Most temples in Roman Britain were of the so-called Romano-Celtic design, a much less elaborate structure than its classical predecessor. The term was coined by Mortimer Wheeler when he excavated the temple at Harlow. Romano-Celtic temples, found throughout the northwest of the Roman Empire, usually consisted of a central cella and a surrounding concentric ambulatory. Since a large part of the cella of the temple of Janus at Autun, near Dijon, is extant, we know that Romano-Celtic temple cellas were tower-like, and that the ambulatory had a pitched roof built into the cella walls. However, the proportions must have varied from place to place. In some cases flanking chambers were built onto the structure, as at Lamyatt Beacon (Somerset), and this modification seems to have been adapted for use at Bath, where flanking chambers and a possible ambulatory were built around the classical temple, creating a very curious hybrid form of temple. Romano-Celtic temples rarely produce any trace of architectural embellishment, even mosaics, although painted wall-plaster is known.
Romano-Celtic temples were built throughout Britain in a variety of contexts, from the relatively isolated temple on Maiden Castle [ 233] to the urban examples at St Albans and Caerwent. It is rarely clear to whom any one temple was dedicated, especially as many examples were built on sites that had been sacred in prehistory. At Wanborough (Surrey) there was undoubtedly an Iron Age shrine. By the late first century a stone circular temple had been built, later replaced by a Romano-Celtic temple built beside it in the mid-second century. At Harlow (Essex), Bronze Age burials and numerous Iron Age coins have been found. The Roman-period temple was built in the late first century in one half of a double precinct. By the early third century, Harlow’s precinct had been enclosed with stone walls, and additional chambers were built onto the temple. More recent excavations have produced a stone head of Minerva as well as an altar dedicated to the Imperial Spirits. Given the site’s history, a now-anonymous Celtic deity must also have been worshipped here. The variety of classical gods represented by statuettes at Lamyatt Beacon emphasizes the flexibility of pagan cult centres.
The fourth-century Romano-Celtic temple, sited on the old Iron Age hillfort, as it might have appeared.
Such sites help date sequences, but the basic design of the structure itself was so simple it cannot really be dated on typological grounds. Even in the ‘Christian’ fourth century, new Romano-Celtic temples were being founded. The Maiden Castle temple, for example, was brand-new in the late fourth century, but was completely basic in form. The town-centre temple at Caerwent, however, was built c. 330, but was more elaborate [234].
A Romano-Celtic temple with its precinct. Despite the legal proscriptions against paganism, this temple was built c. 330, and remained in use for much of the fourth century.
It was not unusual to build several Romano-Celtic temples in a single precinct. The small town at Springhead had three in one precinct, and at Silchester, Insula XXX by the east gate had at least two temples in a precinct that was linked by road to the amphitheatre. Mixing of the Romano-Celtic and classical was very unusual, though this may have happened in the town-centre precinct at Canterbury. Here a classical temple has yet to be found, though fragments of classical architectural features suggest that one stood alongside the already discovered Romano-Celtic temples. The most curious design of all was the ‘Triangular Temple’ at St Albans. It occupied a small triangular insula, formed by the intersection of two roads. The main core of the temple was essentially standard Romano-Celtic, but was contained within a triangular precinct.
RELIGIOUS ARTIFACTS
Artifacts with religious associations are well known from Britain. It is not always certain if this religious association represents the object’s prime function, or whether it was simply a decorative embellishment. Bronze plaques that record a dedication to a god, like one from Benwell to Hercules by Marus, tribune of the XX legion, are obviously religious. The shield boss of Junius Dubitatus of the VIII legion, found in the Tyne, carries representations of a number of gods and mythical figures. 37 Another from Kirkham (Lancashire) depicts Mars preparing his weaponry [242]. Here decoration seems to be the primary motive, but it is no less probable that the images were considered to have totemic protective properties.
Bronze shield boss depicting Mars, surrounded by military paraphernalia. Diameter 19 cm. (British Museum).
