The Whitley Castle Altar to Apollo

An altar with sculptured panels on all four sides of the capital was found in September, 1837, in digging a drain about 100 yards east of the north-east angle of the Roman fort at Whitley Castle, near Alston. It was 21 in. wide by 55 in. high and was set in a socket in a large slab, 48 by 28 by 8 in., which acted as a base and was itself supported on four pillars, each about a foot high. The die was even then extensively weathered and in the drawing published by Richardson the only decipherable letters are D[.]O l A[…]VS l […]VIVS though he gives traces of five more lines. Bruce in the Lapidarium amplified his original reading and gave in his text DEO l APOLLINI l [……l.]COH III NER l […] but added on his line-block as lines 3–4: VII[..]IVS NIIC[.]C[.]R. This was repeated by Hübner.