button to main menu  Gents Mag 1851 part 1 p.152

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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.152
early date, and refers to the second legion, LEG. II. AUG. F. Legio Secunda Augusta fecit. It was found at the station called Hunnum, and was doubtless erected to commemorate the work done by the legion at that castrum. It resembles in style those erected by the same legion on the barrier of the Upper Isthmus or Wall of Antoninus. The next example shows a stone lately

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found among the fallen stones of the wall at Cawfield Crags, where a tract of the wall is to be seen in an excellent state of preservation. It bears the mark of the twentieth legion. Mr. Bruce observes, -
"This sculpture cannot have been derived from the Vallum, in the construction of which, in the time of Hadrain, the twentieth legion is acknowledged to have been employed; for the Vallum is here distant more than three hundred yards from the wall. The reader will of course perceive the bearing which this fact has upon the question of the contemporaneous origin of the two structures, and the construction of the wall, as well as the Vallum, by Hadrian."
The Romans usually retained the various divisions of their troops at particular stations over a long period of time. At the time of the compilation of the Notitia Imperii (the latter part of the fourth century), the first cohort of the Asti was in garrison at AEsica, on the wall. Here, in 1761, was dug up an inscription, from which it appears that during the reign of Severus Alexander (A.D. 222 to A.D. 235), the second cohort rebuilt the granary of this station, which had become dilapidated. We are enabled to introduce here a cut of the large mural tablet lately dug up near the eastern

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J. STOREY. DEL / [RB] UTTING. SC

gate way of this station. It is dedicated to Hadrian, and supplies powerful testimony in support of Mr. Bruce's theory on the date of the wall.
Another class of inscriptions, more numerous and not less interesting, are those relating to worship. They embrace, as may be supposed, a wide range of divinities, the objects of adoration of the various troops stationed along the wall, from Jupiter, the Optimus and Maximus, down to Epona, the protectress of horses. They are usually inscribed on altars, which were set up not only in temples, but also in the open places, and even in the fields. Hodgson states that within the limits of one modern parish four important fortified places were furnished with temples to different deities; and he adds that he felt it difficult to refrain from both admiring the piety and pitying the superstition that reared them. Sometimes the dedications are
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