mr Rauthmell has caused to be engraved, but is, in my opinion, extremely unfortunate in reading and interpreting it; indeed he is but a bad writer, and, I think, no better an antiquarian. The inscription is, DEOSAN / GONTR / EBIVAT / TAPOSV.Which he divides, reads, and explains on this manner: (2) DEO SAncto MOGONTI REstituta Bonae jam Valetudini ATTA POSuit Votum. But who can make MOGONTI of NGONT? Nor is there any reason why Atta should be supposed to be a woman, as he conjectures. (3) Poneres votum, I doubt, is not Latin; but what is worst, you may at this rate make any thing of any thing. To interpret rebiv, (letters unpointed, and in the middle of an inscription REstituta Bonae tam Valetudini, is a proceeding so arbitrary, and so little supported by the Roman inscriptions in being, that one may be allowed to say, there is no exampleof the like; and indeed were three or four words together to be expressed by initials on the marbles, the inscription would be so obscure and unintelligible, even in the age it was written, that no reader, at least no vulgar reader, would ever be able to comprehend it. Such inscriptions would rather tend to puzzle than instruct a reader. Setting aside, therefore, all he has amassed together about the god Magon, or Mogon, whom he supposes to be a British deity, answering to the Sun, or Apollo, the god of physic or health, and afterwards to have been adopted and worshipped by the Romans at this station. (4) I am entirely for trying a new method of reading and interpreting this inscription; and if I may but be allowed to suppose that the S at the top of the first V, which, I imagine, was written thus, Vs, has been either worn out, or overlooked, (which, I assure you, was a very easy thing for Mr Rauthmell to do) the whole will be very natural, plain, and easy, when distinguished thus. DEO. SAN / GON. TR / EBIVS. AT / TA. POSV.That is, in words at length DEO SANGO Numerius TREBIVS ATTA POSVit. Now, in favour of the emendation, I have to observe, that there seems to have been a substantial reason for the alligation of the V and S; for otherwise the name of the votary ATTA could not have been commodiously divided; if the S had been cut at large, there could only have been the A in that line. This Sangus, or Sancus, for he is written both ways, was originally a Sabine deity, but afterwards was in great request at Rome. According to Varro, he was the same as Hercules, and consequently was a proper diety for a soldier to honour. He was the principal deity of the Sabines, is mentioned by many authors, but is peculiarly famous on account of the mistake committed by Justin Martyr, (5) Tertullian, (6) and others, in respect of him. The mistake was this: these fathers charged the Romans with dignifying the great impostor Simon Magus with a statue and inscription, which statue, Justin Martyr says, was erected in the Tiber, between two bridges, and bore this Latin inscription, Simoni Deo Sancto. But now, (1) Mr Rauthmell makes a Nominative to be Bremetonacae, but Dr Gale, in his commentary on Antoninus, supposes it to be rather Bremetonaca. The ablative in the author, Bremetonacis, will admit of either. Cambden gives it in the singular, Bremetonacum, not correctly. N.B. It is also written Bremetonaca. Dr Fulk, in the 2d edit. of Burton's comment on Antoninus, places Bremetonaca at Trentham in Staffordshire, very absurdly. (2) See p.96. (3) See p.67. (4) See p.96. (5) Justin Mart. Apolog. I. (6) Tertullian Apolog. c. xiii. |
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