Grain and Chaff from an English Manor Part 25

If, therefore, we can find a place of importance with the name of Antona, or a name that may fairly represent it, having regard to subsequent corruptions, existing also in Roman times on or near the Avon branch of the Severn, we shall be justified in a.s.suming that this particular Avon was the river he had in his mind. Such a place is the area I have described as full of traces of long Roman and pre-Roman occupation, situated at the junction of two ancient roads, very important from the military point of view, and within a mile of the Avon.

On the supposition that Antona and Aldington may be identical, the present site of the latter is perhaps a quarter of a mile from the Roman area which I have described, but the original Aldington Mill, traces of the foundations of which are still to be seen, was actually on the Roman area. A better position for it was found later, away from the difficulties of approach caused by floods, and it was moved to the site occupied by the present mill just below the Manor House, probably in Anglo-Saxon times. Although the name of the village became, in Anglo-Saxon, Aldington, or something similar, the old name of Anton or Aunton was evidently in common local use, as appears in the following list of names which the present village has borne at different times.

It is specially interesting to notice that the more elaborate "Aldington" and its variants appear in the more scholarly records, such as those of Evesham Abbey and Domesday Survey, written by people not living in the village; while the parish churchwardens 1527-1571, the will of Richard Yardley 1531, the village constable 1715, and the villagers at the present day, all living in the place itself, carry on the old tradition in the names they use which approximate very closely to the Roman Antona, and are indeed identical in their ma.n.u.scripts, if the Latin terminal _a_ is omitted.

_Date_ Aldintone, Charter of the Kings Kenred and Offa, possessions of Evesham Abbey 709

Aldingtone } Aldintun } Domesday Survey _circ._ 1086 Aldintona }

Aldringtona, An Adjudication; Evesham Abbey 1176

Aldetone, Inst.i.tutes of Abbot Randulf, died 1229

Awnton, Will of Richard Yardley of Awnton 1531

Aunton, Churchwardens accounts 1527 to 1571

Anton, Old MS. "A Bill for ye Constable" 1715

Alne or Auln, Villagers present day

As parallels of the local persistence of old names, the neighbouring village of Wickhamford (present-day name) is still called Wicwon by the villagers, the same name under which it appears in the Charter of the Abbey possessions in 709. And the Celtic London still persists in spite of the Roman attempt to confer upon it the grander name of Augusta.

The disappearance of anything in the shape of foundations of former buildings is accounted for by the fact that the whole area was quarried many years ago for the building stone and limestone beneath, and any surface stone would have been removed at the same time. One of the fields still bears the name of the "Quar Ground," and the remains of lime-kilns can be found in several places.

It is right to add that Blackbanks as the site of Antona was suggested to me many years ago by the late Canon Winnington Ingram, Rector of Harvington; in discussing the matter, however, we got no further than the bare suggestion derived from the appearance of long habitation and the occurrence of Roman coins and pottery in Blackbanks only, and without reference to the much larger area of Blackminster. Canon Winnington Ingram was not familiar with the place, and I had not apprehended the importance of the track from the "Fish and Anchor" as a salt way starting from Droitwich, nor was I aware of Salter Street, its continuation after pa.s.sing Blackbanks. Neither had I distinguished between Buckle Street as the junction between Ryknield Street and the Foss Way, and Ryknield Street itself as the direct road from the north through Birmingham, Alcester, Bidford, Antona(?) Hinton, and Gloucester.

Virgil, in his first _Georgic_, refers to the possible future discovery of Roman remains, and Dryden translates the pa.s.sage thus:

"Then after lapse of time, the lab'ring swains, Who turn the turfs of these unhappy plains, Shall rusty piles from the plough'd furrows take, And over empty helmets pa.s.s the rake."

Such is almost prophetic of my Roman site to-day; little did Virgil imagine that his lines would apply so nearly in Britain two thousand years later.

