On an Inscribed Roman Tile recently found in Leicester. 181 



the continent to fight in his cause ; but they appear to have 

 returned to their old quarters soon after his defeat, for in the 

 record which is known by the title of the Itinerary of Anto- 

 ninus, and which is supposed to have been compiled about the 

 year 320, we still find the second legion at Isca, the sixth at 

 Eburacum, and the twentieth at Deva. About a century later, 

 on the eve of the final withdrawal of the Roman legions, when 

 the official work known as the Notitia Utriusgue Imperii was 

 drawn up, it appears from that important record that the 

 twentieth legion had already been withdrawn from the island, 

 and that the second legion had been removed from Isca to 

 Rhutupias (Bichborough, in Kent), probably on its way to the 

 Continent, but where it remained under the disposition of the 

 count of the Saxon shore ; but as the sixth legion is there 

 stated to be under the disposition of the dux Britanniarum, 

 whose authority extended over all the garrisons in the north of 

 Britain, it no doubt still remained in its quarters at Eburacum. 

 None of these records intimate the presence of any other legion 

 in Britain. 



It must thus be a matter of some surprise when we find a 

 monument recording the presence of the eighth Roman legion at 

 Ratse [Leicester) -, yet such is the case with the tile of which we 

 are speaking, and which, with its stamped inscription, is repre- 

 sented in the accompanying cut. This inscription is easily 

 read as l.viii. The letters are, as will be seen, reversed, which 

 is not very unusual on the stamps of the legionary tiles, and is 

 explained without difficulty. The stamps for the pottery, and 

 for other articles for sale and for domestic purposes, were en- 

 graved deliberately and with care on metal or stone, because 

 they were intended for permanent use ; but when the soldiers 

 of a legion were proceeding to the erection of a building, and 

 made the tiles for it, they probably cut their stamp hastily on 

 a piece of wood for the occasion, and at times a worthy soldier 

 thus employed forgot that what he thus cut on the stamp would 

 be reversed in the impression. Examples of similar reversed 

 inscriptions on the Roman tiles, made by soldiers of the second 

 legion, will be found in Mr. Lee's excellent and valuable 

 " Catalogue" of the antiquities collected in the Museum at 

 Caerleon, recently published. The form of the letter l is another 

 peculiarity of this stamp, for, though it is found in other inscrip- 

 tions, it is not very common. It occurs in the inscription on 

 an altar dedicated to the Dese Matres found at York, the date 

 of which is uncertain. It is also met with in an interesting 

 Roman inscription on the rock of the Roman stone -quarries on 

 the bank of the river Gelt, near Brampton, in Cumberland, which 

 is engraved and described by Dr. Bruce, in his well-known 

 work on The Boman Wall (page 64 of the second edition). 

 VOL. II. — no. in. o 



