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brittunculus.bsky.social
Brittunculus
@brittunculus.bsky.social
490 followers 140 following 440 posts
History/classics MA. Living with DPDR.

"The climate is wretched” - Tacitus
#RomanBritain
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brittunculus.bsky.social
Among the otherwise low flint walls of Littlecote #Roman Villa’s residential buildings, a stepped cold plunge pool and a hypocausted hot tub bring home that real people once lived, shivered and luxuriated here. 1,700 years ago.
📷 me
#RomanSiteSaturday
#RomanBritain
The cold plunge with a flight of steps leading down from the right, an ‘opus signinum’ floor and a patch of surviving wall plaster on the left. Apsed hot bath with terracotta box flue tiles around the periphery (to draw heat from a hypocaust up the walls). Box flue tile (in suspiciously good condition, so maybe a modern replica). Artist’s impression of the villa’s main wing in the mid 4th century. By Luigi Thompson. (There is an aptness to the boy practicing his archery as the site is now in the grounds of a hotel where guests can try it out - along with other outdoor activities.)
February 13, 2026 at 11:07 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
A sinuous tinned-bronze brooch in the shape of a greyhound found at Fulbeck, Lincolnshire in 2005. His sinuous form was characteristic of Romano-British art and his eye might originally have been inlaid with enamel, a British speciality.
This good boy dates from the 2nd C.
#FindsFriday
#RomanBritain
A plate brooch in the shape of a sitting greyhound. His waist is exaggeratedly thin and his head is overlarge. The head is turned back to look at the viewer with a large round eye, giving him quite a cute appearance.
February 6, 2026 at 7:57 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
But (if I read the press release right) the bull and the hind won't be going to Corinium with their friends, which seems odd.
February 1, 2026 at 9:26 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
This partly-restored wall painting showing Cupid in an architectural fantasia is reminiscent of frescos from Pompeii. But it was found in Southwark, #Londinium and originally decorated a 2nd Century bathhouse. Materials included gold leaf and fancy imported red cinnabar.
#FrescoFriday
#RomanBritain
From 'Below Southwark: the archaeological story' by Carrie Cowan
January 30, 2026 at 8:49 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
I hope you'll find room to showcase this amazing polychrome glass bowl. It was an absolute highlight for me when I visited in 2023.
January 27, 2026 at 5:56 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
'Victory' and inscription recording construction of a section of the Antonine Wall, AD140s.

"For the Emperor Caesar Titus Aelius Hadrianus Antoninus Augustus Pius, father of his country, a detachment of the 20th Legion Valeria Victrix built 4,411 feet."

RIB 2208.
#EpigraphyTuesday
#ReliefWednesday
A personification of Victory reclining languidly, framed within a temple. She has a palm leaf in her left hand, elbow resting on a globe, and holds a huge wreath with her right. The inscription is split into three with the name and titles of the emperor in the pediment, the reference to the legion in the wreath and the distance constructed in a tablet at the base. The boar shown running across the tablet was the emblem of Leg XX VV. (And maybe brags of how quickly the legion built their section?) The slab marked the western end of the Wall near Old Kilpatrick. Photo - The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
January 27, 2026 at 8:03 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
In Britannia it's traditional to use two fingers...
Hand from a statue (originally holding a spear or similar) found at the site of London's basilica.
January 26, 2026 at 9:00 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday
The Orpheus mosaic from Littlecote #Roman Villa in Berkshire. Its obscure iconography has been seen as evidence of the pagan revival in late C.4th #RomanBritain, as Orpheus charms circling animals, seasons & goddesses with his music. Much restored, the floor has significant wow factor.
Overhead view showing the mosaic in its triple-apsed hall, a unique architectural style in Roman Britain. The visitor would have entered the hall from an antechamber bottom right, onto the lower half of the mosaic with 4 geometric flower motifs bordered by panels showing canthari (wine cups) flanked by panthers, sea-panthers and dolphins. An unusual zig-zag panel marked the transition to the upper part of the mosaic, probably representing a pool of water (maybe the 'pool of memory' in Orphic cosmology). The circular Orpheus group in the upper part is framed by the 3 apses, each containing a shell motif. The circle has Orpheus at its centre, playing his lyre, accompanied by a leaping dog (good boy). The 4 quadrants around Orpheus contain goddesses and beasts: Venus and a deer; Nemesis and a panther; Ceres and a bull; and Proserpina with a goat. The animals race round anti-clockwise at full gallop while the goddesses stand (?dance) in front of them. Photo (c) Wilts & Swindon History Centre The animals wheel around Orpheus. A deer and Venus (holding a mirror) are shown in the nearest panel. Proserpina holds out a hand to her mother, Ceres, in the panel to the left, symbolising her descent alone into the underworld bringing death and winter. A spindly-legged goat gallops round behind her.
January 26, 2026 at 8:19 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
A sea-panther from the amazing Orphic mosaic at Littlecote #Roman Villa, Wiltshire.
c.AD 350 - 365.

