224 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 



The coins that I have seen are indistinct on their reverses, 

 with the exception of the silver one found at Trekillick, in Mr. 

 Baron's possession. That denarius displays the head and legend 

 of Vespasian on the obverse, and upon the reverse, the modius 

 or corn-measure with 7 ears or heads of corn issuant therefrom, 

 — an emblem of plenty. 



The beautiful pieces of Samian pottery found in the camp 

 and stream-works are very fragmentary, but this is not surpris- 

 ing, for not only did the finders break some of them, but the 

 ware was proverbially brittle : — " Scis tu ut confringi vas cito 

 Samium solet " wrote Plautus, who died B.C. 184. 



That Roman camps contain so few entire objects of interest 

 is accounted for by the fact that the soldiery when abandoning a 

 station destroyed by breaking or burning whatever they had to 

 leave behind likely to prove useful to an enemy. 



The tinner's oaken shovel dug up at Boscarne is not much 

 unlike those found in other stream- works, but it has such a very 

 ancient appearance that one can suppose it was used by either a 

 British or Roman tin-streamer in the days when Tregaer was 

 garrisoned. 



If we ask who were the Roman soldiers who came to this 

 locality, we must recollect that under the Republic the legions 

 were composed of citizens who had a substantial qualification in 

 Italy, but afterwards, under the Empire, colonial and foreign 

 enlistments were also sanctioned and citizenship was extended. 

 Roman soldiers were trained to great endurance, picked veterans 

 of twenty-years' service were both pensioned and encouraged 

 still to serve, their duties being somewhat lightened, but their 

 responsibility increased. Such legionaries as had the heaviest 

 duties to perform must needs have been men of strength. 

 Crested helm of bronze, cuirass, greave, bossed shield, jave- 

 lins, sword and dagger, were not all that they had to bear, but, 

 when on a long march, provisions for at least a fortnight, 3 or 

 4 stakes for camp palisades, certain articles of kit and various 

 tools had to be carried. Josephus who saw the troops of 

 Vespasian, describes the arms, &c, of the infantry, and states 

 that each man had, in addition, a saw, basket, mattock, hatchet, 

 strap, hook, and chain, also 3 days' provisions; so he says they 

 differed little from mules of burden. One eminent commander, 



