128 PROBABLE DATE OF THE ROMAN OCCUPATION 



governorsliip of Julius Yerus. A fragment of stone/* 

 originally the top left-hand corner of a similar tablet, 

 was found at Melandra in 1832 ; it contains tlie first letters 

 of an inscription — IMP. C, which convey little in 

 themselves. But the form and position of these letters, 

 and the triple moulding which is indicated, are an exact 

 replica of the moulding and the initial letters of the 

 Brough tablet, and it is hardly to be doubted that the two 

 are closely contemporaneous. There is other <ividence of 

 widespread activity against the Brigantes during the 

 governorship of Julius Verus. The Brough tablet was 

 found in fragments which had been subsequently use<l 

 as building material in a sunken chamber of Roman 

 construction in the same fort, proving that Brough was 

 occupied by Roman troops at a date still later than 

 158 A.D. ; and if Brough, then probably the neighbouring 

 Melandra was similarly occupied. The absence of coins 

 of the reign of Antoninus at Melandra is far from proving, 

 or even suggesting, that the fort was not occupied during 

 that reign ; but the gap in the numismatic remains of 

 close on a century (135 — 231 a.d.) does perhaps suggest 

 that there was an interval during which the fort remained 

 ungarrisoned. 



On a general survey of the whole evidence, we shall 

 probably be not far wrong in concluding that Melandra 

 was occupied certainly from very early in the second 

 century, and probably as early as about 80 a.d., till past 

 the middle of the second century, and was again occupied, 

 whether after an interval of evacuation or not, from the 

 latter part of the third century, till towards the end of 

 the fourth. H. Williamson. 



14. Cf. R. B. Robinson, " Longdendale," p. 52 (published at Glossop 

 in 1863). A sketch made by him of the fragment is preserved with the 

 Glossop collection (cf. p. 113). 



