The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal ... - IndianCoins.org

ROMAN GOLD COINS FOUND AT CORBRIDGE. 275ground-plan was barely completed, and work thereforecannot have been proceeding for more than two or threeyears,when building was discontinued, and the edifice,planned upon an exceptionally large scale, was leftunfinished. Excavations at the north-west corner of thebuilding have revealed marked signs of second-centuryoccupation over-lying the foundations of the unfinishedbuilding. Archaeological evidence, therefore, points tothe commencement and sudden discontinuance of thisgreat work as alike occurring about the middle of thesecond century, and as falling within the reign of Piusthat is, before 161 A.D. The date of the destruction ofthe pottery-store is perhaps more open to question ;yetthe character of the Samian potsherds with which itsfloor was strewn suggests a date about or shortly afterthe middle of thesecond century, and the occurrence ofa coin of Pius, of the year 152, embedded in its clay6floor, points in the same direction.Finally, the well-cut slab with the erased dedicatoryinscription SOLI INVICTO, erected by Calpurnius Agricolaand discovered during the past season (1911) at Corstopitum,points to the erection of new buildings ofarchitectural pretensions during the governorship ofCalpurnius, at a time when quiet had presumably beenrestored.(ii.)CORBRIDGE FOURTH-CENTURY HOARD.Besides the gold find made in 1911, the excavations atCorstopitum have yielded a hoard of gold coins of laterdate. This was discovered in September, 1908, and has8Haverfield, Proceedings of the London Society of Antiquaries, 2ndSeries, vol. xxiii. p. 118.