Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 124, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1909 — An Old Roman Town. [ARTICLE]

An Old Roman Town.

A quaint looking house is to be found at Rlbchester, near Blackburn, Lancashire, England. Ribchester 1,800 years ago was an important Roman city. It was conected with the network of military ways wh.ch Agricola and his followers formed through Britain. Under the name of Rigodunum it was the principal port of tne Mersey, and wlnessed the coming ot many Roman war galleys and trading vessels. Modem discoveries go to show that it was also a place of extensive manufacture; one of its products in those days being the curiously heavy red this used for flooring purposes in Roman buildings. Bronze ornaments were also apparently wonted there. Some years ago the remains of what waj> evidently a large public bath' were found, alto the tesselated floor ot what in its time must have been a villa. Altars, statues, coins, implements, otc., have been found in qualities in the neighborhood, the discoveries all going to show the importance of the place during the Roman occupation ot Britain. After the Romans left it Rlgodunum, or Rlbchjster, gradually degenerated. Ihe Saxons made a little* trading town of it, using in the bt tiding of their dwellings much of the material left in the Romai ruins. Tut it did not flourish, and was more and more deserted until it became a mere village that gained something of a reputation in later years as a haunt for smugglers. Some of the old buildings still remaining bear distinct traces of the various occuj ants the place has had. Roman tiles sad bricks have been worked into wt ed, altered, and added to by Saxon, Norman and Tudor builders in succession.