PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 17 



at Wareham, where there are still remains of strong 

 defences on the northern side. 



Having firmly planted their feet on British soil, the 

 invaders set about their conquest with two leading ideas 

 clearly in view. The first was as we have said, to make 

 rivers the boundaries of the subjected parts of the 

 country; the second was, as Dr Hiibner has shown, to 

 advance northward in parallel lines from east to west. 

 It has long been known that Camulodunum (Colchester) 

 where the ninth legion was stationed, was one of the 

 earliest spots garrisoned by the Romans, but until twenty 

 years ago, the site of the other end of the fine, of which 

 it was the commencement, was not known, nor was there 

 any evidence of where the second legion was quartered. 



To Mr Bellows belongs the credit of having solved both 

 problems. In 1876 he contributed to the " Proceedings" 

 of the Cotteswold Club a paper descriptive of a number of 

 discoveries he had made in Gloucester, clearly proving 

 that it was a garrison of the second legion ; and shortly 

 afterwards, Dr Hiibner, of Berlin, one of the greatest 

 authorities living, on Roman history, published an article 

 in a German Archaeological Serial, in w^hich he said Mr 

 Bellows had supplied the missing link in the history 

 of the Roman invasion of Britain, by showing that 

 Gloucester was the western end of the line of which 

 Colchester was the eastern end. 



But Mr Bellows' discoveries did something more than 

 reveal the first location of the second legion, and the 

 relation of Gloucester to Colchester. They prove beyond 

 question the intention of the Romans to make the Severn 

 the north-western boundary of the province with Glou- 

 cester as the key to it. The Romans had, it is true, 

 })reviously crossed the river. Dion Cassius tells us that 

 soon after landing they received the sul)mission of the 

 Boduni, who occupied the Cotteswold Hills, and whose 

 chief town, according to Ptolemy, was Corinium, 



B 



