The discovery of this votive tablet seems to indicate this to have been the situation of the Roman station Longovicum, mentioned in the itinerary of Antoninus, where the imperial lieutenant of Britain (as the Notitia informs us) kept a company of the Longovici in garrison."
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ft. in.
The height of the altar is 2 212
The width at the base 1 4
middle 1 0
Its thickness at the base 1 0
middle 0 10"
The inscription appears to be DEO. SANCTO. MARTI. COCIDIO. VIBINIVS LVCIVS. BI. C.S. V.S. L.M. BI is a contraction of Balbius on the authority of Manutius. The small o between C. and S. is probably a stop, since no such name as Vibinius Lucius Balbius occurs in the lift of consuls given at the end of Horsley's Britannia Romana; the two letters C. S. are well known to signify communi sumptu.
Three altars have been found in Cumberland dedicated to the local deity Cocideus. See Archaeologia, Vol. XI. p. 70, and Horsley's Britannia Romana, p. 557.
The inscription in Horsley is DEO COCIDI, which he supposed to be the dative of Cocis, but from these recent discoveries it appears to have been Cocideus or Cocidius, and an addition to the name of Mars. The O was probably omitted in the former for want of room, as the I is quite at the edge of the altar.
April
