Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 8.djvu/148

110 110 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. select several interesting subjects. The relics connected with the intro- duction of the Roman cidtus, and the woi'ship of local deities, Viteres and Hamia, unknown to Rome's Pantheon, are numerous. Mention has already been made of the discovery of objects connected with Mithraic worship ; and those which relate to the Dece Matrcs are not less curious. Remarkable examples of both are preserved in the museum at Alnwick Castle. Of numerous altars dedicated to Jupiter, we present to our readers a fine example from Chesterholm, dedicated by a Prefect of the Gauls, a native of Brescia, and remarkable as associating with Jupiter not only all the immortal gods, but the Genius of the Pretorium. The storks, sculptured on both sides of this altar, are symbols of imcertain import. Mr. Bruce suggests that they may have been emblems of Victory. Usually they import Piety, signifying veneration of the gods, love, and good-will to man.^ Petronius terms the stork, pietati-cidtrix. Another altar, dedicated to the Father of the Gods by the tribune of the first Spanish Cohort, is also here represented (see woodcuts). It is chosen as an example of singularly graceful proportion, and was found at Mary port, in Cumberland, one of the stations described by our author as subsidiary to the great northern barrier. Capit.l1, certurial stones, and earthen pipe, found at Cilumum. It is a singular fact, that amongst all these vestiges of an age when Christianity was certainly spread extensively throughout the world, not a trace of any Christian memorial has occurred. Brand conceived that the cross might be discerned upon an altar from Rutchester, now in the New- 3 See the series of symbols of Divinities, Montf. torn. i. p. 3.51.