This paper illustrates the results of research carried out at the archaeological site of Puig Castellar de Biosca (Catalonia, Spain), located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula. This Republican military fortress, a castellum, is exceptional due both to its early chronology, which ranges between 180 and 120 BCE, and to the fact that it acted as a long-lasting military installation situated in a pacified area on the periphery of the Celtiberian conflict zone. Work at the site has uncovered a central building on the top of a hill, which due to its Italian features has been identified as the headquarters of the military fortress. If this interpretation is correct, this might be one of the first examples of a Republican military headquarters building documented to date. It could then be considered a predecessor of later praetoria and principia, which have been recorded in the Numantine camps and on the Roman western limes.

The Faculty of Theology of Bologna, founded in 1364, presents a paradox when we investigate its custom of performing principia on the Sentences prior to 1400. Although we are fortunate to have from Bologna the most complete surviving documentation concerning the organization of a medieval theology faculty, only two complete sets of principia have been identified so far from the matricula of 450 known scholastics. The situation hinders any comparative investigation that intends to test how what is depicted in the statutes is reflected in practice. The two surviving sets of principia from Bologna are those of the Cistercian Conrad of Ebrach, from 1368–1369, and the Augustinian Augustinus Favaroni of Rome, dating to 1388–1389. This study uses Augustinus Favaroni's principia to illustrate how this academic exercise functioned at the University of Bologna. It begins with a biographical sketch of Augustinus Favaroni of Rome followed by a short description of the principia as mirrored in the statutes of Bologna. It continues with a brief summary of each of the four principia of Favaroni reporting the philosophical and theological topics developed in his text, with an emphasis on the debates in which he engaged to defend his theses, and concludes with an appendix containing an edition of the four principia.

The inception speeches delivered by graduating masters of theology during the thirteenth century are of paramount interest for the study of the history of theology. Much like the introductions to philosophy written within the Faculty of Arts at Paris during the same period, the so-called principia articulated the image that theology entertained of itself at that time. Interestingly enough, some graduating masters took the opportunity to present a detailed discussion of the relation between philosophy and theology in an attempt to demonstrate the preeminence of the latter. Thus, they reflected not only upon the epistemological status of theology, but also — and sometimes in considerable detail — upon that of the secular sciences. One very eloquent example of such a comparative inception speech is the principium by Stephen of Bensançon (1286), who later became Master General of the Dominican Order. In this article, I focus on Stephen's discussion of the relationship between philosophy and theology, and show that the epistemological criteria he applied to both were drawn directly from one of the most important introductions to philosophy of the thirteenth century, that is, Robert Kilwardby's De ortu scientiarum. Stephen's case yields further evidence, therefore, of the interconnectedness of both genres, that is, philosophical introductions and theological inception speeches, and confirms the productive intellectual exchanges between philosophical and theological discourse at the University of Paris during the thirteenth century.

Occupation at Bainbridge began in the governorship of Agricola. Little is known of the first fort; the visible remains represent a successor fort, established in c.a.d. 85 at the earliest, abandoned under Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, and reoccupied in c. a.d. 160. In the early Severan period, the size of the unit at the fort seems to have been greatly reduced in numbers, and a suite of rooms for an officer was inserted in the principia. Extensive work by cohors VI Nerviorum which took place in c. a.d. 205–7 included the building of new principia, the relocation of the east gate, and probably the addition of an annexe, its wall described in an inscription from the site as a bracchium. The fort was held until the end of the Roman period, by which time the principia had been partly demolished to provide space for a timber building probably accommodating the commanding officer. The aedes and part of the rear range seem to have stood until the ninth or tenth century, when the former was possibly converted into a church. Knowledge of this sequence of occupation depends largely on the results of Brian Hartley's excavations which are published here. The main focus of the report is on the remarkable series of principia, but a review of what is known of the overall archaeology of the fort is also included in the main text. The Supplementary Material (http://journals.cambridge.org/bri) contains a more detailed analysis of some of the other excavations together with various specialist reports.