Travel Writers Online

Roman Exeter Writing Project: Exploring RAMM and Wall - Thursday 22 January 2026  Seal Boxes Two pyriform (pear-shaped) seal boxes from 200 to 300 CE found in Exeter. The lids of these boxes protected the impression of a writer’s seal. String bound the wooden frame of the writing tablet and the string passed through holes in the base of the seal box. If anyone tried to open the tablet to read or to change the message, then the seal would break. Romain Coins found in Exeter Two Roman nummi coins from Exeter. The one numbered 161 is from the time of Magnus Maximus dated 387-388. The one numbered 162 is from the time of Theodosian 388-392. At this time, as the Roman Empire was nearing is end, incoming coin supply to Dumnonia and Exeter had stopped. A nummus had a high copper content. End of Empire In 383, Magnus Maximus was made emperor of Britannia, and of Gaul in 384. In 387 Magnus Maximus marched from his capital Trier, calling on the Roman soldiers still garrisoned in Bri...

The hike up to the castle was familiar. I used to call it a déjà vu because I had done it innumerable times since one of my university classmates brought me here almost 20 years ago. The entrance to the theatre area was rather unassuming - a narrow little alleyway squeezed in between yellow and brown stone buildings, facing one of the busiest roads in Verona. Like a little door to another planet I thought. Or better, like a little door to the past. My past and Verona’s past. Or the other way around.  I smiled as I entered the alley, remembering the many visitors I brought all the way up to the castle. How many times we had to stop with the Asians, taking pictures of the bright pink orchids growing from the old, cracked stone walls. Apparently the occasional foreigner found its way here also without me, I thought, as I passed sweaty-looking and rather heavily breathing visitors of Northern European appearance on the first set of stone steps, winding narrowly along the buildings. He...