More information : "'At the Vicaridge House in Tunstall are two
fragments of Roman inscriptions, Translated hither by the late
Minister, from Burrow upon Lewin (i.e. Lune) in ye said
parish,..." (a)
The stones cannot now be found there, and have, no doubt,
perished. The first of the two inscriptions...opens with the
phrase, "Dis Manibus Sacrum, et Perpetu(a)e Securitate."...In
the fourth line the letters seem to be a mis-representation of
ANICETV(S), and have probably been followed by VIXIT, as there
is a large space left vacant in the drawing. It is, of course,
possible that we may read simply AN(NORVM) Lll., but the space
after ANICETVS would hardly be left blank. I was inclined to
think that AVREVBIAE was simply a misreading of AVRELIAE, but
Dr. McCaul (b), in a recent letter suggests the reading,
AVR. EVSEBIAE, conjecturing that Machel has omitted the letters
SE, and he is probably correct. The whole inscription would
then read:-
It is possible that what I have taken for I at the end of
SECVRITATI, may be L, and stand for Lucius, the praenomen of
Aurelius, but this would make no difference to the expansion,
SECVRITAT being a common abbreviation. In the last line Dr.
McCaul suggests F.P.P. as the concluding letters, expanding them
as F(ILIVS)P(IE)P(OSVIT); either expansion will suit. Aurelius
Anicetus, as we gather from the inscription lived fifty-two
years, and appears to have been stationed some time at Overborough,
from the use of the words "hic militavit" ("here he has fought").
Aurelius Eusebia, his wife, lived thirty-seven years, and it
was probably their son Aurelius, who put up the stone from
motives of filial piety ("pro pietate posuit")
The second inscription occured upon the head of a similar
monument, the remainder being destroyed. Only D(IS) M(ANIBUS)
S(ACRUM) remained ... each of these stones was surmounted by
the representation of a fir cone, a well known symbol of mortality.
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