PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 79 



advice of the Duke of Argyll in reference to the first 

 appearance of man upon the earth, and to content 

 ourselves with the relation the order of invasions bears to 

 time-relative rather than to time-absolute.* 



THE ROMAN INVASION 



It was in the middle of the first century that the 



Romans planted their feet upon the Middle Cotteswolds. 



What is now Cirencester was seized and fortified, and it 



is probable that the Roman rampart (a part of which still 



exists, and is known to every child in the town as " the 



city bank ") followed the irregular oval fine of the British 



entrenchment. A few years later we find the Romans 



occupying a chain of camps extending the whole length of 



the Cotteswold escarpment. Then onward for nearly four 



centuries the Middle Cotteswold area was occupied by a 



population under rigid Roman rule. The magnificence 



of the remains at Cirencester, and the pavements and 



other relics in villas like those at Chedworth, Spoonley, 



Wadfield, Dryhill, and Andoversford, attest a peaceful 



possession and cultured taste. But westward there were 



enemies against whom the hill-dwellers had constantly to 



be on their guard. The restless, warlike Silures were 



for a long period a source of danger. The great 



Roman stations of Caerwent and Caerleon were planted 



[in Silurian territory ; behind them was the strongly forti- 



jfied colony of Gloucester ; and behind that w^as, to use a 



Lfamous phrase of a famous statesman, the " scientific 



[frontier " of the Cotteswold escarpment. We know that 



'the harassing nature of the constant conflict with the 



^Silures hastened the death of Ostorius Scapula, by whom 



[the escarpment camps were formed. We know that time 



[after time, when it was supposed that their power had 



been broken, the Silures renewed the struggle with more 



" Primewil M.nn," p. 121. 



