ON a sunny Friday afternoon, as the media hubbub surrounding the finding of a pristine Roman tombstone was dying down, Jack Pitts visited the Corinium Museum to find the five finest finds Cirencester has produced.

Tombstone of Geniglis – This mighty stone carving shows a Roman solider rearing on his horse and stabbing a Gaul with his spear. The stone, found near Watermoor in 1836, proves that the first soldiers in Cirencester were cavalry and, more remarkably, they were from Dacia, modern day Albania.

The Hare Mosaic – This huge mosaic has become famous around the world, so famous, in fact, that Corinium museum uses the hare in its centre as their logo. The man who owned the villa it is from near Beeches car park would have had to have been extremely rich to afford it, perhaps a manager or lawyer as Corinium was one of Roman Britain’s key administrative areas.

The Jupiter Column – The four sides of this stone, held high atop a column, show the faces of four Gods: Bacchus, the God of wine; Silenus, his wiser, less drunken tutor; Lycurgus, the mystical king who banished Bacchus for his immorality; and Ambrosia, the God of food and drink. The stone was found in the Forum car park, the heart of Corinium where no doubt there would have been many raucous parties inspired by Bacchus.

The Bronze Cockerel – Discovered in 2011 at the same site as the recent tombstone, the enamelled bronze cockerel was found buried with a small boy. There are only a handful of these in the world and no others which still have their tails. It is probably a reference to the messenger god Mercury, who was very popular in Corinium and Gloucestershire; just as Mercury heralded news, so the cockerel heralds the day.

Acrostic – 2,000 years on, people still do not understand this code. It is thought to be an early Christian word system, built to express faith without alerting the authorities. There are only six left in the world and this is probably the best example in the country, if not the world. Christians believe that there are hidden anagrams among the words that can be teased out. For instance, if read normally from left to right it is a divine message; the four sides spell Sator – or divine planter – and the words “Tenet” form a cross.