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The Whitley Castle Altar to Apollo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

R. P. Wright
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Extract

An altar with sculptured panels on all four sides of the capital was found in September, 1837, in digging a drain about 100 yards east of the north-east angle of the Roman fort at Whitley Castle, near Alston. It was 21 in. wide by 55 in. high and was set in a socket in a large slab, 48 by 28 by 8 in., which acted as a base and was itself supported on four pillars, each about a foot high. The die was even then extensively weathered and in the drawing published by Richardson the only decipherable letters are D[.]O l A[…]VS l […]VIVS though he gives traces of five more lines. Bruce in the Lapidarium amplified his original reading and gave in his text DEO l APOLLINI l [……l.]COH III NER l […] but added on his line-block as lines 3–4: VII[..]IVS NIIC[.]C[.]R. This was repeated by Hübner.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 1-2 , November 1943 , pp. 36 - 38
Copyright
Copyright ©R. P. Wright 1943. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 The following abbreviations are used: AA, Archaeologia Aeliana; CW, Cumberland and Westmorland Transactions; EE, Ephemeris Epigraphica; LS, Bruce Lapidarium Septentrionale; NCH, Northumberland County History; PSAN, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

2 Richardson, , Table-book (Hist. Div.) iv, 386;Google Scholar Hodgson, , Hist. Northd. ii, iii, 432;Google Scholar Bruce, Wall, ed. 3, 355; CIL vii, 309.

3 LS 738.

4 EE iii, p. 128.

5 EE ix, p. 566; 1911 MSS p. 17.

6 PSAN 4 iii (1928), 199Google Scholar.

7 CIL vii, 310; LS 741; Haverfield, , CW 2 xi, 359;Google Scholar EE ix, p. 566.

8 Bruce l.c.; Bosanquet, , PSAN 4 i (1924), 253,Google Scholar with plate.

9 Cf. CIL vii, 218; LS 193, from Ribchester, for Apollo resting on his lyre, and Espérandieu, , Recueil général des bas-reliefs … de la Gaule romaine iv, 3143;Google Scholar vi, 4535, for plectrum and lyre. Brendel, , JRS xxxi, 108;Google Scholar Wernicke, P-W s.v. ‘Apollon’, 107. The rugged style of the carving will account for the rather square frame of the cithara.

10 For the type see LS pl. facing p. 411, altar from Plumpton; for a coin see Mattingly, and Sydenham, , Roman Imperial Coinage iv,Google Scholar pt. 1, 105, no. 117, denarius of Septimius Severus of A.D. 197–8.

11 Brendel o.c.; Wernicke o.c., s.v. ‘Apollon’ 19ff. and s.v. ‘Helios’ 75.

12 CIL vii, 543; LS 64, now in the Black Gate Museum. The 4th and 7th lines have perished but the writer reads in 11. 5–6 APON[I]VS l ROGAT[I]ANVS.

13 Cumont, (Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra ii, 432,Google Scholar no. 318) points out that the representation is not one of the well-known Mithraic scenes.

14 See Dittenberger, , Orientis Graeci Inscr. sel. i, no. 383, 1. 54,Google Scholar and Cumont, , Textes et monuments ii, 89, 187,Google Scholar for a statue to Apollo-Mithras-Helios- Hermes erected by Antiochus I of Commagene (69–34 B.C.).

15 CIL vii, 542, 541, 543, 544; LS 62, 63, 64, 65; Bosanquet, , NCH xii, 38Google Scholar.

16 Askew, , Durham Univ. Journ. xxx (1938), 3Google Scholar.

17 Cumont, Les mystères de Mithra 3 134. Cf. ILS 4233 d(eo) i(nvicto) M(ithrae) et Soli socio.

18 ILS 4203 ff.

19 Collingwood and Myres, Roman Brit. and the Engl. Settlements 265; Ribchester, , CIL vii, 218;Google Scholar Corbridge, , CIL vii, 471, 483, 1345;Google Scholar Brampton, , CIL vii, 332Google Scholar = EE vii, 964 = ix, p. 566. The latter altar is said by Bishop Nicolson to have been found at Brampton in Gilsland, and so Haverfield assigned it to Castlesteads. There is, however, a much more likely site for it near Brampton Old Church. A Trajanic fort of the Stanegate series was found there in 1935 underlying the churchyard (CW 2 xxxvi, 172Google Scholar ff.; JRS xxvi, 241). In his report (p. 179) Mr. Richmond draws attention to two sites on the ridge south of the. fort: the western one had two rough enclosures and had yielded fourth-century Huntcliff pottery, the eastern one had produced ashlar-work, brick arch-work, a bronze statuette, a bronze ornament with IOVIS in openwork lettering, a late fourth-century cross-bow brooch and a hoard of third-century bronze coins. It should also be noted that at the foot of the cliff north-west of the fort itself there is a well, called Ninewells, that is to say, St. Ninian's Well. In Roman times the well was probably dedicated to some deity, and it is not perhaps too fanciful to suggest that this may indeed have been Maponus.

20 For the identification see Richmond, , NCH xv, 97Google Scholar.

21 CIL vii, 632; LS 193.

22 In a cartulary of the abbey of Savigny, Rhône, in about A.D. 1090 one of the witnesses to a transfer of land indicated his place of origin by the phrase ‘De Mabono Fonte’, from which we may infer that the earlier form was Mapom fons. The editor of the cartulary could not fix the site, but considered that it was probably in the neighbourhood of Lyon. See Holder, Altceltischer Sprachschatz s.v. ‘Maponus’; de Jubainville, d'Arbois, Rev. Celtique xiv (1893), 152Google Scholar.

23 CIL vii, 646; LS 190.

24 For an example related to Apollo see Capella, Martianus, De nupt. Philol. et Merc. ii, 188Google Scholar ff.; cf. JRS xxxi, 100 ff. and Miss Jolliffe, Arch. Journ. xcviii, 36Google Scholar ff.

25 The writer makes grateful acknowledgment of help received from Mr. I. A. Richmond, in particular on the interpretation of the front and sinister panels, and from Dr. S. Weinstock.