Principia—is now in the possession of T. J. S. Roberts, Esq., at Drygrange. It has been cut from a block of yellow sandstone and stands four feet high, being seventeen inches wide and fifteen inches thick. On either side of the top are volutes sculptured with rosettes, and between the volutes is a circular focus. The panel containing the inscription is hounded by broad bands of moulding. The illustration in Plate XVI. shows that it is to be read thus
I(OVI) · O(PTI MO) · M(AXI MO) · G(AIVS) · ARRIVS · DOMITIANVS · C(ENTVRIO) · LEG(IONIS) · XX · V(ALERIAE) · V(ICTRICIS) · V(OTVM) · S(OLVIT) · L(IBENS) · L(VBENS) · M(ERITO).
To Jupiter the Best and Greatest. Gaius Arrius Domitianus Centurion of the Twentieth Legion Valeria Victrix willingly gladly deservedly has performed his vow.
4. The fourth altar, which is now in the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh (Plate XVIII., Fig. 1), was found on 6th March, 1909, in the ditch of the East Annexe of the fort (Field No. 555 0.S. Plan of the Parish of Melrose). It lay at no great depth from the surface. The yellow sandstone of which it is composed was much disintegrated, and flaked off as it was lifted. The dimensions are as follows: height, three feet eleven inches; breadth, eighteen inches; thickness, eleven and a half inches. It has been more highly decorated than any of the preceding. There are on the top the usual volutes, and between them a circular focus. Beneath the volutes runs a band of ornament resembling pointed leaves, and below this again are bands of moulding. On the sides are sculptured the vessels used in the sacrifice—the jug (urceus) and the patera. The inscription has disappeared.
5. The fifth altar, dedicated to Diana, was found on 8th March, 1909, close to No. 4, in the ditch of the East Annexe (Field No. 555 O.S. Plan). It is now in the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, and stands forty-eight inches high. At the upper and lower extremities its width is twenty-one and a half inches, while across the inscribed panel it measures twenty inches. It is only seven inches deep. It is very plain, showing no signs of either volutes or focus. Like No. 4, it lay at no great depth from the surface. Like it, too, it was of yellow sandstone, and was in a very brittle condition. Pieces of the inscribed face had flaked off, and some unavoidable damage was done in raising it and transporting it to Edinburgh. The following letters are, however, still legible; the others are uncertain:
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