Amongst the most striking objects to survive from the three decades preceding the Roman conquest of Britain are the magnificent series of gold coins of Cunobelin. They are numerous and display an exceptional range of styles, from the traditional through the barbaric to the severely classical. Enough remain to permit a thorough die study, from which some interesting conclusions for the period can be drawn.

The Roman Fort of Bothwellhaugh is situated on the north-western boundary of the burgh of Motherwell, at the confluence of the River Clyde and the South Calder Water, immediately overlooking the point where the latter river was crossed by the Roman road (FIG. I). It lies approximately 15 miles (24 km) north-west of the Roman fort at Castledykes and 20 miles (32 km) south-east of Old Kilpatrick at the west end of the Antonine Wall. The site is one of great natural strength, the ground falling away very steeply on all sides except the east, and even here access would have been impeded in Roman times by a small tributary of the River Clyde, which, flowing south in a fairly narrow valley, cut across the most direct line of approach. Unfortunately the natural features on this side of the fort have been largely obscured in recent times by the levelling of adjacent coal-tips.

The purpose of this paper is to reconsider the significance of the so-called ‘Late Celtic rubbish heap’ near Oare (Nat. Grid Ref. SU 172643) in the parish of Wilcot, near Marlborough in central Wiltshire and to assess its implications for Savernake ware, a regional variety of grey culinary coarse pottery, known to have been produced in Savernake Forest, just south of Marlborough, Wiltshire. The site in question (FIG. I), 6–4 km south-west of the Roman walled town of Cunetio (Mildenhall) was dug into in 1907–8 by Benjamin and Maud Cunnington. Mr. and Mrs. Cunnington were attached to Devizes Museum from the late nineteenth until almost the mid twentieth century and became well known for their many excavations and publications, particularly on prehistoric sites in Wiltshire.

The Corbridge ‘pottery shop’ forms part of what is now known as the western enclave and was first uncovered during excavations directed by Leonard Woolley in 1907, together with the northern half of the western compound. Through the sixty-seven years since then interpretation of the evidence which he found and recorded has varied considerably, as is shown by the following extracts taken from the writings of Woolley, Forster, Birley and Richmond.

The Antonine Itinerary has long been used by scholars as the principal source of place-names for Roman Britain. Most of the names it contains have been satisfactorily attributed to known archaeological sites with the aid of epigraphic evidence or the inter-settlement distances recorded in the itinera, or by the survival of the name in a recognisable form. It has generally been recognised that distances between any two given places are not always found to be consistent between the various itinera, and they frequently only approximate to the actual distance on the ground. Consequently, the Antonine Itinerary has never been used as a precision document, until Professor A. L. F. Rivet performed a valuable and long-needed service when he undertook the first detailed examination of the British section. Two side-issues of particular interest emerged from his study. First, that it is possible to recognise and correct at least some of the post-Roman scribal errors, greatly improving the accuracy and hence the usefulness of the Itinerary as a whole. Secondly, it was shown that there is an unexplained, but consistent shortfall (or ‘minus error’) in the majority of the distances quoted between any two adjacent places, and that in many instances the total for the iter falls seriously short of the total mileage for the journey in question, Since it is impossible to believe that the Roman mile was of differing length in different provinces, it must be concluded that measurements between towns, forts and even small settlements, were not taken from centre to centre, but from some point beyond the main area of occupation. Furthermore, the Itinerary shortfalls seem to vary in proportion to the size of town being approached.

The gravestone of a centurion of the Twentieth Legion, M. Favonius Facilis, which was found in the Roman cemetery at Colchester to the south-west of the colonia in 1868 is of particular interest for the history of Romano-British art, since it is one of the earliest sculptures known in the province. It is carved of Bath oolite and bears in a round-arched niche a full-length figure of Facilis (PL. IX), who is bare-headed but is otherwise dressed in the complete uniform of a centurion and carries a uitis in his right hand. Below the niche is the inscription, which reads: M(arcus) Fauoni(us) M(arci) f(ilius) Pol(lia tribu) Faci/lisc(enturio) leg(ionis) xx. Verecund/us et Nouicius lib(erti) posu/erunt. h(ic) s(itus) e(st).

The complex of the public baths at Wroxeter (that part of the site at present open to the public) was entered from a great basilican hall through doors in the Old Work, the standing north wall of the frigidarium of the baths (A on FIG. 1). Earlier excavations, beginning with Thomas Wright's in 1859 and extending at intervals up to the present day, have shown that the basilica was an aisled hall (B) 73 m (240 ft.) long and 20 m (65 ft.) broad with a portico (C) extending the whole length of its northern side. At its east end was an annexe with a small additional room in one corner. At the west end (D) Thomas Wright found evidence of an entrance ‘with a considerable amount of architectural ornamentation’. The south aisle and the nave were paved with tiles arranged in a herring-bone pattern, but the north aisle was divided into compartments with mosaic floors, some of which were removed in the nineteenth century. North of the portico ran a street which bounded the baths insula.

The following examination of the agricultural aspects of Bignor Roman villa was written in 1950, and is here reproduced with a few additions, and with corrections necessitated by the results of Professor S. S. Frere's excavations at the villa in the years 1957–1962.

It is very likely that Lysons, who excavated the villa in the eighteenth century, did not find, or did not record, earlier farm-buildings which may well have preceded those to be seen on his plan. Nor may he have noticed various details or subdivisions of the latter. Nevertheless it seemed worthwhile attempting their analysis in order to resuscitate the general lines of the agriculture practised at Bignor in the fourth century; and while further excavation of the farmyard, if it takes place, will doubtless produce corrections and new facts, the attempt will have been justified if it suggests new considerations and methods. Some of the conclusions of the present study were included in much abbreviated form in the writer's contribution on Roman Britain to The Agrarian History of England, Vol. I, part ii, published in 1972.

