But to return for a moment to Corstopitum. It has been realised that the city was a centre of iron-work and pottery-making to supply the needs of the troops. It furnished a base for the invasion of Caledonia by Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140, and for the great expedition of Septimius Severus in A.D. 208. Much of the area excavated during 1906 and the following years has been filled in, but the most important buildings remain open—two large granaries, the fountain or public water-pant, and a large unfinished building, which may have been designed as a military storehouse, or as the praetorium of a legionary fortress which never came into being. The most remarkable finds made here have been the Corbridge lion in stone, which now enjoys an European reputation, and two hoards of gold coins, now in the British Museum.1
1 Vide Official Handbook to Newcastle and District, put forth on the occasion of the last visit of the British Association to that city.
The Map [above] gives the line of Hadrian's Wall through the two counties of Northumberland and Cumberland, viz., from Wallsend to Bowness, and indicates the principal places on the route. For further details of this absorbing subject the reader is referred to such works as the Proceedings and Transactions of learned societies, such as the Archæologia Æleana, or the Lapidarium Septentrionale. The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Vol. vii gives a full rendering of the inscriptions.
APPENDIX D
"The Society of Antiquaries, in conjunction with the Shropshire Archæological Society, carried on extensive excavations at Wroxeter during the years 1912, 1913, and 1914.
"Wroxeter, the ancient Viroconium or Uriconium, is situated on the east bank of the Severn, between five and six miles south-east of Shrewsbury. The lines of its walls can still be traced, enclosing an area of about 170 acres, and the town must have been an important centre in Roman-Britain, as it stood at the junction of two of the main roads, viz., the Watling Street from London and the south-east, and the road from the legionary fortress of Caerleon in South Wales. There were also other roads running from it into Wales and to Chester. The town is referred to by the Ravenna Geographer as Viroconium Cornoviorum, and was probably the chief town of that tribe which inhabited a district including both Wroxeter and Chester.
"That the site was inhabited soon after the invasion under Claudius in 43 A.D. is evident. Coins and other objects of pre-Flavian date have been met with in some quantities, and there are tombstones of soldiers of the XIV Legion from the cemetery. This legion came over with Claudius, and left Britain for good in the year 70 A.D. Wroxeter, situated on the edge of the Welsh hills and protected from attack on that side by the river Severn, would have formed an admirable base for operations against the turbulent tribes of Wales, and it is more than likely that it was used as such in the campaigns undertaken by Ostorius Scapula in 50 A.D. and by Suetonius Paulinus in 60 A.D.
"The Welsh tribes were finally subdued before the end of the reign of Vespasian, and the country became more settled. Wroxeter appears to have ceased to be a military centre and to have grown into a large and prosperous town. It is in this period—namely, the last quarter of the first century A.D.—that the occupation began on the part of the site recently excavated. Very little of the earlier buildings remained, as they all appear to have been built of wood and wattle-and-daub.
"In the second century more substantial houses were erected, and in the course of the excavations the following buildings were uncovered. In 1912, four long shops, with rooms at the back and open fronts with porticoes on the street. In 1913, a temple, which must have been of some architectural pretensions, and contained life-sized statues, of which several fragments were discovered. In 1914, a large dwelling house, consisting of a number of rooms with a large portico on the street and a small bath-house on the south side. The porticoes of all these buildings formed a continuous colonnade by the side of the street. At the back of the large dwelling-house another structure was discovered. Unfortunately it could not be entirely explored, as its west part was beyond the reserved area. It consisted of two parallel walls, 13 ft. apart, which enclosed an oblong space with rounded corners 144 ft. wide and 188 ft. long to the furthest point excavated. No other building of this form appears to have been found elsewhere, and it is difficult to say for what purpose it was used, especially as part of it is still unexcavated. It is possible, however, that it may have been a place of amusement for games, bull-baiting, etc., and that the two parallel walls held tiers of wooden seats.