of an internal buttress or centre-piece for
this lighthouse, the ground-story of which was, perhaps, masked
attractively by a marble-encased colonnade carrying a tile roof.30
The absence of any trace of the main walls of such a structure
provides an initial obstacle to this view in detail; and in any
case the fact, recently ascertained, that the ’cross‘ is
much later than the platform, necessitates a readjustment of the
conjecture. The prevailing theory at the present time is that
the original superstructure included a great triumphal column or
pile, commemorating the pacification of Britain and serving at
the same time as a seamark, situated appropriately on a spot
which may well have been the principal starting-point of the
armies of invasion. But this view is conjecture and nothing
more; and, unless and until some lucky discovery shall throw
light upon the problem, both the platform and the ‘cross’ of
Richborough will retain the allurement of mystery, which
speculation has hitherto served only to enhance.
If we still know little about its purpose, however,
we at last know something of the history of the structure. To
the north and east of the platform a large area is covered with
an irregular layer of whitish mortar or cement identical with
that of the platform itself. The excavator remarks that this
mortar-layer ‘can only represent the residue left on the
mixing-floor’ when the platform was built; and the association
of mason’s chippings, piles of flints, and occasional
fragments of marble with the layer is confirmatory evidence.
This mortar-layer is therefore contemporary with the platform.
Under it were found coins of Vespasian (A.D. 69—79) and Samian
pottery of about A.D. 60—90, whilst in the sand laid down
immediately over it were another coin of Vespasian and pottery
of A.D. 75—120. The inference that the layer (and therefore
the platform) dates from the latter part of the first century
A.D. is confirmed by the occurrence elsewhere of fragments of
the marble casing—’ many of them evidently mason’s
chippings‘—in deposits of about A.D. 85 or 90.
How long the building stood, it is more difficult
to say. But we now know that by the end of the third century,
when the Saxon-Shore fortress was erected, it was already in
ruins. Fragments of the moulded marble casing were, as has been
remarked, built into the walls of that fortress, and many other
pieces were found (as we shall see) in the material used to
level the site for its erection. Then at the latest the
structure which stood originally on the great platform must have
been laid low. We cannot therefore yield to the temptation of
identifying the tall building which the platform carried with
that ‘ Lapis Tituli’ which is reputed to have formed a
notable landmark ‘on the shore of the Gallic sea’ as late as
the fifth century 31—unless, indeed, the added
‘cross’ bore some such monument in the latter days of
Richborough.
The next structural episode in the history of
Richborough as at present known relates to two buildings lying
respectively north-east and north-west of the platform. Mention
has already been made of a dwelling-house built in what is now
the north-eastern corner of the Saxon-Shore fortress at about
the end of the first century A.D. and destroyed, apparently, not
many years later. It has been suggested that this house may have
been erected in connexion
30 The excavators
of 1900 found roof-tiles scattered over the platform.
31 Of Guorthemic’s fourth
battle against the Saxons, the Historia Brittonum (§ 44)
records: Quartum bellum in campo juxta Lapidem Tituli, qui
esi super riparn Gallici maris, commisit. There is no other
hint as to the locale of this stone. |