VOL. XXVr.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 517 



their military enterprises. These chissels were of admirable service in making 

 their aggeres, which consisted of earth, stones, and timber. The stones were 

 sometimes thrown together vyithout any polishing; but that was more rarely, 

 and it was considered a better security to have them worked, that they might 

 ,lie even. Hence appears the reason why these instruments are hollow, viz. 

 to fasten handles to them, for more convenience in driving them. Had they bee n 

 wedges, it would have been a great inconvenience to have had them hollow 

 As for the ears or loops, it is probable they might be put on, that the handles 

 might be fixed the better ; or perhaps they were designed for the ease of the 

 soldiers, who in their journies might thus fasten them to their girdles. 



Besides the uses these instruments were put to in forming the Roman camps, 

 they were also employed in making and repairing the highways, which swal- 

 lowed up a large quantity of stone, especially in such places as were marshy and 

 fenny. The Pomptin marshes were vastly large ; and when the soldiers were 

 too many to be used against the enemy, it was proposed they should be 

 employed in draining them, which was done accordingly ; and the soil was so 

 rich and fertile, that great numbers came and settled here, so that no less 

 than 3v3 towns were built on the ground. The waters however afterwards 

 got strength again, and it was in a manner wholly drowned ; which made 

 Julius Caesar entertain some thoughts of draining them afresh, and of carrying 

 the Appian way through them, which had before gone round them ; but he 

 failed in his design, and it was left for one of his successors, the emperor Tra- 

 jan, who after he had cleansed the fens, caused a stone-way to be made through 

 them, on which were built large inns, and magnificent bridges for conveying 

 the water in the upper part of the marsh. In memory of which, he had a 

 monumental stone erected, with a proper inscription, by which it appears that 

 the way was IQ, miles in length, a mile-stone being placed at the end of every 

 mile; from whence the way itself was in succeeding times called Decennovium. 



Besides which, he also made divers other ways here ; and perhaps these chis- 

 sels, that have occasioned this letter, may be some of those used by the soldiers 

 in his reign; though before his time, acts of this kind had been performed by 

 the Roman soldiers, who also forced the Britons to undergo the same drudgery, 

 which occasioned them to complain to Agricola, that they were too severely and 

 hardly dealt with. 



If it be asked how it comes to pass that these instruments are of brass, rather 

 than of any other metal? it may be replied, that they, as well as the people of 

 other nations, in former times thought there was an extraordinary virtue in 

 brass. And it was on account of this peculiar virtue supposed to be in brass, 

 that the instruments used in the sacred offices, were in the more early times all 



