Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

lupiter-Columns
inscribed with careful lettering of Diocletian's age (284—305 A.D.). In
front is a dedication 'To lupiter Best and Greatest. L. Septimius...,
an equestrian, governor of the iirst province of
Britain, restored this by the agency of C. lust....'
To left and right are two very indifferent verses :
The statue and the column here in ancient days adored
Britannia Prima's ruler Septimius restored^.
The object of Septimius' pious and politic care
was certainly a 'Jupiter-column ' of some sort.
And, if the road connecting Calleva {Silchester)
with Durocornovium {Cirencestej') was really, as
E. Hiibner supposed, an Ermine Street'-, it may
fairly be assumed that the column had taken the
place of an older Inninsitl. Nor need we be
deterred from regarding the ' ' Jupiter-column
as
a Romanised Irminsill by the fact that deities
were carved upon its shaft. The Irminsnl near
Eresburg^ was itself described by a Saxon poet,
who wrote in the reign of Arnulf, as a thing ' of
beauty^.' And a similar sacred post at Austa
^ E. Hiibner in the Korrespondenzblatt der Westdetitschen
Zeitschrift 1891 x. 254 f. reads the dedication as follows : I{ovi)
0{ptimo) \^I\I{aximo)'\ \
L.
St'pt\imius...'\ \
pr(a,eses) \prov{inciae) Briiianniae) pr{tmae)] \
v{ir)
p{erfectissinms)
rest\iltiit^
c{urante) /ust[mo...'\ and the hexameters thus: [Sigjfiiim et
rector.
[ej-]c'c(am | [p]r!sca re\\li'\gioneco\_lii\}Hnai)i\\Septiniius \
primae \
\
provinciae
renovat,
\
F. Biicheler Carniina Latina epi-
graphica Lipsiae 1895 i. 135 no. 277 prefers: I{ovi) 0{ptitno)
[Jl/{axi/No)] \
L.
Sept[imius...'\ \
{^prov{inciae) Brit{anniae) primac\ \
C. lust. . . and \Sig\nu7n et \
vat rector. I
\
\
primae
provinciae
\der'\ectam
v{ir)
\
p{erfectissimus) pr{aeses)
rest\iiuit
curatn agente] \
[p^risca
re \gione co \
\
\
.^^r,
v^
1 II
S- 53-
\lti\mna7n || Septimius \
reno-
F. Haverfield in tlie English Historical Review for July
1896 figures the plinth and (followed by E. Conybeare Roman Britain London 1903
p. 225 n. 1) reads the hexameters in the inverse order. Cp. also Ephem. epigr. ix. 517 f.
no. 997, F. Haverfield The Romanization of Roman Britain^ Oxford T915 p. 70 n. i.
- See the map appended to Corp. inscr. Lat. vii. Cp. T. Codrington Roman Roads in
Britain London 1903 p. 29 f.
' Higden, following another of King Belinus's roads in
Geoffrey of Monmouth's account, says that Erming Street tends from west to east,
beginning at St. David's, and goes to Southampton, that is, roughly parallel to Watling
Street, and extending from sea to sea. There can be little doubt that he referred to the
line of Roman roads through Gloucester, Cirencester, Cricklade, to near Wanborough,
and then south by Marlborough to Winchester and Bitterne near Southampton, a route
which in Gloucestershire and North Wiltshire still bears the name of the Ermin Way.'
^ Supra p. 53.
* Poeta Saxo annalitnn de gestis Caroli Magni imperatoris lib. i anno 772 v. 45 ff.
(G. H. Pertz Monumenta Germanics historica Hannoverae 1826 i. 228) Gens eadem
coluit simulacrum, quod vocitabant |
Irminsul,
cuius factura similis (sic cod. : similis
factura corr. Leibnitius) columne (factura simulque columna cj. Reineccius) |
operis parvi fuerat pariterque decoris.
Non