Aumbers expressive of the distances between the stations in the copies of the Itinerary. Thus, when the mountain cannot come to Mahomet, Mahomet must be made to go to the mountain. Among antiquaries, this privilege is allowed. Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim. The work before us undertakes the elucidation of only a small part of Antoninus *. Mr. Gibson, from whose MSS. the volume is published, made proposals (dated Castor July 3, 1769,) for printing, by subscription, a comment on part of the fifth Iter, in order to establish the claim of Castor to the Roman Station denominated in the Itinerary Durobrivis; and to add to this illustration the parochial antiquities of Castor, with the adjacent parts in the liberty of Peterborough, and of some other places in the county of Northampton: but death interrupted this design; and the MSS. of Mr. Gibson were not rescued from their obscurity till 1795: when they were offered by the then proprietor of them, the Rev. Daniel Bayley, to Mr. Nichols, the present editor. From that year till the date of their publication, they have been receiving additions and improvements; and, since it was the expressed intention of the original author to bring down the history of Castor from its antient state under the Romans, through the Saxon period, to the present times, a supplement is added by the editor, from Mr. Bridges's History of Northamptonshire. Mr. Gibson's Comment occupies 140 pages. He first gives a list of the several editions of Antoninus, lays down the stations as enumerated in the fifth Iter, states the principles on which he proceeds, and endeavours to ascertain the real spot which each station occupied; as well as to prove that Castor is the scite of the last. Employing Bishop Gibson, he thus gives the Roman route on which he comments: See the account of a preceding attempt to illustrate this writer's Itinerary, Rev. N. S. Vol. xxxi. p. 349• In In preparing the way for his explanations, Mr. Gibson oba serves that his opinion is, that we often find so great an agree ment between the ancient and present names of places, that we may fix a Roman station without much regarding the number of miles said to be between station and station in the Itinerary of Antoninus;' and that hence he thinks himself at perfect liberty to correct or transpose numbers as may best suit his purpose.' He farther remarks, that the stations named in the Itinerary must be sought on the great consular roads, which, in the times of the Romans, intersected this island. Premising these data, he endeavours to give to each Roman name its modern corresponding denomination. Conceiving this fifth route to commence from London-stone, and to extend to Carlisle, he thus supposes Cesaromagnus to be Chelmsford or Writtle; Colonia, Colchester; Villa Faustini, St. Edmund'sbury; Icianes, Ickborow; Camborico, Cambridge; Duroliponte, Godmanchester; and Durebrivis, Castor, in Northamptonshire. He principally contends for the honour of the lastmentioned place; where, he says, a long residence, and careful inquiry after every particular, have afforded him proofs sufficient to conclude that it was a considerable Roman station, and that it was the Durcbrive of Antoninus. Afterward, however, in laying down his proposition, he takes more latitude; stating Durobrive to have been at, or nearly at, the spot of ground where Castor, on the banks of the river Nen, or Nine, now stands, in Northamptonshire; in which parish it took up a good deal of ground;', and also on the opposite side of the river in Huntingdonshire, at a place formerly called Alwalton, in the parish of Chesterton, and the parts adjacent, at Darnford, to the East of the encampment at Dornford.' It seems to be rather unfortunate that the position which this work is chiefly designed to establish should be so much at variance with the first datum: but what are the difficulties which the antiquary cannot surmount with the aid of the transforming powers of etymology? In the present instance, the needful is thus accomplished: Dur is water in the Armenian tongue; in the British it is Dür; in the Greek, rdg; whence we may refer, and derive, that of the Romans, Sudor. Dur too, in Ptolemy's geography, is a river in the province of Munster in Ireland, and, in Gallecia and the Subalpine Gaul, is the river Duria, and more to the same purpose. Herce I would refer the derivation of Durobrive, and consider it as a compound word of Dur and Brive; and so I have authority sufficient to affirm, that the station which bore this name in the fifth Iter of Antoninus was situated upon the river Nen, or Nine; the Northern camps being în the parish of Castor, the Southern in those of Chesterton and Alwa ton ton in the county of Huntingdon. For Durobrive is a nominative plural, and signifies, as I take it, camps by a running water, or the river camps; for so the word may be applied, especially where the camp or station has evident marks of having been fortified. The derivation is so natural and applicable to these camps near Castor, that I much wonder it has not been urged as a conclusive argument, by former writers, in favour of Castor. • Durobriva is a word no way proper to apply to a single camp; but such is that the Gales contend for at Brig-Casterton. And Mr. Peck, who is for Stanford, has not, as we shall see presently, been able to prove the least trace of a camp there. I had some pleasure to find this farther confirmation that my opinion is not erroneous, from a charter of king Edgar, dated in the year 972, the 16th year of his reign, to the abbey of Burgh, or Peterborough, in which Castor is mentioned thus, "Castra, that is, the camps." Having laboured to prove his point by etymology, Mr. Gibson next endeavours to shew that the assignment of the station of Durcbrive to Castor may be reconcileable with the numbers of the Itinerary, if account be taken of the difference between Roman and English miles; and if it be also considered that 'the Romans used a road between station and station more direct, and consequently shorter, than that on which we now travel.' This idea, however, is opposed by an observation which occurs in p. 102, where, on the distance being found greater between two stations in the Itinerary, than between the modern places which are supposed to occupy their scite, it is gravely