During the Congress of Classical Societies at Oxford in August 1948, in discussing the nature and significance of Romanization, I ventured to mention an opinion which had lately found fresh expression about the policy of the Roman government in the early years of its responsibility for the Tres Galliae towards certain features of Gallic life which in ancient times were commonly associated with the Druids. It is an opinion which I myself was once so hasty as to adopt (Universal History of the World—London, n.d.—3, 1998); but when the totalitarians, by setting up a return to barbarism as an ideal, made it the urgent duty of Roman historians to analyse the civilization of Rome and to understand the part played by the Empire in spreading it, the serious examination of the evidence which I ought to have given it before raised very grave doubts about an interpretation which had gained the widespread acceptance of any view commended by the authorityof Mommsen. My reason for raising this matter was its importance; for it is directly relevant to an issue of the most immediate interest—about the nature of the central problem which confronts Europe to-day. And my reason for returning to it now is that it was impossible in an hour's talk, which ranged over a much wider field, to set out the evidence on one particular point in the detail needed to make the position wholly clear— which it is the purpose of this note to do.

Names of persons in the Codex Mediceus prior exhibit familiar corruptions, and many of the necessary corrections were easily made. The cogent evidence was often external—the same character appeared elsewhere in Tacitus, or in some other writer, and inscriptions might certify the orthography of a name or even permit the identification of an individual. None the less, there were, and there are, traps and uncertainties. First, an inoffensive or unimpeachable name need not be correct. Nobody would have suspected ‘Livius’ (Ann. II, 30, I—twice) : only later passages (IV, 13, 2; 28, I) showed that the person referred to was in fact Vibius Serenus. And ‘Vescularius Atticus” (Ann. VI, 10, 2) would stand but for ‘Vescularius Flaccus ’ (II, 28, I). Secondly, the rarity (genuine or only fancied) of a name has often been allowed to impugn it. On the contrary, if a gentilicium is uncommon, or even unique, that is no ground for discomfort. The nomenclature of Italy is startling, fantastic and myriad in its manifestations. The Annals of Tacitus display names which, deceptively familiar from their occurrence in a classical text, are yet of a rarity to adorn an onomatological aviary.

The bronze votive object shown on plate I forms part of a hoard which must have come from some small shrine or sanctuary. Professor M. Rostovtzeff's essay with its detailed interpretation has already called general attention to this find.

The swollen lower part of this typical Hercules club most certainly belongs to the stem adorned with figures and shown with it, though there is a break between the two parts. This must be so, not only because the diameters correspond, but also because the carefully engraved grooves which encircle both the upper part and the lower broken-off part of the club prove their original connection.

The attitude of the New Testament writers towards the Roman Empire presents a curious picture, varying as it does from a quite remarkable enthusiasm to a violent hostility. The hostility is natural enough in view of the hostility of wide circles of Palestinian Judaism to the supposed oppressors of the chosen people; the earliest generation of Christians regarded themselves as loyal members of the nation, while the later writers of the New Testament had lived through the persecution of some at least of the churches outside Palestine under Nero and Domitian. The enthusiasm is not so easy to explain, especially as it survives both these persecutions.

Vasa murrina are a type of costly vessel mentioned by various ancient authors of the last century B.C. and later. The best account of them is given by the elder Pliny, who had ample opportunity of seeing and using these vessels, though his description of them is difficult to reconcile with any known product, natural or artificial, of the ancient or modern world. References in other authorities, of whom the earliest is Propertius, add little to the information given by Pliny.

The first and indeed the only Roman clerical officer to achieve historic fame was Gnaeus Flavius, a scriba of the aediles, who published the secrets of the ius civile and of the calendar and was himself elected aedile in 304 B.C. From this incident some interesting facts emerge on the status and organization of the early Roman civil service. Scribae, if one may generalize from Gnaeus Flavius' case, were, unlike the public γραμματεĩς of the Greek cities, professional clerks who normally made the civil service their life's career, and were therefore experts at their job—sometimes considerably more expert than their annually changing masters. On the other hand, they were not, like the δημóσιοι who often performed similar work in Greek cities, public slaves, but citizens, though of rather humble standing. Flavius was the son of a freedman and, when he stood as aedile, the returning officer refused to accept his name until he formally renounced his profession. Servi publici were not unknown at Rome, particularly in the service of the priestly colleges, but the greater and more important part of the civil service consisted of salaried citizens.

In a note in a recent number of the Journal, Sir Harold Bell showed that Alexandria ad Aegyptum meant ‘Alexandria by Egypt’. No one is likely to dispute his arguments in this respect. It is, however, worth pointing out that a piece of evidence from the third century before Christ shows that, in circles closely connected with Alexandria, that city was thought of as ‘in Egypt’. A Delian inscription of that date contains a decree in honour of a Naxian resident in Alexandria.

Lincoln occupies a commanding position on the north side of the gap made in the north-south limestone escarpment by the River Witham as it turns in its course towards the Wash. The escarpment is part of the continuous upland link between the Humber and the Severn, forming a natural boundary to prehistoric occupation in south-east England; to the north-west lies the damp, low, midland area, the human penetration of which was never in early times on an extensive scale.

The genesis and character of the texts commonly known as the Acta Alexandrinorum or Acts of the Heathen Martyrs are still so much in question that a new fragment, however small, has some claims to attention. The papyrus published below from the Rendel Harris collection introduces a new episode in the Historia Calamitatum. Hitherto there has been a gap between the Acta Isidori set in the reign of Claudius and the Acta Hermaisci set in that of Trajan; that the brief reign of Titus (whose character would not easily lend itself to the part normally assigned the Emperor in these documents) was made to supply material for propaganda suggests that few if any of the emperors of the first two centuries escaped the pillory. Of the contents of the papyrus there is not much to be said; Titus appears to be defending the procedure of this or some other trial against Hermias (presumably the leader of the Alexandrians) who demands (whether in sympathy or malice is not clear) that a third party, perhaps a Roman, be allowed to make his defence; however, the latter declines.

The Limes Tripolitanus, the easternmost of the series of limites protecting the Latin provinces of Roman Africa, ran for some 1,000 km. from Turris Tamalleni (the modern Telmine, on the edge of the Chott el Djerid) to its eastern terminus at Arae Philaenorum (Muktar, near ‘Marble Arch’) on the border of ancient Cyrenaica. Of this total length the western 300 km. lie within the confines of the French Protectorate of Tunisia, and for this sector Cagnat's admirable summary of the archaeological evidence, although written in 1912, has not been seriously outdated by any more recent explorations. The eastern sector, also of 300 km., from the great salt-marsh of Sebcha Tauorga to Arae Philaenorum, is still completely unknown, and its character cannot be profitably discussed until exploration has been carried out : it should, however, be observed that in this eastern zone the limes must have followed the bleak shores of the Greater Syrtis, where there were few coastal centres of importance, and virtually no Romanized hinterland.