414 ROMAN ROAD IN THE 
Roman legions was kept up by constant labour ; 
and as there needed communications between the 
several forts and garrisons which he erected and 
stationed, he, according to the Roman custom, 
then commenced the military ways which connect 
them. The British towns within the Sistuntian 
territory had, doubtlessly, their roads between 
them; but such were not direct enough, nor 
suited from their kind and uses, for the purposes 
of warfare. The ways, therefore, which had been 
brought up to Deva or Chester, the preceding 
year, were extended, the woods cut through, and 
the principal forts erected within them, thus con- 
nected with those to the southward as well as one 
with another; and these military ways served at 
once for the conveyance of baggage and military 
stores, and for ramparts, to protect the soldiers 
during their marches. The ways averaged seven 
yards in width, from one to one and a-half yard 
in elevation. Where the ground was lowest, the 
agger was generally elevated the highest; and 
where the the ground was highest, the agger was 
lowest, being more calculated for giving the sol- 
diery an advantage in case of attack during their 
marches, than merely for dryness and durability, 
as the historian of Manchester supposes. Their 
direction was in a straight line, laid out with the 
