More decisive evidence has since been procured. The slab figured on page 61, is part of it. A still more satisfactory document of stone was discovered at Chesters several years ago, where it is still preserved: the wood-cut accurately portrays it. IMP[ERATORI] CAES[ARI] _MARCO_ AVREL[IO] AUG[VSTO] . . . . . . . . . . . . _PONTIFICI MAXIMO_ TRIB[VNITIA] P[OTESTATE] CO[N]S[VLI] _IV_ P[ATRI] P[ATRIÆ] DIV[I] _ANTONINI FILIO_ DIVI SEVER[I] NEP[OTI] CAESAR[I] IMPER[ATORI] . . . . . . . . . . . _DUPLARES_ ALÆ II ASTVRV[M] _TEMPLUM_ VETVSTAT[E] _CONLAPSUM RESTITU_- ERVNT PER MARIUM VALER[IANUM] _LEGATUM AUGUSTALEM PROPRÆTOREM_ INSTANTE SEPTIMIO NILO PRÆ[FECTO] DEDICATVM III KAL[ENDAS] NOVEM[BRIS] GRATO ET SELE[VCO] _CONSULIBUS_.[91] To the emperor Marcus Aurelius Augustus . . . . . . . . . . . Pontifex Maximus, With tribunitian power, fourth time Consul, Father of his Country, of divine Antoninus the son, Of the deified Severus the grandson, To Cæsar our emperor . . . . . . . . the duplares[92] Of the second wing of Astures, this temple, through age dilapidated, re- stored by command of Marius Valerianus, Imperial Legate and Proprætor, Under the superintendence of Septimius Nilus, Prefect. Dedicated Oct. 30th, in the consulate of Gratus and Seleucus. Hutton, who has done such good service to the Wall, under-rated the value of inscriptions. ‘When the antiquary,’ says he, 'has laboured through a parcel of miserable letters, what is he the wiser?'—Let this fractured and defaced stone answer the question.[93] 1. This dedication was made by soldiers of the second wing of the Astures;—we thus learn the name of the people who garrisoned the fort, and by a reference to the Notitia, ascertain with certainty that this was[Sidenote: CILURNUM.] CILURNUM. 2. We acquire the fact, that a temple, which through age had become dilapidated, was restored;—learning thereby, not only the attention which the Romans paid to what they conceived to be religious duties, but their long occupation of this spot. It has been already observed, that some of the pillars of the hypocaust have been portions of a prior building;—the ruin and inscription thus corroborate each other. 3. The date of the dedication is given; the third of the calends of November falls upon the thirtieth of October, and the year in which Gratus and Seleucus were consuls corresponds to A.D. 221;—the data on which antiquaries found their conclusions, are not always so vague as some imagine. 4. Even the erasures are instructive. By a reference to the date, we find that Heliogabalus was reigning at the time of the dedication of the temple; we find that what remain of the names and titles on the stone apply to him; he, consequently, is the emperor referred to. The year following he was slain by his own soldiers, his body dragged through the streets and cast into the Tiber. The soldiers in Britain seem to have sympathized with their companions at Rome and to