A LIST OF THE COINS FOUND AND NAMES OF THE EMPERORS TO WHOSE REIGNS THEY BELONG, WITH SHORT NOTES ON THE LEADING INCIDENTS IN CONNECTION WITH BRITAIN WHICH OCCURRED IN THEIR REIGNS:

1. A Denarius, 88 B.C.

2. A Denarius, 88 B.C. plated. As consular denarii pa.s.sed out of circulation soon after A.D. 70, these two coins suggest that the site was under Roman influence by that date at the latest.

3. Claudius, Emperor (A.D. 41-54).

4. Nerva, Emperor (96-98).

5. Antoninus Pius, Emperor (138-161).

6. Marcus Aurelius, Emperor (161-180).

7. Severus Alexander, Emperor (222-235).

8. The Thirty Tyrants (211-284). Several coins of this period, badly defaced.

9. Etruscilla, wife of Traia.n.u.s Decius (249-251).

10. Gallienus, Emperor (253-268).

11. Postumus, Gallic Emperor (258-268)

12. Claudius Gothicus, Emperor (268-270)

13. Tetricus, Gallic Emperor (270-273).

14. Tacitus, Emperor (275-276)

15. Diocletia.n.u.s, Emperor (284-305).

16. Carausius, Emperor in Britain (286-294).

17. Allectus, Emperor in Britain (294-296).

18. Theodora, second wife of Constantius I. (Chlorus, Caesar, 293-305; Augustus, 305-6).

19. Licinius, Emperor (307-324).

20. Constantinus Emperor (306-337); (Constantine the Great).

21. Coin with head of Constantinopolis (City Deity)(_circ._ 330).

22. Constantinus II., Emperor (337-340).

23. Constantius II., Emperor (337-361).

24. Gratia.n.u.s, Emperor (367-383).

BRITISH COIN.

25. Antedrigus, British Prince (_circ._ 50).

The figures in brackets in the following notes refer to the coins as numbered in the above list:

(3) The Claudian invasion of Britain was begun in A.D. 43 by an army under the command of Aulus Plautius Silva.n.u.s. He led his army from the coast of Kent, where he probably landed, to the Thames, and waited for Claudius himself, in whose presence the advance to Camulodunum (Colchester) was made during the latter part of 43. Claudius apparently left Rome in July, and was absent for six months, but his stay in Britain is said to have lasted only sixteen days.

In the pacification which occupied the next three years there are two points of interest to notice. The first is a series of minor campaigns conducted by Vespasian--Emperor 69-79--who subdued the Isle of Wight and penetrated from Hampshire, perhaps, to the Mendip Hills. The second is the submission of Prasutagus, the British philo-Roman prince of the Iceni.

It is conjectured that his policy led a certain number of patriots under a rival prince, Antedrigus, to migrate towards the unoccupied west. A coin (25) of Antedrigus, with an extremely barbarous head in profile on the obverse and a horse on the reverse, was found on the Roman area at Aldington. The types of this coin are ultimately derived from those on the gold staters struck by Philip of Makedon, father of Alexander the Great. The original had a young male head (? of Apollo) on obverse and a two-horse chariot as reverse type. The influence came to Britain from Gaul, where the coins of Makedon may have arrived by the valleys of Danube and Rhine; but it is not improbable that the types reached Gaul through Ma.s.silia (Ma.r.s.eilles).

In 47 Plautius was succeeded by P. Ostorius Scapula, who pressed westwards and fought a great battle with the nationalist army of Caratacus in 51. Camulodunum became a colonia in 50, and the military organization of Britain then began to take shape by the establishment of four legionary headquarters--Isca Silurum (Caerleon-on-Usk), Viroconium (Wroxeter), Deva (Chester) and Lindum (Lincoln). This disposition, which faced north and west, came near to breaking down in 61, when the east rose under Boudicca (Boadicea), queen of the Iceni, partly in protest against the usury of Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of Nero.

(4) It was in the year 97, during the princ.i.p.ate of Nerva, that Tacitus the historian was consul. By this time the IXth Hispana legion had been transferred from Lindum to Eburac.u.m (York).