Bemains of the lioman Station at Cappuck. 385 



" When the station at Chester became a walled one, it appears that the 

 builders of the walls were the soldiers of the 20th Legion, aided probably 

 by some of the foreign auxiliaries attached to the corps, though no in- 

 scriptions of the latter have been disco vert.'d. Before referring to the 

 leoion generally, it will be advisable to describe the memorials of its 

 building operations, which it has left at Deva. The first of these are the 

 tiles bearing its name and titles, of which an immense number have been 

 found, including several varieties. 



Randle Holme, in his work, ' A Storehouse of Armoury,' (published 

 first in 1688) says : — 



' And also, not many years since (even in my time) upon opening the 

 ground of a Back side in the Bridge Street in Chester, a vault was 

 discovered, from whence was digged up certaine goodly Tile stones, having 

 on them this inscription in full words : — 



LEGIO . VIGESIMA— VICTRIX. 

 Others more short thus : — 



LEG. XX. V. V. and LEG. XXV. V.' 



No other instance has been recorded of the name of the legion, occurring 

 in extenso in words upon tiles. At same time, from the absence of the 

 word Valeria, these tiles would probably be of an earlier date than the 

 others, which bear the usual formula, the expansion of which is Legio XX 

 Valeria Victrix ; or as some antiquaries would prefer, Legionis XX. 

 Valerias Victricis, using the genitive. Either reading will suffice, the 

 meaning being that the tiles were made by ' The Twentieth Legion, the 

 Valerian, the Victorious.' It should be borne in mind that Chester, Man- 

 chester, Caerhun, and Ribchester were all more or less erected by the 

 20th Legion, as tile stamps and inscriptions prove. Having thus shewn 

 the part the Twentieth Legion bore in the erection of the castrum, a 

 slight sketch of this celebrated corps may not be out of place. Its first 

 appearance, as far as historical notices are concerned is, that it was one of 

 the legions which were under the control of Mark Antony during the 

 triumvirate. Coins of the Antonia geus, of this period are extant (and 

 have even been found in Chester, on which its name occurs with the 

 abbreviation Leg. XX. We next hear of it in the earlier part of the reign 

 of Augustus in Illyricum, where it has left inscriptions. It was at that 

 time under the orders of Valerius Messalinus, for whom it won a triumph. 

 After the annihilation of the army (three legions) of Quintilins Varus, in 

 the forests and marshes of Central Germany, it was sent with seven other 

 legions under Germanicus to the Rhine, to avenge the disaster ; and we 

 find inscriptions by it near Boan and Cologne. After the death of the 

 Emperor Augustus, and whilst still on the Rhine, this legion, together with 

 the First and others mutinied ; but the mutiny being for a time repressed, 

 it was sent by the Legate, Caecina, to winter in the territories of Ubii, in 

 the same neighbourhood, where both it and the First Legion again broke 

 out in mutiny, which, owing to the eloquence of Germanicus, and the 

 execution of the ringleaders, was not, however, of long duration. 



