As compared with the sister counties of Cornwall and Dorset, Devonshire
is not particularly well represented in memorials of the Roman
occupation, although an immense number of Roman coins have been
unearthed at various times. Coins, however, unless found with definite
structural remains, indicate presence rather than a settled occupation,
for large quantities of the Roman coinage must have continued in
circulation long after the last of the legions of imperial Rome had
departed from British shores. The few Roman antiquities of Exeter that
have been found are important in a comparative sense, although they
contrast poorly in structural character with those of our other
Romano-British towns. It has been held that not only were the
foundations of the city walls Roman, but part of the existing remains of
Rougemont Castle have also been assigned to this period.
Mr. L. Davidson was of opinion that the old church tower of St. Mary
Major (now removed) exhibited traces of Roman work, and foundations
presumed to be Roman were noted by him as having been found at the
corner of Castle Street and High Street, in St. Mary Arches Street,
Bedford Circus, Market Street, South Street, and Mint Lane.
[Illustration: THE QUAY]
In 1836 more definite structural remains were found in High Street,
consisting of a family sepulchral vault, 7 feet square, arched over, and
containing five coarse cinerary urns arranged in niches around its
interior. This was discovered behind the "Three Tuns" inn, and during
the same year at a great depth below the site of the County Bank, a
low-arched chamber was found in which were a quantity of bones of men
and animals.
No Exonian find, however, exceeds in interest the discovery, in 1833, of
a bath and tesselated pavement behind the Deanery walls in South Street.
The walls were of Heavitree stone and brick, and the original pavement
was of black-and-white tesseræ set in concrete. The associated remains
of a thirteenth-century encaustic-tile pavement indicates the use of the
old Roman bath a thousand years or so after it had been made. Several
other tesselated pavements are recorded as having been found in Pancras
Lane, on the site of Bedford Circus, and on the north side of the
Cathedral near the Speke Chapel. In 1836 a small bronze figure of Julius
Cæsar (now in the British Museum) about three inches in height, was dug
up during the removal of some walls in the Westgate quarter of the city.
The only recorded find of a military weapon is the bronze hilt of a
dagger unearthed in South Street in 1833. This is of more than passing
interest, as it bears the name of its owner--E. MEFITI. [=E]O.
FRI[=S].--which has been read thus: "Servii or Marcii Mefiti Tribuni
Equitum Frisiorum"--Servius or Mercius Mefitus, tribune of the Frisians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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