They gave us straight roads, sewers and bloodthirsty gladiatorial combat, but it is the Roman eye for beauty which is currently exciting archaeologists in Norfolk.
A spectacular villa dating from the reign of the emperor Commodus is being painstakingly re-excavated in the county after lying untouched for more than 80 years.
First uncovered by locals in 1922, the site in Gayton Thorpe, near King's Lynn, would have been home to generations of wealthy Romano-Britons.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Roman art excites archaeologists