similar buckle was found at the Saalburg. There the long panels are filled in with rosettes of light blue on a dark blue ground, and one of the ends is squared and shows, instead of the rounded extremity, two loops for a hinge.[1] A third specimen occurred at Carnuntum. Except for a slight difference in the central rod, the form is the same. The long panels are of sulphur-yellow enamel, with spots of a darker colour, while round the edge of the extremities runs a band of millefiori mosaic formed of alternate plates of white chequers on a dark blue ground, and a white cross on a red ground. The mounting on the back has studs for attachment to leather exactly like our Fig. 25.[2] None of these three specimens appears to have been found in circumstances which would enable it to be dated with certainty, but the Saalburg example was taken from a pit in the Civil Settlement, which is not believed to be earlier than the reign of Hadrian. At Newstead no trace of glass mosaic was detected in the early pits or ditches, and its absence from the finds at Hofheim and at Vindonissa may be taken as indicating that it was not until the beginning of the second century that any considerable body of enamelled trinkets found their way to the Limes Forts, and that the articles which exhibit this kind of decoration are not likely to have come north during the advance of Agricola. Probably they belong to the period which began with the Antonine occupation. Particulars of the various circular brooches, studs, etc., found are given in the appended list:
I. Circular Brooches or Disc Fibulae
1. Brooch of bronze (Plate LXXXIX., Fig. 14). Found in the courtyard of Block XIII. The ground is decorated with pale blue enamel, into which are set six mullets of red, each with a central point of darker colour. No doubt the empty setting in the centre was filled in the same way with enamel. A similar brooch from Pont y Saison, near Chepstow, is now in the British Museum; the colours are identical. Another was found at Silchester; but there the field is green, the central mullet red, and the others blue.
2. Brooch of bronze (Plate LXXXIX., Fig. 7). Found on the surface near East Gate. The ground is of pale blue. In the centre is a pointed leaf of bright orange red) with a stalk and tendril surrounding it. A similar brooch was discovered in the Victoria Cave, near Settle.[3] Two examples have been found at Colchester. A closely analogous specimen was dug up at the Saalburg.[4]
1 Jacobi, Das Römerkastell Saalburg, Text Fig. 53.
2 Der römische Limes in Österreich, Heft viii. p. 12, Fig. A.
3 Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting, plate i. Fig. 6.
4 Jacobi, Das Römerkastell Saalburg, plate lxviii. fig. 5.
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