1st century BC-1st century AD. A square ceramic floor tile (tegula) with rectangular impression to the upper face 'LEXFR' for Legio X Fretensis (Tenth legion of the Strait"). See Hillel, G., The Camp of the Tenth Legion in Jerusalem: An Archaeological Reconsideration in Israel Exploration Journal Vol. 34, No. 4 (1984), pp. 239-254. 1.8 kg, 18.5 cm (7 1/4"). From an important central London collection formed since the mid 1960s; thence by descent. The Tenth Legion was raised by Gaius Octavius (later called Augustus Caesar) in 41/40 BC and fought against Sextus Pompey in the Battle of Naulochus, where its cognomen Fretensis was awarded, in reference to the fact that the battle took place near the Strait of Messina (Fretum Siculum"). The legion went on to serve in the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73), under Vespasian and the suppression of the uprising in Jerusalem. Under the command of Titus this was the Legion who besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. The tile was found in present day Jerusalem. The 10th Legion was still a fighting forcer at the end of the 4th century when the Notitia Dignitatum was compiled.