A History of Lancashire. Fishwick Henry

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СКАЧАТЬ of Valerius Crescens Fulvianus, his Legate [and] Pro–Prætor. Titus Floridius Natalis, Legate, our Præpositus and Governor, from the reply [of the oracle] restored the temple from the ground, and inaugurated it at his own expense.” The mention of the Empress Julia fixes the date to between A.D. 211 and A.D. 235. The four pillars forming the entrance to the Bull Inn at Ribchester were from the ruins of one of the two temples. The bases of some of the columns of the larger building are preserved at the Rectory; they are of rude workmanship, but appear to be in the Doric style.

      This temple is believed to have been destroyed by fire. From the inscription just quoted it would appear that it was then rebuilt, and it is at least possible that the original building may have been destroyed by the Scots, who at this time waged fierce war with the Romans.

      The evidence as to the existence of the smaller temple is not so conclusive, although several stone cylindrical columns, each with a foliated capital, said to have belonged to it, are still preserved.

      Beside the “finds” of coins, rings, querns, amphoræ, etc., there have been from time to time sculptured stones brought to light which tell their own history. A few only of these can here be mentioned: a walling stone inscribed Leg[io] Vicesima V[alaria] V[ictrix] Fecit (The Twentieth Legion, Valiant and Victorious, made [it]); a large sculptured altar which bore an inscription “To the holy god Apollo Maponus for the welfare of our lord [the Emperor], and of the Numerus of Sarmatian horse Bremetennacum [styled] the Gordian, Antoninus of the Sixth Legion, [styled the] Victorious. [His] birthplace [was] Melitene.” The date of this is believed to be between A.D. 238 and A.D. 244.26 In 1603 Camden saw at Ribchester an altar which he describes as the largest and fairest that he had ever seen; this is now at Stonyhurst College. It was dedicated “To the goddess mothers, Marcus Ingenuius Asiaticus, a decurion of the cavalry regiment of the Astures, performs his vow willingly [and] dutifully to a deserving object.”

      Altars dedicated to these Deæ Matres are not uncommon in Britain; they are often represented by female figures each bearing a basket of fruit. Another altar was dug up in the churchyard; its inscription refers to Caracalla and his mother Julia Domna (the widow of Septimius).

      In 1796 a boy playing near the road leading to the church accidentally discovered a helmet, which its subsequent owner27 thus described: “The superior style of workmanship of the mask to that of the headpiece is also remarkable. It measures ten inches and a half from its junction to the skull–piece at the top of the forehead to its bottom under the chin. A row of small detached locks of hair surrounds the forehead a little above the eyes, reaching to the ears, which are well delineated. Upon these locks of hair rests the bottom of a diadem, or tutulus, which at the centre in front is two inches and a quarter in height, diminishing at the extremities to one inch and an eighth of an inch, and it is divided horizontally into two parts, bearing the proportionate height just mentioned. The lower part projects before the higher, and represents a bastion wall, separated into seven divisions by projecting turrets, with pyramidal tops, exceeding a little the height of the wall. These apertures for missile weapons of defence are marked in each of the turrets. Two arched doors appear in the middle division of this wall, and one arched door in each of the extreme divisions. The upper part of the diadem, which recedes a little so as to clear the top of the wall and of the turrets, was ornamented with seven embossed figures placed under the seven arches, the abutments of which are heads of genii. The central arch and the figure that was within it are destroyed, but the other six arches are filled with a repetition of the following three groups: a Venus sitting upon a marine monster; before her a draped figure with wings, bearing a wreath and palm–branch, and behind her a triton, whose lower parts terminate in tails of fish. Two serpents are represented on each side of the face near the ears, from whence the bodies of these reptiles surround each cheek and are joined under the chin. From the general form of the diadem being usually appropriated to female deities, and the circumstance of the lower division being composed of a wall and turrets in the same manner as the heads of Isis, Cybele, and the Ephesian Diana are decorated, added to the effeminacy and delicacy of the features of the mask, one may conclude that it alludes to these goddesses; but the manner in which the face is accompanied with serpents strongly indicates that it also comprises the character of Medusa…” The head portion of the helmet is ornamented with soldiers on horse and on foot. This is considered one of the finest specimens of a Roman helmet yet discovered. In 1875, in the bed of the Ribble, was found a sepulchral slab representing a horse–soldier spearing a fallen foe. The stone is 5 feet long and 2½ feet in breadth.28 Several other tombstones have been discovered here, the inscription on one of which, being translated, records that “In this earth is held that which was at one time Ælia Matrona; she lived twenty–eight years, two months, and eight days: and Marcus Julius Maximus her son; he lived six years, three months and twenty days: and Campania Dubitata her mother; she lived fifty years. Julius Maximus, a sigularis consularis of the Polish cavalry, the husband of an incomparable wife, and to a son most dutiful to his father and to a mother–in–law of very dear memory, has placed this.”

      The number of miscellaneous Roman articles which have been found at Ribchester is considerable. In 1884, just outside one of the gateways leading to the camp, a massive gold brooch was found; its weight is 373 grains, and it is in the shape of a harp, measuring 2 inches in length. Roman brooches of gold are very rarely met with.

      In making graves in the churchyard from time to time small articles have been found; and in the Vicarage garden, almost every time the soil is turned, fragments of Samian pottery, etc., are brought to light.

      These various finds have, perhaps, given rise to the local tradition that:

      It is written upon a wall in Rome:

      Ribchester is as rich as any town in Christendom.

      But much of old Ribchester is lost through the shifting of the bed of the river, which formed one side of the castrum.

      From Ribchester issued five roads: (i.) To Yorkshire through Chadburn; (ii.) to Manchester; (iii.) to Morecambe Bay through the Fylde; (iv.) to Lancaster, joining the main road at Galgate; (v.) to Westmorland viâ Overborough.

      The road to Yorkshire passed through Langho, crossed the Calder near a place called “Potter’s Ford,” and leaving Clitheroe on the east, went over the rising ground to Chadburn and over the Yorkshire border to Skipton. Roman coins have been found at Langho,29 and also the remains of a rectangular building 70 feet square, which is believed to have been a small camp; its site is still known as “Castle Holme.”30 Between Chadburn and Worsthorne, in 1788, nearly 1,000 silver denarii of the Higher Empire were found in an urn dug up by some workmen.31 The road through the Fylde district was no doubt made to connect Ribchester with the Portus Sestantiorum (the Haven of the Sestantii), the exact site of which has never been satisfactorily proved, but it was probably near the mouth of the Wyre. The agger is only traceable along bits of the route from Ribchester, but it appears at “Stubbin Nook,” and, after passing Pedder House, becomes identical with what is still called Watling Street; it then crosses Fulwood Moor near Preston, and goes on to Kirkham, Marton Mere, and Poulton–le–Fylde. The late John Just, in 1850, made a careful survey of that portion of the road; he thus describes it: “Within a mile of the town of Poulton are seen the first indications of a Roman road… But having got on to the high ground and to a part of the flats of the Fylde district we meet with striking remains of a road on the turfy ground where it has been piled up in an immense agger… Across this the line is very distinct… On the higher ground the whole of the line has been obliterated … until we again detect it in a low hollow towards Weeton Moss… Here is an immense embankment of several yards in height, its base standing in the water… The line hence directs itself up the rising ground to Plumpton; … from hence it directs its course to the windmill on the high ground between Weeton СКАЧАТЬ