Pottery also performed a variety of religious functions. Clay incense cups, known as tazze and resembling chalices, were used in domestic shrines and are occasionally associated with religious sites. Everyday kitchenware jars were often used as cremation containers, while other vessels (typically flagons, beakers and samian dishes) served as grave goods, probably containing offerings of food and drink. The flagon with the graffito naming the London temple of Isis is of ordinary Flavian type, but in this case had probably been used in the temple itself. A grave at Dunstable (Bedfordshire) contained a standard colour-coated beaker, which carried the handwritten inscription that it was an offering by one Regillinus to the ‘branch-bearers’, associated with the cult of Cybele.42 A pottery mould from Corbridge depicts a Celtic warrior god, usually identified as Taranis, with a wheel motif, a standard symbol of the sun. This was evidently used to manufacture identical pottery plaques to be fixed to the sides of jars or bowls, but what the vessels themselves were used for is impossible to say. Religious references did not need to be quite so literal. A Nene Valley beaker from Horksey Toll (Cambridgeshire) depicts an erotic scene involving a phallus [ 243]. The phallus had potent associations, not just with fertility, but also in its ability to ward off the ‘evil eye’. This superstitious side to pagan beliefs played an important part in Romano-British religious activity.
243. Horksey Toll (Cambridgeshire).
Nene Valley beaker depicting a figure and an oversized phallus. Although the scene has erotic elements, the imagery also had important superstitious and cult connotations. Phallic charms made of bronze have also been found in large quantities in the waterlogged deposits of the Walbrook in London (see Chapter 4, ‘Roman London’). Height about 12.5 cm. Late second or early third century.
Coinage habitually featured deities, or spiritual personifications, on the reverses. Domitian (81-96), for example, favoured Minerva, and many of his coin types depict the goddess or her attributes and equipage. Coinage played a major role in introducing to Britain the idea of human representations of deities in classical form. But it can be easy to read too much into this. It has been suggested that the Snettisham hoard, evidently the work-in-progress of a jeweler, was really a votive deposit to Minerva because so many of the silver coins depict her. 43 Almost all of the 82 silver coins were 93.5 per cent fine, a standard only achieved between 85 and 96,
Although the hoard was buried after c. 155. That standard is an optimum balance between purity and hardness, making it ideal for jewelry. The coins are principally those of Domitian and were probably selected for their bullion content, and so the dominance of Minerva types is an incidental consequence, rather than a deliberate selection.
Coins deposited in sacred springs, as at Bath and Carrawburgh, are clear instances of mundane objects being utilized as votive gifts. One possibility is that the dominance of reverse female types at Bath may be a deliberate selection as homage to the goddess of the spring. However, the vast majority of Roman coins carry female reverse types, dominating the mainstream issues that monopolized coins in circulation. Rather more interesting is the preferred use of badly worn coins. In a world where coinage was valued by its intrinsic content, these pieces were bordering on being worth a good deal less than face value, and were therefore cheaply disposable. The recovery of broken or damaged brooches from similar contexts is usually interpreted as evidence for the ritual ‘killing’ of functional personal items to make them valid votive deposits. This undoubtedly occurred, especially in prehistoric contexts. But it is equally likely that in the Roman period this idea of ritually ‘killing’ votive gifts survived, but in a form in which already broken or damaged brooches were preferred because they were useless for anything else. The skillets found in the sacred spring at Bath were all worn and old, suggesting that they were only thrown in because they were redundant, or were accidentally lost in the course of a long life pouring libations into the water.
Personal talismans such as rings with gemstones depicting gods, or with inscriptions bearing abbreviated references to gods, were common. The Snettisham hoard includes a number of gemstones ready for setting into new rings, depicting such gods as Ceres, Jupiter, Apollo, Mercury and Minerva.44 Bonus Eventus (‘Good Success’), who watched over the tilling of soil, was the most frequently represented with 27 examples.45 Ceres, goddess of corn and harvests, was the second most numerous with 20. Perhaps the Snettisham jeweler was targeting people with farming interests. The only two epigraphic records of Bonus Eventus from Britain, however, were found at the legionary fortresses of Caerleon and York, while Ceres only turns up as the Syrian Goddess at Carvoran. This shows how difficult it is to make any conclusions about why any one god or goddess might be venerated on a piece of jewelry. The snake jewelry from the same hoard, made up of rings and bracelets, belongs to a long pagan tradition, in which the snake was a powerful protective amulet as an associate of the healing god, Asklepios. But it is no less true that the snake’s physical shape made it a suitable model for aesthetically pleasing jewelry designs. So the end result satisfied both the amuletic and aesthetic functions.
