Volume 1
The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme.
- Date:
- 1887
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The gentleman's magazine library : being a classified collection of the chief contents of The gentleman's magazine from 1731 to 1868. Romano-British remains / edited by George Laurence Gomme. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![But perhaps the most touching episodes of the conflict are retained amidst the ruins of Wroxeter. On p. 274 it is recorded how three human skeletons were found in a hypocaust, one of which, a male, appears to be crouching in a corner, while the other two, females, lay close beside. A little heap of coins close by, with the remains of the wooden coffer, give the date and imply the nature of the catastrophe that here overtook the old man and his female companions. No such natural destruction as that which has revealed to us the inner life of Pompeii swept over these British places; and the inference is just that the destruction was dealt by the sword and torch of the Saxon. Compared with what Mr. Joyce discovered at Silchester, such a conclusion is almost irresistible. After the digging at Silchester, recorded on p. 121, Mr. Joyce went on with his important labours, and in Archceologia, vol. xlvi., PP- 329'365> he relates one of the most thrilling episodes in his researches. In the forum, underneath a thick layer of charred wood, was discovered a very beautiful Roman eagle (p. 121), and here, under this symbol of Roman military greatness, no doubt was made the last stand, until the building being fired from without involved in its own destruction that of those who fought within it. The story as Mr. Joyce relates it is well worth repeating here, because it indicates as graphically as anything I know how much archaeology has to tell if rightly appealed to. “ If we assume/’ says Mr. Joyce, “ this eagle to have been once the imperial standard of a Roman legion, some aquilifer of the revolted troops [under Allectus] shut up here as a last stand, despairing of its safety and of his own life, whilst the western side of this basilica was beleaguered, rather than surrender his trust, tore away the bird from the fulmen which its talons had grasped upon the summit of its staff, wrenched off its wings, fastened only by an attachment to its back, and hid it in the wooden ceiling of the arariuvi, placing it above a beam, as Romans are known occasionally to have secreted treasure. He himself no doubt perished in the melee. The basilica was taken, and was fired at the centre (there is evidence that this took place); but the conflagration did not consume the end room on the south of the range, and so the eagle hidden in the timbers of the cerariuiti re- mained where its guardian had deposited it until the final fire, kindled by barbarian hands long after the Romans ceased to dwell here, consumed the basilica for the last time, and buried the Roman bird in that venerable grave from which he has been happily rescued.”](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24879034_0001_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
