Length: 20.800 cm
Gift of Sir A.W. Franks
P&EE 1892 4-21 1
Prehistory and Europe
Dedicatory plaque
Roman Britain, about AD 222-235
From Colchester, Essex
A Scot pays homage to Mars
The inscription has been punched onto a bronze plaque. It is of traditional ansate (winged rectangle) shape (tabula ansata). It is dedicated to Mars Medocius, a combination of the Roman god of war and a local British deity who may have had similar warlike qualities.
Lossio Veda, who made the dedication, was probably a visitor or immigrant, perhaps a merchant, for he proudly proclaims his northern Scottish origins. The inscription translates: 'To the god Mars Medocius of the Campeses and to the Victory of our Emperor Alexander Pius Felix, Lossio Veda, grandson [or nephew] of Vepogenus, a Caledonian, set up this gift from his own resources'.
The reference to the emperor Severus Alexander dates this inscription to his reign, AD 222-35.
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