Whilst staying in north Wales one of the things I wanted to see
was the Roman gravemarker of Carausius. The stone, found during the
19th century and preserved in Penmachno church, proclaims in coarse Latin epigraphy that “Carausius lies
here under these stones”. Above the inscription is a christogram, the
amalgamation of the first two letters of the word “Christ” and marks
this burial to be overtly Christian.
Carausius is an unusual
name, known from Roman history in the form of the Menapian usurper who
took Britain out of central Roman control at the end of the third
century. Menapiae is in the area of modern Belgium.
Interestingly William Stukeley in the 18th century postulated that
instead of being from Menapiae that Carausius was Menavian, ie from
south Wales.
It is unlikely that this usurper is the same
Carausius named on the grave marker as it thought that it probably dates
to the fifth or sixth century AD and is similar to other engraved stones preserved on the Llyn peninsular.