19 
(misnamed a tumulus) rises on one side, just as though it were a 
platform for the president or umpire. The only explanation forth- 
coming of all this is that the field has been shaped and levelled for 
the purpose mentioned; in a word that we have discovered the 
“Campus Martius of Glanoventa.” 
If my conjecture is trustworthy, and we have really identified 
the Campus Martius of our Station,—then that little mound with 
the ridiculous name must have witnessed some strange scenes! 
The eagles of Rome have been planted there, and beneath them 
have stood mighty men who have made history, and whose names 
will never die. Agricola, our founder and first citizen, can hardly 
have made time in his hurried campaigns to arrange for the sports 
of his legions, and there was no need of mimic warfare for those 
who served under him. But Marcus Menius Agrippa, who 
commanded the fleet in these waters forty years later, and who 
certainly dedicated four altars here—he may well have presided on 
this spot ; as perhaps did his friend the Emperor Hadrian, when 
building his famous Wall ; and if so the visit would give occasion to 
the commemorative tablets which have been found. The aged 
Severus may have come here after his victorious campaign against 
the Picts, when he was strengthening the Wall which sometimes 
bears his name ; and if accompanied by his two sons, Geta and the 
fratricide Caracalla, who both made the campaign with him, then 
the old Station has seen some of the very worst as well as the best 
of the masters of the world, The Cesar, Constantius, during his 
long and vigorous government of Britain from the capital at York, 
surely visited so important a Station, even if his son Constantine the 
Great did not. Half a century later Theodosius or Stilicho may 
have passed through on their expeditions against the Picts, when 
‘the failing Empire turned to bay, and for the last time drove 
off its foes. And here, probably about the same time, dwelt a 
Roman officer, one Calphurnius, with his child Patrick, who lived 
to become the “Light of the West!” 
Some may think that this is giving reins rather freely to the 
historical imagination: but one object of a society like ours is to 
impart a literary flavour to antiquarian pursuits. We must try to 
