A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Fig. 8. Enamelled Fibula FOUND NEAR CaSTOR. no precise record of locality. These are, for the most part, the ordinary finds made in fair-sized Romano-British towns — fragments of columns and pedestals and other worked stone, bronze, bone and iron objects, fibuls, beads and much pottery. Specially notable are a small bronze statuette of Hercules, a finely enamelled blue fibula (fig. 8) and some coin moulds, one found with a small coin of Severus Alexander still in it, another intended for casting ' first brass,' and therefore, in its way, a great rarity.* Here too we must mention the coins. A British coin of an Icenian type was found in 1845 at Castor when the railway was made. Coins of the Roman Republic are not uncommon — slightly commoner perhaps than on most Romano- British sites.* Coins of the earliest Empire have also been found here, and the ordinary imperial issues from Claudius to the end of the Roman occupation abound everywhere in our area. Those of the first century are naturally a little rarer than those of the second, third and fourth centuries, but all are common, and the Castor district was obviously inhabited quite early in the Roman period. But, so far at least as our records show, no distinction can be drawn between various sites in the district with respect to the dates of the coins found in them. We cannot argue that any one part of it was occupied or abandoned before any other.' Probably we ought also to include here some inscribed or sculp- tured fragments found in 1884 and 1888 during the restoration of Peter- borough Cathedral. These fragments are firstly a bit of an inscription in large letters, 18 inches long by 15 inches wide, too scanty for com- pletion or explanation (fig. 9) ; secondly, the lower part of an attached half-column finely ornamented with leaf carving ; thirdly, a piece of stone plinth ; and lastly two Roman bricks. These may with reason be attri- buted to Castor and the Castles. The Roman remains found in Peter- borough (p. 188) indicate an occupation of the site which must have been far inferior to the comparative magnificence of a large inscription and carven columns. The Peterborough monks owned the site of the Castles and other land around, and as water carriage down the Nene was
- See the plates in Artis' volume. For the statuette of Hercules see Artis, xxxi. (5) ; for the fibula.
Journal of the British Archa-olo^cal Association, . 327; for the coin mould with the coin of Severus Alexander, Artis, xxxviii. ; for the ' first brass ' moulds. Proceedings of the Numismatic Society, December 21, 1854. 2 Evans, Ancient British Coins, p. 401 ; Journal of the British Archneolo^col Association, ii. 192. For the Republican coins see Stukeley, Letters, iii. 58 (Antony, leg xvii. classicae) and Itin. Curiosum, p. 83. (Antony, leg vi., Cohen 33 ; Pompey, Cohen I ; Babelon, Tituria 2 ; Julia 4; and Junia 18 or 19) ; Journal of the British Archieological Association, ii. 192 (unidentified, from Stibbington). Stukeley quotes three coins of Augustus, Cohen 43, 99 or 100, and 144. ' Details as to the coins will be found in Stukeley's Letters, iii. 58, 60, and Itin. Curiosum, p. 83 ; Gentleman's Magazine, (1822) i. 485 ; Journal of the British Arch<eological Association, ii. 192, 265, 1. 64, and new ser. y. 148-51. Some specimens are in Peterborough Museum. 176
