re verum m* corr. videtur

10. u) 2 supra addidit. In codice hic versus est primus alterius laterculi paginae 112.

11 bis m* supra ascripsit.

12. In sei m2 e del. videtur ; solvi vis nil fortasse ex miseris nil corr. iam m1.

EDM. II Al' LE R

sequuntur, ipsam vinm ostendunt sine fraude et inventis verbis respexeris; namque haec ipsa partim ad fora, parlim ad accusationes spectant. Lora autem potius de habenis (cf. Ovid. Met. II, 200) quam de seul ica paedagogorum (cf. Martial., X, G2, 8) intellegenda sunt. — lllud vel in v. 13 significare mihi videtur « ut alia omittam », disciplinam oratoriam scilicet, quae pluris a Frontone quam a Marco ducebatur. — Ex verbis chiasmo elatis veram me dicere (14).. audire verum me doces, quantopere Marcus liane notionem supra a Cornelisseno temptatam premere voluerit, efficitur. Satins hoc loco à-o y.oivoü positum ad utruinque membrum referendum est. Num pendere (17) a manu posteriore additum révéra a scriptore profectum sit , ambigi potest; etenim collocatio paulo artiliciosior neque verbum necessarium esse videtur, quod pretium solvet'e facile ad valeam subauditur; deinde compositum expendam (20) simplici proxime antecedenti minus favet. — Y. 18 speciminis causa a me ita restitutus; nam nimiae in eo litterae dubiae sunt. Deniquc uno verbo monuisse sufficiat in v. 22 sq. verbum voluntatis ut plerumque in sermone prisco praegnanter coniungi cum accusativo te. . motum infinitivo esse non addito.

Marcus Aurelius, quamquam bis verbis se Frontoni obsequi velle dubitanter significat, tamen se eius praeceptis prorsus devinciri nolle indicat reliquis lmius epistulae verbis, quae item ut legerem mihi contierit.

Edmundus IIauler.

CORNISH TIN

Cornish tin is the one famous product of ancient Britain It is mentioned in literature long hefore the island hecame a real part of the known world; it lias a prominent place in many travellers’ taies, and sincethose taies were lirst told, il bas conl inuously vexed the curiosity of students. Its early historv lies in the twilight région of things seen dimly and the interest aroused by it is natural. Twilight is al ways charming — and tbat not least lo the archaeologist, whom it allows to invent théories which shall be at once novel and incapable of disp roof. Il would be idle to criticise t.hese théories or continue the search for the lost. tin-islands of the west, Cassiteriiles and Ici is and the rest*. The real importance of early Cornish tin must be estimated by otlier evidence, and tbat evidence is very scanty. Possibly we may think that it once had a tiny share in inlluencing t lie course of history, at the time wlien Rome annexed Gallia Narbonensis; for the annexai ion was in part a commercial stop, the annexed province included the trade-route from Narbo to the Atlantic, and that trade-route brought British tin to the Mediterranean. But Britain was not the only tin-producing land in the early worhl. The métal was fourni also in northwestern Spain, as the traders of Gades kncw well, and there must hâve been otlier sources, more accessible tlien, tliough now exhausted. Tin was used for many common objects of the ancient world, and its sole supply in early limes cannot hâve been derived from secret places on the verge of Océan. liait that been so, there would hâve been no Bronze Age. But it may be more profitable lo pass from t lie twilight to the day, and trace the fortunes of tliis famous or fabulous trade, after Rome had conquered Britain. Ilerc we shall find evidence enough.

1. The puzzle of the Cassiterides has no douht been complicated by the belief of the ancients that north-western Spain and soulhwestern Britain were close together. No vestige of Phoenician traders has ever been found in Britain, despite statements to the contrary. But native pre-Roman objects bave been found in ancient Cornish tinworks ( Archaeolor/ia , XVI, plate 10).

F. HAVERF1ELD

The evidenee for t lie Roman period is, as usual, twofold, literary and archaeological. The former is distinct and unanimous. A hundred years ago Mannert ohserved l liât Britisli lin, for ail its famé, was ignored in the literature of I lie Roman Empire, and this seems tobe the fact. Earlier writers who mention British tin are quoted freely by Strabo and Pliny, but Strabo and l’liny do not tbemselves mention il, nor does Tacitus or Solinus or the later Panegyrists wbo refer to Britain. The silence may, in part, lie literary contempt for a humble métal, or literary indilference to Ibe distinction between plumbum album, whicli is tin, and the other plumbum wbicb is lead. But Pliny clearly distinguisbes Ibe two mêlais, and speaks of botb British lead and Spanisb tin. According to our literary evidenee, Roman lin during Ibe Empire carne from Spain and not from Cornwall.

