ROMANO-BRITISH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



It is said to have been discovered with an empty urn, but no proper 

 record appears to exist. It is a flanged rooftile, and bears the inscription 

 LEGixHisP, legio mna Hispana} The other tile was found in 1822 

 at Whittlebury near the churchyard on the west side with some unin- 

 scribed tiles and a bronze celt. Some coins are said to have been found 

 at the same spot then or subsequently : they included a silver drachma 

 of Alexander the Great, a forged coin of Metapontum, a small brass 

 coin of Panormus, two Republican denarii (Postumia, Cornelia), two 

 ' second brass ' of Hadrian and a ' third brass ' of Gallienus. The tile 

 is now in Northampton Museum, where I have seen it ; it is broken in 

 two pieces, which bear the inscriptions leg and xxvv ; that is, legio vice- 

 sima Valeria victrix.^ These two tiles are legionary tiles ; that is, they 

 were made by the tile-makers of the legions named on them, and were 

 doubtless intended for buildings to be occupied by soldiers of those 

 legions. They justify us in supposing that some portion of the legions 

 were at some time quartered in the spots in question. That would 

 most naturally occur in the early years of the conquest, and other 

 evidence suggests that it did so occur. We know from inscriptions 

 that the Ninth Legion was posted at Lincoln at a fairly early period 

 and the Twentieth no later at Chester. It can hardly be an accident 

 that a tile of the Ninth Legion occurs on the road from London to 

 Lincoln and a tile of the Twentieth near the road from London to 

 Chester. Here we probably touch the strategy of the earliest Roman 

 conquest. The Roman forces in a.d. 43 and following years appear to 

 have advanced in three divisions — the Second Legion (with auxiliaries 

 no doubt) on the left wing along the south coast ; the Fourteenth and 

 Twentieth across the Midlands to Wroxeter and Chester ; the Ninth 

 Legion up the east coast to Lincoln. At some point, we cannot tell 

 precisely what, in this advance we may suppose that the two North- 

 amptonshire legionary tiles were made. It is much to be regretted that 

 no further search has ever been made to follow up these two remarkable 

 little discoveries. 



7. INDEX 



The following is an alphabetical list of the principal places where Roman remains have 

 been found or supposed in Northamptonshire. For the places where vestiges of f>ermanent 

 occupation have been found, it has seemed sufficient to refer to the preceding account. For 

 the rest the character of the remains is briefly indicated and the chief authorities for each named. 

 Alderton. — Gold coin of Antony and Octavia (probably Cohen i) and some silver Republican 

 coins found about the end of the eighteenth century [Welton, p. 186 ; Journal of the British 

 Arch^ological Association, ii. 355]. Perhaps an early hoard, buried before a.d. 4.3. 

 Aldwinkle. — Coin of Augustus [Morton, p. 532]. 



•^ TroUope, dissociated Archil. See. Reports, ix. 156 ; Archaokgical Journal, xxxi. 356, xli. 92 ; 

 Antiquary, January, 1884, p. 35 ; information from Mr. J. W. Bodger ; Ephem. Epigraphica, iii. 142. 

 The site commands a wide view north, east and west, and is otherwise not unsuited to a Roman fort or 

 post, if such could only be discovered. 



* Baker, ii. 73 ; Ephem. Epigraphica, iii. 142 ; brief reference in the Journal of the British Archteo- 

 logical Association, \\\. iii. The coins are a very mixed lot, and more likely to have been lost by a 

 modern collector — some rector of Whittlebury at a time of spring cleaning — than left by the Romans. 

 Tiles, celt and coins might all have belonged to such a collection. But as the coins were apparently 

 found after the tiles it is possible that there is no connexion between them. 



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