Strabo's appreciative evaluation of the site of Lugdunum is powerful in its simplicity and has been found constant employment by generations of ancient historians as the basis of a neat and convincing explanation for the unquestionable pre-eminence of the city in the Tres Galliae under the Early Empire, ‘l’ombilic éternel de la Gaule entière'. The booming prosperity of Lugdunum's present-day successor seems only to underline the continued effectiveness of the city's ‘natural advantages’ throughout the ages. Yet perhaps this argument is too simple. For some time geographers have been questioning the validity of ‘physical determinism’ in their own areas of research; there is surely the need for students of the ancient world to take a fresh look at similar situations in their own field with a view to reassessing the respective influences of the physical environment and of man. In fact in the case of Lugdunum I believe that modern thinking has been unduly influenced by the verdict of Strabo and by the success of modern Lyon. Sufficient information has long been available to present quite a different picture of the development of the city; to date it has simply never been treated with adequate objectivity.

Gildas's much-criticised sketch, outlining the perils of Britain after Maximus, lists three Pictish wars before the adventus Saxonum. Claudian's poem on Stilicho's consulate seems to allude to a recent encounter, which may be one of these wars. Now that the political and propagandist character of Claudian's verse has been analysed, and the poems accurately dated, a more useful survey of the references to Britain may be attempted. The result is no more than a footnote to the understanding of Claudian: its impact may be greater on the understanding of Gildas.

In the course of research on the coinage of Carausius and Allectus I was prompted to a consideration of the word-forms used in the coin-legends with which I was dealing by an article of A. J. Evans in Archaeologia Cambrensis. In drawing a parallel between word-forms on coins and on contemporary inscriptions Evans comments that variations from classical Latin spellings are generally dismissed as ‘the mere haphazard blunderings of barbarous engravers’. That this is true in some cases is beyond doubt, but ‘many of the most characteristic forms occur on coins that are not otherwise of barbarous fabric’ and Evans goes on to make the point that ‘a large proportion of the forms common to these Roman-British coins and monuments are due to the influence of the provincial dialect, and exhibit undoubted characteristics of incipient Romance pronunciation and Romance grammatical simplification’.

Dr. J. C. Mann has given us (Britannia ii (1971), 218–24) a rich listing of variants attested in the Latin inscriptions of Britain. His list is very complete and based on up-to-date sources, keyed where appropriate to RIB. As such it is a very valuable collection.

The variants are classed by Latin letters which are found in the spellings in relation to what is expected in classical Latin. In the commentary which is offered below variation is classed not so much by the letter(s) involved as by the mechanism or phenomenon which is seen as accounting for the observed variation. Such a classification, if correct and fully explicated, may hope to lead ultimately not only to a recognition of the truly popular and spoken characteristics of the Latin of Britain but also to a grasp of the basis of this differentiation and of the social forces at work.

Recent work on the samian ware from a settlement site at Wiggonholt, Sussex, has revealed fragments from a number of vessels by one of the few potters to attempt the production of samian in Roman Britain. This man was called the ‘Aldgate Potter’ by Dr. Grace Simpson on the basis of a waster from the Aldgate, London, now in the British Museum. However, Dr. Simpson also illustrates mould-fragments belonging to this potter from Pulborough, Sussex, only about one mile from the find-spot of the Wiggonholt fragments which are the subject of this article. As neither waster nor moulds seem likely to have travelled far from the kiln site, it is not at present possible to be certain whether the centre of this potter's production should be sought in London or Sussex, or whether perhaps he operated in both places at different times. However, the Wiggonholt material shifts the geographical balance of known find-spots of the work of this man strongly in favour of Sussex and, in view of this, it seems reasonable to give the Sussex mould-fragments equal significance with the Aldgate waster. The potter is, therefore, called here the ‘Aldgate-Pulborough Potter’.

With the exception of stamped, red-slipped wares from the Argonne region of France, pottery imported from the Continent into late Roman Britain has received little attention. The object of this paper is to define and describe some types in Britain which appear to have originated in Germany. The vessels were first recognised during preparation of reports on Roman pottery from the Wallbrook, London, and Portchester Castle, Hampshire, and the closest parallels were to be found in the Rhineland. Petrological examination of these sherds in thin section and by heavy mineral analysis has defined two main categories of fabric, which accord geologically with the postulated origin. Further research in site- and museum-collections indicated the chronological and geographical distribution of these types in England: stratigraphical evidence, where available, points to a fourth-century date for importation, although in the Rhineland many of the forms originated in the late second and third centuries.

In October 1970 the South Oxfordshire Hunt was crossing a field on Little Baldon Farm when one of their number observed some sherds lying on the newly ploughed surface. One of the first pieces to be recovered was a fine example of a moulded face from the neck of a flagon (No. I, below). Further investigation revealed much Romano-British pottery turned up by deep ploughing, and M. Aston and C. Young reported: ‘Fragments of mortaria, red colourcoated pottery and kiln debris indicate the site of workshops and perhaps 8 or 9 kilns.’ The site is in Toot Baldon parish, Oxfordshire, and towards the southern end of the Oxford potteries.

Similarities of plan between town houses and the main houses of villaestates in Roman Britain have been asserted by some, denied by others, but never considered in detail. The purpose of this paper is to put forward four suggestions: (i) that in certain areas the corridor house, winged and unwinged, appeared at the villas as early as, if not earlier than, in the towns; (ii) that in Britain villa planning influenced town-house planning in a manner not generally found on the Continent; (iii) that in construction and decoration villa-dwellings exhibit a far higher degree of Romanisation than their urban counterparts until roughly the mid second century; and that, if right, these hypotheses point to important conclusions for the economic and social development of town and country in the first hundred years of Roman rule.