Finally some follow up on the altars from Inveresk (Musselburgh) on the BBC (and elsewhere. well, the East Lothian Courier, at least). These were first reported (and mentioned here) last April/May.
The reports answer some questions, but leaves many open. It does seem that the altars were face down in the initially published photos and that the suggestion that 'at least one' was dedicated to Jupiter seems to have been supposition. We are now told that one is dedicated to Sol and the other to Mithras, thus the most northerly known dedication to that god.
Frustratingly, the only photos so far released don't allow much to be made of the inscriptions (and the front faces don't seem to have been fully cleaned as yet - the report mentions remains of painted decoration, which is a good reason not to take a scrubbing brush to them, but unless they're so fragile that the surface is in danger of flaking away, I'm not sure why they are being treated quite so delicately...but see this news report and footage which does show them as rather more fragile than the early photos would lead you to suspect).
DAEO INVICT.M.C CAS...? etc
the form DAEO is not recorded in RIB I (where's that index to RIB III when you need it?), but easy enough to find Daeo Mercurio (CIL 13.5047) in Germany.
Certainly looks like a centurial symbol at then end of the only visible line on the other. More please.
Monday 21 March 2011
Saturday 12 March 2011
Legio XX on Wikipedia
To edit or not to edit? Perhaps I will get round to it...
Somewhat of a sparse entry. Fair enough in outline, but misleading on a couple of points, most notably on the question of 'Valeria'. The 4th century province on the Danube was named for Valeria, the wife of the emperor Galerius (and daughter of Diocletian); or at least so say Ammianus Marcellinus 19.11.4 and Aurelius Victor de Caes. 40. The fact that the legion was active in that region 300 years earlier is neither here nor there. If the nomenclature is to be linked to the historical exploits of AD6 then much more likely that they received the name from their commander Valerius Messalinus than that the region was silently known as Valeria for 300 years before Galerius (perhaps this can't be entirely ruled out - classical writers could be quite partial to a bit of folk etymology when attempting explanations of this sort - but Ammianus at least was well enough connected to know).
At Colchester 'from the AD 50s'? The usual reading of Tacitus is that the colonia was founded in 48 with the legionary garrison (presumed to be the Twentieth) moved to fight in South Wales, based initially at Kingholm and then at Usk.
Somewhat of a sparse entry. Fair enough in outline, but misleading on a couple of points, most notably on the question of 'Valeria'. The 4th century province on the Danube was named for Valeria, the wife of the emperor Galerius (and daughter of Diocletian); or at least so say Ammianus Marcellinus 19.11.4 and Aurelius Victor de Caes. 40. The fact that the legion was active in that region 300 years earlier is neither here nor there. If the nomenclature is to be linked to the historical exploits of AD6 then much more likely that they received the name from their commander Valerius Messalinus than that the region was silently known as Valeria for 300 years before Galerius (perhaps this can't be entirely ruled out - classical writers could be quite partial to a bit of folk etymology when attempting explanations of this sort - but Ammianus at least was well enough connected to know).
At Colchester 'from the AD 50s'? The usual reading of Tacitus is that the colonia was founded in 48 with the legionary garrison (presumed to be the Twentieth) moved to fight in South Wales, based initially at Kingholm and then at Usk.
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