There are other indications that the first occupation of Newstead was prolonged beyond the period of Agricola's campaigns; in other words, the years lying between A.D. 80 and A.D. 86. These are to be found in the coin series and in the large proportion of relics from the early rubbish pits. In examining the former, one cannot but be struck by the comparative paucity of the issues of Nero. As representing the coinage of his reign of fourteen years we have two bronze and one silver pieces, while the bronze coins of Vespasian and Domitian number twenty-eight and twenty-five respectively. This would suggest that by the reign of Domitian the bronze issues of Nero did not form any large proportion of the currency. If between the death of Nero in A.D. 68 and the year A.D. 86 the Neronian issues of bronze coins had so far exhausted themselves, it is difficult to believe that the later coins of Domitian, and the coins of Nerva and Trajan, were all of them brought into Caledonia in the reign of Antoninus Pius. Further, Mr. Macdonald's study of the coin-finds has established the interesting fact that they include a number of coins struck in the reign of Domitian subsequent to the date of Agricola's departure, as also pieces dating from the reigns of Nerva and Trajan, which are in such good condition that they cannot have been in circulation for any length of time, a state in which we could not expect to find them had they been dropped in the reign of Pius. It is, to say the least, probable that some of the coins of these Emperors belong to the first period of the enlarged fort, the occupation of which began after the recall of Agricola. The rubbish-pits tell the same tale of continuous activity in the early period. Of the one hundred and seven pits and wells discovered since 1905, at least thirty-six could be attributed to the early period as against twenty-nine which were late, but the great majority of the objects found were taken from the early pits. Indeed, the preponderance of early finds is even greater in the general collection than in the collection of coins.

There is nothing in history to tell us what happened in Scotland immediately after Agricola's return to Rome. The impression generally conveyed is that the early advance was very much shorter in its duration, and less effective in its character, than that which followed in the reign of Pius. This is doubtless a true presentment of the facts taken as a whole. But the abundance of relics of the early period at Newstead suggests that that fort at least was a centre of considerable activity, and held a considerable population for some time after A.D. 86. It is quite possible that with the abandonment

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