A few words must now be said of the worship of Nodens in Roman times. The remains of his temple have been found at Lydney, on the western bank of the Severn, in the territory of the ancient Silures.[1] One inscription there calls him Devo Nodenti, in the dative case, while another reads D. M. Nodonti, and a third Deo Nudente M. Moreover, the mosaic floor of his temple is said to show, besides a variety of figures, an inscription which would seem to have commenced with D. M.; but it is unfortunate that nowhere has the word represented by the M been found written in full: the consequence is, that it has been differently treated, some making it into maximo or magno, and others into Marti. The former is not duly supported by the analogy of other Roman inscriptions, while the latter, which is the one suggested by Dr. Hübner,[2] the editor of the Prussian Academy's volume of Latin inscriptions occurring in this country, is probably the correct one.
But though it is right to regard the Silurian god as a Mars, most of the remains of antiquity connected with his temple make him a sort of Neptune. The following are worthy of notice: the mosaic floor displayed not only the inscription alluded to, but also representations of sea-serpents or the κήτεα. accompanying Glaucus in Greek mythology, and fishes supposed to stand for the salmon
- ↑ The whole has been described in a volume entitled, Roman Antiquities at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, being a posthumous work of the Rev. William Hiley Bathurst, M.A., with Notes by C. W. King, M.A. (London, 1879), pp. vii, 127, cr. octavo, with numerous plates.
- ↑ Nos. 137—141: see also a paper by the same scholar on the Sanctuary of Nodens in the Jahrbuch des Vereins für Alterthumsforschung im Rheinlande, lxvii. pp. 29—46.
