On a June day in 2003, metal detectorists in the north Staffordshire village of Ilam unearthed a curious object. The second-century AD trulla – a small saucepan – is made of a copper alloy, inlaid with colourful, slightly psychedelic enamel whirls. What makes the artefact, now known as the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan (or Ilam Pan), special, though, is the Latin inscription running around its rim: MAIS COGGABATA VXELODVNVM CAMMOGLANNA RIGORE VALI AELI DRACONIS.
What does it mean? Well, the first four words are names of Roman forts in Cumbria: Mais (at Bowness-on-Solway), Coggabata (Drumburgh), Uxelodunum (Stanwix) and Cammoglanna (Castlesteads). The second part of the inscription – RIGORE VALI AELI DRACONIS – can be translated as: “Along the line of Hadrian’s Wall, [this is the cup of] Draco.” If that interpretation is correct, then this is a vessel commissioned by Draco to commemorate his time at these forts – in other words, a souvenir of Hadrian’s Wall. And it’s not the only one – other pans found elsewhere in Britain and France also reference forts on the wall. So how did a Roman military monument come to inspire such keepsakes?
Desirable souvenirs
The construction of Hadrian’s Wall was unprecedented. It was – and in many ways remains – a unique creation. Once completed, the wall was garrisoned for nearly 300 years, during which time tens of thousands of Roman soldiers served along the monument.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 2022-Ausgabe von BBC History UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 2022-Ausgabe von BBC History UK.
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The Long Road Back - The Election Was Tough for the Conservatives but the Past Holds Clues on How Parties Can Return From the Brink
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According to ancient Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder, Apicius was “the most gluttonous gorger of all spendthrifts”. The cookbook attributed to him, known simply as Apicius or as De Re Coquinaria (On the Art of Cooking), is one of the oldest collections of recipes surviving from antiquity. Its author may have been Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet of the first century AD who reputedly travelled all the way from Campania to Libya on the hunt for the largest, juiciest prawns.
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