📸 me
#MosaicMonday
#RomanBritain
A sea-monster with the head and fore legs of a panther (or other big cat) and the tail of a fish.
January 5, 2026 at 9:27 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Coin of iron-age King Cunobelinus depicting Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings. With one face he looks back at the past while the other peers into future. Appropriately, the month January is named after him.
Early C.1st
Happy new year!
#RomanBritain #IronAge #ReliefWednesday
Bronze coin in the classical style showing Janus, in double faced profile with his hair intertwined and the exergue CVNO beneath. The coin was minted by Cunobelinus, king of the Catuvellauni tribe (Shakespeare's Cymebline). Copyright Trustees of the British Museum.
December 31, 2025 at 7:08 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
'Winter' from Caerwent, Wales (now in Newport Museum) wears a hooded cloak against the cold & wet, maybe the 'birrus Britannicus' mentioned in Diocletian's Price Edict of AD301.

A birrus was worth 6,000 denarii. Price details of Winter's furry mosaic companions in the ALT texts.
#MosaicMonday
📸 me
Hooded cloak from Britannia - 6,000 denarii "Lion, first class" - 150,000 denarii Hare - 150 denarii
December 22, 2025 at 9:59 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
#FindsFriday: A 'dragonesque' brooch from the British Museum. Its belly is inlaid with coloured enamel, and the pin (missing) would have fitted on the back between the two necks. These wonderfully sinuous brooches were popular in the decades after the Roman invasion.
#RomanBritain
📸 me
The S-shaped metal brooch is thickest in the middle, where blue and yellow enamel has been delicately inserted in chequered and swirling patterns. The terminals look like cute dragon heads, with upright ears, round eyes and an upturned snout. It's about 5cm long.
December 19, 2025 at 1:57 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
#MosaicMonday
It's Christmas party time, for mortals and mythical beings alike. Here Silenus, mentor of Bacchus, might be making his way home after a good night out on his long-suffering donkey. Wine cup still in hand.

From a C.2nd mosaic now in @coriniummuseum.bsky.social, Cirencester.
📸 mine 2022
A bald, shaggy-bearded, pot-bellied man rides precariously side saddle on a fiesty looking donkey. He's dressed in only a red robe which has slipped down to his waist and holds a cantharus in one hand and a thyrus (partly lost to damage) in the other.
December 15, 2025 at 8:12 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Every 9th Dec. emperors would lay down their 'tribunician powers' only to be granted them again the next day: a nice legal fiction that harked back to the #Roman Republic.

