Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/222

194 constitute the débris of one of the most considerable establishments the Romans founded in this region. Many ancient thoroughfares, still known to the peasantry as pagan roads, abut on these ruins. The archæologists, from various proofs, but chiefly those derived from the presence of coins, attribute the final destruction of this important villa to the barbarian hordes under Attila, about A.D. 450. It has proved particularly rich in antiquities, which have been referred to the interval between Augustus and the fall of the Roman empire, and for many years excavations on its site have been carried out with great care.

In 1851, this camp commenced to be intersected by a new public road, and the excavations instituted by the Board of Public Works were placed under the direction and surveillance of the Archæological Society of the Grand-Duchy. Among other objects, evidently Roman, recovered from these remains, were four horse-shoes of a comparatively modern form—that is, more of the Burgundian than the Gaulish or Celtic shape. They were not all of the same dimensions. Figures 60 and 61, delineated by M. Fischer, a veterinary surgeon of Cessingen, represent the smallest and largest of the four. The former is about the usual size of the early period to which they are supposed to belong, but the latter is large. All had been worn, and bent nails yet remained in the holes. They were very much cor-