be larger units, issued either by the Government or
by private dealers, to pass current as pieces of definite weight or
value. It is notable that they should occur only in the West and
particularly in Britain, for Britain was the only province of the Empire
where silver coins were freely used towards the end of the fourth
century. Isatis seems to be the genitive either of Isas, a
name which occurs very rarely, or of Isaac, as in the title Fides
Isatis ex Iudaeo ‘the creed of Isaac, the converted Jew,’ dating
from the fourth centurv.45
(3) In 1922 part of a pig of lead was found beneath the
floor-level of the second-century house north-west of the platform.46
In
a sunk panel the fragment bears in raised letters i ~ in. high the
incomplete inscription:-
IMP. NERVAF . CA
Imp[eratoris] Nervae Ca[esaris] : ‘(The property) of the Emperor Nerva.’ It is
dated therefore to A.D. 96—8. The pig is of the normal shape which
issued, for example, from the mining areas of Flintshire or the
Mendips; but, of fifty or sixty instances from Britain, this is the only
one hearing the name of Nerva.47
(4.) Two lead seals were found shortly before 1858 in a rubbish-pit
outside the fort. Both come seemingly from the same matrix and bear the
head of the Emperor Constantine I with this inscription round it:-
CONSTANTINVS P AVG
‘Constantine, Pious, Augustus.’ On the back of each are marks of
string. Doubtless they were used to fasten Imperial dispatches or
Government property.48
(5) Two or three stamped tiles have been found during the recent
excavations. One, recovered from the site of the two Romano-Celtic
temples south of the fort in 1926, reads:-
SYLVIVS M
This is presumably intended for Sylvi m(anu), ‘made by Sylvius.’
The ungrammatical use of the nominative for the genitive is not
infrequently found also in Gaulish potters’ stamps (e.g. ALBVS M,
DOECCVS M, FELIX M, PAVI.VS)
and anticipates the use of indeclinable Romano-Celtic names in the fifth
and sixth centuries. Traces of the British Fleet arc as rare at Richborough
as they are common at Dover and Lympne, but two specimens of
tiles bearing the familiar stamp CL.BR have been found in the fortress
during the recent excavations.
(6) Reference has already been made to fragments of bronze statuary
found at various times (above, p. 27). The only other important work of
sculpture found on the site is a large slab, 4 ft. 2 in. high in its
present damaged state, and 2 ft. 2 in. wide.49 It is of
oolite, possibly
from the quarries of Marquise, near Boulogne, and it is carved in relief
with the draped figure of a woman which, by its grace and
dignity, likewise suggests a Gaulish rather than a
45 Maassen, Gesch. der
Quellen des canon. Rechis, 604.
46 First Richborough Rep. 42.
47 For lead-mining generally, see Gowland, Archaeologia lvii,
359; and Besnier, Revue archeologue, 5th Ser. xii, 211, xiii, 36, and xiv, 98.
48 C. R. Smith, Gent. Mag. 1858, July,
p. 65, and ColI. Ant. vi, 120 with illustration. The finder, Rolfe, gave the
seals to Mayer, but they do not seem to be now in the Mayer collection at
Liverpool. Eph. Epig.
vii, 1149.
49 First Richborough Rep. (Soc.
Antiq.), 37. |