But also handy for dating. The abbreviation TRIB POT XIIII in this 😍 dedication dates it neatly to 129/130.
#EpigraphyTuesday
In what is probably the finest inscription surviving from Roman Britain, the Cornovi tribe dedicate their new forum at Wroxeter to Hadrian, who at that date had held tribunician power 14 times.
December 9, 2025 at 8:11 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Mosaic of a gorgon's head from the bathhouse at Bignor Roman Villa in Sussex. This strategically placed emblem averted the evil eye when bathers were naked in the changing room, vulnerable to malign influence. Her snaky hair has been writhing since the early C.4th.
📸 mygf
#MosaicMonday #RomanBritain
The face of a beautiful woman with 14 snakes writhing out of her hair. The emblem is in a roundel made of a guilloche (braided) band flanked either side by concentric bands of triangles. The mosaic was laid in the changing room of the bathhouse and is on display there at the Villa.
December 8, 2025 at 7:56 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Spotted these guys just down the road from me. Presumably their distant ancestors were involved in putting up the new vault sometime in the 2nd century...
December 6, 2025 at 9:42 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
#RomanSiteSaturday
From the first century the Great Bath at Bath (Somerset) caught the outflow from Britain's only hot spring for Roman bathers to enjoy.

Water still enters through the original stone culvert and although the vaulted roof has gone, lead pipes remain in situ in the pavement 👀.
📸 me
Spring water entering through an open culvert set in one corner of the bath under the original capstone. The yellow sandstone colonnade beyond contrasts with and is reflected in the green water of the bath. The colonnade and terrace is a late Victorian embellishment. The pillars around the Great Bath in more detail. The square column bases projecting into the bath were added in the mid- to late 2nd Century as reinforcement when the roof was rebuilt as a vault. A jointed Roman lead pipe runs through a channel cut into the flag stones around the bath.
December 5, 2025 at 10:06 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Copper alloy figurine of Capricorn, found in 2012 by a metal detectorist in the Mendips. The goat/fish collision was the emblem of Legio II Augusta which had its fortress first at Exeter and then Caerleon across the Severn. Now in @museumofsomerset.bsky.social.
#RomanFortThursday
#FindsFriday
1/2
December 3, 2025 at 10:13 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Yes, apart from Winter which is missing. It's a very fine mosaic, especially for Britain!
Summer Spring
December 2, 2025 at 5:53 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Relief from Aphrodisias in Turkey.

A heroically nude Claudius dominates a pleading woman, captioned below in Greek as BPETANNIA.

The relief commemorates the emperor's invasion of Britain in 43, and was found in 1980.
(Now in Aphrodisias Archaeological Museum.)
#EpigraphyTuesday
#ReliefWednesday
Claudius, wearing a short billowing cloak, a hemet and a sword-belt stands over a slumped Britannia. His knee pinions her to the ground while his left hand holds her by the hair. His right arm is raised to plunge a (now missing) spear into her neck. The personification of Britannia raises her right arm in a despair. Her right breast is shown uncovered in a trope usually applied to Amazons. The contrast between Claudius' buff physique and his bookish middle-aged face is rather incongruous. A pediment below the scene names the participants.
December 2, 2025 at 8:46 AM
brittunculus.bsky.social
It's remarkable; and almost as remarkable as the Council knocking down the adjoining stretch to put a dual-carriageway through... 🙄
November 27, 2025 at 9:54 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
I love this shot from when the mosaic was first being uncovered 🤩
November 27, 2025 at 9:26 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
A 'low-budget' but rather charming mosaic from Abbots Ann, Hampshire.

It would have welcomed guests to a small villa, which was the final phase of a farmstead originating in an Iron Age ‘banjo enclosure’.

C.3/4, now in the British Museum.
#MosaicMonday #RomanBritain #IronAge
#BecomingRoman
My 📸
Large fragment of a mosaic floor with a design of black and white concentric circles enclosing a circle of guilloche with a motif at its centre. The background tesserae are white at the top and red at the bottom. The motif takes the form a cross with large red/white teardrop shapes at the end of each arm and red/white ivy leaves between them. Archaeological sketch of buried features showing the winged-corridor villa surrounded by Iron Age enclosures.
November 24, 2025 at 5:31 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
Agreed!
November 21, 2025 at 4:58 PM
brittunculus.bsky.social
With military usage continuing well into the 20th Century!
Plan of the fort with the footprint of the tower shown in pink and a WW2 German bunker in grey.
November 21, 2025 at 7:10 AM