DEDICATION TO FORTUNA, MANCHESTER Alison E. Cooley AEC/ASHL AN1875.15.xml 155068 Oxford Ashmolean Museum AN1875.15 AshLI 137

A red sandstone base (0.685 0.385 0.27), with a relief of a libation-dish (patera) on its right side, and a jug (urceus) on its left. The top and bottom of the monument have been cut away, and a socket has been cut into its rear side. As a result, it is not possible to be sure whether the base originally functioned as an altar (the more likely possibility) or supported a statue. On the top surface towards the rear is a small round hole with remains of metal inside. The rear side is roughly finished, but not visible as currently displayed.

Inscription on a recessed panel (0.28). The letters are deeply incised. Sporadic interpuncts are much less deeply incised. A shallowly incised (very faint) ivy-leaf appears at the end of the text.

: h., 0.045 (lines 1-3); 0.05 (line 4); 0.055 (lines 5-7). Ligatures: TVN in line 1; VA in line 2, which were first recorded by Whitaker (1773). Line 6: 3 is used as a symbol for the word centurio. Castlefield, Manchester. Perhaps mid/late second century AD (from military context). The Sixth Legion Victrix came to Britain from Lower Germany in AD 122 (Keppie 2000: p.30). It was based in York, where it also remained after the province of Britannia was reorganised in the early third century, being assigned to Britannia Inferior. The legion continued to exist until the fourth century, but from the Severan period was entitled Victrix Britannica Pia Fidelis, then Antoniniana, Severiana, and Gordiana in turn (Keppie 2000: p.33; Birley 1971: p.90). The base was found beneath the roots of an oak-tree in 1612 (1692, according to Leigh 1700, in error) at Castlefield, within the Roman camp at the junction of the Medlock and Irwell rivers, to the southwest of Manchester (Mancunium) (but attributed in error to Walcot, a suburb of Bath by Collinson 1791: ‘Bath’ p.12; Gough/ Camden 1806: vol.1, p.117). Selden (1629) published an abbreviated version of this inscription which he stated that he owed to Camden, who was intending to add it to a new edition of his Britannia; as Gibson stated (1695: p.800), it was his edition of Camden that added this inscription to Camden’s original text. It was then kept in the gardens of Hulme Hall nearby (Lister, who saw it in 1683; Leigh 1700; Horsley 1732), up until around 1770 (Watkin 1883: p.106). It was also seen there by Stukeley in about 1730 (Harland 1866: p.54). Sir Edward Moseley had bought Hulme in the reign of King William III (r.1688), and bequeathed it to his daughter Anne in 1695, who had married Sir John Bland (1663-1715). They then lived at Hulme (sometimes ‘Holme’) beside the river Irwell. Hulme Hall’s gardens were noted in the eighteenth century for their display of antiquities, including local finds like this one. Hulme Hall was inherited by their son Sir John Bland, who sold it to George Lloyd in 1751 (Carlisle 1826: p.49-50). Part of it was then sold in 1764 to the Duke of Bridgewater and displaced by his canal. From some time around 1770, the base was then in the Leverian Museum. This was founded by Sir Ashton Lever, at first as a collection at his home Alkrington Hall near Manchester, and then bought by lottery in 1785 by a Mr Parkinson who transferred the collection to London. In 1806, the collection was dispersed, sold at auction (Watkin 1883: p.106, Williams 1909: pp.20-21). According to Clayton (1885: p.119), the inscription was bought by Thomas Burgon, an assistant curator in the British Museum’s coin room, who gave it to a relation named Johnson who lived at Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. He in turn bequeathed it to the original purchaser’s son, John W. Burgon, who gave it to the Ashmolean in 1875, as the Rev. J.W. Burgon, Fellow of Oriel from 1846 and later Dean of Chichester from 1876. The inscription was studied in the Ashmolean by Watkin in 1884 (Clayton 1885: p.118) and by Haverfield, according to EphEp. vol. 9. It is listed in the archive MS., Ashmolean Museum Collection List of Additions 1875, no.15. It is now on display on the first floor in Manchester University. Photograph Photograph Photograph
Fortunae Conserva trici Lucius Senecia nius Mar tius U+1019B legionis VI Victricis

To Fortune the Preserver. Lucius Senecianius Martius, centurion of the Sixth Legion Victrix.

FORTVNAE CONSERVATRICI (Maittaire p.62, no.186); FORTVNAE / CONSERVA/TRCI LVCIVS / SENACIANIVS / MARTIVS B LEG / VI VICT (Leigh, who interprets the dedicator’s name as Lucius Senecianus Martius Brutus) Lister (1683) omitted ligatures and centurion symbol, but published the inscription based upon his own autopsy in the garden of Hulme Hall. Hollingworth: ligature of AE at end of FORTVNAE; Line 2, before SE, transcribes a C partly crossed out; line divisions wrongly copied

This base was set up by a centurion from the Sixth Legion Victrix, which was based in York, but was found at the site of a Roman fort near Manchester. Senecianius Martius may have been in command of an auxiliary cohort there at the time.

Selden (1629) p.56, no.4 (first two words only as if on a single line, provided by Camden); Hollingworth (1839, publication of MS. Mancuniensis in Chetham Library by an author who died in 1656) pp.16-17; Prideaux (1676) p.308, no.2 (following Selden, with first two words only); Reinesius (1682) p.161 no.124 (following Selden, with first two words only); Lister (1684) p.457, fig. 8 (autopsy); Gibson (1695) p.800 (following Hollingworth); Leigh (1700) vol.3, p.14; Anonymous (reporting a Mr Legh of Brasenose, i.e., Charles Leigh) in Corpus Christi College, Oxford MS. 255 f.83; Gale (1709) p.48 (following Lister); Horsley (1732) chapter 3, p.30 ‘Lancashire’ no.1; Maittaire (1732) p.62, no.186 (following Selden); Muratori (1739) vol. 1, p.81 no.4 (following Lister); Whitaker (1773) vol. 1, p.72-76; Collinson (1791) ‘Bath’ p.12; Gough/Camden (1806) 2nd edn vol. 3, p.385 (in error, following Collinson) + vol. 1 p.117; Baines (1825) vol. 2, p.62; Carlisle (1826) p.48; Orelli (1828) vol.1, no.1745 (following Lister and Muratori); Harland (1866) p.52-56 (following Lister); CIL VII no.211 (1873); Ashmolean Museum Collection List of Additions MS. 1875 no.15; Watkin (1883) 106-07, with drawing (following Horlsey); Clayton (1885); Axon (1906); Williams (1909) pp.20-22, with photograph on plate 6; EphEp 9 p.558 (1913); RIB I 575 (1965); Kewley vol.2 (1970) pp.30-31, no.31; RIB I2 575 (1995)

Online: EDCS-07800858 [accessed 09/06/14]; schedae at CIL: http://cil.bbaw.de/dateien/cil_view.php?KO=KO0045810 [accessed 09/06/14]

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