Details of the early years of the Roman Conquest are fragmentary, and it is not, indeed, till about A.D. 50 that one finds Ostorius Scapula, who was the second governor, erecting a string of military posts and forts on the Severn, indicating at all events the partial subjugation of the British. Ultimately the district of which Warwickshire formed a part became incorporated in the province known by the name of Flavia Cæsariensis, and latterly was called Britannia Secunda.
Comparatively few architectural traces of the days of Roman rule have been found, and of these most have been upon the lines of the two great roads, the Icknield–Way and Watling Street, and then chiefly in the immediate vicinity of the camps or “stations.” Very little history, too, relating to this interesting period has survived the effluxion of time.
The immediate successor of Ostorius appears to have made terms with the leaders of the Hwicci, granting to them certain concessions, and some measure of independence, but these British chiefs later on joined with the Silures in resisting the Romans, and an era of greater severity on the part of the latter ensued.
Under Suetonius Paulinus the domination over this portion of Britain was extended and ultimately rendered complete. At this period “Arden,” which is the general Celtic name for a forest, was to all intents Warwickshire. It certainly was the largest of all British forests, and extended from the Avon as far northward as the Trent, and probably stretched to the banks of the Severn on the west. Its eastern boundary is more uncertain, but there appears considerable reason for believing that it lay approximately along a line drawn from the town of Burton–on–Trent to High Cross, where the Fosse–Way and Watling Street intersect. The early inhabitants of the southern portion of this thickly–wooded and well–timbered district were principally if not entirely belonging to the tribe of herdsmen known as the Hwiccian Ceangi, and this district of Arden was known as the “Feldon,” whilst the northern portion of the county beyond the Avon was then known as the Woodland. The first–named district was of the nature of more open country, with pasture lands and possessing wide cultivated areas, although well–wooded in places; whilst the second named was thickly timbered and scarcely penetrated to any extent by the Roman conquerors. In later times, when England was ultimately divided into shires or counties, in those of Warwick and Stafford were incorporated various portions of the wilder Arden of those ancient days. The name is, however, now only preserved in Warwickshire, where it survives in Hampton–in–Arden and Henley–in–Arden, situated in the Woodland district.
Partial as the subjection to the Roman yoke of what is now known as Warwickshire undoubtedly was, considerable remains of the occupation have from time to time been discovered in the shape of coins, implements, pottery, and other antiquities at Warwick, Alcester, Lapworth, Hampton–in–Arden, Milverton, Birmingham, and other places.
The departure of the Romans affected Warwickshire less than some other portions of the country at first. But there is little doubt that the usual policy of the conquerors of drafting the bravest, best, and youngest men into their own legions for service abroad left “the heart of England” as badly prepared to resist the invasion of other tribes as was the rest of the country. Depleted of many of its bravest warriors, England was, after several centuries of reliance upon an alien power for defence, when the Roman conquerors departed left at the mercy of any who chose to attack. Not only were all the legions required at home to resist the Saxon invasion under Alaric, who poured his hosts of barbarians over the wide–spread Roman Empire, but the British youth who had been drafted abroad returned not, and thus, as Gildas says, Britain, despoiled of her soldiers, arms, and youth, who had followed Maximus to return no more to their native shores, and being ignorant of the art of war, groaned for many years under the constant incursions and ruthlessness of the Picts and Scots.
For some considerable period after the departure of the Romans few historical records relating to Warwickshire exist. And if, as George Eliot wrote in The Mill on the Floss, “the happiest nations have no history,” then the county which gave her and the “Bard of Avon” birth must have been a pleasant spot for a long period. There is probably a reasonable explanation of this circumstance when its position is considered. Situated in the centre of England, and far removed from the seaboard, it naturally escaped much of the storm and stress of invasion and attack from which less happily placed districts in those wild, early periods of national history so constantly suffered. Except for a record that one Credda, a Saxon commander of note, successfully penetrated into the wooded solitudes of Warwickshire, there are few data obtainable for the construction of an historic sketch of this region until the time of the Saxon Heptarchy. Then it became a part and parcel of the wide–spread kingdom of Mercia, and not only enjoyed a share of its rule and barbaric pomp and circumstance, but also played a not inconsiderable part in the wars and feuds of the various Mercian rulers.
SALFORD PRIORS.