Mr. Wellbeloved's last plate contains some Roman ornaments, among which are several interesting specimens of enamelled copper, figs. 1, 4, and 6; fig. 3 seems also to have been enamelled; the ornament of fig. 4, a circle from the centre of which issue rays of enamel, resembles that on the enamelled thorax of the remarkable bronze figure of a Roman Emperor[1] in the British Museum, which is of late Roman times. Of sculpture there is but little at York except a very interesting Mithraic group, engraved in the work before us, Pl. ix. All the fragments that have been found at York, as far as we know, exhibit that decadence which characterizes art throughout the ancient world from the time of Severus downwards.
But the remains we have enumerated are sufficient evidence of the military consequence of this station, and of the civilization of its inhabitants; and prove, as Mr. Wellbeloved observes in his concluding sentence, "that it was in all respects worthy of the distinction it so long enjoyed of being the head-quarters of one of the bravest of the Roman legions, the seat of justice, the imperial residence, the capital of the province of Britain."
While noticing the chief local subjects of the work before us, we must not omit to add that it contains information on a variety of subjects of general interest to the classical scholar. Mr. Wellbeloved has illustrated the antiquities of which he had to treat with a great deal of sound, well-digested learning, and, arranging them under general heads, has prefaced the description of each class with an excellent introductory sketch of the branch of Archæology to which they belong. Sometimes perhaps he may have indulged a little too much in digression, but his researches are always valuable, and his remarks judicious. Such digressions are, moreover, as Livy expresses it, legentibus velut diverticula amœna, pleasant convenient halting places for the reader, relieving the dryness of such details as must necessarily be of local interest only. Among the most instructive essays of this kind in the work before us, we may mention the chapters on numismatics, on sepulchral monuments, on legions, encampments, and stations of the Romans, and the account of military roads in the Roman empire and particularly in Yorkshire, with which Mr. Wellbeloved concludes his book. We cannot here take our leave of him without expressing the hope that his work may be made the basis of a real monograph of Roman Yorkshire, written with the same candour and dispassionate judgment, and enriched with the same varied and well directed research; and we trust that before the visit of the Archæological Institute to York this summer much will be done for the illustration of this subject by the combined exertions of archæologists resident in the county.
- ↑ Vetusta Monum. iv. Pl. 2—15.
