S21 



curious mistake occui'S. Suetonius in his life of Csesar (cap. 40) 

 mentions that Caesar carried tesselated pavement in his baggage 

 on the march. Whether it be possible, or probable, that there 

 might have been amongst Ctesar's baggage tessellated-pavement- 

 pieces, I will leave undecided ; many reasons might be alleged 

 which would give rise to exaggerated reports of this kind. 

 From this anecdote, the author, or perhaps some English 

 authority which he follows, * concludes that all Eoman generals 

 took tesselated pavements about with them, that, therefore, a 

 tesselated pavement, in the first century of our era, had been a 

 mark of the quarters of the commanding-general. (1) The 

 presence of the tesselated pavements no more indicates the 

 situation of the Prsetorium, than another circumstance mentioned 

 in the author's treatise, the presence of oyster shells belonging 

 to the smaller sort, the so-called "natives," whilst he traces the 

 large common sort in the quarters of the common soldiers. 

 Both sorts, he thinks, had been, by the quick posbal commu- 

 nication of the Romans, directly supplied from Colchester 

 {Camulodunum) : (p. 5) may they not have come from the west 

 coast as well, which is a good deal nearer ? Also from the 

 presence of more elegant or coarser pottery he draws similar 

 conclusions, (p. 16) We need not be surprised at his falling 

 into the general mistake of local savants, over-estimation of 

 their own limited field of investigation. He carefully guards 

 himself, however, and we must give him credit for this, from any 

 unsafe hypothesis based upon the observation of the layers of the 

 soil. With the greatest care he traces and exhibits the line of 

 the old enceinte walls, and of the outer ditch (the width of which 

 he estimates at 100 feet), besides the position and size of the 

 gates with their barbicans (which he calculates at 60 x 50 feet or 

 3000 square feet, consequently, like the so-called mile towers of 



(1) "It would seem indeed" he says, (p. 7) "to have been made use of as an 

 emblem of the permanent conquest of the spot on which his tent was pitched ; 

 somewhat as we (the English) now annex a newly discovered island by planting 

 the British flag ; for SuETOXius states," &c., &c. 



* My authority is tJie careful, though anonymous icriter, of the really excellent 

 article on the Roman wall of London, in the appendix to ' ' Lelnnd's Itinerary." J.D. 



