Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Sunday 27 September 2020

Roman remains from the Teutoburg Forest


Archaeologists in Germany have found significant remains of a Roman cuirass from the site of the major Roman defeat in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. The suggestion is that its unfortunate owner my have suffered an unpleasant fate in the hands of his captors. 

In recent years the site of this catastrophic defeat had been found and studied. The result of the loss of three Legions was to fix the Rhine as the frontier of the Roman empire - a defensible line indeed, but a reminder to both Romans and to the German tribes across the river of the concept of ‘thus far and no further.’
To what extent that determined the future course of European history may be debated, but it was clearly significant as a physical and cultural boundary.

The discovery is described in a MailOnline report at Roman armour from 9 AD unearthed at historic battle site in Germany



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