Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/22

6 and Artay occur near Vienne and Grenoble. This hardly enables one, however, to decide whether the god gave his name to one or more of these places, or the reverse was the case; but one is inclined to the former view by the occurrence of Artio as the name of a goddess in an inscription in the museum at Berne, for one can hardly be wrong in associating with Artio' s name such a Celtic word as the Welsh âr 'plough-land'; whence it would seem by no means improbable, that Mercurius Artaius was the Gallo-Roman title of the god called Mercurius Cultor in an inscription from Würtemberg. This would serve to show that Mercury was associated by the Gauls with agriculture, especially ploughing.

The next inscription to be mentioned was found at Ilières, also in the department of the Isère, and the first portion of it reads : Aug(usto) Sacr(um) Deo Mercurio Victori Magniaco Veilauno. Here the god is styled 'August,' as in the other instance, but the less usual epithet of victor is added, which is to be noticed, as he was no mere Mercury in the Latin sense. Then follow in the inscription two words of Gaulish origin, of which Magniaco would seem to be the name of a place, though it must be admitted to lack the support to be expected from the identification of its modern form as the name of a spot in the neighbourhood. The other, Veilauno, even though it should not prove a misreading of ,