View of altar found at Newstead Roman fort.

Description View of altar found at Newstead Roman fort.

Date 1906

Collection Records of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland

Catalogue Number J 12297 PO

Category Print Room

Copies DP 354993

Scope and Content Black and white photograph of an altar, annotated: 'Newstead' on reverse, and 'cf Curle p.142' in top left corner, in pencil. Unknown date and photographer, but with other photographs by Thomas Ross from 1906. It is very similar to, if not cropped from, the photograph illustrated in Curle, 'A Roman frontier post and its people: the fort at Newstead in the parish of Melrose', Plate XVI, pages 141-142, No 3. This altar, No. 3, 'dedicated to Jupiter, found on 14 Sept 1905, at a depth of twelve feet below the surface in Pit No.1 - the Well of the Principia - "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, by 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 bounded by broad bands of moulding. The illustration at Plate XBI shows that it is to be read thus: I(OVI).O(PTIMO).M(AXIMO).G(AIVS).ARRIVIS.DOMITIANUS.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.'

Accession Number 1975/12

External Reference SAS 289

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