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150 yds. south of the walls. [C. T. Smythe in Arch. xxix, 421—3;
xxix, 537; Site marked on 6-in. Ord. Surv., sheet No. liii, N.W.]
The Maidstone Museum has a bronze jug, a broken ring and fibulae, and 5
Samian dishes, a saucer stamped TITTIVS and a small cup stamped
DOWACIF.
Two glass urns containing liquid and small bones, and a bowl of ‘brass‘ with a wrought base and cover were found in a small oval cavern in
1713. [Top. Maidstone and its environs (1839), 94.; Inf. from Mr. N.
C. Cook.] For similar cemeteries, see Lockham and
p. 144.
SWANLEY.—Part of a cinerary urn containing burnt bones was found near
the railway junction. [Inf. from Mr. H. J. Elgar.]
SWANSCOMBE.—Building, see p. 125. A bronze statuette of Osiris of
Graeco-Roman workmanship is in the British Museum. [Arch. Journ. ix,
9.] A brass coin of Nero was found in a hedgerow, i 763, and another of
Severus was ploughed up in this parish. [Thorpe, Custumale Roffense (1798), 257 ; Gough in Camden Brit. (1806), i, 329.] In Mounts Wood
a coin, a bronze cup, and a bit of Samian were found in 1868. Roman tiles
have been noticed in the masonry of the church, and a coin of Faustina
was found with more recent coins in restoring the Church about 1874. In
making a tramway across the Ebbsfleet Valley in May, 1881, a cave was
opened. At the bottom was rubble and mould, which had been washed in by
the rain, and higher up Romano-British pottery and bones ‘. such as
commonly occur in the upper parts of these caves in the neighbourhood.’
Many are dene-holes. [Arch. Journ. xxxi, 77; xxxviii, 398 ; Dunkin, Memo.
of Springhead (1848), pp. 29, 30.] See also Springhead (p. 90) and
North fleet. For the kilns, see Industries, p. 131, no. 8, 9.
SYDENHAM.—The fragments of a diploma were found in digging for gravel on
Sydenham Common in 1806 together with pieces of a helmet and a bronze
coiled serpent with head erect about 2½ in. long. The diploma and serpent
were presented in 1813 to the British Museum where they now are. When
whole the diploma consisted of a pair of bronze tablets or diptych about 6
in. by 5 attached by rings inserted in holes pierced near the
angles of the long sides, thus allowing them to be read as a book and
carried on the person; they were fastened together by a wire or string
which ran through two more holes in the centre of each tablet, the string
being sealed by the witnesses whose names were inscribed on the exterior
(p. 4). These diplomas record the grant of the rights of citizenship and conubium
by the emperor to auxiliary soldiers on completion of their service
(about 25 years). The original ‘law’ included a list of those units
entitled to the privilege with the name of their commander and was set up—in
the time of Trajan—on the Palatine ‘in muro post templum divi Augusti
ad Minervam.’ A copy certified by witnesses, followed by his own name,
was given to each soldier concerned. They are thus valuable sources for
the history and movements of auxiliary troops, and for the names of
commanders and military governors of provinces at given dates and for
other matters. Over 100 of the individual copies have been found. Some
seven have been discovered in Britain and two more relating to the army in
Britain have turned up in other provinces. The formula varies little, so
that restoration is easy. The text at this date was engraved on the inside
and copied on the outside of the front, with the name of the witnesses
added on the back (outside).
The Sydenham fragments measure: pp. 1, 2, 33/16 in. by
1¼ in. (.091 x .033 m.); pp. 3,4, 5 in. by 2¼ in. (.128 x .059 m.); unfortunately
the missing fragment of p. 4. (exterior back) is an inscribed portion, so
that the names of the witnesses which occur on that side are unknown; more
important is the loss of the portion of the exterior front, on which are
recorded the date and the recipient’s name; only a few letters of each
survive, so that the date can only be restored with some uncertainty and
the name of the recipient not at all. The list of units of the auxiliary
troops is incomplete and the name of the commander of the forces in
Britain missing. ‘What remains is as follows
EXTERIOR FRONT TEXT
(p.1)
IMP. CAESAR DIVI. NERVAE, F NERVA TRAIAN[VS] | AVGVSTVS. GERMANIC. DACICVS.
PONTIF.
MA[XI]MVS TRIBVNIC. POTESTAT.VIIII.IMP.IIII COS V P[P] | EQVITIBVS ET
PEDITIBVS QVI
MILITANT IN A|LIS DVABVS ET COHORTIBVS. DECEM ET VNA QV|AE
APPELLANTVR I
TVNGRORVM
ET. CLASSI|ANA. C. R. ET. I. CRLTIBERORVM. ET. I. HISPANO|RVM ET. I.,
LINGONVM. ET. I. FIDA
VARDVLLOI[R]VM. ET. I. FRISIAV[ONVM] ET. I. NERVIORVM | [ET] II VASCONV . .
. | [ET . .A]
STVRVM. E[T . . . . | . . . [M]ATA . . . INTERIOR TEXT (p.
2) IMP
CAESAR. . . | AVG. GERM . . . | TRIBVNIC. POT . . . | EQVITIBVS ET
P. . . | ALIS
DVABVS
E . . APPELLANTVR . . . | C. R. ET. I CELT . . . | LINGONV
. . . | SIAVONVM . . . | VM. C.
R. ET. I
. . | PANNONIO . . . | IN BRITTAN . . . | QVENA ET
VIC . . . | RVNT QVORV . . . | IPSIS LIBER . . .
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