Amphitheatres, although not so ubiquitous as, say, bath-buildings, were common enough in the Roman world to attract a set of terms applicable to their very distinctive structural features. It is true that they varied in construction from a simple earth bank to an elaborate masonry building like the Colosseumat Rome. But certain characteristics were constant, and it seems useful to list the technical terms used to describe amphitheatres. Some of these are scarcely applicable to the relatively simple Chester amphitheatre, while others are etymologically rather dubious. This list itself is almost entirely confined to the structural features since there are easily accessible descriptions of the spectacles which took place within amphitheatres. Previous lists have been given by Dyggve in his description of the amphitheatre at Salona and by Heidenreich in his report on the civil amphitheatre of Colonia Traiana at Xanten.

I N the late autumn of 1968 gravel-quarrying at Aldwincle, Northants., brought to light a timber bridge of the Roman period. The working face of the gravel-pit fortunately coincided with one side of the bridge, and thereby exposed the structure in section (PL. IX A). Excavation of the bridge was carried out by D. A. Jackson during the winter of 1968/9 under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Public Building and Works. 2 THE SITE The site 3 lies at 100 ft.-above OD in Aldwincle parish, adjacent to the parish boundary with Titchmarsh and one mile north of the small market town of Thrapston. Some 170 yards south of the site the modern course of the River Nene veers to the east, but in Roman times it evidently continued in a straight line to the point where the bridge was discovered (FIG. 2). From there it apparently followed the modern course of Harpers Brook to the northeast. To the southeast of the bridge, a broad stretch of meadowland was found to be extensively covered with alluvial deposits; on the northwest side, however, the ground was drier and alluvium occurred only in hollows. The road carried by the bridge was almost certainly the route that ran from Leicester to Godmanchester (Margary Route 57A). 4 The road is recorded by Margary as far as the A 604 Thrapston-to-Oundle road, which is about threequarters of a mile southeast of the bridge. 5 Near this point there is an extensive crossroads-settlement of the Roman period, and a Roman cemetery overlying 1 This report also includes contributions from Miss J.