[Footnote 296: Mithraism is first heard of in the 2nd century A.D., as an eccentric cult having many of the features of Christianity, especially the sense of Sin and the doctrine that the vicarious blood-shedding essential to remission must be connected with a New Baptismal Birth unto Righteousness. The Mithraists carried out this idea by the highly realistic ceremonies of the _Taurobolium_; the penitent neophyte standing beneath a grating on which the victim was slain, and thus being literally bathed in the atoning blood, afterwards being considered as born again [_renatus_]. It thus evolved a real and heartfelt devotion to the Supreme Being, whom, however (unlike Christianity), it was willing to worship under the names of the old Pagan Deities; frequently combining their various attributes in joint Personalities of unlimited complexity. One figure has the head of Jupiter, the rays of Phoebus, and the trident of Neptune; another is furnished with the wings of Cupid, the wand of Mercury, the club of Hercules, and the spear of Mars; and so forth. Mithraism thus escaped the persecution which the essential exclusiveness of their Faith drew down upon Christians; gradually transforming by its deeper spirituality the more frigid cults of earlier Paganism, and making them its own. The little band of truly noble men and women who in the latter half of the 4th century made the last stand against the triumph of Christianity over the Roman world were almost all Mithraists. For a good sketch of this interesting development see Dill, 'Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire.'] [Footnote 297: Of the 1200 in the 'Corpus Inscript. Lat.' (vol. vii.), 500 are in the section _Per Lineam Valli_.] [Footnote 298: 'Corpus Inscript. Lat.' vol. vii., No. 759.] [Footnote 299: Some authorities consider him to have been her own son.] [Footnote 300: See p. 126.] [Footnote 301: The Gelt is a small tributary joining the Irthing shortly before the latter falls into the Eden.] [Footnote 302: Polybius (vi. 24) tells us that in the Roman army of his day a _vexillum_ or _manipulum_ consisted of 200 men under two centurions, each of whom had his _optio_. Vegetius (II. 1) confines the word _vexillatio_ to the cavalry, but gives no clue as to its strength.] [Footnote 303: On this inscription see Huebner, C.I.L. vii. 1. A drawing will be found in Bruce's 'Handbook to the Wall' (ed. 1895), p. 23.] [Footnote 304: The name _Cilurnum_ may be connected with this wealth of water. In modern Welsh _celurn_ = caldron.] [Footnote 305: "All hast thou won, all hast thou been. Now be God the winner." (These final words are equivocal, in both Latin and English. They might signify, "Now let God be your conqueror," and "Now, thou conqueror, be God," _i. e_. "die"; for a Roman Emperor was deified at his decease.) Spartianus, 'De Severo,' 22.] [Footnote 306: Aelius Spartianus, 'Severus,' c. 22.] [Footnote 307: See p. 46.] [Footnote 308: Dio Cassius, lxxvi. 16.]