Londinium, Architecture and the CraftsLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
History
Londinium, Architecture and the Crafts
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
England -- Antiquities, Roman; London (England) -- Antiquities, Roman; Romans -- England -- London
The actual monuments once on the east of the City are represented by the
fragments found in the Tower Hill bastion; those to the north, by the
stones found in the Camomile Street and other bastions; those on the
west, by the soldier’s monument found at Ludgate Hill by Wren, by later
discoveries near Ludgate Hill, in 1806, and the fragment of the monument
of Celsus found on the Blackfriars site.
_Steles._—A memorial slab in the Guildhall Museum is particularly
interesting, as it is obviously in the tradition of Hellenistic art. It
is a true stele of the usual small scale, about 2 ft. wide and 2½ ft.
high; it bears a relief sculpture of a soldier in a panel bordered by
pilasters and finished with a pedimental top (Fig. 41). This broken slab
is in the reserve collection and is not usually visible, nor is it in
the catalogue; the supposition is that it was found in one of the
bastions with so many other remnants of tombs. It must, I think, be one
of the earliest Roman monuments discovered in London.
[Illustration:
FIG. 41.
]
At the Guildhall is shown a sculptured slab thus described: “Monumental
tablet, marble, bearing in relief the figure of a man armed with a
trident and sword (?), and having a shield-like protection to the upper
portion of his left arm; above is a fragmentary inscription; Greek; 21¾
× 15½ × 3½ in.: Tottenham Court Road.” It was illustrated in an early
volume of _Archæologia_ (xi. p. 48). On the original drawing at the
Society of Antiquaries is written: “This white marble slab was found by
Mr. Miller among the ruins of a house at Islington. It is now fixed up
on the front of a warehouse in High Timber Street, near Labour-in-Vain
Hill.” (This was south of Thames Street in the City.) The inscription is
given by Hübner. With the writer in _V.C.H._, we may doubt whether this
slab is not an importation like the Arundel Marbles; but other works in
white marble will be described in this section, and gladiators were well
known in Londinium (Fig. 42).
[Illustration:
FIG. 42.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 43.
]
In the British Museum is a small stele with a well-carved relief of a
man heavily draped in a dignified pose and classical taste, and also
having a Greek inscription. This stone slab is little more than 1 ft.
wide by about 2½ ft. high (Fig. 43). It was obtained in 1911, but it was
drawn by Archer about eighty years ago. It was found in White’s Conduit
Fields, that is, near Lamb’s Conduit Street. This, too, has a Greek
inscription of which I can only make out the last word and a few other
letters:
. . . . . ΟC
. . . . . ΟΥ
. . Ε ΧΑΙΡΕ
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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