Roman Eoaps in Britain. 55 



Zetland Isles. Ptolemy is wrong about the number of the Ork- 

 neys. It is 67, of which 39 are now inhabited. 



This is all that Ptolemy has to say about the part of Albion 

 which we now call Scotland. He has nothing to say about Roman 

 settlements in this part of the island ; and it is evident that most 

 of it was a terra incognita to the Roman, except the south and 

 the east coast. The towns mentioned seem all of them to be 

 British not Roman, except Victoria and Lindum, which were evi- 

 dently settlements near the Wall of Autonine. Lindum was also 

 the Roman name of Lincoln. 



Of course many of the identifications of places are merely 

 conjectural, but 1 have done the best I could, 



3. Roma)i Roads in Britain. By Dr E. J. Chinnock. 



There are supposed to be three authorities for the Roman 

 roads in Britain. The Romans called the whole island Britannia. 

 In the pleutitude of the Roman power in Britain the jjart now 

 called England and Wales was divided into four provinces and 

 the Emperor Hadrian added a fifth province by annexing the part 

 of Scotland south of Antonine's Wall and calling it Valencia. 

 This was, however, soon abandoned. The three supposed authori- 

 ties for the Roman roads are the Itinerary of Antonine the 

 British Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, and the Ravenna 

 Cosmography. The last-named work was compiled in the seventh 

 century, and the Itinerary of Richard is a forgery, as will be 

 shewn anon. Therefore Antonine's Itinerary, being- the only work 

 compiled during the period of tlje Roman occupation of Britain is 

 our sole authority for the Roman roads and stations. There can 

 be no certainty about the genuineness of any so-called Roman 

 camp or station, the name of which does not appear in the 

 Itinerary of Antonine, unless some undoubted Roman remains are 

 discovered upon the spot. Scotland was a purely nominal Roman 

 possession, and that only for a short time. The wall of turf 

 erected by Antoninus Pius between the Forth and the Clyde was 

 soon abandoned, and ihe Romans retreated beyond Hadrian's 

 Vallum, which stretched from the mouth of the Tyne to the 

 Solway. After the death of Severus at York, a.d. 211, Scotland 

 was left to the natives. Doubtless during the half century of 



