ROMAN MASONRY AT COLCHESTER.
The Roman altars, sculptured fragments, inscribed stones, coins, implements of war, articles of personal ornament, and utensils for domestic use, which have been found along the line of the wall, are extremely numerous. But far more striking memorials of Agricola and his great successors in Britain are the Roman roads. Easy means of communication were, of course, a necessity for the Romans, dwelling, as they did, as a military garrison among a people notorious for their propensity to break into wild rebellion at a moment's notice; and hence the country was traversed by a complete system of roads leading from station to station. The method of their construction varied, but they were invariably raised above the surface of the country, and ran in an almost straight line regardless of hill and valley. The more important roads were very elaborately constructed with a foundation of hard earth, a bed of large stones, sometimes two more layers of stones and mortar, and above all the causeway paved with stones. The four most important roads were Watling Street, the Foss, Icknield Street, and Ermine Street. Of these, Watling Street ran from London to Wroxeter (Uriconium), and thence was continued into Wales, while part of the same system connected London with Dover. The Foss ran from the sea-coast, at Seaton in Devonshire, to Lincoln, with a continuation known as the High Street to the Humber. The Icknield way started from near Bury and ran to Wantage, and thence to Cirencester and Gloucester. Ermine Street ran through the Fens from London to Lincoln. These by no means exhaust the Roman roads, traces of which are to be found in almost every neighbourhood of England, but they are the "four Roman roads" so frequently mentioned in the legislation of the Middle Ages.
BASEMENT OF STATION ON THE ROMAN WALL.
Equally numerous are the remains of Roman camps, constructed with great engineering skill. Even when it was necessary to remain stationary for a very brief period, the Romans were accustomed to surround the space to be occupied by the soldiers' tents by an earthen rampart with stakes at the top(agger or vallum), which was in turn surrounded by a fosse or trench (fossa), usually nine feet deep and twelve broad. The spot selected was always one that commended itself from its defensive capacities, and therefore could not be overlooked, and had a command of water. The streets were sometimes as much as a hundred feet broad, with a public meeting-place or forum near the general's tent, which was usually pitched on the highest ground. There was a vacant space of two hundred feet between the tents and the ramparts called the intervallum. The shape of the camp in later times varied according to the nature of the ground, although in the days of the Roman republic it was as a rule rectangular. Of these temporary camps the most perfect is that situated near Kirkboddo, five miles to the south-east of Forfar. It was probably constructed by Agricola; all its six gates exist, and the entrenchment, even now, seems to have lost but little of its original height. It is about two thousand two hundred and eighty feet in length, and one thousand and eighty in breadth; and, apparently because it was necessary to find lodging for more men than the camp was originally intended to hold, there is a procestrium or enclosure without the south-east angle of about one hundred thousand square feet. Permanent camps, which were smaller than the temporary camps, soon lost their original features and grew into towns.
The establishment of an infirmary (valetudinarium), a farriery (veterinarium), and a forge (fabrica) within the rampart were quickly followed by the settlement of a civilian population, and the birth of trades and industries. In many of the English towns, which by the termination cester or chester or the prefix caer betray their Roman origin, hardly a trace of the original Roman camp is to be found, but during the period of the Roman occupation of Britain the military element in them was probably in the ascendant.
ROMAN URNS FOUND IN ENGLAND. (From the British Museum.)
1. Urn of yellow pottery—height, 12½ in.; greatest diameter, 13 in. 2. Urn of grey pottery found at Colchester—11½ x 9. 3. Urn of red and grey pottery, found at Littleton Farm—13 x 12. 4. Urn of grey pottery, found in Huntingdonshire—height, 11½ in.; width at mouth 4¾ in. 5. Urn of yellow pottery, found in the Lea—height, 10½; greatest diameter, 10.