Statuettes of deities, and their associates and attributes, were manufactured in large quantities. Most that survive were made of bronze (although silver and gold were used as well) and in the classical style, but are often relatively crude in execution. Those found, for example, at Lamyatt Beacon and Lydney were probably sold at the shrines to pilgrims, who then deposited them as votive offerings. Others found their way back to private household shrines. One of the finest was the magnificent Gallo-Roman Minerva, found at Plaxtol [244]. Miniature personal shrines made of lead acted as a portable equivalent. One from Wallsend has a figure of Mercury and the remains of little doors, while another from Dorchester shows Minerva in a similar setting. Since paganism was essentially founded on superstition, individuals felt the need to carry protective talismans, including small phallic amulets, which were believed to be able to ward off the ‘evil eye’ and were manufactured for this purpose.
Bronze figurine of Minerva found in the ruins of a villa in the mid - nineteenth century. Height 19 cm.
Silver spoons form a major part of several late treasure hoards, and those from Biddulph (Staffordshire), Canterbury and Mildenhall carry the Chi-Rho symbol [245]. Some of these, along with the pagan spoons found at
Thetford, include exhortations to a long life.46 The Thetford spoons primarily bear inscriptions that refer to the Faunus cult and the concept of heightened awareness through intoxication, suggesting that they were used in the cult’s ritual. This raises all sorts of questions about the iconography of the more highly decorated components of other treasure hoards. The Mildenhall Great Dish (see [251]), for example, features figures from Bacchic revelry surrounding a central motif of the face of Oceanus, recalling the central medallion on the temple pediment at Bath. This would seem to be good evidence that the plate might have been used in Bacchic feasts, but creates a rather ambiguous assemblage considering the Christian motifs on the spoons. Silversmiths, however, used particular themes and mythical figures as their own personal trademarks, and their work was specifically sought after for this reason.47
245. Biddulph (Staffordshire).
Silver spoon of typical fourth - century style, incised with a Chi - Rho symbol. Length 20 cm. (British Museum).
Another theory is that the treasure is evidence for an interest in Gnosticism, expressed through the use of allegorical symbols.48 The imagery certainly has religious connotations, but it is a moot point whether such material was used for religious reasons. Moreover, such valuable plate was likely to have had several owners in its life, and not all of them need have had a religious use for it, any more than the rich and famous of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries believed in the pagan mythical figures they posed as in their paintings. The Risley Park lanx [ 246] shows just how ambiguous this sort of material can be. The lanx, a large rectangular dish, depicts a hunting scene, complete with rural pagan shrine. But an inscription on the reverse states that at some stage in its life the lanx was a gift from a Bishop Exsuperius to the church at an unknown place called Bogium. How or when it came to Britain remains unknown.
246. Risley Park (Derbyshire).
Destroyed shortly after its discovery in the 1700s, this silver lanx was reconstructed soon afterwards by soldering together the fragments, creating a mould, and then melting the lanx down to cast a copy. Diameter 49.7 cm. (British Museum).
Cult activity is one of the most significant bodies of evidence that survives from Roman Britain, but it should always be remembered that this significance lies in the fact that the Roman world provides us with written and visual testimony. The overwhelming impression is that religion was a vastly more conspicuous activity than it is today. Shrines of all shapes and sizes proliferated across the landscape, which was itself home to countless numbers of gods and goddesses. They all bear witness to an aspect of life in Roman Britain that was fundamental to everyday existence in every context. The coming of Christianity generated enormous tensions. The destruction of the mithraea at Carrawburgh and London has been blamed on resentment of Mithraism’s apparent aping of Christian practices. The inscription of Mars Camulos found at Tabard Square, Southwark, seems to have been deliberately buried and carefully concealed at the bottom of a shaft in the late fourth century. Religious affiliations made no difference to what came next, but ironically it was Christianity that would provide the means by which fifth-century Britain could cling to what was left of her time as a Roman province.
World History
