STAMP NO. VIII.—FOUND AT SOUTHWELL.
An anonymous correspondent, C. D., sent to the _Gentleman’s Magazine_,
in 1772, a sketch and notice of what, no doubt, is a Roman
medicine-stamp, but both the sketch given of it and the description are
excessively meagre. The correspondent dates his letter from Southwell,
in Nottinghamshire. He says, “The inscribed stone was found lately by
casting up the ground, in the neighbourhood of Littleborough in this
county. The stone is oblong, about two inches long, and one broad. It
contains inscriptions on the edges or rim of the two ends, and on one of
its oblong sides, but not on the other.”
“It is,” says the correspondent, “supposed to be a Tessera or kind of
tally, such being, as we are told, a little flat square piece of stone,
and having a particular inscription, and was used in the Roman armies,
by being on certain occasions delivered to each of the soldiers, to
distinguish them from the enemy, and also in setting their nightly
guard, by being given from one centurion to another, quite through the
army, till it returned to the tribune who first delivered it. Upon the
receipt of this, the guard was set immediately. But,” he continues, “as
the inscription on the above drawing cannot be made out to satisfaction,
many of you will be glad to know whether it has been such a Tessera as
is above supposed; or what else it may have been, or also an explanation
of its legend, by some of your antiquarian correspondents.”
The inscription on one of the long sides of the stone appears to be the
name of the proprietor of the stamp; but the published copy of it
presents such irregular lettering, as to defy any certain deciphering of
what the name is. (See Plate III., No. VIII.) On the other two sides the
inscriptions are as follow:—
1. B. DIASORICV.
2. STATVS.
These two words evidently are misspellings, either on the original
stamp, or (what is equally probable) in its published copy, for the
Collyria termed _Diapsoricum_ and _Stactum_. But I have already, in
reference to previous inscriptions, discussed the signification of these
two terms at such length as not to require to revert to them. (See under
Stamps No. IV. and No. VIII.)
[Illustration: ROMAN MEDICINE STAMPS.]
The initial B, as it stands in the first line, seems to defy all kinds
of conjecture in regard to its signification. In this, as in one or two
other instances, the only hope of obtaining a true reading of the legend
is in the re-discovery of the stamp itself.