It is to be feared that the greater part of the Histories of Tacitus is lost beyond recall: Latin literature appears but rarely among the treasures of the sands of Egypt. The consequent gap in our knowledge is very imperfectly filled by the records that do remain. It is certain that many events of importance have been wholly passed over in them, while many others are referred to in such an incidental and cursory way that varying interpretations seem possible, and conjecture becomes permissible and even necessary.

We know in general that Vespasian was an energetic reformer and reorganiser: it may be possible, even with our fragmentary evidence, to trace his reorganisation of the two wealthiest provinces, Asia and Africa, somewhat more fully than has hitherto been done. With regard to Asia, the conjecture seems justifiable that Eprius Marcellus was Vespasian's agent for reform, and that his prolonged tenure of the proconsulship of Asia is to be so explained. And in Africa, there may be some reason for supposing that Q. Vibius Crispus performed a similar service, and that his proconsulship there was similarly extended.

The two hoards of fourth-century Roman bronze coins here described were obtained in Egypt by Professor Petrie: and, as they cover a period on which not much work has been done, a detailed account of their contents may be of value.

The classification adopted is by means of reverse types and mints. It does not seem necessary to refer at length to the obverse types, which exhibit little variation in most reigns concerned: any points of interest are mentioned in the notes prefixed to each list. The types are arranged in what appears to be their chronological order: the earlier issues, mainly of Constantinus I and his sons, which are represented only by stray specimens, are grouped together.

The series of Roman inscriptions with which the present paper is concerned belongs to a familiar and extensive class, examples of which will be found in any handbook of epigraphy—stones that were erected to commemorate the completion of some more or less important undertaking of a public character. But a peculiar, if not a unique, interest has always attached to this particular group because of its intimate association with one of the great historical monuments of the Empire. Ever since the dawn of the seventeenth century, when the foundations of our knowledge of Roman Britain were being laid, the fact of this association and its broad significance have been universally recognized.

Asconius, in Pison. 5 (p. 5, 13 Kiessling). ‘Haec consuetudo’ (of using round rather than exact numbers) ‘in ipsis orationibus est: itaque idem Cicero in ea quoque quam habuit in Catilinam in senatu, ait cum octavus decimus dies esset postea quaro factum est senatus consultum ut viderent consules ne quid res publica detrimenti caperet, dixit vicesimum [? iam] diem habere <se> S. C. tamquam <in vagina reconditum>.' In the passage referred to by the commentator (in Cat. i, 2, 4) Cicero, after showing how promptly effect had been given to the senatus consultum ultimum, by Opimius and Marius, goes on: ‘At vero nos vicesimum iam diem patimur hebescere aciem horum auctoritatis. Habemus enim eius modi senatus consultum, verum inclusum in tabulis, tamquam in vagina reconditum.’

In the heart of the Sierra Morena, and at some twelve kilometres as the crow flies to the north-west of the modern town of La Carolina, in the province of Jaen, a silver-lead mine is at present being successfully worked by an English company. But the English company would not be working it to-day, nor would they be doing so successfully, were it not for the fact that the Romans had been there before them and that the Roman miners had left indications on the surface that pointed to extensive workings below, and had not exhausted the riches which kindly Nature had stored in the vein which they exploited. That the Romans must have worked the mine which is known in our times as “el Centenillo” during a long period is principally evidenced by the extent of their underground operations, which attained the astonishing depth of 210 metres (690 feet) from surface, while in length they exceeded a thousand metres (3,280 feet) and gradually narrowed down in depth until, for some reason that will never be known and which it would be imprudent to guess at, the “old men” abandoned the mine. They worked on the best part of the lode which, in all probability, resembled other lodes in the district in being richer in silver near the surface. The Romans must, however, have been principally working the mine for lead when they determined to leave it, as their lowest workings were in a highly mineralised zone which was very good for galena but relatively poor in silver; although, as a matter of fact, the mineral, even at the depth of 325 metres (1,066 feet) which has been attained to-day, carries more silver than the other silver-lead mines of the district. (The galena contains about 82 per cent, of lead and yields about 20 ounces of silver to the ton.)

During the fifty years that have elapsed since the great cycle of Dionysiac paintings was unearthed in the villa named after them at Pompeii, the search for their understanding has made reassuring progress. This search will never lead us out of ultimate ignorance about the deepest meaning which such visual imagery had within the context of an ancient mystery religion and we may resign ourselves to awareness of our own limitations in this respect. The best we can hope for is that we may learn to understand the surface meaning of images, whose full significance was only made clear to the initiated, to the degree to which, in antiquity, an uninitiated person could understand them. The last two published extensive discussions of this cycle of murals show clearly, however, that we are still far from having achieved even that degree of understanding. The impasse that has been reached can be overcome only by introducing new evidence and it is my hope that some progress can be made by doing so in the following pages.

A certain number of extant inscriptions and oral traditions which still linger in remote places, as in the Djebel Nefouca, to the south of Leptis Magna and Oea, indicate that there was a time when the cult of the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul existed in Roman Africa; but the distribution of evidence, which is largely derived from the fringes of the Roman province, in Mauretania and in southern Numidia, invites the question why places so far removed from the Latin influence of the proconsular province should show such interest in the see of Rome and its founders.