By It.-Gen. Piti-Rivers, D.C.L., F.R.S., F.8.A. 341 
Ostorius Scapula, says :— detrahere arma suspectis cunctaque 
eastris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat,” the latter 
portion of which my predecessor in this chair, the Bishop of Salisbury, 
whose valuable address on the Roman conquest of Southern Britain 
the Society will remember, translates thus: ‘‘ he makes preparations 
to keep in check the whole of the country on this side of the 
rivers Anton and Severn by the construction of camps.” The 
direction given to this line of camps has been much discussed by 
classical scholars, but the existence of the river Anton or Teste, 
running from Andover into the Solent, appears to have been over- 
looked, and the word Anton has by some been arbitrarily converted 
into Avon. Although now quite a small river, it is probable that 
the estuary of the Solent may have extended for some distance up 
it at the time of the Roman conquest, even perhaps as far as 
Andover itself, and it may thus have served as a formidable barrier 
for the flank of the line of camps to rest upon. It is possible also 
that the camps on the Wansdyke, viz., Maesknowl, Stantonbury, 
Bathampton, and Chisbury, may have been erected at that time in- 
dependently, and may have been joined by the continuous entrench- 
ment of the Wansdyke subsequently. The only objection that I can 
see to the supposition, that the line of camps referred to in this 
passage lay in the direetion of Wansdyke, is that the Roman frontier, 
at that time, was far in advance of this position. Camulodunum 
had been taken by the Emperor Claudius himself, and Gloucester 
was in the hands of the Romans. We must also not altogether 
overlook the possibility of sueh an entrenchment having been thrown 
up during the troubles of the year 208, when the Caledonians pene- 
trated far into South Britain, necessitating the presence of the 
Emperor Severus himself to put a stop to their inroads. We must 
consider also the possibility of the Wansdyke having been constructed 
by the Romanised Britons, after the departure of the Romans, as a 
defence against the Picts and Scots, when the former were driven 
into the south-west corner of the country; whilst Bokerly, at a 
somewhat different time, may have served to protect them against 
the Saxons. The two works are not continuous, the Wansdyke 
overlapping the left flank of the Bokerly entrenchment by many 
