An auxiliary was a soldier who was not a Roman citizen. He was only paid a third of a legionary’s wage. Auxiliaries guarded forts and frontiers but also fought in battles, often in the front ...

An auxiliary was a soldier who was not a Roman citizen. He was only paid a third of a legionary’s wage. Auxiliaries guarded forts and frontiers but also fought in battles, often in the front ...

and probably belonged to a Roman soldier who lost his life in battle. Few examples of this type of shield have survived over the millennia, even though it is well known from depictions in art.

so it's likely that it came north of Hadrian's Wall on the cloak of a Roman soldier tasked with garrisoning the empire's northernmost frontier. "It's difficult to say exactly why the brooch was ...