Roman and Other Bead Necklace

Bifid form with parallel bands and lentoid bezels, one with low-relief clasped hands motif, the other with a bird holding a frond. 3.45 grams, 17.96 mm overall, 15.19 mm internal diameter (approximate size British G 1/2, USA 3 1/2, Europe 5.55, Japan 5)



Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of Surrey, UK, gentleman.

A rectangular block with stamped mark 'LEGT I ITAL' (Legio I Italica) for 1st Legion 'Italic'; with collector's label 'Roman brick made by the Ist Italica Legion at Olpia Oescus on the lower Danube, one of Trajan's strategic bases prior to the invasion of Dacia in 106 AD. LEG I ITAL' 4.35 kg, 19 cm



From the collection of a late East Anglian teacher and antiquarian who retired to the Isle of Wight in Hampshire, UK. He amassed a large collection of objects between the 1960s-1980s. Accompanied by a previous catalogue identification card.

The Legio I Italica ("of Italy") was a Roman legion formed by Nero on September 20, 66 or 67 AD and active until the 5th century AD. Its emblems were the boar and sometimes the bull. There are many sources which name army officials employed in supervision of the construction and reconstruction of temples, baths, city walls, towers and gates. CIL VIII 2728, for example, is a letter by evocatus Augusti who was sent to solve engineering problems on a badly surveyed aqueduct at Saldae in the province of Numidia. Pliny (Epistulae X 17b, 39, 41, 61) repeatedly requested an army architect to be sent from Lower Moesia to help inspect some Bithynian building projects. Therefore it is not strange that tiles marked as belonging to a legion should be found all over the provinces.

Penannular type with leaf-shaped flattened ends, lines of pointillé detailing. 17.6 grams, 64 mm



Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of Surrey, UK, gentleman.