DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDALS. 385 YORK, THE HEAD QUARTERS OF THE ROMAN CHAP. XIII. EMPIRE*. EBORACUM was the capital of the northern division. Severus, with his large army, and his whole court, arrived at the capital. "It was 13 Julius Cæsar,-Reverse, Augustus. (Found at Dunstable). 14 Claudius.-A colonial medal. (Found at Littleborough, Nottinghamshire). 15 Vespasian and Titus.-Haym. Del Tesoro Britannico, Vol. II. Plate V. (In the possession of the Duke of Devonshire). 16 Hadrian. (Found at Littleborough). 17 Pertinax.-Haym. Vol. I. p. 258. (Sir Robert Abdy). 18 Clodius Albinus.-Elected Emperor by the troops in Britain. (Found at Dunstable). 19 Severus. He died at York. (Found in Leicestershire). 20 Caracalla.-Haym. Vol. II. Plate XV. (Duke of Devonshire). 21 Geta. (Found in Leicestershire). 22 Julia Domna.-Reverse, Venus Lucina. Haym. Vol. II. Plate XIV.-Wife of Severus and mother of Caracalla and Geta. Supposed to have been coined in Lydia. (Duke of Devonshire). 23 Julia Mesa.-Reverse, Jupiter and Juno, deities of the Amastrians, crowned with the signs of the Zodiac.Sister of Julia Domna; grandmother of Heliogabalus and Alexander Severus. Haym. Vol. II. Plate XVII. (Duke of Devonshire). 24 Constantius, (Chlorus).—He died at York. (Found in Rutlandshire). For the head of his empress, Helena, see Plate III. No. 39. 25 Constantine, (The Great).—He was proclaimed at York. (Found at Chesterton in Warwickshire). 26 Constantine, (The Younger).—Reverse, PLON. coined at London. He built a wall round London, or finished the one said to have been built by his father or Helena. (Found in Rutlandshire). 27 Theodosius.-He served in Britain under his father, and with his future rival, Maximus. (Found at Dunstable). DDD 386 XIII. GRANDEUR OF YORK.-A TRIUMPH. CHAP. at this period that York shone in full lustre. Britannici orbis Roma Altera, Palatium Curiæ, et Prætorium Cæsaris, are titles it might justly lay claim to. The prodigious concourse of tributary kings, foreign ambassadors and others, which crowded the courts of the sovereigns of the world, when the Roman empire was in its prime, must have produced the height of sublunary grandeur: and this, without mentioning the Emperor's own magnificence, his numerous retinue, the noblemen of Rome, or the officers of the army, which must all, necessarily, attend him. In these days, and before, no doubt, the temple of Bellona stood here. Whatever was done at Rome, we may presume was executed at York. The palace at York must have been very magnificent. (The one built by this Emperor was noble and extensive). It was here that Severus triumphed for one of the greatest conquests (over the Parthians and Arabians), Rome ever gained, and which, with the building of the wall, Spartian expressly calls the greatest glories of his reign*." Severus, from his infirmities, and then having the gout, was carried all over the island in a litter t; he, with infinite toil, penetrated to the utmost bounds of the north, cutting down forests, and draining morasses, or filling them with bavins. All this while no enemy's soldiers appeared: they hung unseen on the rear and flanks of the Romans, and harassed them perpetually. This campaign, from the extreme severity of the labour, and ex * Drake's York, p. 10 to 14. There had also been a triumph at Rome for the eastern victories, in the tenth year of Severus's reign, but he, having the gout, would not permit it in his own name, being too ill to be present at it; Caracalla therefore enjoyed the honor, for his success against the Jews; and this triumph, at York, was to celebrate the conquests of Severus. He received from the senate the title of the conqueror of the Britons, while he was at York. See Spartian, and Bernard, Vol. I. p. 246; also Medal, Plate 1. A. 12. † Dion Cassius, "Severus." CALEDONIA INVADED.-50,000 MEN LOST. posure to cold in the mountains and bogs, is said to have cost the Romans fifty thousand men*. The Caledonians, however, at length yielded. The Emperor, finding that he could not keep the country in subjection without a considerable army on the spot; resolved to depend on the project of Adrian, by confining the Caledonians within a more secure barrier. This great undertaking was superintended by Caracalla. The position was a few paces north of Adrian's rampart; and the length, from the mouth of the Tyne to Boulness on the Solway Frith, sixty-eight English miles. To the north of the wall was a broad and deep ditch: the wall itself, on the brink of the ditch, was built of solid stone, strongly cemented with the best mortar. The height was twelve feet, besides the parapet; and its breadth eight feet. There were eighteen stations fortified with deep ditches and strong walls, the great wall itself forming the north wall of each station. The smallest station contained a cohort, or six hundred men. Without the walls of each station, was a town inhabited by labourers, both Romans and Britons, who chose to dwell there, under the protection of these fortresses. There were between the stations eighty-one castella, or castles, exact squares of sixty-six feet every way; fortified on each side with thick and lofty walls; in which guards were constantly kept. The towers, or turrets, formed each a square of twelve feet standing out of the wall on its south side. The troops allotted to guard the wall, consisted of twelve cohorts of foot, one cohort of mariners in the station at Boulness, one detach * It is very probable that great numbers of cattle, men, and other vestiges of this invasion are still in the marshes of Scotland: now perhaps dried up. 387 CHAP. XIII. 388 CHAP. MAGNIFICENT WALL. ment of Moors*, probably equal to a cohort, and four alæ, or wings, of horse, at the lowest computation, of four hundred each. In all, ten thousand. For the convenience of marching from one part of the wall to another, there were annexed to it two military ways, paved with square stones, in the most solid and beautiful manner; one larger and one smaller, from castle to castle, &c. to relieve guards and sentinels. (This wall proved an impenetrable barrier to the Roman territories for near two hundred years. In subsequent times, it was the common quarry, for more than a thousand years, for building all the towns and villages around +). The restless Caledonians, on the retiring of the Roman legions, resuming hostilities, Severus was provoked to send another army into their country, under the command of Caracalla, with the most bloody orders: not to subdue, but to exterminate them; even to the child unborn. They were saved by the Emperor's death at York, A. D. 211, aged 66. His corpse was burnt with great pomp at a place without the walls of York ‡. * The Emperor Severus was an African, born at Leptis (Napoli di Barbaria, in the goverment of Tripoli). Bernard, Vol. I. p. 227. † See Henry, Hist. Eng. II. 477. Rees's Cyc. "Wall." "When Mr. Roger Gale and I rode the whole length of Severus's Wall, in August, 1725, near Housesteeds, (Borcovius), fragments of pillars lay scattered over the whole place; whence we conclude, here was a temple. By a large part of a capital that remained, we concluded that it was of the Doric order, suitable to a military station. In the meadow there was such a scene of Romano British Antiquities as we had never beheld; we might have loaded waggons with many most curious and beautiful large altars. There were scores of fine basso relievos nearly as big as the life, one of them an admirable image of victory; and three female figures sitting together, with globes in their hands. There was a wall, composed of dry Roman stones, and fragments of carved work, as a sorry fence to a pasture. Who can express the indignation we conceived at the miserable havoc of these most valuable monuments?" Stukeley, Medallic History of Carausius, Vol. II. p. 151. This place is said still to bear the name of Sever's-hoe. At funerals, it was |