Pax Romana breaks out at Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum

Published on October 21, 2011 by E H · 1 Comment

Clare Grant catches a dose of imperium romanum at the Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum.

ALTARS TO MERCURY. The Spirit of Britain itself. A statuette of Mars. A long-fingered stone totem for soldiers called Silenus who passed Bacchus the wine jar. Who knew the West End of Glasgow had so many fascinating characters? They could put the more self-regarding legions hogging its smarter bars to shame!

Rome’s final frontier

Glasgow University’s Hunterian Museum – the oldest in Scotland – has now opened its first permanent exhibition devoted to the treasures of the Antonine Wall. Called Rome’s Final Frontier, it’s a crowd-pulling treasure chest of the bounty found along the empire’s most westerly and northerly frontier.

Kit and caboodle

The bulk of the booty is monumental sculpture from Roman forts and is in excellent nick. Naturally it’s been sheltered by the burial process undertaken by the invaders before abandoning their outpost in 164 AD.

What have we ever done for the Romans?

Three centuries of collection and research have gone into the exhibition which investigates the lifestyle of its troops, their interaction with locals, their eventual exodus and the story of the excavation process.

Nor need you render anything unto Caesar or anyone else to see it – it’s free.

Clare Grant is a regular wowdewow blogger on culture.

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Well, what did the Romans do for us? Your opinion welcome below in readers comments.