T lie archaeological evidenee is less accessible and less known, but more noteworthy It gives us sonie positive tacts and is singularly distinct in its purport. Itpartly confirms and partly corrects the silence of Ibe literature : il. conlirms for Ibe First two or tliree centuries ot our era, it corrects for Ibe fourth.

Ibe earliest years of Ibe Roman conquest of Britain are, for Cornwall, a blank. Signs of active Roman occupation, within ton or twenty years of the first invasion in AÜ 43, arc not uncommon in western Britain, but only so far west as Exeter. In mostof Devon and in Cornwall they do not occur. It would seem thaï Ibe Romans soon reached Exeter and tlien stopped. Il, was in itself a natural stopping place, for west of it the gloomy massif of Dartmoor and the desolate wasles of Bodmin stretcb for a hundred kilométrés. But tliere was tin in Ibat barren land, and had t lie tin seemedwortb Ibe conquering, Ibe Romans would assuredly bave gone forward. Thoy mined the Mendip lead within six years of tlieir landing : tliey would not bave neglected the fin of Cornwall. Tlieir liait is significant Eitber Ibe tin ores bad never been so ricli as fancy painted, or tbe accessible deposits bad been worked oui, or (as Ridgeway tbinks) Spanisb compétition bad ousted British tin. Our evidenee does not tell us tbe causes, but tbe resuit is plain.

Nor was any serious advance into Cornwall made in tbe years Ibat followed. It was doulitless regarded as part of tbe province. But it was neglected. No roads were made in il. No towns or villas were built in it. No troops were quartered in if. No real civilization crépi into it. Rarely even did Roman coins flnd tlieir way tbitbor. Tliere may bave been a few isolated searebers fortin. One old ‘streamwork’ — tliat is,

CORNIS H TIN

a surlace working, carried on by water — is said to hâve yielded a coin of Vespasian and another a coin of Domitian, though the details hâve unfortunately not heen recorded. I î u t. the total of Roman coins ininted hefore AL) 2o0 and fourni in Cornwall, can hardly exceed a score, and other remains attributahle to these centuries are no less rare. External evidence is equally scanty. If tin were freely mined in Cornwall, we might expert to (ind in Britain ahundance of tin and pewler objects. Tliere is probably not one such which can he dated to t bis period *.

Near the end of the third century the picture changes. We still (ind no traces of towns or villas and very little even of villages. But coins become commoner, scattered or in hoards and sonie of the lioards are large. Two inscriptions fourni, the one near Penzance, l lie other at Tintagel churcli % seem to indicate road-making, or at least, I lie existence of roads, early in tbefourtb century. An ingot of tin fourni in an old ‘tin-stream’ and stamped with a fourtb-century head and with letters which seem to he IUSLN, t liât is, [ d(ominorum )] n(ostrornm), test i lies to mining under sonie kind of official control1 2 3 4 5. Now, too, tin vessels and the like become common. We meet, hotli, in Cornwall and in Britain generally, with tin and pewter objects which we can with confidence ascribe lo 1 h is period. At Carhayes, in Cornwall, a lioard of late third-century coins was found inside a jug of tin At a Roman villa in Hampshire a set of handsomely ornamented tin and pewter dishes was found huried under a tloor and one of the dislies bore the Christian ‘Clii-Rho'6. A similar set was found in Wiltshire with coins of Julian and Ilonorius6. At last, it would seem, Cornish tin hegan to take ils place as a article of commerce in the Roman world, or at least in Roman Britain.

It is a strange spectacle. Here, on the furthest limit of the world, in an obscure corner of the Empire, a mining industry begins to expand, at a time when other industries are contracting and when mining in

1. The inscribed lamel/a stannea mentioned in the C. I. L., VII, 140, may be of the first century but it is not niade of tin but of lead (Bathurst and King, Antiquities of Li/dney Park, p. 45).

2. C. 7. L., VII, 1147 - Ephem. III, p. 138 (Constantiue I); Ephem. VU, 1095 m Archaeol. journal, XLVII, 233 (uncertain, but probably of this period).

3. Archaeol. journal , XLIX, 177 ; Proceedings of the Society of antiquaries of London ,