d.]

[Footnote 289: So puzzling is the situation that high authorities
on the subject are found to contend that the work was perfunctorily
thrown up, in obedience to mistaken orders issued by the departmental
stupidity of the Roman War Office, that in reality it was never
either needed or used, and was obsolete from the very outset. But this
suggestion can scarcely be taken as more than an elaborate confession
of inability to solve the _nodus_.]

[Footnote 290: It should be noted that the "Vallum" is no regular
Roman _muris caespitius_ like the Rampart of Antoninus, though traces
have been found here and there along the line of some intention to
construct such a work (see 'Antiquary,' 1899, p. 71).]

[Footnote 291: In more than one place the line of fortification
swerves from its course to sweep round a station.]

[Footnote 292: Near Cilurnum the fosse was used as a receptacle for
shooting the rubbish of the station, and contains Roman pottery of
quite early date.]

[Footnote 293: See p. 233.]

[Footnote 294: See p. 232.]

[Footnote 295: The existing military road along the line of the Wall
does not follow the track of its Roman predecessor. It was constructed
after the rebellion of 1745, when the Scots were able to invade
England by Carlisle before our very superior forces at Newcastle could
get across the pathless waste between to intercept them.]

[Footnote 296: Mithraism is first heard of in the 2nd century A.D.,
as an eccentric cult having many of the features of Christianity,
especially the sense of Sin and the doctrine that the vicarious
blood-shedding essential to remission must be connected with a New
Baptismal Birth unto Righteousness. The Mithraists carried out this
idea by the highly realistic ceremonies of the _Taurobolium_; the
penitent neophyte standing beneath a grating on which the victim
was slain, and thus being literally bathed in the atoning blood,
afterwards being considered as born again [_renatus_]. It thus evolved
a real and heartfelt devotion to the Supreme Being, whom, however
(unlike Christianity), it was willing to worship under the names of
the old Pagan Deities; frequently combining their various attributes
in joint Personalities of unlimited complexity. One figure has the
head of Jupiter, the rays of Phoebus, and the trident of Neptune;
another is furnished with the wings of Cupid, the wand of Mercury, the
club of Hercules, and the spear of Mars; and so forth. Mithraism thus
es