Among them is a lictor from the High Empire (1st and 2nd centuries AD), 12 cm high. He is the bodyguard of a magistrate, and wears the same clothes as he does, the toga, the gala dress of the citizens. He carries on his shoulder (the left shoulder, as was the norm) a fasces, the emblem of power: a cylinder made up of 30 rods tied with a red strap, symbolising that the union of the Roman people made his strength.
When the magistrate could impose the death penalty, the fasces carried an axe. Our piece must have had it, because its handle has survived. The lictors of local magistrates, such as the duumvirs (mayors, two at a time) of the city of Allon (La Vila Joiosa), did not carry an axe on the fasces: this piece must have been related to a higher-ranking personage, the provincial government or even the Emperor. The presence of this piece in Allon is related to its status as a municipium. In the Valencian Community there were only 10 Roman cities. Each one had a municipal district (territorium): Allon's was the whole of the Marina Baixa region.
Similar examples are held by the Art Institute of Chicago, the British Museum and the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The piece is hollow at the back, and has a stem for embedding it in a larger bronze relief, along with other figures, depicting a ceremonial scene with a magistrate and his lictors. Such scenes were common on the breastplates of the horses of equestrian statues: the piece could have come from a relief or statue of a high-ranking figure of the Empire on horseback, perhaps the emperor, which existed in the forum of Allon, or perhaps the one next to the tower of Sant Josep. Its abandonment in a rubbish dump at the Plans site tells us about the dismantling and plundering of the imperial public spaces in the Late Roman period.
Numerous other high-quality bronze pieces have also been found: medical probes, decorative appliqués for wooden boxes and furniture (one with the face of the goddess Diana), hair needles, necklace pendants, rings, bracelets, chains, needles for sewing candles or sacks, brooches, buttons, fishhooks, elements of ritual crockery, etc.
The conservation of these pieces depends on their rapid treatment in the museum. Bronze contains copper, which is very sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity when extracted from the earth. In a short time, chlorides and other agents would destroy the pieces. For this reason, the most fragile pieces are extracted by the Vilamuseu restorer, and their treatment, slow and delicate, begins immediately in chemical baths. Months later, the pieces can be conserved and exhibited at the Vilamuseu. Thanks to this work, the collection of ancient bronzes (Phoenician, Greek, Iberian and Roman) in the Vilamuseu collection is one of the most important in the Valencian Community.