Thread by @DocCrom

Ancient Artefact of the Day: A lead water pipe from the Chester Legionary Fortress, AD 79, bearing the inscription:

IMP. VESP. VIIII. T. IMP. VII. COS. CN. IULIO. AGRICOLA. LEG. AUG. PR. PR.

#AAOTD

Image: RIB 2.3.2434.1 [ILS 8704a]; Grosvenor Museum

The inscription translates as:

"When Emperor Vespasian, for the 9th time, and Titus Imperator, for the 7th time, were consuls, Cn. Julius Agricola, propraetorian legate of Augustus (made this)"

As it's Agricola's birthday, it seems an appropriate #AAOTD!

The clear reference to the consulships of Vespasian and Titus allow us to date this pipework to the opening months of AD 79, with Agricola himself as governor of the province featuring prominently.

Agricola's campaigns and service in Britain are well-documented, though artefacts such as this are particularly useful in helping to secure the chronology of his activity, as well as that of the wider Roman occupation of Britain.

For more on this chronology, see:

Smith, Ian Gordon. “A CHRONOLOGY FOR AGRICOLA, ‘MONS GRAUPIUS’ AND DOMITIAN'S TRIUMPH IN THE CHATTAN WAR.” Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, vol. 64, no. 2, 2015, pp. 156–204.

#AAOTD