392 APPENDIX ROMAN-BRITISH 



towards Farnham and London, would probably be that which 

 he would take, as offering the best chance of escape, if he 

 were closely pursued. From Alton, if he heard that Con- 

 stantius was following him, by turning a few miles to the 

 southward, to the station or settlement which (as has been 

 seen) existed at or near Blackmoor, he would obtain the pro- 

 tection of a country, probably then more difficult of access, in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the great Forest (Sylva 

 Anderida), which certainly extended as far north-west as a 

 part of Eogate, near the southern boundary of Selborne 

 parish, and possibly further. In order to account for his 

 meeting there with the Eoman army under Asclepiodotus, 

 nothing more is required than that we should suppose Con- 

 stantius, soon after landing, to have ordered his Praetorian 

 prefect to cross the hills, through the country of the Meanvari, 

 in the direction of Alton or Farnham, for the purpose of 

 cutting off the communication between Allectus and the 

 military stations to the east and north-east of Winchester. 

 The route which Asclepiodotus would follow in the execution 

 of such orders would naturally take him, by Porchester and 

 West Meon * (both Roman stations), either to the valley of 



or not is a matter of controversy. Alton was certainly a Roman town. 

 About thirty or forty years ago some interesting remains were found 

 there, in ground now occupied as a timber-yard by Messrs. Dyer, some of 

 which are still in the possession of the Messrs. Dyer and others are in the 

 British Museum. They consisted of several sepulchral vases, set in dishes 

 or saucers ; two lachrymatories j a small wooden dice-box j a small lamp ; 

 and a signet-ring of onyx set in gold, which was still (when found) on 

 the calcined bone of the wearer's finger. On this seal are engraved four 

 small figures, set upright, parallel to each other, those in the centre 

 representing an amphora and an ear of bearded corn, between an axe with 

 fasces on one side and a quiver with arrows on the other. There were 

 also some small pieces of Samian, or British Samian, ware. 



* There is an earthwork on Old Winchester Hill, at West Meon, 

 supposed to have been the caslra cestiva of a Roman garrison in the 

 country of the Meanvari, a tribe whose appellation is still preserved in 

 the names of East and West Meon and Meonstoke. At the meeting of 

 the Archaeological Association held at Winchester in. 1845, Colonel 

 Greenwood exhibited a Roman terra-cotta lamp found within this en- 

 campment, and some fragments of Roman pottery found in a barrow near 



