A Letter from Mr Ralph Thoresby, F. R. S. concerning a Roman Inscription Lately Found at York, etc.

VIII. A Letter from Mr Ralph Thoresby, F. R. S. concerning a Roman Inscription lately found at York, &c. The Roman Monument lately discovered at York (which you desire an account of) was found in digging a Cellar in Coning-street, not far from the Roman Wall and Multangular Tower, that Dr Lister has given so curious and particular a Description of. This Monument, Dedicated to the Genius, or Tutelar Deity of the Place, is not of that course Rag, that the generality of the Roman Monuments are, but of the finer Gritt, like the Altar at the Lord Fairfax's House in York: 'Tis 21 inches long, and 11 broad, and is inscribed GENIO LOCI FELICITER. There was a larger Stone found with it, but without any Inscription; nor is there upon either of them the representation of a Serpent, or a young Visage, by both which the Ancients sometimes described these Dij Topicis; if the Name had been added, it would have gratified the Curiosity of the Neoteric Antiquaries; but they must yet acquiesce (for ought I know) in the old DVl, who is said to be the Tutelar Deity of the City of the Brigantes; from which Dim, as the Britains call'd him, Dewsbury, or Duisburg in this Neighbourhood, seems to have receiv'd its name; a place now chiefly noted for a fort of course Cloath there made, and thence called Duberians: The Monument is of this form. The Author of this Votive Monument seems to have had the same Superstitious Veneration for the Genius of York, as those at Rome had for theirs, whose Name they were prohibited to utter, or enquire after; hence it is upon their Coins the Name of this Deity is never expressed, but in a more general manner by Genius P. R. or Pop. Rom. Such a one I have of Constantius, minted at London, as appears by the Exurg L O N. under the Effigies of that Deity, with a Patera in the Right Hand, and Cornucopia in the Left, inscribed GENIO POPULI ROMANI. I rather instance in that of this Emperor (the Father of Constantine the Great) because he made York his Imperial Seat, and was here Deified; the Medal of whose Apotheosis I also have, minted at the same place and inscribed MEMORIA FELIX. which I mention (tho nothing relating to the Genius) because of the expression of a noted Antiquary, "That Rome in the height of its greatness, had not a more glorious and gallant show to exhibit, than what this poor piece of Copper would express. As the Genius of the City of Rome was expressed by G. P. R. so that of the Commonwealth, in a most sordid Flattery, by that of the Emperor, who they pretended to be their Happy Genius. I have one even of Nero, and not only after his Quinquennium, but the year year after he had laid most of the City in Ashes, yet by the express order of the Senate, inscribed GENIO AUGUSTI S.C. Some of the Fathers have therefore justly reproach'd the Romans, for paying a greater Veneration to the Genii of their Emperors, than to Jupiter their supreme God. This Custom of Deifying the Genii, and that of assigning Gods for defence of particular Cities, is very ancient, as appears by what the Prophet Jeremiah saith of revolting Judah, According to Jer. 2. 28. and 11. 13. the number of thy Cities are thy Gods; after the manner of the Heathen, who, according to Varro, had above thirty thousand; and yet notwithstanding this prodigious number, it is evident from their Medals, that several Cities were sometimes assigned to the same Tutelar Deity; thus the Greeks (from whom the Romans receiv'd this and several other of their Superstitions) committed both Magnesia and Smyrna to the protection of Cybele. Medals of the former are more common, of the latter more rare. His Excellency Baron Spanheim has writ a most Learned Discourse upon them, which makes me more to value one in my poor Musæum, which has the Effigies of that Mother of the Gods with her Towered Head, and CMYPNA; upon the Reverse is a Lyon Passant with CMYPNAION. I have also a large curious Medal of Julius Philippus, that would tempt us to believe that Antioch also was devoted to the same Cybele, for it has round her Head with the Turreted Crown ANTIOKEON MHTPOKOAN with Δ (or rather Α) E and SC on each side the Head. I must own myself somewhat at a loss about the latter word, except the Greek and Roman Tongues began then to admit of a sort of Mongril Mixture, so that from MHTEP and Colonius, might proceed MHTPOKOAN, and so the Antiochians have the Title of the Men of the Mother-Colony, Colony, the ΑΕ which are Greek, the SC in Latin Characters, the former signifying Lustrum Quintum, the other Senatus Consulto, seem to countenance this Conjecture, the Roman S being different from that in ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟC and CEBAS upon the same Coin. This Curiosity of the City of Antioch is not so valuable as it was the Metropolis of all Syria, and highly applauded by Ammianus Marcellinus (who lived within a hundred years of this time, as it is because here the name of Christians was first taken up, and that St Paul both preached and kept a Synod here, as Eusebius tells us, and so another I have of Antoninus Pius, inscribed BEPOIAION, which is more valuable in my Fancy for that passage Acts XVII. 2. than if it could be certainly ascribed to the noblest of the four Cities that bore the same Name. IX. Joh.