I.H.D.D.D. NEPT. L. VERVS. AVG. PR. PROV.
GER. ET BRIT. ET HEREN. APOL. ES.
ET C. LVC. ET HER. BRIT. F.V.S.L.L.M.
which may be read,—In honorem Domus Divinæ Deo Neptuno Lucius Verus Augustalis Procurator Provinciarum Germaniæ et Britanniæ et Herennia Apollinaris è suo et Caius Lucius et Herennius Britannicus filii votum solverunt læti libentes merito. It appears that L. Verus was the Imperial Procurator for the Provinces of Germany and Britain, and that his life was endangered on a voyage from one province to the other. He called on Neptune to rescue him, and promised to dedicate a valuable present to the god, if his life were preserved. On reaching home he fulfilled his vow, his wife, Herennia Apollinaris, uniting with him in this expression of pious gratitude, the cost of which they defrayed out of their common property. They moreover showed their parental regard to their two sons, Caius Lucius and Herennius Britannicus, by associating them with themselves in what they considered as a becoming act of devotion, and possibly the acerra was carried at the sacrifice by C. Lucius, the elder son, in the manner beautifully represented on Trajan's Column at Rome.
The date of this box is probably about A.D. 200. A similar acerra, with a Medusa's head at one end, made, however, of bronze, formerly belonged to Paciaudi and Count Caylus, and it is now the property of John Disney, Esq. of the Hyde in Essex.[1]
Mr. Yates also exhibited a plaster-cast from a Roman comb, lately found at Mayence. The original is said to have been purchased there by an English traveller. In the middle of the comb, between the two rows of teeth, is a bas-relief representing Jupiter between Mars and Mercury. Under it is the inscription,—
I. M. M.
O. M.
which may be read, Jovi, Marti, Mercurio, optime meritis. A similar comb of bone, with a bas-relief representing the three Graces, is now in the possession of Mr. Boöcke, of London. This sculptured relique also was found at Mayence.
Mr. Yates also gave an account of the discovery of a gold torc at Stanton, in Staffordshire, midway between Blore and Ellaston, in a field near the Stone Pits, about a foot beneath the surface. It was found early in the year 1853, and had been shown to Mr. Yates in July last by the Rev. H. Bainbrigge, of Stanton. As far as is known the field had never before been ploughed or dug. It was stated that when the finder first perceived the treasure, like a glittering serpent, to which possibly the elasticity of the object gave apparently a quivering motion, his alarm was so great that he ran home, and it was some time before he could summon up courage to return to the field and secure the prize. The weight is 5 oz. 18 dwts. 512 gr.; the length 1 metre, 16 centim. (ab. 3 ft, 912 in.) The section of the twist is a cross (+). The extremities are hooked about 2 in. in length, gradually increasing in size towards the ends which are cut off obtusely, as shown by the representations of the extremities of a gold torc in the British Museum, given in Mr. Birch's Memoir "On the Torc of the Celts," in this
- ↑ See Caylus Recueil, tome iv. p. 281, pl. 86; and Museum Disneianum, part ii. London, 1848. p. 177—180, pl. 78.
