Most historians favour a site in the Midlands, probably along the Roman road of Watling Street between Londinium and Viroconium (Wroxeter in Shropshire), now the A5.
The fort was key to the conquest of the Silures, a tribe very resistant to the imposition of Roman rule in Roman Wales, but in AD 66, the legion was transferred to Viroconium Cornoviorum (at Wroxeter) and their base in Wales was largely abandoned.
Born at Wroxeter, he was the eldest son of Richard Newport, 1st Baron Newport and his wife Rachel Leveson, daughter of Sir John Leveson (circa 1555 - 1622) and sister of Sir Richard Leveson (1598–1661).
Bernard Cornwell has the main character of the Saxon stories visit Wroxeter in Death of Kings, referring to it as an ancient Roman city that was "as big as London" and using it as an illustration of his pagan beliefs that the World will end in chaos.
Wroxeter |
The "villa urbana" erected at Wroxeter during the Channel 4 series Rome Wasn't Built in a Day was designed by Morgan Evans and is based on one of the villas excavated on the Wroxeter site.
The idea of the M54 was originally presented due to the high volumes of traffic on the A5, London to Holyhead road which was largely constructed by civil engineer Thomas Telford in the early 19th century following the route of the Roman Watling Street, which connected Rochester, Kent with Wroxeter, Shropshire.
There are indications of unrest in Britain around the time of his rule attested by damage to the forum at Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter) and the burning of a large part of Verulamium (St Albans).
Chance discoveries have helped document the continuing urban occupation of some Roman towns such as Wroxeter and Caerwent.
It led from Richborough in the south-east by way of a ford of the Thames at present-day Westminster to near Wroxeter, where one section went on to Holyhead and another, by way of Chester, on towards Scotland.