Altar to Neptune
Roman Britain, 2nd century AD
From Lympne, Kent
Offering of a Roman admiral to the sea-god
This limestone altar, dedicated to the sea-god Neptune, was
found in 1850 in the ruins of a late-Roman fort. It had probably
been re-used as a building stone, but before that time it must have
been exposed to the sea because it is encrusted with barnacles.
The inscription records that the person who set up the altar was
Lucius Aufidus Pantera, a high-ranking military officer. From this
and another inscription we know that he was praefectus
(commander) of the British fleet in AD 133 or soon after, and
before that had commanded a large cavalry regiment in Pannonia
Superior (modern Hungary).
It was, of course, entirely appropriate that a fleet-commander
should offer up an altar to Neptune, the god of the waters on which
he sailed.