button to main menu  Camden's Britannia, edn 1789

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Page 172:-

D.M.
MORI REGIS
FILII HEREDES
EIVS SVBSTITVE
RVNT VIX A. LXX

HIC EXSEGERE FATA
... ENVS SC GERMA ...
... S REGVIX. AN. ...
S VIX AN ...
... IX ...

D.M.
LVCA VIX
ANN
IS XX

D.M.
IVLIA MARTIM
A, VIX. AN.
XII. IIID. XX H
Here also is to be seen this stone, handsomely carved, on which two winged Genii support a wreath as below: See Pl.VIII. fig.7. The inscription is to be read, Victoriae Augustorum Dominorum nostrorum.
  MORICAMBE. Home Cultrain. Michael Scotus. Waver r. Wiza r. Old Carlisle. CASTRA EXPLORATUM. ALA AUGUSTA.
  Moricambe Bay
  Holme Coultram Abbey
  Old Carlisle
  Olenacum
  roman inscription

The shore proceeding strait from hence, presently forms such a bending winding bay, that it seems to be MORICAMBE, which Ptolemy places hereabouts. The situation and name of the place agree; for the aestuary bends in, and Moricambe signifies in British crooked sea. On this David I. king of Scotland founded Holme, or as it is commonly called Holme Cultrain abbey; and Vulstey castle was built by the abbots in the neighbourhood to secure their treasure, books, and records, from the sudden inroads of the Scots. In this castle are said to be concealed a prey to the moths the works of Michael Scotus, who professed a religious life here about the year 1290, so deeply immersed in mathematical studies and sciences, that he obtained the character of a magician with the vulgar, whose foolish credulity reported him to have wrought wonders. Below this monastery falls into the aestuary the little river Waver, after receiving the Wiza another little stream, at whose source the poor remains of an antient city stand as monuments that nothing in this world is exempt from the lot of mortality. This is now called by the inhabitants Old Carlisle: what was its antient name I know not, unless it was CASTRA EXPLORATUM [*], The distance in Antoninus (who does not take the shortest way, but recites the more considerable places), agrees both from Bulgium and Luguvallum. The situation was very convenient for discovering an enemy; for it stands on a hill of considerable height, affording a good view of the country all round. Certain it is, that the wing, which, for its valor, was called AUGUSTA and AUGUSTA GORDIANA was here in the time of Gordian, from the following inscriptions which I saw in the neighbourhood of this place at Ilkirk:
  
  #x002A; Jovi Optimo Maximo
  
  #x002A; VIRTVT.
  
  #x002A; FI
  
  #x002A; INGM LING. N.
  Phil Trans. 357.


[*] I. O. M.
ALA. AVG. OB
[*] ... RTVT. APPEL. CVI
PRAEEST. TIB. CL. TIB.F.P. [*]
[*] IN ... G ... N JVSTINVS
PRAEF. FVSCIANO
II. SILANO II COS

D. M.
MABLI
NIVS SEC
VNDVS
EQVIS
ALE AVG
STE STIP.
  
  #x002A; [EX]RIAE[ ]
  
  #x002A; TVSDRO


I.O.M.
PRO SALVTE IMPERATORIS
M. ANTONI GORDIANI. P. F.
INVICTI AVG ET SABINAE TR [*]
IAE TRANQVILE CONIVGI EIVS TO
TAQVE DOMV DIVIN. EORVM A-
LA AVG. GORDIA. OB VIRTVTEM
APPELLATA POSVIT: CVI PRAEEST
AEMILIVS CRISPINVS PRAEF.
EQQ. NATVS IN PRO AFRICA DE
[*] TVIDRO SVB CVR NONNII PH
LIPPI LEG. AVG. PROPRETO ...
ATTICO ET PRETEXTATO
COSS [s]
  Wigton. Thoresby.
From hence were brought the altars that stand by the road side at Wigton, having on their sides a simpulum, a futile [t], a mallet, a patera, and other instruments of sacrifice: but the letters are entirely worn out by time. Not far from hence was dug up by the military way a pillar of rough stone, now at Thoresby, with the inscription [u]:

IMP CAES
M. IVL.
PHILIPPO
PIO FELI
CI
AVG
ET M. IVL. PHI
LIPPO NOBILIS
SIMO CAES
TR. P. COS ...
This was likewise copied for me by that most learned minister Oswald Dikes, now preserved in his brother T. Dike's house at Wardal.
  
  #x002A; For Aram ex vota.


DEO
SANCTO BELA
TVCADRO
AVRELIVS
DIATOVA [*] ARAE
X VOTO POSVIT
LL.MM. [x]
Another similar isncription in honour of a topical deity has also been found:

DEO
CEAIIO AVR
MRTI ET MS
ERVRACIO PRO
SE ET SVIS. V. S.
LL. M.
besides great numbers of small images, statues on horses, eagles, lions, Ganimedes, and many other evidences of antiquity continually coming to light.
A little higher up runs out a small cape, and below it lies a large aestuary, called by the Scots Solway
172.*   Concerning the Areani see hereafter under the Picts wall.
[s] This votive altar also of a rude stone was erected for the happy health of the emperor Gordian the 3d and his wife Furia Sabina Tranquilla and their whole family, by the troops of horsemen surnamed Augusta Gordiana, when Aemilius Crispinus, a native of Africa, governed the same under Nonnius Philippus, lieutenant-general of Britain, in the year of Christ 243, as appeareth by the consuls therein specified. Holland.
[t] Not as Gibson reads Fusile, and translates it a melter. Futile he explained before an open pot.
[u] To the honour of Philip the emperor and his son who flourished about the year of our Lord 248. Holland.
[x] Another such inscription was found near Brougham castle in later times. (Gale MS.).
frith,
gazetteer links
button -- "Moricambe" -- Allonby Bay
button -- "Holme Abbey" -- Holme Coultram Abbey
button -- "Moricambe" -- Moricambe
button -- "Volantium" -- (roman fort, Maryport)
button -- "Old Carlisle" -- (roman fort, Old Carlisle)
button -- "Solway Frith" -- Solway Firth
button -- "Vulstey Castle" -- Wolsty Castle
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