Rev.—Same as in the former, but in the exergue. FEL PR (Felicitas Populi Romani). A female seated; in her right hand a caduceus, in her left a cornucopia.
Obv.—SEVERUS AUGUSTUS PARTHICUS MAXIMUS. Laureated head of the emperor.
Rev.—PROVIDENTIA AUGUSTORUM. The figure of a female standing, with a globe at her feet.
The coins of Hadrian are remarkably bold and sharp, and cannot have been long in circulation before being deposited in the bed where sixteen centuries of repose awaited them; that of Severus is a good deal corroded. Besides these, other coins have been found. Brand had one of Trajan, and he engraves a copper coin of Hadrian; he also had in his possession one of Antoninus Pius. Pennant describes, amongst others, a coin of Faustina the Elder, and one of Lucius Verus. Hodgson saw coins of Gordian and Magnentius, all of which had been obtained from the same spot.
The coins posterior to the time of Hadrian were probably deposited during the repairs and alterations which the bridge received after its original construction in A.D. 120.
CHARACTER OF THE BRIDGE.
It is probable that the ancient bridge had no stone arches, but was provided with a horizontal road-way of timber. Pennant[[64]] who derived his information from the workmen, says, that ‘the old piers seem originally to have been formed without any springs for arches. This was a manner of building used by the Romans; witness the bridge built over the Danube by Trajan, at Severin, whose piers, I believe, still exist.’
The foundations of the piers of three Roman bridges in the region of the Wall, still remain—one across the Tyne, at Corstopitum, one across the North Tyne, at Cilurnum, and another across the Reed-water, at Habitancum; an examination of these has induced me to believe that they, at least, had no arches. The piers are of a size and strength sufficient to withstand the thrust of the waters without the aid of an arch; and in one at least of these cases, the requisite spring of the arch would have raised the road to an inconvenient height. An experienced mason who examined carefully the ruins of the bridge at Habitancum told me that he observed that all the stones which encumbered the spot were square, none of them having the shape of stones used in building arches. It is certain that in the mediæval period the Newcastle bridge had a road-way of timber; for Matthew of Paris tells us that, A.D. 1248, it, and the greater part of the town were destroyed by fire.
SUPPOSED MEDAL OF THE BRIDGE.