But  the  most  remarkable  relic  of  her  worship  at  Carvoran  is  a
tablet  with  a  long  inscription  in  iambic  verse,  which  Dr.  Bruce
rendered  as  follows  : —

"The  Virgin  in  her  celestial  seat  overhangs  the  Lion,
Producer  of  corn,2  Inventress  of  sight,  Foundress  of  cities,
By  which  gifts  it  has  been  our  good  fortune  to  know  the  deities.
Therefore  the  same  is  the  Mother  of  the  gods,  is  Peace,  is  Virtue,  is  Ceres,
Is  the  Syrian  Goddess  poising  life  and  laws  in  a  balance.
The  constellation  beheld  in  the  sky  hath  Syria  sent  forth
To  Libya  to  be  worshipped,  thence  have  all  of  us  learnt  it ;
Thus  hath  understood,  overspread  by  thy  protecting  influence,
Marcus  Caecilius  Donatianus,  a  war-faring
Tribune  in  the  office  of  prefect,  by  the  bounty  of  the  Emperor."

The  Syrian  goddess,  like  Isis,  gathered  into  herself  all  the  chief
goddesses  of  the  ancients,  and  was  herself  identified  with  that
goddess.  Apuleius,  in  describing  an  initiation  into  the  mysteries
of  Isis,  makes  the  Queen  of  Heaven  reveal  herself  to  the  devotee

1  Archaeologia,  Ix,  p.  46.
2  Literally,  "  Bearer  of  an  ear  of  corn,"  an  allusion  to  the  bright  star  Spica
in  the  constellation  of  Virgo,  just  as  we  have  an  allusion  to  that  of  Libra  in  the
balance  referred  to  in  the  fifth  line.
