IX.—On a Bronze Statuette of Hercules

Extract

The bronze statuette of Hercules which Lord Carlisle exhibits to-night at the desire of the President is said to have been “dug out of the Roman wall.” But the precise spot appears to be now unknown. One statement gives Northumberland; another, his lordship's property of Naworth, in Cumberland, which is no great distance from the Roman station of Amboglanna (Birdoswald). One could suppose that the bronze had been brought to this country by some officer attached to that camp. That would mean in the time of Hadrian, by whom this station on the Roman wall was established. And were the figure of pure classical workmanship there would not be much more to be said on that point. But you will see that the bronze cannot be of classical origin, and this suggests an alternative that it may have been brought to this country by a devotee of the Tyrian Hercules established at Corbridge, in Northumberland, where an altar to him has been found.