Archive of Transactions
The Camomile Street soldier reconsidered
M C Bishop
A Roman soldier’s tombstone was found reused as hardcore in the foundations of a bastion added to the city wall in the second half of the 4th century AD. The main part, representing the near life-size figure of the soldier, is on display in the Museum of London, but an arched canopy and other fragments from the same or nearby sites (not on display) are likely to have been components of the same monument. In this paper, therefore, a reconstruction is attempted of the monument as a whole.
The figure survives to a height of 1.32m. He wears a military cloak over a tunic, the right-hand side of the cloak being thrown back over his right shoulder to display the classic Roman short sword (gladius). Around his neck is a scarf, whilst a studded strap hangs from his waist, terminating in a lunate pendant. He holds a scroll in his left hand, as well as several writing-tablets apparently suspended from a cord.
Because of its realism and attention to detail, the relief provides important information about dress and military equipment. The forms of the tunic and sword suggest that the figure cannot have been carved before the Flavian period (c AD 70-100), whereas the style of the monument as a whole belongs to an earlier (c AD 40-70) tradition of military and funerary art. It may, therefore, have been commissioned by a patron with antiquarian interests. The presence of writing tablets suggests that the soldier had administrative duties, possibly as a beneficiarius consularis on the governor’s staff in London. When the tombstone was dismantled for use in the foundations of the bastion, it was buried with the head between the legs, reflecting a contemporary burial rite which is today something of a mystery.
[Transactions 34 (1983), pp 31 – 48; abstract by Francis Grew, 02-Jan-1998]