Summary

Embossed parade helmet of brass with figure of Victory, from the Roman site at Newstead, late 1st century AD

Accession Number

X.FRA 125

Other references

Original description

NEWSTEAD COLLECTION. Embossed helmet of brass with figure of Victory, etc., p. 166, Pls., XXVII + XXVIII, "Rom. Fron. Post." Updated from SCRAN full data set, December 1998. F. Hunter note, 2014-10-17: the inscription on the outer face of the neck-guard was examined by Roger Tomlin (University of Oxford). It is formed by punched dots: VFFI.TGES = Uffi t(urma) Ges(...). '(Property) of Uffus (or Uffius), troop of Ges(atus?).' Published in RIB II.3, 2425.5. The soldier's name is apparently unattested; it is not Latin, and looks more German than Celtic. For the decurion's name, RIB suggests Gessius or Gesatius. Gessius, since it is a Latin nomen, is unlikely; but the cognomen G(a)esatus, derived from gaesum (with variant spellings, a Celtic type of javelin), is quite possible. Compare CIL v 7717 (ILS 2560), the epitaph of a soldier in Cohors III Britannorum of the garrison of Raetia; he had the (presumably British) Celtic name of 'Catavignus (son) of Ivomagus', and his century was that of Gesatus, "(centuria) Gesati".

Associated person/people (e.g. excavator/former collection)

Newstead Collection

Discovery / field collection

Date of discovery

1905

Method (e.g. excavation)

Excavated

Place (i.e. location of discovery)

Newstead, Roxburghshire, Scotland, Northern Europe

Grid reference

Not recorded

Acquisition

Acquisition date

1914

Acquisition source (i.e. name of donor)

Unknown

Acquisition source role (e.g. donor)

Not recorded

Image