ROMANO-BRITISH DERBYSHIRE on the inscribed lead pigs of Britain, l and an explanation is needed for their appearance. Hiibner suggests that they arc not really private persons, but were connected in some way with the Imperial administration, since the title of the mines is the same on their pigs as on that of Hadrian. Rostowzew thinks them official lessees of the mines from the govern- ment, partly (he says) because they are freedmen. 8 But it seems rash to call four several persons officials or lessees when not one describes himself as such. And it is equally rash to call them freedmen when merely two or perhaps three have Greek cognomens. On the other hand it is difficult to consider them owners. The mineral wealth of the provinces was mainly owned by the Imperial Government. Private owners occur only in the early years of the Empire and they were gradually removed in favour of the government monopoly. In a province conquered so late as Britain, and in particular in the north of Britain, we should hardly expect private owners. Some chance, however, may have brought it about that one portion of the British minerals was at first allowed to rest in the hands of private owners of the commercial class. This view has, at any rate, the merit of suiting the apparently early character of the lettering on the pigs concerned. But under the circumstances it may be well to defer any definite conclusion in the hope of further evidence. Secondly, in respect of the dates when the mining began. Our only direct evidence is the pig bearing the name of Hadrian (A.D. 1 17- 138). But we may well believe that Roman miners were busy in Derby- shire at least thirty years earlier. For the lead deposits of western York- shire, as for example those lying between Grassington and Pateley Bridge, were worked as early as A.D. 81 (fig. 30 [6]). Yet it is not likely that they were opened up before Derbyshire was touched. But if we try to inquire further, we are met by a puzzling contrast between the evidence of the Derbyshire pigs and that of other Roman remains found near Matlock. The pigs seem to belong to the first or second century. The other remains, as for instance the hoards found near Crich, Cromford, and Darleyin the Dale (see the alphabetical bibliography), belong almost ' wholly to the third or fourth century. There is practically nothing that we can attribute to the age of Hadrian. Further afield the case is different. The fibuhe supposed to have been found in Roman mines near Elton may well be ascribed to the second century, and many other fibulas discovered within the general area of ancient mining, as at Middleton in Youlgreave, belong to the same period. Our records of them are, however, so vague that this evidence helps us little. A third difficulty arises with respect to communications. A Roman road can be traced along the western edge of the lead area from Buxton to Brassington, and it probably ran on to Little Chester. But no road is known to lead to Matlock, unless it be the road sometimes thought to run by Knave's Cross (p. 247). The conjecture therefore arises whether 1 Corf. late. Lat. vii. 1218 (DOCCI VSI) is not a lead pig, but due to an error of Httbner. 8 Dizitnario epigrtftco, ii. 586; cp. Staatspacht in der nmischen Kaiserzeit (Leipzig, 1903), p. 451. Hirschfeld, Vervialtungsgeschichte (ed. i), p. 151, inclines to call the four men Iessee5 (conductores). 229
