The excavations at Wroxeter conducted by J.P. Bushe-Fox examined a zone of the Roman city very different to the public baths and macellum complex extensively investigated in the later twentieth century. Bushe-Fox’s work in Insula 8 is the best and largest sample of Wroxeter’s residential buildings investigated to date; the focus of this paper is the large number of complete ceramic vessels included in the pits and wells he excavated. Recognition of the act of burying complete vessels, and of that practice as a meaningful tradition in antiquity, has developed over the last 25 years. Revisiting the Bushe-Fox excavations has provided a large body of new evidence for the practising of domestic rituals at Wroxeter.

Building on two recent contributions to this journal, this paper investigates the possible connections between Hadrian’s tour of the north-western provinces in a.d. 121–23, the expeditio Britannica, the disappearance of the Ninth Legion, the Hadrianic fire of London and the cessation of work at several sites along Hadrian’s Wall. These events are discussed as independent elements, their date ranges each narrowed to what is normally expected. The convergence of evidence invites a fresh examination of the possibility that a major security crisis erupted following the imperial visit of a.d. 122. Potential causes and consequences are briefly explored, including the apparent suppression of this ignominious episode.

Despite the substantial volume of literature on the Second Sophistic, only rarely do current approaches focus on a formal analysis of its language and the ways in which it correlates to the contemporary debate on language correctness. The present paper suggests that such an analysis could be a fruitful field of enquiry and offers several suggestions as to how it might be executed to enhance our literary appreciation of these texts. It focuses on the use of Attic phonology and morphology in two literary texts (Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Clitophon and Aristides’ Panathenaic Oration) and a second-century CE Eleusinian inscription. By exploring the roles played by language and sound, the paper highlights how imperial high-register prose interweaves nostalgic motifs and innovative practices in a programmatic mixture of archaising elements and contemporary koine features that engenders a novel style.

Although studies in Second Language Acquisition have consistently highlighted the fundamental role played by vocabulary in mastering a foreign language, traditional Latin instruction still tends to focus primarily on morphology and syntax at the expenses of vocabulary, with the result that students often struggle to retain the words they are required to memorize. Following in the wake of research on Game-Based Learning, I suggest that introducing board games in the Latin classroom—particularly those designed to develop the different stages of new information acquisition—is an inexpensive and engaging way to facilitate vocabulary learning and retention, as well as to foster students’ socialization and participation.

A copper-alloy spear-shaped mount, found during excavations at the extramural settlement at Inveresk Roman fort, represents a rare British example of a beneficiarius lance symbol. Stylistic parallels are found among a corpus of personal ornaments used by soldiers of the beneficiarii and are typically restricted to sites on the German limes. This paper discusses the style and function of this object and what its presence reveals about Inveresk and its role in the administration and control of Roman Scotland.