suggested as most likely, that, in the time of the Romans, the road might have gone more about than it does now.' The number of Roman remains, found in and near Castor, is the last circumstance adduced to complete the evidence. How far it will be deemed conclusive, our readers shall be left to decide for on such occasions we had rather report the case than pronounce the verdict. In the Dissertation subjoined to the Comment, we are informed that, In digging up part of the camp at Castor, for the purpose of enlarging a garden which consisted of a part of it, and which was done more with a view of finding antiques, than out of a real want of the ground for the use it was hereafter to be applied to, we found the image of Jupiter. The spade at first turned up parts of broken urns, human bones with the marks of combustion, cinders, and pieces of glass, &c. common in Roman camps, or rather to the boundaries of them. And here, about the depth of six inches, we found the image, made of brass, and of that fine sort called Corin thian brass, no way cankered, or tinged with verdigrise, though common to brass in general. The surface is of a copper colour, much like the metal called bronze; but the colour is owing to a na REV. JUNE, 1802. tural tural varnish the earth has given to it. The image seems not to have been cast; but the profile and reverse stamped separately; about one-twentieth part of an inch in thickness. A piece of iron fills the middle of the term*, round which the two parts of the image are so nicely soldered with tin, tinged of a golden colour. The Romans used no other, as appears from the antiquities found at Herculaneum ; that, at first making, it must have appeared as if it was cast solid. The solder alone has not imbibed a tincture from the earth, and so is easily discovered from the other metal, as the central piece of iron is likewise by a part of the base or pedestal being broken off, and lost. At the first sight of the image, (though I pretend not to a skill suffi cient in antiquities to pronounce positively with regard to them, and leave it now to them who are better qualified to set me right in fixing to what class of deities this belonged,) from some distinguishing characteristicks, I judged it to be one of the Di Termini, that of Jupiter Terminalis; and, upon having recourse to such books as might elucidate the point in question, I am the rather confirmed in my first adopted opinion. The Greeks worshipped him under the character of "Ogios, Ocès, and "Ogos Zus. Our image is such as the Theraans represented him, a man without arms, and lessening gradually from the middle, like the antient Termini. The body of this image stands upon a piece of a square pyramid, lessening gradually like those. The head, with the fine curled hair, face, and bushy beard, and every muscle, are ex. pressed to the life. Part of the body which rests upon the pyramid or term, and the term itself, are decorated with a kind of drapery, beautifully arranged in ornamental foliages, the body and parts above being naked; below this, in the fore-ground of the term, upon each side of a tassel descending from the middle of the body, are placed standards, either of legions or cohorts, two in number. A kind of canopy is under these, under which is an eagle, the emblem of Jupiter, and sacred to him, as is the oaken bough on which the eagle is perched, and which forms a corona quercea round the bird of Jove. On the two sides of the term the same foliages of drapery appear, and also upon the back ground; and on this side we see the thunderbolts of Jove and his three-forked lightning collected together, and bound in he middle. These scem to intimate that Jupiter has a peculiar va lue for the country over which they hang, and has therefore restrained the power of these dreadful instruments of his wrath, that they should not hurt it. This country is represented under the thunder bolts by its proper symbols; which are, a basket of several kinds of fruit and fowers, and a rabbit luxuriously feeding upon these dainties. The rabbit is the representative and symbol of Spain: so we find that country distinguished in many coins which have come down to our hands, two of which I shall here take notice of. 1. IMP. CAESAR. TRAIAN. HADRIANYS. AUG. Reverse, HisFANIA. Spain, leaning upon the Pyrena an mountains, holding a branch of laurel in her hand; at her feet, a rabbit. This is manifest, by applying it to a compass-needle.' 2. The legend round the head, the same as the former coin. Upon the reverse, RESTITVTORI HISPANIAE. Spain represented by a female figure, sitting with a rabbit at her feet, is raised up by the emperor.' This image of Jupiter, to say nothing of the coins, urns, tessellated pavements, &c. also discovered there, is thought to indicate that Castor was a colony established by the legions. under the protection of Jupiter Terminalis. It seems, says Mr. G. to be one of the opera sigillaria; and, as one of the Dii patrii, to have belonged to some chief officer of the Romans in these parts. Perhaps, the owner of this deity was buried at Castor; human bodies having been found with the image. The editor regrets that it is not in his power to present a drawing of this little figure, nor to say where the original is deposited. We find by the subsequent history of Castor, that the protection of this supposed thundering deity was of little avail; for, in June 1795, a thunder cloud, passing over the village, struck the spire of the church, and almost demolished it. (p. 179.) We are also furnished with a short account of a curious sun-dial, (accompanied with plates,) at Upton, near Castor; together with the curious and unknown portrait (in the possession of Earl Fitz-William at Milton-House) of an artist, weighing his coat of arms against a pair of compasses, and making the former kick the beam.-It may be amusing to our countrymen, who are now obliged to think much of pounds, shillings, and pence, to see an extract from the household-book of Sir William Fitzwilliam, at Milton, from 1605 to 1612: 'Glazier for daye's work at Ed. the day, with meate and £. s. d. drinke, soulder at 8d. the hundred, twenty-one feet of glass at 6d. the foot 31 Nineteen months four weeks servants' wages at Christmas 16 2 A pair of cardes Lost at play A lantern O II 9.4 (frequently 6d.). 11036606∞0000 6 24 0 |