On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 179 



Eoman legions in this island was thus reduced to three, the 

 second, the ninth, and the twentieth. 



All that we know cf the subsequent movements of the Eo- 

 man legions in Britain, which is very little, is gathered from one 

 or two slight allusions in the Eoman writers, and from inscrip- 

 tions found on monuments which have been from time to time 

 discovered on sites those legions had permanently or temporarily 

 occupied. These inscriptions generally are of three kinds, those 

 on tomb-stones, or dedications of altars, etc., or inscriptions 

 relating to buildings which they had erected or repaired. The 

 tomb-stones, commemorating only the deaths and burials of 

 individuals, are but of secondary value, because the fact of the 

 death and burial of an officer or soldier of a legion in a certain 

 place does not necessarily imply that the whole legion, or even 

 any considerable part of it, was there. The votive monuments 

 are of more value ; but the most important of all for our purpose 

 are the inscriptions recording work performed by the soldiers. 

 The Eoman legions, in this respect unlike the troops of modern 

 times, were never allowed to be idle ; when not engaged in hos- 

 tilities, they were employed on public works, such as making 

 roads, throwing up fortresses, and erecting public buildings of 

 various descriptions, and they commemorated their labours by 

 inscribed tablets of stone, on which in some cases (especially in 

 building defensive walls of great extent) the quantity of work 

 performed by each detachment was stated, or by stamping 

 merely the name of the legion on the tiles or bricks used in the 

 construction. These last mentioned inscriptions are found in 

 great abundance on the sites of the towns which were occupied 

 by the legions. 



When Julius Agricola undertook the conquest of the Cale- 

 donians, he no doubt carried with him to the north the three 

 legions then in Britain. He was himself the commander of the 

 twentieth legion, and we learn from Tacitus that the ninth legion 

 took part in the decisive campaign against Galgacus in the year 

 83. This legion appears never to have recovered the losses it 

 had sustained in the war against Boadicea, and it is described 

 by Tacitus as being at this time weaker than the others ; yet 

 it was unfortunate enough to be left in an exposed position, 

 where it was surprized and almost cut to pieces by the Caledo- 

 nians. After this event, the ninth legion disappears from 

 history, and the effective legionary force in the island appears 

 to have been almost reduced to the second and twentieth 

 legions. But when, in the year 120, the Emperor Hadrian repaired 

 into Britain in person to put a check upon the attacks of the 

 formidable Caledonians, he brought with him another legion, 

 the sixth, which had been previously established on the borders 

 of Germany. The emperor had with him in the north, with 



