210 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 



intercourse was therefore carried on, the roads or tracks serving 

 the general purposes of all, and only a few sheltering camps 

 being intrenched in certain safe positions for such troops as 

 might be quartered in a non-hostile country. 



Whatever may have been the case with regard to all this, 

 we have, in the absence of records, few satisfactory means of 

 judging. Roman villas, altars, and slabs dedicated to the gods of 

 the shades, so frequently met with elsewhere, do not occur in 

 Cornwall. Parallel-sided Roman camps are scarce, but circular* 

 British earthworks crown the hills in all directions. 



Some facts relating to the Romans in Cornwall are incon- 

 trovertible, and may be thus summarized: — 



(1). There is a Roman camp still existing at Tregeare, by 

 Nanstallon, Bodmin, in Mid-Cornwall, in or near which 1st 

 century coins, human remains, and other relics have been found. 



(2). Another camp, at Bosens in St. Erth, in West 

 Cornwall, has yielded evidence of the Roman worship of Mars,f 

 the god of war. 



(3). Stones proclaiming the names of two reigning Roman 

 Emperors, of the 4th century, exist, one at Tintagel in the 

 north-east of Cornwall, the other at St. Hilary in the south-west. 



(4). Many great hoards, or military supplies, of small 

 bronze Roman money have been found in places near the coast. 

 One collection consisted of at least 2,000 coins, another of 20-lbs. 

 weight, a third of 24 gallons, &c. 



(5). A station, revealing from time to time various Roman 

 vestiges, has been discovered in St. Minver, opposite Padstow, 

 on the northern estuary, near a road, Plain Street, | which seems 

 to bear a Roman name, — Plana Strata, i.e., level road. 



*The Cornish name for such a stronghold is Dinas. This led Dr. Borlase to 

 regard them as Danish. Some consider them late Roman. 



fMany of the Roman coins found in Cornwall have a figure of Mars with 

 corresponding legend, on their reverses. 



JUnless this name can be shewn to have a recent and local meaning which 

 would account differently for it, it is suggestive of a late Roman origin . — 

 Planus, a, urn; adj : level, "facilis et plana via" (Plautus). 



" planissimus locus " (Cicero). 

 Sterno, stratus, &c. ; v : to spread, extend. " fama stravit iter " (Statius). 



" stratum militari labore iter " (Quintilianus). 

 Stratum, i; n: in post-Augustan prose, pavement, &c. (Andrews). 

 Strata (low Latin, from sterno), scilicet via, a street, paved way, road (Webster). 



