Again, while the changes in the defences and the buildings of the Newstead fort furnished clear enough evidence of several phases of occupation—the earliest of which, as we shall have occasion to point out subsequently, must unquestionably be attributed to the end of the first Century A.D.—the great camp showed no sign of more than a single period. Thus all the circumstances irresistibly suggest that in it we have the remains of a fortification constructed by the army of Agricola in the first advance into Caledonia. in the later invasions a suitable resting-place, defended by ditches, would be ready to hand in the shape of the fort with its annexes.
The conclusion thus reached receives considerable support from a feature of the great camp to which attention has been drawn above. The presence of the long straight titulus in front of each of the gates may fairly be interpreted as confirming the other indications of an early date. It is a method of defence prescribed by Hyginus, who wrote (according to his latest editor) before the reforms introduced by Hadrian, and examples of its use are to be found in forts that can be definitely assigned to the first century. It was employed on one of the early forts at Wiesbaden, dating from about the beginning of the first century,[1] just as we see it at Newstead, while in the neighbouring fort a somewhat similar defence had also been employed but had been abandoned comparatively early. It is generally absent in front of the gates of the later stone forts, although its occurrence outside the east and south gateways of the later fort at Bar Hill[2] would seem to suggest that the device occasionally survived as late as the reign of Antoninus Pius. Similarly, the complicated entrances at Ardoch[3] and at Lyne[4] appear to indicate that at the time when these forts were built there was as yet no stereotyped pattern of gate such as is found later.
The Name 'Trimontium'
We have seen that the excavation of the great camp revealed no evidence that the occupation had been anything but temporary. The story of the Romans at Newstead centres mainly round the site further west where the fort was erected. Here all the conditions point to greater permanency—fortifications laboriously executed, buildings constructed of stone, masses of refuse that must have required
1 E. Ritterling, 'Toranlagen römischer Kastelle des ersten nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts,' Annalen des Vereins für Nassauische Akerthumskunde, vol. xxxvi. p. 4.
2 Macdonald and Park, The Roman Forts on the Bar Hill, plate ii.
3 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. xxxii. p. 438, plate V.
4 Ibid. vol. xxxv. p. 175 ff.
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