X-Nico

18 unusual facts about Roman Britain


Blue Man-i'-th'-Moss

It is a parish boundary stone, but is believed to have been standing since pre-Roman times.

Burwell Museum

Themes and exhibits include agriculture, period rooms and household items, military life, a blacksmith's shop, a reconstruction of a Roman potter's workshop, Victorian school room, vintage vehicles, carts and farm equipment

Caversfield

The ancient Roman road between Alchester and Towcester, now the A4421, forms the eastern boundary of the parish.

Cockersand Abbey

Two Roman silver statuettes were discovered on Cockersand Moss near the abbey site in 1718, possibly indicating the presence of a Romano-British shrine nearby.

Croft-Y-Bwla

Finds also included charcoal, pieces of flint and pottery from both earlier and later Iron Age and Roman periods.

Cuming Museum

On 25 March 2013 a fire damaged the museum and library and destroyed some artifacts, including relics of the city’s Roman period.

Ecclesmachan

The name means church of Saint Machan, and is its form is thought to show that a church was present in the area in Sub-Roman times.

Edwin Guest

He also wrote a very large number of papers on Roman-British history, which, together with a mass of fresh material for a history of early Britain, were published posthumously under the editorship of Dr Stubbs under the title Origines Celticae (1883).

John Collingwood Bruce

His main interest was in the history of Britain, in particular North East England and more specifically Roman Britain and Hadrian's Wall.

London Mithraeum

It is perhaps the most famous of all twentieth-century Roman discoveries in the City of London.

Maiden Castle, North Yorkshire

The only dating evidence recovered from Maiden Castle is the a "post-and-panel building" which is typologically similar to a structure discovered in Healaugh that has been dated to the late Iron Age or Romano-British periods.

Pre-Roman Britain

British Iron Age - The Iron Age in Britain which was the last phase of prehistoric Britain before Roman Britain.

Quintus Caecilius Iucundus

In Book Two, the reader finds Quintus in Roman Britain, living in the house of a distant relative named Salvius, who is also a historical figure.

Sparsholt Roman Villa

The last structure to be built, perhaps during the post-Roman period, was a timbered hall, outside the courtyard.

Sub-Roman Britain

Chance discoveries have helped document the continuing urban occupation of some Roman towns such as Wroxeter and Caerwent.

For example, in the cemetery at Wasperton, Warwickshire, one can see a family adopting Anglo-Saxon culture over a long period.

Thurleigh Castle

Excavations in the 1970s found few remains of the Norman castle, but finds indicated that the site had been occupied in the Iron-Age, Roman and Saxon periods.

Uley Long Barrow

The barrow was archaeologically excavated in 1821, revealing the remains of 15 skeletons and a later, intrusive Roman age burial above the northeast chamber.


Bothwellhaugh Roman Fort

Bothwellhaugh Roman Fort, known as Clotagenium ("Clyde-mouth") to the Romans is the remains of a Roman legionary fort in North Lanarkshire near Glasgow.

Bourn

Roman remains have been found along the Bourn Brook and near Bourn Hall and there is evidence of Romano-British activity along the top of the valley on the airfield and in the direction of Caxton.

Britannia

In AD 43 the Roman Empire began its conquest of the island, establishing a province they called Britannia, which came to encompass the parts of the island south of Caledonia (roughly Scotland).

Byatis

When the Romans conquered Britain, a small group of soldiers formed a cult to the god, which was annihilated upon Byatis' short-lived escape.

Caio, Carmarthenshire

The parish church, consecrated to Saint Cynwyl, now stands at the centre of the village, near the Roman road that linked the Roman forts at Llandovery (Alabum) and Llanio (Bremia), and the Roman gold mines at Dolaucothi.

Chelmsford 123

Aulus, probably a play on Aulus Platorius Nepos, the governor of Roman Britain between 122 and 125, was a rather delicate Roman, who was usually outwitted by the scheming Badvoc, who hadn't had a haircut for twenty-five years.

Clothar the Frank

The story is narrated by Clothar (Lancelot) and describes his early life in Roman Gaul, his education in Auxerre with Bishop Germanus, his participation in a civil war and his travels to Britain where he meets Caius Merlyn Britaniccus (Merlin) and King Arthur for the first time.

Common Brittonic

The place names of Roman Britain were discussed by Rivet and Smith in their book of that name published in 1979.

Corbridge Hoard

The Corbridge Hoard is a hoard of mostly iron artefacts that was excavated in 1964 within the Roman site of Coria, next to what is now Corbridge, Northumberland, England (not to be confused with a hoard of gold coins found nearby in 1911).

Crosby Garrett

In May 2010 the Crosby Garrett Helmet, a copper alloy parade helmet dating to Roman Britain, was discovered near the hamlet by a father and son using a metal detector.

Genius loci

Roman examples of these Genii can be found, for example, at the church of St. Giles, Tockenham, Wiltshire where the genius loci is depicted as a relief in the wall of a Norman church built of Roman material.

Hussa of Bernicia

At some point during his reign, the coalition forces of Rheged and the Brythonic kingdoms of Strathclyde, Bernicia and Elmet laid siege to Hussa and was almost successful in driving the Anglian Bernician kings out of Britain.

Linda A. Malcor

She is one of the proponents of the theory (or related theories) that states that the historical basis for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table were a 2nd-century Roman officer named Lucius Artorius Castus and Sarmatian auxiliary horsemen, which Artorius supposedly commanded in Britain.

National Roman Legion Museum

Roman Wales was the farthest point west that the Roman Empire in Roman Britain extended to, and as a defence point the fortress at Caerleon, built in 75 AD, was one of only three permanent Roman Legionary fortresses in Roman Britain.

Padworth

Grim's Ditch in the parish is supposed to be a sub-Roman bank and ditch dug to defend Calleva Atrebatum (Silchester Roman Town) when the Anglo-Saxons began to settle the area.

Pictones

Additionally, the Pictones traded with the British Isles from the harbor of Ratiatum (Rezé), which served as an important port linking Gaul and Roman Britain.

St Mary's Church, Roecliffe

The stone used in its construction came from an old Roman quarry in the grounds of Aldborough Manor, and from a quarry at Cotgrove, while the stone for the internal arch was from Burton Leonard.

Tadcaster

Tadcaster was founded by the Romans, who named it Calcaria from the Latin word for lime, reflecting the importance of the area's limestone geology as a natural resource for quarrying, an industry which continues today and has contributed to many notable buildings including York Minster.

Thruxton, Hampshire

A Roman building considered to be a temple or a basilican villa was unearthed in 1823, which contained a mosaic depicting Bacchus seated on a tiger.